Azalea In Outsiders Limited

Azalea, Ace in the Hole was first introduced in Flesh and Blood in Arcane Rising, and has had a very dedicated fanbase ever since. This is still the case despite the best efforts of many players to produce competitive results (myself included). Well, buckle up because this lack of results looks like it may very well be a thing of the past with the vast array of tools Azalea is getting to make her opponents quiver.

Overview

Azalea’s hero ability states that you can put your arsenal card on the bottom of your deck in order to put the top card of your deck into your arsenal face up. You get the added benefit of getting Dominate if it’s an arrow that enters your arsenal. This can be a very powerful ability throughout the game. On the very first turn (when you go first) you can push significant damage despite the fact the opponent could otherwise block out and redraw. It also naturally gets more threatening the lower life totals go, and is often the source of the final kill shot.

This hero ability naturally aligns with a ‘go tall’ strategy. When your ability grants Dominate, you can both ‘guarantee’ your on-hit effects trigger, and increase the damage taken by the opponent.  

Azalea’s hero ability is still the same as it was in Arcane Rising. What would make Azalea overcome her historical inability to make it to the top tables? It’s all about the new effects and the overall power level of the cards she has access to in Outsiders.

Core Cards

Because this is an article about Azalea’s Limited format potential, we’ll be focusing mainly on common and rare cards.

Equipment

• Crow’s Nest - This allows Azalea to make solid use of Aim Counter-based arrows, but it does come at the deck building cost of making you want to have a higher blue count in your deck than you can otherwise get away with. Typically Azalea can do quite well with yellows (1 to load, 1 to shoot), but the quiver asks you to often have a blue to use it effectively.

• Wayfinder’s Crest - Rangers typically don’t get much block, so the 1 block for a critical break point is actually good value for Rangers. You get the additional upside of ‘peeking’ to have full knowledge of what Azalea would put in off the top. While Opt-ing 1 would be MUCH better, this can be a critical play as you go for your kill shot.

• Toxic Tips - This also has great Ranger value in the 1 break point block. However, its ability makes it very likely the best common Equipment for Azalea in Limited. When paired with Azalea’s ability, it lets you choose to give the most impactful of the new Tokens to the opponent. This Equipment gives you great options for an offensive use or defensive use.

• Mask of Malicious Manifestations - This appears to have a standard use case for Azalea of saving you from a no-arrow hand, which is one of the ways in which Azalea can lose a game out of nowhere. It may be good insurance to have against bad draws and fatigue.

• Seeker’s Hood (and rest of the cycle) - Seeker’s Mitts is probably the worst of them since it competes with Toxic Tips, but overall any of them give you that critical increased ability to find an arrow by Opt-ing right before your kill turn.

• Threadbare Tunic - This is a good safety valve for a resource constrained turn.

Pumps

Most of the key pumps in the set are at Rare, but with so many arrows with scary on-hits built in, any pump is desirable in Azalea.

• Above Rate Damage

  • Fletch A Red/Yellow/Blue Tail (Rare)

  • Toxicity (Rare)

  • Lace with Bloodrot (Rare)

    

• Detrimental On-Hit Effects

  • Lace with Frailty (Rare)

  • Lace with Inertia (Rare)

    

Arrows/Attacks

Azalea typically wants most of her attacks to be arrows. They block for 3, and they are key for making use of Azalea’s ability to Dominate. However, some non-arrow attacks can give Azalea additional tools that can be quite helpful.

• Go-Again

  • Falcon Wing (Common)

• Above Rate Damage

  • Infecting Shot (Common)

  • Widowmaker (Common)

  • Death Touch (Rare)

  • Virulent Touch (Common)

    

• Detrimental On-Hit Effects

  • Sedation Shot (Common)

  • Withering Shot (Common)

    

• Dig For Arrows To Dominate

  • Spire Sniping (Common)

Sleeper Cards

Some of these cards are included in the Core Cards section above, but they are worth calling out. Other cards enable interesting strategies.

• Lace with Inertia (Rare): If you are Dominating many of your attacks, most opponents will block with a card, save their best card to arsenal, and have a medium turn with whatever their other cards can do. Taking away a previously saved ‘best’ card, and preventing them from saving a card on their next turn is likely a much more impactful effect than it may appear initially.

• Widowmaker (Common): In a set where only Legendary Equipment has Battleworn, the 2 blocking card requirement can be very impactful. It can often be the difference between having an arsenal card or not for the opponent, which is enough of a tempo play that it’s likely worth the cost of 1 less base attack value for a full pump worth of chip damage if they don’t take the tempo loss.

• Looking for Scrap (Common): If you can get a few Blue Falcon Wings, once they are in graveyard, they enable Looking for Scrap to get Go-Again. This may be an interesting option for an alternative go-wide end game plan or an overall Go-Again deck.

• Wreck Havoc (Rare): Most heroes will bring in any Defense Reactions they have against a hero with Dominate. Wreck Havoc gives you an interesting tool with which to punish the opponent for setting up their defenses. It’s basically a much more conditional Command and Conquer.

  

Meaningful Generics

• Come to Fight (Common): It blocks 3, and it pumps any arrow!

• Scout the Periphery (Common): Almost all pumps Azalea has access to are at Rare, so this common pump will likely be a needed tool for tall Azalea decks to go tall enough.

• Ravenous Rabble (Common): Azalea likes to run pretty red, and yellows can be good resource cards depending on your Equipment and overall resource curve, so this comes in for 4 often (at red). Go-Again can be great to have for tempo plays and for an alternative go-wide end game.

• Seek Horizon (Common):  Being able to guarantee a Dominated arrow as a follow up is a massive play. However, be careful, the cost to put a card on top is a very real cost, and you are only really getting the value you want out of this card if you are cracking back with a full hand. You likely only get 1 or 2 moments in most games where you can safely make this play.

  

Example Playlines

Arsenal: Blue Spire Sniping (Face Down)

Quiver: Crow’s Nest

Hand: Lace with Bloodrot, Red Come To Fight, Any Blue (assume you blocked with 1 card)

Pitch Blue: Pay into Crow’s Nest > Flip Sniping and stack red Infecting Shot on top > Play Lace with Bloodrot > Play Come To Fight > Activate Azalea and put in Infecting Shot > Shoot Infecting Shot = 11 damage with dominate and 2 Bloodrot Pox tokens on hit (effective 15 total damage).

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Arsenal: Red Falcon Wing (Face Down)

Quiver: Crow’s Nest

Hand: Red Scout the Periphery, Yellow Withering Shot, Any Blue, Any Good Card To Arsenal

Attack with Falcon Wing > Pitch Blue: Activate Barbed Castaway and put in yellow Withering Shot > Play red Scout the Periphery and see red Sedation Shot on top > Activate Azalea > Pay into Crow’s Nest for +1 > Shoot Sedation Shot = 3 + 9 with dominate and Inertia token on hit (effective 12 damage and preventing opponent from coming at you with a 5 card hand the following turn).

Plus you get to arsenal a good card for the next turn.

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Arsenal: Any Card

Quiver: Crow’s Nest

Hand: Red Toxicity, Red Widowmaker, Red Seek Horizon, Any Pitch Card

*Assume Opponent Is Out of Equipment

Attack with Seek Horizon putting Red Widowmaker on top > play red Toxicity > Activate Azalea > Attack with red Widowmaker pitching any card = 4 + effective 12 dominate for a total of 16 damage on the turn.