I don't get the point of pairing madness with prowess. What's the advantage?

The 1 mana madness spells are much better than their competition...show me another Lightning Bolt besides Temper in our pool...or a 1 CC 5 damage removal with no downside... or a instant speed Clutch...all of which trigger prowess

...and with the Abbot nerfed and the rest of the prowess creatures being even worse, Bloodseeker with his 3 power 3 toughness at almost will and his ability to trigger an instant speed, cheaper Rolling Thunder from time to time looks better to me than the bad prowess creatures left in our pool...ey, give me just 4 swiftspears and I'll not say a further word about any madness crap, lol

Izzet prowess or Izzet mill? Why not combine both for giggles

Is it Prowill, Milless or Prowlmill?

I can't claim credit for the idea but this is my version that I'm having fun with.

Creatures
2 x Thing in the Jar
3 x Stormchaser Mage
3 x Jhessian Thief
2 x Jori En, Ruin Diver
2 x Forgotten Creation

Planeswalkers
1 x Jace, Vryn's Prodigy

Instants/Sorceries
4 x Fiery Impulse
1 x Titan's Strength
4 x Expedite
4 x Slip Through Space
2 x Grip of the Roil
2 x Anchor to the Aether
2 x Exquisite Firecraft

Enchantments
3 x Sphinx's Tutelage

Artifacts
4 x Alchemist's Vial

Lands
8 x Island
5 x Mountain
2 x Wandering Fumarole
2 x Sulfur Falls
4 x Blighted Lake


It's still a work in progress but it's definitely one of my favourite decks for the moment.

Built my version of Izzet Surge/Prowess as well. Work-in-progress, since I'm missing a few cards still (second TITI, second Fevered Visions).

Creatures (17):
1 x Jace, Vryn's Prodigy
2 x Thing in the Ice
2 x Abbot of Keral Keep
4 x Mage-Ring Bully
3 x Stormchaser Mage

3 x Jhessian Thief
2 x Jori En, Ruin Diver

Non-creature spells (22):
4 x Expedite
4 x Fiery Impulse
4 x Titan's Strength
4 x Slip through Space

3 x Grip of the Roil
1 x Fevered Visions

2 x Fall of the Titans

Lands (21):
6 x Island
7 x Mountain
2 x Wandering Fumarole
2 x Sulfur Falls
4 x Highland Lake


Do you guys think it's okay to go down to 20 lands?
I want to include both second copies of the cards I mentioned previously and I think I'll definitely be okay going down to 21 lands. My dilemma is that this would be 61 cards, and in my mind the cut would be either another land or Jace; the former might be too greedy, the latter would hurt like hell.


EDIT: Corrected an error in the decklist, thanks to Gegliosch for pointing it out!
EDIT2: +1 Thing in the Ice, -1 Mountain
Opened the second Thing, and also decided that Jace will be out of the deck once I opened the second Visions.

In my playtesting, no (non utter crap, I mean) deck with 20 lands work with SS Duels...I dunno if it's cognitive bias or what, but errytime I have tried with 20 lands, I have suffered horrible mana drought with absurd frecuency. 21 is the bare minimum in my experience...and more so in a Prowess deck

I wouldn't skip out on Fevered visions if you're running the Tutelages.

meanwhile I play a 19 land deck and manage to get flooded

I would say 21 is the minimum for the deck but I wouldn't cut Jace, he is just too good in this meta. If you are running TiTi and Fevered Visions you need both in to make them relevant, otherwise the chances of drawing them early on are fairly low. I'd cut a couple of Mage ring bullies. I've found that their auto-attack can be a weakness more often than not.



I do have a version with them in that is much more of a pure mill deck and it works well in that but trying to put them in a prowess/mill deck, for me, means taking another turn out when I could be attacking, milling for 8, or flipping TiTi.

I don't have many creatures and all are within burn range. When playing against aggro/burn, fevered visions tends to give them more solutions than not.

I figured as much; I'm definitely not a fan of 1-ofs.
I don't want to cut the Bullies though, as I want 7 Prowess-2-drops (Abbots I'll only play on 2 in a dire emergency). I could run Umara Entanglers instead, but I found the extra point of toughness does matter at times; meanwhile this deck is aggressive enough that having to attack each turn is not that much of a downside.
If I don't cut Jace, I think I won't play one of the cards (probably TITI) and stay at 22 lands. I'll definitely give all of these versions a shot.

If you're going super aggro, I'd agree with you on cutting TiTi. Why didn't Stormchaser Mage make the cut? You've got the right mana base for it.

