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First, some background about the story of how I came to play Mizzix.Mizzix is currently my all-time favorite commander. I have been an Izzet mage for a very long time, starting out with a Melek, Izzet Paragon EDH deck which was a pile of blue red janky spells, what I could afford and very casual. I then transitioned to a Keranos, God of Storms deck, tuning the list to be more of a control deck that had a few cool combos up its sleeves but remained a slow, unfocused and, ultimately, boring build. When Mizzix was spoiled I was disappointed at first, because I was desperately hoping for a UR Artificer legend. I really wanted Mizzium Transreliquat to be good in a deck I build (This was fixed in late 2016 with Breya being spoiled. See my Breya EDH: Assembling Victory deck.)

After some thinking, I began to warm up to Mizzix and bought the precon when it became available. Very quickly I realised that this is what I was looking for in terms of my personal playstyle. At the time, I was playing UR Storm in modern and TES in Legacy. I love casting spells. A lot. Its an addiction. I forgot that combat was a part of the game.

With Mizzix, I realised my inner Johnny could finally play all those cool swingy spells that cost a lot and looked awesome but were just a tad too expensive for cheap. I began to brew and brew (surprisingly, Ive only actually net decked towards the end of the list and did come up with most of the card choices myself.) with Mizzix until I came to a comfortable spot with it where it is now.

I guess this is where I convince YOU to play the great and wonderful Mizzix of the Izmagnus as your General.

First and foremost, you should say yes to most of the following:

  1. You love casting a lot of spells.
  2. Combat isnt that interesting and turning creatures sideways is boring.
  3. You are ok with being the bad guy at the table.
  4. You like solving puzzles and doing math.

and are fine with the following:

  1. Depending on your commander.
  2. Infinite and non-infinite combos.
  3. The color blue.
  4. Making tough desicions every single turn.

If that all checks out, then let's talk shop!

Mizzix is an interesting commander.

She is an enabler, and in a vacuum, doesn't do much. She is very dependant on what you surround her with, which means there are a lot of ways to build her. I've seen pure chaos, pure control, pure combo and even goblin aggro before with her at the helm. Because of her interaction with instants and sorceries it should be fairly obvious that a deck with her at the helm will be 40-55% instants and sorceries. You want a wide array of costs to be able to trigger her gaining experience for you and you want the spells you cast to actually do things that impact the game.

The way I built my deck, it is a combo oriented version, but it is fairly controlling as well, with ample removal and answers to my opponents' threats. I do not need to go infinite with a combo to win, as I can out value my opponents using tonnes of value spells and swingy effects.

I'm not going to list each card, as there are a lot of them, particularly in the card draw section, that are there for redundancy and setup. I will focus on cards that I think need highlighting in the list, which sometimes means all of a section and sometimes means a select few. If you have specific questions regarding a particular choice, feel free to ask in the comments below, and I will reply, usually within the hour.

