Mizzix: Magic as Richard Garfield Intended

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Mookie
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Post by Mookie » 2 years ago

As a mathematician, I'm pretty sure Richard Garfield, Ph.D. intended for Magic to be about long, complicated analysis, lots of mental math, and making your opponents probabilistically dead.

....right?
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Last edited by Mookie 7 months ago, edited 6 times in total.

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Post by Mookie » 2 years ago

This deck has been a work in progress for a while - I've been wanting to rework the mana curve for ages, since it is currently pretty clunky. I also made a bunch of changes recently to test out some new cards, and that didn't help the issue. So, making a few swaps in an effort to lower the curve a bit. I think my primary focus should be to consistently get the first two experience counters for Mizzix, after which things tend to snowball pretty quickly without additional assistance.

That said, not confident this batch of changes will stick. I have a few ideas for cuts I want to make, but planning to do a bit more testing first. I do think this deck suffers a bit from my budget restrictions - the manabase in particular would be massively enhanced by a set of fetchlands, both as a way to increase the Island count for High Tide and as a way to fill the graveyard for delve.

Cuts: I'll note that Firemind's Foresight and Mystic Retrieval + Runic Repetition are both combo finishers. I strongly suspect it's wrong to cut them, but I want to see how feasible it is to win without them. If the deck is too inconsistent (or just unable to close out games), I'll add them back.

Shipwreck Dowser is the other card I'm likely to add back - I like the idea of setting up a softlock with an Archaeomancer effect plus mass bounce like Evacuation, but my deck currently lacks many instances of the latter. Planning to add a few more though.

Adds: Unsure how many of these will stick (given that a few of them were actually from the most recent batch of cuts), but I do know I've been craving a few more mana rocks - there aren't many available for two-color decks, unfortunately.

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RowanKeltizar
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Post by RowanKeltizar » 2 years ago

When it comes to acceleration I think your best bets are going to be the instant/sorcery based rituals. You already have High Tide and Mana Geyser but you should also try Jeska's Will. The nice thing about these is that they give your commander experience counters and trigger other abilities that care about such things.

These are the others I've had success with: I notice you are definitely on the budget side of things when it comes to your list so I imagine that probably explains why some cards aren't listed. Do you have a specific constraint there?

You have a few cards like Blatant Thievery and Volcanic Vision that are extremely high cmc. I would hate to see these cards in the first few turns. My feeling is that you are better off running X spells in these high end slots like maybe Dominate or Finale of Promise. These will be more easily castable early if you don't have the experience counters.

An alternative is just to run more looting effects so you can trade these cards out early for things you can actually cast.
I notice you only have three counterspells. Is this a meta choice or a personal choice? In my meta at least, the spellslinger decks absolutely need the counterspells to be relevant. I think running at least 2 or 3 more would be a good thing.
WRBKaalia, Zenith Seeker - Certified Air Raid Material
WBElenda, the Dusk Rose - Drain and Gain
WRAurelia, the Warleader - Tokens/Equipment
URNiv-Mizzet, Parun - Controlled Burn primer
BRGHenzie, "Toolbox" Torre - Creature Feature
BRGSoul of Windgrace - Lands Matter
RGWGishath, Sun's Avatar - I'M YOUR DADDY
GWUBAtraxa, Praetors' Voice - Artifact Stax Beatdown
Budget Starter Decks
UBSygg, River Cutthroat
WU Shorikai, Genesis Engine
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Post by Mookie » 2 years ago

Yeah, my budget limit is generally $2/card. Jeska's Will would definitely be a snap include otherwise. I do think it's possible to make a functional storm deck on a budget, but losing access to some of the big mana-generating effects (like Jeska's Will, Time Spiral, and Dockside Extortionist) definitely hurts, since there aren't many replacements.

I'm actually in the process of trying to find space for Pyretic Ritual, so it will probably come in after my next set of changes. More rituals definitely seem like the direction I want to take this deck, but just making incremental changes for now. Visions of Ruin is not a card I considered, but definitely seems interesting.

I brought in a few more looting effects recently (Unexpected Windfall and Pirate's Pillage). Still testing them out to see how I feel about them. That said, I do definitely want to increase my ability to churn through the deck.

Lack of counterspells was not intentional - I actually didn't notice until you pointed it out, but it may explain some of my recent issues. I used to be running a lot more countermagic, but a lot of them were more expensive, value-y interaction (Commit // Memory, Mystic Confluence, Rewind, Confirm Suspicions, etc). As a result, they've been casualties of my ongoing quest to lower my curve, and I haven't been adding replacements.

