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| La_Sin_Grail |
![]() Posted: Wed Mar 01, 2006 7:36 pm |
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Joined: 14 Aug 2005
Posts: 806
Location: Maryland
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--- description ---
This deck shows just how cheap cheap spells can be with the new U/R Guild, Izzet! Complete with matchup analysis and a card-by-card breakdown.
--- end description ---
Instant Izzet- U/R Board Control
From the moment I saw him, I loved gelectrode dearly. I’m sure most of you thought it should be a good card, but he wouldn’t ever get broken. He and Wee Dragonauts just did.
Instant Izzet- Decklist
8 Mountain
4 Steam Vents
8 Island
2 Shivan Reef
4 Reach Through Mists
4 Electrolyze
4 Compulsive Research
2 Shattering Spree
2 Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind
4 Volcanic Hammer
2 Izzet Signet
4 Shock
4 Wee Dragonauts
4 Gelectrode
4 Lava Spike
Sideboard- 2 shattering spree
4 Unnatural speed
4 Drift of Phantasms
1 Convolute
4 Mana Leak
This seems like Gelectrode, Wee Dragonauts and a lot of U/R instants. Actually, that’s pretty much what it is- carefully selected instants, of course, but still just a bunch of instants and a few sorceries.
Reach through mists- 1 for draw a card really means 1 for one burn and +2/0 to dragonauts. And draw a card, of course. These are incredible because you can topdeck another 1-2 mana spell with some success- there are twenty in the deck! That’s two burn split any way and +4/0 to dragonaut and the effect of the next card for two mana and one card.
Electrolyze- A complete card. This deals with tokens easily, mana accelerating creatures, and allows you to spread around a total of four burn instantly, any way you choose, and gives you a replacement card.
Compulsive Research- Once you throw down three or four lands, you won’t need very many more, so discarding is easy. Getting two more cards for so three mana is good, and casting a spell is always buff in this deck.
Shattering Spree- Use these against anybody playing signets, which is pretty much everybody. 1 for 1 cardkilling stops jitte or mana acceleration and gives you ping and buff.
Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind- This is just another method of dealing with decks that removaled your gelectrode after realizing they were annoying. Now they get to take that same ping, only more from tapping and compulsive research and less from shock and lava spike.
Volcanic Hammer- 2 for three damage to creature or player is good. The fact that it also pings for another one and gives +2/0 helps, too. Meloku can be removed and I can still have an untapped gelectrode.
Izzet Signet- This tends to be used mostly for getting down a niv-mizzet. In addition, it allows you the option of preparing to throw down even more spells at once.
Shock- 1 for 2, instant, versatile. What more needs to be said? This deals with meloku when comboed with gelectrode, and can deal with flyers and weenies with ease.
Wee Dragonauts- One of the centerpieces of the deck. This guy makes playing cheap spells good. Very, very good.
Gelectrode- Weenie decks have no prayer with this hunk hanging around. Neither do tokens of ghazi-glare, for that matter.
Lava Spike- A triple headshot for one mana. This is the closest to lightning bolt as I can ever see wizards printing again. Lightning bolt is still played in legacy, so this can easily be played in standard.
Lands- No bouncelands because of the power of domain. Stealing a land is recoverable, but stealing two lands gives too big an advantage.
Sideboard-
Shattering Spree- Board these in against decks who play jitte or signet so you can be more sure of drawing one.
Unnatural speed- this is to be used against weenie decks, for playing a quick gelectrode. Also can be used with dragonaut in a few other spots, but sometimes you need the quick speed given by this cheap instant.
Drift of Phantasms- No, he’s not in there to be a wall, he’s there to transmute! Having no Gelectrode or Wee Dragonauts is a pretty easy way to lose, and removal can do that with ease. Now, they need even more board sweeping.
Convolute- Hurray counterspells! Now you can win against your only bad matchup- wildfires.
Mana Leak- Now you have more copies of ways to beat wildfires.
