Adeliz, the Cinder Wind - Izzet Beatdown

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MeowZeDung
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Post by MeowZeDung » 4 years ago

A sweet Izzet legendary I've been meaning to explore for a while. Here's a rough draft:


Adeliz, the Cinder Wind - Izzet Beatdown

Commander (1)

Board Wipes (2)

Approximate Total Cost:

I find Adeliz, the Cinder Wind to be an interesting commander to build around because she seems to be pulling me in two different directions. On the one hand, she clearly wants to be at the helm of a spellslinger build, but on the other hand she's pushing me toward wizard tribal (assuming I'm not considering voltron). This leads to a real deckbuilding challenge because a spells deck needs a threshold of instants/sorceries, and a tribal deck needs a threshold of relevant creatures, and I wanted to see if I can strike a functional balance. I think I've succeeded.

I'm focusing this list on 3 main themes/wincons:

1. Wizard beatdown via Adeliz's wizard "prowess" trigger and flying wizards. I can run up quite a prowess storm count with all the copy effects and nonsense like Snap, Frantic Search, and Turnabout. I'm also looking to get a lot of mileage out of board control via Tibor and Lumia/Earthquake/Molten Disaster, with those X spells leaving most or all of my board untouched while benefiting from mana discounters like Goblin Electromancer, Baral, Chief of Compliance, and Primal Amulet.

2. Big mana from High Tide and Seething Song effects copied multiple times and abused via untap effects like Turnabout and the mana sunk into an X spell or generating a high storm count.

3. Wheel effects a la Arjun, the Shifting Flame, Dragon Mage, and Mindmoil + the Niv-Mizzets.

All three of these have a lot of overlap and shared cards with the other two, and given the deckbuilding challenge Adeliz presents I think I need all the synergy I can get.

Some concerns:
- I'm not utilizing the yard since I've omitted stuff like Flood of Recollection, Past in Flames, Mystic Retrieval, and Mission Briefing, and this could be a mistake. I just don't have the available slots, and I've already got a very low land count.
- I felt haste was important, so I'm running some meh cards in Burst of Speed and Surge of Zeal. Not sure if they are worth it.
- I only have two wheel payoffs. Perhaps I need more, say The Locust God and/or Psychosis Crawler?
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lyonhaert
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Post by lyonhaert » 4 years ago

Adeliz is on my list to build, too. But I was also considering stuff like Thousand-Year Storm / Eye of the Storm / Mizzix's Mastery kind of shenanigans (Possibility Storm can result in two cast triggers at a time).

Also I was looking at overloads like Blustersquall, Weapon Surge, Dynacharge, Teleportal. But also I think Haze of Rage would be great regardless of the build.
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MeowZeDung
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Post by MeowZeDung » 4 years ago

lyonhaert wrote:
4 years ago
Adeliz is on my list to build, too. But I was also considering stuff like Thousand-Year Storm / Eye of the Storm / Mizzix's Mastery kind of shenanigans (Possibility Storm can result in two cast triggers at a time).

Also I was looking at overloads like Blustersquall, Weapon Surge, Dynacharge, Teleportal. But also I think Haze of Rage would be great regardless of the build.
Good points all. The trick with Adeliz in my mind is getting the ratio of wizards to spells right, and slots are tight. I went deep on a copy theme, which doesn't leave room for some of the pump spells and other goodstuff. I love me some teleportal though!
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Sister Katrei
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Post by Sister Katrei » 4 years ago

Always nice to see fellow Adeliz players! I had exactly the same problem of Adeliz pulling me in two directions as you have, [mention]MeowZeDung[/mention]. I personally went for I think the exactly opposite direction than [mention]lyonhaert[/mention], for several reasons. One being that one person in our playgroup has recently started playing a Mizzix deck, and is exactly going the Thousand-Year Storm way, so I just wanted to be different.

My own take is basically rather towards having a bunch of the one-mana cantrips, fewer Wizards and generally lower mana costs. I very often found myself winning by having a one-shot kill with the likes of Temur Battle Rage or Insult. It wasn't built as voltron and it doesn't always work that way, but sometimes, it does. (Sometimes these cards just kill even in a non-voltron way, with normal Wizards.)

I have been planning to post my decklist here, maybe this is a good incentive to do that. I will do it so you can check it out for inspiration :)

I think what strategy you pick in the end depends most of all on what style of playing you are most comfortable with and what is the group you are playing with or the environment like. In my meta, which is very Wrath-heavy, my deck has worked - either winning by quick aggro approach or by waiting and then finishing with one big bang. (Again, depending on the group dynamics, strategically my style was often "I'm not a threat, you guys just keep killing each other and never mind me... Now I am ready, boom!")

