Any thoughts on Mindmoil and Arjun, the Shifting Flame? I see them in a lot of other decks, and they seem designed to put out triggers without the risk of someone decking themselves.
I decided to stay away from cards like that (Teferi's Puzzle Box falls into the same category). This is for two reasons: 1) I don't like how "powerful" they can be and 2) I don't like that they give me less control over my draws and the cards in hand. The first is more about the fact that the deck is already kind of frustrating to play against and making it more so would just make it more unfun. The second is due to me wanting to plan out my plays and having one of those cards makes it a little tougher to sequence things the way I want since I have to get a new hand on every spell. I know there are ways to mitigate that, and they are both more of win conditions than anything, but they are still not cards I want to try to slot in anywhere.
I do agree that they are pretty good, especially if the plan is to land either of the Niv-Mizzet's or the Locust God and just rack up the draw triggers, so anyone trying to play that way would likely want to include them. I prefer a more control oriented build and I don't think they work as well with that.
I didn't really see a lot of cards I care about from the newest sets so I started looking to other cards to replace some of the ones I feel aren't working as well as I want. I realized Jaya Ballard might be a decent card. All 3 of her abilities work well in the deck and, if I can use the mana from her first ability right away, she essentially costs 2. The main issue is that she produces RRR whereas the main color is U but I think there are enough things where I can use the mana for the generic mana portion that it is still worthwhile. Being able to loot away cards or being able to recast stuff from my graveyard can also be relevant.
I am not sure if it is the right card to add but as there are a number of cards I want to cut, I think this is something worth trying. I have decided to cut Mystic Speculation due to it being a Sorcery and not being an actual source of card advantage. Having to spend mana on the Speculation on my turn to consistently get value is not what I usually want to do. While Jaya takes 1 turn to get on the field, any time after that, any value she provides is "free" so I think I am more willing to give her a try.
I think I mentioned it earlier, but I really don't like Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind in this deck. It doesn't really do anything more than Parun and it is harder to ensure it sticks around. Being a 6 drop means I will almost always want to cast Parun first anyway and then work on getting value out of Parun before trying to get The Firemind down.
So, I am going to cut The Firemind and add in Keep Watch. Keep Watch is an Instant and can potentially draw me a bunch of cards. Even getting 2 or 3 cards isn't the worst. And, with Basilisk Collar on Parun, this basically let's me destroy all creatures attacking me with one spell.
Jhoira got out of control pretty quickly. They ended up with 7 suspended spells when I ended up casting a Twister effect to get better cards. For some reason, the Omnath Player allowed Jhoira to stay alive much longer than she should have. They had Omnath, a couple tokens, and a sac outlet so they could have killed her at any time. But, they chose to wait which allowed Jhoira to suspend 4 more cards than they should have if they killed her before they untapped.
Luckily, the cards Suspended were things like Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind, Bosh, Iron Golem, Thopter Assembly, Sharding Sphinx and a few other creatures. I did counter the "cast" trigger for Niv Mizzet so it remained exiled, and then rest I just dealt with using Niv when he was equipped with Basilisk Collar. In fact, Niv wasn't touched the entire game and kept the Collar on as well. This allowed me to keep the board clear of pretty much all creatures. Eventually I got down The Locust God and Consecrated Sphinx and just kept popping out tokens and dealing damage.
My favorite play of the game happened on my final turn. I had the aforementioned cards on the field and I cast Explosion from Expansion // Explosion. I only cast it for X=8 to leave back some mana for counters or whatever. But, I targeted the Tawnos player for the 8 damage and the Omnath player for the 8 cards. Since they drew 8 cards, Consecrated Sphinx let me draw 16. This game me another 16 damage to point at Tawnos which left them at 2. I then had 40 Insect tokens total which I used to kill Jhoira and Omnath. Then, when Tawnos drew their card for turn, I drew 2 cards from Sphinx and dealt the final 2 damage to them from Niv.
I didn't get a chance to see Keep Watch in action though I did have it in hand at the end of the game. If I had been swinging with far fewer creatures I could see casting Keep Watch to get me more tokens for next time or drawing a bunch of cards to keep my hand full. Since there are usually times when I am swinging with 10 or fewer tokens, Keep Watch can be a great value card in those situations. So, while I haven't actually used it yet, I think the potential is pretty high.
I’m building a version also, but with a lot more 1 drops. Every instant or sorcery spell lets you draw a card and deal a damage with Niv, so the goal is to cast as many as possible with him on the field. I’m going to run these cards:
I don’t know how good Firemind’s research is because it requires us to sink mana on it, and with all the cards we’re drawing, I’m not sure how much mana we’ll have left over, but I guess we can active it at the end of an opponent’s turn. I think a card like Guttersnipe or Young pyromancer may be better because we play them and don’t have to sink any mana into them, although I guess they are easier to kill.
What do you guys think of Gilded Lotus? It allows us to hold up mana for a counterspell on turn 5, and turn 6 cast our commander plus a spell that cost 1 mana. For the rest of the game it gives us 3 more mana.
I also think these cards would be good for the deck:
Charisma allows us to take control of a bunch of creatures with Niv, and unwind, rewind, and snap are cast for “free” while also setting off instant triggers.
I actually agree on Firemind's Research. It was almost the card I cut for Keep Watch before ultimately deciding to cut Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind. I do think this slot can be something better as the mana requirements are not often worth it. In the last game I played, the 5 damage ability did come in handy but it still might have been better being something else.
While I would like to have more 1 drops, I am not a fan of 4 of the ones you listed. Only Faithless Looting seems worth it to me. Probe does draw a card which is nice, but the others don't. Which means they don't work quite as well with Niv. I don't think more Counterspells are needed so Dispel is out and Gamble isn't something I would want to play. I think it does have a place in this type of deck so it isn't a bad choice at all; it just isn't something I would want.
Faithless Looting on the other hand is pretty good. With Niv, it is draw 3, discard 2 and deal 3 damage for 1 mana (or 3 later on). It gives me something to do with my mana later and it can help filter out some bad cards. I think I might actually try to slot it in.
Lotus isn't as necessary. I would rather this just be a good spell for interaction/card draw. Even if it means not being able to hold up mana to protect Niv for a turn or needing to wait so I can protect him.
Charisma is interesting. I vastly prefer Basilisk Collar which doesn't work well with Charisma. That said, it looks like it could do some good work and stealing other players' stuff just by dealing damage seems fun :). I think I might pick one up just in case though I don't really have a plan to slot it in anywhere.
I don't like too many counterspells but those aren't too bad. Rewind is definitely preferable over Unwind. Snap can be good as well. I don't think any of them are bad choices for this type of deck.
I started off with a few lands, one of which was Cascade Bluffs. This was super important because, for the longest time, I only had 1 mountain on the field so this gave me the 3 red necessary to cast Niv Mizzet later. On turn 3 I countered a Wood Elves from Vaevictus with Arcane Denial solely because I was going to cast Day's Undoing on my turn. There hadn't been anything better to counter prior to that. This did help the Ravos/Smasher player as they missed land drops but I wanted a fresh hand.
Shortly after this, I got a Sapphire Medallion down and that put in some serious work over the course of the game. I cast Niv on turn 7 with a Swan Song in hand for backup in case someone wanted to try to destroy him. I got it off of Mystical Tutor so players knew what I had. I decided on this to try to get Niv down a turn earlier rather than trying to wait for the mana for Counterspell or Mana Drain. I am not sure it was really a mistake, but Niv did die to Ravenous Chupacabra. With the Medallion, I was able to get Niv down a turn earlier than normal (a few turns later as I did want to keep more mana up this time) and he stuck for a while.