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Post by RowanKeltizar » 2 years ago

I think adding some versatile counterspells might be something to consider, or just some efficient ones. With your budget roughly in mind here are a few options:
WRBKaalia, Zenith Seeker - Certified Air Raid Material
WBElenda, the Dusk Rose - Drain and Gain
WRAurelia, the Warleader - Tokens/Equipment
URNiv-Mizzet, Parun - Controlled Burn primer
BRGHenzie, "Toolbox" Torre - Creature Feature
BRGSoul of Windgrace - Lands Matter
RGWGishath, Sun's Avatar - I'M YOUR DADDY
GWUBAtraxa, Praetors' Voice - Artifact Stax Beatdown
Budget Starter Decks
UBSygg, River Cutthroat
WU Shorikai, Genesis Engine
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Post by Mookie » 2 years ago

Got in a few games today, and things definitely felt good. I suspect part of that may have been because I got to Narset's Reversal two Cathartic Reunions (in different games with different players), which felt fantastic. Still, I definitely felt the effects of lowering my curve and adding a few more mana rocks. My general heuristic is that this deck will win around the time it hits 8 mana, so a lot of my recent efforts have been to (1) slow down the game so I live longer and (2) improve my ability to hit land drops and ramp to that point faster. Once I get there, pretty much any big X / draw spell will be enough.

Anyway, I do have a few counterspells lying around that I'm planning to add in - I have spare copies of Counterspell and Negate, plus I picked up a copy of Thassa's Intervention, which seems like a great fit. Not sure if I want to add Mystic Confluence back, but I might.

One other thing I noticed is that I want a few more flashback spells - I'm planning to add back Deep Analysis, and throw in Arcane Infusion. In the early game, I want to be able to generate a bit of card advantage and sculpt my hand, but that means I can run out of stuff to trigger Mizzix. Having a bit of additional value out of my graveyard should help, and the fact that they make good options to discard to any looting effects also helps.

Not sure how things are yet on the board wipe front - I've picked up a few more that I'm planning to test out (Immolating Gyre, Spectral Deluge, etc), but not sure how many I want total. Still, they are a good way to slow down the game - dying to random aggression is definitely one of this deck's primary concerns, due to its lack of blockers.

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Post by Mookie » 1 year ago

Been a while since I last played this deck, so I had to play a game to refresh my memory of the changes I wanted to make. That said, it did confirm my recollection - I'd like another board wipe or two to slow down the game, a bit more card advantage to keep my hand stocked, and another mana rock or two to accelerate a bit faster. I'll probably want another counterspell or two in here at some point, but finding space is hard.

Cuts Adds As always, hard to say which of these changes will stick - there are a lot of cards I'm cutting that I will probably end up missing. Flood of Tears and Volcanic Vision in particular feel a bit awkward, given that I've been wanting more board wipes, but hopefully their replacements will perform better.

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Post by Mookie » 1 year ago

Swapping around a few cards. I've generally been happy with the deck, but I would like to make it a little more consistent. I suspect the solution to that is 'add more card draw', but finding slots to cut is hard. That said, the manabase is definitely one thing that could be improved (particularly in terms of utility lands), so adding a few more things there.

Adds: Cuts:

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Post by Mookie » 1 year ago

Testing out some new stuff. I've had somewhat mixed results with the flashback cards and mass bounce effects, so trying out some other stuff instead. Meanwhile, cutting Thousand-Year Storm because it's a bit too win-more.

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Cuts




Update: I played one game with Red Sun's Twilight, and had mixed feelings about running it over a bounce effect (or some other, more flexible interaction). That's probably due to the fact that I had both it and Vandalblast in my opening hand though, plus one of my opponents was playing an Eggs deck (in which all of their artifacts could sacrifice themselves for value). I don't hate the idea of smash-and-grabbing a bunch of mana rocks as a weird ritual, but the 'exile at end of turn' clause definitely felt relevant when I was looking to steal a Triplicate Titan.

On the other hand, I managed to win off a very lucky Mind's Desire with a storm count of four - I hit Mizzix's Mastery, which let me Mind's Desire a second time for ten and take out two opponents with Aetherflux Reservoir.

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Post by Mookie » 7 months ago

Small update: -Red Sun's Twilight and Finale of Promise, +Path of the Pyromancer and See Double.

I've been underwhelmed by Red Sun's Twilight, which I suspect is largely due to my meta. Blowing up a few mana rocks is alright, but there aren't many artifact-heavy decks in my meta.

Meanwhile, I'm not sure if I have ever actually cast Finale of Promise. I like the idea of it, and it may return at some point, but it's a bit tricky to set up. It also suffers from the fact that it doesn't work with countermagic or one of my many X spells, unlike other recursion effects.

...I need to do a bit more testing for Narset's Reversal and Inspired Tinkering. I love Narset's Reversal, but it feels like my meta is also a bit light on instants and sorceries. Meanwhile, I think I've been underestimating Inspired Tinkering - five mana for a clunky draw three sounds pretty mediocre, but being mana-positive with Mizzix is certainly relevant. That said, my meta is definitely soft to spell-based combo, so this deck can get away with a lot of nonsense.

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Post by yeti1069 » 7 months ago

I had a Mizzix deck a while back that ran Epic Experiment as basically the secret commander, where the goal was to draw into/tutor up Experiment, then cast it for a reasonable X value--I think I wanted either 7 (to hit almost everything in the deck) or 11 (to include Temporal Trespass)--with a couple mana open for a copy spell, or an onboard copy effect. The hope would then be for the copied Experiment to hit at least one copy effect in its stack to copy the original, and so on, casting every instant and sorcery in the deck. It didn't always dig that far, sometimes petered out, but was, on the whole, a fun spellslinger deck, such as that is. There are MUCH better spell copiers available now, so I think it would be way more consistent than it had been.

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