Totally agree on prioritizing pool charging, but if your opponent doesn't have some kind of graveyard hate going I think it's actually ok to freely cycle manamorphose (assuming you have at least one blue source in play, which you really should).
If you combo off on the standard "past in flame + 6 mana" timetable, you aren't going to be able to keep a blue floating when you hit the graveyard rituals anyway (and if you get to the six mana while leaving only blue sources untapped, manamorphose becomes irrelevant), and you should ultimately need only two more blue to flashback gifts and maybe remand your storm spell.
Maybe you need more if you want to use Noxious Revival and you're really worried about your life total or something, but that seems rare enough that you don't need to plan around it.
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- jacobk
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Fight with Fire is in the side for the matchups where you are stone cold certain you will be facing 5 toughness creatures that need to die, especially Niv-Mizzet. This deck will usually get up to five in the yard for beacon bolt, but usually isn't always. Staring at a Niv-Mizzet on the board and your Beacon Bolt in hand with only three or four instants in the yard feels pretty bad. In a longer game this deck can also kick it more often than you'd think.
I agree that Firemind's Research is suspect. It's horrible off the top. Even if you land it on turn two I'd say it's good, not great. If you want that effect I'd just play Search for Azcanta.
Mission Briefing is definitely worth a look. I find the deck works better when you don't sell out to try to live the turn three dream anyway. I'm already trying to get as much blue mana out there as possible.
I've been happy with 21. It's possible to feel flooded but with all the hand shaping going on it's usually not too bad.
Also, some evidence for the explosiveness of this deck. This is the board state during my opponent's turn the turn before they conceded:
That's a 9/7 Lyra and a 4/7 Aurelia standing in front of an Ajani that's close to ultimate. Opponent attacked with Lyra and I chumped to make the life score 20-29. Then I drew Discovery and used it to find Beacon Bolt. Beacon Bolt took down both angels and put my Phoenix in the yard, both Phoenixes came back and together with the Electromancer took down Ajani.
After playing a league with it I'm sold on Gravitic Punch. I put one in for one mountain (leaving 21 lands total). The jump start really makes it work. You can toss it in the yard early on and just forget about it. Then later in the game you have reach on tap.
If you draw it late you can really get people. I had one game where the opponent was at 18 life and tapped out with a Doom Whisperer in play. I had a Drake on six power. I sent a Beacon Bolt at his Whisperer, he scryed twice down to 14, then gravitic plus drake ended the game.
Overall I won two games with a double drake attack and one where lava spike mode using it with a Phoenix closed out a race a turn early. I think another game or two the punch in the yard helped prompt a concession.
I certainly wouldn't run two, but there's very little cost to running one and it does provide a unique effect.
ETA: This deck is something else. My last four leagues were 5-0, 4-1, 3-2, and 5-0. The 4-1 league had nine consecutive wins before I lost both post sideboard games against the mirror.
The 22 land deck sometimes plays like a control deck that turns the corner very quickly. You can also flood out surprisingly easily. It's to the point that I almost want a maindeck Niv-Mizzet, since untapping with him is almost always a win.
I have seen versions of this deck that play the Enigma Drakes and Maximize Velocity. I've even seen Gravitic Punch in some builds. There's definitely work left to do in order to figure out the optimal phoenix build, but it'll be tier one eventually.
I agree on the core. The 100% common denominator is:
4 Merfolk Trickster
4 Mist-cloaked Herald
4 Siren Stormtamer
4 Tempest Djinn
4 Curious Obsession
4 Dive Down
4 Wizard's Retort
Then the last 12 spots are:
- 0-1 Island
- 3-4 two mana creature (typically 0-2 Warkite Marauder and 2-4 Nightveil Sprite)
- 2-4 card draw spells (typically 0-4 Opt and 0-2 Chart a Course)
- 2-6 permission spells (0-2 Essence Scatter and 2-4 Spell Pierce)
- 0-2 Exclusion Mage
I like to keep things simple and fill the 12 spots with Nightveil Sprite, Opt, and Spell Pierce. I like the surveil on Nightveil Sprite quite a bit. Even without Curious Obsession, getting multiple swings in over a long game is helpful. It also dodges random Chainwhirlers and Justice Strike, for what it's worth. Warkite Marauder is better if you see a lot of flying blockers. Opt is just as good as Chart a Course at finding that one card I need out of the top two, and the casting cost and instant speed are both a big advantage. Spell Pierce has targets everywhere and is the ultimate tempo play.Exclusion Mage is great against most aggro decks. It's terrible against Golgari and against control. Classic sideboard card, in my opinion.
I do think it's perfectly reasonable to mix up those twelve spots according to your preferences and your expected meta.
