Drawing Flames

Commander / EDH* Combo Discard Infinite Combo UR (Izzet)

dreamlikeamaze

Creature (9)

Planeswalker (1)

1x Tezzeret the Seeker

Land (35)

Enchantment (10)

Artifact (14)

Instant (14)

Sorcery (17)

Commander (1)

Commander: foil Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind

Drawing Flames

Before me, you rightly tremble.

Older comments were moved here.

Hand Manipulation

Incendiary Command has been great for utility. A turn one Winds of Change isn't uncommon after dropping a few mana rocks.

Molten Psyche has a lot of synergy value here. Everyone draws after they shuffle their hands, and then take one damage per card for the turn.

Board Control

Niv tries to focus on keeping threats to a minimum. All Is Dust is just ridiculous as I have very few colored permanents. Mizzium Mortars was a lot of fun during prerelease, I'll see how it works next to Blasphemous Act.

Notable Land

A number of non-basics lands are in this deck. Mikokoro, Center of the Sea has been fantastic. Reliquary Tower is used because I like having a big hand.

Win Conditions

Several notable win conditions are included in this deck. Spiraling Embers is a really great card. It's just another reason to fear this deck holding too many cards.

Dream Halls or Omniscience can turn a game into a win.

I can draw as many cards as I want with either Ophidian Eye or Curiosity. When I reach the end of my library, I'll pitch Kozilek to reshuffle my graveyard and start over.

Psychosis Crawler is a great backup to Niv. The easiest win with Crawler is Mindmoil. Only takes a a few cheap or zero drops to deal to the board lethal damage.

Mind Over Matter has an enormous amount of synergy, outside of being a win condition with Niv in play. It can untap mana rocks, giving me huge amounts of mana, and untap utility lands. I can also tap out an opponent.

Counters

Counterspells are very important in this deck. The psychological reasons behind plays made when a player thinks it might be stopped are huge. Someone might not play their general fearing a Hinder or their all important combo piece hit by Dissipate.

Draws

There are a few straight draws, some notable. Mystic Speculation works with Mindmoil as that triggered ability will resolve first before Speculation clears, allowing the Buyback. I get to scry while sculpting my hand.

Extra Turns

After removing cards that gave Niv haste, extra turn spells were put in the deck. They've worked out pretty well, especially Savor the Moment.

Suggestions

Updates Add

Deck Overhaul! — July 3, 2012

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Massive deck overhaul since my last update. After months of play testing after switching back and forth from Jhoira to Niv-Mizzet, I feel extremely confident in this deck being almost entirely spell based.

Here's the change log and reason behind each decision:

07/12/12

Removed Wheel and Deal, added Curiosity, Ophidian Eye, and Psychosis Crawler: After a lot more play testing, the deck just isn't fast enough to survive without Curiosity and Ophidian Eye combos. Psychosis Crawler is added for the pure combo potential, but I'm hoping to get this deck to the point I can combo out to win without these three cards eventually.

07/06/12

Removed Psychosis Crawler for Wheel and Deal: Crawler draws far too much hate as I've always said and he's usually removed. He is a dead draw until later in the game, as putting him out too early is begging for an Ashes to Ashes.
Removed Madblind Mountain for Mikokoro, Center of the Sea: Madblind could never really be used in this deck as I really don't have a lot of permanents anymore, let alone red. Mikokoro has far too much synergy and exceeds the usefulness of Madblind.

07/03/12

Arcanis the Omnipotent, Jace's Archivist, Mind's Eye: Too slow, Arcanis is expensive. I have to wait an entire turn to use either. I haven't seen Arcanis survive long enough to matter. Mind's was pretty slow and Rhystic Study is a better fit.
Blue Sun's Zenith, Invoke the Firemind, Mind Spring: These draw X cards were removed because while they do have some synergy, I never have a turn I want to dedicate to tapping out for one of these. Proved to be a dead draw almost 100% of the time, because I'd rather do something else with the mana.
Brainstorm, Breakthrough, Fact or Fiction: I had these Cantrips in any blue deck I've played for a long time, even with Jhoira and before my EDH days. They've always been a staple, but I found them to not matter a great deal with the way Niv plays now. I'll end up with a ton of cards in my hand anyway, I'd rather dedicate the slots to more fluid synergy.
Curiosity, Ophidian Eye, Pestermite, Splinter Twin, Mind Over Matter, Temple Bell: The first time I had a Curiosity combo win, I felt extremely dissatisfied. My table I don't think still understands why I removed these cards from Niv, but they felt cheap and I've always disliked the "I win" combo. The combos weren't always a sure thing either, as I would still have to discard an Eldrazi to shuffle my graveyard. That and relying on Niv being in play, protected, and enchanted wasn't very efficient. I really enjoy not having to worry about Niv being in play and keeping him alive at all times to win.
Dragon Mage: I have never once been able to connect with Dragon Mage. Replaced with Barbed Shocker. I can target who gets a Wheel and it has haste and trample. Also, far less mana.
Fatestitcher, Freed from the Real: Not very efficient, and again, a dead draw unless I have Niv out in play with hexproof. He usually gets popped when I begin to boost him up a bit.
Basilisk Collar, Gelectrode, Gorgon Flail, Quicksilver Dagger, Viridian Longbow: Ridiculously inefficient without much of a payoff. This engine takes a while to get online and is rather janky. I've never seen it play out and Goblin Sharpshooter would have been the only solid replacement or choice to do this instead.
Psychosis Crawler: He's been in and out of this deck for a while. He's a threat to everyone, which paints an ugly target on me. Would be nice to simply cast Crawler in the same turn and then draw 30 cards, but that seems win-more. He's pretty useless early game, and if I have 30 cards in my hand late game, I'm probably going to win anyway. When I get Time Spiral, I'll replace Time Reversal and the Consecrated Sphinx + Crawler combo win would be easier to achieve due to the mana.
Jokulhaups: The only time I can think of where I would want to blow up all my artifacts and land is when I know I'm about to lose, but that's just screwing over the game for no reason. It's a poor sport move and increases the time until the next game.

Adding Soon — May 10, 2012

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Revision 3 See all

(11 years ago)

+1	Brainstorm	main
-1	Careful Study	main
+1	Cyclonic Rift	main
-1	Desolate Lighthouse	main
+1	Enter the Infinite	main
-1	Faithless Looting	main
-1	Ice Cauldron	main
+1	Ideas Unbound	main
-1	Island	main
+1	Mindslaver	main
-2	Mountain	main
-1	Mox Opal	main
+1	Oboro, Palace in the Clouds	main
+1	Pact of Negation	main
+1	Phantasmal Image	main
-1	Phyrexian Metamorph	main
-1	Remand	main
+1	Riptide Laboratory	main
+1	Snapcaster Mage	main
+1	Steam Vents	main

and 27 other change(s)

Date added	12 years
Last updated	5 years
Legality	This deck is not Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	10 - 0 Mythic Rares 48 - 0 Rares 20 - 0 Uncommons 13 - 0 Commons
Cards	101
Avg. CMC	3.69
Tokens	Kobolds of Kher Keep 0/1 R
Folders	Look Over, Folder 1, Decks I like, Niv Mizzet Builds
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