He got blown up again and I cast him again. I also equipped Basilisk Collar to him. Collar has been ridiculously important and powerful in a lot of games and this was no exception. Once he was equipped, the board remained clear and I started gaining a bunch of life. At this point in the game, my opponents were unable to deal with the board as I had way too many spells for them to deal with.
Karador had tried to keep Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite on the field and I definitely wanted her to stick around too. At the time, it made Niv a 3/3 but that was fine with me as it dealt with the other 2 players' boards. Ravos/Smasher had a Night Incarnate on the field at one point which did die. In response to the trigger, I had to bounce Elesh Norn to save Niv-Mizzet and then they just played Elesh Norn again. Overall, it worked out fairly well.
Another time, I had 5 mana and cast a Frantic Search for 2 mana (thanks to the Medallion). I drew 3 cards, discarded 2 and ended up with 6 mana. This was important as I had a Cyclonic Rift in hand and 6 mana was just enough to cast it if I needed to. I ended up not needing to, but having that line showed that Frantic Search can be good just to get me 1 extra mana if I need it.
In the end, I won using beats from Niv and Kefnet the Mindful. Turns out a 5/5 flying indestructible God is tough to deal with. Especially when I have spells to protect it from exile effects. Kefnet also was very good since he kept my hand full, allowed me to keep pinging creatures with Niv, and (obviously) dealt a lot of damage.
I didn't see any cards in the game that I felt really didn't do what I wanted. I did think about Faithless Looting at one point since I was down on cards, but that was at a time when Niv was not around so it would have been draw 2, discard 2 "only". It isn't bad but I realized I needed more than just filtering in that scenario. Luckily, a Pull From Tomorrow got me a full hand again. I know Looting was mentioned above, but I am not sure if it is enough. I think I really just need actual card draw and not just filtering.
Played against Kaalia, The Ur-Dragon (Superfriends), and Progenitus (God Tribal). The game was super grindy and went on for a long time. I constantly had to answer the Ur-Dragon as well as Kaalia (Progenitus wasn't doing a lot that needed answering). Kaalia actually had a turn 5 win to kill someone (they went after me first) since they had Master of Cruelties in hand and chose not to use it. We found out when I made them discard their hand with a Wheel.
For a while, the game just grinded out with everyone else trying to build a board state and me trying to stop them.
There was only 1 super cool play on my part and I messed it up. The Ur-Dragon tried to go off with Doubling Season and their walkers and I tried to dig for an answer to DS. I didn't find one so I let it resolve since they weren't actually doing anything yet. Then they tried to cast Samut, the Tested and I started to dig again. I started all of this with 7 mana and cast Chemister's Insight twice thanks to the Sapphire Medallion I had. I ended up finding an Arcane Denial with 1 mana left and it was just enough because of the Medallion so I countered the Samut. They then just went off with Tamiyo and Ugin. Had I kept digging for an answer to DS, I would have found Arcane Denial for that and it would have been awesome. Since I didn't, we just lost.
Nothing really happened that made me think I need to change anything. A misplay cost me the game but the deck otherwise functioned very well.
I played this deck yesterday against 3 other decks. Tuvasa, Jhoira, Weatherlight Captain and Aurelia were the decks I played against. I did very little to start the game but I did try to keep control of the board and cast Magmaquake for 3 early on to deal with a few things. It didn't stop an Auriok Champion Aurelia had but it ended up not being a big deal.
I did cast Turn // Burn on one of Aurelia's Angels where they cast Archangel Avacyn in response. Which ended up not doing anything since the Indestructible was taken away anyway so I killed their angel which was suited up with 3 or 4 equipment.
I eventually got down Niv-Mizzet and he survived a turn so I just incrementally got card advantage while pinging for 1 as the game wore on. I was able to counter stuff I needed to counter and I was able to slowly dwindle the life of Aurelia. I killed them with Tuvasa and Jhoira over 20. I then cast Windfall with 14 cards in hand and responded to it by casting Fateful Showdown. This let me kill Tuvasa and deal some damage to Jhoira. Then, before Windfall resolved, I cast a few spells to get my card count in hand over 20 which, with the card draws there and then the Windfall resolving, allowed me to kill Jhoira. Luckily I had Reliquary Tower in play so I could keep a large hand to allow for this big play at the end of the game.
Nothing in this game seemed to work poorly and I thought I had control of the game for quite a bit except for one time towards the end where I had a hand of 5 lands and 2 do nothing cards. I was able to finally draw out of this situation, but having 5 cards in hand that late is not where this deck wants to be. Sometimes it just works like that so I am not too concerned about it, but it was a touchy situation.
Overall, the deck worked as I wanted it to work and I didn't feel that it drew out the game more so than needed. When I got the chance to win, I just won.
Because this is my "spellslinger" deck, I have thought for a while now that Narset's Reversal would be a good include. Interestingly, this light is actually pretty tight even in the short amount of time it has been put together, so finding room for cuts is getting more difficult.
With that being said, a few cards stand out to me as being potential cuts.
Firemind's Research is nice and can keep me going when I need it to, but it is not an Instant or Sorcery and takes a bit of setup to use.
Invert // Invent is good as well since it can get me a lot of things, but it is has a high mana cost to do that.
Jaya Ballard has 3 very solid abilities for this deck, but the triple red can sometimes be tough to get to
Search for Azcanta does give me card advantage but it takes a bit to get there and it is not a draw (so won't trigger Niv).
Solemn Simulacrum doesn't do as much here. It does draw a card, but so does everything else. And the ramp isn't really needed at the 4 drop slot (Burnished Hart still gets a pass for being able to come down at 3 and getting 2 lands) as I have other forms of ramp and this deck is more concerned about just hitting land drops than trying to ramp into anything. It is nice to get Niv down early, but I have found that I want to wait anyway so I have counter magic to protect him and I have other forms of interaction before he comes down.
The most obvious card to cut for now is the Research. The others are still good and have their uses, but even stretching it, these were the only ones I could see potentially cutting. Hopefully not too many new cards some out that I need to find spots for
yeah man I think you got the right cut list but wanted to say that card is gross in this deck. Kinda like a better remand
I'd be inclined to cut Jaya personally. 5 mana with triple red is a lot, and it just doesn't jive with the efficiency of the rest of the deck. I might straight up play Faithless Looting or Desperate ravings or even Predict before her
Speaking of predict it's a card I've had some fun with from time to time There's a surprising number of topdeck tutors being played these days.
But I think your list of cuts and research is completely reasonable.
I have to admit that I'm a little bit confused as to what your play-style actually is though. At first glance, due to the lack of ramp or infinite combos, I would have concluded that you were a casual player but then I notice that you are running some high power cards such as Cyclonic Rift and Consecrated Sphinx as well as a fairly large number of counterspells. I would like to hear more about what kinds of cards you like to play with and what your intention for the deck is so that I might better advise. If I were to hazard a guess I would say you were primarily concerned with having fun and secondarily concerned with winning. No shortcuts, no infinite combos, no broken cards. Am I right?
