Crackling Drake rewards you for playing a lot of spells. Arclight Phoenix rewards you for playing a lot of spells. What do you get when you jam them together? A lot of spells and a lot of fun. And a lot of wins.
This 5-0 list from a competitive league looked to me like the most fun way to play Izzet:
(1) Everything in the deck is either letting you cheat on mana or drawing cards. It's beautiful.
(2) The deck has several different play modes. If you play a t2 electromancer and it lives you can go for the nutso rush and attack with multiple Arclight Phoenix on turn 3 (chart a course, discovery, chart a course -> go nuts). If you don't have the electromancer or it dies you can spend the early turns playing removal into a Crackling Drake turn 4 into a phoenix brigade on turn 5.
(3) You go through your deck fast. It makes the deck feel very consistent. Each game feels pretty similar, which is nice when you're winning.
(4) Your creatures hit hard and fast. Against aggro decks you play a controlling role but you turn the corner very quickly. Against control you are playing serious threats that are tough to deal with. You never feel flat out overpowered by your opponent's cards.
I'm not entirely sure about the sideboard strategy. I mostly didn't fiddle with the deck too much unless it was obvious (e.g. -Lava Coil against no-creature control). The main deck as it is lets you bring back the phoenix with surprising consistency.
If you want to give yourself the chance for a combo-kill while playing a fundamentally sound deck, I'd take it for a spin.
I'd call this more of a phoenix deck than a drake deck. It doesn't play much like the "clear the decks and land a drake" strategy of the other drake decks I've seen. I don't think decks necessarily go in the same thread just because there's card overlap, but if a mod wants to merge them or something that's fine.
I'm sorry but the most FUN way of playing izzet, is definitely thousand-year storm.
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Huey, Dewey and Louie are always dressed in RUG. it is CLEARLY going to be the wedges block Pioneer: WURFaerie fires BRGDragons ModernBGElves WRBurn UR Fires Turns URGift Storm UG Twiddle Storm
Been playing this deck a little, really preferring Tormenting Voice over Chart a Course. Better at pushing you forward into the phoenix plan rather than snowballing if you have them out already.
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EDH RRGrenzo plays your deck, GGYeva's mono green control, WW9-tails trys desperately for monowhite not to suck RWBUTymna and Kraum's saboteur tribal, UWG Kestia's Enchantress Aggro, RUB Jeleva casts big dumb spells, RGB Vaevictis' big critters can kill your critters hard
Tormenting voice is a complete blowout against counterspells whereas chart a course is not.
I've been playing it for two weeks but i'm on a more all-in main deck with 20 lands and 6 red 1 mana cantrip (crash through and warlord's fury). I really dislike MD lava coil because you can lack of target and fizzle hard because of that. My side is quite different also i play more beacon bolt (the card is completly nuts against boros angels and doom whisperer) i have some river's rebuke which are fantastic against all green decks and i've been pondering about playing some silent gravestone as a way to protect phoenixes and jump start spells from GY removal as well as a way to punish Find and Golgari Findbroker.
IMHO the deck is a solid tier 1.5 but it is quite luck dependant from your ability to find 2 or 3 phoenixes on your top 20 cards.
I'm sorry but the most FUN way of playing izzet, is definitely thousand-year storm.
We need a thread to work on this. MTGolfish did a video on the deck and it looked pretty sweet! Not sure it's going to be anything more than a rogue deck for trolling FNM; but that works for me.
Tormenting voice is a complete blowout against counterspells whereas chart a course is not.
I've been playing it for two weeks but i'm on a more all-in main deck with 20 lands and 6 red 1 mana cantrip (crash through and warlord's fury). I really dislike MD lava coil because you can lack of target and fizzle hard because of that. My side is quite different also i play more beacon bolt (the card is completly nuts against boros angels and doom whisperer) i have some river's rebuke which are fantastic against all green decks and i've been pondering about playing some silent gravestone as a way to protect phoenixes and jump start spells from GY removal as well as a way to punish Find and Golgari Findbroker.