Ok, ok, this wasn't a category that I have in the decklist, but there are some cards that are too good and need a special emphasis on how important they are. I will recommend them to every single person that is beginning to build a Mizzix deck as I think they are necessary. These cards are good regardless of whether you are building a more controlling or combo heavy version as they all work specifically well with Mizzix but are also good on their own.
  • Tezzeret's Gambit: Hands down one of the most impactful cards in the deck. A game where you resolve this at least once after gaining at least one experience counter or if it's the first spell that Mizzix registers will usually be a game you get ahead very fast in. I have often spent Snapcaster Mage and card:Mystical Retreival to just recast this to get some advantage. Proliferating experience and drawing cards for effectively free late game is insanely powerful.
  • Whispers of the Muse: With Mizzix out and 5 experience/cost reduction effects going, this means you have the ability to pay any amount of blue mana to draw an equal amount of cards. There is literally no reason not to play this card. Ok, fine, unless someone actualyl does play Chalice of the Void at your table and sets it at 1 and makes this a dead card.
  • Frantic Search: Draws, discards, UNTAPS THREE LANDS. Early on it filters through some cards for you and lets you cast an additional spell for the turn. Late game it will cost a single blue to cast and untap three lands, netting you mana to cast a significant amount more for the turn.
  • Time Spiral: Read above. Then add on: "DRAWS SEVEN CARDS" and replace "THREE" with "SIX!!!!". With cost reduction of 4, this card nets 4 mana and draws us 7 new cards, maybe even some we've cast already and would love to see again. Also, very funny to cast after a Cyclonic Rift. The tears will be endless.
  • Mystic Retrieval: Returns what you need to your hand. For a low cost. With Mizzix out, this will cost one mana, usually both times (and you cast it both times that same turn usually). You get a counterspell, a time warp, a win con, a tutor, a combo piece, whatever. This card is super utility and has flashback to boot.
  • Scour from Existence: Answers. Everything. Boseiju pissing you off? Scour that tree. Irritating enchantment that is locking you down? Erase its very existence. This card reads "Exile target permanent." and is 7 colorless mana, which means it can be cast for free if you have enough cost reducing effects and/or experience.
If there is one thing that Mizzix loves, it's casting spells. But first we need some spells to cast and for that, we need a lot of card draw. This category is full of cards that draw, well, more cards. They vary in cost specifically for the purpose of enabling Mizzix. Some notable cards are:
  • Deep Analysis: This card is good. If Mizzix is active and you have some experience already, this reads UU pay 3 life, draw 4 cards. That seems pretty good. If Mizzix isn't active, you are still drawing cards which is never bad.
  • Izzet Charm: Throughout the decklist, there are some modal cards that I will only mention once in the category I utilise them in the most. Izzet signet is a Faithless Looting, Spell Pierce and Dead all in one. Sure, it costs two mana, but that's the cost of utility.
  • Pieces of the Puzzle: Puts cards into your hand (most likely, I've whiffed once. Once.) and the graveyard, both places where Mizzix loves her spells. This usually does draw 2 cards.
  • Commune with Lava: Believe me when I tell you, this card is nuts. Notice the words "Until the end of your next turn, you may play those cards." This means you can cast it at the end of your opponent's turn and have an additional X cards to work with on your turn. You don't even have to cast them so you can play a land from among them if you hit a utility land that is useful at the time like Reliquary Tower or card:Riptide Labarotory. It also effectively draws you your entire deck when you are comboing off with infinite mana. (we'll talk about that later.
  • Day's Undoing: Because Cyclonic Rift is a good card and casting this after an end step Rift makes everyone cry. In all honesty, this should be a Wheel of Fortune or Windfall, but mine is in another deck and I hate shifting cards around.
  • Treasure Cruise: Banned in Modern, Legacy AND is restricted in Vintage. This card is also decent in EDH. Draw 3 for U is good.
  • Counters are good. They protect our combo and they protect our commander. One thing I often encounter is people misusing, or at the very least misinterpreting the value of, counterspells in EDH. So, before I talk about the choices in this deck regarding counterspell selection, let's talk about what I believe is the proper use of a counterspell in EDH.

    (If you don't care what I think, skip ahead.)

    All decks have a game plan. They have a particular set of goals to achieve throughout the duration of the game. Primarily, I divide a game of EDH by stages in turns. Most decks, including this one, have cards that are in the deck, solely to jump start my game plan and help me get going. To provide an example: Reanimator based strategies like Alesha, Karador and Sheoldred all spend the first few turns filling their graveyards and then begin to reanimate them later on using other spells. To accomplish this, they have, what I call, a setup spell (eg. Buried Alive or Entomb, and then, later on, a payoff spell (eg. Animate Dead or Reanimate). Here is how I, personally define a setup spell vs. a payoff spell as well as the category other spells fall under.
    • Setup: This card enables something big to happen later on that is being cast to setup that particular something and doesn't actually affect me in a significant way. Cards by general category that fall under the setup umbrella to give you an idea: Ramp, Tutors and Card Draw.
    • Payoff: This card is being cast to take advantage of a previously cast setup spell that will take advantage of the setup and usually affect either the board or myself directly in a way that must be evaluated for threat level. Cards by general category that fall under the payoff umbrella to give you an idea: Combos, Reanimation, Big creatures from ramp.
    • Powerplay: There are some spells that don't need setup and aren't necessarily a payoff, they are simply powerful cards that demand an answer. Now, the relative threat of these cards is gauged differently depending on what else is going on. Cards by general category that fall under the powerplay umbrella to give you an idea: Removal, Specific Hate, Big dumb beatsticks, Counterspells.

