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Dec 5, 2012 -- 10:57PM, SSpidey86 wrote:

Hey Weisse,

Your build looks interesting. I like the variety. How have you been doing with it?

Heh, since you asked:

DISCLAIMER: My deck-building cardpool for this list is constrained by what I own in paper magic, so some budget-heavy cards (Hellkite, Snapcaster) that may be good for it are absent. I literally just add cards that I already have to this deck to see how they work out.

As far as performance goes, I win by far most of my games. But that is because my local playgroups are inundated with extreme-casual players that are never much of a challenge. I haven't yet brought it to FNM, but I would like to do that soon.

Electromancer/Guttersnipe are definitely the engines of the deck, and there isn't really a way to win without them. I have had some bad experiences with hitting 0 or 1 creatures for an entire game and not getting anywhere, even with good mana access. I would like to change that by incorporating more win conditions (the deck digs a lot; 1-2 Niv-Mizzet, Dracogenius may fit the bill). 

Runechanter's Pike , Mizzium Skin , Talrand, Sky Summoner , and Brimstone Volley are my latest additions.

I have yet to get a Talrand into play, so I can't really say anything about him. In some ways, I think Guttersnipe is just a much better card for this deck because the 2 damage bursts come immediately rather than a turn later and after a potential sweeper. Like I've said, I generally win on turn 5 with a single Guttersnipe, marginalizing Talrand's effectiveness.

Mizzium Skin has done a ton of work whenever I've drawn it. It gives me real inevitability to be able to play a turn 4 Guttersnipe with an Island and Skin ready, as often T3 Guttersnipe will get D'sphered/O'ringed/burned out after my opponent untaps. +0/+1 is extremely good on 2/2s in this format, as it serves as a combat trick to kill off nearly all the aggressive 1 and 2 drops of the format ( Gravecrawler , Diregraf Ghoul , Rakdos Cackler , Ash Zealot , unexalted Knight of Infamy ). Overload is pure bonus--usually its unnecessary but it can be very good when it is (especially when it costs ).

Pike is great. I haven't drawn into it much but it can easily give upwards of +6/+0 on turn 4 or 5. Not sure that I want a second one, though.

Brimstone Volley is something I am looking to remove. I rarely care about spot-removal so often it is just a Searing Spear that may or may not cost more. Pillar of Flame is definitely something I need in here. Searing Spear itself is nice value, often being a Lightning Bolt . 2 more of them doesn't sound bad to me as an option.

Cyclonic Rift is an important card. I had 4 mainboarded because I was coming up against of lot of decks utilizing enchantments, artifacts. Not sure where I am with this one. May go from 3 to 2. Keeps PWs in check, and is a good end-step board-wiper if it comes to that. Hits O-Ring/D-sphere nicely to prep for a win in the next turn.

Counterspell Suite: 1 Syncopate , 1 Dissipate , 2 Rewind , 2 Izzet Charm . This is probably the area that I tinker with the most. Early on I had a one-of Firemind's Foresight , which made me want to run 2 Syncopate and 2 Dissipate to fetch and lockdown the game. All the counterspells benefit from Goblin Electromancer with the exception of Izzet Charm , which is a card I am liking less and less. Mizzium Skin is a replacement for some of these counterspells.

Izzet Charm: Looting isn't worth a card and 2 mana, the counterspell mode is difficult to take advantage of, and Shock mode is meh. I don't think Izzet Charm has good a place in this format right now as it could--especially in this deck, where I am practically already running cards that specialize in each mode and do it much better. Swapping the rest of these for Pillar of Flame is my plan (shock was my most-used mode).

Dissipate: With the help my my favorite UR Goblin, this becomes Counterspell +. It's decent value, for sure, but I'm not sure it has a place in my deck as it moves farther and farther away from the controll-ish monstrosity that it was and toward a faster, refined burn list. Probably cutting this, maybe sideboard.

Syncopate: Similar to Dissipate. Being able to cast it for is really good and gives me much more flexibility.  I'm not sure if I want 0 or 2.

Rewind: My counterspell of choice. Considering adding one or two more (3-4), because it does so much work for this deck. Curves out of turn 2 Electromancer nicely. And it is never a dead card as long as I can cast it: Rewind ing one of my own spells in a pinch can help me squeeze out 2-6 more damage from Guttersnipe from the untapped mana (read: 1-2 free mana of my choice) and extra trigger.

Durdle Suite: 4 Think Twice , 2 Desperate Ravings , 2 Faithless Looting . The gas that the engine runs on. I think I am in a sweet spot with these. Adding 1-2 more Desperate Ravings is an option, as is cutting the Lootings. Most definitely responsible for keeping my turn 5-6 wins consistent.

Funsies:

Reforge the Soul has a considerable power level and is very easily playable sans Miracle. However, it is fairly clunky and I will probably only use it for multiplayer games (where it is tremendous fun). Following an end-step, overloaded Cyclonic Rift with this is cool. Plan on cutting it.

