Ok, got the deck up on the site now. This is it Tempo Izzet let me know what you think. Like you I am now considering adding Quicken . I got a set of them but not sure how to add it yet. We'll see. I am also still on the ropes about doing a set of Divination or keeping it split 2 and 2 with Steam Augury . I'll test it some more to decide. Last things I'm still deciding on are the 4th Mizzium Mortars and at least one more Cyclonic Rift main deck.

change Dissolve or mix it up for Counterflux its a counter PERIOD. haha

TheAshenKnight this looks like a really in deck to play with. I built a more Aggro version that is called

I'll be competing in my FNM tonight with my version of this deck for the first time. (Which you helped with) I'll let you know how it goes and what I find out!

@k9terror - Sorry for the delay on commenting. I finally got around to it, though!

@PrestigePunk - I like Dissolve way too much to change it out for Counterflux . The latter is only good versus control, which is why I have it in the sideboard, but Dissolve 's scry ability makes it insanely good all the time, no matter what the matchup is.

@Jrjersey01 - Sorry for the delay to you as well! Hopefully the comments helped.

@zappin - Awesome! Good luck! I hope it goes well for you. I'm curious to know what you'd change afterward.

Before I went to FNM last night, I did change a bit, even though I haven't updated my deck on here yet.

I added more Mizzium Mortars , which was a very good thing. Aggressive decks were the hardest to take on, and the mortars gave me the much needed time to setup.

I put in 2 more Divination , totaling 4 in the deck. Another great choice. Card draw <3

I put 2 Counterflux in my sideboard for control matchups. I still like the scry from Dissolve , so I made sure to keep that in the deck.

I through in 2 Quicken for extra trickery with my Anger of the Gods and Mizzium Mortars. The card draw also helps. Although, I consider them weaker points in my deck, and will probably switch them out with Jace when I get my hands on those.

Check out all the changes: Izzet Control

Oh, and I ended up going 2-1. I won against Selesnya midrange and mono-green creature deck. I lost (barely) to a Dimir aggro deck.

Just to let you know Pithing Needle doesn't affect AEtherling whatsoever. All of it's abilities are mana abilities.

Fortunately for the Standard environment, none of its abilities are mana abilities. You pay mana to activate them, sure, but that's not what a mana ability is. Those are what produce mana. If you want to get technical, there are certain criteria it has to meet.

1. Mana Abilities

605.1. Some activated abilities and some triggered abilities are mana abilities, which are subject to special rules. Only abilities that meet either of the following two sets of criteria are mana abilities, regardless of what other effects they may generate or what timing restrictions (such as Activate this ability only any time you could cast an instant) they may have.

605.1a An activated ability is a mana ability if it meets three criteria: it doesnt have a target, it could put mana into a players mana pool when it resolves, and its not a loyalty ability. (See rule 606, Loyalty Abilities.)

605.1b A triggered ability without a target that triggers from activating a mana ability and could put mana into a players mana pool when it resolves is a mana ability.

None of AEtherling 's abilities meet all those criteria. Therefore, they're simply activated abilities, and Pithing Needle can stop all of them.

... I feel like a complete jerk citing the rules like that, especially since you probably have way more experience with Magic than I do, but I wanted to explain my response. Sorry about that. Regardless, thanks for posting. :)

TheAshenKnight Not at all, you knew more information than me. I was mistaken on what i believed a mana ability where as you knew correct no need to apologize. Also as to me having more experience with magic, i doubt it. I'm simply a 16 year old with a slight obsession with the game though i can't play as much as i like, haha.

I might try a playset of Turn / Burn . It is your only real answer to things like gods and anything bigger than a 4/4 without 2 for 1'ing or countering.

I do have a playset, but half of it is in the sideboard. That said, with the current meta, it'd probably be better to mainboard it, as you're definitely right. But then I need to take out something. If I were to do that, I'm thinking Magma Jet , and replacing the Turn / Burn s in the sideboard with them, and putting them back in against aggro.

... you know, that's a good idea. I'll go ahead and try it. Thanks!

How does this fair against other controls?

To be honest, I haven't played it a ton against other controls. That said, "not a ton" is a non-zero amount.

From what I have played, it has difficulties in the first game, as it doesn't have quite the card advantage that Azorius Control does due to the lack of Sphinx's Revelation . I used to run Opportunity instead, as if Sphinx's Revelation is cast for the same cost, we get one more card. However, for mainboard purposes, I found it to be much too slow and have a very restricting cost, so I phased them out for Jace. (I'm considering adding them back in the sideboard for this matchup.) It also has trouble dealing with Elspeth, Sun's Champion , since the best protection it has against planeswalkers is Pithing Needle . However, when she comes out, it's likely we have counters or an AEtherling to keep it down, and Anger of the Gods deals with the tokens quite nicely, even if she reaches her ult. We do have an advantage in terms of win conditions, though. Stormbreath Dragon absolutely wrecks Azorius Control if it resolves. It just dies immediately if it's Esper Control, but I haven't seen one of those in months. And even if it does die, we still have two copies of AEtherling in our deck and a Spellheart Chimera to boot. (Which I'm thinking about removing. This deck really doesn't need it, I don't think.)

