Modern Mayhem: Izzet Wizards? (Modern, Magic Online)
Hey everyone! This week we've got a wonderfully magical episode of Modern Mayhem as we're playing Wizards. So grab your sorting hat to find out what guild you're in!! Actually, for the sake of this video...we're all Izzet.
Gameplan
We're going to play the tempo gameplan with all of our little wizards. The disruption we pack in Mana Leak and other counterspells should stop our opponents long enough for our Delver of Secrets and Co. to do enough damage where our opponents will be in burn range. Another card I'm extremely stoked to play is Nimble Obstructionist as this card was a pet card of mine when it got revealed. I do love me some Stifle bird! The one thing I forgot was that it is a wizard so that pairs well with our overall deck theme!
Why so many Wizards? Outside of the Harry Potter jokes we have 8 Lightning Bolt for a pay off as Wizard's Lightning will usually cost one mana. Our best friend Snapcaster Mage almost makes it seem like we're a burn deck as we can recast a ton of these spells again.
Match Recaps
Amulet Titan: 2-1
We got demolished game 1 as we didn't have any Abrade to stop our opponent from dropping a billion Amulet of Vigor on us into multiple Primeval Titan aka PrimeTime Live but we were able to recover the next two games to counter and burn our opponents out. It was also nice bringing Thing in the Ice to keep our opponent's threats in check while also returning our Snapcaster Mage for extra value. I do notice some people forget that Thing in the Ice can also be used defensively!
Golgari Midrange: 2-1
This deck is absurdly popular online. I feel like in every league I run into two Golgari Midrange decks. This matchup can be terrifying if they're able to land their Liliana, the Last Hope as her +1 ability wrecks most of our deck. We got outvalued game 1 by a Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet but games two and three our deck was disruptive enough to keep our opponent on the backfoot all match.
Golgari Midrange: 0-2
We lost this match due to a greedy keep game two but this matchup feels 50/50. It really comes down to how hard they rip our hand apart. Maybe we shouldn't keep a hand with red lands and a ton of blue spells hahaha.
Blue Moon // Izzet Control: 2-0
This matchup felt kind of perfect for us as we can play the control game, but we also have a clock that comes down early. We also don't need to worry about cards like Supreme Verdict so we can deploy a few threats and hold up counterspells for their Anger of the Gods type of card.
Jeskai Ascendancy: 1-2
Only thing I need to say.... Sylvan Caryatid is the most terrifying 0/3 we could see. It having Hexproof made it impossible for us to remove outside of flipping Thing in the Ice. The deck is able to go through itself easily and dig for whatever pieces it needs. Glittering Wish is such a useful toolbox card. This matchup seems easy if it were as easy as countering the Jeskai Ascendancy but the deck can sit back and wait until it has a ton of mana and then deploy. It also plays countermagic so it bites back if we try to use Mana Leak or Negate.
Conclusion
I'm still waiting for the day I can dust off Voidmage Prodigy as that is my favorite wizard. Mostly because of nostalgic reasons but this deck was a lot of fun. I don't think it's a good idea but I'd want to add Wizard's Retort into this deck sometime. We'd have to fix the mana base a little bit because I often found myself short on blue resources. I know during the video I couldn't remember if Vendilion Clique was a wizard or not but now that I can verify it is, I feel like we could definitely squeeze a clique into the deck somewhere. Nimble Obstructionist was sweet but having a way to attack our opponent's hand could be huge and worth the double blue mana cost. Maybe we do a 3-2 split between Nimble and Clique. As long as Hardened Scales or regular Affinity isn't super popular, this deck can thrive as I seriously feel like those two decks have to be a rough matchup for this deck. Put on your best Izzet outfit and get out there and try this deck if you're a believer in the Delver dream or just flat out enjoy wizards.
See you at the next one!
-TheAsianAvenger
