Izzet CSD - Spell Copy & Dragons

Light control, fliers and spells recursion. To draw from both graveyard and library the spells needed to control the match and burn the enemies' creatures, until the time comes to settle the matter with our dragons.

This exact deck reached Mythic in BO1 and I had much fun with it. It deals fairly well against aggro decks thanks to the multiple quick burn spells. For the same reason it does well versus annoying mill decks, as they have few creatures that are easy to burn away, plus, they make our Experimental Overload so so big, while also amplifying the range of spells we will get back from the graveyard.     

I am proud of sharing this deck, because the success I have had with it and becasue it is my own version of 'Spellpower' trialtested rank after rank. Hope someone can get inspired and have as much fun as I had.

How to play - the core:

Dual Strike + Experimental Overload - Flexibility! Creates two strong bodies in addition to retrieve whicever spell you need from the graveyard, twice. Typical use is to make 4/4 to 8/8 bodies and recuperate either Damage Spell, Counters, Draw capability, or Dual Strike itself, depending on the need to kill creatures, protect my creatures or get my threats out the library.

Dual Strike + Behold the Multiverse - Flexibility! To dig deep in the library.

Goldspan Dragon and Sprite Dragon - As threats, they quickly become unstoppable.

Frost Bite and the likes - Our creatures slayers, which I prefer to direct counters due to the possibility to double them with Dual Strike. In their normal forms, they cover the range of thoughness 2 to 5, double them and go up to 10, taking care of most creatures. They might not be safe as as straight black removals but are cheaper and can hit planeswalkers. (I tried a light splash in Black, which I liked also from a flavour pov, but it lost some consistency)

*note - burn spells I cycle in and out are: Demon Bolt, Blitz of the Thunder-Raptor, Thundering Rebuke, Soul Sear

Expressive Iteration - best used before you drop a land, or when you have none to drop, so you can choose a land to exile and play right away. For the same reason not the ideal target for Dual Strike.

Play tips:

The first 4 turns are usually pretty plane, we need to set up our game while preventing the opponent from ramping on us.

The curve is pretty good, with a variety of actions at disposal that are cheap but are going to pay in future turns, allowing to utilise all of our mana every turn. No cast will be wasted, instead it will somehow be reutilised later (ie. when puffing the Experimental Overload or Blitz)

From turn 5 we start to relentlesly attack.

Turns 1 to 4:

_burn eventual threats the opponent might put on the field

_use Expressive Iteration to get the cards we need and to make sure the mana keeps flowing (same goes for Behold the Multiverse)

_foretell, foretell, foretell, as much as we can we foretell. Dual Strike above all, but also Behold the Multiverse, Demon Bolt and Saw it Coming.. becasue the opponent wont see it coming..

*what we foretell depends on what the opponent is playing, of course, this deck is not auto pilot, quite the opposite in fact, if we don't decently read the opponent we might foretell the wrong card and be unprepared to answer his early bombs, or we might recall from the graveyard a spell don't need

*don't be afraid to sacrifice your hp, they are resources too, go down by 5 - 10 by turn 4 is completely normal and manageable. I prefer to get a hit or two if this means I use Expressive Iteration to get the lands I need, or that in turn 3 I can double a Frost Bite and kill 2 creatures (nothing special, equal trade, but wait for turn 5)

From turn 5:

_typical turn 5 is either Goldspan Dragon, if you have a counter ready to protect him, or a double Experimental Overload, which means board and hand advantage.

*either way, now starts the beating in what always feels like a come back, a magnificient feeling if you ask me.. although, the reality is that we were in control from the start, just playing it slowly to now start cashing in

_keep burning, putting down dragons and drawing, but, most importantly, use Dual Strike on Experimental Overload whenever possible, unless you really need to draw so bad that you need to double a Behold the Multiverse or your opponents pulls off big threats that to double burn

*always try to get back one Dual Strike, unless you have 2 in hand

**always always, if for any reason there is a Experimental Overload in the graveyard, get it back when you play your next Experimental Overload

_attack every turn, we don't play in defense anymore and our fliers don't know fear, they should be quite free to attack while the big Weird tokens act as wall and our counters lay dormant but ready

_as the match keeps going our hand should remain stable on 2-3 cards while we also cast 2 every turn (or 1 cast and 1 foretell)

CSD's best momentum in turn 5-15, after this point we might be loosing some gas since the Experiemental Overloads go exiled after use

Final Notes:

Draconic Intervention is cool and perfect for Dragons-only decks, but since CSD is based on recursive spells, and having the graveyard as half-second library, to exile them is a bad idea. Also, the mana cost of the spell is intentionally kept low (1-4) due to Dual Strike, making the spell weak. Also, also, we have a pletora of burn spells, it should hardly be the case that the opponent ever keeps more than 2 (3 at best) creatures on the board. 

The Kaldheim version I played had Double Vision which I kind of miss (especially the crazy triple cast of Experiment Overload), but it was an heavier and different deck (with: Fae of Wishes and Kiora, bests the sea god on the sideboard as win condition). Perhaps with Strixhaven there can be two versions of this deck, one lighter based on Dual Strike and one heavier based on Teach by Example and Double Vision. Rowan as permanent spell copy is great but it feels a bit slow and sometimes an overkill.

It's weird to see a Izzet deck without Bonecrusher Giant and Brazen Borrower but I guess this isn't a proper control deck, more of a 'Burn and Dive in'.

I very welcome suggestions, haven't seen many using this sort of decks and any confrontation can only help.