Its been a while since i needed help with any of my decks, and I'm at a stand still with an Izzet deck i've been mashing together. This deck consists of a few different tactics, so bare with me.
There's a few different tactics in the deck that are viable. Dragon attack(which is also my backup), or direct damage, with possibility of copying the spells.
Here's my issue -
Mana is almost always short
Deck doesn't play fast enough, despite the amount of extra draw thats possible.
I'm hoping someone can chime in with some advice, this deck was a slick idea, but its not panning out.
23 lands, even with draw, and the possibility of a tiny bit of ramp with Solemn Simulacrum, and your mana artifacts (most of which are single use, which makes them kind of dubious, since you really need persistent mana sources to cast your spells), doesn't seem enough when you have 9 spells of CMC 6 or greater, plus 4 X spells, plus a mama-intensive leveler and you're in three colors. If you want to play so many big spells, I think you need a stronger commitment to producing that kind of mana - more land, more persistent mana artifacts, more ramp, whatever. I might also ditch black, since as cute as Cauldron Dance is, you're really stretching your mana base to include it. You seem to have access to good dual lands, though, so it's possible that with a stronger commitment to ramp, you could stay in three colors without real difficulty.
Along similar lines, there's a lot going on in this deck. The ideas are neat, but they seem too diverse to really work well together. If you want to win by attacking with dragons, you probably need to dedicate yourself to making that happen, rather than trying to have a "Plan B" of copying all your burn spells. Having a backup plan always seems nice in theory, but there are very few decks that, in practice, can reliable win in two rather unrelated ways. I would say: pick a strategy and stick to it. If you don't, your deck will always be uneven - you'll have the wrong mana for your spells, or you'll have all your copy effects and nothing to copy, or whatever (for example, Urza's Incubator is great if you have a handful of dragons, and totally dead if you have a hand full of copy effects and nothing to copy).
Overall, I think the problem, which it seems like you've encountered, is consistency - and I think to achieve consistency, you need a dedicated strategy, so you can build the rest of the deck - draw, ramp, whatever - to making it happen. I don't really think this is a situation where the deck just needs a bit of tweaking to work properly (sorry for the generally negative criticism).
The deck is considerably smaller now, and I've removed the Dragon's to get it working properly. The shocks are only temporary, they will be replaced with Lightning Bolts. Already the deck looks like its going to play much quicker, despite the small mana acceleration that it gave before. This should help a bunch.
Please let me know what you think of the revised edition of the deck.
Thank you!
Xyx - If I was ever going to bring this deck to a Vintage tournament, it may have been a consideration. Unfortunately i only play casual, and the odd time, i'll go to a legacy run.
I would say that 1) I think you're too light on lands, and 2) Spellheart Chimera and Nivix Guildmage want more instants and sorceries. If it were me, I would probably cut Izzet Staticaster, Ral Zarek, Awaken the Ancient and maybe even Mulldrifter to give you some room for a few more lands and some more spells. If my math is right, if you cap at 60 cards, that would give you room for something like three more lands, and maybe four or five more spells. There are other options here too, like playing Runechanter's Pike, but I think you can leave that aside for now.
Also, Brainstorm is best with a bunch of shuffle effects to let you get rid of the stuff you don't want, so it's possible that Ponder or Preordain is the more correct choice here.
First you should cut 1 Sol Ring and 3 Brainstorms so that it's at least Vintage legal. Then you should cut the 9 worst cards to make it a 60-card deck. After that... probably cut some more because it's pretty light on lands for a deck trying to cast dragons. Lotus Petals do not replace land unless you plan to win on turn 2. Try Izzet Boilerworks.
Keep in mind brainstorm is restricted in vintage (its unbanned in legacy). Also, Mana Flare is one of the best ways to pump out mana in a red deck IF you can stand your opponent having their mana doubled too.
On average it wins on turn 7, occasionally turn 3, often turn 5-8, sometimes 4. If you're playing against a creature heavy or token oriented deck you can replace assault strobe with more weapon and infiltrate with leap of flame or counterspells, and it's only a few lands away from being a pauper deck making it cheap as well as the fact most spells are inexpensive. The idea behind izzet is that you burn opponents via drawing cards and playing spells or fuel burn with drawing which your deck isn't as consistent with, and I'm not even sure what it's trying to do considering you don't even have guttersnipe. Lotus petals also aren't as good as you think unless you run heavy artifacts and mox opal, you can just run fewer lands if you play cheaper spells.
