Drawing Cards and Burning Hard
Hello planeswalkers! It's been a while since I last posted (nearly two months, I believe), but now I'm back from my otherworldy journey with some +1s to share with you.
As a fan of the original Ravnica block and the entire Ravnica backstory, I was so happy when Wizards released Return to Ravnica. I was equally happy that they released the Izzet vs. Golgari Duel Decks, and I had to get one to see if they actually could make a decent pre-constructed deck.
After buying the Izzet deck and playing around with it, my suspicions that this was not a great 60 card deck proved to be true, unless I played against the Golgari pre-constructed deck (not the best either). Taking a look through my Izzet deck, I realized that the deck was practically a singleton deck to begin with and that Niv-Mizzet would certainly make an awesome general....
So I ran with it! New EDH deck with The Firemind as the General? What's not to love? I took out the few duplicate cards from the deck, took out some more impractical cards, and built this on the fly:
Instant (20)
Artifact (4)
Creature (16)
Enchantment (5)
Sorcery (15)
Land (39)
Island (x17)
Mountain (x18)
The ultimate win con with this deck is draw and burn your opponents to death, with things like Act of Treason to mess around with their creatures and Rolling Temblor as a board wipe. The strategy relies heavily on Niv-Mizzet, however, since having him out makes the burn a lot quicker. That being said, if you can get the general out and keep him on the field, the game becomes insanely fast-paced.
Cards like Rage Nimbus and Chemister's Trick help to control the opponent's board by forcing attacks, which can remove important creatures. Izzet Staticaster seems like an odd choice for EDH, but it's a highly effective saproling/elf/spirit/[insert token creature] killer. Magefire Wings and Pursuit of Filght help give some of my earthbound creatures more offesinve worth by making them harder to block and giving a power boost.
Cards like Rage Nimbus and Chemister's Trick help to control the opponent's board by forcing attacks, which can remove important creatures. Izzet Staticaster seems like an odd choice for EDH, but it's a highly effective saproling/elf/spirit/[insert token creature] killer. Magefire Wings and Pursuit of Filght help give some of my earthbound creatures more offesinve worth by making them harder to block and giving a power boost.
However, the real magic comes in the draw power of this deck. Obvious draw spells include Invoke the Firemind (which is twice as good if Niv-Mizzet is on the field) and Brainstorm. Some of the most surprising draw cards were actually red commons. I was pleasantly surprised to see how well Wild Guess and Mad Prophet worked to keep my hand in check, and in most games, they proved to be invaluable. Faithless Looting and Desperate Ravings were also great because of the flashback, which allowed for a second chance to replenish my hand.
Charmbreaker Devils, although 5R to cast, is an unbelievable card, showing itself to be useful both as an offensive creature and as a hand replenisher. Being able to return an instant or sorcery at the beginning of my upkeep won me a few games. Also, Djinn Illuminatus made cards like Lightning Bolt, Reverberate, and Act of Treason stupidly awesome (yeah, there was a game where that happened).
Some of the cards in the Duel Decks original decklist I kept in as placeholders until I found better cards, which I was more than happy to replace. Ogre Savant is way too expensive to be practical, especially for only a 3/2; and since he doesn't have flash, well, that just makes his bounce target creature ability nearly useless. There was also a big problem with Vacuumelt, which returns target creature for 2U and replicates for 2U. My ruling: too expensive, not playable (it's a sorcery), and the replicate is just not feasible compared to Cyclonic Rift. Seeing such unplayable cards sparked the first changes I made to the original draft.
Replaced Vacuumelt with Cyclonic Rift, then replaced Ogre Savant with AEther Adept (doesn't have flash, but it's only 1UU, so I automatically like it better than the Ogre).
