Between the unbanning of Preordain and Faithless Looting, the more recent printing of Vivi Ornitier and Cori-Steel Cutter now seems like a great time for Izzet Phoenix to rise from the ashes. Vivi and Steel Cutter give us some inevitability, while fast Phoenix starts give us the ability to race, not to mention you can run all the best cantrips to fix your hands.
Let's dig into the list.
The Mana:
I think fetching Thundering Falls on turn 1 is pretty important to the consistency of the deck, and I think Fiery Islet is an important tool in a faster deck to mitigate flood. You have cantrips and a low land count to mitigate flood and screw. The only other notable thing in the mana base is the two "spell lands". Sink into Stupor
is usually better than Otawara, Soaring City as a spell, but the reverse is true as a land. Otawara also has niche applications as the effect of a land, rather than as a spell.
Win Conditions
Vivi Ornitier is either the best card in the deck, or the worst. It dies to Doom Blade, making it significantly worse to play a fair Vivi like this than it would be in a Soul Cauldron deck. I ultimately decided to side Soul Cauldron as graveyard hate because of this synergy, but I don't think it's maindeckable in this shell. It doesn't win the game on it's own the way Vivi or Cutter do, (barring specific graveyard matchups), and you need a critical mass of Instant and Sorcery spells, specifically cantrips, to facilitate the Phoenix part of the deck, and in fact you're likely siding out the Phoenixes in game 2 if Soul Cauldron is good. So game 1 we're on a "fair" Vivi, which is much weaker than a cauldron supported Vivi. However, playing Vivi turn 3 into Iteration and some spells goes super hard, and if it sticks you're probably winning that game.
Cori-Steel Cutter is actually your best wincon. Your most broken starts are turn 2 Steel Cutter into turn 3 Cantrips, revive 2-4 Phoenixes. Insane how much power this gives you board. It's also good when equipped to Vivi, and gives you a mana sink for Vivi's mana, and in fact your highest ceiling games will curve this play into turn 3 Vivi play turn 4, then Iteration alongside other spells (and incoming Phoenixes) to close the game out.
Arclight Phoenix are really good game 1 before the grave hate boards in, and also gives you a mode that can race most faster decks. The deck's namesake, but in reality, one of the most exploitable aspects of the deck. Unfortunately, the Soul Cauldrons are also exploitable with grave hate, so you don't side these out unless A) the matchup is slow, B) or they have too much grave hate for the Phoenix plan. It's nice that the sideboard is somewhat transformational, but I'm not leaning into that so much.
Cantrips
Faithless Looting is your main tool for getting Phoenixes out of your hand and into the graveyard, and also helps filter you through flood and screw. It gives you a way to spend excess Vivi mana with the flashback, and means you'll see your sideboard cards and other generally interactive cards more often.
Preordain combines really nicely with other cantrips to make your Phoenixes more consistent. Not much to say about this card, it's the least specialized card for the Izzet Phoenix deck, but the best cantrip in general.
Thought Scour and Consider are cards that help consistency, put cards in the graveyard which is useful for both the Phoenix mode and the Soul Cauldron mode. Thought Scour doubles as a way to interrupt opponents attempting to manipulate the top of their deck. Usually, tho, you want to target yourself.
Expressive Iteration being a 2-for-1 gives you the fuel to reanimate Phoenixes turn after turn, and it also plays incredibly well with Vivi. 2-for-1s are good actually. Being 2 mana makes this a lot worse than the others at reviving Phoenixes early, but it more than makes up for it by getting better as the game goes long. Notably, it is sometimes optimal to fire it off turn 2, to help fix you mana situation and set up a Phoenix or Vivi play turn 3 or 4, especially if you see multiples, so don't feel beholden to making it a 2 for 1 every time, it's more important you see land number 3.
Interactive cards
Lightning Bolt is Lightning Bolt. Aim at faces to close out games, or clear small creatures off of the battlefield so that you can attack and block better. Lightning Axe only hits creatures, and basically sucks if you see it without a Phoenix/Vivi and a Cauldron. However, 5 damage means this blows up most creatures without protection of some kind, and you really do need another way to discard Phoenixes.
Counterspell is a good turn 2 play to sorta buy yourself the time you need to either inevitably win the game with spellslinging and/or Phoenixes. Also a good top deck in a grind game. You don't entirely need all of these, and where your other counterspells are good you side these out for those.
Sideboard
4x Consign to Memory gives us a tool for colorless artifacts and Eldrazi aggro that replace the Counterspells in those matchups.
2x Meltdown also come in in artifact matchups, especially if you see a Mox, usually sided over Lightning Bolt
2x Spell Pierce can be more efficient than counterspell, or come in over removal in matchups without creatures to Lightning Axe. Has targets against most combo decks.
3x Unholy Heat allows us to bring in more removal for faster aggro decks, and because we're filling the graveyard, it's also often going to have it's full delirium power by the time bigger creatures hit the board.
Agatha's Soul Cauldron has 3 purposes. It comes in against grave hate, especially the kind targeted at creatures, where Phoenix is a liability. It comes in as grave hate in graveyard matchups, where the fact that it's a non-creature makes it synergize with Steel Cutter as well as Vivi. And it can come in in slower, grindier matchups over the Phoenixes, to make that inevitability all the more impressive. This isn't exactly a transformational sideboard, but it is using the same concepts.
According to the competitive meter, running 2 Flooded Strand makes the deck 96% competitive, running a Flooded Strand/Misty Rainforest split makes it 95% competitive (despite being less weak in the face of Pithing Needle), and daring to run Polluted Delta brings us all the way down 90% (despite, again, actually being a small optimization over 2 Flooded Strand). I'm not sure how the competitive meter actually works, or doesn't work, for that matter, but I find it obnoxious when small optimizations make meter go down.
