Izzet Birds as I lovingly refer to it, has taken the meta by storm. My theory is its due to the deck’s easy to build on arena deck list, the list only uses 4 mythics and a bunch of rare lands so its in theory quite simple to craft. And if you already had your Phoenix’s before the spike the paper and MTGO costs are minimal. Alright so lets look at the deck.
Arclight Phoenix is the star of the deck. The goal being to use some discard mechanics to get these into the yard, ideally with a Goblin Electromancer on the board. Then spam a bunch of spells and get some free birdies to kill your opponent. They fly, come back usually twice from the bin, and operate as planeswalker removal spells when needed.
The drakes. Fairly self explanatory, flying beat machines. They get huge and when unblocked can be combat tricked into the lethal range very easily.
The discard package. These spells are never all 4 ofs, personally I do not run Tormenting voice. The goal of these spells is simply, they cost 1 with an electromancer out and can be used to discard your Phoenixs. The turn you resolve one of these for 1 mana us usually the turn you win, through a combination of drake damage, returning Phoenix’s and burn to the face.
The rest of the package is basic removal, nothing special. Beacon Bolt being the only exception, its a cool removal spell that eliminates a flying blocker, twice. Mostly hitting Lyra Dawnbringer or Doom Whisperer.
The sideboard is heavily meta dependant, usually a few high end finishers, an assortment of counter magic, and Fiery Cannonade so Selesnya doesn’t run you over.
In my testing you basically run over a bunch of the meta decks, but playing the deck is very similar to playing a deck like Titanshift, where you basically feel like you’re losing literally 99% of the time and then out of no where your opponent dies. The other major upside again is that a lot of players rely heavily on their Planeswalkers in this meta and your birds make quick hasty work of them. Playing around Settle the Wreckage is key, this card can instantly lose you the game. Ral and Niv are great in grindy matches and the counter kit gets you through your bad matchups.
Videos up soon, my kid keeps crying during my matches so I keep getting losses and/or bad afk videos, good thing she is cute :p
In uninterrupted leagues on MTG Arena the deck has had outstanding results, sequencing is very important, the deck is marginally difficult to play at 100%. It feels very good in the meta and I enjoy playing it.
Cheers and thanks for the read.