Hello everyone, I have been viewing these forums for a few weeks since the release of the game and I really like the decks posted by all the board members here. Especially decks posted by Stevolutionary and djAMPnz, had a real blast playing some of your decks guys!

I wanted to share an Izzet deck that is the very first deck I played in this game. Since the beginning it has evolved to what I consider to be its most stable version so far, but I'd really like to hear back from you if you have any advice or impressions on it.




Strategy for this deck is pretty straightforward, this is basically a very aggressive deck that hopes to take advantage of creatures with effects triggered by sorceries or instants, mainly the Kiln Fiends, Guttersnipes and Talrand, Sky Summoner. You should try to get either and as many of them in play as soon as possible and then use your spells to push through damage. Kiln Fiend in particular is deadly with Artful Dodge or Tectonic Rift. Ogre Battledriver is especially great to make them deadly as soon as they enter the battlefield, especially if you have the above mentioned cards in hand. He is also great with Talrand's tokens and of course Charmbreaker Devils if you happen to draw them although you don't really need them to win.

Apart from that the deck has quite a lof of draw cards to help you get the cards you want and fuel the creatures, some small creatures removal with shock as well as a few counterspells to save your guys or counter whatever you may have trouble with. Also with 4 Think Twice and Artful Doge you have a total of 8 flashback spells in your deck, which is a lot of fuel for your creatures.

Finally, Chasm Skulker benefits from the decent amount of draw of this deck, and also serves as a great removal magnet to protect your real wincons. Fling is an extra spell allowing your pumped creatures to damage your opponent and works exceptionally well on a big Skulker, even more with an Ogre Battledriver in play.

Also after some testing, it turns out that creatures with abilities benefiting from casting sorceries or instants that are sacrificed with Fling still see their abilities activated from the graveyard after resolution of the spell. Which means that while a sacrificed Kiln Fiend will not be boosted in time to add damage to the Fling, a sacrificed Guttersnipe or Talrand, Sky Summoner should deal damage/add a token following resolution of the spell.

2014/10/11 Edit: Updated the deck with the new awesome builder tool and with a swap from Electromancers to Fling, following a suggestion from Stevo. The flings have added a nasty trick to the deck and also work well with the general theme.

First of all, welcome to the forums. What a fantastic first post. Well thought out and easy to read.

Secondly, thanks for the compliment. I'm glad you like my builds.

Third, I noticed when quoting your post you used [card] tags around each of the card names you listed. A quick tip to make things simpler in the future, you can just use [c] tags to autocard individual cards and [deck] tags to quickly autocard entire deck lists, like so:
[deck]4 x Mountain
4 x Kiln Fiend
3 x Shock[/deck]
Becomes:
4 x Mountain
4 x Kiln Fiend
3 x Shock


And finally, your deck list looks really solid. There's not much I can say that you haven't already said yourself. Maybe have you considered Time Warp? It can allow you that extra turn to finish them off and being a spell it will trigger all your triggers. I'd perhaps suggest removing the Electromancers to fit it and an extra Island (or Guildgate, if you have one) in.

Again, welcome to the forums and I look forward to seeing more deck lists from you.

I'd have pretty much said the same as Amp!

Thanks for the compliment, and I'd suggest the same changes he did. I'm not sure Electromancers are that vital here, and an extra land wouldn't go amiss. For the final card, how about Stormbreath Dragon? It's a very underrated bomb, and with haste and protection (and therefore unblockability versus White) fits into the general strategy of your deck.

Hey guys I made a dodge and burn style deck that I wanted to share with you guys. My win rate is about 55-60% with this deck. The reason for inspiration over think twice is it can be recurred via elixer of immortality and charmbreaker devils.

4 x Izzet Guildgate
10 x Island
10 x Mountain

1 x Elixer of Immortality
4 x Shock
4 x Negate
4 x Nullify
4 x Voyage's End
3 x Volcanic Geyser
3 x Dissolve
2 x Anger of the Gods
4 x Bolt of Keranos
2 x Inspiration
1 x Explosive Impact
2 x Charmbreaker Devils
2 x Sphinx-Bone Wand

Thanks a lot for your replies and advices!