The thing about fun though is that it is highly subjective and also relative to your playgroup, which is why I am asking for a little more info. What's fun to me might not be fun to you. My deck evolved out of playing with a lot of other more competitive lists. I got tired of losing because it wasn't fun to me to lose on turn 3 or 4. I decided I would stop those wins and get my own win-cons into place. I took a spin for a time with cards like Curiosity and Enter the Infinite but then realized that wasn't really the direction I wanted to go either. Now my Niv list is more of a long-term control, card advantage engine, with combos to seal the game.
That said, I think I may have a couple suggestions you might find of interest:
Firstly, I want to talk about your choice of commander. Have you thought about running The Locust God instead? I see him as a very viable option simply because your list isn't a combo list. It feels a bit more aggressive. One awesome benefit about the God is that he generates chump blockers. There are some pretty amazing synergies with the Locust God already in your list. He can also very quickly overwhelm your opponents with tokens and they can be Skullclamped which is a very powerful draw engine. I don't actually see Parun as being the best spellslinger commander out there. I see him as being control/combo and utilizing more of a hand-fattening approach. This is arguably a more consistent strategy for commander than spellslinger unless you really have the support, simply because you have 4 opponents each starting at 40 life. That is 160 life that you have to ping away. I see the control in your list but not the combo. I also only see Parun as a win-con. Kess, Dissident Mage and Melek, Izzet Paragon are excellent spellslinger commanders. Not to say Parun can't get the job done nicely, but there are definitely some other paths you might consider.
Next, I do feel I should address the issue of not using ramp. The kind of games that I play, I would never be able to cast Niv without it, because games can be won by turn 6 fairly reliably. Waiting six turns and hoping that I get just the right mix of colors on turn 6 just seems really painful to me. You don't have to run anything crazy like moxen, or Mana Crypt but a few mana rocks would really go a long way for you I think. I find cheap colored rocks to be the best Izzet Signet, Chromatic Lantern, Coldsteel Heart, Fire Diamond, Sky Diamond, Commander's Sphere, Coalition Relic, are some that come to mind. Gilded Lotus allows you to easily cast Niv on turn 6 with mana open for protection.
One question I would ask yourself is if a given card is strong enough without your commander in play. I find many of the cheap draw spells like Opt to be weak in multiplayer. If your goal is to draw a lot of cards and deal damage with Parun, this is not the most effective way IMO. An exception maybe to this is if you are reliably able to copy these kinds of spells.
Of great concern to me is that it appears that you are entirely dependent on your commander to win. What do you do if he costs too much commander tax and you are locked out of playing him? What do you do when he repeatedly gets board wiped, or otherwise removed from play? In my mind it makes sense to have a win condition that is independent of your commander, but still on theme of course. There are several good options here. Many use Laboratory Maniac. I personally prefer a non permanent based and synergistic (can be tutored for or recurred) win-con which is Inner Fire + Comet Storm. Spiraling Embers can also be used but I like the mana generation from Inner Fire because sometimes it can be difficult to get enough damage out of embers to win. It is also obscure and flavorful and red, which I like.
I would suggest trying either Trade Routes or Tectonic Reformation or even Seismic Assault. Because you have a higher land count at 38 (I'm actually only running 35 because I have ramp) I can foresee you having some issues of being land flooded from time to time. These two cards turn late game lands into useful spells or damage. I really like the effect. I am personally using Scroll Rack however, but that is a higher tier more competitive upgrade in my mind. It allows a broken counter-lock combo with Counterbalance. It basically allows your whole hand to be cycled for 1. It is also tutor-able with Fabricate, Tribute Mage, and similar artifact tutors.
You've mentioned that you see the value of the cost reducing effect of Sapphire Medallion. There are many such effects, and it is a common tool for Izzet. It is a viable alternative or complement to artifact ramp in the deck, and I would suggest running a few more. The best in my mind are Baral, Chief of Compliance, Goblin Electromancer and Jace's Sanctum. Helm of Awakening or The Immortal Sun can also be used. There are others but these are the ones I would choose.
A new card that I am really liking a lot is Reality Scramble. I am specifically using it to cheat Omniscience into play but it can also find Consecrated Sphinx. Izzet doesn't really have any good creature tutors outside of Gamble, Long-Term Plans, and Ethereal Usher. The fact that it has retrace is really what makes a winner in my mind. If you can get it into play and protect it, Sphinx is game winning. It's broken with Wheel of Fortune, Windfall and friends. I have prioritized getting it into play above doing other things for this reason.
Graveyard recursion is a very powerful strategy for a deck like this. I would recommend swapping out some of your lower powered spells for at least 4 or 5 of these. Snapcaster Mage, Shreds of Sanity, Mystic Retrieval, Mission Briefing, Finale of Promise, Call to Mind, Mizzix's Mastery, and Recoup are some of the best. The reason these cards are so powerful is that they increase your flexibility. They generate card advantage, allow you to cast your best spells multiple times, and generally permit your graveyard to be a pseudo extension of your hand. It is incredibly synergistic with the discard type of hand-cycling effects. Discovering this strategy was a definitive "eureka" moment for me.
Leyline of Anticipation or Vedalken Orrey can take the deck up a notch. Casting your wheel effects on someone else's turn can be a powerful play. It is also a definite benefit to cast these wheels just before your next turn so that you are the first one to be able to play them (assuming everyone else is tapped out). Because you are going for a more controllish route with your counterspells, that means that you are leaving mana open to cast them. Being able to cast other spells with that open mana is efficient. Many spells were printed at sorcery speed for a reason.
All is Dust is an amazing catch all removal spell for this deck. I really really wouldn't play without it.
Propaganda can be a big help. Repeatedly board wiping can make your opponents target you. This card can singlehandedly force your opponents to kill each other.
Ivory Tower can be a nice little source of innocent life gain. A less innocent source is Aetherflux Reservoir which can also be a win-con.
Welp, those are my suggestions. I see a lot of cards in your list that I would cut, but I will leave that to you based on your preference and experience, unless you ask me for my recommendations.
I have to admit that I'm a little bit confused as to what your play-style actually is though. At first glance, due to the lack of ramp or infinite combos, I would have concluded that you were a casual player but then I notice that you are running some high power cards such as Cyclonic Rift and Consecrated Sphinx as well as a fairly large number of counterspells. I would like to hear more about what kinds of cards you like to play with and what your intention for the deck is so that I might better advise. If I were to hazard a guess I would say you were primarily concerned with having fun and secondarily concerned with winning. No shortcuts, no infinite combos, no broken cards. Am I right?
I am not sure what you mean by no shortcuts or broken cards. I mean, some people think Timetwister and Cyclonic Rift are broken. Are you thinking of things like High Tide or just using "broken" to mean combo pieces. Because yes, there is something I actively avoid in EDH and that is "infinite" combos. They are not fun to play against and, for me, they are not fun to play with.
As for playstyle, I always prioritize fun over winning, but it *is* fun to win so I still want my decks to be powerful and cohesive.
Now my Niv list is more of a long-term control, card advantage engine, with combos to seal the game.
This is basically the same as my intent. I do "combo" with wheels and Fateful Showdown to win. I just don't use infinites.
Firstly, I want to talk about your choice of commander. Have you thought about running The Locust God instead? I see him as a very viable option simply because your list isn't a combo list. It feels a bit more aggressive. One awesome benefit about the God is that he generates chump blockers. There are some pretty amazing synergies with the Locust God already in your list. He can also very quickly overwhelm your opponents with tokens and they can be Skullclamped which is a very powerful draw engine.
