Niv-Mizzet, Premium Parun

Commander / EDH Casual Combo Infinite Combo Multiplayer UR (Izzet)

LuckDragon

Answers (18)

• 1x Abrade
• 1x Blasphemous Act
• 1x Commit / Memory
• 1x Cyclonic Rift
• 1x Dack Fayden
• 1x Fierce Guardianship
• 1x Force of Negation
• 1x Force of Will
• 1x Izzet Charm
• 1x Mental Misstep
• 1x Narset's Reversal
• 1x Pact of Negation
• 1x Red Elemental Blast
• 1x Sigil of Sleep
• 1x Stubborn Denial
• 1x Swan Song
• 1x Unsubstantiate
• 1x Vandalblast

Cheating (1)

• 1x Flood of Tears

Combo (6)

• 1x Curiosity
• 1x Dramatic Reversal
• 1x Firebrand Archer
• 1x Isochron Scepter
• 1x Ophidian Eye
• 1x Tandem Lookout

Countermagic (12)

• 1x Commit / Memory
• 1x Fierce Guardianship
• 1x Flusterstorm
• 1x Force of Negation
• 1x Izzet Charm
• 1x Mental Misstep
• 1x Narset's Reversal
• 1x Pact of Negation
• 1x Red Elemental Blast
• 1x Stubborn Denial
• 1x Swan Song
• 1x Unsubstantiate

Discard (5)

• 1x Dack Fayden
• 1x Faithless Looting
• 1x Ghostly Pilferer
• 1x Izzet Charm
• 1x Wheel of Fortune

Disruption (2)

• 1x Narset, Parter of Veils
• 1x Rhystic Study

Draw (18)

• 1x Brainstorm
• 1x Commit / Memory
• 1x Curiosity
• 1x Dack Fayden
• 1x Faithless Looting
• 1x Ghostly Pilferer
• 1x Impulse
• 1x Izzet Charm
• 1x Kozilek, Butcher of Truth
• 1x Narset, Parter of Veils
• 1x Ophidian Eye
• 1x Ponder
• 1x Preordain
• 1x Rhystic Study
• 1x Tandem Lookout
• 1x Timetwister
• 1x Wheel of Fortune
• 1x Winds of Change

Graveyard (2)

• 1x Commit / Memory
• 1x Faithless Looting

Mana (47)

• 1x Ancient Tomb
• 1x Arcane Signet
• 1x Arid Mesa
• 1x Bloodstained Mire
• 1x Cascade Bluffs
• 1x Chrome Mox
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Desperate Ritual
• 1x Dockside Extortionist
• 1x Fiery Islet
• 1x Flooded Strand
• 1x Gilded Lotus
• 12x Island
• 1x Izzet Signet
• 1x Mana Crypt
• 1x Mana Drain
• 1x Mana Vault
• 1x Misty Rainforest
• 4x Mountain
• 1x Mox Diamond
• 1x Mox Opal
• 1x Mystic Sanctuary
• 1x Polluted Delta
• 1x Prismatic Vista
• 1x Pyretic Ritual
• 1x Scalding Tarn
• 1x Shivan Reef
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Steam Vents
• 1x Sulfur Falls
• 1x Talisman of Creativity
• 1x Volcanic Island SL
• 1x Wooded Foothills

Multiplier (2)

• 1x Alhammarret's Archive
• 1x Teferi's Ageless Insight

Other (4)

• 1x Deflecting Swat
• 1x Imperial Recruiter
• 1x Lightning Greaves
• 1x Muddle the Mixture

Recursion (4)

• 1x Commit / Memory
• 1x Kozilek, Butcher of Truth
• 1x Mystic Sanctuary
• 1x Timetwister

Removal (10)

• 1x Abrade
• 1x Commit / Memory
• 1x Cyclonic Rift
• 1x Dack Fayden
• 1x Flood of Tears
• 1x Izzet Charm
• 1x Red Elemental Blast
• 1x Sigil of Sleep
• 1x Unsubstantiate
• 1x Vandalblast

Synergy (2)

• 1x Basilisk Collar
• 1x Sigil of Sleep

Tutor (4)

• 1x Fabricate
• 1x Merchant Scroll
• 1x Mystical Tutor
• 1x Whir of Invention

Wheel (4)

• 1x Commit / Memory
• 1x Timetwister
• 1x Wheel of Fortune
• 1x Winds of Change

Win Condition (3)

• 1x Inner Fire
• 1x Omniscience
• 1x Reiterate

Commander (1)

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Maybeboard

Answers (11)