Anyways so these are my few cents, all the best to you in working on this deck :) I'll be following this thread with great interest...

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Post by MeowZeDung » 4 years ago

Sister Katrei wrote:
4 years ago
Always nice to see fellow Adeliz players! I had exactly the same problem of Adeliz pulling me in two directions as you have, MeowZeDung. I personally went for I think the exactly opposite direction than lyonhaert, for several reasons. One being that one person in our playgroup has recently started playing a Mizzix deck, and is exactly going the Thousand-Year Storm way, so I just wanted to be different.

My own take is basically rather towards having a bunch of the one-mana cantrips, fewer Wizards and generally lower mana costs. I very often found myself winning by having a one-shot kill with the likes of Temur Battle Rage or Insult. It wasn't built as voltron and it doesn't always work that way, but sometimes, it does. (Sometimes these cards just kill even in a non-voltron way, with normal Wizards.)

I have been planning to post my decklist here, maybe this is a good incentive to do that. I will do it so you can check it out for inspiration :)

I think what strategy you pick in the end depends most of all on what style of playing you are most comfortable with and what is the group you are playing with or the environment like. In my meta, which is very Wrath-heavy, my deck has worked - either winning by quick aggro approach or by waiting and then finishing with one big bang. (Again, depending on the group dynamics, strategically my style was often "I'm not a threat, you guys just keep killing each other and never mind me... Now I am ready, boom!")

Anyways so these are my few cents, all the best to you in working on this deck :) I'll be following this thread with great interest...
Since you're going for some big beats out of nowhere with a lower creature count, do you run stuff like Gratuitous Violence or Berserkers' Onslaught? It cuts down your instant/sorcery count a bit, but helps your fewer wizards hit hard. You could try for the best of both worlds with Savage Beating, Relentless Assault, Seize the Day, etc.

Thanks for sharing!
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Sister Katrei
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Post by Sister Katrei » 4 years ago

MeowZeDung wrote:
4 years ago

Since you're going for some big beats out of nowhere with a lower creature count, do you run stuff like Gratuitous Violence or Berserkers' Onslaught? It cuts down your instant/sorcery count a bit, but helps your fewer wizards hit hard. You could try for the best of both worlds with Savage Beating, Relentless Assault, Seize the Day, etc.

Thanks for sharing!
Not the enchantments at all, I actually never considered Gratuitous Violence or such, they (or similar cards) tend to be too high mana cost for me (like I said, I basically ended up cutting higher-cost stuff) and I prefer sorceries/instants to enchantments, because they trigger by themselves. But the extra-combat phase spells are actually a pretty good idea. I don't play them either, but that's mostly because my problem so far has been mostly not enough slots - I have been always mostly looking for what to cut, and there was never lack of cards that wanted to take the freed space. But these actually might be worth adding, especially if I want to kill multiple opponents in one turn (usually I either don't have to do it, or the remaining other people have so little life that they can be shot in the head with something small). Thanks for the tip! I will consider it.

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MeowZeDung
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Post by MeowZeDung » 4 years ago

Sister Katrei wrote:
4 years ago
But these actually might be worth adding, especially if I want to kill multiple opponents in one turn (usually I either don't have to do it, or the remaining other people have so little life that they can be shot in the head with something small). Thanks for the tip! I will consider it.
If you can get Adeliz big enough and voltron or semi-voltron is your jam, Seize the Day gives you three attack steps with her in a single turn. That card is as close as one gets to an auto-include in any voltron deck with red mana symbols imo.
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Sister Katrei
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Post by Sister Katrei » 4 years ago

MeowZeDung wrote:
4 years ago
If you can get Adeliz big enough and voltron or semi-voltron is your jam, Seize the Day gives you three attack steps with her in a single turn. That card is as close as one gets to an auto-include in any voltron deck with red mana symbols imo.
I don't want to play voltron, but it often just turns out that way, so perhaps I simply should :D The flashback is neat. And I like Relentless Assault as well.

Back to your deck and one of the questions you asked in your opening post - I am not sure if the haste-enablers are worth it. I used to run Expedite that at least gave me a card, but I ended up ditching that one too in the end. It may be worth it for you, depending on how many Wizards do you think you can play on one turn that would need the haste.

