“We keep moving forward, opening new doors, and doing new things because we are curious and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths.”
– Walt Disney
One of my favorite parts of Magic is that it’s this living, breathing, constantly evolving thing. Very rarely is there ever one best decklist, and even if there is a “best” deck, it can always be tweaked by a card or two to make it fit your style or what you like. The constant battle to find the best version is a never-ending struggle. What’s good and right this week might be bad and wrong the next.
Finding the next evolution of a deck is among my greatest strengths Magic. I’m here to talk about what I think is the next evolution of Izzet Drakes.
Creatures (13)
Lands (16)
Spells (31)
Since the reintroduction of the Izzet guild in Guilds of Ravnica, Izzet Drakes has been very powerful and something of which I have been very fond. With the return of the Orzhov and Azorius guilds in Ravnica Allegiance, Esper Control has risen in popularity. I believe a lot of its rise has to do with the fact that it has a good Izzet Drakes matchup. So how do we evolve?
My thought process was to position the deck in a way that it generates as much card advantage and efficiency as possible. Just as Golgari Midrange evolved with the addition of Hydroid Krasis, why can’t Izzet Drakes? I also chose to reinclude Niv-Mizzet, Parun, as this creature alone is one of the best card advantage engines there is in Standard today.
Below is my updated list along with the changes I’ve made since SCG Dallas. The maindeck felt absolutely wonderful last weekend and is where I want to be moving forward, and I believe that a stronger earlier game has become more necessary with the rise in Mono-Blue Aggro and Azorius Aggro. Therefore, here’s what I will be playing at Grand Prix Memphis this weekend:
Creatures (13)
Lands (21)
Spells (26)
Sideboarding Guide
VS Mono-Blue Aggro
Out:
In:
Against Mono-Blue, you want to be proactive, not reactive. Making sure they don’t get an early drop with Curious Obsession on it is your top priority, so don’t try to be cute and get the two-for-one by trying to kill their creature in response to Curious Obsession, since they play too many ways to protect it. If you have an opening to kill their early drop, do it quickly. If they don’t get their card drawing engine online, it will allow you to get to the mid- and late-game where you dominate.
Casting Crushing Canopy to target Curious Obsession is often better than just targeting the flyer because most of the time it will be a one-power creature that isn’t much of a threat on its own. By targeting the Curious Obsession, you eliminate the possibility of having Dive Down be super-impactful. One other interesting play, if you have the opportunity, is to make sure you attack before casting Entrancing Melody on a creature with Curious Obsession on it. That way, if you do get to take the creature, you still have a draw engine that you can now abuse.
VS Azorius Aggro
Out:
In:
I like to leave in Spell Pierce here as they’re more than likely bringing in up to four copies of Baffling End. Stopping a Legion’s Landing, if on the play, or more importantly History of Benalia is very important. This is another matchup where your main goal is to try to stifle their early battlefield progression and just get to the mid- and late-game.
VS Esper Control
Out:
In:
This matchup can be quite interesting depending on your opening hand. Sometimes you get the heavy threat draw and can get out ahead and protect your lead with Spell Pierce and Dive Down. You can also play the conservative long-game well since you have cards like Niv-Mizzet, Parun and Hydroid Krasis in your deck. Don’t get discouraged if you lose Game 1 because you have a few dead cards in your deck; if you draw them in multiples, it can be rough. Games 2 and 3 I feel are heavily favored.
VS Sultai Midrange
Out:
In:
Sultai Midrange has begun to lean very heavily on Hydroid Krasis. When they made that decision, they began to trim on cards like Vivien Reid and Find // Finality, which makes the matchup better for you. As weird as it is to say, most of the time you’re just the better card advantage deck. They also have a very difficult time dealing with Niv-Mizzet, Parun and aren’t normally fast enough to force you to cast it until you can protect it. Use your life total as a resource, don’t let Wildgrowth Walker get out of control, and you should be fine.
VS Mono-Red Aggro
Out:
In:
You won’t have a lot of time to set up Dive Down. If they’re aiming their burn spells at your creatures, I feel like that’s a win already. I don’t have a lot in my sideboard dedicated to this matchup, as this deck has fallen off quite a bit.
VS Nexus of Fate Decks
Out:
In:
The top priority is to keep Wilderness Reclamation off the battlefield. Remember that you’re the aggressor in this matchup. We want to get a threat or two down early. From there we’re trying to close out the game as fast as possible. Just keep in mind that their deck is significantly worse if Wilderness Reclamation stays off the battlefield, so don’t give them that opening.
VS Izzet Drakes
Out:
In:
In this matchup, having access to green really shines. Getting Crushing Canopy as a one-card answer to their entire creature package, plus having a huge mana sink and card draw engine in Hydroid Krasis, is just backbreaking. When we sideboard here, we’re just becoming more threat dense. We’re taking out reactive weaker cards for proactive cards with huge upsides that can dominate the battlefield. The main reason we’re bringing in Disdainful Stroke and cutting Spell Pierce is that we want to make sure we have a hard answer to their Crackling Drakes and to Ral, Izzet Viceroy if they bring it in, as it will also almost always counter their Entrancing Melody.
***
I was very happy with Temur Drakes at SCG Dallas and I hope that the changes to the sideboard will help put me over the top in Memphis this weekend. If anyone has the next evolution to this deck or any others, I would love to hear about it!