Commander blueprint · Avatar: The Last Airbender

How to build Iroh, Tea Master

Iroh, Tea Master gives an opponent one of your permanents as each of your combats begins, and the Ally he makes in return grows with every gift still on the other side of the table. So this list is built around what to give away, and to whom.

Art by Brian Yuen

Iroh counts only what is still over there, so a Food is the weakest gift

The counters are counted once, as the token is made, and they look at the whole table. Anything of yours an opponent has eaten, cracked or sacrificed by then is out of the count, and anything still sitting in front of any of them is in it. Tokens count as well. You own a token you created even after someone else controls it, so Iroh's Food, a Treasure from Smothering Tithe or Zidane, Tantalus Thief and the Clue from Thraben Inspector are all good gifts on the turn you give them.

They are poor gifts after that. The player holding a Food can turn it into 3 life, a Treasure into mana and a Clue into a card, and each one leaves the count the moment they do. The opening turns run on them anyway, because they are what you have. From about turn five the list wants gifts that stay where they are put: permanents that do nothing for their new controller, or that cost them something every turn. Those keep counting, so each token comes out bigger than the last instead of falling back to a 2/2. The next three sections are those gifts.

Give the Oblivion Ring to the player it is not holding a card from

Six enchantments in the core list exile or shut down an opposing permanent: Oblivion Ring, Banishing Light, Journey to Nowhere, Cast Out, Darksteel Mutation and Chained to the Rocks. Once one has done its job it is the best gift you own. It does nothing for whoever holds it, so it stays, and it counts toward every token Iroh makes from then on.

Choose the receiver with care. The player whose card is under the Oblivion Ring is the only one at the table with a reason to remove it. Hand it to that player and every way they have of moving one of their own permanents works on it: a sacrifice outlet, a bounce spell aimed at their own board, a flicker. Hand it to one of the other two and only an enchantment removal spell gets the card back, which was already true while you held it. Darksteel Mutation follows the same rule. On an opposing commander it leaves an indestructible 0/1 with no abilities, which damage and destroy effects cannot move, so its owner needs a sacrifice, an exile or a bounce of their own to get it back to the command zone. That aura goes to someone else and never to them.

Chained to the Rocks is the one to keep. Its enchant line reads Mountain you control, and you means whoever controls the aura. The moment an opponent gains control of it, it is attached to a Mountain they do not control, so it goes to the graveyard and the creature it exiled comes back. Of the six it is the only one never to point Iroh at.

A creature you hand over as combat starts can block in that combat

The gift is made before attackers are declared, and a creature an opponent has just gained control of is untapped and free to block. Blocking does not care how long a creature has been under its controller's control. So a Steel Golem handed to the player you are about to attack is a 3/4 standing in front of your tokens, and a Grid Monitor is a 4/6.

There are two ways round it. Iroh lets you choose the opponent, so give creatures to someone you are not attacking that turn. Or tap the creature: Kor Entanglers taps a creature an opponent controls whenever an Ally enters under your control, and Iroh's token is an Ally entering, so the creature you just gave away is tapped before blockers are chosen.

Seven damage, two a turn, or no more creature spells

Six permanents in the core list are there to be given away, and each one costs its new controller something. Bronze Bombshell is the bluntest. When a player other than its owner controls it, that player sacrifices it and takes 7 damage. That trigger belongs to them and resolves before Iroh's token is made, so the Bombshell is gone by the time the counters are counted. It is seven damage in place of a counter, which is usually the better trade.

Jinxed Idol deals 2 damage to its controller at each of their upkeeps. They can pass it on by sacrificing a creature, and if they pass it back to you, Iroh hands it out again at your next combat and you get one more token. Rust Elemental is a 4/4 flier whose controller must sacrifice another artifact at each of their upkeeps, and when they have none it taps and they lose 4 life. Against an artifact deck it eats a mana rock a turn, and against anyone else it is 4 life a turn. Steel Golem and Grid Monitor stop the player who controls them casting creature spells, which locks up a creature deck and does nothing at all to a spells deck, so read the table before choosing who gets one.

Akroan Horse needs no help. It gives itself to an opponent as it enters, which counts for Iroh, and at each of its holder's upkeeps every opponent of theirs makes a 1/1 Soldier. You are one of those opponents, so it is a token a round for you, and for the other two players as well.

When the player holding your Steel Golem loses, it comes back to you

If an opponent leaves the game, every permanent of yours they controlled returns to you, and the gifts above then do to you what they were doing to them. A returned Steel Golem stops your own creature spells, Jinxed Idol hits you at your next upkeep and Rust Elemental starts eating your mana rocks. Iroh can give each one away again at your next combat, which is one more token, but he moves one gift per combat. Stiltzkin, Moogle Merchant, Bazaar Trader and Harmless Offering are how a second one leaves before then.