• 1x Arcane Denial
• 1x Archmage's Charm
• 1x Counterspell
• 1x Cryptic Command
• 1x Disallow
• 1x Into the Roil
• 1x Lightning Bolt
• 1x Mindbreak Trap
• 1x Reality Shift
• 1x Snap
• 1x Tale's End

Cheating (1)

• 1x Show and Tell

Combo (4)

• 1x Brallin, Skyshark Rider  ^Flip
• 1x Electrostatic Field
• 1x Glint-Horn Buccaneer
• 1x Guttersnipe

Countermagic (7)

• 1x Arcane Denial
• 1x Archmage's Charm
• 1x Counterspell
• 1x Cryptic Command
• 1x Disallow
• 1x Mindbreak Trap
• 1x Tale's End

Discard (4)

• 1x Frantic Search
• 1x Glint-Horn Buccaneer
• 1x Teferi, Master of Time
• 1x Thrill of Possibility

Disruption (6)

• 1x Cursed Totem
• 1x Invoke Prejudice
• 1x Stranglehold
• 1x Swiftfoot Boots
• 1x Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir
• 1x Verity Circle

Draw (16)

• 1x Archmage's Charm
• 1x Consecrated Sphinx
• 1x Dig Through Time
• 1x Echo of Eons
• 1x Fact or Fiction
• 1x Frantic Search
• 1x Gadwick, the Wizened
• 1x Gitaxian Probe
• 1x Glint-Horn Buccaneer
• 1x Jace, the Mind Sculptor
• 1x Mindmoil
• 1x Mystic Remora
• 1x Teferi, Master of Time
• 1x Thrill of Possibility
• 1x Time Spiral
• 1x Verity Circle

Graveyard (1)

• 1x Echo of Eons

Mana (12)

• 1x Baral, Chief of Compliance
• 1x Candelabra of Tawnos
• 1x Cavern of Souls
• 1x Cephalid Coliseum
• 1x Coalition Relic
• 1x Grim Monolith
• 1x High Tide
• 1x Reflecting Pool
• 1x Reliquary Tower
• 1x Spirebluff Canal
• 1x Strip Mine
• 1x Wasteland

Multiplier (1)

• 1x Consecrated Sphinx

Other (70)

• 1x Archmage Ascension
• 1x As Foretold
• 1x Blue Elemental Blast
• 1x Body of Knowledge
• 1x Boseiju, Who Shelters All
• 1x Capsize
• 1x Comet Storm *f-pre*
• 1x Confounding Conundrum
• 1x Counterflux
• 1x Delay
• 1x Dispel
• 1x Dragonlord's Prerogative
• 1x Ever-Watching Threshold
• 1x Expropriate
• 1x Forbid
• 1x Grafdigger's Cage
• 1x Hullbreacher
• 1x Ivory Tower
• 1x Jace's Sanctum
• 1x Jeska's Will
• 1x Jeweled Lotus
• 1x Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur
• 1x Laboratory Maniac
• 1x Lazotep Plating
• 1x Mana Leak
• 1x Mikokoro, Center of the Sea
• 1x Mind's Desire
• 1x Mizzix of the Izmagnus
• 1x Molten Psyche
• 1x Monastery Siege
• 1x Mystic Confluence
• 1x Mystic Reflection
• 1x Nezahal, Primal Tide
• 1x Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind
• 1x Prismatic Lens
• 1x Recurring Insight
• 1x Riverglide Pathway  ^Flip
• 1x Sapphire Medallion
• 1x Scour from Existence
• 1x Sea Gate Restoration  ^Flip
• 1x Serum Visions
• 1x Shenanigans
• 1x Silundi Vision  ^Flip
• 1x Smoke
• 1x Sphinx of the Final Word *f-pre*
• 1x Sphinx of the Second Sun
• 1x Sublime Epiphany
• 1x Summary Dismissal
• 1x Sunbird's Invocation
• 1x Supplant Form
• 1x Supreme Will
• 1x Sword of Truth and Justice
• 1x Tamiyo, the Moon Sage
• 1x Throes of Chaos
• 1x Torpor Orb
• 1x Torrential Gearhulk
• 1x Training Center
• 1x Transmute Artifact
• 1x Treasure Cruise
• 1x Treasure Nabber
• 1x Tribute Mage
• 1x Turnabout
• 1x Underworld Breach
• 1x Urza, Lord High Artificer
• 1x Valakut Awakening  ^Flip
• 1x Visions of Beyond
• 1x Void Shatter
• 1x Willbreaker
• 1x Windrider Wizard
• 1x Wipe Away

Recursion (4)

• 1x Echo of Eons
• 1x Mission Briefing
• 1x Snapcaster Mage
• 1x Time Spiral

Removal (10)

