Threats Package:
Arclight Phoenix and Thing in the Ice
do the heavy lifting and are largely self-explanatory.
The ideal play pattern is usually to play out your spells during first main phase, flip TiTi, then have the Phoenixes come back during combat step so they all attack together on an empty board. With a good hand, you’ll have opponents scooping before they’ve placed a third land!
Some notes for Thing in the Ice Show
- It bounces all non-horror creatures. Other Horrors that see play are: Bedlam Reveler, Spellskite, and Phyrexian Obliterator.
- If you have multiple TiTi available to play (say on turns 2 and 3) try to stagger the number of counters on them by playing a spell in between. This gives you the option to bounce the entire board twice on subsequent turns, and can be relevant against decks with a lot of chump blockers.
- Sometimes there is no choice but to bounce your own Phoenixes, and this is fine. It can even be a value play as you discard them to a flashed-back Faithless Looting (for example) to get more fresh gas in your hand.
Bedlam Reveler is a supplemental threat and refuel mechanism. I’ve seen several lists that run 4x Bedlam Reveler but personally I prefer 3 – it’s terrible to draw in multiples and you never want to see it in your opening hand. Also, it gets locked out very hard by graveyard hate and one of the first cards to be sideboarded out in many matchups.
Cantrip Package:
Serum Visions, Manamorphose, Thought Scour.
Visions allows you to keep low-land hands and dig for what you need. It’s preferable to Opt because we want to be playing at sorcery speed a lot of the time anyways to bring back Arclight Phoenix.
Manamorphose is extremely powerful and sets up some of the really unfair draws. Cycling it for a card is almost always wrong unless the situation is desperate. One choice that can be tricky (and actually cost you games) is picking incorrect colors when you still have some cards left to draw before you finish “going off.” Generally, red mana is more necessary than blue if you expect to play Faithless Looting that turn, as you may want it to fuel discarded Fiery Temper.
Thought Scour is just so-so but it fills a necessary role as a 1CMC spell that also can sometimes let you get lucky by milling Phoenix. I’ve seen lists run as few as 2, personally I prefer 3. This card is often trimmed in sideboard games.
If you have multiple cantrips available to play the same turn, play your “draw” effects before your “draw, then discard” effects to increase the odds of getting an extra Phoenix.
For example, the sequence Serum Visions (scry non-Phoenix cards to the bottom) -> Thought Scour -> Faithless Looting looks 8 cards deep into your library. If you’re looking for something other than a Phoenix (for example, an extra land) you may want to alter that order to play the Thought Scour first.
Flex Slot – Mission Briefing. Generally just a worse Snapcaster Mage, this is one deck where Mission Briefing can actually shine. Counting as an extra spell for Phoenix and possibly surveilling another into the bin along the way is quite an upside. However, it’s terrible to draw in multiples and I’d say the maximum a list should run is 2, more likely only 1.
Discard Package:
Faithless Looting, Izzet Charm, Chart a Course.
Faithless Looting is the best card in the deck and using it correctly will win (or lose) you many games.
It’s almost always incorrect to FL on Turn 1 unless you’re desperately digging for a land. Why? Additional draw steps to find Arclight Phoenix opens up for much more explosive turn 3 plays, which is the earliest reliable turn you can be returning Phoenixes and the basis for your best starts. There are only so many 1 CMC spells to cast to return the Phoenix on that turn, and you want to maximize your chances to make that happen.
Unlike decks such as Hollow One, we have very limited ways to use cards once they’re in the discard pile. Use FL to set up your powerful swing turns and you’ll be much happier with the results. Using FL too early can cause you to run out of gas if you’re discarding non-synergistic cards to it. We’re a low land count deck so the flashback mode can take many turns to become useful.
Izzet Charm has great flexibility with utility in every mode. However, 2CMC makes it much harder to chain it into a 3-spell turn unless you have Manamorphose. Personally I think 4x is too many to run, as multiples can easily clog up your hand, and I’ve been happiest playing 3 copies.