The Goblin Electromancers are certainly the most likely to go if I need to make changes in the deck, your suggestions make sense and I'm going to try those out.

I am a bit concerned about the lack of creatures that it might bring though... I used to run the deck with only 13 creatures and I had some bad experiences with it. But to be honest the deck was also quite different before so it's hard to say exactly what the problem was with this previous version... IIRC I used to have some Vapor Snags, Hysterical Blindness, Act of Treason and a second Charmbreaker Devils but no Fleeting Distractions, Tectonic Rifts, Goblin Electromancers, Dissolve and Ogre Battledrivers as well as a bit more lands.

Land-wise I generally haven't had any problem with this version of the deck considering the low curve. I didn't put in the 4th Guildgate because I felt like I didn't need that many, after all very few cards in the deck need two colored manas. But if I include Time Warp or Stormbreath Dragon instead of the Electromancers I might indeed need that extra Guildgate.

Anyway thanks again for the tips, I'm going to try that out and see how it works! Now that I think about it I can also see Inferno Titan working great in there as an alternative to Stormbreath Dragon, especially with a Battledriver in play.

How about a Fling or two?

One element you're lacking is a way to split your Chasm Skulker in response to bounce, theft, imprisonment, or just a problem blocker.

This would be especially handy with your Ogre Battledriver on the field. It's also a finisher with a big enough Kiln Fiend.

Oooo, I like that idea! Build up a beefy Skulker, Fling him and create a bunch of 3/1's with Haste, plus a big punch to the other guy's face along with them? Very nice indeed. I might have to give this deck a shot with Fling in place of the Electromancers(seems like too many of the Instants/Sorceries wouldn't benefit from these guys anyway)

This indeed looks like a great suggestion, I'm going to try it right away! Too bad that the Kiln Fiend's ability doesn't have time activate from casting fling since you have to sacrifice him before that, but it looks very interesting anyway. Can't wait to try that on a beefed up skulker.

I don't know how well it would work if you're playing with 21 lands, but if your deck is based around stuff that benefits from the casting of Instants & Sorceries, perhaps consider a Sphinx-Bone Wand? There isn't a *ton* of artifact removal being played from what I've seen, so there's a good chance it'll stick around for a while if you get it out on the board. I've used it in my 22-land Izzet deck and haven't had any real problems getting it out. Its ability to act as both a punch to the opponent's face and as creature removal can be pretty darn helpful. Not sure what I'd cut from yours to fit it in, though.

Sphinx-Bone Wand is great but as you said I don't know what I'd cut for it. And the main gripe I have with it is that it would be too slow for this deck.

Generally I'm able to kill my opponent before or right around the time when I have 7 lands at my disposal, so I don't see too much need for late game bombs. Heck I don't even need Charmbreaker Devils most of the time since the opponent is dead before I can even get them out. They're mainly there as an insurance in case the game stalls which is why I got only one in it.

I guess I could swap them for the wand, but the Devils actually are able to kill much faster than the Wand would be in this deck. Once they are in play, all I need is one Artful Dodge to deal 12 damage (or more if there are other creatures in play) directly into their face. Of course in the long run the Wand is better, but I don't really want to see the game stall out in this deck, and I don't really need creature removal that much since my creatures use evasion effects to deal damage to my opponent. I think it would be more fitting in a control Izzet build.

So I decided to give the mill deck a crack but using a particularly unconventional card. The idea is to use self mill as card advantage whilst milling the opponent.

I call this deck Burning Crabs

13 x island
6 x mountain
3 x izzet guildgate
3 x Hedron crab
4 x tome scour
3 x shock
4 x burning enquiry
2 x pyxis of pandemonium
2 x voyage's end
4 x think twice
3 x nullify
3 x dissolve
3 x chill of foreboding
2 x anger of the gods
2 x archeomancer
2 x inspiration
1 x Kozilek, butcher of truth


This deck can win through quick mill with crabs but usually it controls the game whilst slowly milling the opponent. Kozilek is in there for insurance against 100 card decks as you mill yourself a lot. It is also another win condition in grindy games. I only have 3 gates but if you have 4 swap out an island for it.

Thoughts?

Ehhh, I don't care how it is made, mill isn't that great with what we have to work with. This looks "good" as far as mill decks go.