My first Izzet deck I built was around The Locust God. And it was terrible. While it was more of a mindset than anything, the God seemed better suited to things like Mindmoil. Arjun, Teferi's Puzzle Box, etc. It was not a playstyle I enjoyed for what I wanted Blue/Red to be. If I wanted aggressive, I would play my Gisela deck.
I don't actually see Parun as being the best spellslinger commander out there. I see him as being control/combo and utilizing more of a hand-fattening approach. This is arguably a more consistent strategy for commander than spellslinger unless you really have the support, simply because you have 4 opponents each starting at 40 life. That is 160 life that you have to ping away. I see the control in your list but not the combo. I also only see Parun as a win-con. Kess, Dissident Mage and Melek, Izzet Paragon are excellent spellslinger commanders. Not to say Parun can't get the job done nicely, but there are definitely some other paths you might consider.
You might be right here in that there may be "better" spellslinger commanders but I didn't want Grixis (so Kess is out) and I hated Melek. The problem with Melek or Mizzix of the Izmagnus is that they want big splashy spells. They want to do a lot of (or a little) setup for a huge payoff and that doesn't appeal to me. I wanted a deck that left me in control. One that allowed me to set the pace of the game and win when I saw fit and I think Niv does a great job at that. He can't be countered, which is a plus, he has a big body, he basically always replaces himself (at worst) since I am going to get to draw a card off the removal spell people use on him and, if I can counter it, another card off my spell. That is not to say that Niv is perfect because he isn't. 6 mana, all of it colored, is a tough restriction sometimes.
Also, I have 3 opponents normally, so 120 life. Not really the point you were trying to make, but I don't play 5 player games if I can help it.
Of most concern to me is that it appears to me that you are entirely dependent on your commander to win. What do you do if he costs too much commander tax and you are locked out of playing him? What do you do when he repeatedly gets board wiped, or otherwise removed from play? In my mind it makes sense to have a win condition that is independent of your commander, but still on theme of course. There are several good options here. Many use Laboratory Maniac. I personally prefer a non permanent based and synergistic (can be tutored for or recurred) win-con which is Inner Fire + Comet Storm. Spiraling Embers can also be used but I like the mana generation from Inner Fire because sometimes it can be difficult to get enough damage out of embers to win. It is also obscure and flavorful and red, which I like.
While the deck is reliant on Niv, that is the way I wanted it. Too often I build decks (or see decks built) that don't care about their general. Plus, The Locust God and good old fashioned beats with Kefnet and Sphinx can help close out games. Lab Man is a no go for the reasons "infinites" are and Fateful Showdown seems to be a much better Spiraling Embers. Inner Fire is an interesting option, but I have never felt that I needed anything more than I have. That isn't to say that they can't be good, but the list is actually pretty good and has been very successful in my group. I don't think I have ever had to cast Niv more than 3 times so him becoming too expensive hasn't been a concern.
I would suggest trying either Trade Routes or Tectonic Reformation or even Seismic Assault. Because you have a higher land count at 38 (I'm actually only running 35 because I have ramp) I can foresee you having some issues of being land flooded from time to time. These two cards turn late game lands into useful spells or damage. I really like the effect. I am personally using Scroll Rack however, but that is a higher tier more competitive upgrade in my mind. It allows a broken counter-lock combo with Counterbalance. It basically allows your whole hand to be cycled for 1. It is also tutor-able with Fabricate, Tribute Mage, and similar artifact tutors.
As I mentioned in one of my more recent summaries, I actually Wheeled and ended up with 5 lands in hand. But I wouldn't go as far to say as I have been flooded and I don't know that I want to start throwing lands away. Even if I do end up with more lands than I want at the time, I still want to play all my lands. The deck is actually fairly mana hungry so I would rather have those lands to play than get in 2 damage. Maybe the Reformation can be decent due to drawing cards and pitching excess lands for at least some value. I will think on that. The main issue is that it is kind of out of place for the deck. 2 mana to draw a card (which requires I have a land I actually want to discard) seems unlikely to come up a lot.
As for Scroll Rack, it doesn't draw cards so it doesn't work with Niv and I am obviously not playing any sort of lock so it really doesn't do much in the deck. I also don't have a ton of shuffle effects so putting bad cards on top just means I have bad draws for a couple turns. I could maybe see adding Fabricate to get to my Basilisk Collar, but I am not sure if that is really worth it. I might have to think on it honestly since that is one of the better things I could be tutoring for. I love blowing up the board, one damage at a time.
You've mentioned that you see the value of the cost reducing effect of Sapphire Medallion. There are many such effects, and it is a common tool for Izzet. It is a viable alternative or complement to artifact ramp in the deck, and I would suggest running a few more. The best in my mind are Baral, Chief of Compliance, Goblin Electromancer and Jace's Sanctum. Helm of Awakening or The Immortal Sun can also be used. There are others but these are the ones I would choose.
While the Medallion has done well, I just can't justify slotting in more cost reductions since I would need to pull out good cards for those. Plus, the creatures just die way too easily. I think they can be good cards (Baral more than the Goblin) but it is not something I want to go too far into.
A new card that I am really liking a lot is Reality Scramble. I am specifically using it to cheat Omniscience into play but it can also find Consecrated Sphinx. Izzet doesn't really have any good creature tutors outside of Gamble, Long-Term Plans, and Ethereal Usher. The fact that it has retrace is really what makes a winner in my mind. If you can get it into play and protect it, Sphinx is game winning. It's broken with Wheel of Fortune, Windfall and friends. I have prioritized getting it into play above doing other things for this reason.
I run 6 creatures (7 with Niv), 3 planeswalkers, 3 Artifacts, and 1 Enchantment. Of the 6 creatures, there are 2 that I would be willing to Scramble away. While this card may be good, it is not something I would use to ensure I get Sphinx because I just don't have enough permanents to make it useful. And I can't see a situation where I would legitimately tuck the Locust God or Kefnet just for a shot at the Sphinx.
Long Term Plans was a card I had considered early on and I think I skipped over it for being too good (basically). I enjoy decks where I need to piece things together or just slowly grind out games. I am generally down on tutors and I especially don't like unconditional tutors which is really the main reason I left it out. I think anyone else looking at this that doesn't have my hang up on tutors would see that as a good suggestion though.
Maybe those are alright, but they do have different functions. And Sphinx is here partly because it can be a beater. And, again, the Scramble doesn't work for Reflection at least since I only have 1 Enchantment and, arguably, there might be cause for cutting the one I have. Again, I am not knocking the suggestions as I think they fit in certain builds but I don't really think I want, or need, them here.
Graveyard recursion is a very powerful strategy for a deck like this. I would recommend swapping out some of your lower powered spells for at least 4 or 5 of these. Snapcaster Mage, Shreds of Sanity, Mystic Retrieval, Mission Briefing, Finale of Promise, Call to Mind, Mizzix's Mastery, and Recoup are some of the best. The reason these cards are so powerful is that they increase your flexibility. They generate card advantage, allow you to cast your best spells multiple times, and generally permit your graveyard to be a pseudo extension of your hand. It is incredibly synergistic with the discard type of hand-cycling effects. Discovering this strategy was a definitive "eureka" moment for me.
I am curious as to which cards you feel are lower powered. There is a reason for nearly every card in the deck and generally finding room for cuts is difficult so knowing what cards to look at can be helpful.
As to your mentions: I already run Snapcaster and Mission Briefing and I run those specifically because they are Instants (or, has Flash in the case of Snapcaster). I can see the use of the others to get back spells so Shreds of Sanity really looks like the main one I could play since it gets back 2 cards.