If you are having problems between the deck it is because you split themeing it... You have melek, nivix, echo mage that focus on instants and sorceries, whch might i add you dont have enough of to run these really if you want to run the deck like that take out most dragons.... And the other theme is dragons if you want to run these put in hypersonic dragon, spellbreaker dragon, and niv mizzet (either one)
I have ran spellheart chimera it doesnt help as much as you'd think and the solemn simularum seems out of place. No lightning bolt? no roft bolt? those will go good ehre... i could post my red and blue deck if you'd like? it is instant and sorcery basedd
Have you thought about a couple lotus bloom or a seething song. Another thought would be a lotus blossom dropped early for a little boost on those X spells. Also if timed right a nice drain power against an opponent can vault you into a huge mana pool in your main phase. Just a few thoughts.... humbly suggested. afterthought: guttersnipe is genius in any int/sorc deck
Improvement was off the charts. Able to control the board, but never got any Guttersnipes out, so it looks like i'm gonna have to go buy another one to make a full playset. Also considering on getting rid of Nivix Guildmage for Izzet Guildmage
Its been a while since i needed help with any of my decks, and I'm at a stand still with an Izzet deck i've been mashing together. This deck consists of a few different tactics, so bare with me.
Here's the deck list
2x Sulfur Falls
3x Steam vents
4x Izzet Guildgate
2x Watery Grave
2x Rakados Guildgate
5x mountain
5x island
Creatures
4x Echo mage
3x Solemn Simulacrum
3x Shivan Dragon
2x Utvara Hellkite
3x Mulldrifter
4x Nivix Guildmage
3x Izzet Staticaster
2x Melek, Izzet Paragon
4x Red Sun Zenith
2x Electrolyze
4x Brainstorm
4x Retraced Image
2x Cauldron Dance
Artifacts/Enchantments
4x Lotus Petal
2x Sol Ring
1x Urza's Incubator
2x Awaken The Ancient
1x Ral Zarek
There's a few different tactics in the deck that are viable. Dragon attack(which is also my backup), or direct damage, with possibility of copying the spells.
Here's my issue -
Mana is almost always short
Deck doesn't play fast enough, despite the amount of extra draw thats possible.
I'm hoping someone can chime in with some advice, this deck was a slick idea, but its not panning out.
Thanks in advance,
Dan
Thanks to Mcheif111 for the Sig banner!
Thanks to Mcheif111 for the Sig banner!
23 lands, even with draw, and the possibility of a tiny bit of ramp with Solemn Simulacrum, and your mana artifacts (most of which are single use, which makes them kind of dubious, since you really need persistent mana sources to cast your spells), doesn't seem enough when you have 9 spells of CMC 6 or greater, plus 4 X spells, plus a mama-intensive leveler and you're in three colors. If you want to play so many big spells, I think you need a stronger commitment to producing that kind of mana - more land, more persistent mana artifacts, more ramp, whatever. I might also ditch black, since as cute as Cauldron Dance is, you're really stretching your mana base to include it. You seem to have access to good dual lands, though, so it's possible that with a stronger commitment to ramp, you could stay in three colors without real difficulty.
Along similar lines, there's a lot going on in this deck. The ideas are neat, but they seem too diverse to really work well together. If you want to win by attacking with dragons, you probably need to dedicate yourself to making that happen, rather than trying to have a "Plan B" of copying all your burn spells. Having a backup plan always seems nice in theory, but there are very few decks that, in practice, can reliable win in two rather unrelated ways. I would say: pick a strategy and stick to it. If you don't, your deck will always be uneven - you'll have the wrong mana for your spells, or you'll have all your copy effects and nothing to copy, or whatever (for example, Urza's Incubator is great if you have a handful of dragons, and totally dead if you have a hand full of copy effects and nothing to copy).
