Discard Your Way, Trim-Style, With This Captain Howler, Sea Scourge Commander Deck

Tellah, Great Sage - Final Fantasy Spellslinger Commander Deck

Building Two Legendary Matters Commander Decks

Build a Copy-Themed Deck With Saheeli, the Sun's Brilliance

<h6 style="text-align: right;"><span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Niv-Mizzet, Visionary" href="#" target="_blank">Niv-Mizzet, Visionary</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span>| art by <a href="https://danscottart.com/">Dan Murayama Scott</a></h6>
<h2><b>Which </b><a href="https://scryfall.com/search?q=Niv-Mizzet"><b>Niv-Mizzet</b></a><b> is it?</b></h2>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Hello! Welcome to </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">Archetypes of Imagination</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;">, a brand new series where I'll be building decks based on popular Commander archetypes. I'll be using</span><a href="https://tagger.scryfall.com/"> <span style="font-weight: 400;">Scryfall's tagging system</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> and</span><a href="https://edhrec.com/tags"> <span style="font-weight: 400;">EDHREC's Tag pages</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;"> to build around a new theme each week.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;"> Scryfall has a really cool way of categorizing cards, where each card has specific labels attached to it for later reference. For example, <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Wrath of God" href="#" target="_blank">Wrath of God</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> has the sweeper tag and <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Mirari&#039;s Wake" href="#" target="_blank">Mirari&#039;s Wake</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> has the mana increaser tag. EDHREC's tag system is really cool too, letting users see popular cards associated with a given strategy. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The Equipment tag shows users that <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Puresteel Paladin" href="#" target="_blank">Puresteel Paladin</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> works well with the strategy and the Landfall tag does the same for <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Rampaging Baloths" href="#" target="_blank">Rampaging Baloths</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span>.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">This week, we'll use those two systems to build a Commander deck centered around everybody's favorite 60-card archetype: burn! Burn can sometimes struggle to keep up in a format with three players who each start with 40 life, but I've got some plans that should power this strategy up well. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">To that end, I've chosen a super cool commander: <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Niv-Mizzet, Visionary" href="#" target="_blank">Niv-Mizzet, Visionary</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span>!</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;"><div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Niv-Mizzet, Visionary"></div></div></span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">This is Niv's seventh appearance on a </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">Magic: The Gathering</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;"> card, which is quite something. I do think that this version is my favorite so far, and that's coming from someone who played <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Niv-Mizzet, Parun" href="#" target="_blank">Niv-Mizzet, Parun</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> in cEDH for years.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;"> And, hilariously, this version of <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Niv-Mizzet, Visionary" href="#" target="_blank">Niv</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> goes infinite with two of his previous iterations. Check out these combos from Commander Spellbook, a database with information on over 40,000 EDH combos:</span></p>
<div id="2353-6092" style="width: 100%; position: relative; overflow: visible; display: flex; justify-content: center;"><img decoding="async" id="csbLoad" src="https://commanderspellbook.com/images/gear.svg" alt="csb logo" width="300" /><br />
<script id="2353-6092" src="https://commanderspellbook.com/embed.js?v=1&uses=%5B%22Niv-Mizzet%2C%20Visionary%22%2C%22Niv-Mizzet%2C%20Parun%22%5D&requires=%5B%5D&produces=%5B%22Near-infinite%20damage%22%2C%22Infinite%20card%20draw%22%2C%22Infinite%20draw%20triggers%22%5D&id=2353-6092&color=UR&extraRequirementCount=1"></script></div>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<div id="4971-6092" style="width: 100%; position: relative; overflow: visible; display: flex; justify-content: center;"><img decoding="async" id="csbLoad" src="https://commanderspellbook.com/images/gear.svg" alt="csb logo" width="300" /><br />
<script id="4971-6092" src="https://commanderspellbook.com/embed.js?v=1&uses=%5B%22Niv-Mizzet%2C%20Visionary%22%2C%22Niv-Mizzet%2C%20the%20Firemind%22%5D&requires=%5B%5D&produces=%5B%22Near-infinite%20damage%22%2C%22Infinite%20card%20draw%22%2C%22Infinite%20draw%20triggers%22%5D&id=4971-6092&color=UR&extraRequirementCount=1"></script></div>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">That aside, let's talk about <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Niv-Mizzet, Visionary" href="#" target="_blank">Niv-Mizzet, Visionary</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span>. This card wants us to do non-combat damage to our opponents, rewarding us with tons of card draw when we do so. So, I've packed this deck with lots of ways to ping our opponents for little bits of damage, lots of ways to hit them hard with big amounts of damage, and leaned hard into an Izzet spellslinger theme this week. I'm excited to show you what I've come up with, so let's go!</span></p>
