Day 17 - Share Your Izzet Cards

Apologies for the delay! We're getting whomped with a blizzard here in Connecticut, and obviously I don't have daycare for my two little kids today. Absolute chaos lol.

Anyways, we’re back for Day 17! If you want more info on this series, please refer to the original post. Yesterday we discussed Red Planeswalkers. Today we’re talking Izzet cards. Here’s what I run in my Legacy+ cube, 438 cards (on my way to 450), 7 or 8 on the Strix scale, basically no planeswalkers, and purposely powered-down lands:

[[Expressive Iteration]] is classic Izzet card draw and selection. It’s very easy to turn this into “look at your top 3 cards and draw 2” for just 2 mana, making this an extremely valuable card in spellslinger, combo, artifacts, whatever. I’ll splash this card for the great selection and value. And there’s now several different awesome arts to choose from.

[[Third Path Iconoclast]] is back in my cube after another card flamed out (more on that below). Iconoclast is a spellslinger staple, pumping out little Yotian soldiers. Making artifact tokens is obviously super valuable, and greatly improves the power and cross-pollination of this card. As someone who values diversity, I also appreciate that this card doesn’t depict the typical old white dude leading a Tolarian army. I just wish it were a wizard for:

[[Flame of Anor]]: I ran and enjoyed [[Prismari Command]] for years in my cube, but I do think this is better. There are times where I miss the treasure or discard, but Izzet can already do a lot of that with other cards. Whereas this can turn into a 3 for 1 blowout with a wizard. I run ten wizards in Izzet colors alone, including seven as 1 or 2 drops that curve into Flame. Lots of them are spellslinger cards that benefit from this card, too. [[Thundertrap Trainer]] finds this while Snappy abuses it.

Notable omissions: I tried so hard to make [[Vivi Ornitier]] work. I love the design of that card, and obviously it’s nuts in constructed formats. Problem in cube is it’s just too inconsistent and a touch slow. Spellslinger decks want their creatures to come down on turns 1 and 2, or as a 2 drop with a 1-mana spell on turn 3, for the tempo advantage. Vivi coming down turn 3 often felt a turn too late, especially when he just ate a removal spell and provided 0 value. I compile a list called “Cards you cast right before you lose,” so that I can replace them, and Vivi definitely made the list. So Iconoclast came back in.

What are you all running?

Tomorrow we will discuss Black 1 Drops.