What isn’t there- Char and desperate ritual are the complaints I can already see coming. Here’s my reasoning for leaving them out. Drawing cards is so much better for the long haul. Putting in too many non-replacable cards means you’re counting on them not having any effect at all to stop the damage, which is almost pompous. By having draw, you allow yourself the security of knowing you can live to see tomorrow. Second rites isn’t here because of everybody and his brother playing pain lands- it turns into 4 for a damage, which really isn’t all that special. Also, once they’re to ten, they’re fading fast- usually one turn left. Playing compulsive research and shock instead means you actually have one more card, have two anywhere damage, and +4/0 to Mr. Dragonaut.
The true biggest omission here is izzet guildmage. I chose not to play him because in the end, he just costs too much mana. It turns out being better to Reach Through Mists three times than copy a shock, and having more instants frees up more room in the deck.
Notes:
1. Remember to ping at the end of their turn.
2. Protect your creatures! Burn off frostlings before you throw Gelectrode down and keep a counter handy against fires.
3. If you’re playing domain, save a counterspell when you can
4. Save spells turn 1/2 if you have enough land and a dragonaut/gelectrode
5. Nuke as much as you can as soon as you have dragonaut/gelectrode down
6. play the non-burn spells FIRST. This way, even if they kill your creatures, you have a chance to beat them down with fast headshots.
7. Control the board as much as you can. Don’t leave them extra permanents, especially tokens and artifacts when you don’t have to.
8. Don’t be afraid to blow up mana acceleration. Pinging or burning birds of paradise can buy you time to get our important cards down.
Matchups:
WwR- This is one of the best matchups you have. A turn three gelectrode kills off flyers, and with a turn four shock, you can take out three creatures in one blow. All you need to do is be careful they never get a jitted creature to deal damage, so save a burn spell in case. Wait until they enter declare attackers phase and kill the creature asap with shock, electrolyze, or gelectrode. Or a combination of them.
-2 Niv-Mizzet the Firemind
-2 Izzet Signet
-4 Compulsive Research
+4 Drift of Phantasms
+4 Unnatural Speed
Mizzet won’t be needed here- ping and burn should be able to clear off the board- so you won’t need the signets, either. Drift of Phantasms can be simple blocking or can transmute for whatever you need. Research is going to be a little slow for this matchup, but unnatural speed lets you play a hasted gelectrode and start pinging faster. Remember to hold off attacking as long as possible. Devouring light taking out a dragonaut can really hurt, and the longer the game goes, the better off you are. Should be a 70-30 solid matchup for you. Problems tend to occur on the unavoidable land problems as well as getting too much draw and not enough burn.
The Zoo (W/R/G Agro)- Although there are many variants of the zoo floating around, they all have a few unifying characteristics. First, they all play kird ape. Second, they all have many one drops, namely suntail hawk and lantern kami to compliment the apes. One drops are easily shot down by this deck, with the only problem being kird ape. Either wait for a dragonaut or volcanic hammer apes if they play a mountain before he starts hurting.
-2 Niv-Mizzet the Firemind
-2 Izzet Signet
-4 Compulsive Research
+4 Drift of Phantasms
+4 Unnatural Speed
Same sideboarding as the WwR because all of the same changes apply to agro decks. Once again, you’ll need to clear off their board as fast as you can with gelectrode and cheap burn spells and this match should be pretty easy. Playing defensively can really help- play a dragonaut when you can, and keep counters and burns for little mana available. Remember to grab two for one card advantage when you can by burning and getting free buff on dragonauts. About 65-35 matchup in your favor, but this too depends on the build. The more 1/1 flyers, the better your chances. The more hierarchs, the worse.
