MTG Salvation

This deck is dedicated to our wondrous leader and Parun, Niv-Mizzet. I am attempting to make it fairly flavorful, while also making the deck powerful. I would appreciate some help on both fronts. Ideally this will also be my first pimped out deck, as what initially spurred me into making the deck was pulling a foil Niv-Mizzet, Dracogenius out of my prize packs at my prerelease. The deck is very much a WIP, so I'm expecting quite a bit of criticism at this point.


My concerns currently are updating the counter suite, the mana rock suite, and the lands in the deck, but I would love some criticism on any part of the deck, and would appreciate some more ideas for flavorful additions to the deck.

EDIT: I've updated the list to its current form. Its still a work in progress, but has gotten significantly more powerful. I'm going to try to introduce a morph subtheme, as I feel the tricky feeling resonates with my idea of what this deck wants to be doing. Anyone have any flavor cards I'm obviously missing, or some cards to go with what I'm already trying to do. Right now the goals are big turns with powerful card draw, and the ability to rely on my commander to a degree. I'd love some ideas to give the deck a more "Izzet" feel.

That's an awful lot of basics... Ruination? Back to Basics?

I have that many because I made the deck on the spot tonight, but I think Ruination could be good in here. I could see both sides of it though, if I want to run more nonbasics I could be blowing up our leaders precious realms :P, but I could also cackle manically while I punish my opponents hubris.

Bump. things disappear quickly in here. Please guys, I need some input, the list is still fairly lacking.

Sorry for the 3rd post in a row, but I just updated the list. Wanted some ideas on flavorful Izzet cards that are good in EDH, and some general thoughts on the list.

Eeep. o.o Have you actually played this?? I'm unsure as to what you are trying to accomplish with this. It kind of seems like you just threw in a bunch of random cards that were blue and red.

I would HIGHLY recommend using Cockatrice to playtest your decks. You can download it here: http://cockatrice.de/index.php?a=download Lots of people to play with all the time and it's completely free.

Next, I would invite you to take a look at my primer on the Firemind for some possible inspiration: http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?p=8167609#post8167609 It should help you choose lands, mana accel, counters, and draw.

Turnabout and Reiterate need to be in here because they allow you to make infinite colored mana to pour into Dracogenius.

Similarly Mind Over Matter and two copies (use metamorph, Sculpting Steel, or Copy Artifact) of Gilded Lotus give you "discard 2 cards: draw 3 cards"

Basically, I view Dracogenius as a more casual alternative to Firemind because there are less (I think only 1) infinite combos involving him. If you don't intend to use the infinite combos, Dracogenius will serve you better. That said, your deck should more or less run similar to mine, except with maybe some more casual fun type stuff.

It will help you to organize your decklist by FUNCTION rather than TYPE. Figure out how you want to win and go from there.

On a side note, I see you live in the Bay! I live over in Berkeley.

Quote from Rowan

Eeep. o.o Have you actually played this?? I'm unsure as to what you are trying to accomplish with this. It kind of seems like you just threw in a bunch of random cards that were blue and red.

I would HIGHLY recommend using Cockatrice to playtest your decks. You can download it here: http://cockatrice.de/index.php?a=download Lots of people to play with all the time and it's completely free.

Next, I would invite you to take a look at my primer on the Firemind for some possible inspiration: http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?p=8167609#post8167609 It should help you choose lands, mana accel, counters, and draw.

Turnabout and Reiterate need to be in here because they allow you to make infinite colored mana to pour into Dracogenius.

Similarly Mind Over Matter and two copies (use metamorph, Sculpting Steel, or Copy Artifact) of Gilded Lotus give you "discard 2 cards: draw 3 cards"

Basically, I view Dracogenius as a more casual alternative to Firemind because there are less (I think only 1) infinite combos involving him. If you don't intend to use the infinite combos, Dracogenius will serve you better. That said, your deck should more or less run similar to mine, except with maybe some more casual fun type stuff.

It will help you to organize your decklist by FUNCTION rather than TYPE. Figure out how you want to win and go from there.

On a side note, I see you live in the Bay! I live over in Berkeley.