• 1x Archmage's Charm
• 1x Cryptic Command
• 1x Into the Roil
• 1x Jace, the Mind Sculptor
• 1x Lightning Bolt
• 1x Niblis of Frost
• 1x Reality Shift
• 1x Snap
• 1x Teferi, Master of Time
• 1x Verity Circle

Synergy (4)

• 1x Gadwick, the Wizened
• 1x Mindmoil
• 1x Niblis of Frost
• 1x Verity Circle

Turns (4)

• 1x Nexus of Fate
• 1x Teferi, Master of Time
• 1x Temporal Manipulation
• 1x Time Warp

Tutor (3)

• 1x Intuition
• 1x Spellseeker
• 1x Trinket Mage

Value (1)

• 1x Leyline of Anticipation

Wheel (4)

• 1x Echo of Eons
• 1x Reforge the Soul
• 1x Time Spiral
• 1x Whirlpool Warrior

Win Condition (5)

• 1x Jace's Archivist
• 1x Mind Over Matter
• 1x Oona's Grace
• 1x Paradox Engine
• 1x Sensei's Divining Top

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Welcome!

This is my pride and joy, the primary EDH deck I've been playing and tuning and upgrading since mid-2011. It spent most of its life with Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind at the helm, and as it got foiled, it slowly became known as Niv-Mizzet, the Foilmind, and Niv-Mizzle the Fizzmizzle fo' Shizzle m' Nizzle. Niv-Mizzet, Parun finally gives me a reason to make major changes and swap in a bunch of the cards I've been waffling about for years.

Also: Yes, this deck is the actual paper deck I used to tote with me to EDH nights at the LGS. No, I'm not insa-- Wait. Well, maybe I can't really say that. In order to be more friendly (and to save myself the stress of resleeving) I've since taken out all the cards worth $100 or more. So that means even Preordain is out, since it's foil.

Deck Summary

Deck Summary

New-Mizzet enables a few combos that were possible with the OG, but were sub-optimal, requiring additional set up. For example, Paradox Engine can allow for untapping Niv-1 several times, but he has to be able to tap, so he needs haste or to have been on the field already. This isn't the case with the Parun. Thus, we can now include both Paradox Engine and the Dramatic Reversal + Isochron Scepter combo. Other combos are now actually more effective and efficient than before, specifically Inner Fire + Reiterate .

The overall strategy is to assemble some combo (Niv-Mizzet, Parun + Ophidian Eye ) or overwhelming synergy (Isochron Scepter + Narset's Reversal ). From there the actual "winning" thing is academic. The version I present here is oriented more toward combo than anything. I sometimes modify it to be more control-oriented; that version will get its own page.

Firemind vs Dracogenius vs Parun

His Beautiful Incarnations

Dragons are the multiverse's perfection coalesced in corporeal reality. How can one possibly choose from among his various cardboard representations to helm a deck? How does one distinguish and compare infinities?

Niv3 combos with more things than his predecessors while also generating incremental card advantage during the control portion of the gameplan. Niv1 doesn't win with infinite mana; Niv2 doesn't combo with Curiosity . Niv1 was so great for the same reason that landfall is awesome: you are rewarded for doing something you already wanted to do anyway; i.e., draw cards. Niv3 doubles that up by rewarding you for casting spells in addition to the draw->damage conversion.

Card Choices

Key Cards

Key Cards, Combos, and Synergies

• Curiosity + Niv-Mizzet, Parun or Ophidian Eye . Now with Niv3 it's actually a viable option to put one of these two auras on and pass the turn. Most removal and ways to find removal trigger the draw, and thus trigger your victory.
• Inner Fire + Reiterate . This combo is even better now, too, as it draws your deck and can go off with fewer cards in hand. You only need three other cards in hand with Niv on the field, and it draws your deck while you go off.
• Dramatic Reversal + Isochron Scepter . Infinite mana lets us cast Niv, draw the deck, and win however we want. (Usually Laboratory Maniac ).

• Basilisk Collar . A blinged out Niv acts as a pretty decent deterrent in casual to semi-cutthroat games. People don't want to cast instants or sorceries for fear of losing their best dudes.

• Mindmoil . A card that is criminally underrated, and one that is, yet again, even better with Niv's newest version. When you're mindmoiling, you're casting the best spell in your hand, and you're usually doing so at a rapidfire pace. The problem with that is simply that your hand usually goes up in smoke before your mana runs out. Not so with the Parun out. The sheer number of cards this little enchantment lets you see is totally bonkers, and every time I try to cut it, I miss what it brings. The fact that it lets Niv deal some massive burst damage is kinda just icing.