Emminent Domain- As of right now, this is the dominating force behind standard. As of right now, this deck has a shot at beating domain. The problems with domain are few, but are the following: 1) it relies on artifact mana (signets) and other alternate sources depending on build (Birds of Paradise) and 2) it plays wildfire. Of course, domain is meant to benefit from these strategies, but this deck is perfect for beating them. Assuming you each play a signet turn two, you get to blow up their signet and play a gelectrode or dragonaut turn three. Then, they are down a mana. If they played a bop instead, you can shock or hammer it, as well as gelectrode it. This means they shouldn’t get fires out before at least turn five (turn four they annex a land). By turn five, you should have dealt them a good ten or twelve damage. Even if they wildfire at that point, you have enough burn and draw into more burn that you should have the match under control.
-2 Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind
-4 Electrolyze
+2 Shattering Spree
+4 Mana Leak
Mizzets aren’t going to help much here- they tend to get killed by wildfire or be unplayable from too high mana cost because of fires. Electrolyze isn’t needed because there won’t be little creatures to deal with. Sprees are good to kill signets, and mana leak is good for tampering with wildfire or meloku. This should be a winnable matchup- approx 55-45 to 60-40 depending on the build of the domain.
Ghazi-Glare
This is a good matchup for you if their build has a lot of tokens. The builds with more watchwolf/isamaru type will be worse, but still winnable. Remember to ping them as much as you can as fast as you can and keep their men off the board. Use dragonaut defensively as much as possible because they tend to win if they have many creatures. Always remember to ping in response to being tapped, and keep playing spells with gelectrode. Gelectrode pinging will wear them out of creatures if all goes well, and you should be able to ping/pump them to death.
All builds:
-2 Shattering Spree
+2 Mana Leak
AND
Token Heavy Build:
-2 compulsive research
+2 Mana Leak
Few token build:
-4 electrolyze
+2 Mana Leak
+1 Convolute
+1 Unnatural Speed
Mana leaks will be useful for countering their glare, eliminating their win condition. Compulsive research will go for speed reasons in token heavy, and electrolyze won’t help much against watchwolves for the non-token decks. Where Electro kills two tokens and lets gelectrode take a third, killing only one watchwolf isn’t that special. Mana leaks also help against fetters, which can really hurt your dragonauts/gelectrodes. Token heavy 70-30, non-token heavy 60-40.
Genju Control
My genju control deck thrived on the fact that there was a decent amount of agro and few decks who could ping and have a lot of instant burn. This is absolutely the perfect matchup for Mr. Izzet. Red genjus are taken out by the electrolyzes like there’s no tomorrow, and the deck simply won’t run out of cards.
No sideboarding needed. 85-15. Yes, I know that the standard max ratio is 80-20, but even on mana screwed hands, this deck can function and stall. Shock, spike, hammer, reach, and signet tend to make most hands keepable.
B/W Control (inresponse)
This is one of those really, really annoying matchup where everything seems to stall and die. Ideally, you draw a hand of headshots etc. and you can make this a pretty short game. If you actually don’t play creatures, you’re better off. There’s no sense in letting them mortify something or fetter something, just dump out as many spikes, shocks, hammer, and electrolyzes as you can. And when you run out, play draw spells to get more.
-2 Niv-Mizzet
-2 Izzet Signet
+4 Mana Leak
Mana leak makes it almost worthwhile to play your creatures, and playing mizzet is just asking for a fetter of mortify, so he won’t be too useful. Plus, you’ll want to tap out to play mizzet, not wait too long to grab a counterspell. Signets won’t really do much good here, since mizzet is gone and you need to play as much burn as you can, as fast as you can. About 55-45 to 60-40 in your favor.
Dredge Deck (Build by Silver Sniper)
This dredge decck is good because of Savra and Woebringer Demon. All the other cards are nice dredgeables, but the ways this deck will put you through pain are with those two cards. The thing with this matchup is instant izzet can remove anything that’s burnable. So, Savra won’t last a turn on the board most of the time, and woebringer demon most likely won’t last until my first upkeep.
No sideboarding needed here, either. The only thing you need to do is burn off their creatures, so counters aren’t really a problem. Without golgari brownscale or flying removal beyond the imp, you can ping or dragonaut them for 20 without too much trouble. About a 65-35 matchup.