During play, I also saw the distinct lack of board and spell control. As a blue player, I felt lost; I had focused too much on burn while neglecting my roots. I only had five counterspells in the deck, two of which were only counter-target-creature spells, one of which that costs 4UU, and two which can be overridden if the spell's controller pays 1 or 2, respectively. I added Counterflux, which is an awesome RUU counterspell that can't be countered AND has an overload cost for just 1 more mana! Also added was Double Negative, Dream Fracture, and Spell Crumple. I ended up replacing Bone to Ash with Exclude (it costs U less), and replaced Force Spike with Disrupt, which lets you draw a card.
To make room for the four aforementioned cards, I had to take out Dynacharge (I wasn't playing enough creatures for this to be beneficial), Pyromatics (whose replicate is just too expensive to be practical), Burning Inquiry (which ended up helping my opponent rather than helping me), and Magefire Wings (once again, this wasn't appearing at times when it'd be beneficial).
Another change that made a huge improvement was the addition of Quicken, a one-drop instant which lets you cast your next sorcery as an instant and gives you a card. I replaced Switcheroo with this, despite my desire to be goofy and give a 3/3 flying weird to someone (Thunderheads is a surprisingly lifesaving card). The change did help fix the mana curve, however, so I wasn't too sore with the switcheroo (bad magic puns, anyone?).
Mana was another thing that needed fixing. I took out two Islands and three Mountains and put in an Izzet Guildgate, a Shivan Reef, a Gixis Panorama, an Evolving Wilds, and a Terramorphic Expanse.
After some more playtesting, I saw that even though Racecourse Fury proved somewhat useful for using Niv-Mizzet right after casting him, it wasn't doing much otherwise. I opted instead for Curiosity, which if placed on Niv-Mizzet creates an infinite draw/damage loop. Can't believe it took me eight games to realize that.
Think Twice certainly helped out on multiple occasions, but Merfolk Looter is by far a more effective card-draw engine, since Think Twice can only be used, as the card says, twice (assuming you don't have a way to fish it out of the graveyard).
The new design looks something like this:
General: Niv-Mizzet, The Firemind
Instant (23)
Charmbreaker Devils, although 5R to cast, is an unbelievable card, showing itself to be useful both as an offensive creature and as a hand replenisher. Being able to return an instant or sorcery at the beginning of my upkeep won me a few games. Also, Djinn Illuminatus made cards like Lightning Bolt, Reverberate, and Act of Treason stupidly awesome (yeah, there was a game where that happened).
Some of the cards in the Duel Decks original decklist I kept in as placeholders until I found better cards, which I was more than happy to replace. Ogre Savant is way too expensive to be practical, especially for only a 3/2; and since he doesn't have flash, well, that just makes his bounce target creature ability nearly useless. There was also a big problem with Vacuumelt, which returns target creature for 2U and replicates for 2U. My ruling: too expensive, not playable (it's a sorcery), and the replicate is just not feasible compared to Cyclonic Rift. Seeing such unplayable cards sparked the first changes I made to the original draft.
Replaced Vacuumelt with Cyclonic Rift, then replaced Ogre Savant with AEther Adept (doesn't have flash, but it's only 1UU, so I automatically like it better than the Ogre).
During play, I also saw the distinct lack of board and spell control. As a blue player, I felt lost; I had focused too much on burn while neglecting my roots. I only had five counterspells in the deck, two of which were only counter-target-creature spells, one of which that costs 4UU, and two which can be overridden if the spell's controller pays 1 or 2, respectively. I added Counterflux, which is an awesome RUU counterspell that can't be countered AND has an overload cost for just 1 more mana! Also added was Double Negative, Dream Fracture, and Spell Crumple. I ended up replacing Bone to Ash with Exclude (it costs U less), and replaced Force Spike with Disrupt, which lets you draw a card.
To make room for the four aforementioned cards, I had to take out Dynacharge (I wasn't playing enough creatures for this to be beneficial), Pyromatics (whose replicate is just too expensive to be practical), Burning Inquiry (which ended up helping my opponent rather than helping me), and Magefire Wings (once again, this wasn't appearing at times when it'd be beneficial).