Win 1 (white weenie): turn 3 obsession, turn 6 djinn (exclusion mage great)
Win 2 (white weenie): turn 5 obsession, turn 6 djinn (opp hand poor)
Win 3 (lich's mastery): turn 3 obsession, no relevant djinn
Win 4 (lich's mastery): no obsession, no djinn (great matchup)
Win 5 (gb): turn 3 double obsession, turn 4 triple, no djinn
Loss 2 (gb): turn 4 obsession (killed), turn 6 double obsession (one protection, then killed), no djinn (greedy one land keep developed too slow)
Win 6 (gb): turn 2 obsession, turn 3 double, no djinn
Win 7 (gb): no djinn, turn 6 obsession to no real effect (four 1-power rush + counter backup got there)
Win 8 (gb): no obsession, turn 4 djinn (trickster 2 + djinn 5, 6, 7)
Win 9 (jeskai angels/midrange): turn 3 obsession, turn 4 djinn
Win 10 (jeskai angels/midrange): turn 4 djinn, turn 5 double obsession
Note: "to no effect" means the card was played on the last or second to last turn when the game was already locked up.
Wins:
Obsession on turn: 3, 5, 3, none, 3, 2, none, none, 3, 5
Djinn on turn: 6, 6, none, none, none, none, none, 4, 4, 4
No obsession wins: 3
No djinn wins: 5
No obsession or djinn wins: 2
Obsession by turn 3: 5 times
Losses:
Obsession in one, djinn in the other; in both cases loss was due to getting run over with good cards in hand. Once opposing rush, once choked on mana.
Conclusions:
Small sample size, of course, but I think it's fair to say that drawing obsession a lot helps you go 5-0. Lightning obsession followed by protection games are usually free wins. That said, it's still a big advantage even if the obsession doesn't start connecting until turn five.
Of the non-obsession wins, I would say that one was purely a Djinn victory, one was an honest to god tempo weenie rush that gave me delver flashbacks, and one was an incredibly favorable matchup.
I only played against one true aggro deck. That's usually the matchup where the djinn is most important, since you want to have on-board beef more than cards in hand.
Cool, good luck with the tournament!
If you really want to pre-board for GB and red aggro you could also sneak in a couple of Surge Mares.
For a modest lean, since I trim opt and spell pierce in both matchups I would do something like -1 opt, -1 pierce, +2 scatter. If the meta is actual 50%+ plus GB and aggro I'd go -2 opt, -2 pierce, +2 scatter, +2 surge mare. Either way when you sideboard remember to adjust the plan for the changed main deck (i.e. I usually use 2 opt and 2 pierce as the flex cards, here you would use the scatters and mares).
I have given up on the red splash. After trying out and scratching and clawing for 2-3 and 3-2 finishes then switching over to mono-U and cruising to 4-1 and 5-0 finishes I just had to admit it's not happening. The bottom line is that what we want to be doing with opposing early drops is ignoring them. When decks force us to deal with them it pushes us out of our comfort zone and makes the game tough. With the R splash I was almost committed to dealing with early drops.
The added insult to injury was when I was staring at the Lightning Strike I brought in to replace Merfolk Trickster as my opponent went to town with his Adanto Vanguard.
This is what I'll be rocking when our local pptqs swing around in a week or so:
4 Mist-cloaked Herald
4 Siren Stormtamer
4 Nightveil Sprite
4 Merfolk Trickster
4 Tempest Djinn
4 Opt
4 Dive Down
4 Spell Pierce
4 Wizard's Retort
4 Surge Mare
2 Negate
2 Essence Scatter
2 Disdainful Stroke
2 Deep Freeze
2 Exclusion Mage
1 Time of Ice
You pretty much nailed it. The big issue between the Izzet version and the mono-U version is whether Lightning Strike is better than Merfolk Trickster. If the opponent plays Knight of Grace into Benalish Marshal, Ligtning Strike is amazing. If they play History of Benalia into Aurelia, not so much. Basically, with UR as configured you are even more dead to a resolved Aurelia/Lyra than you are with mono blue, and it's somewhat more likely to resolve. On the other hand, you have one turn to knock out an early Wildgrowth Walker before it grows out of control and you can shoot down a max size Jadelight Ranger. Lava Coil out of the side even gives you a fighting chance against turn two Steel Leaf Champion.
Mono red is a lot more manageable, although you can still lose, especially if they resolve Experimental Frenzy. Being able to shock a Lavarunner/Steam-Kin and lightning strike a Chainwhirler feels good.
