I Cast FIST! | Melek Swoleslinger | $50, 100
Hey friends and welcome back to Budget Commander! I know I just did a Mono Blue Spellslinger, but I had to talk about this new Izzet Spellslinger brew, which is really a Voltron deck in disguise! Check out Melek, Reforged Researcher
Punching People With Spells aka Swoleslinger
I have a troublesome relationship with Izzet Spellslinger. On the one hand it's by far my favorite archetype in Magic: Blue and Red are my two favorite colors, it's my favorite guild in terms of aesthetics, and Spellslinger is my favorite playstyle, so it all works out nicely! On the other hand, my Izzet Spellslinger decks ends up taking incredibly long turns, either one super long Storm turn with cards like Melek, Izzet Paragon, or more recently my durdle engine deck Myra the Magnificent.
So if you, like me, are searching for a deck that scratches that Izzet Spellslinger itch but don't want to drown the table chaining spells and resolving a tidal wave of triggered abilities, Melek, Reforged Researcher might be for you!
The gameplan is simple:
- Cast Melek and for that sweet mana discount to cast more instants and sorceries
- Fill your graveyard with spells by casting, discarding, and self-milling so that Melek gets huge
- Punch people with your juiced-up commander for lethal or fling Melek at people's faces
Because Melek, Reforged Researcher gives a whopping 3 mana discount on the first instant or sorcery spell we cast each turn, spells with that cost 3 generic mana become far stronger in our list, especially instants so we can take full advantage of Melek's once per turn discount. Good cards get better, like Fact or Fiction, and borderline playable cards get a lot more exciting when we can easily cast them, like Desertion. A lot of our spell choices reflect Melek's strong mana discount, you'll see a lot of 3X or 3XX spells like Mystic Confluence, Lorien Revealed, Scattered Thoughts, Pirate's Pillage, and so on.
Melek, Reforged Researcher gets incredibly huge fast by filling our graveyard with instants and sorceries. While he does grow at a decent rate just by casting spells, we can instantly make him a lethal threat by just casting Traumatize or Cut Your Losses to mill half our library. A single spell and Melek is ready to one-shot anyone.
Once Melek is huge we can win just by swinging, but there are plenty of Red spells that utilize Melek's huge size to win even faster. Chandra's Ignition can take out all opponents at once, while cards like Gravitic Punch can just knock out opponents one by one, and it has jump-start so you can cast it from the graveyard! Temur Battle Rage, Seize the Day, and Isengard Unleashed are all here to help Melek get through for lethal damage too.
Melek isn't the only swoleslinger finisher in our deck: plenty of cards also drop huge beefy bodies that scale with the number of instants and sorceries in the graveyard, though admittedly none scaling as well as our commander. Experimental Overload and Seize the Storm are both such swoleslinger token generators with their own advantages, easily capable of finishing the job if Melek gets shut down.
Because this deck's primary goal is filling the yard with spells, I leaned hard on a Flashback subtheme for the deck since there's so many useful flashback spells we plan on running anyway. Cards like Past in Flames, Seize the Storm, Summons of Saruman, and Isengard Unleashed were already going into the deck anyway, so why not add some more options with Deep Analysis, Memory Deluge, and Reckless Charge?
Because of this, Quiet Speculation becomes a killer tutor for the deck and Catalyst Stone also is a ridiculously efficient mana discount to sling multiple spells per turn cycle.
$50 List
We have all the key pieces in this list, and I've splurged for both Traumatize and Cut Your Losses since they are the two most important cards in the deck. Our flashback package is very strong and we have multiple backup beaters in case Melek doesn't stick on the table. I've also included Wizards of Thay and Najal, the Storm Runner primarily for their ability to give our sorceries flash, letting them work better with Melek, though Wizards is significantly better thanks to their additional mana discount.
$100 List
The biggest upgrade to this list is having Mystical Tutor + Solve the Equation to find Traumatize / Cut Your Losses, and Whir of Invention + Fabricate to find Catalyst Stone. Beyond that we've also got a flashback upgrade Seize the Day to potentially take out multiple opponents in a combat, and two more powerful haste enablers Anger and Arena of Glory.
Further Upgrades
- To enable our Graveyard shenanigans we've got Kitsa, Otterball Elite which is card selection that can also copy spells
- Jeska's Will is a good card in literally any Red deck but gets even better here due to Spellslinger synergies
- Brain Freeze is another super efficient way to self-mill
- Cyclonic Rift obviously
- Better lands Ancient Tomb, Scalding Tarn, Steam Vents, Stormcarved Coast, Thundering Falls, Training Center, Demolition Field, Mystic Sanctuary
Thanks For Reading!
I've been looking to disassemble Myra the Magnificent and re-use the cards for a new Izzet Spellslinger list since it's my favorite archetype. I recently stumbled upon Melek, Reforged Researcher as an option that I really like, so that's the reason for writing this quick primer. It's currently my top choice to replace Myra, though maybe I cave and go to the dark side with Veyran, Voice of Duality, we'll see!
I promise next article will NOT be Spellslinger
