I've searched far and wide for a color identity that matches both my personality and my preferred play style. I started with ghaves-token-and-counter-emporium, but decided that the token and counter life, while fun, just wasn't for me. In the end, thanks to some savor the flavor articles and my good friends Sir_Millzalot and anglophile_ws I realized that I was, at heart, an Izzet player. The fiery, speedy destruction of Red paired with the complex, strange powers of Blue fit me like a glove. But enough exposition. You're here for the deck, and the deck you shall have. Extra thanks to Engineer's wet dream for reminding me that shenanigans with extra turns were a ton of fun.
Nin, the Pain Artist is the commander of this lovely (pseudo) Izzet deck. She doesn't fit the theme of ramping up sorceries and instants, instead serving as a means of destroying my opponent's creatures and letting me draw into some tasty combos. The deck focuses primarily on ramping card drawing and all the good things that entails. Buffing creatures through card drawing, gaining life through number of cards in hand, dealing damage whenever I draw a card, milling an opponent whenever I draw a card, taking control of creatures to sacrifice to Nin and lots of other goodies.
I'm using Tappedout as a means of putting the deck together and being able to eyeball it before actually buying the cards and playtesting it. I'll be updating this regularly as I test things out and figure out what changes to make.
This deck has gone through a significant number of changes since its original incarnation. What began as a somewhat instant and sorcery heavy deck has become a deck focused primarily on drawing cards and making things happen when cards are drawn. This done with artifacts, enchantments and creatures.
Infinite mana: Grand Architect + Pili-Pala
This is, of course, a blatantly easy and probably overdone combo, but oh well. Pay the U to be able to tap Pili-Pala for 2, then use those 2 to untap him and make 1 mana of any color you desire. Repeat until you have an infinity of mana and make good things happen. Things like...
(Possibly) Infinite Turns: Charmbreaker Devils
+
Increasing Vengeance
+
Time Stretch
This combo could be a little hard to pull off depending on how your graveyard looks. If you're going to attempt this, make sure you have two or less instants and sorceries in your graveyard. Make sure you have Charmbreaker Devils on the battlefield, then play Time Stretch and target it with Increasing Vengeance, giving you four turns instead of just two. Time Stretch and Increasing Vengeance will both go to your graveyard. At the beginning of your next turn you will randomly return an instant or sorcery to your hand (hopefully Time Stretch or Increasing Vengeance). Go through your turn and start the next one, getting back another card. If you have Time Stretch and Increasing Vengeance, play them and get another four turns. Keep doing this until you win the game. The only way this can really get shut down is if your opponents get rid of your graveyard or counter Time Stretch before you can get it back. Keep a counter spell handy just in case. If it works, congratulations! You now have all the time in the world. Note: If you have Tamiyo, Moon Sage's emblem, the above combo is unneeded and a lot faster. Just play the card, target it, return both to your hand and repeat as often as you have mana to do so.
Other cards are just fun and don't necessarily fit into combos. Dismiss into Dream wreaks havoc on your opponent's creatures as long as you have a way to target them. Stuffy Doll allows you to deal damage to your opponent while still drawing cards. Willbreaker operates similarly to Dismiss Into Dream but allows you to take control of an enemy's creatures instead of just killing them. Paradox Haze works brilliantly with any card that lets you do things at upkeep, giving you two instances instead of just one. Combine this with Venser's Journal to get a ton of health, Dominus of Fealty to take control of two creatures instead of just one,
Mind Unbound
to accelerate your card drawing, Charmbreaker Devils to get multiple instants and sorceries back... And so on. The list may be longer, but these are the highlights.
Once again, this deck is a work in progress. I'll be brainstorming and consulting with my friends to truly fine tune and perfect this deck, so expect some moderate to extreme changes between now and the time I'm satisfied with it. As always, thanks for taking the time to look!
