Omenspeaker is horrifically bad in this sort of deck. You really want a guy who attacks for 1 in your burn deck?
Under certain circumstances Omenspeaker is bad, and in others she is quite good. If you are playing with 8 of those sub-par goblins (IMO), or if you don't run Purphurpous or a lighter counter-burn style then maybe it's not the right choice. If your meta surprisingly isn't 60% agro filled with Ash Zealots and Shred-Freaks and what not then it may not be ideal.
Scrying for 2 is totally relevant and a 1/3 body on a 2 drop is entirely relevant and useful.
I may or may not use it.. and may end up using Cyclop's and a second dragon as finishers, but who knows. She is not terrible.
I've replaced my Electromancers with Frostburn Weird. Weird is sick at walling aggro the first 3 turns. Against control he swings in for 4 on turn 3, so he's got to be dealt with. I've dropped Stormbreath also. I've put in 2 Jace Architect of thought and a 4th Steam Augury.
I've replaced my Electromancers with Frostburn Weird. Weird is sick at walling aggro the first 3 turns. Against control he swings in for 4 on turn 3, so he's got to be dealt with. I've dropped Stormbreath also. I've put in 2 Jace Architect of thought and a 4th Steam Augury.
Did you ever post your list nafix? I didn't see it anywhere, and I'm curious to see what combination of burn and counters your running..
Under certain circumstances Omenspeaker is bad, and in others she is quite good. If you are playing with 8 of those sub-par goblins (IMO), or if you don't run Purphurpous or a lighter counter-burn style then maybe it's not the right choice. If your meta surprisingly isn't 60% agro filled with Ash Zealots and Shred-Freaks and what not then it may not be ideal.
Scrying for 2 is totally relevant and a 1/3 body on a 2 drop is entirely relevant and useful.
I may or may not use it.. and may end up using Cyclop's and a second dragon as finishers, but who knows. She is not terrible.
Get back to me when you embarrass yourself tapping out for a 1/3 with no abilities against midrange or control.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
I write for Channel Fireball now! Read my CFB articles here. Read my Dies to Removal articles here. Read the definitive Red Deck Wins Primer here.
Want to see me in action? Check out my stream! Currently broadcasting Boros Burn in Standard. Full archive available.
Want to play better magic? Come join us at diestoremoval.com
Get back to me when you embarrass yourself tapping out for a 1/3 with no abilities against midrange or control.
Why would I do that? If you're running 2 of them, you're just going to hold them until you need to scrye into a Turn and Burn or win con and you'll likely board them out after game 1.
I am being a bit secretive until the first FnM where I can play the cards (next friday). But I do have some more info and I've been testing quite a bit on Cockatrice.
1. Frostburn Weird is really good in this deck. Against all aggro, he brick walls them the first 3 turns. Perfect for letting me stock up on cards in hand and leaving mana untapped for counters turns 3 and on. He's really awesome against control decks too. I put him out turn 2. Very rarely have people spot removed him the turn after i play him. So I put him out turn 2, and if they just keep leaving their mana open subsequent turns (waiting to react to something I do), I just swing with Frostburn for 4 and keep all my other good stuff in hand. Eventually they will have to remove him cause they'll take 3 or 4 every turn from him on an empty board. I've had him deal 8 damage on his own before, without me developing anything else on the board. They eventually pissed away their spot removal on him, then i casted a guttersnipe with 3 mana open lol. By the time they finally remove him, i have 4 mana up and i can cast young pyro with a syncopate or burn spell to get some value off him their next turn.
2. I'm playing 2 Chimeras and a Storm breath. Plus 4 Young Peez, 4 Guttersnipe, 3 Frostburn. I really want another Stormbreath in here, but 14 creatures has been the perfect amount of threats for this deck and I need the instants/sor.
3. Steam Augury is insane. It will be a tournament staple in standard and will most likely see modern play. A lot of people have been talking bad about this card. I'm playing 4 in my Izzet and it has been fantastic every time I cast it at the end of their turn (after leaving mana open for counter). Maybe the other decks people have been testing it with aren't built in a way that gets the most out of the card. But when I cast it, my piles have typically been something like this: Jace/Augury/creature, land, counter/burn, burn/counter/creature, land. It's really, really good and playing it turn 4 EOT with this deck has always led to big tempo shifts.
