I'm a noob to the game, been to one draft (M14), and looking to take my first Constructed Standard deck into the wild for casual play this week (probably not a Standard tourney, just yet, but maybe).

Below is my attempt to put together an Izzet burn/blitz style deck. Based on cards I have. There are cards I want to add and swap out, but I'm not willing to spend a lot of money to build a deck.

The strategy is to use creatures that have synergy with instants and sorceries to boost them or to trigger abilities. I'll be adding 3 or 4 "Artful Dodge" to this deck was soon as they arrive via mail. That will really pump up the Nivix Cyclopses. Basically, getting 5 Nivix Cyclopses in random Dragon's Maze booster packs led me to research and build this deck.

Sideboard is basically back up Flying creatures and artifact/enchantment removal for the most part, plus a couple of helpers against healing decks.

Comments are appreciated.

1 Azorius Guildgate
1 Boros Guildgate
4 Island
1 Izzet Guildgate
10 Mountain
1 Plains
1 Sacred Foundry
1 Transguild Promenade
3 Faithless Looting
2 Pillar of Flame
1 Shock
1 Thought Scour
3 Boros Charm
1 Celestial Flare
2 Deranged Assistant
2 Essence Scatter
3 Feeling of Dread
1 Izzet Charm
1 Memory's Journey
2 Negate
1 Pacifism
1 Prophetic Prism
1 Searing Spear
1 Skygames
1 Thunderbolt
3 Young Pyromancer
1 Zephyr Charge
3 Act of Treason
1 Chandra's Phoenix
2 Flames of the Firebrand
3 Guttersnipe
1 Mark of Mutiny
3 Nivix Cyclops
1 Chandra's Outrage
1 Last Thoughts
2 Scatter Arc
1 Blaze Commando
1 Pyromancer's Gauntlet
(70 cards main deck)

Sideboard:

2 Wear // Tear
1 Aerial Maneuver
2 Hidden Strings
2 Skullcrack
1 Nivix Cyclops
1 Solemn Offering
2 Runewing
1 Warleader's Helix
1 Blaze Commando
1 Chandra's Fury
1 Righteous Authority

As I look at this deck, I think I have too many cards and maybe I've diluted the archetype a bit. Probably need to trim down closer to 60 cards, I'm just not sure where to trim.

izzet can be a what they call a tier 2 deck. Generally cheaper and not as effective as the top decks but built properly can give them a run for their money. They're generally "meta" decks as well, meaning they can be built to beat popular decks at a given time, but generally aren't great by themselves. That being said, you could use some general deck building tips.

To get ready for an FNM test run you need to try the following.

Izzet is generally going to play like a control/midrange deck. They're going to play few creatures, and try to protect them to win, or play alternate win conditions like burn and try to control the board. You need to decide if you're going to keep the white. Most RUW decks (red blue white, american) play like control decks and play just a few win conditions then protect those win conditions. There is a midrange version you can play too.

Lands - more of them, better ones. If you don't want to invest in the check lands (sulfur falls, clifftop retreat, glacial fortress), you should at least try to invest in the shock lands, they'll be standard leagal for the next year. Hallowed Fountain, Sacred Foundry, Steam Vents, also you need more, a control/midrange deck will run 24 lands minimum, usually 25-ish, depending. Gates can be used, but they hurt your tempo. See the following example.

land drops with check lands, and available mana.

Turn 1:shock land, 1 available (possible 2 damage if needed to play untapped)
Turn 2:check land, 2 available
Turn 3:check land, 3 available
turn 4:basic island, 4 available

You could have cast 10 mana worth of spells assuming you had a 1 drop and spells to cast on subsequent turns.

Now with gates.

Turn 1: Shock land, 1 available
Turn 2: Gate, 1 available (gate comes into play tapped)
Turn 3: Gate, 2 available (gate comes into play tapped)
Turn 4: Basic Island, 4 available.

You could have only cast 8 mana worth of spells, if your opponent cast a farseak or ramped with an elf, your down 2-4 mana depending on their line of play. A very bad position for a control deck to be in.

Spells - are you control or burn? are you control or midrange? Control decks use board wipes to help stabilize and keep your opponents threats of the board, mizzium mortars, supreme verdict, ratchet bomb, bonfire of the damned, Cyclonic Rift. You also need to be able to draw, Think Twice, Divination, Auger of Bolas,Azorius Charm, Sphinx's Revelation (bread and butter for a lot of control decks), you need spot removal too, that's instant or provides additional effects or both, Izzet Charm, Azorius Charm, Searing Spear, Pillar of Flame, Detention Sphere, Also Turn/Burn is a must in any deck with red and blue. You need at least a couple counter spells like dissipateand syncopate, they have an exile component that is important currently. Negateis okay, but I would only run one of those, Essence Scatter can be a 1 of as well in addition to the dissipate and syncopate.


