I find Jori En a little boring, it's JUST card draw. I do love drawing cards, but i would like for my general to do more than just that. I've never been much of a fan of experience counters and Mizzix is also a little boring. Now Melek is more interesting, but he's the one that costs the most and I'm not too crazy about revealing my whole deck to my opponents.
What would you guys suggest? I woudn't rule out branching out into a third color. Kess, Dissident Mage seems ok, but i have plenty of graveyard shenanigan decks so I'm trying to get away from that and I don't want a pump deck since I already have a Shu Yun, the Silent Tempest deck.
I know that I'm pretty picky, but just looking for a fun deck, nothing competitive. What do you guys suggest?
I've run Melek, Izzet Paragon before, and he's fun. Bear in mind though, it's sort of a glass cannon. You do need a reasonable degree of topdeck manipulation, so things like Library of Leng, Sensei's Divining Top and so forth will be important. Nonetheless, I enjoyed my time with Melek, can recommend.
I'll second Melek. If nothing else, it's surprisingly powerful to cast a Ponder, or similar spell off the top of your deck. And fun to watch people's reaction to a Counterspell on top of your deck.
I've run Melek, Izzet Paragon before, and he's fun. Bear in mind though, it's sort of a glass cannon. You do need a reasonable degree of topdeck manipulation, so things like Library of Leng, Sensei's Divining Top and so forth will be important. Nonetheless, I enjoyed my time with Melek, can recommend.
I'll second Melek. If nothing else, it's surprisingly powerful to cast a Ponder, or similar spell off the top of your deck. And fun to watch people's reaction to a Counterspell on top of your deck.
Thanks for the input, I've been leaning towards Melek from the beginning to be honest but wasn't quite sure for the reasons I stated before. But it seems he will be my choice.
He's not really typical, but I had a lot of fun with Keranos, God of Storms at the the head of a spellslinger list. He doesn't draw a ton of hate or combo, but you can get incidental card draw or damage off of him, and he'll typically stick around due to being low priority as well as tough to remove. That, and he has gorgeous art.
Ramos, dragon engine makes a pretty decent spellslinger commander. You get access to all the best spells and ramos' mana ability is really strong with charms and other multicolor spells. Ramos also is a really good finisher.
I've run Melek, Izzet Paragon before, and he's fun. Bear in mind though, it's sort of a glass cannon. You do need a reasonable degree of topdeck manipulation, so things like Library of Leng, Sensei's Divining Top and so forth will be important. Nonetheless, I enjoyed my time with Melek, can recommend.
Melek is fun to play...when you actually get to play with him. He's 6 mana, has no immediate impact on the game, and has a powerful effect. The latter two add up to mean that he will get killed quickly and repeatedly without achieving anything and the former means his cost rapidly becomes unfeasible, as well as making in much harder to play him and do something the same turn. As much as I loved Melek on the occasions I was able to actually go off with the deck, it was so frustrating to play thanks to how much he would die.
If you're playing in a meta where people don't interact with you, then so for it. Otherwise, I'd recommend something that's a - cheaper, b - more resilient or c - has an instant impact on the game when you play it.
I've run Melek, Izzet Paragon before, and he's fun. Bear in mind though, it's sort of a glass cannon. You do need a reasonable degree of topdeck manipulation, so things like Library of Leng, Sensei's Divining Top and so forth will be important. Nonetheless, I enjoyed my time with Melek, can recommend.
Melek is fun to play...when you actually get to play with him. He's 6 mana, has no immediate impact on the game, and has a powerful effect. The latter two add up to mean that he will get killed quickly and repeatedly without achieving anything and the former means his cost rapidly becomes unfeasible, as well as making in much harder to play him and do something the same turn. As much as I loved Melek on the occasions I was able to actually go off with the deck, it was so frustrating to play thanks to how much he would die.
If you're playing in a meta where people don't interact with you, then so for it. Otherwise, I'd recommend something that's a - cheaper, b - more resilient or c - has an instant impact on the game when you play it.
Generally, I agree with all of the above. It can get to be an expensive build to make the topdecking work, and he is undoubtedly expensive with no protection. As far as spellslinging in a powerful meta goes I would put Mizzix of the Izmagnus, Kess, Dissident Mage or Jeleva, Nephalia's Scourge at the top of the pile. OP did state that fun was the name of the game, though, so Melek is still my pick of the suitable 'slingers. All of the aforementioned competitive 'slingers tend to combo off, and if that's what you want to do, no problem. It's not my cup of tea, and doesn't sound like it's what OP is after either.
I guess the other option that could be fun is Riku of Two Reflections. Wide open to build, requires a lot less setup than Melek, and generally competes quite well, while also being in great colours to ramp out well to afford his CMC.
Unfortunately, the downside of this guy is that normal wraths hurt twice as much. I would not play this guy.