Past in Flames . When this works, it works. I only want to play this if my burn-spell threshold is high enough to warrant it. Obviously, several of the spells in this list already have flashback for a competitive cost and so threaten to make Past redundant. Decent late-game win con.

Cackling Counterpart being an instant boosts it to a playable level. Flashback is bonus and expensive, but I am able to flashback it with Electromancer help surprisingly often. Targeting Guttersnipe with it on opponents end step is pretty much game-over unless answered with instants. It's a good enough card in this list that I may considering bumping it up to 2-of.

Other cards I have tried and removed: Delver of Secrets , Chandra, the Firebrand .

Manamorphose would be soo broken in this list 

Hope this was at all helpful. It's nice to see active discussion about UR.

Dec 6, 2012 -- 8:03PM, PandamanX64 wrote:

Dec 6, 2012 -- 6:33PM, Weisse wrote:

Bunch of awesome stuff.

My thoughts:


1)     Cutting the lootings for the ravings is a thought I agree with immensly. I've run 4 of each ravings and think twice, and never looked back. They're just so GOOD. It feels good to do more card drawing than an actual control deck, right?

Cool, I'll be making that change to my list then. I will still consider running 1-2 Lootings to smooth things out but that will have lower priority over other cards.

3)   Adding 4 searing spear and 4 pillar of flame is almost a must here. Lets you mess up their early game plans, and gives you reach to kill them. I've never regretted their inclusion even once. Untapping with a snipe, to pillar and spear them for a total of 9 is a common play that wins games.

This looks good too. I'll muse over what I can do between cutting Izzet Charm and maybe other counterspells to fit these it. I'll hang onto at least 2 Rewind though.

4) What's your sideboard like? I'm terrible at boarding in general, so thoughts on this would be amazing. Specifically, How do you beat Burn/RDW/rakdos, and what do you do against the thragtusk problem?

As I said, my playgroups aren't very competitive so no one uses serious sideboards... I really don't have much of an idea either. It would be nice if UR had some way to dodge Supreme Verdict (like every other color can: Rootborn Defenses , Golgari Charm etc) because I can see T4 Verdict being an real issue for this deck. Shame that it is not counterable. I'd make sure I have 3-4 Mizzium Skin in some matchups like B/x Aggro/Zombies, RDW.

5)  What made you remove delver? Is he just too inconsistant in this?

Pretty much. Topdecking him is awful when I want more gas--he doesn't contribute immediately like the other creatures do. But when he does go down turn 1 and flips turn 2 (which is easy enough in this deck) he has amazing value.

I've been testing my list some more, and I basically can't come to any conclusions...  I did include 4x each for Think Twice and Desperate Ravings...  I still like the Nivmagus because of how tricky they can be - a surprise instant think twice or desperate ravings or even searing spear makes it a 3/4, counting an opponent pillar of flame / searing spear / blocker, etc...  Yeah, they eat cards in order to grow, but a timely flash-back spell or instant  for a +2/+2 on a creature isn't a bad use of a card.

Anyway, I can't come to conlusions because every time it seems like the deck is bad, it goes and wins convincingly a couple of times in a row...  So, I guess it's possibly competitive - it just needs the right cards to come its way...

Against RDW, Frostburn Weird is amazing at stalling their game. It won't win you the game but if you add burn you can def get the upper hand. This is from my own playtesting that I've experienced it.

Dec 12, 2012 -- 11:20AM, ParagonFury wrote:

This is my Izzet deck that I've been working on for a while. The first version didn't work too well, so I scrapped it and came up with a new version that I think works a lot better.

Mainboard
5 x Mountain
5 x Island
4 x Steam Vents
3 x Sulfur Falls
4 x Evolving Wilds
2 x Desolate Lighthouse

1 x Tibalt, the Fiend-Blooded

2 x Annihilating Fire
2 x Cyclonic Rift
4 x Dissipate
2 x Dynacharge
2 x Izzet Charm
2 x Syncopate
2 x Think Twice 
2 x Devil's Play

4 x Delver of Secrets
3 x Nivmagus Elemental
4 x Goblin Electromancer
4 x Frostburn Weird
2 x Talrand, Sky Summoner
1 x Niv-Mizzet, Dracogenius


Sideboard
2 x Smelt
2 x Mizzium Mortars
2 x Think Twice
1 x Pithing Needle
2 x Traitorous Instinct
2 x Blasphemous Act
2 x Essence Backlash
2 x Izzet Staticaster
 

Don't have time for a thorough reply, but your mana looks iffy. 9/23 come into play tapped T1 or are , preventing T1 plays. Also, I would swap Annihilating Fire s for Pillars or Spears... Pillar hits plenty of things. Again, with 4x Dissipate I don't think your mana likes the cost if it doesn't really need it. And that would let your manabase lean more towards for consistent Delvers and T2/3 counterspells.