Enigma Drake is no Djinn, but it does a better impersonation than the Thief of Sanity. It's fine early as a 2/4 blocker, and in the drawn out mega-grind matchups it's usually Djinn-sized. Where it falls down is in those games where you have nothing going on but Djinn. Sometimes having your literal first play be turn four Djinn with Dive Down backup followed by turn five Djinn with Dive Down backup can be enough to win a game. The Drake won't do that for you. The Drake shares the Djinn's problem of weakness against 4+ power attackers.
The lands feel about right to me. You've got the opts and your nut draws can work off of two lands. Your curve tops out at three, even if ideally you play the Drake on four. Flood is super duper bad since we're mostly working on a 1-for-1 paradigm. I could see 21, but I think 22 would be too much.
Shock should probably be in the sideboard (where it already exists as the Shivan Fire). We aren't aggro enough for going upstairs to feel good in the matchups where you can't kill anything with it. I'm leaning towards a couple Essence Scatter in that slot, although that might just be the Aurelia-based PTSD talking.
I didn't feel the reduction in creatures that badly. Trickster is usually more of a spell than a creature. OTOH, I haven't run into one of those ultra-grind remove everything control decks yet.
I'm surprised how often I find myself wanting to draw Mission Briefing. In the late game when I want to draw some instant, I'd usually be thinking "ok, best draw is x... or Mission Briefing." It always felt good to hold onto it as the last card in my hand. My sense is that it gets a lot worse in multiples, though.
Overall I think Izzet has potential but needs tuning. Mono-U you either counter or race everything. Red gives you more options, which means more ways to go wrong in deck building.
ETA: Actually, I'll give Syncopate a go in the shock slot. It's a sometimes 2 mana counter that can hit whatever. I mostly want some protection against people blitzing me out on curve.
Haven't run into GY hate yet. If somebody wants to waste cards on that I'm all in favor of it. Our plan A is still to get Curious Obsession running and counter everything relevant the opponent tries to do.
I've seen combo drakes with Arclight Phoenix and control drakes with Niv-Mizzet. I haven't seen a tempo drakes deck. The drake for this deck plays the same role as the djinn in mono-U. It's an emergency blocker who kills them before they kill us. The goal is to play a good tempo deck where the drake happens to be good instead of warping the whole deck around making the drake good.
I'm not sure if it's an attainable goal but my initial experience with the burn package was positive.
I think you're right about the Ionize. With only the four wizards in the deck Retort is full cost most of the time. We definitely care about the 2 damage.
I think we want the guildgates. We still want to hit UUU most of the time since we will often have a key turn where we want to triple spell (some combination of obsession, dive down, spell pierce, or stormtamer activation). I found that having two tap lands in the deck, while not ideal, was manageable.
Quick thoughts after running through a friendly league:
- Enigma Drake is a little inconsistent. I think we want a few more proactive spells to fuel it. That said, he does always have the four toughness and sometimes the inconsistency means you have a 9/4 on turn five. Definitely plays well with Nightveil Sprite.
- It's so relaxing to have real burn available. Whether it's sending a bolt over Niv-Mizzet to finish the game or cleaning the board after your opponent sneaked a creature past your counter shields, it just feels good.
- I had a one-of Mission Briefing in over a spell pierce and it was surprisingly good. I finished one opponent off with the old bolt-snap-bolt routine, used it to rebuy a spell pierce, and even felt ok using it to mega-opt. I don't think you want more than one (certainly not more than two), but one copy offers a decent amount of value. Also meshes well with Nightveil Sprite and Enigma Drake.
- Ral out of the side was fairly meh. I just may not have run into the right matchup for him, but it also hurts that we aren't like Izzet Spells where his -3 is just a Murder. Possible he should be a Fight with Fire for Lyra/Niv-Mizzet killing purposes. I could also see one Beacon Bolt doing work.
- Lava Coil out of the side is fantastic. I actually managed to beat an Arclight Phoenix deck. Game one I finished him just in time with flashed back burn and game two I had Lava Coil for every phoenix.
All that said, I think the red splash has potential. This is where I am with the list for now:2 Mountain
4 Steam Vents
4 Sulfur Falls
2 Izzet Guildgate
4 Mist-cloaked Herald
4 Siren Stormtamer
4 Nightveil Sprite
4 Enigma Drake
4 Dive Down
4 Opt
3 Spell Pierce
2 Ionize
4 Lightning Strike
2 Shock
1 Mission Briefing
2 Negate
2 Essence Scatter
2 Disdainful Stroke
4 Lava Coil
3 Shivan Fire
1 Beacon Bolt
1 Ral, Izzet Viceroy
Shocks over counters to help buff the Drakes. Ionize in over Retort for more burn to the face. One more mountain grudgingly added to help fuel the early burn.