All is Dust is an amazing catch all removal spell for this deck. I really really wouldn't play without it.
I disagree. You already brought up the issue of Niv dying too often so I definitely don't want to do too much to make that happen.
Propaganda can be a big help. Repeatedly board wiping can make your opponents target you. This card can singlehandedly force your opponents to kill each other.
While I don't think this card is needed, I think this summation is a little too optimistic (at least, for my playgroup). While Propaganda will certainly slow things down there is no way I am getting out of that unscathed. It puts a target on me and will likely just get blown up anyway. And I doubt I am going to want to spend any resources on trying to protect it.
I do like some of the suggestions so I appreciate the write up. I do think our visions of the deck are not completely in sync (which is to be expected) but the deck has done well for me so far.
Also, since I know different playgroups have different "levels" of competitiveness, I don't think mine is on the lower end. I play against combo (too much of it sometimes for my tastes) and control as well as aggro and midrange strategies and, for the most part, the people in my group are playing to win as well and are pretty competent. That is not to say that I don't occasionally play against a precon or something like that, but this deck has been able to weather some pretty tough games. While I understand there are a lot of things that can make this deck "better" it does what I want it to *and* it wins so it is tough to move too far from the current vision.
This is a pretty narrow comment, but something I saw in there that I wanted to talk about a little --
The thing with propaganda effects in my experience is that they were quite good historically in commander and that the metagame has largely evolved for them to be much worse especially if you don't have a lot of them. Just plopping a propaganda down every now and then is much less good than it used to be in EDH. People are packing more removal and playing thicker creatures all around as well, so sometimes they'll just pay and bash you when they've got extra mana even if they can't remove it.
And additionally there are a lot more non-combat kills than there used to be, with stuff like Purphoros, Niv, random artifact combos, dragon warstorm surge nonsense, etc.
(Side note: I started looking at the creature size of decks I see based on our previous discussion about Massacre wurm and I realized that I was mostly thinking in the past. I've been seeing people drop a ton of just random 6/6's and stuff these days. Creature bodies have been really pushed.)
I'm not saying it's always bad, but I think it's worse as "good stuff" in spellslinger decks than it used to be. Generally better off playing more draw, more sweepers, or even instant speed mass interaction like aetherspouts or evacuation.
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Oh and one more: Manifold insights has been insane for me in my spellslinger deck. I pretty much only play good cards and getting 3 of anything non-land for 3 mana is almost always a huge plus no matter how "bad" they try to pick for me.
Thanks for your reply. I think our play-styles are just too different for me to really recommend anything else. If the deck works for you, that's what counts. Cheers!
Not much to report, but I have decided to try to slot in God-Eternal Kefnet. It seems like it just works very well with what Niv wants since the copies are cast. Even though some of my spells don't benefit from the discount, it can still be good to get an extra Ponder or Preordain.
The list is becoming more "finalized" (or, as final as an EDH deck can be) so finding cuts is tough. I think Pokken's comment about Jaya is where I was leaning as well, but I do still have Solemn and Search for Azcanta as potential cuts. I have been going back and forth on Invert//Invent but Invent is pretty good even if it is on the high side for mana cost.
I think I am leaning mostly to Solemn for now. I had thought a lot about Jaya as the 3 red is a lot (though Niv requires the same) and it is tough to tap out for her in order to let her ramp me the next few turns. I still think she is good for this deck though as her abilities are all relevant even with the somewhat prohibitive cost. Really, that is the biggest reason for a potential cut.
Solemn, on the other hand, is really a 4 mana ramp spell (I can't consistently get it to die to draw a card) and I don't think the body is all that relevant either. Burnished Hart still gets a pass for now for coming down a turn earlier and getting 2 lands (even though the overall cost is 2 mana more). So, I am going to try that and see if Kefnet fits that spot better.
Any thoughts on Mindmoil and Arjun, the Shifting Flame? I see them in a lot of other decks, and they seem designed to put out triggers without the risk of someone decking themselves.
I do agree that they are pretty good, especially if the plan is to land either of the Niv-Mizzet's or the Locust God and just rack up the draw triggers, so anyone trying to play that way would likely want to include them. I prefer a more control oriented build and I don't think they work as well with that.
I am not sure if it is the right card to add but as there are a number of cards I want to cut, I think this is something worth trying. I have decided to cut Mystic Speculation due to it being a Sorcery and not being an actual source of card advantage. Having to spend mana on the Speculation on my turn to consistently get value is not what I usually want to do. While Jaya takes 1 turn to get on the field, any time after that, any value she provides is "free" so I think I am more willing to give her a try.
CUTS
Mystic Speculation
ADDS
Jaya Ballard
So, I am going to cut The Firemind and add in Keep Watch. Keep Watch is an Instant and can potentially draw me a bunch of cards. Even getting 2 or 3 cards isn't the worst. And, with Basilisk Collar on Parun, this basically let's me destroy all creatures attacking me with one spell.
CUTS
Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind
ADDS
Keep Watch
Jhoira got out of control pretty quickly. They ended up with 7 suspended spells when I ended up casting a Twister effect to get better cards. For some reason, the Omnath Player allowed Jhoira to stay alive much longer than she should have. They had Omnath, a couple tokens, and a sac outlet so they could have killed her at any time. But, they chose to wait which allowed Jhoira to suspend 4 more cards than they should have if they killed her before they untapped.
Luckily, the cards Suspended were things like Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind, Bosh, Iron Golem, Thopter Assembly, Sharding Sphinx and a few other creatures. I did counter the "cast" trigger for Niv Mizzet so it remained exiled, and then rest I just dealt with using Niv when he was equipped with Basilisk Collar. In fact, Niv wasn't touched the entire game and kept the Collar on as well. This allowed me to keep the board clear of pretty much all creatures. Eventually I got down The Locust God and Consecrated Sphinx and just kept popping out tokens and dealing damage.
My favorite play of the game happened on my final turn. I had the aforementioned cards on the field and I cast Explosion from Expansion // Explosion. I only cast it for X=8 to leave back some mana for counters or whatever. But, I targeted the Tawnos player for the 8 damage and the Omnath player for the 8 cards. Since they drew 8 cards, Consecrated Sphinx let me draw 16. This game me another 16 damage to point at Tawnos which left them at 2. I then had 40 Insect tokens total which I used to kill Jhoira and Omnath. Then, when Tawnos drew their card for turn, I drew 2 cards from Sphinx and dealt the final 2 damage to them from Niv.
I didn't get a chance to see Keep Watch in action though I did have it in hand at the end of the game. If I had been swinging with far fewer creatures I could see casting Keep Watch to get me more tokens for next time or drawing a bunch of cards to keep my hand full. Since there are usually times when I am swinging with 10 or fewer tokens, Keep Watch can be a great value card in those situations. So, while I haven't actually used it yet, I think the potential is pretty high.
I don’t know how good Firemind’s research is because it requires us to sink mana on it, and with all the cards we’re drawing, I’m not sure how much mana we’ll have left over, but I guess we can active it at the end of an opponent’s turn. I think a card like Guttersnipe or Young pyromancer may be better because we play them and don’t have to sink any mana into them, although I guess they are easier to kill.
What do you guys think of Gilded Lotus? It allows us to hold up mana for a counterspell on turn 5, and turn 6 cast our commander plus a spell that cost 1 mana. For the rest of the game it gives us 3 more mana.
