Niv-Mizzet, VisionaryNiv-Mizzet, Visionary| art by Dan Murayama Scott

Which Niv-Mizzet is it?

Hello! Welcome to Archetypes of Imagination, a brand new series where I'll be building decks based on popular Commander archetypes. I'll be using Scryfall's tagging system and EDHREC's Tag pages to build around a new theme each week.

Scryfall has a really cool way of categorizing cards, where each card has specific labels attached to it for later reference. For example, Wrath of GodWrath of God has the sweeper tag and Mirari's WakeMirari's Wake has the mana increaser tag. EDHREC's tag system is really cool too, letting users see popular cards associated with a given strategy.

The Equipment tag shows users that Puresteel PaladinPuresteel Paladin works well with the strategy and the Landfall tag does the same for Rampaging BalothsRampaging Baloths.

This week, we'll use those two systems to build a Commander deck centered around everybody's favorite 60-card archetype: burn! Burn can sometimes struggle to keep up in a format with three players who each start with 40 life, but I've got some plans that should power this strategy up well.

To that end, I've chosen a super cool commander: Niv-Mizzet, VisionaryNiv-Mizzet, Visionary!

This is Niv's seventh appearance on a Magic: The Gathering card, which is quite something. I do think that this version is my favorite so far, and that's coming from someone who played Niv-Mizzet, ParunNiv-Mizzet, Parun in cEDH for years.

And, hilariously, this version of NivNiv goes infinite with two of his previous iterations. Check out these combos from Commander Spellbook, a database with information on over 40,000 EDH combos:

Niv-Mizzet, VisionaryNiv-Mizzet, Visionary

Niv-Mizzet, ParunNiv-Mizzet, Parun

+1 other prerequisite

Near-infinite damageInfinite card drawInfinite draw triggers

Commander Spellbook

Niv-Mizzet, VisionaryNiv-Mizzet, Visionary

Niv-Mizzet, the FiremindNiv-Mizzet, the Firemind

+1 other prerequisite

Near-infinite damageInfinite card drawInfinite draw triggers

Commander Spellbook

That aside, let's talk about Niv-Mizzet, VisionaryNiv-Mizzet, Visionary. This card wants us to do non-combat damage to our opponents, rewarding us with tons of card draw when we do so. So, I've packed this deck with lots of ways to ping our opponents for little bits of damage, lots of ways to hit them hard with big amounts of damage, and leaned hard into an Izzet spellslinger theme this week. I'm excited to show you what I've come up with, so let's go!

Burn, baby! Burn!

This deck is focused heavily on instants and sorceries, having a total of 32 cards that fall into those categories. And, out of those cards, 11 of them can deal damage directly to our opponents. My favorite from this sub-group is Fiery ConfluenceFiery Confluence, which can act as a board wipe, a way to hit our opponents in the face, and even some targeted artifact removal. Cave-InCave-In is from all the way back in 1999's Mercadian Masques, and can draw us a total of 6 cards for free if we cast it with our commander on the field. Wheel of MisfortuneWheel of Misfortune is extremely interesting too, adding even more complexity to its already-difficult mini-game by punishing our opponents who pick a high number. If one of our opponents wants to outbid us so that they can draw a full seven-card hand, then we'll be be drawing a ton of extra cards.

And, with all the instants and sorceries we'll be casting, there's some sweet payoffs to let us draw even more cards. My favorite pinger in the deck is Coruscation MageCoruscation Mage, acting as a typical two-mana one-damage pinger with the option to become a four-mana two-damage pinger if we cast it later in the game.

I think Exalted Flamer of TzeentchExalted Flamer of Tzeentch is another fantastic card, both pinging our opponents whenever we cast a spell and rebuying a card at random on each of our turns.

And, as a pretty cool storm enabler, UrabraskUrabrask is here too. This Praetor will ping our opponents, as most of the creatures in this deck do, while also providing us some extra mana to keep slinging spells. And, should we choose to, he can flip into a saga that synergizes perfectly with our deck.

But, I hear you asking, what if we run out of instants and sorceries to cast? Well, I hope that never happens. But, in case it does, there's a few other ways to deal noncombat damage to our opponents.

One of my favorite cards from last year, Razorkin NeedleheadRazorkin Needlehead will ensure at least one point of noncombat damage on each of our opponents' turns, and will usually provide even more pings as they inevitably take game actions.

I also love Scalding ViperScalding Viper, a creature that can hit our opponents pretty easily combined with a (somewhat lackluster) removal spell.

While neither half of this card is absolutely stunning, the two halves combine to make a pretty good whole. Lastly, Descent into AvernusDescent into Avernus has a slot here too.

This card can speed up the game drastically, lowering life totals and raising the amount of mana available to players. We break parity on this card easily, drawing a boatload of cards once we have our commander and this card on the board together

Now that's a Gut ShotGut Shot!

So, we'll be dealing a lot of noncombat damage to everyone at the table. But, most of that damage is coming in small increments (usually in ones). Let's see what we can do to bump those numbers up. Foundations' Twinflame TyrantTwinflame Tyrant is an awesome card, doubling damage dealt to our opponents and providing a combat-relevant 3/5 flying creature all for just five mana!

Not to sound like a broken record, but this is yet another of my favorite cards from the past year. There's another damage doubler here too: Solphim, Mayhem DominusSolphim, Mayhem Dominus.

Again, this creature can double damage while also acting as a pretty big 5/4 creature. Plus, this one can defend itself from removal at the low cost of discarding two cards, paying four life, and paying one mana.

Lastly, there's Ojer Axonil, Deepest MightOjer Axonil, Deepest Might. This card is fantastic, usually quadrupling the damage that we'll be dealing to our opponents.

And, much like SolphimSolphim, this card is quite hard for our opponents to get rid of permanently.

Here's the full decklist:

Some of you may notice upon looking at this list that there's very few mana rocks. This is on purpose, I promise! For a spellslinger deck, I much prefer to run rituals. Mana GeyserMana Geyser has much more synergy with the rest of this deck than something like Izzet SignetIzzet Signet.

Plus, I get to run some super cool, powerful rituals like Inner FireInner Fire that can provide enough mana to end the game outright.

Fiery FinishFiery Finish

Thanks for reading this week's edition of Archetypes of Imagination! Before you go, I wanted to talk about a few of my favorite cards in the deck. I like Archmage EmeritusArchmage Emeritus, but I love Archmage of RunesArchmage of Runes. It's exactly the kind of big, dumb five-mana creature that I think commander is all about.

I think that Chandra's IncineratorChandra's Incinerator is great in this deck too, both as an easy-to-cast big creature and as a payoff for all the noncombat damage we'll be dishing out. Finally, I also wanted to shoutout Ashling, Flame DancerAshling, Flame Dancer.

This card does everything that this deck wants out of a creature: it adds mana, burns our opponents, and even provides card selection.

I'll see you all next week, when I build another EDH deck centered around cantrips!

Cooper Gottfried

Cooper is a student at Brandeis University, where he’s Editor in Chief of its community newspaper, The Brandeis Hoot. Outside of Magic: The Gathering, his hobbies include weightlifting, writing, and Dungeons and Dragons.