IMHO the deck is a solid tier 1.5 but it is quite luck dependant from your ability to find 2 or 3 phoenixes on your top 20 cards.
I've run into the all in deck in the wild. It can do some busted things--a late game Drake into Maximize Velocity is brutal--but it seemed very swingy. I'm not sure what they're taking out to fit in the red cantrips but I felt like the deck from the original post was a little more consistent.
The one opponent that I find consistently tough is the white/boros weenie deck. Knight of Grace into History into History just buries us in knights. If we get the magical christmas land turn three multi-Phoenix then we can race them but otherwise it's pretty dire. Plus the only red sweeper is basically blanked by Benalish Marshal and Loxodon. I'm not really sure what to do about the matchup.
I find Golgari doesn't usually get on you as quickly, so as long as you are careful about not dumping Phoenix into the yard until you're ready to bring it back and you kill Scavengers on sight the matchup is reasonable. Not a slam dunk, but the games are at least close. White weenie seems to blow me out at least once per best of three.
That is what i'm currently playing, the deck is fun. For your white/selesnya MU, my game plan is to chump block with phoenix as much as possible in order to exhaust them, you win the long game with your card advantage and one strike with a drake+some phoenixes should do it even if they are at 30+ life, i usually side this way against them : -6 red cantrip -1 drake -2 chemister insight -1 electromancer +3 negate +3 lava coil+ 1 river rebuke +2 beacon bolt +1 ral
That is what i'm currently playing, the deck is fun. For your white/selesnya MU, my game plan is to chump block with phoenix as much as possible in order to exhaust them, you win the long game with your card advantage and one strike with a drake+some phoenixes should do it even if they are at 30+ life, i usually side this way against them : -6 red cantrip -1 drake -2 chemister insight -1 electromancer +3 negate +3 lava coil+ 1 river rebuke +2 beacon bolt +1 ral
I have to admit that I was skeptical but trading off with the Phoenixes on defense worked surprisingly well.
Ral is a beast in this deck. I find myself bringing in the two from the sideboard in most matchups. I almost wonder if we want one in the main deck.
That's funny because i don't like him that much, he's my fourth beacon bolt as well as a way to answer opposing niv mizzet without giving cards to opponent. I bring him when i bring the removal suite on as he compleats it well but that's it. For me the strenght of this deck is its ability to play cheap spells to get to your phoenixes and bring them back over and over and a 5 mana spell isn't the way to go to achieve that. I used to play a niv mizzet MD for the teferi MU but the meta is quite hostile to teferi right now so no need for niv anymore.
Sometimes the opponent can fend off the phoenix assault. Especially if the first one gets exiled. The drakes are a good backup plan, but I'd kind of like to layer in the planeswalker for another angle of attack.
As much as I don't like haymaker magic, it's nice to have a five mana card that the opponent has to deal with or lose the game. The way he fuels our plan is absurd. Drawing cards, dumping stuff in the yard, and threatening ultimate. If he sticks for more than a couple of turns it's usually game over.
Streamer NumotTheNummy has been playing this deck recently, I believe he had three 4-1 finishes in a row today so if you want to see the deck in action you can check his VODs. Starts around 1:52. https://www.twitch.tv/videos/324658070
I'm sorry but the most FUN way of playing izzet, is definitely thousand-year storm.
We need a thread to work on this. MTGolfish did a video on the deck and it looked pretty sweet! Not sure it's going to be anything more than a rogue deck for trolling FNM; but that works for me.
Huey, Dewey and Louie are always dressed in RUG. it is CLEARLY going to be the wedges block Pioneer: WURFaerie fires BRGDragons ModernBGElves WRBurn UR Fires Turns URGift Storm UG Twiddle Storm
I've found this build to be the best https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/1406386#paper, except I go -1 Mountain, +1 Island. You can get by the early game with only one red, but the deck is totally dead in water without double blue.
