Izzet spells decks is one of my favorite archetypes in Magic. From Izzet Phoenix decks back in Standard, or the Izzet Blitz decks that have taken over Modern. I love spamming spells while having the flexibility of being able to pivot from aggro to control with sweet tempo plays. Today we'll be looking at an Izzet deck for Standard that I've been playing in best of one in Arena on our Twitch streams. This deck can blitz out the gate for early kills, but can also pull it back to take control of the game. We'll have an additional decklist you can export straight to Arena at the end of the article in case you want to take the deck for a spin.
Sprite Dragon is everything I love in an aggro creature. It reminds me of the first prowess creatures back when Monastery Swiftspear and Seeker of the Way were running around, combined with the might of Mantis Rider as a hasty flying threat. Sprite Dragon is a blend of all these cards with a better prowess ability and some of the aspects of Mantis Rider minus the vigilance. Sprite Dragon is responsible for our early kills is the reason why we play so many one-mana spells. We can force the opponent to answer our Sprite Dragons as they grow to lethal size, and then slam down our backup threats like Goldspan Dragon which we'll get to later. This little Faerie Dragon is a massive gain for this archetype which helped the Izzet Blitz deck rise to the top of Modern. I will also mention that I have seen an "all in" version of this deck that aims to go full blitz by using Unleash Fury on a massive Sprite Dragon to one-shot the opponent. Cantrips & Burn
To get the most out of our Sprite Dragons we need to have tons of cheap spells that replace themselves. Opt is the best at this for a single blue mana, but we also have Frantic Inventory to compound more cards the more we cast it. Our burn plan is also straightforward with Shock for that crucial one mana burn, and we also have Spikefield Hazard in the mana base. Stomp is another valued inclusion as copies five and six of Shock but at two mana. Interaction
When we're not spamming Opts and Shocks, we're using our other interactions to slow down our opponent and disrupt their game plan. To stop the opponent from resolving anything we have Essence Scatter for creatures and Negate for everything else. I will say that Disdainful Stroke is also very good and could even be better than Negate in the current meta, but I'll leave that up to you. We also have Jwari Disruption so we can hit that cheeky Force Spike. For dealing with the board we have Soul Sear to hit big bodies like Lovestruck Beast, and we have Shatterskull Smashing to take out some creatures. Bonecrusher Giant and Brazen Borrower are also here to stomp small creatures and bounce stuff back to their hand. On the other side of the spectrum, we have Shell Shield to protect our threats from opposing removal. Backup Threats
Goldspan Dragon has been one of the scariest threats in Standard since it was printed in Kaldheim. In this deck, we aim to beat down the opponent early with Sprite Dragon and then slam this down to close out the game once they've used up their removal. Shark Typhoon is another great closer and has seen play in the top control decks during its time in Standard. A resolved Shark Typhoon can make an army of sharks to end the game, but even cycling for one big shark can finish the job if the opponent is out of resources. We also have a pair of Magmatic Channeler which can become a two-mana 4/4 and give us card advantage to help us pull ahead on cards. Alternatives
We mentioned some alternatives already such as Disdainful Stroke but I wanted to explain some more options that could be used in this deck. To add more control cards you could use Storm's Wrath to help clear the board against creature decks such as Mono-Red or Naya Adventures. Cutting Magmatic Channeler for these would make sense as they have no way of surviving the wrath themselves. For some additional interaction, you could use Lofty Denial as a counterspell that might go under the radar by your opponent. Sprite Dragon, Brazen Borrower, Goldspan Dragon, and Shark tokens all get this online. Even adding an extra Borrower could help make this counterspell better. We've already mentioned Unleash Fury if you want to be more aggressive but if you want to go lower to the ground and cut the control cards, then Crash Through would make a great addition to the deck. Crash Through is basically a cantrip that grants your Sprite Dragons trample, which is very appealing if you want to follow that up with Unleash Fury.
I hope you enjoyed my insight and if you want to see me play the deck then feel free to watch the video that was posted above. We're almost at Diamond Rank on Arena so if you want to come cheer us on as we climb to Mythic then come join us live on Twitch every Monday. If you want to check out our socials and browse through our other content then click over to our homepage for all of those links. Thanks so much for reading and for joining the Fellowship!
Deck
2 Brazen Borrower (ELD) 39
2 Shell Shield (ZNR) 79
2 Bonecrusher Giant (ELD) 115
5 Mountain (KLR) 298
4 Goldspan Dragon (KHM) 139
2 Shark Typhoon (IKO) 67
4 Opt (M21) 59
1 Essence Scatter (AKR) 60
1 Essence Scatter (IKO) 49
2 Magmatic Channeler (ZNR) 148
4 Frantic Inventory (M21) 50
2 Shatterskull Smashing (ZNR) 161
7 Island (KLR) 290
2 Jwari Disruption (ZNR) 64
4 Riverglide Pathway (ZNR) 264
2 Fabled Passage (M21) 246
2 Soul Sear (M21) 160
4 Sprite Dragon (IKO) 211
2 Shock (ANB) 84
2 Shock (M21) 159
2 Negate (ZNR) 71
2 Spikefield Hazard (ZNR) 166
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