Looking pretty solid. I am curious about the effectiveness of Magma Jet on the sideboard, though. Would Essence Scatter be a consideration in its place?

@GureiSeion Well, Magma Jet comes in against RDW and Agro. It will kill most things like Rakdos Cackler , Fanatic of Mogis and Gore-House Chainwalker , and I would rather kill something and get to scry 2 than counter it and not get any scry out of the deal, and it also comes in against any Superfriends decks I play. The main issue I have problems with is killing Planeswalkers if I don't counter them, so I bring both Magma Jet and Lightning Strike in in the place of the creature removal. My mainboard can answer most decks, except for Superfriends so I have to redirect damage to them if I don't have AEtherling on board yet.

@corythackston ~ Very sound reasoning. How's Curse of the Swine working? With all the mainboard wipes it looks pretty sweet.

How have the Sphinxes been working out? I've considered testing one out, before, but haven't gotten to it yet. How does your hand look by the time it's in play? (discard fodder-wise)

@GureiSeion Against things like Gruul and mono-green Curse of the Swine is pretty much my best friend. The ability to take the massive creatures that Gruul puts out and replace them with much more manageable creatures is really important. It also gives me an answer to something like Desecration Demon which is out of the range of most of my burn spells. Casting that, then Anger of the Gods can really shut down a lot of decks.

The Sphinxes are okay, they allow me to dig for AEtherling or anything else I need, and they protect themselves pretty well. I've been thinking about subbing in Hypersonic Dragon instead, that way I can do everything on their turn, but the jury is still out on that. I do like that it comes in and immediately punches my opponent in the face, which can be the difference in some games. Might just put 2 on the sideboard at least.

And as far as my hand at that point, it really depends how the game has went. Once I get about 6 lands in play I usually keep a couple, both to bluff my opponent with and to discard to protect him.

I like the idea of having frostburn weird and anger, and also the 4 Cyclonic Rift +1

Thanks!

I'd say one Mizzium Mortars to the SB and drop a land. It's a pretty solid deck, i had a had time trying to decide on it but i think that may be your best bet.

Mkay, I've been thinking about dropping a Mortars, but having 25 land is really nice in a control deck. Some pro decks use 26 land even. Thanks for the suggestion! I'll be trying out all the suggestions when I get out of college for Thanksgiving break

I would suggest drop a land for another spell, and drop Niv Mizzet (dude, really, curve 6?) for another Stormbreath.

Otherwise, +1 for me.

you get a definite +1 from me for defending Ral Zarek sweetest planewalker ever!!!! plus nice deck trying to run a similar deck to piss off people at my fmn's

@jsansoldo Thanks! I've been considering taking him out for a while, I'll playtest without him and see.

@manajunky Thanks! Send me the link once you get it posted.

@jsansoldo --- but Isn't Niv-Mizzet supposed to be in Izzet? (pun intended)

=D lol

Have you thought about Thoughtflare vs Oppterunity? Yes you discard 2 but it is one less to cast and is also an instant.

Yeah, the thing is Thoughtflare when it comes down to it is just a draw 2 for 5. The reason Opportunity is in the sideboard is to keep up with Sphinx's Revelation . If you cast Sphinx's for 6 you draw 3 cards, but for the same manna Opportunity lets you draw one more (I know it's still not as good, but it's what I have to work with). So really, Opportunity lets me keep twice as much in hand for control matchups which is when it mostly comes out. Thanks for the suggestion though!

I have to ask why are you so counter light? Most Izzet decks run 8-10 and you only have 5.

Yeah I ask myself the same thing sometimes, but it really is just easier to kill things most of the time than to counter them. However, I have been thinking about adding more, I just don't see a lot of room to take anything out. I'm open to suggestions though

Hey vote for main too.

i myself think that izzet is meant to be beatdown, not control.

I really have never seen a decent Izzet beatdown deck, and I was trying to build one for a long time. The only ones there are revolve around Nivix Cyclops and stuff, but its so hard to get enough spells to trigger the guys to get a lot of damage in and still have enough creatures to replace them when they die. Most izzet stuff revolves around casting instants and sorceries, so it would be really hard to justify it being beatdown colors. Gruul and Simic are the more traditional beatdown colors.

Cool approach. +1. Nice tweak with Frostburn Weird sideboarding with Chimera. What about Inspiration over Divination ? Quicken always ends up sucking on my Izzet attempts although Mizzium Mortars and Anger of the Gods could make it work but still two cards for one effect is a huge downside.

Thank you!

The two-for-one effect is why Quicken includes the draw a card effect, that way you're replacing the quicken with another card off the top, and getting to do something on their turn that you wouldn't normally be able to do. Honestly about 70% of the time I do it I'm using it for the cheap dig on endstep.

The reason I run Divination over Inspiration is because most keepable hands have 3 land in them, and Divination lets me dig for my fourth land drop. In playtesting it just works out well, lol.

few little thoughts I had here:

• Why not drop Divination for Izzet Charm . Doing this still allows you to dig (but you'll be more looting now which is okay since the deck converts nicely to the chimera wincon) but you also get two more uses which are wicked good against aggro and control respectively. (IE burning out creatures or countering that sphinx's rev/god cards)

• Counterflux is something i can see either reducing or dropping in the sideboard as it is the weakest link. you are already packing one heck of a counter spell package in the mainboard. I don't see throwing another 3 in there making too much of a difference.
  

Honestly, I like Izzet Charm , but I hate discarding cards, and I can't ever pick what I need to drop. It's not that I don't think it's a good utility card, and I do own a playset, I just personally think the card isn't very competitive, as 2 damage isn't much, looting is inferior to drawing, and after one counter with it they'll learn that you have to leave some manna open to pay out of it if you have the manna open for it.

In matchups that use Sphinx's Revelation and Jace, Architect of Thought , they will probably have more counterspells in hand than me, so I won't win many counter-wars with UW control or something. Therefore, when something absolutely cannot resolve, I can cast Counterflux and automatically win the counter-war, as it cannot be countered.

Thank you though! I'll probably playtest the Divination/Izzet Charm tweak and see how it goes.