2 Beacon Bolt maindeck feels right in the current creature-heavy meta. The card is absurd but you can't play too many. The 2nd Chemister's Insight is the first up to maindeck if there's an open slot.
I think the counterspell suite is up for debate, as Disdainful Stroke, Ionize, and Negate all have their +/-'s. Currently leaning 1 Negate, 1 Disdainful Stroke to shave a mana. I often side out Electromancers for the counterspells.
I hope the next set gives a mono-red 3 damage sweeper like Sweltering Suns. Fiery Cannonade sucks balls.
Arclight Phoenix is very safe for Standard. Every deck can sideboard Sentinel Totem, and Spyglass to preempt Firemind's Research. Also every color besides blue has a legit maindeck answer to Phoenix.
Arclight Phoenix is very safe for Standard. Every deck can sideboard Sentinel Totem, and Spyglass to preempt Firemind's Research. Also every color besides blue has a legit maindeck answer to Phoenix.
Give a try to River's Rebuke instead of Fiery Cannonade and stop cutting electromancers they're core to the deck, the Drakes are not and that is probably the card i side out the most and this goes to the point where i will probably cut the drakes from the main deck and go with just 4 electromancer and 4 Phoenix MD 20 lands 3 shock 2 beacon bolt and all cantrip and maybe a MD niv-Mizzet or Ral just to have another kill.
Why do i think Arclight Phoenix is too strong for standard ? Because it will promote a very poor player experience, repetitve play pattern as well as a recurring obnoxious threat. Players at my LGS are already refusing to play against the deck, whenever i face a jeskai or grixis opponent online they usually concede pretty fast as counters+removal+pw is the worst thing you can do against this deck. I used to struggle against RDW but now i consider it as one of the easiest match-up and same can be said about Golgari or Stompy once you've understood those matches are not about racing but about delaying the game long enough because they can't beat your late game. The deck is fast, resilient in what it is doing, has always acces to its sideboard cards thanks to the insane number of cantrips and has what is the sickest draw in standard (You can have 4 phoenixes in play on turn 3 with electromancer, discovery, chart a course and luck).
Also keep in mind this is the shortest card pool avaible in standard in a long time, this deck will gain new card and any blue cheap cantrip (thought scour) will be nuts for this deck.
About the counters suite, here are my thoughts : Negate is the best one because it will counter almost everything you worry about (Exile removals, Planeswalkers, counterspell war) but it will miss on those cards : Lyra Dawnbringer, Doom Whisperer, Nicol Bolas which can be answered by Disdainful Stroke. Ionize will counter anything but is more expensive and the 2 damages are mostly irrelevant for your deck but Surveil 1 is not so if i would be playing a 3 mana counterspell i would probably go the Sinister Sabotage way.
Eighteen feels greedy. Only testing would tell for sure.
The 22 land deck sometimes plays like a control deck that turns the corner very quickly. You can also flood out surprisingly easily. It's to the point that I almost want a maindeck Niv-Mizzet, since untapping with him is almost always a win.
I have seen versions of this deck that play the Enigma Drakes and Maximize Velocity. I've even seen Gravitic Punch in some builds. There's definitely work left to do in order to figure out the optimal phoenix build, but it'll be tier one eventually.
Gravitic Punch I'd have to be sold on too. The problem is without a drake it's just not a good card. If your drakes are living your opponent is going to lose anyway so it feels win more (since you will pretty much never cast a drake and this in the same turn).
After playing a league with it I'm sold on Gravitic Punch. I put one in for one mountain (leaving 21 lands total). The jump start really makes it work. You can toss it in the yard early on and just forget about it. Then later in the game you have reach on tap.
If you draw it late you can really get people. I had one game where the opponent was at 18 life and tapped out with a Doom Whisperer in play. I had a Drake on six power. I sent a Beacon Bolt at his Whisperer, he scryed twice down to 14, then gravitic plus drake ended the game.
