Mizzix' burning budget

Commander / EDH Budget Burn Combo Control UR (Izzet)

rasck

Draw (13)

• 1x Blue Sun's Zenith
• 1x Cerebral Vortex
• 1x Enter the Infinite
• 1x Fact or Fiction
• 1x Invoke the Firemind
• 1x Jace's Ingenuity
• 1x Khorvath's Fury
• 1x Niv-Mizzet, Parun
• 1x Stroke of Genius
• 1x Tezzeret's Gambit
• 1x Thoughtflare
• 1x Whispers of the Muse
• 1x Windfall

Removal (9)

• 1x Blink of an Eye
• 1x Call to Heel
• 1x Capsize
• 1x Into the Roil
• 1x Repulse
• 1x Scour from Existence
• 1x Shattering Pulse
• 1x Snap
• 1x Supplant Form

Control (7)

• 1x Foil
• 1x Insidious Will
• 1x Rewind
• 1x Spell Burst
• 1x Spell Swindle
• 1x Supreme Will
• 1x Wild Ricochet

Lands (37)

• 1x Detection Tower
• 1x Evolving Wilds
• 1x Highland Lake
• 18x Island
• 1x Izzet Boilerworks
• 1x Izzet Guildgate
• 9x Mountain
• 1x Reliquary Tower
• 1x Swiftwater Cliffs
• 1x Terramorphic Expanse
• 1x Vivid Crag
• 1x Vivid Creek

Ramp (9)

• 1x Brass's Bounty
• 1x Commander's Sphere
• 1x Darksteel Ingot
• 1x Inner Fire
• 1x Izzet Signet
• 1x Mana Geyser
• 1x Reality Spasm
• 1x Star Compass
• 1x Wayfarer's Bauble

Burn (7)

• 1x Burn from Within
• 1x Comet Storm
• 1x Devil's Play
• 1x Fall of the Titans
• 1x Fanning the Flames
• 1x Master the Way
• 1x Prophetic Bolt

Commander (1)

Utility (11)

• 1x AEtherize
• 1x Aetherspouts
• 1x Commit / Memory
• 1x Fury Storm
• 1x Increasing Vengeance
• 1x Mirror Match
• 1x Part the Waterveil
• 1x Polymorphist's Jest
• 1x Radiate
• 1x Reins of Power
• 1x Spellbook

BoardWipe (3)

• 1x Curse of the Swine
• 1x Devastation Tide
• 1x Mizzium Mortars

Recursion (2)

• 1x Call to Mind
• 1x Mystic Retrieval

Tutor (1)

• 1x Firemind's Foresight

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Maybeboard

Utility (7)

• 1x Expansion / Explosion
• 1x Flux Channeler
• 1x Glaring Spotlight
• 1x Metallurgic Summonings
• 1x Mystic Confluence
• 1x Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind
• 1x Psychosis Crawler

BoardWipe (1)

• 1x Street Spasm

Burn (1)

• 1x Jaya's Immolating Inferno

Recursion (1)

• 1x Charmbreaker Devils

Ramp (5)

• 1x Coldsteel Heart
• 1x Izzet Cluestone
• 1x Izzet Keyrune
• 1x Terrain Generator
• 1x Treasure Map  ^Flip

Political (2)

• 1x Disrupt Decorum
• 1x Volcanic Offering

Lands (1)

• 1x Ghost Quarter

Removal (1)

• 1x Echoing Truth

BrokenWithRadiate (4)

• 1x Grab the Reins
• 1x Rite of Replication
• 1x Twitch
• 1x Volt Charge

Draw (4)

• 1x Dig Through Time
• 1x Mind Spring
• 1x Pull from Tomorrow
• 1x Thassa's Intervention

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When asked how much power is required, izzet mages always answer "more"

Introduction

This is a budget control/combo deck with a lot of bang for the buck. It has a lot of answers (how about a free Scour from Existence?), win conditions, draw and ramp. What more could one want?

The best in cards the deck are:

• Enter the Infinite: Win condtion written all over it
• Inner Fire: With this card, you can have almost infinite mana with Enter the Infinite or any draw spell such as Stroke of Genius
• Fanning the Flames: Mizzix of the Izmagnus's experience counter ability can make buybacks free.
• Capsize: Same as with Fanning the Flames. You can return everything. Even lands, if you are that evil.
• Spell Burst: Same as with Fanning the Flames. Counter everything. You choose whatever cost you want to play it for, and then the cost reduction will be applied. Pretty sweet?
• Whispers of the Muse: Draw at instant speed, can even be good without Mizzix of the Izmagnus on the board
• Shattering Pulse: You have an artifact based deck? Are your recursion engine stronger than my one mana artifact destruction engine - that can be tutored?
• Radiate: Is an absolutely amazing card! In the end of your opponents turn, just before your turn, you drop a Blink of an Eye and answer to your Blink of an Eye with Radiate. Now you sit with a hand full of cards and all nonland permanents has been removed. You can also cast it on Prophetic Bolt, Snap, Supplant Form or for a total reset Capsize or Scour from Existence - not recommended though :)

These cards are what i consider the core building blocks of this Mizzix of the Izmagnus budget build. You can basically burn, remove, counter and draw recurrently when getting one of these into your hand! The only notable card missing, because of its price, is Reiterate, but this would also just be icing on the top. The deck is plenty strong without it.

