Creature (19)
- 1x Blistercoil Weird
- 1x Charmbreaker Devils
- 1x Djinn Illuminatus
- 1x Dragon Mage
- 1x Goblin Electromancer
- 1x Goblin Flectomancer
- 1x Guttersnipe
- 1x Hypersonic Dragon
- 1x Izzet Guildmage
- 1x Izzet Staticaster
- 1x Jace's Archivist
- 1x Melek, Izzet Paragon
- 1x Mercurial Chemister
- 1x Niv-Mizzet, Dracogenius
- 1x Nivix Cyclops
- 1x Nivix Guildmage
- 1x Psychosis Crawler
- 1x Stormchaser Mage
- 1x Wee Dragonauts
Land (39)
Instant (15)
- 1x Brainstorm
- 1x Comet Storm
- 1x Counterflux
- 1x Dissipate
- 1x Fateful Showdown
- 1x Firemind's Foresight
- 1x Insidious Will
- 1x Izzet Charm
- 1x Redirect
- 1x Reverberate
- 1x Rewind
- 1x Stroke of Genius
- 1x Tolarian Winds
- 1x Turn / Burn
- 1x Wild Ricochet
Artifact (10)
- 1x Elixir of Immortality
- 1x Feldon's Cane
- 1x Izzet Cluestone
- 1x Izzet Keyrune
- 1x Izzet Signet
- 1x Library of Leng
- 1x Mind Stone
- 1x Perpetual Timepiece
- 1x Seal of the Guildpact
- 1x Spellbook
Planeswalker (1)
Commander (1)
Sorcery (12)
- 1x Day's Undoing
- 1x Divination
- 1x Enter the Infinite
- 1x Epic Experiment
- 1x Faithless Looting
- 1x Incendiary Command
- 1x Invoke the Firemind
- 1x Mystic Retrieval
- 1x Reforge the Soul
- 1x Time Reversal
- 1x Treasure Cruise
- 1x Windfall
Enchantment (3)
"The Izzet are an equation that turns lunacy into explosions." -Leonos, Azorius Arbiter
The Izzet perfectly capture the controlled chaos the the U/R color combination represents. They blow stuff up... with science!
The Izzet are one of my favorite Ravnica guilds, and I have a Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind laying around from an old repack or something. So, since I love designing budget decks themed around important characters in the lore, I decided to put this thing together.
This deck will play similarly to those horribly annoying decks that combo off and mill themselves out for Laboratory Maniac's ability, but unlike those decks, this one will be interactive and fun to play against. We'll be running a lot of cards that drop our hands and draw new ones, but rather than having the ultimate goal of self-milling, we'll be using that card draw for commander damage! And, when it starts looking like we'll run out of cards in our library, we'll just throw our graveyard right back in there!
So, besides drawing a ton of cards for damage off of Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind, what do we need for Izzet flavor? Well, an obvious place to start is actual Izzet cards. So, let's see what we can come up with for creatures, first.
We won't be running a ton of creatures, because Izzet is built pretty heavily around instant/sorcery synergy.
-Izzet Staticaster - This may seem counterproductive for the commander format, but consider token decks. I've seen too many Krenko, Mob Boss, Rhys the Redeemed, and Trostani, Selesnya's Voice decks to not worry about tokens. Someone taps Krenko or Rhys putting out 5 dozen goblins, elves, or whatever, swings in at me, what do I do? Flash in Izzet Staticaster and blow em all away!
- Izzet Guildmage - Well, we can't not use him, can we? Plus copying instants and sorceries is plenty valuable in an Izzet deck where we're drawing tons of cards. Copy a Brainstorm, for example.
-Melek, Izzet Paragon - The Izzet's Maze-Runner created specifically for the task. Important to the flavor, and a great way to top off our curve by letting us play spells from the top of our deck and copy them!
-Nivix Guildmage - The newer version of Izzet Guildmade. He keeps the copy ability and adds a shiny new digging ability!
- Wee Dragonauts - Gotta have some creatures with prowess-esque abilities! Heavy hitters in case the commander damage doesn't go off.
Okay, a small but effective creature base is set. Where do we go from there? Well, let's see if we can find some non-creature permanents to help the strategy. Enchantments, artifacts, maybe even a planeswalker or 2? Let's see what we can find...
- Ral Zarek - "But Fabled! You said this was a budget deck! You can't run a planeswalker!" Shut up, I'm getting there! As far as planeswalkers go, Ral Zarek is very affordable, and way too in flavor for Izzet for us not to run. His ult is the most Izzet thing I've ever seen! "I'm gonna do some cool magic and control time! You know, probably..." That's amazing! Plus, as long as we don't include a ton of other $5 cards, we can still squeeze this deck under the budget line.
-Cloven Casting - This will fit in right at the top of the curve as a potentially very powerful card in our deck. Let's us copy Izzet Charm, Electrolyze, Firemind's Foresight, and all kinds of other spells here!
- Mirror Sheen - This may seem very situational, but in larger EDH games of ~4 players, it will likely be relevant. Someone bolts you, you bolt the back, someone makes you sac a creature, make them sac a creature. Even if it doesn't come up too much, it is a deterrent to your opponents from targeting you.
-Spellbook - A staple in blue decks, and a must-have for Niv-Mizzet. We're probably going to be drawing way over our hand limit here, and we don't want to discard all that card advantage, so here's the solution: Spellbook.
-Seal of the Guildpact - So... Much.. FLAVOR! Absolutely run this hyper-flavorful Ravnica card that also makes all your spells cheaper!
Alright, so now the most important part: Instants and Sorceries! We'll be running a lot of things for card draw and basic control, but here's some of the more notable cards:
-Firemind's Foresight - A high-cost multi-tutor for instants and sorceries. This is mostly in here for all the opportunity we have to copy it and fill our hand with all the cards we need.
-Invoke the Firemind - A valuable draw card that can also be copied for damage.
-Counterflux - An uncounterable counterspell. Always useful!
-Wild Ricochet - I like this card. It's a huge insult to players targeting you or your stuff. Not only do you redirect it right at them, you copy it and hit them double! No, you may not destroy my creature, but I can destroy 2 of yours!
- Tolarian Winds - Got an opponent almost dead from commander damage, but you just need one last little psuh? Throw down Tolarian Winds to replace your hand and deal that last little bit of damage.
- Time Reversal - We will undoubtedly be discarding in this deck, whether from effects of cards like Tolarian Winds , or just from not having a Spellbook available when we need it. This gets us all those cards back, and lets us draw for some damage off of Niv-Mizzet.
-Enter the Infinite - This is an absolute top of the curve, last resort, game-ender card. Especially valuable after Time Reversal or Elixir of Immortality, this will allow you to finish off multiple opponents as long as Niv-Mizzet is on the field.
I'd say we have a good thing going here. A solid strategy and a fun, interactive deck. It may have some annoying control elements that'll annoy your friends, but hey, at least they get to take turns! Now, let's help Niv-Mizzet blow away his enemies! With science!
If I'm missing any obvious flavor cards or anything that synergizes particularly well without being too far out of flavor, shoot me a comment! I appreciate it!
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| Date added | 7 years |
| Last updated | 6 years |
| Legality | This deck is Commander / EDH legal. |
| Rarity (main - side) | 5 - 0 Mythic Rares 24 - 0 Rares 25 - 0 Uncommons 12 - 0 Commons |
| Cards | 100 |
| Avg. CMC | 3.56 |
| Folders | EDH, Orzov, Interesting, EDH Decks |
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