Overall I won two games with a double drake attack and one where lava spike mode using it with a Phoenix closed out a race a turn early. I think another game or two the punch in the yard helped prompt a concession.
I certainly wouldn't run two, but there's very little cost to running one and it does provide a unique effect.
ETA: This deck is something else. My last four leagues were 5-0, 4-1, 3-2, and 5-0. The 4-1 league had nine consecutive wins before I lost both post sideboard games against the mirror.
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This 5-0 list from a competitive league looked to me like the most fun way to play Izzet:
4 Arclight Phoenix
4 Crackling Drake
4 Opt
4 Shock
4 Chart a Course
3 Lava Coil
4 Radical Idea
1 Beacon Bolt
2 Chemister's Insight
4 Discovery // Dispersal
1 Izzet Guildgate
6 Mountain
4 Steam Vents
4 Sulfur Falls
2 Banefire
2 Disdainful Stroke
2 Negate
3 Fiery Cannonade
2 Fight with Fire
2 Ral, Izzet Viceroy
2 Niv-Mizzet, Parun
Cool things about this deck:
(1) Everything in the deck is either letting you cheat on mana or drawing cards. It's beautiful.
(2) The deck has several different play modes. If you play a t2 electromancer and it lives you can go for the nutso rush and attack with multiple Arclight Phoenix on turn 3 (chart a course, discovery, chart a course -> go nuts). If you don't have the electromancer or it dies you can spend the early turns playing removal into a Crackling Drake turn 4 into a phoenix brigade on turn 5.
(3) You go through your deck fast. It makes the deck feel very consistent. Each game feels pretty similar, which is nice when you're winning.
(4) Your creatures hit hard and fast. Against aggro decks you play a controlling role but you turn the corner very quickly. Against control you are playing serious threats that are tough to deal with. You never feel flat out overpowered by your opponent's cards.
I'm not entirely sure about the sideboard strategy. I mostly didn't fiddle with the deck too much unless it was obvious (e.g. -Lava Coil against no-creature control). The main deck as it is lets you bring back the phoenix with surprising consistency.
If you want to give yourself the chance for a combo-kill while playing a fundamentally sound deck, I'd take it for a spin.
Pioneer: WURFaerie fires BRGDragons
ModernBGElves WRBurn UR Fires Turns URGift Storm UG Twiddle Storm
RRGrenzo plays your deck, GGYeva's mono green control, WW9-tails trys desperately for monowhite not to suck
RWBUTymna and Kraum's saboteur tribal, UWG Kestia's Enchantress Aggro, RUB Jeleva casts big dumb spells, RGB Vaevictis' big critters can kill your critters hard
Arena Standard
UUUU Tempo, since before it was cool
Various Wx decks running Fountain of Renewal and Day of Glory
Anything I can cram Chaos Wand in to
I've been playing it for two weeks but i'm on a more all-in main deck with 20 lands and 6 red 1 mana cantrip (crash through and warlord's fury). I really dislike MD lava coil because you can lack of target and fizzle hard because of that. My side is quite different also i play more beacon bolt (the card is completly nuts against boros angels and doom whisperer) i have some river's rebuke which are fantastic against all green decks and i've been pondering about playing some silent gravestone as a way to protect phoenixes and jump start spells from GY removal as well as a way to punish Find and Golgari Findbroker.
IMHO the deck is a solid tier 1.5 but it is quite luck dependant from your ability to find 2 or 3 phoenixes on your top 20 cards.
We need a thread to work on this. MTGolfish did a video on the deck and it looked pretty sweet! Not sure it's going to be anything more than a rogue deck for trolling FNM; but that works for me.
Completely fair criticism.
Although, to be fair, winning is usually more fun than losing.
