MTG Salvation

Hi folks! The spoiling of The Locust God earlier today is very exciting news, as we're getting perhaps the most powerful Izzet commmander ever printed.... one which, in many ways, is a clear upgrade from the long-loved Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind. As the keeper for one of our Niv-Mizzet primers here at MTG Salvation I think it's only logical to test The Locust God to see how it compares.

Keep an eye out on this thread as I'll report back on my thoughts and whether I might want to retire our dear friend Niv-Mizzet in favor of some shiny new tech, or stick with our old friend! Mainly I plan to use this thread as a sandbox for thoughts and ideas in the coming weeks as I play and test various things, but advice and discussion is of course welcomed and appreciated!

My current Niv-Mizzet build is highly tuned and runs quite well without needing access to the commander. The below list is very close to that, but with a few key tweaks. The differences here hinge on the fact that The Locust God is more resilient to removal and can also act as a great source of mana generation. So, I've included some of the very best of that tech here - but not too much, since at 6 cmc, the majority of the game will be played without our commander on the battlefield.



Cards I'd like to break but haven't found a way to yet - post up your recommendations!

• Faces of the Past

Changelog:

2017-Aug-27
Creation of The Locust God (AKA swaps from original Niv-Mizzet list)

mana echoes?

You know, those insects are nice and all, but wouldn't you rather they be dragons? I'm a fan of Descent of the Dragons.

Quote from skorchdnite »

You know, those insects are nice and all, but wouldn't you rather they be dragons? I'm a fan of Descent of the Dragons.

Yeah, but the dragons don't have haste

Death by dragons are ok but just not unique enough. Death by hasty hoppers is funny.
I am thinking the strategy is control, mana rocks, infinite mana, big burn or something.

so what about Dragonshift?

You'll want Arjun, the Shifting Flame and Mindmoil regardless of whether you run the Dragon Wizard or the Locust God.

I like the god but I feel it's too all in on the god. Either you build around it or don't play at all. I wish there was a way to make this deck and not rely on The Locust God that much.

I don't see a way to break Faces of the Past that it would be an auto include in every version of the locus god deck but here's a nifty combo I thought of just now. Faces of the Past + Sac outlet of choice + Opposition + some amount of insect tokens. Tap down your opponent's lands, sac a token which prompts the Faces of the Past to untap your insects and repeat until you run out of insects to sac or you've tapped down every land your opponent's control. Then on your turn you land a Winter Orb and make your opponents cry. But it's kind of makes it a win more card at that point and you could just use Paradox Engine + random instant spell to kind of do the same thing without losing a token to a sac outlet to trigger the Faces.

I have a deck built around memnarch and it's the feared boogie man of north Dallas. His ability being a built in, that does note require tapping, is why we devote to the commander. You don't play him till you cane win. Same goes for the locust god.

I am surprised at how little I see Grand Architect in these lists. He goes infinite with a handful of cards already being run in the deck and at worst pumps all your locusts/general.

Hi folks, sorry for the slow updates - our playgroup has been largely out-of-town this summer (and I haven't gotten to play much in the last 1.5 months. At any rate, here are the current changes I've made:

Added:
+1 Anger of the Gods - A solid hoser to Edric, Yisan, and the like. I worry heavily about the RR cost, however...
+1 Chrome Mox - I've been wanting to test this one for a while and finally feel we have the card advantage to support it without the drawback being too detrimental
+1 Curse of the Swine - Direct swap of one answer for another - out with a counterspell, in with perhaps the best creature removal in blue. Although our clock is fast and counterspells are aplenty, key problematic permanents will simply get through.
+1 Dig Through Time - Adding some Delve to see how I like it.
+1 Dream Halls - It's simply too good to be without. The combo potential enabled here (specifically, circumventing colored costs) is the best you can get for the cost. People think Mana Echoes is cool, but in a list with such severe color requirements, Dream Halls is the real combo king.
+1 Evacuation - One additional trick for dealing with hasty / swarming board positions.
+1 Imprisoned in the Moon - See description for Curse of the Swine; this card is probably the best single-target removal blue has for Commander (and, deals with indestructible, etc)
+2 Island
+1 Isochron Scepter - Yes, it's time.
+1 Mox Diamond
+1 Omniscience - See "Dream Halls" entry above
+1 Treasure Cruise - See "Dig Through Time" above
+1 Vandalblast - In my playgroup, reliance on artifacts for stax, mana production, and/or combo has increased recently, and this is a welcome inclusion.

Removed:
-1 Fabricate - At instant speed this would be close to auto-include, but at sorcery speed it's just a little too slow and expensive.
-1 Flusterstorm - I've removed a few counterspells in favor of more On-The-Battlefield removal
-1 Mana Echoes - Yes, the combo potential with The Locust God is definitely there. But, what does this actually offer us? This deck is already playing a number of cost-reducers, so our greatest mana-cost challenges are colors, not CMC values. Early game, Mana Echoes offers nothing on its own; and when we are about to win, it has an even bigger flaw - even when paired with Locust God, you still need a third card to make it truly "go off"! It looks great from a distance, but IMO the upside is too narrow (no colors) and the fact it still requires additional setup means it doesn't provide a fast and consistent win.
-1 Mindbreak Trap
-1 Monastery Siege
-1 Overwhelming Denial
-1 Pact of Negation
-1 Star Compass
-1 Stifle
-1 Strip Mine - Together with Wasteland, these just weren't needed enough to justify the lack of color production. Yes, producing colors is that important for us. There are no major land-reliant combos in my playgroup currently; or at least, none that aren't solved in other, fairly straightforward ways.
-1 Supreme Will
-1 Trickbind
-1 Turnabout
-1 Wasteland