4. Whoever does not recognize Guttersnipe's potential really shouldn't be playing this deck. He has won me so many games on his own. A lot of games I've played, I just hoard Gutternsnipe and burn spells until the late game, then drop him with like 4 mana open. They already pissed away their removal most likely and they've already taken some damage. Then Lightning Strike, Magma Jet, plus any other spell goes for 11 damage that they cannot stop. Once he's on the field, anything u cast (even if its countered or even if they try to spot remove gutter) will trigger his ability. He's sooo good.
I've been testing izzet burn for a while. I believe you want to make the build as fast as possible while focusing on just three monsters. There's a few key cards that help with speed, protection, and win condition. Obviously they act as triggers too.
Ideally you want to open with at least a blue and a red land and a monster with some form of protection. Here you're running a set of Mizzium Skins, Negates and three Izzet Charms for this purpose. Protection is obviously important since you're only running nine monsters.
For speed, I feel Quicken and Divination are auto include. Most of the time your Goblin Electromancers make Divination a lot more efficient. Sometimes you can cast both during end phases for two or one cmc in in ideal situations, which isn't that rare. Ideally you want them to trigger your Guttersnipes and Young Pyromancers while netting you cards. Izzet Charm works for this as well, although you must have at least one other card in hand to take advantage of the draw effect. This draw engine is essential IMO.
For burn I believe all you need is four Lightning Strikes. I am aware of the power of Magma Jet, but I have yet to test it. At this time, I think the synergy with Guttersnipe makes Lightning Strike a better choice. You're dealing ten damage with two Strikes and one active Guttersnipe, setting you up for an easy win with the next card I'm about to discuss.
Teleportal is your win condition most of the time, and it works great with either Guttersnipe or Young Pyromancer. During the course of the game you're either burning your opponent with Guttersnipe or spamminh tokens with Young Pyromancer, by which time you can overload a Teleportal for enough damage to finish them.
I've been back and forth on maining the Cyclonic Rifts, but my current build has them in the side board. They're cheap, good for tempo, and sometimes can sweep your opponents board if timed correctly.
This basic build is mainly good against B/R, offering enough protection against removal, while it can hold it's own against G/W strategies. Against control you can side in the Counterflux, Dispels, or maybe even Dissolve.
I feel like with the amount of instants and sorceries that Nivix Cyclops should be one of the creatures in this deck. He works really well with Teleportal and our other spells. My creature suite in mind is Young Pyromancer, Nivix Cyclops, and the new chimera. I haven't tried Guttersnipe but he's probably pretty good in the shell. I just don't like Electromancer.
I am being a bit secretive until the first FnM where I can play the cards (next friday). But I do have some more info and I've been testing quite a bit on Cockatrice.
1. Frostburn Weird is really good in this deck. Against all aggro, he brick walls them the first 3 turns. Perfect for letting me stock up on cards in hand and leaving mana untapped for counters turns 3 and on. He's really awesome against control decks too. I put him out turn 2. Very rarely have people spot removed him the turn after i play him. So I put him out turn 2, and if they just keep leaving their mana open subsequent turns (waiting to react to something I do), I just swing with Frostburn for 4 and keep all my other good stuff in hand. Eventually they will have to remove him cause they'll take 3 or
I misread this, but I am not sure if Nivix Cyclops is a worse choice than Weird here... particularly since you're tapping out to get the damage in. If you're not really interested in counters maybe it's efficient, but I like to have 2 mana open for the eventual beaters or 3 mana if possible.
I feel like with the amount of instants and sorceries that Nivix Cyclops should be one of the creatures in this deck. He works really well with Teleportal and our other spells. My creature suite in mind is Young Pyromancer, Nivix Cyclops, and the new chimera. I haven't tried Guttersnipe but he's probably pretty good in the shell. I just don't like Electromancer.
I feel the same way about Guttersnipe and Electromancer. I could take or leave the Guttersnipe but electromancer is just a vanilla 2/2 body most of the time.
I misread this, but I am not sure if Nivix Cyclops is a worse choice than Weird here...
Weird cost 2, cyclops cost 3..
What he's getting at is that for the time being, aggro is going to be very prevalent. Control will be present, but it's still finding the right card choices/ratios to fit the meta. In this case the weird coming down on T2 is great for both scenarios as against aggro, he slows them down considerably, and control has to deal with him before he gets in too much damage. Both are good for us, as we want to make sure Pyro and Snipe stay on the board as long as possible.
On another note, I tested a rough draft at FNM last night as went 2-2.