Game two gets much better. We gain protection from planeswalkers with Pithing Needle and also get copies of Negate , and more importantly, Counterflux That gives us a guaranteed counter for something of theirs. It doesn't guarantee we can get our stuff out safely, as they can just target whatever we have rather than our counter, but it buys us time to safely draw into more counters. Also, it might be all we need. If they're one of those hard control decks that runs a single copy of Elspeth, Sun's Champion and nothing else, we just win. At that point, we have 8 fully relevant counters, rather than 4, 2 of which are guaranteed. Also, since we gain Elixir of Immortality , we can potentially have more, and play an extremely long game, or with Jace, Memory Adept , we might not have to. Plus, if we can mill their Elixir or win condition, then it's very likely we'll win, while we're still running 4, so losing one of ours doesn't hurt us too badly.

Overall, I'd say it's a fairly even matchup. Game one is in their favor, but I'd say games two and three tilt toward ours. Like I said, I haven't played much against control (because no one else has a control deck where I normally play, mostly.), so take that with a grain of salt, but what I have played with, it tends to do pretty well. The multiple win conditions help drastically.

Have you considered Prognostic Sphinx ? It's a pretty good win condition if you have any kind of card advantage at all, since your cards double as counter spells to protect it.

Izzet Charm is a great overall early answer to most of your problems. Kill something, counter something, or set your hand up. I run no more than 2 because it's not that great late game. Magma Jet has a similar effect.

Why take Opportunity out completely? I'd say just run 2. This way you won't be drawing multiple copies early and you're bound to get one eventually through Jace, Architect of Thought and Divination . The card advantage from it is too good to pass up.

You're running lots of counterspells mainboard, but no bounce. This is just my personal preference, but I always run bounce when I'm playing blue without general permanent removal. Enchantments and Planeswalkers can get you down since you don't have hard answers to them, so why not bounce them and counter them on the way back in? Disperse and Cyclonic Rift are good for this, and help ward off early aggression if you need to.

I'm not sure how I feel about 2 AEtherling 's mainboard. It's a 6 drop, but it's really an 8 drop, and really a 10-11 drop if you think they have counterspells. AEtherling should almost always win you the game with enough mana investment, you just gotta make sure you have resources to support it.

I've considered Prognostic Sphinx but I've never really liked it. It doesn't hit for a lot, and in my opinion, it's inferior to AEtherling in pretty much every way. The scry is amazing, but keeping it alive for long and not losing card advantage at the same time is difficult. I don't have a ton of card advantage, so I need what I get. That said, it's probably way better than I give it credit for. I'll try it out at some point to see how it goes, and then end up rereading this and shaking my head at my stupidity.

I used to run Izzet Charm , but I ended up ditching it. It's not a bad card by any means, but 98% of the time I ended up using its burn ability, and for that, Magma Jet is so much better. In a way, it combines its burn and draw/discard thing, except replaces the discard with scry. Plus, it's easier to cast. RU is really easy to get in this deck, but sometimes the colorless comes in handy. Rarely, but it does. As for the counter, I want to run it just for that, but I don't feel it has enough utility for me to do so. Like you said, late game, it's horrible. The deck that it'd be good against, Azorius Control, doesn't tap out against this deck. I never force them to. And late game, they're going to have that extra mana. It's not a completely dead card, since I can still use its third mode, but I'd rather have Magma Jet once again. I can hit them or a planeswalker, and still get draw setup without losing cards. I also don't get them immediately, but it's more useful in most cases.

I took Opportunity out because I needed card slots open for other stuff, namely Jace. However, early game, it's a dead card, but I suppose that's why you recommend only having 2. I really didn't want to get rid of it, but I wasn't sure what else I'd cut. If you have ideas on what to cut for it, please let me know. The only things that come to mind at the moment are Spellheart Chimera and possibly Quicken . (Or maybe I answered my own question?)

I've always been of the other preference. I love bounce, but for a while I was playing against a friend of mine with an absolutely punishing Boros aggro deck. I used to run Cyclonic Rift , but I ended up finding that it only delayed the inevitable, rather than helping solve my problem by just killing the creature. I ended replacing my last copy of it with Ratchet Bomb due to it being able to kill off permanents that were giving me trouble. (Albeit slowly.) Plus, I don't end up 2 for 1ing myself with Ratchet Bomb , as to deal with enchantments and such, I need a counter in addition to the bounce. (and it's rare for him to have enough for me to overload Cyclonic Rift .) However, with the current standard environment, it's probably a good idea for me to run Cyclonic Rift . (Disperse doesn't really seem to offer any benefits in here. It only protects a few things, but I can see why I'd want to run it over Cyclonic Rift . I may want to try both.) But once again, my problem is figuring out what to cut for it. Perhaps a copy of Turn / Burn ?