Okay, fair enough, the spells are more powerful. I wouldn't say they come without a downside, though. You need them in pairs in order to avoid card disadvantage or high costs. In a dedicated madness deck that is no problem, but I don't know how reliable it is as a subtheme. I also don't always wanna cast both spells. However, when everything aligns, you do get more powerful effects for your mana.

What I absolutely don't agree with is that Ravenous Bloodseeker is better than even Umara Entangler. Entangler is always a 2/1 with prowess and can easily be triggered multiple times a turn. Bloodseeker needs a madness spell to get to 3/1. Further pumps are impossible, because you don't even run spells to buff his ass.

It is in my list; fifth card from the top.
You're right in that I would not have any reason whatsoever to not run him - he's great in this shell.

Whoops! Must have gone temporarily blind It's such a good card!

List is good. If you're looking for good cuts, I'd take out Jace and TITI first. Both are excellent cards, but you've gone all in to make the deck as fast as possible and they both hurt the tempo.

You can also go down to 21 land. The sweet spot is somewhere around 21-22.
Btw, there are 8 Expedite listed, I suppose you run 4 Slip Through Space?

@Magellan: Your Prowess/Mill hybrid is cute, but aren't you wasting potential by attacking two different threshholds?

Thanks for the reply, and also thanks for your list which I used as a baseline.
After some more playtesting I agree with you that going down to 20 lands is not good enough, aa you need 3-4 lands to get the engine going, even going to 21 lands might cost a bit of performance.
I believe the TITI Version is very well placed currently, but I might just prefer overall consistency. Don't know whether Jace or TITI hits the board.

How has Grip of the Roil been for you? I've been wondering about that card, but I don't have much time to test it atm. It's easy to activate surge, so you can basically consider it a 2 mana cantrip. However, I'm not so sure if the effect is good enough to cut something else for it and 2 mana is still kind of expensive for Prowess decks.

I liked it quite a bit, because it's a very flexible card; shutting down their scariest attacker or their most problematic blocker for two turns is a big feat. Sometimes an opposing creature is both (I'm thinking Avacyn or Archangel of Tithes here), in which case it does double duty in buying you time as well as facilitating your offense.
The added cost is a downside, but enerally I feel like you can afford it if you really need it (sometimes you even need to cast it for 3).

Contrary to your list, I'm not running Rush of Adrenaline. Between Stormchaser Mage and Slip through Space (and, in my case, Grip of the Roil), I feel like the deck has enough (pseudo-)evasion that Trample often is not necessary. Also, Rush is a purely aggressive card that does not help me find what I need when I'm behind.
How has Rush performed for you thus far?

Rush of Adrenaline was good - lots of damage really fast and the trample has been useful from time to time. However, I currently swapped them out for Bone Saw and I'm quite happy with that change. Triggering Prowess for free is often useful for extra damage or to get my creatures big enough so they can't be traded. The synergy with Esperzoa and the fact that it sticks around to add more damage is also nice.

Bone Saw would probably be the card I'd have to take out to make room for Grip of the Roil. My main concern is that this would increase the mana cost and slow down the deck. I'd also have to get rid of Esperzoa and there's no other 3-drop of that power level. On the other hand the Grip would give me a little more evasion, reach and a momentum swing in race situations.

I think I prefer to have more proactive plays, though. I want this deck to be fast, play multiple spells each turn and get that damage in before they languish. I hate to have open mana and no targets for my spells, which happens against controlish decks when you have multiple Fiery Impulse and I'm afraid it would be the same with Grips.

I'm testing a card in my izzet Prowess deck that has been somewhat overlooked... At least in this particular deck Telling time. I noticed that I was sometimes using Expedite and Alchemist's vials just as cantrips to fuel the prowess engine. Telling time is a step up from a cantrip that Lets you get rid of unwanted lands or other cards, sets up your next draw and also helps you search for needed cards. It somewhat reduces the element of luck for a cost that is doable in this deck. Worth a try.

Btw, my deck has 20 land and with this much draw, it gets mana screwed in less than 5% of games. Just muligan bad hands. This deck thrives even with muligans to 5.

I agree that using Expedite and Slip Through Space only to draw cards and trigger prowess is worse than Telling Time. If you have the spare mana that is. However, there are so many situations where I need that haste or evasion. If I took out some 1 cmc cantrips for Telling Time, I'd curse every time I have it in a situation like that.

It is almost strictly better than Alchemist's Vial, though, unless you run the Wolf.