How good has apostle's blessing been? I'm guessing it plays a similar role to stubborn denial in death's shadow, with the advantage of working on the offensive to push prowess damage but the disadvantage of not working as a control spell. Through a couple rounds of play testing, it seems like light up the stage is pretty insane with your curve and it kinda feels like going up to 4 would be good. Maybe throwing in another gut shot or lava dart to reliably turn it on. Also noticed you're not playing watery grave. Would it be worth subbing the basic mountain for a grave, or replacing one steam vents? Yes, it's another non-red source, but finding double blue / single black for hands with stormwing / thoughtseize seems important. Have to admit, I watch modern but don't play, so these suggestions are not coming from experience or meta-knowledge.

biobrush

Don't you worry about not having experience, your suggestions are very valid!

Apostle's Blessing is great for:

Giving your creatures an extra prowess trigger,

Making them generally unblockable early in the game where the damage means most,

Hurting you directly with Phyrexian mana to empower Scourge of the Skyclaves,

Protecting your creatures from harmful spells, similar to how you'd stub a push.

It's dead in hand most of the time, but good for squeezing out extra damage. You find yourself holding up 1 mana when you can to protect your most important thing, be that a Scourge, Slifer the Sky Dragon or even a simple Swiftspear. I like to keep at least 2 in for those choice moments when the opponent is highly interactive, and it's an easy board swap when they're not.

Light Up the Stage was an addition from the Izzet Prowess list. I find it's good for refilling my hand after I've made a devastating blow on T3. Running out of gas is a killer and this is good for picking up the pace. I have no idea what I'd take out for a fourth, it was already hard to squeeze in the three I have!

I feel that both Lava Dart and Gut Shot are in good places right now. I could swap out one of each for the other or visa versa, but I see them quite a lot when I need them.

Gut Shot is also great for enabling Stormwing Entity T2, so I'd be moving out a Dart for a Shot in most cases.

I did actually try the 1-of Watery Grave and found that the hands I was drawing with it in were stymied by it not producing red.

In the end, the chances that I'd draw either just my Scourges, Stormwings and Thoughtseizes without any red cards are few and far between. My large amount of fetches over shocks do more than enough to fix my mana and destroy my life total.

Also, on the topic of basics, you find a lot of players using both Path to Exile and Field of Ruin. If I played one less basic, the deck would be far less useful against these cards, turning Paths into 1 mana exiles with no upside for us, and Fields into Wastelands.

Thank you for your interest in the deck!

You might want to put more basics in your main in regards to path to exile, field to ruin, etc. You'll have a hard time/impossible time hardcasting stormwing entity.

Hey, I have just a quick question. Why do people tend to run Kozilek's Returnover Pyroclasm? Thanks!

edms90

I feel I have a good balance here, if I take out shocks and fetches I lose the potential for extra self damage that'll pump Scourge.

If you're having to hardcast Stormwing, you've already lost. This deck wants to get in fast and Turn 5 with a land drop every turn just isn't fast enough to keep up. Most of the interaction has been stripped so if they're not gone fast, you will be.

I would put in 1 Island or 1 extra Mountain though, if I made such a decision. It's hard to have that Swamp in the opener.

Jager43

Kozilek's Return is an instant while Pyroclasm is a sorcery.