Niv-Mizzet and the Double Troubles

Commander / EDH Combo Control Jegantha, the Wellspring

klaudiohmm

Land (36)

• 1x Blood Crypt
• 1x Bloodstained Mire
• 1x Breeding Pool
• 1x City of Brass
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Exotic Orchard
• 1x Fabled Passage
• 1x Flooded Strand
• 1x Forest
• 1x Godless Shrine
• 1x Hallowed Fountain
• 1x Indatha Triome
• 1x Island
• 1x Ketria Triome
• 1x Krosan Verge
• 1x Mana Confluence
• 1x Misty Rainforest
• 1x Mountain
• 1x Opulent Palace
• 1x Overgrown Tomb
• 1x Plains
• 1x Polluted Delta
• 1x Raugrin Triome
• 1x Sacred Foundry
• 1x Snow-Covered Forest
• 1x Snow-Covered Island
• 1x Snow-Covered Mountain
• 1x Snow-Covered Plains
• 1x Snow-Covered Swamp
• 1x Steam Vents
• 1x Stomping Ground
• 1x Swamp
• 1x Temple Garden
• 1x Watery Grave
• 1x Windswept Heath
• 1x Wooded Foothills

Enchantment (7)

• 1x Binding the Old Gods
• 1x Cindervines
• 1x Food Chain
• 1x Pernicious Deed
• 1x Showdown of the Skalds
• 1x Sterling Grove
• 1x Wilderness Reclamation

Instant (22)

• 1x Anguished Unmaking
• 1x Assassin's Trophy
• 1x Countersquall
• 1x Despark
• 1x Dovin's Veto
• 1x Eladamri's Call
• 1x Enlightened Tutor
• 1x Fire Covenant
• 1x Growth Spiral
• 1x Ionize
• 1x Izzet Charm
• 1x Kolaghan's Command
• 1x Lim-Dul's Vault
• 1x Prismari Command
• 1x Rakdos Charm
• 1x Reinterpret
• 1x Simic Charm
• 1x Terminate
• 1x Turn to Mist
• 1x Utter End
• 1x Vampiric Tutor
• 1x Wear / Tear

Creature (10)

• 1x Atris, Oracle of Half-Truths
• 1x Circu, Dimir Lobotomist
• 1x Deathrite Shaman
• 1x Eternal Scourge
• 1x Faeburrow Elder
• 1x Klothys, God of Destiny
• 1x Knight of Autumn
• 1x Uro, Titan of Nature's Wrath
• 1x Vela the Night-Clad
• 1x Yasharn, Implacable Earth

Planeswalker (7)

• 1x Dack Fayden
• 1x Domri, Anarch of Bolas
• 1x Kiora, Behemoth Beckoner
• 1x Nahiri, the Harbinger
• 1x Oko, Thief of Crowns
• 1x Tamiyo, Collector of Tales
• 1x Teferi, Time Raveler

Commander (1)

Companion (1)

Sorcery (17)

• 1x Bring to Light
• 1x Cultivate
• 1x Deafening Clarion
• 1x Discovery / Dispersal
• 1x Extract
• 1x Firespout
• 1x Foresight
• 1x Kodama's Reach
• 1x Manipulate Fate
• 1x Merciless Eviction
• 1x Reborn Hope
• 1x Safewright Quest
• 1x Savage Twister
• 1x Skyshroud Claim
• 1x Solar Blaze
• 1x Treasured Find
• 1x Vindicate

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Sideboard

Creature (1)

• 1x Jegantha, the Wellspring

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Maybeboard

Instant (6)

• 1x Decisive Denial
• 1x Prismari Command
• 1x Psychic Strike
• 1x Spite / Malice
• 1x Sylvan Reclamation
• 1x Windgrace's Judgment

Creature (2)

• 1x Baleful Strix
• 1x Radha, Heart of Keld

Artifact (1)

• 1x Tome of the Guildpact

Sorcery (1)

• 1x Dreadbore

Enchantment (2)

• 1x Battle of Frost and Fire
• 1x Forging the Tyrite Sword

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Niv-Mizzet Reborn Food Chain combo control deck. This deck tries to combo off with Food Chain or go for control and win attacking with the commander dragon. I'm testing Jegantha as a companion and, because of this, had to remove Misthollow Griffin and Squee from this list and I've included more cards that directly exiles cards from our deck like Extract . Maybe it's better to use Misthollow and Squee, even more with the change of companion rules. But I maintained Jegantha as companion for fun and for the deckbuilding challenge.

The description is under construction. I'm counting the cards for each color-combination and describing their roles on our gameplan. I still trying to maximize our Niv-Mizzet's ETB value with monocolored cards with great effects but can't be grabbed with our commander's ETB effect.

Deckbuilding process and decisions

Why use Niv-Mizzet Reborn as a commander?

Niv-Mizzet has an ability that generates a lot of card advantage. Having card advantage is one of the things that I like more in this game <3.

Other reason I'm playing Niv-Mizzet is that the "color pair" restriction of its ability imposes us a fun and interesting deckbuilding challenge. In this deck, I try to balance (or something close) the "guild" distribution of the cards.