First round was some kid who didn't know what he was doing..
Second round was against G/W midrange, with nothing but big dudes and bombs. Mizzium Mortars are a must in this match..
Third round was U/W control. This was a good match up, and I still lost, but the match up should be doable with the tweaks I'd like to make.
Forth round was basically Rakdos aggro. During and after this match, I definitely knew that some changes needed to be made to the 75.. Aggro is something that definitely needs to be stalled out, as there's know way we can race them.
I'll post the list I played and the changes I plan on making later. For now, I think nafix is definitely on the right track..
While I understand that, you have to tap mana to pump the Weird. To get to 4 damage as he suggests you're pretty much tapping out through turn 6 or so in many occasions. The Cyclops also has 4 toughness, and while it costs 1 more during one turn of play, it also costs less mana over time as an investment. In the end, I think the Weird is probably good, but I won't be pumping it more than twice pretty much ever.
So I normally don't play standard, but I'm kind of interested in throwing together a relatively cheap deck to use at Game day, and I was wondering what you guys think of a mizers version of Izzet aggro that I was messing around with. I'm not too sure about the numbers but the core of the deck would look something like this:
The general plan is to play a 2 power 1 drop, put a madcap skills on it on turn 2, then an aqueous form on turn 3 with spell rupture backup, and use that creature to beat them to death, or at the very least put them in range of burn spells. I haven't been able to test this deck much yet but I thought I'd post it in here to get some feedback. How good/bad does it look?
some good discussion on the archetype in here... has anyone thought about Hidden Strings in this deck? Tapping down a blocker or two, or untapping land to play another spell can be really good with a Young Pyromancer or Guttersnipe on the field.
I made a thread about a variation to this deck with Hidden Strings and Hands of Binding and it worked out pretty well tonight at my local Win-a-Box tourney which if pretty competitive. I went 2-2 though some of my losses were due to my own bad plays having only really played the deck for a few days. Here is my current list:
I'm considering trying to add black for Thoughtseize to take out early creatures or removal and possibly adding Read the Bones? Also having access to Doom Blade, Dreadbore, and Rakdos' Return might not be bad, but I guess now I'm running the risk of losing some of the focus?
Nivmagus Elemental also warrants mention as that has single handedly won me games time and time again...It's interaction with Cypher copies is sick and it quickly gets out of hand, plus as an added bonus the copies are still "cast" before being exiled to the Elemental so you still trigger Pyro and Gutter.
I made a thread about a variation to this deck with Hidden Strings and Hands of Binding and it worked out pretty well tonight at my local Win-a-Box tourney which if pretty competitive. I went 2-2 though some of my losses were due to my own bad plays having only really played the deck for a few days. Here is my current list:
I'm considering trying to add black for Thoughtseize to take out early creatures or removal and possibly adding Read the Bones? Also having access to Doom Blade, Dreadbore, and Rakdos' Return might not be bad, but I guess now I'm running the risk of losing some of the focus?
Nivmagus Elemental also warrants mention as that has single handedly won me games time and time again...It's interaction with Cypher copies is sick and it quickly gets out of hand, plus as an added bonus the copies are still "cast" before being exiled to the Elemental so you still trigger Pyro and Gutter.
Yeah I ran Nivmagus Elemental as well early on in the decks lifespan, but I found no evasion means he gets chumped alot, but he was ok I guess. The cipher interaction is nice though. I really feel you need some amount of Mizzium Skin in your 75 to keep Guttersnipe or Young Pyromancer around though. I like to have as many one mana spells as possible in here to maximize your potential when going off. It should be noted I don't play Goblin Electromancer though. Weapon Surge is another card I haven't seen mentioned here either, it plays well on offence and defense with the first strike. Overloading it for another blocker and giving all your dudes first strike and +1 power can make for some suprising blowouts when they swing into your YP and a few tokens.
Aqueous form has been doing pretty well as a form of evasion for the cypher copies, but I agree with needing more 1 mana spells. I considered Mizzium Skin, but if I'm just using it to protect a guy I feel Dispel would be better as it can take care of many other problem spells as well. Also after playing with Syncopate a while I generally always use it as a Force Spike so maybe that RTR block counters for X where X is your highest creature's power might serve better? I'm also not too sold on Voyage's End and I feel I might need some card draw? WTB the U/R scry land already!