Chart a Course is divisive, and I’ve seen some decks that run a full 4 copies. The advantage is that it gives both good card selection, or even card advantage if you don’t need to discard and can play it after an attack. However, only discarding 1 card doesn’t facilitate your biggest swing turns as much, and at 2CMC it can easily rot in your hand for some time. I’d personally not want more than 2x copies.
Baby Jace is perhaps the most controversial pick, with many lists cutting it altogether. I'll make a case here that this is the wrong decision.
Starting with the cons:
But, that being said, there are many pros:
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Jace almost always flips immediately into a high-loyalty PW who protects himself and your life total. This is great in midrange or aggressive matchups because he can absorb damage that would otherwise go at your face.
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He's one of the few sources of pure card advantage in the deck. Using the minus ability twice is like drawing spells of your choice two turns in a row, making it trivial to recur Phoenixes and generally out-card your opponent.
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The tap ability turns Fiery Temper into "bolt plus draw a card" even if your graveyard has been permanently nuked. It also lets you clean up crappy opening hands at no mana cost, discarding extra lands and turning them into gas.
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He's a standalone win-con against slow control or prison decks. He might as well be Rampant Growth against UW Control, because they have to Path to Exile him immediately. His ultimate is an out to Ensnaring Bridge decks which, aside from Abrade, you're very cold to. I've beaten Prison decks with double Bridge, Chalice and Blood Moon on the field thanks to Jace.
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The deck needs a proactive T2 play. Ideally, that's Thing in the ice but we don't always have it. What else are you going to spend your mana on? Jace requires an immediate answer or he flips, which can throw off your opponents tempo and delay them playing a threat.
I think it's a mistake to not include 1-2 copies of JVP in the deck. That being said, he's often trimmed or cut in combo matchups, or against opponents with Lightning Bolt (eating a Fatal Push is fine because it saves a TiTi, but bolt is otherwise nearly dead against us). Take him out in those particular games.
Burn Package:
Lightning Bolt, Fiery Temper, Abrade.
The Bolts are self-explanatory. I’ll add that playing any less than 4x Fiery Temper is a mistake, because even as burn to the face it’s great to turn your discards into extra resources.
I’ve been edging toward 1x Abrade in the main board as a flex slot. Much of the hate that people bring in is artifact based, and it’s very rare for a deck to be totally absent on targets for Abrade.
Notably, a glaring hole in the removal package is threats with >3 toughness. We’re dependent on TiTi to bounce them, or Phoenix to fly over. Harvest Pyre or Spite of Mogis are considerations, but both rely on the graveyard so much that they’re worse in sideboarded games (where we might be considering bringing them in). The deck is very soft to Tarmogoyf et al, but I’m not sure there is a great solution.
Mana Base:
We need a steady supply of red mana and having more than 1 Island in play is typically not desirable. (Incidentally, this is why Blood Moon has no place in this archetype- we want lots of duals in play). The fetches are tilted towards finding Mountains for this reason.
2x Steam Vents has felt generally right to me, as the blue requirements are quite light - excluding Mission Briefing - and taking less damage from the manabase is a perk, compared to 3x copies.
I’ve been playing a list with only 18 lands, and after some testing that seems like the correct number.
Whenever you play a discard effect, try to have 1 red mana source available in play just in case you draw into Fiery Temper.
Which Lands to Fetch? Show
Minor point but sometimes relevant.
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Wooded Foothills (or whichever other red fetch you use - doesn't really matter which one) should go find Steam Vents wherever possible, as Scalding Tarn can go get any fetchable land in the deck while Foothills cannot.
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Avoid fetching an island as one of your first 3 lands wherever possible. There are many times where you'll want multiple red in the same turn, to support your best tempo plays such as Faithless Looting into Fiery Temper and having an island can cause you to delay a turn in recurring a Phoenix.
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Double blue mana is generally not needed until turn 4.
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We have 7 fetchable lands and 7 fetches to get them. If you're expecting the game to go long, it's preferable to discard fetches as compared to your mana-producing lands.
