Blue Vibe like it's a Funeral

Commander / EDH Bracket 3 UR (Izzet)

boba2989

Instant (25)

• 1x An Offer You Can't Refuse
• 1x Arcane Denial
• 1x Archmage's Charm
• 1x Brainstorm
• 1x Brainsurge
• 1x Consider
• 1x Counterspell
• 1x Cryptic Command
• 1x Cyclonic RiftGC
• 1x Force of Negation
• 1x Graven Lore
• 1x Mission Briefing
• 1x Negate
• 1x Opt
• 1x Pact of Negation
• 1x Practical Research
• 1x Quick Study
• 1x Remand
• 1x Swan Song
• 1x Thirst for Discovery
• 1x Thirst for Knowledge
• 1x Thirst for Meaning
• 1x Thoughtflare
• 1x Tolarian Winds
• 1x Visions of Beyond

Enchantment (8)

• 1x Case of the Ransacked Lab
• 1x Dream Halls
• 1x Impact Tremors
• 1x Mindmoil
• 1x Mystic Remora
• 1x Rhystic StudyGC
• 1x Sorcerer Class
• 1x Teferi's Ageless Insight

Land (36)

• 1x Cascade Bluffs
• 1x Castle Vantress
• 1x Cephalid Coliseum
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Fiery Islet
• 1x Forgotten Cave
• 1x Frostboil Snarl
• 1x Halimar Depths
• 1x Lonely Sandbar
• 1x Mystic Sanctuary
• 1x Reliquary Tower
• 1x Riverpyre Verge
• 1x Shivan Reef
• 16x Snow-Covered Island
• 1x Spirebluff Canal
• 1x Steam Vents
• 1x Stormcarved Coast
• 1x Sulfur Falls
• 1x Temple of Epiphany
• 1x Thundering Falls
• 1x Training Center

Sorcery (13)

• 1x Blasphemous Act
• 1x Compulsive Research
• 1x Echo of Eons
• 1x Faithless Looting
• 1x Ill-Timed Explosion
• 1x Ponder
• 1x Preordain
• 1x Reforge the Soul
• 1x Serum Visions
• 1x Treasure Cruise
• 1x Wheel of Fate
• 1x Windfall
• 1x Winds of Change

Commander (1)

Artifact (14)

• 1x Arcane Signet
• 1x Ashnod's Altar
• 1x Bident of Thassa
• 1x Coat of Arms
• 1x Commander's Sphere
• 1x Izzet Signet
• 1x Mana VaultGC
• 1x Midnight Clock *f-pre*
• 1x Mind Stone
• 1x Skullclamp
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Talisman of Creativity
• 1x Teferi's Puzzle Box
• 1x Vedalken Shackles

Creature (3)

• 1x Purphoros, God of the Forge
• 1x Sage of the Falls
• 1x Snapcaster Mage

---

Deck concept: the deck is a fairly linear Draw-Go control list, helmed by The Locust God as its main win condition. Instant-speed draw spells and Counterspell effects make for the bulk of the list, backed up by Wheel effects to dig for key cards and create a constant flow of Insect tokens.

Restrictions: the deck runs no tutors, instead opting to dig for key cards by brute force drawing. Initial draft versions of the list were also completely devoid of creatures – saved for The Locust God, of course – though I felt Sage of the Falls, Purphoros, God of the Forge and Snapcaster Mage were just too good to pass up.

Strengths and weaknesses: the deck is extremely Commander-centric, so it fails to build any sort of pressure as long as The Locust God is not on the battlefield. This becomes even more critical considering and Izzet can have a hard time ramping into a six Mana value Commander. On the other hand, the damage output that can be produced once the The Locust God is active can be quite considerable, especially when multiple draw effects can be chained together.

How to play the deck: ideally, the first few turns of the game should be spent ramping and stifling your opponents’ development via various Counterspell effects. Izzet is very lacking in good spot removal, compared to other colours, so knowing which spells to counter is the most challenging – and, often, most entertaining – part of the game. The Locust God should then enter the battlefield as soon as possible, provided you have at least one or two ways to protect it from the inevitable removal coming its way. While its last ability allows you to usually dodge any Commander tax, six Mana is not really an affordable price to repeatedly pay. Once The Locust God is safely out on the battlefield, unleashing any card draw effect becomes the only real battleplan, creating tokens to close out the game thanks to Purphoros, God of the Forge, Impact Tremors or Coat of Arms.

Key cards and notable interactions: The Locust God and Sage of the Falls immediately allow you to draw the entire deck, creating a number of Insect tokens equal to the cards drawn. Notably, Sage of the Falls’ loot ability can be stopped at any time, so there is no real risk of self-decking. Skullclamp and Ashnod's Altar can similarly draw the entire deck, creating tokens equal to the number of cards drawn, while simultaneously generating an amount of colourless Mana equal to the number of tokens sacrificed in the process – as only one of the two Mana generated by Ashnod's Altar is spent to equip Skullclamp to an unfortunate token. Dream Halls is probably the most high-risk, high-reward card in the list: not having to pay Mana for Wheels and Counterspell effects can quickly allow you to churn through most of the deck, finding key cards and creating a threatening volume of tokens. On the other hand, Dream Halls’ effect applies to your opponents as well, so it might open up lines of play they didn’t have access to. Vedalken Shackles is admittedly a pet card of mine. While not necessarily a key part of the core deck’s strategy, it’s a good way to get rid of problematic creatures or snag your opponent’s random Blood Artist or Viscera Seer that works wonders alongside all the tokens The Locust God is creating.

Evolving the deck: while it’s very hard to turn a deck like this into a viable cEDH list, one could easily increase its power level by running a critical number of tutor and free Counterspell effects. Adding a Thassa's OracleGC shell or an Underworld BreachGC and Brain Freeze component would also be fairly easy, but this would probably lead to an even more repetitive gameplay, making little use of The Locust God as your Commander. At that point, you might as well go for a different Izzet Commander. Some lists might want to introduce backup token generators, to make sure The Locust God is not the only win condition within the deck. I have never found cards like Talrand, Sky Summoner or its derivatives to be particularly interesting, but you could make a case for cheap cards like Third Path Iconoclast. Powering the deck down to play at more casual tables can be easily achieved by progressively reducing the number of Counterspell and ramp effects and removing key cards like Sage of the Falls and Dream Halls.

Origin of the deck's name: a verse from "Silhouette" by Periphery.

Last updated: March 4th, 2025.

Date added	7 years
Last updated	1 week
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	5 - 0 Mythic Rares 39 - 0 Rares 19 - 0 Uncommons 21 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	2.87
Tokens	Bird 2/2 U, Insect 1/1 UR, Treasure