What about the other GRN-supported splash? Red lets us kill creatures and gives us a variable power 4 toughness flier...
1 Mountain
4 Steam Vents
4 Sulfur Falls
2 Izzet Guildgate
4 Mist-cloaked Herald
4 Siren Stormtamer
4 Nightveil Sprite
4 Enigma Drake
4 Dive Down
4 Opt
4 Spell Pierce
4 Wizard's Retort
4 Lightning Strike
2 Negate
2 Essence Scatter
2 Disdainful Stroke
4 Lava Coil
3 Shivan Fire
2 Ral, Izzet Viceroy
Depending on how it plays out, once we're running both burn and counterspells (and opt, I guess) then Mission Briefing starts to get a little interesting. It's no Snapcaster Mage, but we do get decent mileage out of binning irrelevant stuff.
The Drake won't be as high power as the Djinn, but even a 2/4 can deter early attacks. And we could reasonably get it to a 4/4 by the time we turn the corner. I'll try taking it for a spin at least and see how things go.
Everybody else is able to play with the blue version and win. You apparently can't. It could be that everybody else in the world is lying about their results. MTG online and the SCG open are all engaged in a vast conspiracy to promote the sale of islands. Or maybe you should learn how to play the deck better before you start making wholesale changes.
Your initial post identified a flaw in the deck that is actually a flaw in your playstyle. You then suggested a change that blatantly weakens the performance of the deck. You have yet to post a list or any results other than your own supposed playtesting.
Could the current deck be improved? Probably, that's the purpose of the thread. I've played a lot of games with the black splash, though, enough to know that losing the Djinn really hurts. It's not something that will be made up by a six white source "splash" for double white cards.
Before it's really worth playtesting a deck you have to have a competent mana base. Frank Karsten sat down and did the math for everybody: https://www.channelfireball.com/articles/frank-analysis-how-many-colored-mana-sources-do-you-need-to-consistently-cast-your-spells/
4 Kitesail Freebooter
4 Warkite Marauder
4 Thief of Sanity
3 Dreamcaller Siren
3 Dive Down
2 Spell Pierce
4 Essence Scatter
4 Lookout's Dispersal
2 Dead Weight
4 Drowned Catacomb
8 Island
6 Swamp
4 Watery Grave
1 Swamp
3 Duress
1 Disdainful Stroke
4 Moment of Craving
2 Negate
1 Dreamcaller Siren
3 Doom Whisperer
A little bit of a pirate theme, Lookout's Dispersal over Wizard's Retort, and Thief of Sanity instead of Tempest Djinn. The go-big package in the side looks like you can switch into almost a Dimir Control sort of shell. Interesting deck.
ETA: After playing with the deck a bit, it feels like there's potential but it's not as well tuned as the mono blue version. Some thoughts on the card choice.
Kitesail Freebooter: A++, best payoff for playing black, 100% would cast again. Just getting a peek at your opponent's hand is nice. Getting to pluck a card and sometimes even keep the freebooter alive? Amazing.
Thief of Sanity: Meh. Suffers badly by comparison to Tempest Djinn. It's a great three drop with two caveats: (1) you can keep it alive, and (2) you can keep yourself alive). When you drop the djinn it usually means the opponent has to take a turn off from attacking because of the big body. Every deck in the format attacks right through Thief of Sanity, and it dies to everything. If it gets a free run at the opponent it will usually spiral out of control, but even that isn't guaranteed. I'd rather be getting an extra 3/4/5 points of damage than picking a card up from my opponent's deck--I'm more likely to be constrained on mana than cards anyways. This feels like a sideboard card.
Dreamcaller Siren: big old tempo swing. Very nice.
If I try this deck out again it will probably be something more like:
4 Dive Down
4 Opt
4 Lookout's Dispersal
2 Spell Pierce
2 Dead Weight
4 Kitesail Freebooter
4 Warkite Marauder
4 Fathom Fleet Captain
2 Storm Fleet Aerialist
2 Dreamcaller Siren
4 Drowned Catacomb
2 Dimir Guildgate
6 Island
4 Swamp
Fathom Fleet Captain gets the "spiral out of control" spot. He deters attacks to some extent and if allowed to run wild he will fill the board with pirates. Untapped tokens should be a big help in a race. He gets down a turn earlier than Thief of Sanity and he doesn't cost any of our precious blue mana. This makes it much easier to cast him and hold up protection.
Land count is a little aggressive (average CMC of 1.6 would usually be 21 lands) but I think it's ok between the opt and the curious obsession. It's also not like we always want Dreamcaller exactly on turn 4.
Like I said, pure theory. The Freebooter is so sweet that there ought to be a good Freebooter/Obsession deck in the format if we can find it.