Aqueous form has been doing pretty well as a form of evasion for the cypher copies, but I agree with needing more 1 mana spells. I considered Mizzium Skin, but if I'm just using it to protect a guy I feel Dispel would be better as it can take care of many other problem spells as well. Also after playing with Syncopate a while I generally always use it as a Force Spike so maybe that RTR block counters for X where X is your highest creature's power might serve better? I'm also not too sold on Voyage's End and I feel I might need some card draw? WTB the U/R scry land already!
I like the fact that you can overload Mizzium Skin for a mere 2 mana, and it deals with sorcery speed spells as well (I'm looking at you Mizzium Mortars). I never cared for that counter though, most of our creatuers have a small power, so they can pay for it alot of times. I do run Dispel in the SB for Sphinx's Revelation and other control type decks.
I actually have two weapon surges in my main for now. I think it'll work very well with our tokens and lead to some surprise blocks. Not sure if I'll keep them but they're there for now.
I wish I could find room for some of the enchantments being mentioned here. I just don't think it's worth while. You lose a lot of the value from playing pyro, gutter, and chimera by not playing a certain number of instants/sor. That surely is a way to go with U/R, but I thin the wrong way if you're looking at the Guttersnipe/Chimera/Pyro creature package. Not to mention you also get two-for-oned frequently (more value lost) with enchantments.
A lot of you don't seem to be having issues in your first few turns which makes me question if some of you have actually been testing against legitimate competition. At this point, I just assume my first two creatures are not staying on the board for more than a turn, because that's what happens in literally 75% of the control matchups I'm playing. Against aggro, if I don't have defense up by turn 3, I start falling behind in life pretty fast and it becomes hard to keep up. I mean control decks are playing 8-11 spot removal which means they almost match your creature threat count.
I just can't believe anyone is legitimately using Nivix Cylcops to any real world use. He just gets removed or chump blocked all day.
I know the hate on Nivix Cyclops, and will completely agree everything that has been said, but am feeling this build with him. It has a change to get explosive. Hold a Syncopate for Supreme Judgement. Anger of Gods on your turn should get rid of most creatures on opponents board and cyclops is swinging for 4...7 if they try to burn the extra damage and you have a Mizzium Skin to back him up. Then there is the Nivmagus and Hidden Strings combo. On turn 2 it is a 3/4. Frostburn is to slow down early aggro until Anger goes online. Then the next turn he is swinging in for 4 as well with a well placed Dyncharge on Nivix for a good Anger follow up turn. Spellheart comes out after an Anger. Stormbreath is a backup finisher. Dynacharge is the secret tech finisher turn after an Anger, but maybe teleportal is a better one. The board can bring in more counters for control or more WW hate or some stuff for midrange matchups.
I guess my main wonder/worry is that there may be too many things going on in this deck that there may not be enough focus. Thoughts? Especially from nafix. You sound like you know what is going on.
I know the hate on Nivix Cyclops, and will completely agree everything that has been said, but am feeling this build with him. It has a change to get explosive. Hold a Syncopate for Supreme Judgement. Anger of Gods on your turn should get rid of most creatures on opponents board and cyclops is swinging for 4...7 if they try to burn the extra damage and you have a Mizzium Skin to back him up. Then there is the Nivmagus and Hidden Strings combo. On turn 2 it is a 3/4. Frostburn is to slow down early aggro until Anger goes online. Then the next turn he is swinging in for 4 as well with a well placed Dyncharge on Nivix for a good Anger follow up turn. Spellheart comes out after an Anger. Stormbreath is a backup finisher. Dynacharge is the secret tech finisher turn after an Anger, but maybe teleportal is a better one. The board can bring in more counters for control or more WW hate or some stuff for midrange matchups.
I guess my main wonder/worry is that there may be too many things going on in this deck that there may not be enough focus. Thoughts? Especially from nafix. You sound like you know what is going on.
Ack. Remember that Supreme Verdict can't be countered :/
Also, I'm really hesitant / pretty much against Anger of the Gods in our builds for two reasons:
1) Most of our creatures die to it, except Cyclops. So at its best, it's a defensive card, which the R/U build isn't aiming for.
2) If we're on the attack, then it'll act as a dead spell in our hand completely (since we don't want to kill off our dudes). At this point, any direct player burn would be better.
That's why I'd rather keep it out of my build personally. It could be a life-saver in sticky situations, but it doesn't even beat Loxodon Smiter, which is quite relevant.
