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Legality
| Format | Legality |
| 1v1 Commander | Legal |
| Archenemy | Legal |
| Arena | Legal |
| Block Constructed | Legal |
| Canadian Highlander | Legal |
| Casual | Legal |
| Commander / EDH | Legal |
| Commander: Rule 0 | Legal |
| Custom | Legal |
| Duel Commander | Legal |
| Gladiator | Legal |
| Highlander | Legal |
| Historic | Legal |
| Legacy | Legal |
| Leviathan | Legal |
| Limited | Legal |
| Modern | Legal |
| Oathbreaker | Legal |
| Pioneer | Legal |
| Planechase | Legal |
| Quest Magic | Legal |
| Tiny Leaders | Legal |
| Vanguard | Legal |
| Vintage | Legal |
Firemind's Research
Enchantment
Whenever you cast an instant or sorcery spell, put a charge counter on Firemind's Research.
, Remove two charge counters from Firemind's Research: Draw a card.
, Remove five charge counters from Firemind's Research: It deals 5 damage to target creature, player or planeswalker.
Dazard on
Izzet - Cipher Deck
1 year ago
I am reanimating this deck and made some changes. I swapped Last Thoughts with Trait Doctoring. So instead of that low 4 mana spell i have a quick "cipher one drop" that can also fix my mana base.
dropped the two Niv-Mizzets, because they weren't a real finisher after all. i added Sentinel Tower and Firemind's Research instead which support my overall cipher theme better.
Dragonshift for some (defensive or offensive) suprises, Mizzium Mortars for some boardwipes.
What do you think?
Mana_Mythic_Legendary on Pursuing Perfection, Part 13: Izzet …
2 years ago
According to an old myth, a king once posed his advisors an awkward problem: how to prove whether a crown was pure gold. The guy who figured it out was stumped until he took a bath. As he sank into the water he noticed his body was displacing it, and in a moment of epiphany he realized this was a method to check the crown. Evidently, this was such a stimulating realization that he jumped clean out of the bathhouse and took off down the street, buck-ass nude and shouting “I’ve got it!”
You’ve probably heard this story, and know the point I’m making: the Izzet League, Guild of Engineers and Magewrights, can best be described as a pack of over-caffeinated nerds hell-bent on chasing moments just like that. Coincidentally, this parallels the experience many magic players pursue in a given match. While you can have those moments doing anything, if you’re looking to thematically mimic Archimedes at the moment of streaking epiphany, preferably laying aside public indecency, Izzet the place to be. Today, we’re discussing commanders tied to three prevailing Blue-Red themes: Storm, Chance, and Gunslinging. As always, please bear in mind that our focus here is not necessarily competitive but rather on thematic, archetypical commanders.
Storm
I don’t necessarily mean the keyword, though Thousand-Year Storm is admittedly a favorite: I mean instants and sorceries as an overall theme. Bear with me on this: If I were to assign a card type to each color…
White: Enchantments
Blue: Instants
Black: Creatures
Red: Sorceries
Green: Lands
Understand that my suggestion here isn’t that any color has the best of the associated card type, but rather that each card type is among the color’s primary thematic interactions. Green has the closest relationship with lands, Black kills/resurrects/abuses creatures, etc. Sorceries, being generally cruder but also more powerful than instants, tie in thematically with Red, which is cruder and... not more powerful, but definitely more direct than Blue, a subtle and minimalist color.
Izzet, then, has a primary interaction with both instants and sorceries, focusing on non-permanent spells in order to capture the thematic essence of spellcraft. If you want to rock the hell out of the game by wizarding it up, I have some commanders for you to Ponder!
Simple, potent, and tasty. A copy of any given spell is welcome, and firing from the hip off the top deck is quite thematic, quasi-literally throwing ideas at your opponents, technically before you even have them.
This is very pretty art, and while maybe not the best choice for slamming down massive X drops, for raining down a pile of cantrips Veyran’s your best friend. Who would say no to getting bigger whenever you cast a spell AND doubling both the card’s own effect and that of any accompanying triggers, like Archmage Emeritus, Aria of Flame, and Firemind's Research? With a potential for solid command damage AND a great doubling effect, this is a fantastic commander.
Or, if you think cantrips are for wusses, Vadrik is probably more your speed. Power him up with, say, the Runechanter's Pike, wheel a few times, and unleash all manner of insanities by slamming down a hideously overpowered Banefire or Blue Sun's Zenith. Heck, go for broke and play Epic Experiment while having Thousand-Year Storm out as well. If anyone’s still alive after your thirty-minute turn, they’ll probably have lost all will to go on anyway.
