Back with another example deck for the first Ravnica block, I decided to go with the Izzet guild as my next choice. Unlike the Simic Combine I featured a few weeks ago which was simply a bit lackluster during the time of release, I chose the Izzet league for having by far the worst Preconstructed Deck of them all. Granted, my opinons about the quality of “Izzet Gizmometry” are entirely subjective, but a deck severely lacking creatures with tons of slow and expensive spells some of which were outclassed even when they came out … yeah, they simply had to be featured. What I intent to do is bring out the more aggressive nature of Izzet as a guild that fuels their creatures with instants and sorceries, something that was very much available right from the start with cards like “Gelectrode” or “Wee Dragonauts“. The fire that burns twice as bright might only burn for half as long, but if my opponent lost all their life points before that happens I am completely fine with it. So, let’s see what I can do:
Let us start with the core issue: “Izzet Gizmometry”. The deck had only nine creatures, with costs ranging from two to five mana with some seriously strange options like “Petrahydrox“. On top of that, Replicate might be a keyword that scales into the later stages of the game, but Izzet is forced to play on curve which makes the entire affair terribly slow. So, let us make things a bit quicker: “Nivmagus Elemental” costs almost nothing since it eats spells on the stack, which therefore do not resolve. I do not intend for “Nivmagus Elemental” to be the star of the show all the time, but there are enough lost cost instants and sorceries in the deck that one could easily exile a spell just to make it grow bigger while still having plenty of fire power available. “Izzet Gizmometry” also had a problem with blockers since there weren’t any, which is easy to fix by playing “Electrostatic Field” which not only provides a solid Defender but also happens to ping the opponent when instants and sorceries are played, which supports the strategy I am going for.
The real meat of the deck comes with two mana since I included lots of options that support excessive use of instants and sorceries. “Sprite Dragon” might be small but will turn into a powerhouse of a card soon enough. Flying and Haste means that it can attack rightaway and therefore probably chips one life point away rightaway, but with the number of cheap spells it should be able to grow in size. Throwing removal at it might be wasted since it is so cheap, while ignoring it can be fatal when it suddenly puts the player on a four-turn clock. And there is more: “Stormchaser Mage” also provides a body with Flying and Haste, while Prowess will boost it for the turn. “Kiln Fiend” comes with none of the keywords but the biggest possible boost with +3/+0 per instant and/or sorcery being played, allowing for some explosive plays.
For the “later” stages of the game, I decided to go heavily into “Wee Dragonauts“. They are extremely budget-friendly, originate from Guildpact, and pack a solid punch if the deck allows for it; and they were also featured in “Izzet Gizmometry”. Granted, they might not be as flashy, but as soon as we talk about the spells you will see that there is fun to have with the duo of Faerie Wizards. I originally played two copies of “Gelectrode“, which would allow for more pings to dish out and serves its purpose as damage support that you can direct both onto opposing creatures as well as straight to the opposing face if necessary; but then I found “Thermo-Alchemist” which is simply a better card for I am doing here. And then, as the finisher of the deck, I went for “Crackling Drake” which makes use of all the spells you have played, which can turn it into a sizeable beater because you played instants and/or sorceries in past turns.
To make a deck like this as efficient as possible, it was clear to me that the spells need to be cheap; and I mean cantrip-level cheap. Playing a sorcery for six mana might give you some powerful effect to work with, but the buff for your field is laughable. So, I needed spells that have some effect to help the deck, be as cheap as possible, and potentially even accrue more resources to work with. There is a number of Red spells I felt make a lot of things possible: “Ancestral Anger” is a power buff, gives Trample to cards like “Kiln Fiend“, and even draws more cards to work with. “Assault Strobe” doubles the damage output of the target, meaning that “Wee Dragonauts” with that card alone will kick for six damage. “Claim the Firstborn” steals opposing creatures which means that you have more to attack with while also taking care of a potential blocker. “Lava Dart” only deals one damage but can technically be played twice for just one “Mountain” (tap for mana, then sacrifice for effect). The same goes for “Spikefield Hazard” but it doubles as a land if necessary. And “Thud” is a great finisher that allows you to throw a boosted creature into the opposing face for the same damage it dealt again.