Under certain circumstances Omenspeaker is bad, and in others she is quite good. If you are playing with 8 of those sub-par goblins (IMO), or if you don't run Purphurpous or a lighter counter-burn style then maybe it's not the right choice. If your meta surprisingly isn't 60% agro filled with Ash Zealots and Shred-Freaks and what not then it may not be ideal.
Scrying for 2 is totally relevant and a 1/3 body on a 2 drop is entirely relevant and useful.
I may or may not use it.. and may end up using Cyclop's and a second dragon as finishers, but who knows. She is not terrible.
BU[MANA]G[/MANA]W[MANA]R[/MANA]Slivers (Overlord as general)BU[MANA]G[/MANA]W[MANA]R[/MANA]
BMono Black (Xiahou Dun as general)B
Did you ever post your list nafix? I didn't see it anywhere, and I'm curious to see what combination of burn and counters your running..
Get back to me when you embarrass yourself tapping out for a 1/3 with no abilities against midrange or control.
Want to see me in action? Check out my stream! Currently broadcasting Boros Burn in Standard. Full archive available.
Want to play better magic? Come join us at diestoremoval.com
Possibly he doesn't actually play magic, he just writes about it. Alternatively, super-secret squirrel mode is active until after FnM.
Why would I do that? If you're running 2 of them, you're just going to hold them until you need to scrye into a Turn and Burn or win con and you'll likely board them out after game 1.
BU[MANA]G[/MANA]W[MANA]R[/MANA]Slivers (Overlord as general)BU[MANA]G[/MANA]W[MANA]R[/MANA]
BMono Black (Xiahou Dun as general)B
1. Frostburn Weird is really good in this deck. Against all aggro, he brick walls them the first 3 turns. Perfect for letting me stock up on cards in hand and leaving mana untapped for counters turns 3 and on. He's really awesome against control decks too. I put him out turn 2. Very rarely have people spot removed him the turn after i play him. So I put him out turn 2, and if they just keep leaving their mana open subsequent turns (waiting to react to something I do), I just swing with Frostburn for 4 and keep all my other good stuff in hand. Eventually they will have to remove him cause they'll take 3 or 4 every turn from him on an empty board. I've had him deal 8 damage on his own before, without me developing anything else on the board. They eventually pissed away their spot removal on him, then i casted a guttersnipe with 3 mana open lol. By the time they finally remove him, i have 4 mana up and i can cast young pyro with a syncopate or burn spell to get some value off him their next turn.
2. I'm playing 2 Chimeras and a Storm breath. Plus 4 Young Peez, 4 Guttersnipe, 3 Frostburn. I really want another Stormbreath in here, but 14 creatures has been the perfect amount of threats for this deck and I need the instants/sor.
3. Steam Augury is insane. It will be a tournament staple in standard and will most likely see modern play. A lot of people have been talking bad about this card. I'm playing 4 in my Izzet and it has been fantastic every time I cast it at the end of their turn (after leaving mana open for counter). Maybe the other decks people have been testing it with aren't built in a way that gets the most out of the card. But when I cast it, my piles have typically been something like this: Jace/Augury/creature, land, counter/burn, burn/counter/creature, land. It's really, really good and playing it turn 4 EOT with this deck has always led to big tempo shifts.
4. Whoever does not recognize Guttersnipe's potential really shouldn't be playing this deck. He has won me so many games on his own. A lot of games I've played, I just hoard Gutternsnipe and burn spells until the late game, then drop him with like 4 mana open. They already pissed away their removal most likely and they've already taken some damage. Then Lightning Strike, Magma Jet, plus any other spell goes for 11 damage that they cannot stop. Once he's on the field, anything u cast (even if its countered or even if they try to spot remove gutter) will trigger his ability. He's sooo good.
The build should look something like this:
Ideally you want to open with at least a blue and a red land and a monster with some form of protection. Here you're running a set of Mizzium Skins, Negates and three Izzet Charms for this purpose. Protection is obviously important since you're only running nine monsters.
For speed, I feel Quicken and Divination are auto include. Most of the time your Goblin Electromancers make Divination a lot more efficient. Sometimes you can cast both during end phases for two or one cmc in in ideal situations, which isn't that rare. Ideally you want them to trigger your Guttersnipes and Young Pyromancers while netting you cards. Izzet Charm works for this as well, although you must have at least one other card in hand to take advantage of the draw effect. This draw engine is essential IMO.