• Consecrated Sphinx + Winds of Change or any wheel. In a 4-player game, a draw-7 with the sphinx out means you draw 49 cards. That's ... Well, that's usually enough to win on the spot.
• Commit / Memory , Wheel of Fortune , Time Spiral , and Timetwister . This deck poops out spells like it took ALL the Ex-Lax. These both efficiently refill your hand and act as combo pieces.
• Alhammarret's Archive . With this out, every instant or sorcery grows your hand. Draw-7s become draw-14s. The sphinx draws four per trigger. Mindmoil doubles your hand size, so it's important to get Laboratory Maniac out quickly. It doesn't take long at all to mill yourself out this way, even with Niv sitting in the command zone.
• Candelabra of Tawnos . This subtle device is here primarily for its ability to filter colorless mana into colored so we can cast Niv on time. I'm still trying to decide whether adding the High Tide package is worth it.

The Sideboard

Sideboard Cards

These are things that will come in for super high-power metas:

• Grafdigger's Cage . The only thing this shuts off is Snapcaster Mage .
• Cursed Totem . This no longer interferes with Niv.
• Torpor Orb . Shuts down only three, noncritical cards in the deck. All of them can be swapped out to make room for cards on this list.
• Mystic Remora . Most of the dangerous things are non-creatures.

Excluded Cards

Notable Exclusions

Keep in mind that this deck is a WIP changeover from Firemind, so I'm still in the process of testing individual cards' value in this new context. The below cards are ones that I'm pretty sure won't be maindecked.

• Aetherflux Reservoir . Doesn't do much until you hit 50 life, and we already have a way to turn a large storm count into game-winning damage. Basilisk Collar actually does better IME at the incidental lifegain thing, and it has the advantage of helping to control the board if you're forced into a more controlly mode.
• Tandem Lookout . This card is bad. Yes, it combos with Niv, but it's just dead weight most of the time. At least the auras can be put on something like an opponent's Nekusar, the Mindrazer or Zo-Zu the Punisher in Niv's absence.
• Turnabout . Combos with Reiterate , but it's just too awkward having to get 7+ mana in just rocks or lands. Oftentimes you're trying to win without that nice clump.
• Boseiju, Who Shelters All . Enters tapped.
• Pyretic Ritual . Only good with Niv out, and even then, not great. That said, if I didn't have Candelabra of Tawnos , I'd think about running these cheap rituals.
• Other wheels and wheel-likes. Aside from Reforge the Soul , Windfall , and Whirlpool Warrior , none of them is at all worth running. Why not these? In my experience, four wheels is sufficient to keep the hand full. Adding more wheels would be focusing on dealing Niv-damage, whereas this deck is about the combo kill.
• Capsize . Overcosted for its effect, unless we have infinite mana and bounce the board. However, if we have infinite mana, we should just be winning. If I'm going to spend three on a bounce, it had better be a good one, like Wipe Away .
• Gitaxian Probe , Mental Misstep , Red Elemental Blast , Pyroblast , Chain of Vapor , etc. These all go in when playing in cEDH metas. When multiple people are threatening to go off on turn 3, these are great. In less cutthroat, all-in situations, these feel underwhelming.
• Long-Term Plans . Really good, but a bit slow if you don't have the Brainstorm in hand.
• Chaos Warp . Wipe Away answers any permanent and doesn't have the drawback of turning that Doubling Season into a Omniscience . Which happened to me once. For real, though.
• X draw spells (e.g., Blue Sun's Zenith ). Inefficient. Win cons with infinite mana, but again, if we have infinite mana, we have Niv.
• Sensei's Divining Top . As Mind Over Matter is no longer a featured card, the top gets the axe, too. It used to be an infinite mana outlet (when combined with MoM and A's Archive), but now it's just dead weight.

Potential Cards

Card Experiments

These are cards I'm currently testing or looking to test.

