Izzet DelverDrake

artist: Adi Granov

My first MtG deck ever was an Izzet Delver of Secrets/Kiln Fiend deck. The mentality is simple: nail a guy to the board, then make sure he stays there with counterspells. Budget MtG Decks gives a very aggressive version here, and this deck takes a lot of its cues from that video.

A lot of Kiln Fiend decks take the route of nailing either a Fiend or a backup beater (Monastery Swiftspear and Goblin Guide being the most common ones) to the board and using dedicated pump to trigger KF’s ability. That’s all well and good, but I find that more suited to Selesnya or Naya than I do to Izzet.

Dedicated pump spells aren’t interesting to me for two reasons. One, they’re dead draws in case you don’t have a beater. Two, Izzet is themed around unpredictability. Leave pure beats to the Gruul; Izzet is the color of chaos and versatility.

Another theme that came to me was the idea of fast, efficient creatures. Enigma Drake from the new Amonkhet set is a nightmare. It has the exact same mana cost and toughness as the Nivix Cyclops used above, but trades in fast burst power for reliability and survivability. This led to a slower, more midrangey build overall, with less straight-up burn and more disruption/removal.

With this in mind, I present to you: DelverDrake!

CREATURES

artist: Nils Hamm

I don’t need to tell you why Delver’s here. The absolute best one-drop in Modern Blue. If Mark Rosewater didn't design Palinchron I have no doubt that this would be his biggest regret. Nothing is ever getting this powerful again, period. (lol, Torpid Moloch & Scythe Tiger)

Kiln Fiend is also self-explanatory. You can pump him up to ridic levels using your instant draw spells or whatever. My only complaint is that he has no built-in evasion, which is not a problem the next guy has.

Enigma Drake has the built-in evasion of Delver and the ability to have power way above curve of KF. I initially waffled between this and Spellheart Chimera, but being immune to bolts is huge and this is an intentional departure from the aggressive Delver/Kiln Fiend decks.

SPELLS

artist: Jon Foster

All of your stuff has to be instant speed. Kiln Fiend makes all your instants combat tricks.

Shock is a strictly worse placeholder for Lightning Bolt. Get Lightning Bolt if you can afford it, but don’t bother with the sorcery speed (Lava Spike) or two-drop (Searing Spear) variants. We want instant speed combat tricks here.

Spell Pierce is great for people who can’t afford Spell Snare, like myself.

I have no idea why more decks don’t use Izzet Charm. It is incredible. It is never a dead draw given its instant-speed Faithless Looting mode, can act as a counter or removal in a pinch, can act as a cast trigger for Kiln Fiend and can give Enigma Drake more gas! Best of all, it’s 20 cents! It’s fucking amazing is what it is.

Vapor Snag is the best fatty removal we have mainboarded here. Generally you should be evading fatties with your flying monsters anyway, but that’s what our sideboard’s for.

Mana Leak is just a good card in general, great soft-countering. Replace these with Remands if you can get your hands on some.

Negate is our only hard counterspell.

Finally, we have Telling Time as our other dedicated draw spell. I pick Telling Time over Anticipate to guarantee the Delver flip, but if you like a faster deck experience go nuts.

LANDS

One of the biggest reasons why I put this under Budget Barge is the simple fact that Shivan Reef is now $2! (I have no idea why.) But whatever, it’s a steal at that price. Grab it while you still can!

The rest is just basic ratio. If Shivan Reef shoots up, use basic land ratio. You curve out at 3, you can’t afford to have lands etb tapped.

SIDEBOARD

artist: Greg Staples

4-off Echoing Truth deals with both go-wide and fatty strategies; run it over Spell Pierce.

Electrickery is just there for go-wide, other Delvers or Bogles.

Gut Shot I flip-flopped about. On one hand, a free casting trigger at instant speed is insane. On the other hand, on its own it’s not just that good; 2 life or R for 1 damage to any target kinda sucks. Finally, I decided to sideboard it.

Essence Scatter should be run over Negate against creature-centric decks.

Mountains are for mana fixing.

OPTIONS

Unsubstantiate can be run over any of our soft-counter spells as a poor man’s Remand. Be warned that it’s Standard legal, though, so you might be a bit short.

Spellheart Chimera and Wee Dragonauts are perfectly fine to run over Enigma Drake. Nivix Cyclops is too, but I dislike its lack of evasion.