How to become an ever so powerfull wizard

Novice, turn 1-6 At first you will be a novice. Your main goal is to survive. Your spells are only but puny firecrackers. While you are a novice you will have to flee Into the Roil. Often you will not show yourself before you have an escape mechanism at hand. Your experience (counters) will grow steadily while researching, Tezzeret's Gambit, for more powerfull spells and possibilities!

Adept, turn 4-10 You feel the magic flow in your veins. Your experience has increased and anyone who dared let you live this long are soon to regret it... Any foe who gazes at your untapped resources, will be frightened to make a move, and rightfully so, because you will punish all agression against you, admirably - as only suitable by a wizard of your statue! They will be a victim to your lunatic temper. Will you send them home - AEtherize? Blow them into oblivion - AEtherspouts? Make them fight their own reflections? - Mirror Match, Wild Ricochet? Or just unleash your inner pyromaniac and burn them all - Comet Storm? They don't know, and that is exactly where you want them.

Wizard of OZ, turn 8+ Shifting between a state of control Spell Burst and unstable purified Inner Fire; You are ready to end it all! and light are dimming from you and no one can see themselves safe from your radiation Radiate, as they realize all that was just firecrackers and tricks of a novice has become the toolbox of the master - Radiate + Blink of an Eye or Prophetic Bolt or Snap or Supplant Form - The possibilities are endless - and so is the suffering.

Everything gets magnified to epic dimensions by your Increasing Vengeance and Stroke of Genius... At the same time your Inner Fire is tearing your flesh apart as everyone around you, foes or former allies, burns Fanning the Flames and you are utterly alone. Soon you are just pure energy beaming through the multiverse to Enter the Infinite...

Or something like that!

Win conditions

The deck has a lot of ways of winning. The best win condition in the deck is Enter the Infinite.

With this card you can win in a number of ways

Enter the Infinite and Master the Way

Enter the Infinite (or any of the draw cards with X in their cost) and Inner Fire and then cast Fanning the Flames any number of times until death occur.

All the copy spells cards Increasing Vengeance, Fury Storm, Insidious Will and Wild Ricochet combined with experience counters and burn cards like Comet Storm are the source of most of my wins

Niv-Mizzet, Parun is a card I currently experiment with. Enter the Infinite doesn't play well with Niv-Mizzet, Parun however. But for the rest of the deck it works very well.

Radiate and its friends:

Radiate + Snap returns all creature and gives 2 mana for each creature on the battlefield and then burn opponents with Comet Storm

Radiate + Blink of an Eye or Into the Roil return all non-land permanents and draw a card for each permanent returned. Do it just before your turn. Could also work with Repulse if there are many creatures on the battlefield.

Radiate + Supplant Form (eventhough this combo is hard to assembly is much more effective than Clone Legion, because Radiate + Supplant Form happens at instant speed just before your turn)

Radiate + either Capsize or Scour from Existence will either return or exile all permanents - including lands. This should be more advantageous to you than your opponents as your experience counters will make you more powerfull with just a few lands.

Radiate + Part the Waterveil If you pay the awaken cost (with Mizzix' cost reduction ofc), you take a turn for each land you have and your lands are now 6/6 creatures. Part the Waterveil also plays well with Increasing Vengeance cast from graveyard

Other more subtle ways of winning are:

How do you fancy making your opponent happy, by giving them a lot of cards, and then blow their brains out with Cerebral Vortex for 42 damage? Give an opponent cards and kill him/her with Cerebral Vortex + Increasing Vengeance in graveyard with flashback. Say one has drawn 10 cards during the turn (e.g. from Windfall) - we can deal 42 damage (12 + 14 + 16)!

And at lastly you can win by a well timed: - Reins of Power vs token decks, and voltron decks (Rafiq of the Many, after he just killed the other opponent with his 21 commander dmg...)

Mizzix and the stack

When playing Mizzix I have often had doubts about how the stack works. Understanding the stack really help play this deck well as there are over 35 instant spells in the deck. Therefore I have decided to help myself, and maybe you as well?, by creating a FAQ that has a focus on Mizzix and the stack

A) When is a spell cast?
A spell is considered cast when it is successfully put on the stack (not when it is resolved)

B) When will I get an experience counter?
You will get an experience counter once you cast a spell (see A). The experience counter will be resolved just before the spell gets resolved. E.g

1. You cast a spell and it is put on the stack, Master the Way
2. Mizzix’ ability trigger that gives you an experience counter is put on the stack
The stack will resolve in reverse order, so first you get the experience counter, and then Master the Way resolves. Also note that they are two different events. So when 2) Mizzix’ ability, is put on the stack, you will get an experience counter even though Master the Way would not be able to resolve.