Chance
Just as this is the pairing of inspiration, Izzet is also about boom-bust gameplay. There’s an element of chaos to it, yes, but rather than inflicting lunacy on everyone Izzet also has the potential to ride a private brainwave straight across the finish line, whether in control or not. Sometimes your plan will go off like an atom bomb. Sometimes it will fizzle, wheeze, and grind to a sad little halt. Regardless, that type of gameplay will be a LOT of fun.
and
I did promise to talk about a coin deck back in the Red article. Okaun is potentially (unreasonably) large, Zndrsplt occasionally supportive. Seeing them together is worrisome: three lucky tosses and Whispersilk Cloak or something like will kill an opponent, and it’s not unlikely. Add Krark's Thumb and you’ll probably overstock your hand, break a thousand P/T on a single creature, and strike a blow for gamblers everywhere. Bring mana rocks, bring evasion, and above all… bring Fling.
Wheeling is a mechanic that clearly illustrates chaos in magic, both for good and for bad. Doing it every time you cast a spell? Glorious. No plans. No guarantees. Just making like a leaf on the wind. Any win you get out of this commander is EARNED.
Nekusar, the Mindrazer, the sphinx-that-shall-not-be-named, or Smothering Tithe ruining the local meta? Have I got a solution for you! Jump across that fuzzy line of lunacy Izzet players so love to skip along and never draw a card again. This is neat, completely sidestepping a fundamental mechanic of the game. Throw in a few permanents that draw at instant speed, wizards are good like that, and tot up options as needed. I am very, very excited to see decks built around this.
Gunslinging
This is wordplay at its worst, and I apologize. Again, I don’t necessarily mean commanders that ping you to death. Rather, I mean commanders that are trigger-happy on the draw, or vice versa. The act of drawing is, in metaphorical terms, new ideas coming to you over the course of your wizardly duel, and ideas are very much in the provenance of Izzet. It’s only appropriate that a few commanders in this pairing either reward you for having lots of ideas or ensure you have lots of them. Obligatory mention of buggy rewards from The Locust God and Kindred Discovery goes here.
And, of course, this is where Wattles the Wizened himself comes into the conversation, being exactly what the theme sounds like. Draw cards, give him deathtouch, and torch the board. Go for broke on this moldy old cheese and attach Ophidian Eye. It’s not exactly creative, but it’s certainly effective.
You know, compared to Jhoira of the Ghitu this is practically calm, but people don’t really respond to her that way. I’d like to profess ignorance as to why that might be, but having built several artifact combo decks I really can’t. She’s a solid choice, not that offensive in and of herself, and I recommend her to anyone not willing to go full Breya, Etherium Shaper.
This is one I wouldn’t immediately recommend to anyone angling to compete, insomuch as one can in a casual format. However, as the literal god of insight and inspiration (and smiting Zeus-style), he’s thematically perfect. Depending on what you draw, you either get another card or a Lightning Bolt. On an indestructible, sometime 6/5 creature, that’s pretty nice. If your deck is of a caliber where it doesn’t depend on its commander, this is a very innocuous choice that’s going to mislead a lot of people and yet still get you a lot of utility.
And, for my personal favorite…
She tried to replace my Okaun/Zndrsplt deck. She tried, and failed, but I still have a great deal of affection for her. This is a commander made to wheel all day who has the color access to nearly every instance of that mechanic. Fill that graveyard with ephemeral goodness, sprinkle a few evasion cantrips for flavor, and tag opponents HARD with a sweet old lady. Then bake them cookies, just to rub it in.
Seriously, someone teach their grandmother magic and have her play Rielle. You’ll break the internet.
That's it for this round. Thoughts and questions are welcome. I hope you enjoyed it, and will come back soon for an old favorite, Golgari!
Fuzzy003 on
Ready to Scoop Yet?
2 years ago
Hmmm... You don't have any way to put charge counters on Firemind's Research.
Other than that charge up :)
ellie-is on
Kykar's Tokens & Cantrips
3 years ago
Okay, more changes... Relatively large ones this time. Keeping track of them here in the comments in case I want to take any of it back.
Removed more mana-intensive buffs (Force of Virtue, Dictate of Heliod, Soulblade Djinn, Strongarm Monk), some token generators (Goblinslide, Launch the Fleet, Battle Screech, Docent of Perfection  Flip, Finale of Glory) and and some other cards (Sphinx's Revelation, Firemind's Research, Fumigate) to make room for new ones.
Removed a land for Wayfarer's Bauble and Mind Stone.
Added Path to Exile, Swords to Plowshares and Muddle the Mixture.
Added Divine Visitation because it's really good on its own and makes Bishop of Wings better (I was wary of keeping Bishop of Wings with so little that synergized with it and without having tutors, at least now there's one more chance of drawing something that's good with it).
Added Purphoros, God of the Forge, Impact Tremors, Isochron Scepter, Dramatic Reversal, Retraction Helix and Spellbook because after giving it some consideration, infinite combos are fair-ish and fun if I'm not using tutors.