Ink-Treader Nephelim (The First)
This is one of those decks that is very situational. For example, if there are four creatures out and I shock the nephelim, I just gave the dragonaut +8/0. It seems to me that instant izzet is perfect anti-nephelim because I can do that or I can kill the nephelim with a hammer without any pain due to the very limited number of creatures in my deck. Also, electrolyze = draw so much it’s not funny and only one of the burn damage has to hit creatures I want to spare, with the rest going to headshot.
-2 Shattering Spree
-2 Compulsive Research
+4 Mana Leak
Mana Leak makes it so if I don’t want to let the nephelim deck play or find a nephelim, I don’t have to! Also, if I do have a creature down, it can save a massive lightning helix or other unwanted removal. Nephelim is a very good combo against creature heavy decks without much burn. Unfortunately for them, this is a burn heavy deck without many creatures. Should be a solid 80-20 match.
I’ve always had a mancrush on ping, and now it has a chance to be competitively thrown into effect. I completely agreed with some experts who say agro is coming back to standard, and this deck should be ready to meet it, greet it, and beat it.
Bernie Makino
bonzoees@aol.com
La_Sin_Grail |
| Last edited by La_Sin_Grail on Wed Mar 01, 2006 9:29 pm; edited 2 times in total |
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| Cobra |
![]() Posted: Wed Mar 01, 2006 7:37 pm |
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Joined: 12 Jul 2005
Posts: 1202
Location: Austin, TX, USA
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Had this one ready for a while, eh? 
Wee Dragonauts crack me up.  |
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| La_Sin_Grail |
![]() Posted: Wed Mar 01, 2006 7:48 pm |
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Joined: 14 Aug 2005
Posts: 806
Location: Maryland
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| yeah, wrote it last month. I liked it a lot better than the other deck so I almost canceled the other one... This is my fav deck I’ve published yet. |
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| Cobra |
![]() Posted: Wed Mar 01, 2006 8:33 pm |
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Joined: 12 Jul 2005
Posts: 1202
Location: Austin, TX, USA
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Yeah, I think it’s my favorite of yours too.  It certainly looks fun and would destroy the agro deck I’m using now. And of course, good strategy analysis as always.
I’m not convinced about Unnatural Speed... Surely there’s a stronger sideboard card? |
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| La_Sin_Grail |
![]() Posted: Wed Mar 01, 2006 9:08 pm |
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Joined: 14 Aug 2005
Posts: 806
Location: Maryland
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I know speed isn’t "good", but playing a turn two signet means speed comes down with a dragonaut if necessary, or a gelectrode. Also, one mana for a spell is just crazy! I’ve pulled some crazy stuff... once I got a hand that went turn four kill 
Turn one/two: land/land signet
Turn 3: Dragonaut
Turn 4: double Lava Spike, double shock, reach through mists
SO cheap. They thought they were taking 6 burn and 5 dragonaut. They took 10 burn and 11 dragonaut 
This deck tends to go spastic like that... it’s so annoying to play against because they always have a burn spell. Always, always. |
| Last edited by La_Sin_Grail on Wed Mar 01, 2006 9:11 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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| Osion |
![]() Posted: Wed Mar 01, 2006 9:10 pm |
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Joined: 17 Dec 2005
Posts: 62
Location: MD
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Whoa, submission on the first day of the month. kudos
(So this is where all that Calc homework time went) 
I’d like your responses on the following:
Quote: Wait until they enter declare attackers phase and kill the creature asap with volcanic hammer, shock, electrolyze, or gelectrode.
Did Charles write this? fix the error.
What is the gameplan against Meloku?
Why aren’t you playing Meloku in sideboard or something?
How will you deal with creatures such as Kodama of the North Tree + Jitte?
Quote: Gelectrode pinging will wear them out of creatures if all goes well, and you should be able to ping/pump them to death.