Akroan Horse is the awkward one. Coming back is not entering, so its enters trigger does not fire again and it stays with you, and at your upkeep it now makes a 1/1 Soldier for each of your opponents. Stiltzkin and Bazaar Trader have no timing restriction, so either one can move it on at the end of the turn it came back, before your upkeep arrives.

So the order you knock players out in matters more than usual. If you can choose, take out the player holding nothing of yours first, and leave the one with your Grid Monitor until a turn when Iroh is ready to pass it straight on.

Steal a creature before combat and Iroh makes it someone else's for good

Three cards take something from an opponent until end of turn: Zidane, Tantalus Thief as he enters, Captivating Crew for per activation, in a main phase only, and Zealous Conscripts, which can take any permanent. Normally that is one attack with a borrowed creature. Here you take it in your first main phase, and when combat starts Iroh gives it to a different opponent. The steal ends at end of turn but the gift has no end, so the creature stays with its new controller after the turn is over.

It adds no counter, because you do not own it, though Iroh still makes the token and counts everything else of yours. What it does is move power around the table: the best creature of the player in the lead goes to the player in last, and both of them now have a reason to look at each other rather than at you. Zidane also makes you a Treasure every time an opponent gains control of a permanent from you, the borrowed one included, so every gift in the deck pays for part of the next one.

Six more ways to give, each worth using before combat

Iroh gives one permanent per turn. Six other cards give more, and every one you use in your first main phase raises the count on that turn's token. Stiltzkin, Moogle Merchant costs and gives away another permanent for and a tap, drawing you a card each time. Bazaar Trader taps to give away an artifact, creature or land, and with Zidane out every activation is a Treasure that becomes the next gift. Harmless Offering does it once, for .

Humble Defector draws you two cards and gives itself away in the same activation, and Yes Man, Personal Securitron gives itself away, draws you two and takes a quest counter. Whoever holds either one can do the same on their own turn, so both travel the table, and they count for Iroh on every turn they spend on someone else's side. When Yes Man finally leaves the battlefield, you make a tapped 1/1 Soldier for each quest counter it picked up along the way.

Dack Fayden, Helping Hand is the biggest single gift. It turns over your library one card at a time until it has a creature card for each opponent, puts them onto the battlefield goaded for the rest of the game, and gives each opponent one. At a four player table that is three of your permanents on three sides at once, each one obliged to attack someone other than you whenever it can, and if one of them is Steel Golem or Bronze Bombshell, so much the better.

Each token is made in the combat it wants to attack in

Iroh's token is created as combat begins, on the turn it would want to attack, and a creature that arrived this turn cannot attack without haste. On its own it watches. Four cards in the list fix that: Smellerbee, Rebel Fighter gives your other creatures haste, Hammer of Purphoros gives all of them haste, Chasm Guide gives the team haste whenever an Ally enters, and Wartime Protestors gives each Ally that enters after it a +1/+1 counter and haste.

Resolute Blademaster is the other rally creature to want. Whenever an Ally enters, your creatures gain double strike until end of turn, and Iroh makes an Ally at the start of every combat in which he gives something away. Kazuul Warlord puts a +1/+1 counter on each Ally you control when another enters, so every new token grows the old ones too, and Cathars' Crusade does the same for every creature you control.

Iroh, Dragon of the West triggers at the same moment. Put the Dragon's trigger on the stack first and the Tea Master's on top, so the token is made with its counters before the Dragon resolves, and every creature with a counter on it, the new token included, gains firebending 2 for the turn. With haste the token attacks and adds . The token is also a 1/1 at the instant it enters, with its counters landing straight after, so Mentor of the Meek and Welcoming Vampire, which watch for a creature with power 2 or less entering, see a small creature every time. Mentor draws a card for off each token, and the Vampire draws one a turn for nothing.

Phelia brings a gift home for the night

Phelia, Exuberant Shepherd attacks, exiles up to one other nonland permanent, and returns it at the next end step under its owner's control, taking a +1/+1 counter herself if it came back on your side. Point her at your own Oblivion Ring on someone else's side. The card under it goes back to its owner, the ring returns to you at the end step and exiles something new, and at your next combat Iroh gives it away again. One enchantment becomes a fresh removal spell every turn, aimed at whatever matters most that turn.

The timing works for you. Iroh's gift and his count both happen as combat begins, and Phelia's trigger waits until she is declared as an attacker, so the ring has already counted toward this turn's token before she takes it home. It spends only the end step and your opponents' turns with you, and Iroh gives it away again before anything counts it next.

Charming Prince exiles a creature you own wherever it is and returns it to you at the end step, Flickerwisp does the same for any permanent of yours, and Flicker of Fate does it at once for a creature or an enchantment. That is how Humble Defector and Yes Man come home instead of wandering the table for good, and how Akroan Horse gets to give itself away a second time. Phelia can also exile a token an opponent controls, and a token that leaves the battlefield never comes back.