I've run into the all in deck in the wild. It can do some busted things--a late game Drake into Maximize Velocity is brutal--but it seemed very swingy. I'm not sure what they're taking out to fit in the red cantrips but I felt like the deck from the original post was a little more consistent.
The one opponent that I find consistently tough is the white/boros weenie deck. Knight of Grace into History into History just buries us in knights. If we get the magical christmas land turn three multi-Phoenix then we can race them but otherwise it's pretty dire. Plus the only red sweeper is basically blanked by Benalish Marshal and Loxodon. I'm not really sure what to do about the matchup.
I find Golgari doesn't usually get on you as quickly, so as long as you are careful about not dumping Phoenix into the yard until you're ready to bring it back and you kill Scavengers on sight the matchup is reasonable. Not a slam dunk, but the games are at least close. White weenie seems to blow me out at least once per best of three.
6 Island (M19) 265
4 Goblin Electromancer (GRN) 174
4 Steam Vents (GRN) 257
4 Crackling Drake (GRN) 163
4 Arclight Phoenix (GRN) 91
4 Chart a Course (XLN) 48
3 Crash Through (M19) 133
3 Warlord's Fury (DAR) 151
4 Radical Idea (GRN) 52
4 Opt (XLN) 65
3 Shock (M19) 156
1 Beacon Bolt (GRN) 154
6 Mountain (RIX) 195
4 Discovery // Dispersal (GRN) 223
2 Chemister's Insight (GRN) 32
2 Disdainful Stroke (GRN) 37
3 Negate (RIX) 44
2 Niv-Mizzet, Parun (GRN) 192
1 Ral, Izzet Viceroy (GRN) GR5
3 Lava Coil (GRN) 108
2 River's Rebuke (XLN) 71
That is what i'm currently playing, the deck is fun. For your white/selesnya MU, my game plan is to chump block with phoenix as much as possible in order to exhaust them, you win the long game with your card advantage and one strike with a drake+some phoenixes should do it even if they are at 30+ life, i usually side this way against them : -6 red cantrip -1 drake -2 chemister insight -1 electromancer +3 negate +3 lava coil+ 1 river rebuke +2 beacon bolt +1 ral
I have to admit that I was skeptical but trading off with the Phoenixes on defense worked surprisingly well.
Ral is a beast in this deck. I find myself bringing in the two from the sideboard in most matchups. I almost wonder if we want one in the main deck.
As much as I don't like haymaker magic, it's nice to have a five mana card that the opponent has to deal with or lose the game. The way he fuels our plan is absurd. Drawing cards, dumping stuff in the yard, and threatening ultimate. If he sticks for more than a couple of turns it's usually game over.
this is what i'm playing:
4 opt
4 shock
4 anticipate
4 radical idea
4 lightning strike
2 flood of recollection
4 pirate's pillage
2 expansion//explosion
4 thousand-year storm
4 steam vents
9 island
7 mountain
sideboard has 4 negate, 2 niv-mizzet, parun, 2 lava coil, 2 fiery cannonade, 3 electrostatic field, 2blink of an eye
Pioneer: WURFaerie fires BRGDragons
ModernBGElves WRBurn UR Fires Turns URGift Storm UG Twiddle Storm
2 Beacon Bolt maindeck feels right in the current creature-heavy meta. The card is absurd but you can't play too many. The 2nd Chemister's Insight is the first up to maindeck if there's an open slot.
I think the counterspell suite is up for debate, as Disdainful Stroke, Ionize, and Negate all have their +/-'s. Currently leaning 1 Negate, 1 Disdainful Stroke to shave a mana. I often side out Electromancers for the counterspells.
I hope the next set gives a mono-red 3 damage sweeper like Sweltering Suns. Fiery Cannonade sucks balls.
Arclight Phoenix is very safe for Standard. Every deck can sideboard Sentinel Totem, and Spyglass to preempt Firemind's Research. Also every color besides blue has a legit maindeck answer to Phoenix.
