Invoke the Firemind: Standard 5C Niv-Mizzet, Guildpact

Note: This article was translated from Chinese by AI and may contain errors. Read the original Chinese version.

Introduction

In Lorwyn Eclipsed Limited, the vivid theme representing Shadowmoor pairs with Lorwyn’s changeling ability, adding a lot of variety to plain tribal strategies. Hybrid creatures and two-color tokens are important components for boosting vivid effects, so is this novel concept viable in Standard? Let’s use Niv-Mizzet, Guildpact to test the question!

Card Analysis

Niv-Mizzet, Guildpact
Legendary Creature — Dragon Avatar
Flying, hexproof from multicolored
Whenever Niv-Mizzet, Guildpact deals combat damage to a player, it deals X damage to any target, target player draws X cards, and you gain X life, where X is the number of different two-color combinations among permanents you control that are exactly two colors.

As the founder of the Izzet League and the avatar of the Ravnican Guildpact, Niv-Mizzet, Guildpact has an excellent 6/6 flying body for five mana, hexproof from multicolored that is unaffected by guild spell abilities, and, depending on the guild two-color combinations you control, the ability to fire off a Sphinx’s Revelation with damage to any target attached (or, put another way, an Invoke the Firemind with every mode chosen plus life gain). Although the effect looks quite powerful, five-color casting cost is the basic barrier, hexproof from multicolored offers poor protection in a constructed environment dominated by mono-colored removal, and the trigger that has to connect with the opponent depends on the number of color combinations among permanents that are exactly two colors; three or more colors don’t count, and duplicate combinations don’t count either, so slapping down a Leyline of the Guildpact makes the whole ability go down the drain, making it absolutely the hardest-to-use Niv-Mizzet ever printed. So can it actually work? Here is my answer:

Decklist

First, let’s look at the hybrid partners that Lorwyn Eclipsed brought us. The red-green Vibrance and Noggle Robber, one fetching lands and one making Treasure, provide the foundation for five-color mana fixing; the blue-green Tam, Mindful First-Year, who wandered over from Strixhaven, gives the rest of your creatures hexproof from their own colors, letting Niv-Mizzet, Guildpact be hexproof from all five colors outright; the red-blue Sanar, Innovative First-Year, also from Strixhaven, is a super strong draw engine in multicolor permanent decks, and when I used it in Limited I often drained my library within a few turns; finally there is the Ravnica-native white-green Dryad Militant, reprinted in FDN, a hybrid 2/1 for one mana that is light and easy to cast and, while sitting on the board, also holds back instant-and-sorcery decks that make use of the graveyard.

Next are the orthodox two-color cards. I chose Frostcliff Siege, which provides haste and trample, Buried in the Garden, which is removal and also accelerates and fixes, and the black-white planeswalker Kaya, Spirit’s Justice and red-white Quintorius Kand, who can make two-color tokens.

Last are the faux mono-colored cards. One is Ashling, Rekindled, the hot-right-now mana creature for spells costing four or more that also accelerates and filters, and the other is the red-blue Room Roaring Furnace // Steaming Sauna, used as cheap removal (when both halves of the Room are unlocked it becomes two colors).

As for the land configuration, the main colors are red and green with white and blue as secondary, and since Vibrance fetches lands directly, three-color lands are included, with a ratio of green 17, red 15, blue 12, white 10, black 8.

Gameplay Demo

Although it needs some setup, once Niv-Mizzet, Guildpact gets going it quickly rolls up card advantage, and having two or three color combinations on the board is plenty strong. Besides that, the pairing of the planeswalker Quintorius Kand and Sanar, Innovative First-Year is also a powerful finisher, and overall the deck’s power is surprisingly decent. As for the problem points, it is probably that the slightly slow tempo gets easily punished by the super acceleration of Badgermole Cub, which is also an area where the sideboard needs strengthening.

Conclusion

I wanted to take on a Niv-Mizzet, Guildpact build back in Murders at Karlov Manor, but the card pool conditions weren’t ready then and I couldn’t make anything of it. The hybrid fixing cards of Lorwyn Eclipsed happened to supply the last puzzle piece, allowing this deck to come into being. Its power level may be a matter of opinion, but I trust the flashiness is satisfying. Do you still like Niv-Mizzet like this?