Welcome, Magic lovers!
With the sudden, unexpected banning last week of not one, not two, or even three, but seven cards from Standard, the community is witnessing the largest number of cards artificially removed from the format since Disciple of the Vault and friends were forcibly ejected exactly twenty years ago. Normally, this would throw a format into total flux; however, that's not the case this time around. This is mostly due to the fact that there was no 'tier 0' deck plaguing the format. None of the tier 1 decks' overall win rates during the Regional Championship Qualifier season, which just culminated in Pro Tour Final Fantasy last month, surpassed 55%, the typical high-water mark for a dangerously oppressive deck. This has created a bizarre and untamed landscape where many players are happily testing wild, new decks, while others have returned to the finely-tuned, established archetypes that already possess a long and storied Standard format resume. Yuna, Hope of Spira reanimator lists clash with the tried-and-true Dimir Midrange decks that haven't added a single new card in months. Considering rotation is coming in a few short weeks, and with the majority of the competitive crowd currently engaged in the Modern format, testing and tuning those decks for the various RCQ's and eventual Regional Championships that they'll have to play, not much attention is being paid to Standard, and for good reason.
However, there are some interesting developments occurring on Magic Online, where the weekly MTGO Challenges have been producing some spicy lists. One such deck is a sleek, twenty-one-land Izzet spells deck that recently took down a sixty-player event:
The Plan
The first thing to touch on here is the fact that this deck has eschewed the powerful 'combo' of Agatha's Soul Cauldron with Voldaren Thrillseeker that debuted in the hands of a small number of pros at the last pro tour, in order to play a more tempo-focused list trying to build value while snowballing. It makes sense to move away from the combo since the Thrillseeker will be rotating at the end of the month, which means finding another shell for the incredibly powerful Vivi Ornitier to thrive is the main goal. This deck just may be it.
With eight one-mana cantrips in Opt and Sleight of Hand, the deck is able to get away with a relatively low land count, relying on its filtering to make land drops in a timely fashion.
Cheap threats start coming out early in the form of Stormchaser's Talent and the new Astrologian's Planisphere, which can grow out of control very rapidly in this list. In fact, it almost immediately turns the token that it produces into a must-answer threat, which leaves behind a powerful piece of equipment when it dies. Attaching it to an otter token or, if the coast is clear, a Vivi can end the game in short order.
The cheap threats are backed up by a playset of Torch the Tower to clear the way and pump the team, as well as Into the Flood Maw and Obliterating Bolt.
A pair of Roaring Furnace // Steaming Sauna provide both more interaction and a place to sink extra mana generated by Vivi once he's in play and doing his thing.
Speaking of which, Vivi Ornitier is the star of the show here, quickly and cheaply growing to an imposing size while simultaneously producing a pile of mana to continue casting more spells, which continue pumping Vivi, which then makes even more mana, and…you get the idea. One copy of Agatha's Soul Cauldron still remains in the deck, despite the other half of the combo being cut. This is to turn any future creatures into Vivi, which allows the pilot to start generating a ton of mana and snowballing again.
In fact, Vivi is so powerful, and is therefore such a lightning-rod in the deck, that a spell like Get Out can really come in handy. Not only can it bounce a pesky creature or counter a powerful enchantment from an opponent, but it's also very useful at saving Vivi from a removal spell. Actually, Vivi is so good that this list even plays a single copy of Magic Damper, just to ensure that the legendary Izzet wizard gets to do his thing unmolested.
A playset of the best card draw spell printed in recent memory, Stock Up, allows the gas to keep flowing, and is a particularly excellent card to play once a Vivi is in play, or to pick out of the graveyard later in the game with level two of Stormchaser's Talent.
A single Ral, Crackling Wit and Marang River Regent fill out the top of the curve, which only runs up to four mana. They mainly provide additional card draw that can occasionally threaten to close out the game.
The Mana
Despite being a two-color deck, the mana can be quite frustrating, especially when drawing more than one Riverpyre Verge with no basic land. In addition, the deck plays only the aforementioned twenty-one lands, which means keeping a lot of one-land hands and hoping to get there with cantrips. While there are plenty of ways to see more cards in the deck, it doesn't always go according to plan, and knowing which hands will get there and which ones won't makes the art of the mulligan one of the most important aspects of playing the deck successfully.
There are no utility lands here. No creature lands either. Just eight basics and seventeen duals to try and find with Opt and Sleight of Hand in order to ensure that the pilot can cast at least two spells per turn, beginning on turn three.
The Sideboard
Additional removal spells in the form of Fire Magic and Obliterating Bolt come in against aggressive decks or those putting many small creatures on the battlefield, like the convoke and token-based strategies. Lithomantic Barrage is here to mainly kill any opposing copies of Vivi Ornitier.
Faerie Mastermind and Enduring Curiosity can come in against more controlling decks or even Dimir Midrange.
Disdainful Stroke and Spell Pierce are here to beat any big-mana decks like Domain ramp or even against control to stop a board wipe like Ultima or Day of Judgment from resolving.
Conclusion
The Izzet Spells deck is cheap, effective, and has a very powerful engine at its heart in the form of Vivi Ornitier. Once the deck starts building momentum and casting three or more spells each turn, it becomes almost impossible to overcome and is therefore a strong contender for the best deck in the format. Unfortunately, we won't know how the metagame will shape up for the next Standard RCQ season until after rotation occurs later this month. Will Vivi have what it takes to emerge at the top of the heap of archetypes vying for the title of 'best deck in Standard'? Only time, and plenty of testing and tuning, will tell.
