Winning with Azorius Control

[Ertai Planeswalker]

So I always loved playing Azorius control back when I played 60 cards, but so far had not build it for commander yet. Creating a nice shell is not so difficult, however I'm having trouble finding good winconditions. Just having one or two evasive fatties is not going to cut it for EDH. What good things are there? Note that I do not want to play infinite combo.

[Mookie]

You may be looking for a splashy finisher like Comet Storm or Torment of Hailfire, but that sort of card doesn't really show up in Azorius. The best approximation you'll get are blue's extra turn spells (Expropriate, Time Stretch, etc). I don't think that's an issue though. That's sort of the point of playing control - if your opponents are powerless to stop you, you can win with pretty much anything.

Ignoring combo and extra turn effects, beating down with evasive creatures would actually be my recommendation. There are a lot of excellent flyers in Azorius that can serve as a strong topend. Avacyn, Angel of Hope, Sphinx of Uthuun, Diluvian Primordial... pretty much anything will work as long as you can stop your opponents from dealing with them, since most decks lack good defenses against large flyers. Fortunately, you're also in the best color combination to protect your creatures, with access to countermagic and protective effects like Teferi's Protection, Eerie Interlude, and Flawless Maneuver.

After that, I'd probably recommend voltron. A lot of Azorius commanders are naturally evasive, so slap on an equipment like Empyrial Plate and go to town. Again, just clear out blockers and keep attacking with your commander.

A third option is to softlock your opponents with recursion. Something like Brago, King Eternal flickering Archaeomancer to grab back Counterspell every turn will make it very difficult for opponents to stop your plans, to say nothing of looping Cyclonic Rift. Azorius has a lot of options for flicker and recursion engines to generate card advantage.

[darrenhabib]

Rest in Peace + Helm of Obedience
Painter's Servant + Grindstone

The emblems from any of these will make opponents concede pretty quickly; Narset Transcendent, Tamiyo, the Moon Sage, Teferi, Hero of Dominaria, Venser, the Sojourner.

[MeowZeDung]

I agree with all the suggestions already made, but would like to add that using your control deck to win with some style could be fun. Azor's Elocutors or Approach of the Second Sun come to mind.

[Myllior]

Approach of the Second Sun was the keystone of Azorius Control during Amonkhet, and nothing quite says EDH like winning from casting the same 7-mana sorcery twice.

[pokken]

Elspeth, Sun's Champion is a pretty decent wincon, army in a can and a sweeper to boot.

[TheAmericanSpirit]

Gonna second Approach of the Second Sun. It's a wonderful control finisher with a high degree of inevitability if you design your deck around some instant/sorcery abuse/reuse.

[MeowZeDung]

It's a wonderful control finisher with a high degree of inevitability if you design your deck around some instant/sorcery abuse/reuse.

That, and/or just make sure you're packing tutors or a Dig Through Time/Mind Spring variant, and ways to recur any of them, such as Mystic Sanctuary or the various Archaeomancers and Flood of Recollections.

[Hawk]

Often, Azorius' commander is its own wincon:

Players lose in just a few swings to burly attackers like Dragonlord Ojutai, Azor, the Lawbringer, Medomai the Ageless, Isperia, Supreme Judge, Inniaz, the Gale Force, or Bruna, Light of Alabaster. Those are stompy finishers, but thanks to Commander damage Raff Capashen, Ship's Mage can still be a perfectly fine endgame. Basically anything with 3+ power and evasion works.

Other commanders are less adept at attacking, but bring their own gameplan: Brago, King Eternal is unlikely to kill fast but the slow build up value train ends the game. Noyan Dar, Roil Shaper doesn't want to attack, but creates your indestructible endgame.

But, let's say you're running Grand Arbiter Augustin IV or Ith, High Arcanist. I think the best endgames are either Approach of the Second Sun or using the lockdown to ultimate a planeswalker like Teferi, Hero of Dominaria, Jace, the Mind Sculptor, Elspeth, Sun's Champion. You can also extrapolate out from Modern - Modern Azorius Control has 3 "wincons" beyond winning via ulting a 'walker - 2 Celestial Colonnade and a Vendilion Clique. If we include the sideboard, since you are effectively "pre-sideboarding, we add 4 more with some amount of Monastery Mentors and Cataclysmic Gearhulk and Lyra Dawnbringer. So if 7/75 cards are "wincons" in a normal Modern deck, you'd probably be fine including 10-11 resilient, evasive fatties or repetitive token makers to just slowly grind the game out.

If you want a good example of making this deck style work in Commander: Dirk Gently's Phelddagrif is a beautiful example of how you really, truly can win with a terrible resilient evasive 4-power body and no other wincons (indeed, no other permanents).