It again depends on your meta or the meta you expect, and whether your deck is generally suited for swinging with haste Wizards out of nowhere. My experience is that I rather play some Wizards on one turn and attack with them only on the next (provided nobody resets the board), which leaves me mana open for casting only sorceries/instants that turn for a bigger boost. But that's what my deck runs on. I see you're running many more "combat" Wizards like Aven Wind Mage or Dragon Mage than I do. Most of my Wizards rather have some utility ability and get their actual combat strength only through Adeliz. Yours seem to be a board that might work to a degree even without Adeliz on the table, so maybe the haste cards are worth something.

Incidentally - what's your take on Lightning Stormkin, have you tested it at all? Because to me, that seems like a dramatically sub-par card. It is basically weaker version of Stormchaser Mage, or of the Aven Wind Mage. In any case, even if you run it, it is a "nonbo" with the haste-enablers.

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Post by MeowZeDung » 4 years ago

Sister Katrei wrote:
4 years ago
Back to your deck and one of the questions you asked in your opening post - I am not sure if the haste-enablers are worth it. I used to run Expedite that at least gave me a card, but I ended up ditching that one too in the end. It may be worth it for you, depending on how many Wizards do you think you can play on one turn that would need the haste.
I haven't tested extensively enough to know just yet, but It's definitely a feel bad to play 2-3 wizards and then sit on all your other spells so you can rack up a big storm count next turn, only to have the board wiped before then. Believe me, those two are the first cards I would like to find a way to replace if I can become convinced that they aren't sometimes just necessary.
Sister Katrei wrote:
4 years ago
Incidentally - what's your take on Lightning Stormkin, have you tested it at all? Because to me, that seems like a dramatically sub-par card. It is basically weaker version of Stormchaser Mage, or of the Aven Wind Mage. In any case, even if you run it, it is a "nonbo" with the haste-enablers.
I jammed it in for the simple reasons that it was a cheap, evasive wizard, and the haste was gravy. It would rely on Adeliz entirely to make it worth anything stat wise. You make a good point about it's crappiness. After reading your post and thinking about it for approx. 2 seconds, I can't help but wonder why I shouldn't run Burning Prophet, Nin, The Pain Artist, or just go full ham and stuff Azami, Lady of Scrolls in the list. Then again, maybe a Siren Stormtamer effect would be better (I don't own a Glen Elendra Archmage yet). I think my sole reasoning when I built the deck was that I was valuing evasion above nearly all else, because what's the point in pumping a wizard up to a 23/23 just to have it chump blocked by a saproling or germ token?
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Post by Sister Katrei » 4 years ago

MeowZeDung wrote:
4 years ago
I haven't tested extensively enough to know just yet, but It's definitely a feel bad to play 2-3 wizards and then sit on all your other spells so you can rack up a big storm count next turn, only to have the board wiped before then. Believe me, those two are the first cards I would like to find a way to replace if I can become convinced that they aren't sometimes just necessary.
I can see that! Like I said, it really depends on the environment you expect to play in. In either case, maybe it could help if you made a conscious decision to either play spells that grant haste or run more creatures that have it by default? Or else run counterspells against board wipes, but that would again eat up space (and isn't bulletproof anyway).
MeowZeDung wrote:
4 years ago
I jammed it in for the simple reasons that it was a cheap, evasive wizard, and the haste was gravy. It would rely on Adeliz entirely to make it worth anything stat wise. You make a good point about it's crappiness. After reading your post and thinking about it for approx. 2 seconds, I can't help but wonder why I shouldn't run Burning Prophet, Nin, The Pain Artist, or just go full ham and stuff Azami, Lady of Scrolls in the list. Then again, maybe a Siren Stormtamer effect would be better (I don't own a Glen Elendra Archmage yet). I think my sole reasoning when I built the deck was that I was valuing evasion above nearly all else, because what's the point in pumping a wizard up to a 23/23 just to have it chump blocked by a saproling or germ token?
Yes, of course you don't want to end chumped :) I am running spells like Slip Through Space for that. That was one of the first things I put into the deck. For going wide, maybe even Crash Through could be your thing (I have been flip-flopping on that one). Since you are already running Tibor and Lumia who can grant evasion, it may be better to add one or two more evasion-enablers and swap the Stormkin exactly for Burning Prophet or something else.

P. S. You can now also check out my decklist for inspiration here, I posted it in a different thread so as not to clog yours :)

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