Overall, I think the problem, which it seems like you've encountered, is consistency - and I think to achieve consistency, you need a dedicated strategy, so you can build the rest of the deck - draw, ramp, whatever - to making it happen. I don't really think this is a situation where the deck just needs a bit of tweaking to work properly (sorry for the generally negative criticism).
Let me first say, big thanks.
Input being negative, or positive, is input that still beneficial to this deck regardless!
I've made some changes to the deck, tell me what you think.
4x Sulfur Falls
3x Steam vents
4x Izzet Guildgate
5x mountain
5x island
Creatures (19)
2x Solemn Simulacrum
3x Mulldrifter
4x Nivix Guildmage
4x Izzet Staticaster
2x Melek, Izzet Paragon
4x Spellheart Chimera
4x Shock
2x Red Sun Zenith
4x Electrolyze
4x Brainstorm
4x Retraced Image
1x Epic Experiment
Artifacts/Enchantments (3)
1x Sol Ring
2x Awaken the Ancient
Planeswalker (1)
1x Ral Zarek
2x Quicken
1x Leyline of Punishment
2x Incinerate
1x Urza's Incubator
The deck is considerably smaller now, and I've removed the Dragon's to get it working properly. The shocks are only temporary, they will be replaced with Lightning Bolts. Already the deck looks like its going to play much quicker, despite the small mana acceleration that it gave before. This should help a bunch.
Please let me know what you think of the revised edition of the deck.
Thank you!
Xyx - If I was ever going to bring this deck to a Vintage tournament, it may have been a consideration. Unfortunately i only play casual, and the odd time, i'll go to a legacy run.
Thanks to Mcheif111 for the Sig banner!
Also, Brainstorm is best with a bunch of shuffle effects to let you get rid of the stuff you don't want, so it's possible that Ponder or Preordain is the more correct choice here.
Keep in mind brainstorm is restricted in vintage (its unbanned in legacy). Also, Mana Flare is one of the best ways to pump out mana in a red deck IF you can stand your opponent having their mana doubled too.
On average it wins on turn 7, occasionally turn 3, often turn 5-8, sometimes 4. If you're playing against a creature heavy or token oriented deck you can replace assault strobe with more weapon and infiltrate with leap of flame or counterspells, and it's only a few lands away from being a pauper deck making it cheap as well as the fact most spells are inexpensive. The idea behind izzet is that you burn opponents via drawing cards and playing spells or fuel burn with drawing which your deck isn't as consistent with, and I'm not even sure what it's trying to do considering you don't even have guttersnipe. Lotus petals also aren't as good as you think unless you run heavy artifacts and mox opal, you can just run fewer lands if you play cheaper spells.
I have ran spellheart chimera it doesnt help as much as you'd think and the solemn simularum seems out of place. No lightning bolt? no roft bolt? those will go good ehre... i could post my red and blue deck if you'd like? it is instant and sorcery basedd
Avatar and Signature made by me.
Regular Decks:
Green Pauper - BlackDemons - White Soldiers - RU Spells - BU Mill
My Commanders:
Tibor, and Lumia - Savra, Queen of the Golgari
Off Topic:
My Music Gallery
Feral - I think you only looked at the top decklist, the revised one got rid of a lot of what you've mentioned.
Thanks to Mcheif111 for the Sig banner!
the seond part of my comment was referring to the second decklist
Avatar and Signature made by me.
Regular Decks:
Green Pauper - BlackDemons - White Soldiers - RU Spells - BU Mill
My Commanders:
Tibor, and Lumia - Savra, Queen of the Golgari
Off Topic:
My Music Gallery
lotus Blossom may be something i would look at later on. Tomorrow is test day on a few decks.
Thanks to Mcheif111 for the Sig banner!
Avatar and Signature made by me.
Regular Decks:
Green Pauper - BlackDemons - White Soldiers - RU Spells - BU Mill
My Commanders:
Tibor, and Lumia - Savra, Queen of the Golgari
Off Topic:
My Music Gallery
Thanks to Mcheif111 for the Sig banner!
Avatar and Signature made by me.
Regular Decks:
Green Pauper - BlackDemons - White Soldiers - RU Spells - BU Mill
My Commanders:
Tibor, and Lumia - Savra, Queen of the Golgari
Off Topic:
My Music Gallery