• Stranglehold . Playing my Teferi deck has taught me the value of permanent-based disruption. It's hard to see when this one is doing work, so it's hard to evaluate.
• Invoke Prejudice . So far the mana cost hasn't been prohibitive, and the deck's low creature count makes this tempting.
• Forbid . I haven't tried it yet. Seems potentially strong, but my metagames don't currently require a lot of countermagic.
• Disallow . So versatile, but three mana's rough for a simple counterspell. With Baral, it's great.
• Supreme Will . I love this card and expect it to do great things.
• Frantic Search & Snap & High Tide . I suspect that my Island count is too low for High Tide to be reliable, and without that, the other two become less tempting. A 0-mana draw-3/discard-2 seems really strong, though, and I've seen Snap used to great effect in an Oloro control shell.
• Ivory Tower . I'm curious how much lifegain this would represent. Would it be enough to offset the economic cost of playing it rather than what it replaces?
• Jace's Archivist . Adding the Archivist would give another Paradox combo piece, but it would bring us back into the realm of being concerned about haste. Having all your combo pieces on board but unusable feels really bad. It would also make me want to include Mind Over Matter .
• Mind Over Matter . This card wins games. It won games with Firemind at the helm without even having Niv or Archivist on board, so it's very tempting to throw it back in here. It's really centralizing in deckbuilding, though, as you want to include as many of its combos as you can.
• Jace's Sanctum . The cost reduction may be small, but if it lets you cast an additional spell with Niv out, then that's an extra card. If it lets you go off with Inner Fire & Reiterate two turns early? That's potentially huge. With this plus Baral the combo can start with just six mana.
• Mizzix of the Izmagnus . Super powerful, and you really don't need that many counters to just go off. The primary problem is the fact that she doesn't initially reduce any costs. Interested to see whether it ends up just being win-more.
• Jace, the Mind Sculptor . I always ran this in Firemind.
• Mind's Desire . Win more?
• Mindbreak Trap & Counterflux . Seems kind of a meta-call. Both handle the stormy nonsense. But if people are doing that, wouldn't it be better to just run Flusterstorm ?
• Recurring Insight . Perennial all-star in Firemind. Getting a big hand in Niv3 seems so far less important.
• Mystic Confluence . Such a strong card, I always want to include it.
• Smoke . Winter Orb for creatures seems like it might be an effective form of disruption, depending on the meta. I've seen the card do work in other decks, so why not this one, where no creatures need to tap?
• Sunbird's Invocation . It kept whiffing when I tried it in Firemind, but I ran more dead cards (e.g., countermagic) in that deck than this one.
• Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir . I ran this for the first couple years I played Firemind, because my meta was dominated by permission.
• Torrential Gearhulk . I somehow doubt the otherwise vanilla body is worth the fatcaster's cost, either in mana or card slot.
• Transmute Artifact . I run this in Teferi, but I'm not sure whether it's worth including here. The artifact suite in Tef is just sooo much broader.
• Treasure Cruise . Sorcery-speed draw feels bad if it isn't a wheel or a cantrip. I mean, I've played it in Firemind, but I'm still not sold.
• Treasure Nabber . This looks stronk.
• Willbreaker . I mean ... Janky, yes; wacky fun, also yes. The question is really whether it's effective or not.

Variations I've Tried Show

Candelabra's key for filtering mana, but that's not all it does. It's also great with High Tide , and another of the best synergy pieces ( Time Spiral ) is already included. So we could easily add some more synergy and try to make a High Tide deck:

• Unwind
• Rewind
• Snap
• Frantic Search

There's also the Punisher variant, where we punish other people for playing Magic. This isn't an effective route, but it's been fun in my experience. This includes things that benefit us and things that hurt or hinder them. The amusing thing about some of these is that they work as alternative targets for Curiosity or Ophidian Eye .

• Nezahal, Primal Tide
• Mystic Remora
• Grafdigger's Cage
• Cursed Totem
• Torpor Orb
• Stranglehold
• Ever-Watching Threshold
• Geth's Grimoire
• Harsh Mentor
• Invoke Prejudice
• Isolation Cell
• Kraum, Ludevic's Opus
• Mind's Dilation
• Psychic Surgery
• Scab-Clan Berserker
• Treasure Nabber
• War's Toll
• AEther Barrier

Voltron is also an option. All it takes is adding Trophy Mage and Diviner's Wand . The wand auto-equips to Niv, snappy, and any tutor mage, thereafter acting as a mana sink -- infinite or otherwise. I've found that it is too difficult to take a turn off casting and equipping the various swords to make them viable.

Thanks

Thanks for checking out my deck. I'm always receptive to suggestions and whatnot, so post a comment if you have one. In particular I'm looking for a Trinket Mage target for when I already have Omniscience on the field. The top used to fill that role, but that's gone, so ...

Date added	5 years
Last updated	3 years
Key combos	Dramatic Reversal + Isochron Scepter Inner Fire + Reiterate Curiosity + Niv-Mizzet, Parun Niv-Mizzet, Parun + Ophidian Eye Consecrated Sphinx + Winds of Change Isochron Scepter + Narset's Reversal
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	17 - 0 Mythic Rares 33 - 0 Rares 18 - 0 Uncommons 16 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	2.49
Tokens	Bird 2/2 U, Emblem Dack Fayden, Treasure
Folders	IRL Decks, Niv Ideas