I was admittedly a skeptic of this card at first due to the extremely specific and restrictive mana-cost (just like everybody else here). That said, I have watched enough of him in standard to see that once casting him isn't an issue, he almost acts as a (more?) powerful Consecrated Sphinx, which is very elite company to be in. Once you can cast him he WILL enter play (barring something like Venser, Shaper Savant), and he will at least cantrip (barring a Shriekmaw style creature). If allowed to run wild, he can very easily eclipse the game-impact of other six-drops like Wurmcoil Engine or the Titans. Am I being being a tad hyperbolic? Perhaps. Long story short though, he is not a low-power level card at the very least if you can stomach the very restrictive cost.
This is pretty much how he plays out in Vintage. That being said, being uncounterable is a much bigger deal in Vintage, and cube has a lot of non instant / sorcery ways to kill creatures like Oblivion Rings / Nekrataal effects. I think this Niv would be much more appealing in cube if there was more guaranteed value like Vintage where basically only instants can deal with Niv, and Force of Wills / Pyroblasts / Mental Missteps are all over the place.
Oh cool, didn't realize he was seeing vintage play, but makes sense if the mana is there. Seems like an unreal trump in control mirrors and can take out opposing mentors/delvers/pyromancers well.
No interest. There are two other playable Niv-Mizzets when you decrease the power level enough to consider this, and nothing about this one justifies the cost.
The other niv mizzet's are much lower in power level than this one
I was admittedly a skeptic of this card at first due to the extremely specific and restrictive mana-cost (just like everybody else here). That said, I have watched enough of him in standard to see that once casting him isn't an issue, he almost acts as a (more?) powerful Consecrated Sphinx, which is very elite company to be in. Once you can cast him he WILL enter play (barring something like Venser, Shaper Savant), and he will at least cantrip (barring a Shriekmaw style creature). If allowed to run wild, he can very easily eclipse the game-impact of other six-drops like Wurmcoil Engine or the Titans. Am I being being a tad hyperbolic? Perhaps. Long story short though, he is not a low-power level card at the very least if you can stomach the very restrictive cost.
So, in a UR deck with perfect mana, couple signets/relic, a bunch of cheap cantrips and cheap counterspells (spell pierce, force of will), I think he may be even higher power level than titans/sphinx; By a little bit. However, if you lack cantrips or ways to protect him , his power level drops below that threshold, quite quickly.
Also, the titans , can be powered out fast by sol ring, mana vault etc, whereas Niv Mizzet cannot.
Those are a lot of conditions.... and it's not easy to fulfil those conditions consistently... So, I'd expect him to perform quite a bit worse than in constructed on average... Then you add the intense narrowness imposed by it's mana cost, and I can't justify a slot for him outside of fun. But glad you recognize the power!
Not creating this thread because I think he deserves a slot in anything but maybe huge cubes (1000+), but mostly for anyone who is a fan of niv mizzet and wants to include one in their izzet section. The competition with other Blue/Red 6 drops is so steep, and he is quite narrow, so don't recommend him in general, but....
I think this is the most competitive niv-mizzet for cube/standard, by quite a lot.
The built in protection is a big deal in higher powered formats, and in a deck with multiple cantrips, he can draw cards AND control the board at the same time.. Whereas RTR niv mizzet had to decide between the two.
Especially well suited to counter-spell control mirrors when slow rolled to a late turn.
If Izzet control is a viable deck in standard, I'd be very surprised if he wasn't a singleton main deck staple.
Oh cool, didn't realize he was seeing vintage play, but makes sense if the mana is there. Seems like an unreal trump in control mirrors and can take out opposing mentors/delvers/pyromancers well.
Last Updated 02/07/24
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The other niv mizzet's are much lower in power level than this one
So, in a UR deck with perfect mana, couple signets/relic, a bunch of cheap cantrips and cheap counterspells (spell pierce, force of will), I think he may be even higher power level than titans/sphinx; By a little bit. However, if you lack cantrips or ways to protect him , his power level drops below that threshold, quite quickly.
Also, the titans , can be powered out fast by sol ring, mana vault etc, whereas Niv Mizzet cannot.
Those are a lot of conditions.... and it's not easy to fulfil those conditions consistently... So, I'd expect him to perform quite a bit worse than in constructed on average... Then you add the intense narrowness imposed by it's mana cost, and I can't justify a slot for him outside of fun. But glad you recognize the power!
Last Updated 02/07/24
Streaming Standard/Cube on Twitch https://www.twitch.tv/heisenb3rg96
Strategy Twitter https://www.twitter.com/heisenb3rg
Not creating this thread because I think he deserves a slot in anything but maybe huge cubes (1000+), but mostly for anyone who is a fan of niv mizzet and wants to include one in their izzet section. The competition with other Blue/Red 6 drops is so steep, and he is quite narrow, so don't recommend him in general, but....
I think this is the most competitive niv-mizzet for cube/standard, by quite a lot.
The built in protection is a big deal in higher powered formats, and in a deck with multiple cantrips, he can draw cards AND control the board at the same time.. Whereas RTR niv mizzet had to decide between the two.
Especially well suited to counter-spell control mirrors when slow rolled to a late turn.
If Izzet control is a viable deck in standard, I'd be very surprised if he wasn't a singleton main deck staple.
Last Updated 02/07/24
Streaming Standard/Cube on Twitch https://www.twitch.tv/heisenb3rg96
Strategy Twitter https://www.twitter.com/heisenb3rg