This list is indeed a bit embarrassing in terms of card quality, but it is my most budget list at the moment. In somehow still manages to take games away, and indeed has some wacky stuff in there, but is a theme deck. Junk like Tibor and Lumia(No offense to those who run T&L as their general, I've seen fine 99's with the card), Djinn Illuminatus, and Firemind's Foresight are probably not good enough for competitive EDH that some of my other lists are tuned for, but this is a relatively casual list. I like tuning different decks for different power levels, and I would like this one to remain flavorful, and non-infinite, while upping the power level. I believe this can be accomplished, even if the deck remains obviously not competitive material. I'll take a look and post back with thoughts.

EDIT: By the way, I have played the pile, and assuming you don't get shot down before turn 7 or so, it can stabilize on some draw(most of the time) and interact, at least meaningfully, if not to the point where it is "competitive". It's not a great deck by any means.

Turn 7 is a very conservative estimate I think, but if I'm not doing anything by then I probably should have mulled.

EDIT: The closest large city near me is Oakland, I live in San Lorenzo/Hayward. I typically go to Ronin Games & Hobbies for my card playing needs, but I've definitely shopped at Eudemonia(Hope I spelled that right) a few times.

Well, in that case, I think drawing cards should be your theme. It's powerful and you don't have to go infinite with it if you don't want to. Handcycling is also amazing but maybe a bit more suited to Firemind. It is however a great tool that allows you to trade what you don't want for what you do and refill your hand. Try out cards like Wheel of Fortune, Mindmoil, Reforge the Soul, Windfall, Time Reversal, Time Spiral.

Inner Fire and Comet Storm is a great win condition for this type of deck.

Cards that are Izzet and flavorful while also being pretty decent are Counterflux, Invoke the Firemind, Epic Experiment, Double Negative, Gelectrode, Suffocating Blast, Clout of the Dominus, Electrolyze, Swerve, Stitch in Time, Izzet Charm, and Spellbound Dragon.

If you don't know about this awesome tool, you should check it out: http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Default.aspx

Quote from Rowan

Well, in that case, I think drawing cards should be your theme. It's powerful and you don't have to go infinite with it if you don't want to. Handcycling is also amazing but maybe a bit more suited to Firemind. It is however a great tool that allows you to trade what you don't want for what you do and refill your hand. Try out cards like Wheel of Fortune, Mindmoil, Reforge the Soul, Windfall, Time Reversal, Time Spiral.

Inner Fire and Comet Storm is a great win condition for this type of deck.

Cards that are Izzet and flavorful while also being pretty decent are Double Negative, Gelectrode, Suffocating Blast, Clout of the Dominus, Electrolyze, Swerve, Stitch in Time, Izzet Charm, and Spellbound Dragon.

I definitely want some stronger draw in there. Reforge and Time Reversal are already in there, and at this moment I don't know if I can justify Time Spiral's price tag for this deck, but I'll try to pick up Wheel, Mindmoil, and Windfall.

Inner Fire should be an easy pickup, and I've been meaning to pick up a 2nd Comet Storm.

Double Negative, Gelectrode, Suffocating Blast, Clout, and Spellbound Dragon look good, and Stitch in Time is hilarious. But are Izzet Charm, Swerve, and Electrolyze really good in EDH? I think I'll find out myself. I've been surprised at how often Bolt has killed relevant stuff after all.

I'm definitely going to try to increase the quality of rocks and card draw I run as well, although I think Izzet Keyrune has to stay in. What do you think is a good secondary win-con to Comet Storm? I guess landing Firemind & Drawing bunchs of cards is good, and I have my commander, but I think I need one more good win condition, preferably another one that is hard to interact with like Comet Storm. Has Molten Psyche been good while you've played it?

EDIT: Oh believe me, I've surfed Gatherer plenty. I was aware of all of the cards you posted, although Swerve and Clout were cards I was less familiar with. It's just that this is my 5th EDH Deck, and at this point I think some things are slipping my mind, and the budget for this one has started out slightly low.

Well, if you go the hand-cycling route, Molten Psyche is a great win condition, especially if you put in more duplication spells. 3 copies of molten psyche with 7 cards in hand is 42 dmg ( 7+14+21=42)

If you add Dream Halls and Mindmoil, you have a win condition right there. Just cycle until you find Niv and you've won with near-infinite damage.