    These three categories can be seen in most decks. Lots of decks run tutors, ramp spells and card draw all of which are in the deck to setup their payoff spells that actually impact the board and further their game plan to win. You want to be countering payoff spells and powerplay spells, 95.3% of the time. Sometimes there are corner cases where countering setup spells is relevant to prevent losing on the spot. The important part, especially for Mizzix, is knowing what powerplay and payoff spells to counter. Now, heres a brief questionnaire to ask yourself when your opponent casts what you deem worthy of being called a payoff or powerplay spell to decide whether or not to counterspell:

    • Does this kill Mizzix?
    • Does this affect my board state in a significant enough way long term?
    • Will this end the game before I can either end the game or answer it in another manner?
    • Does this further my opponents game plan along too much?
    • Will this destabilize me enough to slow me down by more than a turn or two?
    • Does this affect me directly and no one else at the table? (in a multiplayer game, everyone should have powerplays to answer a significant enough payoff or powerplay that they will band together to fight the primary aggressor if their play is affecting too many people.)

    If you answered yes to more than one question, then yes you probably should counter it. (If you answered yes to the first question, super yes. Protect Mizzix. She is the heart of your deck. Unless you have another way to get her into play or protect her.) Its not about countering all the spells and being evil-counterspell-blue-player.dec its honestly about answering what needs to be answered. Dont counter the Boundless Realms, counter the Avenger of Zendikar that is coming up right after it. (although, actually, Boundless Realms is one of the few ramp setup spells that I would counter. Sometimes setup spells do put your opponent waaaaaay too far ahead, and those fall into the 4.7% category of setup spells that you do counter.)

    I feel like Im rambling at this point but the TL;DR is:Dont counter the tutor, counter what they tutored for.

    Alright, here's reasoning behind some of my choices:

    • Disdainful Stroke: "Konstantin, why would you run a spell that only counters CMC 4 or greater? That's so restrictive!" Yes. CMC 4 and greater is quite a restriction. However, as per my philosophy on counterspells, most payoff spells or powerplays ARE CMC 4 or greater. Also, Commanders. Commanders are often times CMC 4 and greater. Stroking a commander is great.
    • Commandeer: Pet card. Love this card. Card is great. Oh you want a Sorin, Grim Nemesis to resolve? Nah, I'll steal that and start drawing some cards. Stealing planeswalkers and other powerplays is SO WORTH IT. Fun fact: I have Commandeered an opponent's Reanimate to animate their Necrotic Ooze after they set up the combo on turn 2. They had an incredibly explosive turn 1, and I realised exactly what they were going for. Exiling two blue cards is costly, but sometimes it is worth it. If only to see your opponent re-read the card four times.
    • Spell Burst: Buyback on the spell? Into Mizzix it goes. In all honesty, the spell is good. Once you get going, Spell Burst really saves you. Being an X spell also certainly helps.
    • Mystic Confluence: This card fits in a couple of places but let us discuss it here. It is a soft counter, but it has modes and you can multi-pick. I like options. Being able to choose the modes is awesome and sometimes this just draws three cards while others, it counters a spell and bounces a creature AND draws a card. Value!
    • Pact of Negation: Sometimes you tap out and someone plays something too scary to let resolve and the Pact must be paid. Rarely do I want to cast it, but this is a card you play when you NEED to.
    • Time Stop: 6 CMC, costs 2 to cast with reduction effects, and answers almost anything. Also, quite rude to do on an opponent's upkeep. Basically a time walk at that point.
    • Arcane Denial: This card is so close to just being a staple card, but it honestly is just a staple in any blue deck so I didn't single it out. This is a counterspell that replaces itself for you and lets your opponent draw 2 cards. Yes, our deck likes to draw cards. Yes, letting your opponent draw more cards is sad. BUT. Letting them draw 2 random cards from their deck is usually a lot better than letting whatever it is you countered resolve, be it removal for Mizzix or something like Rule of Law that hurts you bad.
    • Force of Will: Um. It's a card that exists? (CMC 5 even if you pitch a blue card which is relevant to Mizz the whiz)
    • Counterspell: General use counterspell slot. This can be Mana Drain, Swan Song, OG Counterspell, whatever. I simply like having 10 counters. That makes 1/10th of my deck counterspells which is nice, and sometimes overkill, but nice.
    So, Mizzix actually falls under this category. This is quite an important category for the deck's intended function as our goal is to take advantage of expensive spells and cast them at significant discounts. If you need a brief understanding of how cost reduction works in regards to this deck, click below for a quick breakdown.
    Cost reduction is a hell of a thing. The way magic works: The total cost of a spell = mana cost or alternative cost + additional costs + cost increases + cost reducers + Trinisphere, in that order specifically. Trinisphere is the last to apply. Why? Because Trinisphere. Not very important as not many decklists will be running one in EDH (normally) so don't worry about it. The relevant part, is that the cost reduction effects come up at the end of it all. That means that alternative (overload/flashbacl), additional (kicker/multikicker) and cost increases (Thalia/Lodestone Golem) are all discounted! Yay!