The core list

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The budget rung keeps every gift, and bracket 4 gives away The One Ring

Neither rung touches what Iroh gives away. Every gift in the core list, Bronze Bombshell and Grid Monitor included, is in all three versions, and so are the six other ways to give and the four haste cards. What moves is the mana and the protection around them.

The budget rung is nine swaps and takes the list from $288 to $109. Smothering Tithe and Enlightened Tutor are the core list's two Game Changers and both go, which leaves nothing in the deck to set a bracket floor. Four of the nine are lands, so five lands enter tapped every time where the core list has three. Pacifism takes the tutor's slot as a seventh enchantment to put on an opponent's creature and later hand to somebody else, Big Score takes Tithe's as the source of spare Treasures, and Heroic Reinforcements replaces Akroma's Will as the turn that ends the game: two more 1/1s, +1/+1 and haste for everything.

The gifts work exactly as before, so the tokens grow at the same rate. What the budget deck gives up is staying power. Flawless Maneuver, Akroma's Will and Mother of Runes are what keep your tokens and Iroh alive through someone else's sweeper, and Make a Stand and Benevolent Bodyguard are smaller versions of the same job, so a wipe costs this version more.

The bracket 4 rung swaps nine cards and comes to $800. It carries seven Game Changers, and two of them are gifts. Tap The One Ring for three turns and it has three burden counters on it. Give it away then, and its new controller loses 3 life at every upkeep and cannot destroy it, because it is indestructible. They can tap it themselves, which draws them more cards and makes every upkeep after that worse. Give it to whichever player is nearest to dead, never to the one with a combo to dig for. Mana Vault is the same idea in small: tap it for three, give it away tapped, and its new controller takes 1 damage in each draw step unless they pay to untap it.

The rest buy speed and safety. Ancient Tomb makes two mana from one land, Bloodstained Mire and Windswept Heath can each fetch Sacred Foundry, Jeska's Will turns a big turn into a bigger one, and Teferi's Protection keeps your board through a sweeper. It phases out only what you control, so every gift stays where it is and keeps counting. Ranger-Captain of Eos fetches Stiltzkin, Moogle Merchant or Esper Sentinel, whichever the turn needs, and Esper Sentinel draws you a card off each opponent's first noncreature spell of a turn unless they pay for it. The price is three cheap mana artifacts and two Ally bodies, Invasion Reinforcements and Treetop Freedom Fighters, so Kazuul Warlord and the rally creatures have a little less to count.

FAQ

Does Iroh, Tea Master count tokens you gave away?

Yes. You own any token you created, whoever controls it now, so a Food, Treasure or Clue you handed to an opponent counts toward the counters for as long as it stays on the battlefield. Once they eat it, crack it or sacrifice it, it is gone and stops counting.

What happens to the permanents Iroh gave away when that player loses?

They come back to you. When a player leaves the game, every effect that gave them control of something ends, so everything of yours they held returns to your control. That includes Steel Golem, Grid Monitor and Jinxed Idol, which then work against you until Iroh gives them away again at your next combat.

Can Iroh, Tea Master give away a creature you stole?

Yes. He can give away any permanent you control, whether you own it or not. Take a creature with Captivating Crew or Zealous Conscripts in your first main phase and Iroh can hand it to a different opponent as combat starts. That gift has no end date, so the creature stays with them after your steal wears off. It adds no counter to the token, because only permanents you own are counted.

Does the Ally token from Iroh, Tea Master have haste?

No. It is made as combat begins, so it cannot attack that turn unless something else gives it haste. Four cards in this list do: Smellerbee, Rebel Fighter, Hammer of Purphoros, Chasm Guide and Wartime Protestors. Without one of them the token waits a turn, and it can still block in the meantime.

What bracket is an Iroh, Tea Master deck?

This one starts at bracket 3. Its only Game Changers are Smothering Tithe and Enlightened Tutor, and it has no combo, extra turn or land destruction. Take those two out, as the budget rung does, and nothing in the list sets a floor. The bracket 4 rung runs seven Game Changers, The One Ring and Mana Vault among them.

How much does an Iroh, Tea Master deck cost?

$288 for the core list on the date printed in the summary box, using whichever paper printing of each card is cheapest. Smothering Tithe, Enlightened Tutor and Arid Mesa are close to two fifths of that. The budget rung drops all three and comes to $109. The bracket 4 rung comes to $800, and Ancient Tomb, The One Ring and Mana Vault are its three dearest cards.

Which Iroh is this deck for?

Iroh, Tea Master, number 228 in Avatar: The Last Airbender, the red and white 2/2 that makes a Food as he enters and gives away a permanent at the start of your combats. Iroh, Dragon of the West is in the ninety nine, because it triggers at the same moment and gives every creature with a counter firebending 2. Uncle Iroh cannot join: its cost uses red and green hybrid mana, so green is in its color identity and this deck cannot run it.