Another change that made a huge improvement was the addition of Quicken, a one-drop instant which lets you cast your next sorcery as an instant and gives you a card. I replaced Switcheroo with this, despite my desire to be goofy and give a 3/3 flying weird to someone (Thunderheads is a surprisingly lifesaving card). The change did help fix the mana curve, however, so I wasn't too sore with the switcheroo (bad magic puns, anyone?).
Mana was another thing that needed fixing. I took out two Islands and three Mountains and put in an Izzet Guildgate, a Shivan Reef, a Gixis Panorama, an Evolving Wilds, and a Terramorphic Expanse.
After some more playtesting, I saw that even though Racecourse Fury proved somewhat useful for using Niv-Mizzet right after casting him, it wasn't doing much otherwise. I opted instead for Curiosity, which if placed on Niv-Mizzet creates an infinite draw/damage loop. Can't believe it took me eight games to realize that.
Think Twice certainly helped out on multiple occasions, but Merfolk Looter is by far a more effective card-draw engine, since Think Twice can only be used, as the card says, twice (assuming you don't have a way to fish it out of the graveyard).
The new design looks something like this:
General: Niv-Mizzet, The Firemind
Instant (23)
Artifact (4)
Creature (17)
Enchantment (4)
Sorcery (12)
Land (39)
Island (x15)
Mountain (x15)
Nivix, Aerie of the Firemind
Shivan Reef
Terramorphic Expanse
Tappedout.net estimated that this deck is about $69 total, which is fairly cheap, considering that the most expensive card is the General, which is about $13 (median price). Not exactly a Dollar General deck, but if you already have the Izzet Duel Deck, like I did, that's over half the cost!
More testing revealed that this revised deck has a strong flavor of control, but generally has weak creatures (unless you pull out the Flameblast Dragon or Scourge of Geier Reach) and is vulnerable to trample and voltron style decks centered around Uril or Rafiq, which could only be stopped if those commanders were countered multiple times.
This deck's strong points (besides control) are draw and creature removal. I always had the card advantage and creatures like Gelectrode, Izzet Staticaster, and Rage Nimbus were great at taking out key weenies (like Dryad Militant or Beguiler of Wills).
My favorite part of this deck, though, is that it's just plain fun. And goofy! The way the deck plays is both challenging and rewarding, even if you don't win. Not to mention some of the silly cards: Thunderheads, Traitorous Blood + Djinn Illuminatus. Hell, I might even put Switcheroo back in (or at least sideboard it) to make it even sillier. The point is, I wanted to make a fun deck, so who cares if it's not Tier 1 material? At least I killed my oppenents with laughter every game.
Thanks, and stay classy!
-Venser's Journalist
Shivan Reef
Terramorphic Expanse
Tappedout.net estimated that this deck is about $69 total, which is fairly cheap, considering that the most expensive card is the General, which is about $13 (median price). Not exactly a Dollar General deck, but if you already have the Izzet Duel Deck, like I did, that's over half the cost!
More testing revealed that this revised deck has a strong flavor of control, but generally has weak creatures (unless you pull out the Flameblast Dragon or Scourge of Geier Reach) and is vulnerable to trample and voltron style decks centered around Uril or Rafiq, which could only be stopped if those commanders were countered multiple times.
This deck's strong points (besides control) are draw and creature removal. I always had the card advantage and creatures like Gelectrode, Izzet Staticaster, and Rage Nimbus were great at taking out key weenies (like Dryad Militant or Beguiler of Wills).
My favorite part of this deck, though, is that it's just plain fun. And goofy! The way the deck plays is both challenging and rewarding, even if you don't win. Not to mention some of the silly cards: Thunderheads, Traitorous Blood + Djinn Illuminatus. Hell, I might even put Switcheroo back in (or at least sideboard it) to make it even sillier. The point is, I wanted to make a fun deck, so who cares if it's not Tier 1 material? At least I killed my oppenents with laughter every game.
Thanks, and stay classy!
-Venser's Journalist
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