Added Fireball and Comet Storm to make use of infinite mana, since there's now a couple ways to do that.
I'll probably temporarily proxy some of the more expensive cards, but it's gonna be so long before I'm playing games in person again that I might even be able to buy all of them before that happens, lol.
JaradGolgariLichLord321 on
Jeskai Aggro/Burn
4 years ago
Hello. If you are looking to build an Aggro/burn deck but budget style, I have some suggestions.
Electrostatic Field is a great card to play four or three of. It can end up doing some major damage when left out long enough
Goblin Electromancer can help you cast more burn spells. When used with Electrostatic Field you could end up doing some major damage.
Of course, there is always Firemind's Research This is helpful to burn, and good if you are willing to run three colors.
As for the Aggro side of your deck, Baird, Steward of Argive is good in roughly any deck that is part white. Honored Crop-Captain is a favorite of mine, as it can boost damage.
All of these cards are cheap, so you should not be spending much on them.
Any further questions, don’t hesitate to ask me
loricatuslupus on
WIzzet Prowess
4 years ago
I like the deck, but a couple of choices seem a bit odd to me. For example, why not have two copies of Adeliz in the mainboard? Such a good card, and I can't imagine any match-up where you'd want to bring in four. I'm personally not sold on Light up the Stage for Prowess decks as to get Spectacle (and therefore most value) you need to have damaged the opponent before combat, and that gives them more information about what you have. I've personally had great results with Firemind's Research as it sticks longer and can blast away things too big to bolt off. Crash Through isn't bad but four seems like overkill and I flat-out don't get why you would run Spell Pierce and especially Claim the Firstborn (dead card surely if the opponent plays a deck with no targets?) in the main when you could have stuff like Samut's Sprint/Titan's Strength and Lightning Strike/Magma Jet. Ral, Storm Conduit might be a bit above your curve but he does everything you want and can do very silly things with Dreadhorde Arcanist! Here's what I'm building Pioneering Wizzet - slightly more tempo than aggro and not bought bought my sideboard yet but you can see what's going to be in it in the Acquireboard. Any thoughts?
Shnuff on
Flux Channeler Combo
4 years ago
It started with Hidden Strings and Darksteel Reactor because I liked the flow of Hidden Strings ciphered + mana-storage lands. Thrummingbird came along since its flying made it a good target for the Cipher while doubling my mana lands. I eventually looked for cooky counters to Proliferate (infect was a bit too strong for the multiplayer-casual environment I was building for and have yet to build a alt win-con deck) so I found Darksteel Reactor. came in because Dismantle- along with Pyromancer's Goggles and Ral Zarek (possibility of going infinite with ult and enough proliferation, plus his tap/utap +1 was great for mana rocks and the goggles). 1 Dismantle let me jump from 5 counters to 10 and a copied pair jumped that to 20 giving me a out-of-the blue insta win.
I never built the deck since Darksteel is a pricy card for my standards and a bit too threatening- i'd most likely get jumped the second I put 2-3 counters on it once my friend group knew I was running dismantle.
Then I found out proliferate was amazing with mana rocks that use counters like Everflowing Chalice and Astral Cornucopia. I still liked Ral's interaction with my mana rocks and thought Volt Charge would be fun with the goggles so I came to my current deck Untap X-Spells which proliferate-ramps mana to dump into Fireball-esqe spells for a finisher. Had to find an alt win con since one of our friends was bringing a player-hexproof deck which would render the game unwinnable but found some good allies in Ludevic's Test Subject Flip and Slumbering Dragon. Plus, Manifold Key can give the big boi a backdoor.
Deck works alright but I usually have 15+ mana for a finisher but never draw one. End up passing mid-late game while topdecking and lose before the big zap. Figured Firemind's Research could give me a mana dump and carddraw and works nicely with Flux Channeler for a storm-like deck. I'll probably order 2 of each and drop the Thrummingbirds. Untap X-Spells Storm Prolif-TriggerI was wondering what I could accomplish if I put more eggs in the cantrip basket when I stumbled across your deck and found out ha!
Your deck reminds me of the Blistercoil Weird + Paradise Mantle decks- where you would cantrip all day then swing with him / Guttersnipe them down- but I think your engine is a little more fun. I wonder which solitare deck would win.
As an important side note, I almost exclusively play Blue/Red since I love those card the most and rarely look into the other colors so that greatly affected the cards I found and considered. With Green, going the Simic route with Evolve mechanics, +1/+1 counters, and Gilder Bairn would be pretty strong package for a Darksteel Reactor deck as well. And Black, as you found out, is great for getting a cheap Infect counter on someone.
Columbia_Knight on
4 years ago
This is a pretty neat deck. What are your thoughts on Firemind's Research? Seem you could really rack up the counters when you get rolling. It only targets for the damage, but might be a good way to finish off an opponent.
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