Hey guys!

So this week for FNM i'm taking my new brew- Izzet Tempo.
I've been testing it all week, and am fairly confident that it will at least be able to perform.

However, I have hit an issue that I can't quite seem to resolve.

On Monday, I had agreed to a trade for the copies of Rapid Hybridization that I needed for this build. Unfortunately, he didn't send out until today, so I won't have them in time for tomorrow. That being said, I'd like to know if there are any quick, inexpensive replacements for Rapid Hybridization in blue or red that I could throw in here for the night. As it stands, I've put in 3 Mizzium skin, but they're just not cutting it. I'd like some form of removal here instead. I've got plenty of burn spells, and hybridization was my catch-all. Are there any other catch-alls in these colors that I'm just missing?

http://deckbox.org/sets/552732

Thanks for the advice!

So the only two options that are coming to mind at the moment are:

1) Essence Scatter - it'll change your plan of attack some, but it offers a solid two-cost option to deal with the opponent's creatures.

2) Curse of the Swine - it's more expensive and at sorcery speed but it would still give you an option to deal with multiple opposing threats.

Neither is optimal, but they're worth a shot.

mizzium mortars?

I don't get why you'd want rapid hybridization in this deck anyway. Red has lots better removal.

Also, don't care for dispel, I think it should be syncopate at least. Maindeck anyway. Negate and essence scatter can be on the side.

I also think magma jet is good in this deck, or divination, you need something to help give you gas.

Also, in addition to the mizzium mortar suggestion, some number of anger of the gods needs to be in the 75.

I'm thinking Mortars, now, though i'll also test curse of the swine throughout the day.

And for Elpablo, this is a tempo deck, not a control deck. I have the hybridization in here because it only costs 1, and takes out anything that I would need to use 2 burns spells on anyway. Plus, when used on myself with a young pyromancer on board, it's a 1 mana 3/3 with no downside. Its a huge help in this build.
I've got dispel over syncopate because there's no option for it to not work. I don't want to be committing a turn's worth of mana to counter something that may or may not be coming (as I have no "Look at opponant's hand" spells). Dispel hits everything in the format that i'm concerned about save Anger of the gods, for just 1 mana. I did consider Magma Jet, but all of my copies are currently in a r/w devotion build that I am loaning to someone. However, between the steam auguries and the Izzet charms, I have a good fistful of cards whenever I need it, and any more draw power would really be a waste of space. And finally, Anger is the last thing that I want to be using in this deck, seeing as it kills 3 of my 3 win-conditions (Hammer, Young pyro, Spellheart).

DarrenM wrote: And for Elpablo, this is a tempo deck, not a control deck. I have the hybridization in here because it only costs 1, and takes out anything that I would need to use 2 burns spells on anyway. Plus, when used on myself with a young pyromancer on board, it's a 1 mana 3/3 with no downside. Its a huge help in this build.

Tempo is a kind of control :P

If you like, hybridization that's fine, but like joe said mortars is a far superior spell in the format. The only real reason I can see to include hybridization is desecration demon/or some of the gr aggro, you don't have great options for that guy, except cyclonic rift, which is good against mono-b in general, but can't hurt to hedge your bets. If you want to run some main, there's an argument, but it's not a 4 of spell maindeck. Unless you only see mono black all day every day. I still think there are better options in this deck. Main deck essence scatter for instance. You should be able to hold lots of mana up in this deck for those kinds of plays. You really shouldn't need the token

DarrenM wrote: I've got dispel over syncopate because there's no option for it to not work. I don't want to be committing a turn's worth of mana to counter something that may or may not be coming (as I have no "Look at opponant's hand" spells). Dispel hits everything in the format that i'm concerned about save Anger of the gods, for just 1 mana.

A whole turns of worth of mana? How have you been casting syncopate? You never should have to sync for more than 1-2 tops to get value. Most decks are front loading their resources right now and tap out a lot. Sync is a great spell to play in this deck. Also, about half your deck is being cast at the end of your opponents turn if not needed elsewhere . Countering that tapped out revelation could be baller? That tapped out gary for 5 for 6-8 damage? Hell countering a underworld connections on turn 3 is worth it against mono black, or thassa or jace in mono blue. They always tap out for that.

DarrenM wrote: I did consider Magma Jet, but all of my copies are currently in a r/w devotion build that I am loaning to someone. However, between the steam auguries and the Izzet charms, I have a good fistful of cards whenever I need it, and any more draw power would really be a waste of space.

You can take or leave jet really, it helps fix draws but really only gets real removal value against aggro or mono blue. It is a little of both and not really good at either. I know izzet and augery fit the theme of the deck pretty well, but I still feel you need some sort of raw draw power. Perhaps an opportunity or a couple divination, or the 4th augery.

DarrenM wrote: And finally, Anger is the last thing that I want to be using in this deck, seeing as it kills 3 of my 3 win-conditions (Hammer, Young pyro, Spellheart).