In most cases, I agree that it's a bit overboard, but I've more than once played an AEtherling (I don't know if this was due to a misplay on my part or sheer bad luck.) that died, even with me leaving mana open. (I once had someone play 3 removal spells on it in a row to kill it.) I took a copy out at one point, but quickly put it back in because of this. It is a bit much, but when it's my biggest win condition, I need to protect it, or at least have a backup. Also, to me, the fact that they might have counters is a good reason to run more than one. In control, I usually lose counter wars, and having a second AEtherling helps tremendously. This might be a flawed thought process, but that's how I rationalized it.

I could just be stubborn, but that's my thought process on those. Thank you for helping!

TheAshenKnight i'm personally an izzet guy at heart, but I do run UW control simply because I have most of the cards. And have you thought about running Skullcrack ? The card can stop MBD's Grey Merchant and Sphinx's Rev cold in their tracks

I haven't really thought about it, no. I've always seen Skullcrack as an offensive card. The problem with Grey Merchant of Asphodel and Sphinx's Revelation isn't the life they gain. I'm fine with that. It delays the game longer, but in a control deck, that usually doesn't matter. The issue with them is the life we lose and the cards they gain respectively. Skullcrack doesn't stop either of those things. I can see how it'd be helpful in MBD matchups since they're losing so much life to things like Underworld Connections , but it's next to useless in every other matchup. Lightning Strike just has so much more utility, even in MBD because it's another burn spell to take care of whatever they get out. If Skullcrack could also hit creatures, then I'd run it, but as it is, it's not useful enough, at least in my opinion. Or, if this were an aggro deck, or like most other Izzet decks right now, I'd also run it, but as it is, I don't see why I'd want to, really.

Wonderful deck, love it. +1 for me. Was thinking about Searing Blood , thinkin it might be a decent addition. Thoughts?

Thank you!

As for Searing Blood , like Skullcrack , I find it to be a more offensive card. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but Magma Jet also does 2 damage, and it benefits this deck much more than Searing Blood . The scry 2 is incredibly helpful, and the ability to target a player can come in more handy than you'd think. (It allows you to hit planeswalkers, or just get a scry, even when there's nothing on the board.) Plus, early game, when that 2 damage matters much more, we're not putting on enough pressure to justify running Searing Blood over Magma Jet for the 3 damage to the opponent. In an aggro deck, Searing Blood probably has a ton of potential, and I'm curious to see how much people use it, but in this deck, it doesn't work as well. Plus, the RR cost makes it harder to cast.

Makes a lot of sense, actually. That's probably one aspect that's always been a bit dodgy for me is 'assigning' damage to a planeswalker via a spell.

I have taken this deck on MTGO and tweaked it with Ral Zarek as my planeswalkers instead of Jace, Architect of Thought . Removed Burn + Turn and added Magma Jet and removed Ratchet Bomb replacing it with Elixir of Immortality . I have also added Mercurial Chemister which is a great combo with Ral Zarek . Lately I've only been playing casually but have beaten virtually every kind of deck. This deck is great when you make the right adjustments, not saying it's not good as is but for me making the changes really improved the game play. Especially when you get AEtherling and use the -7 ability from Ral Zarek , pretty much game over if you can get 3 good flips.

I agree with some of that, but not all of it. I definitely understand the Magma Jet thing. It's an absolutely amazing card, and I find I board it in more often than not. I wouldn't remove Turn / Burn entirely probably ever, because if this deck misses countering something big, then that's the only real answer because it doesn't have Supreme Verdict or Detention Sphere . However, I'm thinking of boarding out two copies to put in the sideboard and replacing them with Magma Jet .

I'm not really sure about everything else, though. Jace, Architect of Thought is absolutely amazing, and provides a huge source of card advantage, something this deck really needs. I used to have Ral Zarek in this, but I just didn't like him that much. My reasoning on putting in Jace in his place was in one of my updates in December. Also, I don't like Mercurial Chemister that much. His card draw ability is insane, but he's also a 5-drop, and easily killed by that removal spell they haven't used since there's nothing to use it on in game 1. He gets better in game 2 and 3, because they likely board most of it out, but he's still 5 mana, and won't get played until turn 7 at the earliest, the same turn both Stormbreath Dragon and AEtherling get played. He would work well with Ral, though. If you could keep them both alive, that's a ton of cards, but that's a big if. Also, the reason I run Ratchet Bomb mainboard is to get rid of threats I wouldn't otherwise be able to. Elixir really only helps if you're going against Boros Burn or Azorius Control.

Still, if your changes helped you, that's good. That's just my reasoning on why I don't run them.

Why no Cyclonic Rift ?

I always saw it as 2 for 1ing myself, when I'd much rather have 1 card that can deal with whatever my problem is... but it's much better than losing because of whatever it is. (Usually some huge creature or Whip of Erebos .) Really, you're right; I should have it in there.

But what would I replace it with? Perhaps Ratchet Bomb ?