Magic: The Gathering - Building an Izzet Deck, Part 2

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The surprisingly easy part of building a Commander deck: Finding lots of cards.

The hard part: Finding cards that work together in such a random singleton format to stay in the game and have a win condition.

There are three basic ways to win a game:

1. Deal damage to the opponent(s) in combat
2. Use the interaction of card effects to generate a glorious combo win
3. Use cards that generate an "I automatically win now" or "You automatically lose now" game condition.

The combo cards are too expensive usually for my deck, so this will be built for a combination of direct spell damage and creature combat. It is red and blue, so there are plenty of ways to get extra value from casting instant a sorcery spells. That will be a backup plan as part of staying in the game. But what I really need are some giant stompy creatures that can be made unblockable with enchantments, artifacts, or creature abilities in this deck. As such, I am looking through my dragons, leviathans, and giants to make this work. Unfortunately, I haven't really decided on anything yet.

Some auto-include cards that are iconic for the colors and fit the flavor of my deck plans are shown below. Lightning Bolt is as red as red gets. I zap you or one of your dudes for 3 damage. Ponder is equally representative of blue, since it lets me stack my deck and draw an extra card. Cancel is another iconic blue card due to its disruption of an opponent's plans. Meanwhile, Act of Treason lets me steal an opponent's creature for a turn and lets me hit them back with it. This could qualify as a win condition, depending on the opponent, but it is not a guarantee by any means.

Click the images for source pages and more card info!

Do any other MTG players here on Steemit have a favorite red and/or blue beatstick creature? What do you think of Inkwell Leviathan or Shivan Dragon?

Edit: The Wizards of the Coast website is back online, so card images and commentary are now embedded in the post!

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