Why use Jegantha as a companion?

I created this deck when we didn't have to pay to put it into our hand before we could cast it. After the companion rules was changed, I've decided to keep it for the deckbuilding challenge and fun. If I had to recommend to a player wanting to play this deck with a competitive mindset, probably I would suggest them to not play Jegantha, so they can include Misthollow Griffin and Squee, the Immortal .

Using two-colored not-so-good cards vs using one-colored great cards

This is a valid and important question/debate. In that case, the answer is somewhat simple: I see this as a fun deckbuilding problem to deal with. I think that I went more on the first choice (two-colored cards) because it is more "challenging". In other formats, it is often to the deckbuilder not to fill their decks with "random" two-colored cards to hit a lot of cards with Niv's ability (I guess they hit around two or three cards with Niv's ability and it is enough to be considered great), but this is an EDH deck, the pool of cards is much larger and we have a lot of options to use.

Maybe this isn't the most competitive way to build a Niv-Mizzet Reborn (it doesn't have that many tutors, uses only one of three creatures that can be cast from exile), but I have a lot of fun building this deck and leave it the way it is, changing one or other card, prioritizing two-colored cards.

Two-colored cards and their roles

Azorius (3 cards)

• Dovin's Veto is an uncounterable way to deal with possible opponents' removals and noncreature powerful spells.

• Turn to Mist can exile creatures attacking us while also can exile Niv-Mizzet itself to return it to the battlefield, triggering its ETB again. Doing this to Atris, Uro, Snapcaster Mage or Knight of Autumn can be very useful too.

• Teferi, Time Raveler shuts off our opponents' spells in instant-speed while can also give our own sorcery spells the possibility of being cast in instant speed, which is very powerful in this deck (it uses around 20 sorceries).

Dimir (6 cards)

• Atris, Oracle of Half-Truths is a way of drawing lands with its ETB effect. This is very important, considering that Niv-Mizzet draws us a lot of cards but its ability doesn't draw lands.

• Circu, Dimir Lobotomist exiles opposing decks when the Food Chain combo are assembled.

• Vela the Nightclad fits the same role above, but it defeats our opponents through damage (candidate for a swap).

• Countersquall is a very flexible tutor to protect our permanents and frustrate our opponents' gameplans. It doesn't seems to be a very powerful counterspell, but its cost isn't that prohibitive (candidate for a swap).

• Lim-Dul's Vault can practically tutor any card of our deck. Maybe it won't work if our life total is low. We can use it to know the top cards of our library and decide if we will cast Niv-Mizzet on the next turn or not.

• Discovery / Dispersal is here only for its Discovery mode, a cheap spell, easy to cast that have a card selection effect that is very interesting. I see its Dispersal mode as a bonus.

Rakdos (4 cards)

• Fire Covenant is a selective removal which may cost a lot of life but can help us to clear the board from small creatures and in instant-speed.

• Kolaghan's Command is a very versatile removal spell to small creatures and artifacts, the "return target creature from your graveyard to your hand" mode can be very useful too.

• Rakdos Charm is a way to deal with graveyards from reanimation decks and infinite creatures combos that may happen.

• Terminate is an unconditional creature removal (i.e. doesn't consider non-something creatures to target).

Gruul (5 cards)

• Firespout is a cheap board wipe we can get to clear the board from small creatures.

• Savage Twister also is a board wipe, in that case, for later turns on the game (candidate for a swap).

• Domri, Anarch of Bolas lets us cast Niv-Mizzet on turn four and make it uncounterable (candidate for a swap).

• Klothys, God of Destiny has a graveyard-hate ability and ramps, allowing us to cast Niv on turn four if we want (previously, I was using Rhythm of the Wild )

• Cindervines also can destroy artifacts and enchantments. The good part of it is that we can destroy these permanents with an activated ability that costs only one mana, instead of destroying only when it enters the battlefield (previously I was using Qasali Pridemage ).

Selesnya (6 cards)

• Eladamri's Call easily tutors for a creature. We can get a combo piece ( Vela the Night-Clad ), a ramp piece ( Faeburrow Elder ), a big beater and value-generator ( Uro, Titan of Nature's Wrath ) or spell-recursion piece ( Snapcaster Mage ).

• Faeburrow Elder helps us ramp and cast Niv-Mizzet. It can become a beater if we have planeswalkers or Niv himself on the battlefield.

• Knight of Autumn destroys an artifact or enchantment but it can also heal us in a pinch.

• Reborn Hope allows us to ge back almost any card of our deck. The vast majority of them are multicolored.

• Safewright Quest is a cheap, easy to cast, mana-fixing spell that helps us a lot if we need certain lands to execute our gameplan. It can grab shock lands, so we can fix our manabase picking the color we need.

• Sterling Grove helps us to get Food Chain with its tutor ability. We can cast it to protect Food Chain if we already have Food Chain with us.

Orzhov (5 cards)

• Anguished Unmaking deals with nonland permanents in instant-speed and cheap cost. The life loss is less than 10% of our starting life points.

• Despark deals with high-costed permanents for a cheap cost.

• Merciless Eviction is one of the best boardwipes that can be tutored with Niv-Mizzet and can be included with Jegantha as a companion.