Anger would be useful against aggro/mono blue. You could be desperate to stabilize against aggro, but once you do you have no life gain to get you out of reach and you'll need to keep the board clear to win. Anger on the side could be good. If not anger, then something like reckoner? You need a way to really take out their threats thats not 1-1, mizzium does that, but comes online too late, same for the rift.

I understand that Tempo is a kind of control, but I feel that they're very different play styles. It seems to me that you're assuming that all I want to do in this deck is disrupt the opponent's plan. When I said "Use a whole turn's worth of mana on syncopate", I mean that I never have the 2-3 mana that it takes early game to cast it. If I play a pyromancer turn 3, I can't cast it. If I drop it turn 4, I might stop a jace. If I do nothing turn 5, I might counter something, but i've also lost tempo in not playing any of my other spells. Syncopate has a very small window of efficiency in this deck. I can only really fire it off on turns 3-5. If the game goes any longer than that, I'll have to spend all of my mana for the turn countering something and not have the option to play my own things.

As for anger, Sure, it's a way to stabilize, but for someone who hasn't been keeping tabs on the board for the last 4 turns. In your argument, I feel that you're assuming that I'm playing like esper control, just letting everyone by while digging for my answers. 90% of the time, i'm popping off creatures the second they hit the field, and I will have my answer in hand already. This makes board wipes pretty useless, in my opinion. I could consider something like Reckoner, but the mana isn't really good enough without my scry land at this point. Perhaps once Born of the gods comes out, i'll have a better shot at making that work. For now, I'd like to stay on the Spells game, to make the chimera and pyromancer as efficient as possible.

In my testing for what I plan to go up against, this deck is very solid as is. I was really only looking for a cheap removal spell that I may have missed. After tonight, I'll do some more experimenting, and will probably end up with at least 2 mortars in the side, but I think i'm going to go with Curse of the swine. It exiles, which helps with the few copies of Scooze that I plan on seeing, It's flexible, and I get to use my piggy tokens. It can also act as a pseudo anthem, turning all of my pyromancer 1/1s into 2/2s.

See how it runs tonight and then get back to us. My final impressions are as follows.

I don't think you should run counter magic at all then if you don't want a more comprehensive counter spell in the deck. I don't see what a 1-2 dispel is doing for you that izzet charm already isn't doing. I think the negates in the side are a far better answer than dispel. What instant are you so afraid of that you need to counter it with such a narrow answer?

You're not playing esper that's for sure, but I've seen similar lists played and I think if you're playing your spells on your turn out of anything other than necessity you might rethink that strategy. Your real wincon is the chimera so you just build up spells in the yard and tokens with pyromancer until you win right, i don't think a turn 2 pyromancer is a good idea anyway, he's a target because people know he can get out of hand in those decks?

You're at 14 1-1 answers for aggro if you don't get to trade with any tokens and if you don't count cyclonic rift. How are you against GR devotion? a turn 2/3 collosus or polukranos would be really hard for you to deal with, even if you can destroy it or bounce it they just play more the next turn, or they garruk/domri into value. I think you need a wipe like anger in the side for this matchup to destroy their dorks/oozes same goes for GW aggro. Can't eat it if it's exiled. If it's not anger, I really think you need something else on the side that can clear out a bunch of little dudes like this real quick. It's not that your 1-1 answer can't, but it's much more efficient if you can get them all with 1 spell while keeping your 1-1 answers for something else.

I've seen other versions running guttersnipe as well, I played against one with guttersnipe at an fnm a while ago and narrowly beat it. The snipe puts a lot of pressure on that's hard to deal with and he eats removal to protect, pyromancer and chimera. Just some food for thought. I think you might consider him over the hammer. you typically want more mana available in these decks and you're just going to eat all your resources by making tokens. YOu've got to be able to reliably cast turn/burn or overload a mizzium/rift.

Prognostic sphinx seems like it might be a decent alternate win con in the deck, as a 1 of or something. It fits the plan with the chimera and is hard to remove while providing extremely smooth draws. Though you would need more draw to fuel it than you currently have available.

So I went 3-2 tonight, which is about what I expected. Won game 1 (RW Burn) by countering all of his stuff. Brought in Essence scatters for Boros Reckoners. Won Game 2 against RDW due to the hammer + 2 chimeras. Big attrition match up. Sided in the Essence scatters for Boros Reckoner. Game 3 was against Mono blue. He was playing extremely efficiently, and I was drawing mana like my life depended on it in both matchups. Game 4 was Rakdos Rush (1 drops, spike jesters, exavas...) Won game 1 due to mana flood, won game 2 with the pyromancer and burn spells. Game 5 was against a BUG Midrange list that used MAster Biomancer to beef up Desecration demon, and used prophet of kruphix because why not. This was really the only matchup that I new I would lose going into, this deck just has much better sustainability than mine.

I found myself siding in the essence scatters more than I would have preferred, probably because I didn't have access to the rapid hybridization and essence scatter is just better than curse of swine.