Creatures - control decks play 0-10 creatures where most midrange decks play, 10-20-ish, control decks will try to get the game to a place where they can either play their threat and start beating their opponent, where as midrange decks usually stick multiple threats on the board and attempt to trade up with 2 for 1 spells and effects. Guttersnipe can be good, if built around properly, Nivix Cyclops and Young Pyromancer

Getting down to 75 is a good start, (60 main, 15 side). Obviously as a new player you wont' have access to everything I mentioned, but you can look at the deck lists below learn from what they're trying to do. Right now you're kind of all over the place.

Deck examples
http://sales.starcitygames.com//deckdatabase/displaydeck.php?DeckID=58170
http://www.channelfireball.com/articles/woo-brews-brewing-young-pyromancer/
http://www.mtgtop8.com/archetype?a=262

Thanks, elpablo. All good advice. Intellectually I understand everything you are saying, but not having that many games under my belt makes it hard to get a feel for how the deck will work in the field.

I can't get myself to pay $3 to $5 each for lands that are only "good" in Standard for another month or so. I'd love to get more shock lands, though. But those run $10 plus each...ouch. This is a new hobby so far, not a passion to spend a lot of money on. I have a fundamental problem with a game that requires people to keep investing a lot of money in order to tweak their decks to the nth degree to win. I do understand the mana tempo issue, though. For time being, I'm going to be stuck mainly with the guild gates for mana fixers, along with a few prophetic prisms and darksteel ingots to boost the basic lands. Maybe I can find some bargain boosters of RTR block packs and score some lucky shock lands.

I have a hard time committing to a spell theme (control vs burn, etc.). I don't fully understand what a "midrange" deck is, either. Seems like I start putting the deck together, and start thinking, "well, I need some control in here just in case...yada yada".

Based on your description below, my target is probably a mid-range deck rather than pure control. That said, keeping the other guy from being able to do anything he wants is pretty fun.

I think my thought process was to pound away at opponent with burn spells, and letting the Nivix Cyclops and Guttersnipe amplify that by pounding further, while Young Pyromancer floods field with cheap blockers. Holding back just enough control/removal to keep from being too vulnerable to anything in the meantime.

Most of my ideas came from Travis Woo's articles on his Izzet Blitz deck on Channel Fireball. Then I got sidetracked by all these other cool cards I have....

I'll probably drop the white, on your advice.

Thanks again.

PS: how do I insert the hotlink text that brings up card images in my post?

There's a magic "m" button that puts "" around a word or set of words, if it matches the exact name of a magic card it will do the pop up for the card/link.

A lot of new players mention budgets and I get it, I'm married with 4 kids. But if you want to improve your deck then you need the cards that will do that. You can draft and do limited events while you trade and work on a deck you want. You can buy packs when you don't know what you want and then trade if you pull anything good. Once you build up some inventory and are able to trade for stuff, a $10 card becomes nothing. I traded for a archangel of thune and a couple lifebane zombies the other day, about $60.

Limited is probably the way to go for you. see if your LGS does $10 drafts... those are fun and manageable. It also depends on your local scene, if your FNMs are competitive like mine (30+ people, practicing for PTQs, opens and IQs, ) then you'll have a really hard and miserable time. On the flip side you can learn a lot from these players and if you make friends with them they might let you borrow a competitive deck to play while you build your collection.

There are cards that you can include in decks to cover your bases, but in general you need to stick to a "plan" branching out into control when your deck isn't a control deck will water down your concept. That's not to say you can have some control cards, izzet charm does a lot of stuff. Control isn't all about counter magic, but that's part of it.

The Wednesday night Booster Draft at a local coffee/game shop here (Highlands Ranch, Colorado) was pretty laid back last week when I went. They implied that FNM there is pretty laid back as well, so we'll see, if I can make it to one of those. They do both Standard and Draft on FNM there. Friday nights are hard for me to get away from home, though.

I enjoyed the booster draft, but learning how to draft a winning deck is another skill I need work on. It is a good way to amass some cards, for sure. I came away that night with a very good start on a full out Sliver deck. No one else was drafting them, so I ended up with a pretty good sliver deck in the draft, and got a Bonescythe Sliver as one of the prize cards out of the deal. I was pretty nervous going in, thought my deck was crap (which it really was), but still came in 4th of 6 in my pod, and 7th of 12 overall. Not bad for my first event ever.

Thanks again for the advice and help! Glad I got on the forum.

Drafting can be a whole different animal... one that I'll openly admit I still need work on. The best option there is just to keep playing them as experience is your best friend.

Given that you're up for Nivix Cyclops, I will direct you to Travis Woo's Nivix Blitz deck. You can see it and the article related to it here:
http://www.channelfireball.com/articles/woo-brews-izzet-blitz/

Normally Woo's decks are normally tier two (not the most competitive, often a bit janky), but the guy is a pro at the game who has won major events. Further, all of his decks are at least competitive (they also score you major bonus points for fun and being different). Further, a build almost matching this card for card placed in the top 8 of one of the major state qualifier tourneys recently, so you'll at least be able to keep with most of the "big boys."

Good luck!