How is this possible with them playing Loxodon Hierarch and Faith’s Fetters?
Have you tried Peer Through Depths instead of Reach Through Mists? for 1 more, it guarantees you a burn/card draw.
A Glorious Anthem puts Skyhunter and Isamaru out of realistic Gelectrode range. How do you deal with this without losing card advantage? |
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| La_Sin_Grail |
![]() Posted: Wed Mar 01, 2006 9:23 pm |
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Joined: 14 Aug 2005
Posts: 806
Location: Maryland
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All good points.
1) Whoops on hammer I’ve been spending too much time with Charles. I’ll fix that.
2) Against meloku, I gelectrode ping/shock/ping and dead. Or, ping/electrolyze/ping and dead. Or ping/hammer.
3) Meloku isn’t in sideboard because if I win I dont need him and if I would lose, I’ll only likely win by dragonaut/gelectrode. Meloku is the first target for any removal, where I’ve found people don’t tend to realize the problems dragonauts will cause until I play three instants during attack phase Meloku is killed instantly. Also, when meloku is fettered, it is totally useless. When mizzet is fettered, I still get a free burn. And with research, I get three more free burn, distributed any way I want.
4) I Shatter the jitte with art. hate and take 6. Then I counterbeat for more than 6.
5)Gelectrode tends to work because of Hierarch doesn’t matter. The idea of this deck is the actual playing of spells is a good thing. So if I trade 1 for one (volc hammer + ping), I should actually be doing well because i can clone mine with free buff on dragonaut. Plus, 2 mana for 4 is great. Once they’re board is clear, I care not their life total. As for fetters, it’s the reason I ended up adding niv mizzet- I had only 8 creatures at first, but they kept getting fettered and not leaving me with enough power. Fetters is a problem, but this deck really only has to have one creature, and with so much card draw I should get it.
6) I did try peer, but most of the time, I end up rather only spending one mana. Seriously, I like them both but one mana is so easy to spend turn four (four times over )for a massive beat.
7) The thing with gelectrode is he doesn’t operate alone. The idea is I can ping an anthemmed isamaru then shock it. Pow! Gelectrode is untapped, one for one card advantage, one for one mana. Because the weenie deck tries to rush, even is an advantage for me. Also, white weenie is dying out and zoo has color troubles, so anthem isn’t even played much anymore. |
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| Cobra |
![]() Posted: Wed Mar 01, 2006 9:26 pm |
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Joined: 12 Jul 2005
Posts: 1202
Location: Austin, TX, USA
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With higher-toughness creatures, you can still just Shock or Electrolyze and then Gelectrode the same target... you haven’t gained any card advantage, true, but you haven’t lost any either.
Opponent’s creature removal does seem like an issue though, since there are so few creatures...
Have you ever made a Gelectrode kill itself in response to Faith’s Fetters? |
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| La_Sin_Grail |
![]() Posted: Wed Mar 01, 2006 9:31 pm |
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Joined: 14 Aug 2005
Posts: 806
Location: Maryland
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Cobra wrote: With higher-toughness creatures, you can still just Shock or Electrolyze and then Gelectrode the same target... you haven’t gained any card advantage, true, but you haven’t lost any either.
Opponent’s creature removal does seem like an issue though, since there are so few creatures...
Have you ever made a Gelectrode kill itself in response to Faith’s Fetters?
Actually, yea, mass creature killing decks are a problem, but remember I have a ton and a half of draw. I can typically manage to pull 2-3 creatures per match to usually one creature hate.
When I use gelectrode and a spell on creatures, it means usually that I’m playing weenie. And when I play weenie, to trade is to win.
And yes, gelectrode kills himself in response, of course |
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| inresponse |
![]() Posted: Wed Mar 01, 2006 10:02 pm |
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Joined: 18 Oct 2005
Posts: 162
Location:
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| I tried something like this out without much success, but your list looks much better. I’ll have to try it out on work station, seems pretty good though! |
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