C) Can I get multiple experience counters from casting spells with the same CMC?
Yes if the spells are on the same stack. Say you have 3 experience counters and cast AEtherize. You will get to place AEtherize on the stack, and you will place a trigger of Mizzix' ability that gives you an experience counter on the stack. You can now respond to Mizzix' ability and put Fact or Fiction on the stack, that will again trigger Mizzix' abilityr. And since Mizzix at this point, still only sees 3 experience counters; it will be legal to put the additional trigger on the stack. The stack would look like this

1. AEtherize (The first spell on the stack could be a sorcery spell)
2. Mizzix’ ability trigger that gives you an experience counter is put on the stack (legal because we only have 3 experience counters)
3. Fact or Fiction (This spell must be an instant, you cast in response to the first ability trigger)
4. Mizzix’ ability trigger that gives you an experience counter is put on the stack (still legal because we still only have 3 experience counters)

Thus we will get 2 additional experience counters, and end up with 5 experience counters. This will only work if the spells are on the same stack.

D) Does Mizzix cost reducing ability works on alternative costs such as buyback, kicker, overload, flashback etc?
Yes it does, if the alternative cost still makes you cast the card. Just be aware that alternative cost does not count towards the total mana cost (only spells with X cost in the upper right corner works). For instance a kicked Blink of an Eye will only be considered as 2 CMC even though you paid 4 CMC for it, but Mizzix cost reduction ability make a kicked Blink of an Eye cheaper, so you only have to pay 2 Blue mana for a kicked Blink of an Eye. But a Devil's Play with X = 3 would count as 4 CMC.

E) If I cast Devastation Tide for its miracle cost will Mizzix only see it as 2 CMC?
No Mizzix will read the upper right corner. The CMC for Devastation Tide will be 5 regardless if you cast it for its full cost or the miracle cost.

F) If i cast Mizzium Mortars for its overload, will I get an experience counter, if I already have 3 experience counters?
No, Mizzix will read the upper right corner. The CMC for Mizzium Mortars is 2, regardless of how you cast it.

G) If I copy a spell such as Prophetic Bolt with Increasing Vengeance, Fury Storm, Wild Ricochet or Insidious Will can I then get an additional experience counter from the copy of Prophetic Bolt?
No, Mizzix’ ability specifically says you must cast a spell in order for her ability to work. All of the aforementioned copy spells just put a new spell on the stack without casting it. An example of a spell that makes copies, that could create experience counters, is Mizzix's Mastery, because is says “... you may cast the copy…”.

H) Will I always get an experience counter; if I cast a spell with X in its mana cost?
As a rule of thumb yes. But the exception is whenever you pay additional costs, sucs as buyback, kicker costs etc. Suppose you have 6 experience counters and 2 red mana. If you play Fanning the Flames for two red mana, pay for the buyback cost with the value from 3 experience counters then you only have 3 experience counters to put in X and the total CMC will be 2 red + 3 generic = 5 CMC and therefore you will not gain an experience counters from casting Fanning the Flames.

I) If I put multiple spells with X in the mana cost on the stack. Will each spell on the stack become one stronger? E.g if i have 5 experience counters and put Comet Storm for X = 5 on the stack and then respond with Stroke of Genius will i then have 6 experience counters so that i can cast Stroke of Genius for X = 6?
No, while they are on the same stack, you will still have 5 experience counters. The stack would go like this:

1. Comet Storm with X =5, from experience counters
2. Mizzix’ ability trigger - experience counter will be incremented with one
3. Stroke of Genius will still only benefit from 5 = x experience counters because Mizzix’ cost reduction is still only 5
4. Mizzix’ ability trigger - experience counter will be incremented with one

You will get 2 experience counters once the entire stack has resolved. The optimal play would likely have been to let the stack with Comet Storm fully resolve before casting Stroke of Genius, you will still get 2 experience counters, but you get one more mana in the CMC for Stroke of Genius.