I also think these cards would be good for the deck:
Charisma allows us to take control of a bunch of creatures with Niv, and unwind, rewind, and snap are cast for “free” while also setting off instant triggers.
JundBGR
RW Blood MoonRW
Pauper
Delver U
Elves G
Control B
Commander
Edgar Markov BRW
Captain Sisay GW
Niv-Mizzet, Parun UR
Tymna and Ravos WB
While I would like to have more 1 drops, I am not a fan of 4 of the ones you listed. Only Faithless Looting seems worth it to me. Probe does draw a card which is nice, but the others don't. Which means they don't work quite as well with Niv. I don't think more Counterspells are needed so Dispel is out and Gamble isn't something I would want to play. I think it does have a place in this type of deck so it isn't a bad choice at all; it just isn't something I would want.
Faithless Looting on the other hand is pretty good. With Niv, it is draw 3, discard 2 and deal 3 damage for 1 mana (or 3 later on). It gives me something to do with my mana later and it can help filter out some bad cards. I think I might actually try to slot it in.
Lotus isn't as necessary. I would rather this just be a good spell for interaction/card draw. Even if it means not being able to hold up mana to protect Niv for a turn or needing to wait so I can protect him.
Charisma is interesting. I vastly prefer Basilisk Collar which doesn't work well with Charisma. That said, it looks like it could do some good work and stealing other players' stuff just by dealing damage seems fun :). I think I might pick one up just in case though I don't really have a plan to slot it in anywhere.
I don't like too many counterspells but those aren't too bad. Rewind is definitely preferable over Unwind. Snap can be good as well. I don't think any of them are bad choices for this type of deck.
I started off with a few lands, one of which was Cascade Bluffs. This was super important because, for the longest time, I only had 1 mountain on the field so this gave me the 3 red necessary to cast Niv Mizzet later. On turn 3 I countered a Wood Elves from Vaevictus with Arcane Denial solely because I was going to cast Day's Undoing on my turn. There hadn't been anything better to counter prior to that. This did help the Ravos/Smasher player as they missed land drops but I wanted a fresh hand.
Shortly after this, I got a Sapphire Medallion down and that put in some serious work over the course of the game. I cast Niv on turn 7 with a Swan Song in hand for backup in case someone wanted to try to destroy him. I got it off of Mystical Tutor so players knew what I had. I decided on this to try to get Niv down a turn earlier rather than trying to wait for the mana for Counterspell or Mana Drain. I am not sure it was really a mistake, but Niv did die to Ravenous Chupacabra. With the Medallion, I was able to get Niv down a turn earlier than normal (a few turns later as I did want to keep more mana up this time) and he stuck for a while.
He got blown up again and I cast him again. I also equipped Basilisk Collar to him. Collar has been ridiculously important and powerful in a lot of games and this was no exception. Once he was equipped, the board remained clear and I started gaining a bunch of life. At this point in the game, my opponents were unable to deal with the board as I had way too many spells for them to deal with.
Karador had tried to keep Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite on the field and I definitely wanted her to stick around too. At the time, it made Niv a 3/3 but that was fine with me as it dealt with the other 2 players' boards. Ravos/Smasher had a Night Incarnate on the field at one point which did die. In response to the trigger, I had to bounce Elesh Norn to save Niv-Mizzet and then they just played Elesh Norn again. Overall, it worked out fairly well.
Another time, I had 5 mana and cast a Frantic Search for 2 mana (thanks to the Medallion). I drew 3 cards, discarded 2 and ended up with 6 mana. This was important as I had a Cyclonic Rift in hand and 6 mana was just enough to cast it if I needed to. I ended up not needing to, but having that line showed that Frantic Search can be good just to get me 1 extra mana if I need it.
In the end, I won using beats from Niv and Kefnet the Mindful. Turns out a 5/5 flying indestructible God is tough to deal with. Especially when I have spells to protect it from exile effects. Kefnet also was very good since he kept my hand full, allowed me to keep pinging creatures with Niv, and (obviously) dealt a lot of damage.
I didn't see any cards in the game that I felt really didn't do what I wanted. I did think about Faithless Looting at one point since I was down on cards, but that was at a time when Niv was not around so it would have been draw 2, discard 2 "only". It isn't bad but I realized I needed more than just filtering in that scenario. Luckily, a Pull From Tomorrow got me a full hand again. I know Looting was mentioned above, but I am not sure if it is enough. I think I really just need actual card draw and not just filtering.
For a while, the game just grinded out with everyone else trying to build a board state and me trying to stop them.
There was only 1 super cool play on my part and I messed it up. The Ur-Dragon tried to go off with Doubling Season and their walkers and I tried to dig for an answer to DS. I didn't find one so I let it resolve since they weren't actually doing anything yet. Then they tried to cast Samut, the Tested and I started to dig again. I started all of this with 7 mana and cast Chemister's Insight twice thanks to the Sapphire Medallion I had. I ended up finding an Arcane Denial with 1 mana left and it was just enough because of the Medallion so I countered the Samut. They then just went off with Tamiyo and Ugin. Had I kept digging for an answer to DS, I would have found Arcane Denial for that and it would have been awesome. Since I didn't, we just lost.
Nothing really happened that made me think I need to change anything. A misplay cost me the game but the deck otherwise functioned very well.
I did cast Turn // Burn on one of Aurelia's Angels where they cast Archangel Avacyn in response. Which ended up not doing anything since the Indestructible was taken away anyway so I killed their angel which was suited up with 3 or 4 equipment.
I eventually got down Niv-Mizzet and he survived a turn so I just incrementally got card advantage while pinging for 1 as the game wore on. I was able to counter stuff I needed to counter and I was able to slowly dwindle the life of Aurelia. I killed them with Tuvasa and Jhoira over 20. I then cast Windfall with 14 cards in hand and responded to it by casting Fateful Showdown. This let me kill Tuvasa and deal some damage to Jhoira. Then, before Windfall resolved, I cast a few spells to get my card count in hand over 20 which, with the card draws there and then the Windfall resolving, allowed me to kill Jhoira. Luckily I had Reliquary Tower in play so I could keep a large hand to allow for this big play at the end of the game.
Nothing in this game seemed to work poorly and I thought I had control of the game for quite a bit except for one time towards the end where I had a hand of 5 lands and 2 do nothing cards. I was able to finally draw out of this situation, but having 5 cards in hand that late is not where this deck wants to be. Sometimes it just works like that so I am not too concerned about it, but it was a touchy situation.
Overall, the deck worked as I wanted it to work and I didn't feel that it drew out the game more so than needed. When I got the chance to win, I just won.
With that being said, a few cards stand out to me as being potential cuts.
1 Firemind's Research
1 Narset's Reversal
I'd be inclined to cut Jaya personally. 5 mana with triple red is a lot, and it just doesn't jive with the efficiency of the rest of the deck. I might straight up play Faithless Looting or Desperate ravings or even Predict before her
Speaking of predict it's a card I've had some fun with from time to time There's a surprising number of topdeck tutors being played these days.
But I think your list of cuts and research is completely reasonable.
UW Ephara Hatebears [Primer], GB Gitrog Lands, BRU Inalla Combo-Control, URG Maelstrom Wanderer Landfall
I have to admit that I'm a little bit confused as to what your play-style actually is though. At first glance, due to the lack of ramp or infinite combos, I would have concluded that you were a casual player but then I notice that you are running some high power cards such as Cyclonic Rift and Consecrated Sphinx as well as a fairly large number of counterspells. I would like to hear more about what kinds of cards you like to play with and what your intention for the deck is so that I might better advise. If I were to hazard a guess I would say you were primarily concerned with having fun and secondarily concerned with winning. No shortcuts, no infinite combos, no broken cards. Am I right?
