Izzet Control :: Constructed Event Farmer

I have been doing well with this deck in Constructed Event. Too many 7-win runs to count at this point. Would love input on what to do for a sideboard while I work on the Bo3 version. You can always message me (CutestHamster) on Twitch, Waifu;Gate's Discord Server or The Official AetherHub Discord (Hi Andreliverod!)

 ::  Notes ::

For those of you asking how to change your land art in MTGA, Waifu;Gate made a video for you :)
How To Change Land Art In MTGA

A few people have messaged me to ask how this deck works. In general, the point of the deck is to survive long enough and control the board until you can do broken things with Niv-Mizzet, Parun. Once you get him to stick on the board, cards like Opt are no longer just Scry 1 and Draw a card. They become spend 1 mana to draw a card, deal one damage, scry 1, draw a card, deal one damage. Then those draws can keep the chain going. I have been at 1 health against an opponent who had Ghalta, Primal Hunger, Carnage Tyrant and Goreclaw, Terror of Qal Sisma on board, but because I had old Niv-Mizzey, I was able to chain together 18 damage in one turn and win the game. You will have a lot of "on the edge of your seat" type games with this deck, which is why I love it.

Using Enigma Drake instead of Crackling Drake because of the lower CMC and lack of double land requirements. Having an extra mana open for counters is the point of the deck after all. It is vulnerable to things like Ritual of Soot in comparison, but if they want to spend 4 to remove, what is usually, a single 3 drop then it seems alright to me. Crackling Drake also counts both your graveyard and exile instead of just your graveyard (as is the case with Enigma Drake). So there are some differences between the two. You can go with either one, I just prefer the lower cost.

Blink of an Eye is great for bouncing cards that you couldn't counter in time. I've won several games against mono-red by bouncing Experimental Frenzy and then just holding a counter out for it. Blink of an Eye also lets you bounce your Niv-Mizzet or Ral back to save them from removal. Then there is the classic case of having your Niv-Mizzet stolen via The Eldest Reborn and then laughing as you bounce him back to your hand so you can play it again next turn. Please remember to thank your opponent for returning him from your graveyard to your hand for you though.

:: Updates ::

v2.0 :: Swapped Fiery Cannonade for The First Eruption. While slightly memey it does let you high roll out a Niv-Mizzet, Parun on turn 4 occasionally. Also slows down aggro decks since the third part of the Saga wipes most of their board out. For a lot of matchups, I was finding Fiery Cannonade to just be a dead card in my hand.

v3.0 :: Removed the sweepers and bumped up to 24 lands, also swapped one Enigma Drake for a single Search for Azcanta // Azcanta, the Sunken Ruin. Had a 7-1 and a 7-2 run with the current list. Probably going to test out dropping the Rekindling Phoenixes for one more Azcanta and Enigma Drake.

v3.1 :: Meta seems to have switched back from control to aggro at higher wins. Put back in the Fiery Cannonades and took out the Rekindling Phoenixes. On the plus side, it is becoming obvious that all the aforementioned cards should probably be in the sideboard when this switches over to Bo3.

v3.2 :: Dropped an Essence Scatter for an extra Search for Azcanta // Azcanta, the Sunken Ruin. Also swapped the two Sinister Sabotages for Syncopates, since the exile is nice and didn't really feel like the surveil mattered when Azcanta was around more consistently. Feels better so far but will grind out more games tomorrow to make a final decision. Will work on a Bo3 version soon™.

No version updates yet, I have been busy with WaifuGate's stream and working on a Grixis list that is starting to come together. Going to keep testing out the deck with 2 Dive Downs instead of Syncopates. I think it will work better, but I haven't run through 10+ Constructed Events to make a decision before updating the deck here.

Also, thanks so much for 10K+ views. <3 the AetherHub community.

v3.3 :: I tested out Dive Down a ton and it's definitely worth the inclusion. I also tested out using Lava Coil instead of Lightning Strike and on average I like it better. It is great against Phoenix, Drakes, and Golgari decks. I was mainly worried about not being able to use Lava Coil to close out games by going face with it (like you can with Lightning Strike) but I haven't had any issues so far. To make room for the Dive Downs and 1 extra Fiery Cannonade I dropped the Essence Scatters.

v3.4 :: Mistakes were made... I wasn't happy with 3.3 after playing it more, I think the current list fits the meta better and is more of a 'control' deck. Dropping Essence Scatters was a bad idea. Sorry for the abrupt change, but I wanted to fix the list before more people jumped on it. Constructed Event decks seem to be using a lot more hand hate than before so I've added in Chemister's Insight even though it is a bit slow. Did 9 runs with this list and it just feels a lot smoother. P.S. - Happy Turkey Day

v3.5 :: Swapped the 2 Syncopates for an extra Fiery Cannonade and a single Detection Tower. Went 6-3, 7-1. 4-3, and 7-2 with the current list. Once you get to 5 wins it seems like 80% aggro decks so I added Detection Tower to help push through the lower wins filled with Golgari decks, then its pretty smooth sailing.

v3.6 :: Listened to and tried a lot of the suggestions everyone has posted here and on Twitch. Swapped the Blink of an Eyes and 1 Opt for Chart a Courses. Deck feels like it hits less dead ends this way.