For burn I believe all you need is four Lightning Strikes. I am aware of the power of Magma Jet, but I have yet to test it. At this time, I think the synergy with Guttersnipe makes Lightning Strike a better choice. You're dealing ten damage with two Strikes and one active Guttersnipe, setting you up for an easy win with the next card I'm about to discuss.
Teleportal is your win condition most of the time, and it works great with either Guttersnipe or Young Pyromancer. During the course of the game you're either burning your opponent with Guttersnipe or spamminh tokens with Young Pyromancer, by which time you can overload a Teleportal for enough damage to finish them.
I've been back and forth on maining the Cyclonic Rifts, but my current build has them in the side board. They're cheap, good for tempo, and sometimes can sweep your opponents board if timed correctly.
This basic build is mainly good against B/R, offering enough protection against removal, while it can hold it's own against G/W strategies. Against control you can side in the Counterflux, Dispels, or maybe even Dissolve.
As far as the new cards, I haven't found the need for Spellheart Chimera or Steam Augury.
I misread this, but I am not sure if Nivix Cyclops is a worse choice than Weird here... particularly since you're tapping out to get the damage in. If you're not really interested in counters maybe it's efficient, but I like to have 2 mana open for the eventual beaters or 3 mana if possible.
I feel the same way about Guttersnipe and Electromancer. I could take or leave the Guttersnipe but electromancer is just a vanilla 2/2 body most of the time.
BU[MANA]G[/MANA]W[MANA]R[/MANA]Slivers (Overlord as general)BU[MANA]G[/MANA]W[MANA]R[/MANA]
BMono Black (Xiahou Dun as general)B
Weird cost 2, cyclops cost 3..
What he's getting at is that for the time being, aggro is going to be very prevalent. Control will be present, but it's still finding the right card choices/ratios to fit the meta. In this case the weird coming down on T2 is great for both scenarios as against aggro, he slows them down considerably, and control has to deal with him before he gets in too much damage. Both are good for us, as we want to make sure Pyro and Snipe stay on the board as long as possible.
On another note, I tested a rough draft at FNM last night as went 2-2.
First round was some kid who didn't know what he was doing..
Second round was against G/W midrange, with nothing but big dudes and bombs. Mizzium Mortars are a must in this match..
Third round was U/W control. This was a good match up, and I still lost, but the match up should be doable with the tweaks I'd like to make.
Forth round was basically Rakdos aggro. During and after this match, I definitely knew that some changes needed to be made to the 75.. Aggro is something that definitely needs to be stalled out, as there's know way we can race them.
I'll post the list I played and the changes I plan on making later. For now, I think nafix is definitely on the right track..
While I understand that, you have to tap mana to pump the Weird. To get to 4 damage as he suggests you're pretty much tapping out through turn 6 or so in many occasions. The Cyclops also has 4 toughness, and while it costs 1 more during one turn of play, it also costs less mana over time as an investment. In the end, I think the Weird is probably good, but I won't be pumping it more than twice pretty much ever.
BU[MANA]G[/MANA]W[MANA]R[/MANA]Slivers (Overlord as general)BU[MANA]G[/MANA]W[MANA]R[/MANA]
BMono Black (Xiahou Dun as general)B
4 Rakdos Cackler
4 Firedrinker Satyr
3 Frostburn Weird
2 Flamespeaker Adept
Auras
4 Aqueous Form
4 Madcap Skills
3 Titan's Strength
3 Magma Jet
4 Lightning Strike
4 Spell Rupture
2 Voyage's End
2 Griptide
4 Steam Vents
9 Mountains
8 Islands
The sideboard should probably have some combination of Dispel, Mizzium Skin, and Anger of the Gods.
The general plan is to play a 2 power 1 drop, put a madcap skills on it on turn 2, then an aqueous form on turn 3 with spell rupture backup, and use that creature to beat them to death, or at the very least put them in range of burn spells. I haven't been able to test this deck much yet but I thought I'd post it in here to get some feedback. How good/bad does it look?