And there are obviously more options available for cheap: “Burning Inquiry” refreshes the hand for one mana and might ditch “Ancestral Anger” while doing so for higher numbers. “Gigadrowse” is a cheap way to turn off blockers temporarily, which the potential to scale for bigger boards. “Lava Spike” does nothing really besides the three damage to the face, but sometimes that’s just the extra portion you need. “Hard Evidence” might seem odd for an Aggro-focussed deck but one mana for a 0/3 blocker that is around after I turned everything sideways and a Clue to sacrifice later sounds pretty good. And with “First Day of Class” you not only have another way to turn “Kiln Fiend” or other creatures on immediately, but there is also potential for Learn since it gives us another spells to fuel our board with. Potential options to fetch would be “Mercurial Transformation” to make an opposing creature tiny or one of yours temporarily bigger, “Elemental Summoning” for a 4/4 body, or “Expanded Anatomy” for the stat boost.
After that, it was really just a question of adding a few more nice cards to bring it all together; and, as is so often the case, there are tons of options to choose from. “Electrolyze” spreads damage and draws a card, while “Fire/Ice” is still a good card all those years later. Here is where I introduce the most expensive card in the deck and therefore the one option you cna and should change if it is out of budget: “Manamorphose“. I have no idea what WotC was thinking when they made this card, but you basically filter mana for free and get to draw a card for it. Perfect for Storm decks, solid whenever the number of instants and sorceries played matters. To have an option against bigger threats, I would suggest “Beacon Bolt” which should scale nicely as long as you keep playing your stuff. And as a fitting and rather cheap option to counter spells with, I went with “Ionize” for that extra bit of damage; although you could also decide that a well-placed “Force Spike” does the job (or some variant like “Stubborn Denial“). The finished deck that I would present for the job does look like this:
Creatures (20):
2x Nivmagus Elemental (U/R)
2x Electrostatic Field (1R)
2x Kiln Fiend (1R)
2x Thermo-Alchemist (1R)
4x Sprite Dragon (UR)
2x Stormchaser Mage (UR)
4x Wee Dragonauts (1UR)
2x Crackling Drake (UURR)
Spells (22):
4x Ancestral Anger (R)
4x Assault Strobe (R)
2x Claim the Firstborn (R)
2x Lava Dart (R)
1x Spikefield Hazard (R)
2x Thud (R)
2x First Day of Class (1R)
2x Manamorphose (1 R/G)
1x Beacon Bolt (1UR)
2x Ionize (1UR)
Lands (18):
7x Island
10x Mountain
1x The Biblioplex
But feel free to change the deck in whatever way you see fit if you like the concept. There are tons of options I have not listed yet: “Brute Force” would provide more raw stats, “Izzet Charm” would be in the mana range while providing various options to work with, and in case one copy of a spell simply is not enough you could opt to play “Teach by Example” for more instances of the same spell. “Teleportal” is also quite interesting since your getting something like a boosted “Kiln Fiend” past the opposing defenses as an unblockable creature can spell tons of damage; and with the Flashback on it, you can even repeat that stunt if necessary. Depending on what you are looking for, there is “Firemind’s Research” for a passive Enchantment that allows for more draws and damage. In terms of creatures, I would either focus on more direct damage to support the creature line-up, which would come down to things like “Guttersnipe“, or something that can strengthen the deck by provide more or better instants and sorceries. “Surrakar Spellblade” can draw you tons of cards if it gets past the opposing creatures, “Smoldering Egg” becomes an amazing creature but requires seven instants and sorceries in total to get there, and “Mercurial Spelldancer” provides more copied spells while dealing more damage to the opponent. “Hypersonic Dragon” could be the new end of the mana curve while providing sorceries with instant-speed, depending on the spell total you play per turn you might get something from “Sentinel Tower“, you could add “Ral, Storm Conduit” as a planeswalker if you need one, and even the dreaded 40k set has “Exalted Flamer of Tzeentch” as an awesome way to retrieve spells; and one that costs quite a bit of money. All I know is that all these options are closer to what I think an iconic Izzet deck should look like, which is really all I wanted to show here.
Cubic Creativity 