The thing about fun though is that it is highly subjective and also relative to your playgroup, which is why I am asking for a little more info. What's fun to me might not be fun to you. My deck evolved out of playing with a lot of other more competitive lists. I got tired of losing because it wasn't fun to me to lose on turn 3 or 4. I decided I would stop those wins and get my own win-cons into place. I took a spin for a time with cards like Curiosity and Enter the Infinite but then realized that wasn't really the direction I wanted to go either. Now my Niv list is more of a long-term control, card advantage engine, with combos to seal the game.
That said, I think I may have a couple suggestions you might find of interest:
Firstly, I want to talk about your choice of commander. Have you thought about running The Locust God instead? I see him as a very viable option simply because your list isn't a combo list. It feels a bit more aggressive. One awesome benefit about the God is that he generates chump blockers. There are some pretty amazing synergies with the Locust God already in your list. He can also very quickly overwhelm your opponents with tokens and they can be Skullclamped which is a very powerful draw engine. I don't actually see Parun as being the best spellslinger commander out there. I see him as being control/combo and utilizing more of a hand-fattening approach. This is arguably a more consistent strategy for commander than spellslinger unless you really have the support, simply because you have 4 opponents each starting at 40 life. That is 160 life that you have to ping away. I see the control in your list but not the combo. I also only see Parun as a win-con. Kess, Dissident Mage and Melek, Izzet Paragon are excellent spellslinger commanders. Not to say Parun can't get the job done nicely, but there are definitely some other paths you might consider.
Next, I do feel I should address the issue of not using ramp. The kind of games that I play, I would never be able to cast Niv without it, because games can be won by turn 6 fairly reliably. Waiting six turns and hoping that I get just the right mix of colors on turn 6 just seems really painful to me. You don't have to run anything crazy like moxen, or Mana Crypt but a few mana rocks would really go a long way for you I think. I find cheap colored rocks to be the best Izzet Signet, Chromatic Lantern, Coldsteel Heart, Fire Diamond, Sky Diamond, Commander's Sphere, Coalition Relic, are some that come to mind. Gilded Lotus allows you to easily cast Niv on turn 6 with mana open for protection.
One question I would ask yourself is if a given card is strong enough without your commander in play. I find many of the cheap draw spells like Opt to be weak in multiplayer. If your goal is to draw a lot of cards and deal damage with Parun, this is not the most effective way IMO. An exception maybe to this is if you are reliably able to copy these kinds of spells.
Of great concern to me is that it appears that you are entirely dependent on your commander to win. What do you do if he costs too much commander tax and you are locked out of playing him? What do you do when he repeatedly gets board wiped, or otherwise removed from play? In my mind it makes sense to have a win condition that is independent of your commander, but still on theme of course. There are several good options here. Many use Laboratory Maniac. I personally prefer a non permanent based and synergistic (can be tutored for or recurred) win-con which is Inner Fire + Comet Storm. Spiraling Embers can also be used but I like the mana generation from Inner Fire because sometimes it can be difficult to get enough damage out of embers to win. It is also obscure and flavorful and red, which I like.
I would suggest trying either Trade Routes or Tectonic Reformation or even Seismic Assault. Because you have a higher land count at 38 (I'm actually only running 35 because I have ramp) I can foresee you having some issues of being land flooded from time to time. These two cards turn late game lands into useful spells or damage. I really like the effect. I am personally using Scroll Rack however, but that is a higher tier more competitive upgrade in my mind. It allows a broken counter-lock combo with Counterbalance. It basically allows your whole hand to be cycled for 1. It is also tutor-able with Fabricate, Tribute Mage, and similar artifact tutors.
You've mentioned that you see the value of the cost reducing effect of Sapphire Medallion. There are many such effects, and it is a common tool for Izzet. It is a viable alternative or complement to artifact ramp in the deck, and I would suggest running a few more. The best in my mind are Baral, Chief of Compliance, Goblin Electromancer and Jace's Sanctum. Helm of Awakening or The Immortal Sun can also be used. There are others but these are the ones I would choose.
A new card that I am really liking a lot is Reality Scramble. I am specifically using it to cheat Omniscience into play but it can also find Consecrated Sphinx. Izzet doesn't really have any good creature tutors outside of Gamble, Long-Term Plans, and Ethereal Usher. The fact that it has retrace is really what makes a winner in my mind. If you can get it into play and protect it, Sphinx is game winning. It's broken with Wheel of Fortune, Windfall and friends. I have prioritized getting it into play above doing other things for this reason.
A good redundancy piece for Consecrated Sphinx is either Thought Reflection or Alhammarret's Archive. I find the draw doubling effect to be really powerful, especially in combination with cards like Winds of Change or your other wheel (hand-cycling) effects. Thought Reflection is a good card to dig for with Reality Scramble.
Graveyard recursion is a very powerful strategy for a deck like this. I would recommend swapping out some of your lower powered spells for at least 4 or 5 of these. Snapcaster Mage, Shreds of Sanity, Mystic Retrieval, Mission Briefing, Finale of Promise, Call to Mind, Mizzix's Mastery, and Recoup are some of the best. The reason these cards are so powerful is that they increase your flexibility. They generate card advantage, allow you to cast your best spells multiple times, and generally permit your graveyard to be a pseudo extension of your hand. It is incredibly synergistic with the discard type of hand-cycling effects. Discovering this strategy was a definitive "eureka" moment for me.
Leyline of Anticipation or Vedalken Orrey can take the deck up a notch. Casting your wheel effects on someone else's turn can be a powerful play. It is also a definite benefit to cast these wheels just before your next turn so that you are the first one to be able to play them (assuming everyone else is tapped out). Because you are going for a more controllish route with your counterspells, that means that you are leaving mana open to cast them. Being able to cast other spells with that open mana is efficient. Many spells were printed at sorcery speed for a reason.
All is Dust is an amazing catch all removal spell for this deck. I really really wouldn't play without it.
Propaganda can be a big help. Repeatedly board wiping can make your opponents target you. This card can singlehandedly force your opponents to kill each other.
Ivory Tower can be a nice little source of innocent life gain. A less innocent source is Aetherflux Reservoir which can also be a win-con.
Welp, those are my suggestions. I see a lot of cards in your list that I would cut, but I will leave that to you based on your preference and experience, unless you ask me for my recommendations.
I am not sure what you mean by no shortcuts or broken cards. I mean, some people think Timetwister and Cyclonic Rift are broken. Are you thinking of things like High Tide or just using "broken" to mean combo pieces. Because yes, there is something I actively avoid in EDH and that is "infinite" combos. They are not fun to play against and, for me, they are not fun to play with.
As for playstyle, I always prioritize fun over winning, but it *is* fun to win so I still want my decks to be powerful and cohesive.
This is basically the same as my intent. I do "combo" with wheels and Fateful Showdown to win. I just don't use infinites.
My first Izzet deck I built was around The Locust God. And it was terrible. While it was more of a mindset than anything, the God seemed better suited to things like Mindmoil. Arjun, Teferi's Puzzle Box, etc. It was not a playstyle I enjoyed for what I wanted Blue/Red to be. If I wanted aggressive, I would play my Gisela deck.