On a side note, I'm thinking of dropping the Nivix Cyclops and going with four Boros Reckoners. Thoughts on this move?
http://www.channelfireball.com/articles/spoiler-spotlight-steam-augury/
4 Nivmagus Elemental
4 Young Pyromancer
4 Guttersnipe
4 Hidden Strings
4 Hands of Binding
4 Syncopate
3 Voyage's End
3 Magma Jet
3 Turn and Burn
3 Izzet Charm
3 Aqueous Form
7 Mountain
4 Steam Vents
I'm considering trying to add black for Thoughtseize to take out early creatures or removal and possibly adding Read the Bones? Also having access to Doom Blade, Dreadbore, and Rakdos' Return might not be bad, but I guess now I'm running the risk of losing some of the focus?
Nivmagus Elemental also warrants mention as that has single handedly won me games time and time again...It's interaction with Cypher copies is sick and it quickly gets out of hand, plus as an added bonus the copies are still "cast" before being exiled to the Elemental so you still trigger Pyro and Gutter.
Yeah I ran Nivmagus Elemental as well early on in the decks lifespan, but I found no evasion means he gets chumped alot, but he was ok I guess. The cipher interaction is nice though. I really feel you need some amount of Mizzium Skin in your 75 to keep Guttersnipe or Young Pyromancer around though. I like to have as many one mana spells as possible in here to maximize your potential when going off. It should be noted I don't play Goblin Electromancer though. Weapon Surge is another card I haven't seen mentioned here either, it plays well on offence and defense with the first strike. Overloading it for another blocker and giving all your dudes first strike and +1 power can make for some suprising blowouts when they swing into your YP and a few tokens.
I like the fact that you can overload Mizzium Skin for a mere 2 mana, and it deals with sorcery speed spells as well (I'm looking at you Mizzium Mortars). I never cared for that counter though, most of our creatuers have a small power, so they can pay for it alot of times. I do run Dispel in the SB for Sphinx's Revelation and other control type decks.
A lot of you don't seem to be having issues in your first few turns which makes me question if some of you have actually been testing against legitimate competition. At this point, I just assume my first two creatures are not staying on the board for more than a turn, because that's what happens in literally 75% of the control matchups I'm playing. Against aggro, if I don't have defense up by turn 3, I start falling behind in life pretty fast and it becomes hard to keep up. I mean control decks are playing 8-11 spot removal which means they almost match your creature threat count.
I just can't believe anyone is legitimately using Nivix Cylcops to any real world use. He just gets removed or chump blocked all day.
4 Izzet Guildgate
4 Steam Vents
7 Island
8 Mountain
Creatures (14)
4 Nivmagus Elemental
3 Frostburn Weird
4 Nivix Cyclops
2 Spellheart Chimera
1 Stormbreath Dragon
4 Steam Augury
3 Anger of the Gods
2 Mizzium Skin
3 Syncopate
4 Magma Jet
3 Hidden Strings
3 Turn//Burn
1 Dynacharge / Telportal
2 Mizzium Skin
3 Swan Song
2 Weapon Surge
1 Anger of the Gods
1 Stormbreath Dragon
3 Mizzium Mortar
2 Counterflux
1 Turn//Burn
I know the hate on Nivix Cyclops, and will completely agree everything that has been said, but am feeling this build with him. It has a change to get explosive. Hold a Syncopate for Supreme Judgement. Anger of Gods on your turn should get rid of most creatures on opponents board and cyclops is swinging for 4...7 if they try to burn the extra damage and you have a Mizzium Skin to back him up. Then there is the Nivmagus and Hidden Strings combo. On turn 2 it is a 3/4. Frostburn is to slow down early aggro until Anger goes online. Then the next turn he is swinging in for 4 as well with a well placed Dyncharge on Nivix for a good Anger follow up turn. Spellheart comes out after an Anger. Stormbreath is a backup finisher. Dynacharge is the secret tech finisher turn after an Anger, but maybe teleportal is a better one. The board can bring in more counters for control or more WW hate or some stuff for midrange matchups.
I guess my main wonder/worry is that there may be too many things going on in this deck that there may not be enough focus. Thoughts? Especially from nafix. You sound like you know what is going on.
Ack. Remember that Supreme Verdict can't be countered :/
Also, I'm really hesitant / pretty much against Anger of the Gods in our builds for two reasons:
1) Most of our creatures die to it, except Cyclops. So at its best, it's a defensive card, which the R/U build isn't aiming for.
2) If we're on the attack, then it'll act as a dead spell in our hand completely (since we don't want to kill off our dudes). At this point, any direct player burn would be better.
That's why I'd rather keep it out of my build personally. It could be a life-saver in sticky situations, but it doesn't even beat Loxodon Smiter, which is quite relevant.