• Vindicate deals with any permanent that we want to deal with.

• Kaya's Guile removes threats on the early game, creates a token that can chump block attackers targeting our planeswalkers, deals with graveyards. The gain life can be helpful in some situations (previously, I was using Utter End ).

Golgari (5 cards)

• Deathrite Shaman helps us deal with graveyards and we can use it to generate mana exiling fetches or other lands on the graveyard. With it, we can, for example, grab Jegantha on turn two or cast Niv on turn four.

• Assassin's Trophy deals with permanents. We can use it to target our own permanents to tutor a land if we need.

• Binding the Old Gods deals with a lot of permanents while can ramp us a Forest. The third chapter is basically irrelevant.

• Treasured Find can get almost all cards inside our deck from our graveyard back to our hand.

• Pernicious Deed is very flexible so we can sacrifice it in the situations we need to.

Simic (7 cards)

• Uro, Titan of Nature's Wrath helps us drawing cards and recovering our life. It can easily be escaped if we use spell cards and fetches in our graveyard.

• Growth Spiral helps us ramp and draw in instant-speed.

• Simic Charm has a lot of relevant modes, like bouncing a creature or giving our permanents hexproof.

• Bring to Light can tutor a lot of creatures, instants and sorceries in various situations.

• Kiora, Behemoth Beckoner helps us cast Niv-Mizzet on turn four and let us draw a card when it enters the battlefield.

• Oko, Thief of Crowns deals with opposing creatures, commanders and artifacts. It helps us creating Food tokens that can be useful to replenish our life.

• Tamiyo, Collector of Tales has a Eternal Witness mode, but this planeswalker is better inside this deck because we can pick her with Niv's ETB.

Izzet (4 cards)

• Ionize is a tutorable counterspell. The 2 damage is practically irrelevant.

• Izzet Charm is very flexible. We can use it to counter noncreature spells, loot two cards and destroy small creatures.

• Reinterpret counters a spell while we can cast a spell from our hand (e.g. a planeswalker, a sorcery).

• Dack Fayden is a way to loot and steal an artifact from an opponent.

Boros (5 cards)

• Wear / Tear is a flexible and cheap way to deal with artifacts and/or enchantments.

• Deafening Clarion can sweep the board from small creatures. Give lifelink to Niv-Mizzet can also be important in our gameplan.

• Solar Blaze isn't that powerful but can hit a lot of creatures and can be used in this deck with Jegantha as a companion. It will probably be one of the first swaps if I change it to use no companions (candidate for a swap).

• Nahiri, the Harbinger can deal with a lot of threats while can also loot, allowing us to dig a land or an answer if needed. I don't think that the its ultimate is that good in this deck, but it's a bonus.

• Showdown of the Skalds is a card advantage engine inside this deck and a way of playing lands (Niv-Mizzet's ability doesn't let us grab lands) (previously I was using Escape to the Wilds ).

Monocolored and colorless cards

• Enlightened Tutor to get Food Chain (or Pernicious Deed if we need removal)

• Snapcaster Mage to reuse various spells inside our graveyard.

• Treasure Cruise to draw a lot of cards (we can delve our fetch lands and irrelevant spells on our graveyard).

• Vampiric Tutor to get... well, anything we want.

• Tainted Pact to get Food Chain while exiling our Eternal Scourge. It may miss, so I think that it is a candidate for a swap.

• Cultivate and Kodama's Reach to ramp, fix our mana and cast Niv-Mizzet on turn four.

• Food Chain is the main combo piece of this deck (with Eternal Scourge ).

• Wilderness Reclamation helps us cast spells after get a lot of cards with Niv's ETB effect.

Gameplan

The early game

In our first turn, probably we want to crack a fetch to get one of our Triomes (e.g. Ketria Triome ). We won't probably do anything in our first turn anyway (except if we will cast Safewright Quest or Deathrite Shaman (looking for a spot for it).

Our next turns often are spent ramping and fixing our mana. If soma threat appears on the board, probably we have an answer for it. It's less often, but maybe we want to cast something like Oko, Thief of Crowns to generate Food tokens (this deck doesnt' have that many ways of gaining life) or a Klothys, God of Destiny (not in the list yet) to start to mess with opponents' graveyards.

When do we cast our Niv-Mizzet Reborn?

I don't think that we must cast Niv-Mizzet Reborn as soon as possible. I see it more as a card advantage engine than a beatdown commander. It should be interesting to have Niv-Mizzet on the board and we have ways to protect it, but this deck doesn't have zero-mana counterspells or protection, so go with this plan is not possible if we ramp enough, which takes time.

I like to think that we will cast Niv-Mizzet when we spent cards in our hand ramping and answering threats and we need to draw cards to refuel our hand. Obviously it isn't a "rule", so in certain situations we will cast Niv-Mizzet to pressure the board and dig for future answers or something like that.

Date added	5 years
Last updated	3 years
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	11 - 0 Mythic Rares 50 - 1 Rares 20 - 0 Uncommons 9 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	2.95
Tokens	Elk 3/3 G, Emblem Dack Fayden, Food, Treasure