I already have Ramos, Dragon Engine as a general for my +1/+1 counter deck. Noyan Dar, Roil Shaper is interesting, but like OCPunisher stated, he makes your lands very vulnerable and WU aren't very good for ramping, so it puts you out of the game pretty easily. Although I do have him in the 99 of my General Tazri land animation deck which comes with the land protection package like Terra Eternal and Sacred Ground
I've run Melek, Izzet Paragon before, and he's fun. Bear in mind though, it's sort of a glass cannon. You do need a reasonable degree of topdeck manipulation, so things like Library of Leng, Sensei's Divining Top and so forth will be important. Nonetheless, I enjoyed my time with Melek, can recommend.
Melek is fun to play...when you actually get to play with him. He's 6 mana, has no immediate impact on the game, and has a powerful effect. The latter two add up to mean that he will get killed quickly and repeatedly without achieving anything and the former means his cost rapidly becomes unfeasible, as well as making in much harder to play him and do something the same turn. As much as I loved Melek on the occasions I was able to actually go off with the deck, it was so frustrating to play thanks to how much he would die.
If you're playing in a meta where people don't interact with you, then so for it. Otherwise, I'd recommend something that's a - cheaper, b - more resilient or c - has an instant impact on the game when you play it.
Generally, I agree with all of the above. It can get to be an expensive build to make the topdecking work, and he is undoubtedly expensive with no protection. As far as spellslinging in a powerful meta goes I would put Mizzix of the Izmagnus, Kess, Dissident Mage or Jeleva, Nephalia's Scourge at the top of the pile. OP did state that fun was the name of the game, though, so Melek is still my pick of the suitable 'slingers. All of the aforementioned competitive 'slingers tend to combo off, and if that's what you want to do, no problem. It's not my cup of tea, and doesn't sound like it's what OP is after either.
I guess the other option that could be fun is Riku of Two Reflections. Wide open to build, requires a lot less setup than Melek, and generally competes quite well, while also being in great colours to ramp out well to afford his CMC.
So I was leaning towards Melek, Izzet Paragon because he's the most unique out of the Izzet commanders, but like i mentioned earlier, I wasn't too excited about revealing my deck and he's the most expensive too cast. Then I remembered Riku of Two Reflections existed, I thought that he would be interesting as he has the same copying ability as Melek although you have to pay mana for it which the G pretty much offsets as I can ramp pretty hard. And as a bonus I can also copy the few creatures I'll have such as Young Pyromancer, Thermo-Alchemist and Thing in the Ice.
So I believe Riku will be my choice. And yes I do have quite a few decks lol
So I believe Riku will be my choice. And yes I do have quite a few decks lol
You're not alone!
This seems like a good choice. Riku is decently strong, in good colours, not broken or boring, and does what you want it to do. He can also ramp super good, so fingers crossed he will work out nicely for you.
It's a very interesting build, where you utilizes token generators and cheap spells to power up Brudiclad's effect. I added both Grenzo, Havoc Raiser and Vedalken Humiliator in my version for more aggression.
Unfortunately, the downside of this guy is that normal wraths hurt twice as much. I would not play this guy.
Normal wraths don't hurt Noayan dar more than they against other deck. Most cases they hurt a lot less. The trick is to put all the counters on a single land preferably an indestructible land. Have some counter backup and opponents will have lots of trouble dealing with a single land.
One that no one has mentioned - Nin, the Pain Artist. An oldie but a goodie. Being able to consistently draw a few extra cards from your deck each game makes sure that you don't stall out on mana production, like Izzet decks going for big plays are at risk of doing.
Seems like a cool route also for the token-heavy build you plan on going, since you can just zap a token for max and effectively Pull from Tomorrow every turn. I'd suggest also Moonveil Dragon, Warmonger Hellkite and similar for this kind of build.
Hard to argue with Riku though. Access to Overwhelming Stampede with that kind of copy effect is bonkers. Can copy Wood Elves all day. I am fond of Riku for casual/fun, just hard to find me playing it for same reasons as Melek - easy to get blown off a 2/2 for 5+ mana, then your deck doesn't work the same.
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I want to build a spellslinger deck preferably in Izzet but having a hard time deciding on the general. I'm not interested in combos or storm. I want to play cards like Thermo-alchemist, Thing in the Ice, Young Pyromancer and Talrand, Sky Summoner. I've been looking at Jori En, Ruin Diver, Mizzix of the Izmagnus and Melek, Izzet Paragon.
I find Jori En a little boring, it's JUST card draw. I do love drawing cards, but i would like for my general to do more than just that. I've never been much of a fan of experience counters and Mizzix is also a little boring. Now Melek is more interesting, but he's the one that costs the most and I'm not too crazy about revealing my whole deck to my opponents.
What would you guys suggest? I woudn't rule out branching out into a third color. Kess, Dissident Mage seems ok, but i have plenty of graveyard shenanigan decks so I'm trying to get away from that and I don't want a pump deck since I already have a Shu Yun, the Silent Tempest deck.
I know that I'm pretty picky, but just looking for a fun deck, nothing competitive. What do you guys suggest?