    Things that are reduced by the following cost reduction effects:

    • Flashback costs
    • Overload costs
    • Buyback costs
    • Thalia/Lodestone/Thorn of Amethyst punisher costs
    • X costs

    Things that are not reduced by the following cost reduction effects:

    • Trinisphere Tax

    Now, in regards to the cards we are running for cost reduction:

    • Baral, Chief of Compliance: Goblin Electromancer but only costs blue and has a nifty little ability to loot cards whenever we counter a spell. With 10 counterspells in the list, we'll probably loot at least once maybe twice with this guy which is fine. Nice added utility to an already decent cost reduction.
    • Goblin Electromancer: Technically, Baral was supposed to replace this little guy, but I can't let Mizzix be the only Goblin Wizard. Also, redundancy. Shut up and let me justify running him with bad reasoning.
    • Jace's Sanctum: Yeah, 4 mana enchantment is expensive, but setting up early cost reduction before dumping Mizzix lets you keep up more expensive counterspells to protect her landing and surviving. Also, 52 cards in the deck trigger the scry, and with a number of cantrips in the list, adding a scry to every card draw effect is superb.
    • Mizzix of the Izmagnus: The commander herself. She is awesome. There are quite a few fun tricks you can do with her, the most simple of them being responding to her own experience counter triggers with other spells of the same cost. Scenario: Mizzix is out, you have ample amounts of mana and 0 experience. Cast Ponder. Mizzix triggers to give you an experience counter. In response to her trigger, cast Brainstorm. Because you are responding to her trigger to get you that first experience counter, her second ability that gives you an experience counter will trigger again, thus ending up with you having 2 experience counters. This is very important to know in the early stages of the game as it allows some quick build up of experience for later advantages.
    Removal is important. Sometimes you have to let something resolve but you don't want it to stick around for long. That's what these cards are here for. Let's talk about some of them.
    • Temporal Fissure: Often times, you can get to storm count 5, cast this and bounce all of your opponent's lands. Crude, but effective. As far as Storm spells go, it isn't super broken, but it is quite vexing for your opponents to deal with having all their lands bounced, while you get ahead in the game. You can also bounce other things, I just tend to target lands.
    • Cyclonic Rift: Are we a blue deck? Yes. Then we play this card. OH and the overload gets reduced by Mizzix so sometimes this costs a single blue to cast. Value!
    • Pendrell Mists: So, honestly, it shocks me that not many people know this card exists. Sure, it isn't The Abyss or anything like that, but a Tabernacle on an enchantment really hoses those creature/token heavy decks that we sometimes struggle against. Mizzix is honestly the only creature we need on the battlefield, so we only pay a tax of 1 mana each turn. A reasonable cost.
    • Capsize: Removal with buyback. Done.
    • Fateful Showdown: This is a recent addition to the list. A wheel effect and a burn spell stapled to each other is pretty nifty. Honestly, this fits better in the Value spells as usually this just wins the game after being cast. Pitching a bunch of lands or useless spells to draw a variety of new ones is always nice.
    • Prophetic Bolt: Card is cool. Deal 4 to something and then Impulse. Reasonable and decently costed.
    Yes, this is a bunch of categories mashed together, but that's because they tend to all be value cards and some have particular similarities that in the decklist I figured I would emphasis, but here I would discuss them all together. Also, making categories is fun and shows you how I think. (hint: I don't. Everything is chaos. Anarchy rules my mind)

    Anyways, onto card-by-card:

    • Guttersnipe: You sometimes do just win from casting enough spells that this little guy's burn becomes a real threat to your opponent's and if they don't answer him he'll wipe the floor with them. Play a Counterspell? Shock every opponent. Whispers of the Muse becomes: pay one blue, draw a card and shock each opponent. Solid dude. Only one thing disappointing about him: HE'S NOT A GOD DAMN WIZARD. I could almost justify running Cavern of Souls... This upsets me greatly. Here's a petition to WotC to get this travesty fixed. Please sign and assist me.
    • Laboratory Maniac: Hey, sometimes you just draw the entire deck. He's just useful.
    • Past in Flames: This card makes me happy. With Mizzix out, this will usually herald the end of the game, or at least set you up to win the following turn. 10/10 would burn a house down again.
    • Inner Fire: You should normally have between 5 and 12 cards in hand. This will usually net you enough mana on the turn you go off that all your lands can be used to tap for blue mana and not worry about red anymore. It also can be used as the extra push to get a big X cost spell off early on. Just a value card.
    • Rise from the Tides: Pet card. I'm kind of a Grixis mage, although the black is a splash in my personality. Running this card to justify calling this a Grixis deck because black zombie tokens. Also, while yes I do despise combat, usually this will generate enough tokens where a single combat step is enough to clean the table. Your graveyard fills up fast and this is soem simple payoff that also costs very little late game and gives you some chump blockers at the worst. (yes, I know they enter tapped)
    • Part the Waterveil: Time Walk that can make a creature. Sure. Tends to be better than running Temporal Manipulation in my opinion because it gives you the option of making a beatstick. Sure, it costs 1 mana more but we're playing Mizzix.
    • Beacon of Tomorrows: Repeatable time walk effect. Sure. Why not. Costs a helluva lot cheaper with Mizzix in play too, which = VALUE.
    • Mizzix's Mastery: Again, bit of a pet card. This card is weird. It can card:Snapcaster something or when overloaded, go nuclear mode. It's a weird card because you do cast all those cards but you have to be careful about filling up your graveyard and how much you dedicate to this plan. It's sort of a one trick pony because unlike Past in Flames, this exiles EVERYTHING, even stuff you end up not casting (it is a may), so bear in mind that this is over-commitment 101. However, because you cast all those copies, Guttersnipe, Temporal Fissure and Ignite Memories are very happy. Speaking of which...
    • Ignite Memories: This card is one of two cards in the deck with the actual keyword Storm. Ignite Memories requires a LOT of storm count to do enough damage to kill someone, but it is a ton of fun resolving each one individually. Bit of a pet card.
    • Blue Sun's Zenith: Infinite mana = win game. Just a good card.
    • Mystical Tutor: 52 targets for this card in the deck. You run the stupid card.

    THIS SECTION IS STILL UNDERGOING CONSTRUCTION
    This is how you actually win usually. My version of the deck runs a couple very simple and straight forward combos (straight and simple as far as UR combos are concerned) that usually will win you the game on the spot if you resolve them and this is the most effective and easy to set up. As the name implies it focuses on the card Firemind's Foresight, a very specific tutor. Below is a breakdown of how the tutor works and then a card by card breakdown of the combos it sets up.

    Firemind's Foresight tutors exclusively for three instants of converted mana costs 1, 2 and 3. This means that it gets us three cards to work with, and being an instant speed tutor, there are definitely combinatiosn that just win you the game on the spot. However, that is not all it gets in the deck.
    Not going to talk about a lot of the fixing as it is self explanatory, but the utility lands are important to talk about.
    • Riptide Laboratory: This protects all the creatures in the deck EXCEPT for Guttersnipe. Keeping the mana open on an opponent's turn should be simple as the majority of the deck is instants, and bouncing Mizzix in response to a board wipe or removal spell is sometimes preferable to spending a counterspell.
    • Reliquary Tower: Yes, we are color intensive. But you want a LOT of cards in hand and this allows that.
    • Command Beacon: We want Mizzix out. Sometimes you fail to protect her enough and need to get her out for cheap. Command Beacon puts her into your hand and allows you to bypass the commander tax. This card is VERY useful SOMETIMES. You will often consider taking it out because it did nothing in a game, but I assure you there will come a time when this card saves you the game.
    THIS SECTION IS STILL UNDERGOING CONSTRUCTION

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    Updates Add

    I realized as I was discussing with some people how the deck is built that I had neglected to explain in this primer that this is not the optimal list yet and I'm working towards finishing it off within the next few months. All my mana rocks were put into Breya as I was working on her and I am rewriting parts of the list to show the actual optimal list I would like to play, and not what I currently have sleeved up.

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    Revision 4 See all

    (3 years ago)

    Top Ranked
    • Achieved #2 position overall 7 years ago
    Date added 7 years
    Last updated 3 years
    Legality

    This deck is not Commander / EDH legal.

    Rarity (main - side)

    12 - 2 Mythic Rares

    39 - 0 Rares

    13 - 1 Uncommons

    20 - 0 Commons

    Cards 100
    Avg. CMC 3.22
    Tokens Construct */* C, Experience Token, Spirit 1/1 C, Zombie 2/2 B
    Folders edh, Cool Decks, $1000+ decks, EDH Izzet, Deck ideas, Deck Ideas, Commander, fav edh, other, Random Commander Decks
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