You might be right here in that there may be "better" spellslinger commanders but I didn't want Grixis (so Kess is out) and I hated Melek. The problem with Melek or Mizzix of the Izmagnus is that they want big splashy spells. They want to do a lot of (or a little) setup for a huge payoff and that doesn't appeal to me. I wanted a deck that left me in control. One that allowed me to set the pace of the game and win when I saw fit and I think Niv does a great job at that. He can't be countered, which is a plus, he has a big body, he basically always replaces himself (at worst) since I am going to get to draw a card off the removal spell people use on him and, if I can counter it, another card off my spell. That is not to say that Niv is perfect because he isn't. 6 mana, all of it colored, is a tough restriction sometimes.
Also, I have 3 opponents normally, so 120 life. Not really the point you were trying to make, but I don't play 5 player games if I can help it.
While the deck is reliant on Niv, that is the way I wanted it. Too often I build decks (or see decks built) that don't care about their general. Plus, The Locust God and good old fashioned beats with Kefnet and Sphinx can help close out games. Lab Man is a no go for the reasons "infinites" are and Fateful Showdown seems to be a much better Spiraling Embers. Inner Fire is an interesting option, but I have never felt that I needed anything more than I have. That isn't to say that they can't be good, but the list is actually pretty good and has been very successful in my group. I don't think I have ever had to cast Niv more than 3 times so him becoming too expensive hasn't been a concern.
As I mentioned in one of my more recent summaries, I actually Wheeled and ended up with 5 lands in hand. But I wouldn't go as far to say as I have been flooded and I don't know that I want to start throwing lands away. Even if I do end up with more lands than I want at the time, I still want to play all my lands. The deck is actually fairly mana hungry so I would rather have those lands to play than get in 2 damage. Maybe the Reformation can be decent due to drawing cards and pitching excess lands for at least some value. I will think on that. The main issue is that it is kind of out of place for the deck. 2 mana to draw a card (which requires I have a land I actually want to discard) seems unlikely to come up a lot.
As for Scroll Rack, it doesn't draw cards so it doesn't work with Niv and I am obviously not playing any sort of lock so it really doesn't do much in the deck. I also don't have a ton of shuffle effects so putting bad cards on top just means I have bad draws for a couple turns. I could maybe see adding Fabricate to get to my Basilisk Collar, but I am not sure if that is really worth it. I might have to think on it honestly since that is one of the better things I could be tutoring for. I love blowing up the board, one damage at a time.
While the Medallion has done well, I just can't justify slotting in more cost reductions since I would need to pull out good cards for those. Plus, the creatures just die way too easily. I think they can be good cards (Baral more than the Goblin) but it is not something I want to go too far into.
I run 6 creatures (7 with Niv), 3 planeswalkers, 3 Artifacts, and 1 Enchantment. Of the 6 creatures, there are 2 that I would be willing to Scramble away. While this card may be good, it is not something I would use to ensure I get Sphinx because I just don't have enough permanents to make it useful. And I can't see a situation where I would legitimately tuck the Locust God or Kefnet just for a shot at the Sphinx.
Long Term Plans was a card I had considered early on and I think I skipped over it for being too good (basically). I enjoy decks where I need to piece things together or just slowly grind out games. I am generally down on tutors and I especially don't like unconditional tutors which is really the main reason I left it out. I think anyone else looking at this that doesn't have my hang up on tutors would see that as a good suggestion though.
Maybe those are alright, but they do have different functions. And Sphinx is here partly because it can be a beater. And, again, the Scramble doesn't work for Reflection at least since I only have 1 Enchantment and, arguably, there might be cause for cutting the one I have. Again, I am not knocking the suggestions as I think they fit in certain builds but I don't really think I want, or need, them here.
I am curious as to which cards you feel are lower powered. There is a reason for nearly every card in the deck and generally finding room for cuts is difficult so knowing what cards to look at can be helpful.
As to your mentions: I already run Snapcaster and Mission Briefing and I run those specifically because they are Instants (or, has Flash in the case of Snapcaster). I can see the use of the others to get back spells so Shreds of Sanity really looks like the main one I could play since it gets back 2 cards.
I disagree. You already brought up the issue of Niv dying too often so I definitely don't want to do too much to make that happen.
While I don't think this card is needed, I think this summation is a little too optimistic (at least, for my playgroup). While Propaganda will certainly slow things down there is no way I am getting out of that unscathed. It puts a target on me and will likely just get blown up anyway. And I doubt I am going to want to spend any resources on trying to protect it.
I do like some of the suggestions so I appreciate the write up. I do think our visions of the deck are not completely in sync (which is to be expected) but the deck has done well for me so far.
Also, since I know different playgroups have different "levels" of competitiveness, I don't think mine is on the lower end. I play against combo (too much of it sometimes for my tastes) and control as well as aggro and midrange strategies and, for the most part, the people in my group are playing to win as well and are pretty competent. That is not to say that I don't occasionally play against a precon or something like that, but this deck has been able to weather some pretty tough games. While I understand there are a lot of things that can make this deck "better" it does what I want it to *and* it wins so it is tough to move too far from the current vision.
The thing with propaganda effects in my experience is that they were quite good historically in commander and that the metagame has largely evolved for them to be much worse especially if you don't have a lot of them. Just plopping a propaganda down every now and then is much less good than it used to be in EDH. People are packing more removal and playing thicker creatures all around as well, so sometimes they'll just pay and bash you when they've got extra mana even if they can't remove it.
And additionally there are a lot more non-combat kills than there used to be, with stuff like Purphoros, Niv, random artifact combos, dragon warstorm surge nonsense, etc.
(Side note: I started looking at the creature size of decks I see based on our previous discussion about Massacre wurm and I realized that I was mostly thinking in the past. I've been seeing people drop a ton of just random 6/6's and stuff these days. Creature bodies have been really pushed.)
I'm not saying it's always bad, but I think it's worse as "good stuff" in spellslinger decks than it used to be. Generally better off playing more draw, more sweepers, or even instant speed mass interaction like aetherspouts or evacuation.
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Oh and one more: Manifold insights has been insane for me in my spellslinger deck. I pretty much only play good cards and getting 3 of anything non-land for 3 mana is almost always a huge plus no matter how "bad" they try to pick for me.
UW Ephara Hatebears [Primer], GB Gitrog Lands, BRU Inalla Combo-Control, URG Maelstrom Wanderer Landfall
The list is becoming more "finalized" (or, as final as an EDH deck can be) so finding cuts is tough. I think Pokken's comment about Jaya is where I was leaning as well, but I do still have Solemn and Search for Azcanta as potential cuts. I have been going back and forth on Invert//Invent but Invent is pretty good even if it is on the high side for mana cost.
I think I am leaning mostly to Solemn for now. I had thought a lot about Jaya as the 3 red is a lot (though Niv requires the same) and it is tough to tap out for her in order to let her ramp me the next few turns. I still think she is good for this deck though as her abilities are all relevant even with the somewhat prohibitive cost. Really, that is the biggest reason for a potential cut.
Solemn, on the other hand, is really a 4 mana ramp spell (I can't consistently get it to die to draw a card) and I don't think the body is all that relevant either. Burnished Hart still gets a pass for now for coming down a turn earlier and getting 2 lands (even though the overall cost is 2 mana more). So, I am going to try that and see if Kefnet fits that spot better.
1 Solemn Simulacrum
1 God-Eternal Kefnet