Sentinel Totem has never ever been a problem when brought after sideboard by opponents and same is true for any targeted exile a card from graveyard (deathgorge scavenger) and can be responded by Silent Gravestone if it becomes a common sideboard card, Firemind's research is slow and clunky and unplayable in this deck (awful top deck, useless if not in opening hand, not an instant or sorcery, too much mana required). Speaking of answers to Phoenix, white has seal away/ixalan's binding/conclave tribunal, settle the wreackage which can be answered by negate, disdainful stroke or river's rebuke quite effectively, blue has nothing to answer phoenix, red has lava coil, black has necrotic wound and vraska's contempt and green has nothing. True side hate for this deck is few cards : Ashes of the abhorrent, mistcaller Raiders' Wake and Unmoored Ego none seems like a potent standard playable card except for the cranial variant.
Give a try to River's Rebuke instead of Fiery Cannonade and stop cutting electromancers they're core to the deck, the Drakes are not and that is probably the card i side out the most and this goes to the point where i will probably cut the drakes from the main deck and go with just 4 electromancer and 4 Phoenix MD 20 lands 3 shock 2 beacon bolt and all cantrip and maybe a MD niv-Mizzet or Ral just to have another kill.
Why do i think Arclight Phoenix is too strong for standard ? Because it will promote a very poor player experience, repetitve play pattern as well as a recurring obnoxious threat. Players at my LGS are already refusing to play against the deck, whenever i face a jeskai or grixis opponent online they usually concede pretty fast as counters+removal+pw is the worst thing you can do against this deck. I used to struggle against RDW but now i consider it as one of the easiest match-up and same can be said about Golgari or Stompy once you've understood those matches are not about racing but about delaying the game long enough because they can't beat your late game. The deck is fast, resilient in what it is doing, has always acces to its sideboard cards thanks to the insane number of cantrips and has what is the sickest draw in standard (You can have 4 phoenixes in play on turn 3 with electromancer, discovery, chart a course and luck).
Also keep in mind this is the shortest card pool avaible in standard in a long time, this deck will gain new card and any blue cheap cantrip (thought scour) will be nuts for this deck.
About the counters suite, here are my thoughts : Negate is the best one because it will counter almost everything you worry about (Exile removals, Planeswalkers, counterspell war) but it will miss on those cards : Lyra Dawnbringer, Doom Whisperer, Nicol Bolas which can be answered by Disdainful Stroke. Ionize will counter anything but is more expensive and the 2 damages are mostly irrelevant for your deck but Surveil 1 is not so if i would be playing a 3 mana counterspell i would probably go the Sinister Sabotage way.
The 22 land deck sometimes plays like a control deck that turns the corner very quickly. You can also flood out surprisingly easily. It's to the point that I almost want a maindeck Niv-Mizzet, since untapping with him is almost always a win.
I have seen versions of this deck that play the Enigma Drakes and Maximize Velocity. I've even seen Gravitic Punch in some builds. There's definitely work left to do in order to figure out the optimal phoenix build, but it'll be tier one eventually.
After playing a league with it I'm sold on Gravitic Punch. I put one in for one mountain (leaving 21 lands total). The jump start really makes it work. You can toss it in the yard early on and just forget about it. Then later in the game you have reach on tap.
If you draw it late you can really get people. I had one game where the opponent was at 18 life and tapped out with a Doom Whisperer in play. I had a Drake on six power. I sent a Beacon Bolt at his Whisperer, he scryed twice down to 14, then gravitic plus drake ended the game.
Overall I won two games with a double drake attack and one where lava spike mode using it with a Phoenix closed out a race a turn early. I think another game or two the punch in the yard helped prompt a concession.
I certainly wouldn't run two, but there's very little cost to running one and it does provide a unique effect.
ETA: This deck is something else. My last four leagues were 5-0, 4-1, 3-2, and 5-0. The 4-1 league had nine consecutive wins before I lost both post sideboard games against the mirror.