Chun-Li: Senretsukyaku Spellslinger
A draw-go Azorius deck. Attack people and fling efficient, high-value spells at them until they die. Modular counterspells remain useful in combat. Most effective way to keep Chun safe is "return to hand" effects so you can recast her and store more spells. As always, input is appreciated and I hope you enjoy.
Moxfield link: https://www.moxfield.com/decks/3Wdtli8yE060lQpzCVPkFg
A draw-go Azorius deck. Attack people and fling efficient, high-value spells at them until they die. Modular counterspells remain useful in combat. Most effective way to keep Chun safe is "return to hand" effects so you can recast her and store more spells. As always, input is appreciated and I hope you enjoy.
Moxfield link: https://www.moxfield.com/decks/3Wdtli8yE060lQpzCVPkFg
Senretsukyaku Spellslinger
Approximate Total Cost:
Deck Overview
While this deck is built with Chun-Li, Countless Kicks (Zethi, Arcane Blademaster) in mind, she is not at all your standard voltron commander and the deck does not solely rely on her. Instead it will run like most Azorius draw-go control decks, with Chun being a good mid- to late-game option for finishing your plate. While she is an asset, the deck functions on its own if she gets taxed ino the ceiling.
When to cast your commander. Chun's official CMC is only 3 but this is irrelevant. I typically want to cast her with 6 mana open: 2 mana to multikick two spells and one spare mana for protection, whether that's a Swan Song to counter removal, Light the Way to return her to hand, or spare mana to immediately equip Swiftfoot Boots or Winged Boots.
Ideally you want a good mixture of effects to exile with lightning legs: at minimum I look for one removal/bounce spell (e.g. Swords to Plowshares or Cyclonic Rift) and one buff spell (e.g. Flare of Faith or Akroma's Will). I'm especially fond of You Come to a River as it has both effects in one. If you have enough in the way of lands, repeatable Enlightened Tutor or Mystical Tutor are excellent fuel.
It's possible you might simply cast Chun without the kicker at all and instead attack with a sword for card advantage instead, which is fine, especially if you draw into something to bounce her back to hand, or cost reducers to offset the commander tax if she's killed. I've been known to immediately start swinging with her and a Sword of the Animist, and after being able to Mystical Tutor into a Light the Way to get her back to hand without missing a beat.
Ideal protection. An important way of protecting Chun-Li is through return-to-hand effects as opposed to blink or indestructibility as this allows you to accumulate more spells upon casting and keeps her casting cost to 3 CMC otherwise. Mass-bounce is very benificial. Options to bounce creatures are also common in the modular spells.
Toolbox spells are important to give you the most options possible when exiling cards with Chun's multikicker ability. Cards like Confounding Riddle and You Find the Villains' Lair allow you to counter spells while leaving aggressive options for Chun on attack as well.
Flash it back. Chun does not exile that many spells in a given game, so there is nothing wrong with recursion: if you need to recast the spell now do it, even if it exiles the spell: you never know what's going to happen in the mean time.
Piloting the Deck
Early game. You'll be spending the early game playing draw-go, establishing your board dealing with any nuisances and hopefully spitting out some blockers / edict fodder. A single Monastery Mentor can bait out wraths and removal.
It's important to fill the yard somewhat in the early game, so don't be too picky about when to cast your instants. Tolarian Winds and Otherworldly Gaze are nice options for this. If you draw a buff spell without a creature of your own, offer to buff an opponent's creature if they don't attack you. Scroll Rack also helps ensure an early hand of cost-reducers and mana rocks, followed by your midgame options. I've even just drawn cards past 7 and discarded good instants on the cleanup phase, though this obviously isn't ideal. In general, drawing & discarding is preferable to surveilling or similar as there are several cards that cue specifically off drawing.
Mid-Late Game. If you can get away with not casting Chun until after the first wrath or two, great. Maybe you've set up an engine with Monastery Mentor or Talrand, Sky Summoner. Perhaps you're swinging with a double-striking Halvar, God of Battle. Either way, it's important not to overplay your hand and to bait out those wraths/removal: the more you do, the freer you'll be to swing with a decked-out Chun-Li in the later game.
Lands
As I write this I'm running a tight 34 lands: the mana curve is low to the ground and the deck can usually climb out of a land deficit with its numerous mana rocks, cost-reducers, one-mana fixers like Brainstorm, library restackers like Scroll Rack and windfallers like Tolarian Winds. That said if you're deathly afraid of being mana screwed you may want to bring this up to 35 lands.
Nonbasic lands include: Kor Haven to protect yourself in case you're not spitting out enough tokens or gaining enough life; Daru Encampment and Fortified Beachhead as extra buffs for Chun-Li in the land slot. As the deck has access to abilities like lifelink and double strike, even minor buffs can be important, especially for commander damage. That said, this deck is pretty coloured-mana-hungry so I keep the colourless lands to a bare minimum.
Specific Cards
- Brainstorm / Scroll Rack and library shufflers (e.g. saclands, tutors, Wayfarer's Bauble): if you see both at the same time, make sure to cast Brainstorm/Rack first to see what you have coming up: you may not want to shuffle it away.
- Muddle the Mixture: A good early play with MtM is Baral, Chief of Compliance, who provides an early body to carry swords and cheapens your spells. If you don't need the body, Sapphire Medallion is excellent. If you have a whole hand of instants to exile with Chun, you can just bin them all with Tolarian Winds and draw a new hand, with the instants ready to go for exiling. If you just got stacked with finishers, Scroll Rack. Ready to beat face? Boots for protection, Leering Emblem for power. Also, guess what? MtM is a half decent counterspell!
- Leering Emblem is currently my go-to equipment for raw power output. I initially found cards like Glamdring and Runechanter's Pike to be surprisingly disappointing as Chun-Li exiles the spells she needs, however the more discard/surveil you run like Windfall and Tolarian Winds, the more viable they are. I'm still waffling between these two options.
Budget Cuts
- Sapphire Medallion is obviously very nice in a storm-style deck but can be replaced with another mana rock
- Scroll Rack is one of those cards that makes almost any deck better but can be replaced with another spell-based fixer for Chun to exile
- Aetherflux Reservoir is a nice card and an easy way to upjump the deck's kill potential, but isn't mandatory
- Cyclonic Rift: replace with another boomerang
- Sea Gate Restoration: replace with a land
Budget Additions
Anyone spare $150 for an Intuition?
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