J) If I have 0 experience counters and I bounce Mizzix back to my hand with Call to Heel will I then get an experience counter?
Yes you will, because of the order that stack resolves. The stack would like this:

1. Call to Heel
2. Ability trigger that gives you an experience counter is put on the stack
First 2) the ability trigger resolves giving you an experience counter and then 1) Call to Heel resolves

K) If I have 0 experience counters and I bounce Mizzix back to my hand with Call to Heel, and then in response cast Jace's Ingenuity will I then get 2 experience counters?
Yes, each spell you cast will trigger Mizzix’ ability that gives an experience counter on the stack. But no discounts will be given; you have to pay full price for both spells (see I)

L) If I have 2 experience counters and cast Tezzeret's Gambit and cast Cerebral Vortex in response, how many experience will I end up with?
It will give you 3 experience counters. The stack could look like this

1. Tezzeret's Gambit
2. Proliferate ability trigger
3. Mizzix’ ability trigger (you can stack the ability triggers, 2 and 3, in any order, but the order makes no difference in this case)
4. Cerebral Vortex
5. Mizzix’ ability trigger (legal because we have 2 experience counters)
So again, we resolve in reverse order. We will get an experience counter from step 5, then step 3, and finally step 2. You will end up with 5 experience counters in total. However if you sit with 3 experience counters, cast Tezzeret's Gambit and let the stack resolve, you will only get 2 experience counters, and casting Cerebral Vortex after that would not give you more experience counters. You would only have a total of 4 experience counters.

M) If someone Counterspell a spell I have cast, Enter the Infinite, will I still get an experience counter?
Yes, your spell Enter the Infinite will be countered but Mizzix triggered ability will be put on the stack, the time you casted Enter the Infinite, and therefore Mizzix' triggered ability will not be countered..

1. Enter the Infinite
2. Mizzix’ ability trigger
3. Counterspell → points on Enter the Infinite (note that the counter spell does not point on “2. Mizzix’ ability trigger”)
This also means that if you are on the pursuit of experience counters, say you have 4 experience counters and need 6. You could put an instant spell on the stack, such as Thoughtflare then cast something like Remand (note remand is not in the deck) on Thoughtflare. Thoughtflare will get returned to your hand and then you can cast it again on the same stack. The first version of Thoughtflare will never get to resolve but it will be cast, so you will get an experience counter, and the second version of Thoughtflare will be cast as well, resulting in another experience counter. The stack would go like this

1. Thoughtflare
2. Mizzix’ ability trigger
3. Remand → Thoughtflare (Remand will not trigger Mizzix’ ability, since you already have 4 experience counters)
You let step 3 resolve and get Thoughtflare to your hand, and draw a card. The entire stack looks like this

4. Mizzix’ ability trigger
Before 4. Resolves, you ask for priority and cast again Thoughtflare, as response to 4, and the final stack will look like this:

5. Mizzix’ ability trigger
6. Thoughtflare
7. Mizzix’ ability trigger
And you let the entire stack resolve. You get 2 experience counters, draw 4 cards and discard 2 cards.

N) Can I play Firemind's Foresight in response to Murder targeting Mizzix, and fetch a bounce spell and cast that targeting Mizzix or fetch a counter spell?
Yes, sure you can. If you do not have Firemind's Foresight in hand you could also try with any instant draw spell such as Stroke of Genius and see if you get lucky with your draws, maybe you will find Wild Ricochet.

Improvements

If you want to spend a little more $ on the deck, i have made some suggestions. The ones I consider most important are (not in any specific order):

• Chaos Warp: Answer to much needed izzet removal issues.
• Cyclonic Rift: Everything but your stuff gets removed.
• Past in Flames: Recur your graveyard again, yes please.
• Reiterate: The buyback cost can be utilized by Mizzix of the Izmagnus. And important piece for Mizzix of the Izmagnus decks that want to go infinite
• Thought Vessel: We always say yes to no maximum hand size!
• Turnabout: Enabler for some huge combos and infinite, or close to.
• Tamiyo, the Moon Sage: Enables some really broken infinite combos with colorless spells, Scour from Existence,Flame Javelin and Banefire + Turnabout . Get her emblem fast with Reiterate + Steady Progress .

Edit: After play testing in my group I can conclude the most important upgrades are Reiterate and Past in Flames. Other inclusions are Riptide Laboratory and Command Beacon to protect or get Mizzix back into play.

If you are interested in a bit more tuned version, you can see Unsanctioned use of magical energy

Any suggestions are most appreciated - remember to keep the price tags low!

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Top Ranked	Achieved #8 position overall 8 years ago Achieved #1 position in Commander / EDH Budget 4 years ago Achieved #1 position in Commander / EDH Burn 4 years ago Achieved #1 position in Commander / EDH Control 4 years ago
Date added	8 years
Last updated	4 years
Exclude colors	WBG
Key combos	Banefire + Turnabout Reiterate + Steady Progress
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	4 - 0 Mythic Rares 28 - 0 Rares 23 - 0 Uncommons 17 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.70
Tokens	Boar 2/2 G, Copy Clone, Experience Token, Treasure
Folders	things im getting, Decks I like, Possible EDH Decks, izzet budget, Commander, +1 Budget, cool, EDH, fav edh, Commander
Based on	How to be hated rasck EDH