I agree it is not tier 1 but I am winning a fair amount. Enough to give me confidence to pursue perfecting this list. Any idea on any changes?

Man I did build and play Da Burning Crabs against a couple people last night. Then I kept it and made a copy and morphed, my style
I got rage quit'd a few times before I got tired with shaping my BI-mill-pyxis deck last night. A red 4-5 turn deck was the only game finished right, school me with some massive goblin -14 beatdown though.
I think you like the countering, mine dropped that because BI doesn't care what I have in my hand, and while I can choose to cast it, in play, it seems entirely more disruptive to not care what I toss just to watch the opponent toss out pretty angels. You might really swap in Charmbreaker Devils?

So with mine I added things that combo with land fall from the Pyxis popping open, besides Hedron. I gained control of 3 creatures in the middle of an attack on my Doorkeepers, that popped Pyxis of Pandemonium with an Avarice Amulet'd Roil Elemental in play, and Hedron Crab triggering 3x too. I forget all what I had at that moment coming into play, and stealing from him but I remember the 1x Elixir of Immortality landed, ready to go. Blocked a now silly attack with couple new Guard Gomazoa. Guy (rage?)quit. Bah. I want to tweak it a bit more before putting it out here. It has my answer to everything Mercurial Pretender and my question to everything 3x Cunning Sparkmage. I guess in a way those are my suggestions if you want to swap stuff in places in this BI psychomill. I think the cheaper the card might be, the better for BI - as in a sharp drop off mana curve.

I know, right?

Here is my Izzet control deck post-DLC:

hehe, I didn't think anyone got my sarcasm


I like your deck, btw, when it finally gets released on XboxOne, I'm going to need decks to get the individual achievements. Yours looks like a perfect one for Guttersnipe, so thanks!

I've tried Military intelligence in Monk's UG shell as well as in a UW Fliers shell but neither of those decks really did it for me. I decided to mix it up and try an Izzet version and I'm pleased with it so far:



I don't like running gates in an aggressive deck like this, but I really wanted to play Goblin Bushwhacker so I had to put them in; would just be too unreliable otherwise in a deck that wants to play a blue one-drop on the first turn. It hasn't hurt too much so far, but I'm only in the vicinity of ten games played so more testing is needed. Bushwhacker is like a burn spell here because so many of the creatures have evasion and has won me the game each time I've resolved him.

This deck also packs quite a nice bit of disruption in Vapor Snag, Shock, Goblin Shortcutter, and Pestermite so while it still is just an aggro deck, it feels blue enough to differentiate it from other aggressive decks I've tried. This one requires a little bit more finesse.

The three copies of Negate are there as a nod to the fact that this deck absolutely must overextend in order to win. The creatures are all small and you need to flood the board to push through enough damage. A resolved Anger of the Gods or Planar Cleansing is basically game over so we need to pack the protection.

Thoughts?

Twenty games in now and I'm probably around the 14-6 mark or so; I've lost to Brimaz, Baneslayer (twice), and just running out of resources while topdecking land (i.e. games where I didn't draw Military Intelligence). I could've beaten one of the Baneslayers if I had been just a little bit more judicial with my disruption spells on the turn prior to him resolving it so that's on me, not the deck.

On the subject of the Brimaz, I had a Rabblemaster in play so I was essentially giving him a free token every turn because of the damage assignment order bug. Those free tokens meant that he was able to quash my goblin army much faster than he could have otherwise been able. I'm not certain I would've won the match, but it was still very annoying.

The gates have been slowing me down a bit, but I still think Bushwhacker is worth the occasional tempo delay. He's great with the fliers and unblockables and those expendable tokens.

Speaking of tokens, Krenko's Command is great with Military Intelligence because it lets you trigger it right away and turn one of your tokens into a real card if your opponent can block it. Bonus points if you actually trade with something to put him down a card.

Pestermite has been a lot of fun too, he's not really part of the metagame and people don't expect him.

Overall it's a fun deck, I like it.

After the experiment with Izzet Aggro, I decided to give my Izzet Control list some serious playtime to try to tune the numbers a bit. It isn't a deck that I've worked terribly hard on, so I decided to rectify that. Here is the updated list with some notes on the build.