Modding the Commander's Quarter's Niv-Mizzet, Parun deck
Rocks & Utility lands
- izzet keyrune
+ commander's sphere
- island
+ reliquary tower
- Corrupted Grafstone
+ Gilded Lotus
Izzet keyrune is also card availability, but I think I like the certainty of drawing the card with commander's sphere. Also, keyrune lets me loot, but sometimes I cast out a large portion of my hand, and then I'm only wheeling 2-3 cards, which feels bad. Niv Mizzet helps, but I like the having the option to draw a card without discarding one.
Reliquary towers feels super relevant here, as I can so some spell copying shenanigans and end up with a rather large hand, in which case it's nice to be able to hold the cards. Maybe this won't be as necessary now that I've taken out the niv-mizzet damage-draw combo cards.
I really like Corruputed Graftstone despite it not being very good, because I have one where the ghosts on the art are shiny, so it's very pretty. However, I'm frequently in a position where I'm forced to cast something just so that this can tap for mana. It ended up being between Grafstone and Izzet Signet, and signet won. Gilded lotus is slow, but I can cast it prior to casting Niv-Mizzet, so I won't feel like I'm losing out on value by not casting an instant or sorcery and gets us flexible mana.
Card Availability
- terramorphic expanse
+ shivan reef
- river's rebuke
+ izzet charm
Not much to say here. I couldn't get a River's Rebuke or a Terramorphic Expanse, so I put in a shivan reef, which is essentially the same with no shuffle or thinning, but more speed, which works for me. Izzet charm was just thrown in, but it's relevant.
The journey, not the destination
- ophidian eye
- curiosity
- tandem lookout
These three cards in this deck are sick. Completely broken. You cast one, and if no one has an answer right at that moment, the whole game's over. Maybe in other groups answers are more common, but in mine, my observation has been I draw one of these and I could win. I found myself not doing it though because it felt cheap. It's not really a victory by wheelin' and dealin'. A two card combo to simply win the game, where one is my commander. Little over the top, and a little outside the spirit of Commander.
That leaves us with 3 empty slots, which we'll fill with some
Additional Protection
+ Counterspell
+ Dive Down
+ Clear the Mind
Our Commander is the crux of this deck. If he gets popped and we don't have an answer, most of our time will be spent spinning our wheels to no end, pushing to get him back out ASAP. Might be worth putting in some cards to stop him from getting popped. I like Clear the Mind here because I do sometimes implode, just by decking out because I can't help but swing for the fences. I find it too hilarious, so it's in this section as protection from ourselves.
Circuitous Route
- Astral Cornucopia
+ The Locust God
- Sphere of the Suns
+ Laboratory Maniac
- Silverclad Ferocidons
+ Chasm Skulker
Astral Cornucopia is a cool card, but to be honest, having to invest so much into it never felt good. I always felt like I wanted to be spending my mana on something else. Maybe it'll go back in eventually, because having a shitload of mana in this deck is super important, but it always just felt too slow. At 3, it's a mediocre mana rock. At all mana after that, it's strictly worse than Gilded Lotus.
The Locust God has excellent synergy with every card in this deck, it could very easily be the commander. Having another, relevant way to reach victory seems crucial to me, as we rely so heavily on our commander otherwise.
Sphere of the suns is another kinda weak mana rock. You only ever get to tap it 3 times, and it costs 2, so how good is it, really?
Laboratory Maniac is another excellent way to win the game, and potentially very funny. It feels like it might be pretty difficult to pull off, but I still think it's a worthy include.
Silverclad Ferocidons are super slow, but can turn Niv triggers into extreme value. I feel like by the time it comes out, people's boards are so big, they don't mind losing some rocks or lands and just murdering Niv-Mizzet when their turn comes around.
Chasm Skulker is another scary creature with a draw trigger. This is probably better than Laboratory Maniac. It's pricier, but it doesn't mind discarding vs shuffling into library. With how many cards we draw, this will get out of hand very quickly.
A potential weakness I've identified in the base deck is the reliance on the Commander. You can get shut out of the whole game, simply by Niv-Mizzet getting blasted out of the water. Now, with Laboratory Maniac, The Locust God, and Chasm Skulker, I'm hoping to still threaten a win, or at least draw some heat off of Niv-Mizzet.
