Arena Standard - Izzet Phoenix (Draw, Burn, Grave)

12 29
12 22 3 23
Aggro Midrange

The Phoenix is not dead, in fact it never really left! Good evening Gamers! The mad lad back again ready to give you an updated look on Izzet Phoenix. This deck is sneaky good right now, adventures provide a new depth to the deck, specifically the red adventure cards. So without further adieu lets raise this bird from the ashes....
Arclight Phoeniximage is the caboose, engine, and track in this deck. Without Arclight Phoeniximage the decklist is weak at best, and that statement should give a good idea of how amazing a card like Arclight Phoeniximage is. The cards supporting Arclight Phoeniximage are all focused on burning through our deck or on burning the opponents face, and these cards are also at most 4 mana, with the majority being 2 mana or less. Adventure creatures provide depth by giving us things to do while we wait for our hand to refill. Ultimately our goal is to go face and outlast heavy removal.

Aside from the Phoenix Merchant of the Valeimage is probably one of the strongest cards in this deck (Outside of this deck Merchant is questionable at best). Haggle is the quiet kid in the corner that gives us all the answers, it won't stand out in any game but puts in consistent performances tossing the bird into the trash. Merchant of the Valeimage then lets us filter our hand to help search for more Arclight Phoeniximage.
Next up is Bonecrusher Giantimage, which is just a great card. Bonecrusher Giantimage provides more face damage, period. Even if our opponents kills it with a spell before it swings it still chips em' for 2 damage which is 4 damage for one card in the deck and that is enough to matter when playing burn decks. Bonecrusher Giantimage's 4/3 body for 3 is a good deal too.
Returning to action are the standard burn spells Shockimage and Skewer the Criticsimage for obvious reasons. Skewer the Criticsimage is a bit awkward sometimes without an activator so be wary of this in the opening hand.
Clearly we need a deck that goes fast so Optimage and Chemister's Insightimage seem like auto inclusions. Chemister's Insightimage also has the benefit of tossing an Arclight Phoeniximage with jump start, so that's pretty cool.
Chart a Courseimage may be gone but red now has its own version, Thrill of Possibilityimage is a cheap way to toss Phoenix and it filters our deck to find two more spells to activate the zappy bird. Thrill of Possibilityimage is also just a good card for filtering our deck to find any answers.
Slaying Fireimage is just damage, that extra 1 damage has potential to catch opponents off guard killing at 4 when they may think we need 2 cards to kill em'. This is an easy cut for whatever you feel you want.
Ral's Outburstimage is similar to Slaying Fireimage in that it really is just a damage dealer, it's really just like adding an Optimage on top. Sometimes you even get lucky and hit a Phoenix and that's cool.
Rounding out the decklist is an underrated card The Royal Scionsimage. 6 loyalty is really hard to deal with turn 4 and if The Royal Scionsimage is left alone that -8 on turn 6 will earn insurmountable leads most of the time. Meanwhile The Royal Scionsimage keeps letting us filter our deck to find more birdies. The +2/0 First Strike and Trample is really strong for us too because it protects our creatures and gets chip damage through potential blockers. Even if the opponents invests resources into The Royal Scionsimage then that means we bought more time to find answers of our own.
Izzet Phoenix is still kicking, while testing the deck out there were no games where I killed the opponent really quickly, but it was really rare for the game to ever feel like I had no chance. Even when I exhausted most of the cards in my hand I usually had 3-5 exiled creatures that I could cast to provide board presence and those plays bought time to get to my next Thrill of Possibilityimage and revive Arclight Phoeniximages. The deck is incredibly resilient and most of all it's still pretty dang fun to play! 
I hope you all have a fantastic week and enjoy the little things in life! (Rule #32) From Magic-land this is Colorado signing out.

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SonzeySpace
Last Updated: 28 Oct 2019
Created: 21 Oct 2019
1542 301 0

Mainboard - 60 cards (14 distinct)

Creature (12)
$0.190.03
$7.17€2.516.78
$0.492.25
Instant, Sorcery, Enchantment, Artifact (22)
$0.20€0.110.03
$0.25€0.130.03
$0.25€0.210.03
$0.20€0.110.03
$0.20€0.140.03
$0.20€0.100.03
$0.25€0.080.03
Land (23)
$0.21€0.170.03
$0.15€0.050.03
$12.39€11.970.96
Planeswalker (3)
$0.72€0.710.02

Sideboard - 15 cards (6 distinct)

$0.25€0.140.03
$0.25€0.190.03
$0.27€0.220.04
$0.25€0.130.03
$0.24€0.070.03
$12.21€9.261.17

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