Thanks. Travis Woo's Izzet Blitz was the baseline for my deck. I have whittled it down a lot, and tried it out with my kids. I can't justify spending the money on Snapcaster Mage's and the shock lands, nor the Geist of Saint Trafts in Woo's newer version.

I found I didn't have near enough land, first try. I trimmed the deck size down a lot based on advice here and think I have a better deck now. Will try on the kids again this weekend. Still working on my sideboard. Also I am trying to see how to massage this deck for Standard play when the Innistrad Block and M13 cards become void for that format in another couple months. Losing the Innistrad flashback cards is going to hurt when playing against mill decks. My daughter stomped me with the canned blue/white pre-made M14 deck I let her pick up last week. It was only one game, but I was seriously mana locked (my own fault). The low mana cost instants and sorceries make for quite a wollop with the Nivx Cyclopses. I swung for 20 damage in about turn 5, but actually missed the fact that she still had a blocker (it was on the table under her arm, she is a fidgety player, she's only 9).

Guess I better hit the FNM's quickly while the deck is still good. Hopefully can try it at FNM in a week or so.

Here is the latest deck build:

4 Azorius Guildgate
4 Boros Guildgate
1 Island
4 Izzet Guildgate
4 Mountain
1 Plains
1 Sacred Foundry
2 Transguild Promenade
4 Artful Dodge
4 Faithless Looting
1 Mugging
2 Pillar of Flame
1 Shock
4 Boros Charm
4 Feeling of Dread
1 Izzet Charm
2 Negate
1 Searing Spear
1 Strionic Resonator
1 Thunderbolt
3 Young Pyromancer
1 Chandra's Phoenix
2 Flames of the Firebrand
4 Guttersnipe
4 Nivix Cyclops
1 Last Thoughts
1 Pyromancer's Gauntlet

You won't be unhappy picking up the shocks. Not wanting to buy the snaps or geist is understandable they're about to rotate, but the lands will be good for you for a year or more. Strongly recommend picking up the lands.

Get rid of these "2 Transguild Promenade" . They hurt your tempo worse than a gate. Put some basic lands in.

Other than not investing in giest and snapcaster, don't worry about rotation to much. It's still a couple months away and just trade for cards from the RTR/m14 block.

off topic, Here's a fun control deck you might try to put together too. Not terribly expensive either.

http://magic.tcgplayer.com/db/article.asp?ID=11315

it can be modified to replace some of the more expensive cards (except sphinx's I think you need those).

Here's my Izzet Deck, I'm super happy with it. http://deckbox.org/sets/422594

Regarding your build, I would probably take out white completely since you are just splashing it for a couple of cards. Feeling of Dread is alright but not great. I think your deck would run smoother with just 2 colors. If you really want to splash white I'd definitely pick up some Warleader's Helixes.

Consider replacing your Faithless Lootings with Izzet Charms, they have the same looting effect and also give you two other really nice options.

I'm not feeling Last Thoughts, just too dang expensive. Consider picking up some cheap card draw like Quicken or Think Twice.

Aetherling is a nice blue finisher, might be worth it to pick one up and just relying on the Cyclopes/Guttersnipes as your only win condition is risky.

I'll also echo the others and say that the shock lands are really worth the investment if you are planning on competitive play. It hurts to spend 30 bucks on 4 cards but there is really nothing that replace their flexibility in the current format.

I play tested this deck with my kids for 2 full matches today, and I have to say that dropping white would be a bad idea. I beat them both 2 out of 3, and they are playing with the canned green/black M14 deck and the canned blue/white M14 deck (that come pre-packaged). The combination of Feeling of Dread, Boros Charm (double strike option), and Artful Dodge set up the win condition almost every time. 3 sorcercy/instants with low mana cost allow you to pump up the a Nivix Cyclops to at 10/4 unblockable creature with double strike = 20 damage in one swing. And Faithless Looting comes in extremely handy as soon as you get any other 2 cards with Flashback into your hand. Discard the 2 cards with Flashback (Feeling of Dread, Artful Dodge, Faithless Looting, etc.) and get 2 more, and your playable hand is just that much larger. Several wins were made by casting 1 or 2 spells from the graveyard.

I also have to say that Young Pyromancer and Guttersnipe (free damage) synergy is nice too. Getting a bunch of chump blockers with Pyromancer means not having to risk the cyclops to block with. Strionic Resonator has good synergy in this deck, too. Using 2 mana to pump up a cyclops an extra +3 or get another elemental token is nothing to sneeze at.

Once the Innistrad block cards have to rotate out for Standard, this deck is going to have to rely more heavily on "draw a card" spells and cheap burn spells, I think. Goblin Electromancer and and the Hypersonic Dragon may find a place in this deck, too.

I have to give a nod to the advice to get some shock lands, though. I'm still not willing to spend the money (yet), but the unfortunately slow tempo of using Guildgates does slow up the play a bit and makes it harder to set up the win condition early. Cost me at least a turn or two more than it should have to get a win condition in place.