Artifacts and Enchantments
- Brain in a Jar
+ Credit Voucher
Credit Voucher feels too slow to me, but if I can cast it, it's nice to be able to get rid of some weaker cards from my hand, and you can wheel for 7 for 4 mana at sorcery speed, and keep value cards like counterspell or nizzium skin. I realize now that Brain in a Jar only lets you cast card with cmc equal to the number of counter, not less. I thought it was less than the number of counters. This makes it way less good.
I would love to find a way to draw, but also potentially generate some colored mana. I'm thinking about Izzet Keyrune again.
Future notes and potential issues
Mana
It is not lost on me that I have removed 2 mana rocks and included no additional mana sources. My hope is that my aggressive wheeling will make it so that I can reliably hit lands every turn, as well as still squeeze in casting additional mana rocks when possible. I find it valuable to keep up mana, just to feign having an instant. This makes it a difficult decision to spend my last two mana on a mana rock, or hold it to feign Negate or Counterspell.
Laboratory Maniac
I am also aware of the potential conflict in the Laboratory Maniac and Niv-Mizzet win cons. With Niv-Mizzet we need to wheel super hard without actually decking out. With Laboratory Maniac, we're gunning towards a deck out. Might not be that strong.
Potentially weak cards:
- Laboratory Maniac: With the consideration of adding Day's Undoing and potentially any other cards it could be end up missing a lot. If I end up running Enter the Infinite, then I could cast Enter the Infinite, drop Laboratory Maniac from the hand and cast a draw spell, instantly winning the game, even if drawing my library didn't kill everyone.
Potential Adds:
- Psychic Corrosion: Milling the whole table 14 every time we wheel? Might be OK, but I'm also shuffling the grave in on occasion. Might end up clashing, but it's worth considering.
- Talrand, Sky Summoner: This is a really cool card, but I'll be casting spells far less than I'll be drawing cards, so I think Chasm Skulker and The Locust God more deserve the spot.
- Hypersonic Dragon: I love to interact with the stack by wheeling repeatedly, and casting instants in between wheels. How convenient it would be if I could offload some of my sorceries as well.
- Day's Undoing: Definitely solid wheel and it hits the opponent's hands as well. I really like to wheel my opponents hands because it can act like a preemptive psuedo-disruption. They have to throw out all their plans and think of new stuff, but this can back fire. Here, generally they'll be drawing additional cards off of this, as their hands are probably less than 7. And we can't follow this up with anything like Molten Psyche. That being said, I have one in my collection and it looks cool.
- Enter the Infinite: I mean just read this card. Think of the damage. Think of the flavor text. We have to be very, very careful not to implode and deck out after casting this, as afterwards, if anyone is still alive, we will be able to cast just 1 sorcery or instant, so it better refill our library, unless we can Laboratory Maniac. Probably the most explosive end to the game, but a one-carder might go against the feel of the deck.
- Omniscience: Obviously incredible synergy with Enter the Infinite. Incredibly high mana cost means I expect to be tapping out for it and I don't know how likely it is to untap with it. Very fun, timmy card though.
- High Tide: Could be very strong for an explosive turn. Very ridiculous if we can copy it. Will we have enough islands to hit with this for it to be worth a slot? Like Mana Geyser but a little harder to use. Can be fetched with Dizzy Spell.
- Turnabout: Great synergy with High Tide. Another explosive turn card. Insane if we can copy it. Offers a lot of versatility in that we can tap down someone's lands or creatures if we need to. Note it misses the mana rocks.
- Snap: Really only considering if we have High Tide. We only have one Karoo land so this generating mana is unlikely unless we can copy it, but that might still be good enough to run. Relevant, cheap interaction otherwise, we can hopefully wheel away bounced threats.
Wish List:
- Alhammarret's Archive: It's definitely slow, and we're not using the life gain portion, but notice that we are DRAWING two cards. That means each draw trigger hits twice while this baby is out.
- Doubling Cube: Mo' mana, mo' problems. Problems like, "How many people can I kill this turn?" and "Will I accidentally deck out before I blow this game sky high?" My kind of problems.