<p><b>Burn, baby! Burn!</b></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">This deck is focused heavily on instants and sorceries, having a total of 32 cards that fall into those categories. And, out of those cards, 11 of them can deal damage directly to our opponents. My favorite from this sub-group is <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Fiery Confluence" href="#" target="_blank">Fiery Confluence</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span>, which can act as a board wipe, a way to hit our opponents in the face, and even some targeted artifact removal. <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Cave-In" href="#" target="_blank">Cave-In</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> is from all the way back in 1999's </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">Mercadian Masques</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;">, and can draw us a total of 6 cards for free if we cast it with our commander on the field. <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Wheel of Misfortune" href="#" target="_blank">Wheel of Misfortune</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> is extremely interesting too, adding even more complexity to its already-difficult mini-game by punishing our opponents who pick a high number. If one of our opponents wants to outbid us so that they can draw a full seven-card hand, then we'll be be drawing a ton of extra cards.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;"><div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Fiery Confluence"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Cave-In"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Wheel of Misfortune"></div></div></span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">And, with all the instants and sorceries we'll be casting, there's some sweet payoffs to let us draw even more cards. My favorite pinger in the deck is <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Coruscation Mage" href="#" target="_blank">Coruscation Mage</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span>, acting as a typical two-mana one-damage pinger with the option to become a four-mana two-damage pinger if we cast it later in the game. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">I think <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Exalted Flamer of Tzeentch" href="#" target="_blank">Exalted Flamer of Tzeentch</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> is another fantastic card, both pinging our opponents whenever we cast a spell and rebuying a card at random on each of our turns. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">And, as a pretty cool storm enabler, <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Urabrask" href="#" target="_blank">Urabrask</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> is here too. This Praetor will ping our opponents, as most of the creatures in this deck do, while also providing us some extra mana to keep slinging spells. And, should we choose to, he can flip into a saga that synergizes perfectly with our deck.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;"><div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Coruscation Mage"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Exalted Flamer of Tzeentch"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Urabrask"></div></div></span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">But, I hear you asking, what if we run out of instants and sorceries to cast? Well, I hope that never happens. But, in case it does, there's a few other ways to deal noncombat damage to our opponents.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;"> One of my favorite cards from last year, <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Razorkin Needlehead" href="#" target="_blank">Razorkin Needlehead</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> will ensure at least one point of noncombat damage on each of our opponents' turns, and will usually provide even more pings as they inevitably take game actions. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">I also love <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Scalding Viper" href="#" target="_blank">Scalding Viper</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span>, a creature that can hit our opponents pretty easily combined with a (somewhat lackluster) removal spell. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">While neither half of this card is absolutely stunning, the two halves combine to make a pretty good whole. Lastly, <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Descent into Avernus" href="#" target="_blank">Descent into Avernus</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> has a slot here too.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;"> This card can speed up the game drastically, lowering life totals and raising the amount of mana available to players. We break parity on this card easily, drawing a boatload of cards once we have our commander and this card on the board together</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;"><div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Razorkin Needlehead"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Scalding Viper"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Descent into Avernus"></div></div></span></p>
<p><b>Now that's a <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Gut Shot" href="#" target="_blank">Gut Shot</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span>!</b></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">So, we'll be dealing a lot of noncombat damage to everyone at the table. But, most of that damage is coming in small increments (usually in ones). Let's see what we can do to bump those numbers up. </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">Foundations</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;">' <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Twinflame Tyrant" href="#" target="_blank">Twinflame Tyrant</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> is an awesome card, doubling damage dealt to our opponents and providing a combat-relevant 3/5 flying creature all for just five mana! </span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Not to sound like a broken record, but this is yet another of my favorite cards from the past year. There's another damage doubler here too: <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Solphim, Mayhem Dominus" href="#" target="_blank">Solphim, Mayhem Dominus</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span>. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Again, this creature can double damage while also acting as a pretty big 5/4 creature. Plus, this one can defend itself from removal at the low cost of discarding two cards, paying four life, and paying one mana. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Lastly, there's <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Ojer Axonil, Deepest Might" href="#" target="_blank">Ojer Axonil, Deepest Might</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span>. This card is fantastic, usually quadrupling the damage that we'll be dealing to our opponents. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">And, much like <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Solphim, Mayhem Dominus" href="#" target="_blank">Solphim</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span>, this card is quite hard for our opponents to get rid of permanently.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;"><div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Twinflame Tyrant"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Solphim, Mayhem Dominus"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Ojer Axonil, Deepest Might"></div></div></span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Here's the full decklist:</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;"><div class="edhrecp__deck mtgh"><span class="edhrecp__deck-s" name="Archetypes of Imagination - Burn" site="edhrec" archidekt_link="" cards="&nbsp;
[Commander]
*1 Niv-Mizzet, Visionary
[/Commander]
&nbsp;
[Creatures]
*1 Archmage Emeritus
*1 Archmage of Runes
*1 Ashling, Flame Dancer
*1 Chandra&#039;s Incinerator
*1 Coruscation Mage
*1 Electrostatic Field
*1 Erebor Flamesmith
*1 Exalted Flamer of Tzeentch
*1 Firebrand Archer
*1 Goblin Electromancer
*1 Guttersnipe
*1 Harmonic Prodigy
*1 Kessig Flamebreather
*1 Laboratory Maniac
*1 Niv-Mizzet, Parun
*1 Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind
*1 Ojer Axonil, Deepest Might // Temple of Power
*1 Pink Horror
*1 Psychosis Crawler
*1 Razorkin Needlehead
*1 Scalding Viper // Steam Clean
*1 Solphim, Mayhem Dominus
*1 Stormcatch Mentor
*1 The Locust God
*1 Thermo-Alchemist
*1 Twinflame Tyrant
*1 Unruly Catapult
*1 Urabrask // The Great Work
*1 Veyran, Voice of Duality
[/Creatures]
&nbsp;
[Instants]
*1 Arcane Denial
*1 Brainstorm
*1 Desperate Ritual
*1 Fierce Guardianship
*1 Flame of Anor
*1 Frantic Search
*1 Ghostfire Slice
*1 Gut Shot
*1 Into the Flood Maw
*1 Lightning Bolt
*1 Opt
*1 Pongify
*1 Pyretic Ritual
*1 Rush of Inspiration // Crackling Falls
*1 Seething Song
*1 Untimely Malfunction
[/Instants]
&nbsp;
[Sorceries]
*1 Boltwave
*1 Cave-In
*1 End the Festivities
*1 Fiery Confluence
*1 Flame Rift
*1 Gitaxian Probe
*1 Inner Fire
*1 Jeska&#039;s Will
*1 Mana Geyser
*1 Ponder
*1 Rite of Flame
*1 Season of Weaving
*1 Slagstorm
*1 Tectonic Hazard
*1 Wheel of Misfortune
[/Sorceries]
&nbsp;
[Enchantments]
*1 Descent into Avernus
*1 Ominous Seas
[/Enchantments]
&nbsp;
[Lands]
*1 Cascade Bluffs
*1 Command Tower
*1 Ferrous Lake
*1 Fiery Islet
*12 Island
*11 Mountain
*1 Reliquary Tower
*1 Riverglide Pathway // Lavaglide Pathway
*1 Riverpyre Verge
*1 Shivan Reef
*1 Stormcarved Coast
*1 Sulfur Falls
*1 Training Center
[/Lands]
&nbsp;
[Artifacts]
*1 Arcane Signet
*1 Sol Ring
*1 Thought Vessel
[/Artifacts]
&nbsp;"></span></div></span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Some of you may notice upon looking at this list that there's very few mana rocks. This is on purpose, I promise! For a spellslinger deck, I much prefer to run rituals. <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Mana Geyser" href="#" target="_blank">Mana Geyser</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> has much more synergy with the rest of this deck than something like <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Izzet Signet" href="#" target="_blank">Izzet Signet</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span>. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Plus, I get to run some super cool, powerful rituals like <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Inner Fire" href="#" target="_blank">Inner Fire</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> that can provide enough mana to end the game outright.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;"><div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Mana Geyser"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Izzet Signet"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Inner Fire"></div></div></span></p>
<h2><b><span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Fiery Finish" href="#" target="_blank">Fiery Finish</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span></b></h2>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Thanks for reading this week's edition of </span><i><span style="font-weight: 400;">Archetypes of Imagination</span></i><span style="font-weight: 400;">! Before you go, I wanted to talk about a few of my favorite cards in the deck. I like <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Archmage Emeritus" href="#" target="_blank">Archmage Emeritus</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span>, but I love <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Archmage of Runes" href="#" target="_blank">Archmage of Runes</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span>. It's exactly the kind of big, dumb five-mana creature that I think commander is all about. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">I think that <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Chandra&#039;s Incinerator" href="#" target="_blank">Chandra&#039;s Incinerator</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> is great in this deck too, both as an easy-to-cast big creature and as a payoff for all the noncombat damage we'll be dishing out. Finally, I also wanted to shoutout <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Ashling, Flame Dancer" href="#" target="_blank">Ashling, Flame Dancer</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span>.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;"> This card does everything that this deck wants out of a creature: it adds mana, burns our opponents, and even provides card selection.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;"><div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Archmage of Runes"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Chandra&#039;s Incinerator"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Ashling, Flame Dancer"></div></div></span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">I'll see you all next week, when I build another EDH deck centered around cantrips!</span></p>


izzet

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