Building: Varina
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B Toshiro Umezawa
BG Pharika, God of Affliction - Necromancy and Politics
WWW The Church of Heliod
WBR Zurgo, Helmsmasher
RG Wort, the Raidmother
UBR Jeleva, Nephalia's Scourge
UG Vorel of the Hull Clade
Thanks for the input, I've been leaning towards Melek from the beginning to be honest but wasn't quite sure for the reasons I stated before. But it seems he will be my choice.
Niv-Mizzet, Parun will be in the 99 for sure, but that cmc and the fact that he seems very combo oriented makes me not want him as a general
Otherwise, I'd probably go with Kess or Melek.
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I also like Noyan Dar, Roil Shaper because you can basically play really strong wraths with almost no downside. Play of the game, hour of revelation, planar cleansing etc.
Melek is fun to play...when you actually get to play with him. He's 6 mana, has no immediate impact on the game, and has a powerful effect. The latter two add up to mean that he will get killed quickly and repeatedly without achieving anything and the former means his cost rapidly becomes unfeasible, as well as making in much harder to play him and do something the same turn. As much as I loved Melek on the occasions I was able to actually go off with the deck, it was so frustrating to play thanks to how much he would die.
If you're playing in a meta where people don't interact with you, then so for it. Otherwise, I'd recommend something that's a - cheaper, b - more resilient or c - has an instant impact on the game when you play it.
Unfortunately, the downside of this guy is that normal wraths hurt twice as much. I would not play this guy.
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Generally, I agree with all of the above. It can get to be an expensive build to make the topdecking work, and he is undoubtedly expensive with no protection. As far as spellslinging in a powerful meta goes I would put Mizzix of the Izmagnus, Kess, Dissident Mage or Jeleva, Nephalia's Scourge at the top of the pile. OP did state that fun was the name of the game, though, so Melek is still my pick of the suitable 'slingers. All of the aforementioned competitive 'slingers tend to combo off, and if that's what you want to do, no problem. It's not my cup of tea, and doesn't sound like it's what OP is after either.
I guess the other option that could be fun is Riku of Two Reflections. Wide open to build, requires a lot less setup than Melek, and generally competes quite well, while also being in great colours to ramp out well to afford his CMC.
I already have Ramos, Dragon Engine as a general for my +1/+1 counter deck. Noyan Dar, Roil Shaper is interesting, but like OCPunisher stated, he makes your lands very vulnerable and WU aren't very good for ramping, so it puts you out of the game pretty easily. Although I do have him in the 99 of my General Tazri land animation deck which comes with the land protection package like Terra Eternal and Sacred Ground
I know Mizzix of the Izmagnus is good but I find he's a little bland. I'm not really interested in Kess, Dissident Mage as I already have a Toshiro Umezawa deck. I looked at Jeleva, Nephalia's Scourge but again I have a Sen Triplets control/Theft deck.
So I was leaning towards Melek, Izzet Paragon because he's the most unique out of the Izzet commanders, but like i mentioned earlier, I wasn't too excited about revealing my deck and he's the most expensive too cast. Then I remembered Riku of Two Reflections existed, I thought that he would be interesting as he has the same copying ability as Melek although you have to pay mana for it which the G pretty much offsets as I can ramp pretty hard. And as a bonus I can also copy the few creatures I'll have such as Young Pyromancer, Thermo-Alchemist and Thing in the Ice.
So I believe Riku will be my choice. And yes I do have quite a few decks lol
You're not alone!
This seems like a good choice. Riku is decently strong, in good colours, not broken or boring, and does what you want it to do. He can also ramp super good, so fingers crossed he will work out nicely for you.
It's a very interesting build, where you utilizes token generators and cheap spells to power up Brudiclad's effect. I added both Grenzo, Havoc Raiser and Vedalken Humiliator in my version for more aggression.
Shu Yun, the Silent Tempest WUR Voltron Control
Temmet, Vizier of Naktamun WU Unblockable Mirror Trickery
Ra's al Ghul (Sidar Kondo) and Face-Down Ninjas
Brudiclad, Token Engineer
Vaevictis (VV2) the Dire Lantern
Rona, Disciple of Gix
Tiana the Auror
Hallar
Ulrich the Politician
Zur the Rebel
Scorpion, Locust, Scarab, Egyptian Gods
O-Kagachi, Mathas, Mairsil
"Non-Tribal" Tribal Generals, Eggs
Normal wraths don't hurt Noayan dar more than they against other deck. Most cases they hurt a lot less. The trick is to put all the counters on a single land preferably an indestructible land. Have some counter backup and opponents will have lots of trouble dealing with a single land.
https://www.mtgvault.com/naethyn/decks/hydras-edh/
Seems like a cool route also for the token-heavy build you plan on going, since you can just zap a token for max and effectively Pull from Tomorrow every turn. I'd suggest also Moonveil Dragon, Warmonger Hellkite and similar for this kind of build.
Hard to argue with Riku though. Access to Overwhelming Stampede with that kind of copy effect is bonkers. Can copy Wood Elves all day. I am fond of Riku for casual/fun, just hard to find me playing it for same reasons as Melek - easy to get blown off a 2/2 for 5+ mana, then your deck doesn't work the same.