A couple weeks ago, Wizards of the Coast in an unprecedented move essentially made it clear that Vivi Ornitier would be getting banned in Standard on November 10. Izzet Cauldron has dominated the format for quite some time, so this isn’t too much of a surprise.
However, there’s an argument that banning just Vivi won’t be enough to keep Izzet down. Yesterday, one player managed to split the finals of a Standard Challenge with an Izzet Cauldron list that’s almost normal, but with one key difference: Vivi Ornitier and Agatha’s Soul Cauldron were omitted! For those hoping for a major shakeup in Standard following the Vivi ban, you may be in for a bad time.
Tons of Overlap
At a baseline, this deck’s main gameplan is extremely similar to that of Izzet Cauldron. Your goal is to utilize lots of card draw elements in order to maximize the power of Proft’s Eidetic Memory. Many of your creatures, including Fear of Missing Out and Steamcore Scholar, synergize perfectly with the enchantment.
Even though you aren’t looking to discard anything specific since the Vivi Cauldron package is gone, putting Winternight Stories into your graveyard with the intention of casting it via Harmonize is always a strong play. With all of these discard outlets, Marauding Mako is still a threatening turn-one play.
There are obviously disadvantages to not running Cauldron and Vivi. The combo aspect of the deck leads to the most explosive draws. Not having Cauldron in the pseudo-mirror match as a disruptive element can come back to bite you, too.
However, there are also some major benefits to structuring your deck this way. First and foremost, with the extra flex slots you now have remaining, you’re free to run more removal. A full playset of Torch the Tower and Into the Flood Maw in conjunction with a couple copies of Abrade make it much easier to keep up with mono-red.
Mono-red and other creature aggro decks, such as mono-green, have been on the rise following Izzet Cauldron’s dominance. As many players prepared for the Izzet mirror match, Izzet players began to trim on removal. Aggro decks then took advantage. Well, this shell does a good job punishing those creature-heavy gameplans.
You also get to make use of Stormchaser’s Talent and Frostcliff Siege as additional tempo elements to keep your opponent on the backfoot. Stormchaser’s Talent and Quantum Riddler then provide tons of value in the mid to late game against midrange and control decks. With such a robust gameplan and an elite performance, it’s hard to imagine Izzet fading away entirely after Vivi’s gone in November.
Ban Discussion
This deck’s success raises the question: is banning Vivi Ornitier enough to actually stabilize the Standard metagame? Izzet Cauldron has been incredibly dominant at tournaments. At the main event in SCG Con Orlando that featured 674 players, Izzet Cauldron made up over 54% of the room in day 2. While mono-red ended up winning the event, Izzet’s consistently massive showing and format-warping nature all but made a ban in some capacity inevitable.
Unfortunately, there’s a chance that, unless further action is taken, players will simply shift towards a shell similar to this one, and the metagame doesn’t open up as much as players were hoping. This deck’s success garnered some discussion on the matter.
Some players believe Proft’s Eidetic Memory is the real engine for Izzet and is the most problematic card worthy of a ban.
Even without the mana advantage that Cauldron and Vivi provide, the way Izzet attacks you from multiple angles makes it tough to combat. If you fill up on removal, you’ll get buried in card advantage by Winternight Stories and Quantum Riddler. The combination of cheap creatures, Proft’s Eidetic Memory, and cheap removal makes it tough to race.
Implementing Abhorrent Oculus and Helping Hand could add more explosive power if necessary, too. There’s been very little reason to go down this route with Cauldron and other forms of graveyard hate so heavily played. Post-ban, though, this may not be the case.
The Hope
It’s unlikely that Wizards of the Coast goes out of their way to ban Proft’s Eidetic Memory on November 10th, given how much information was telegraphed in their recent “announcement.” In our eyes, a ban to Proft’s Eidetic Memory seems worthwhile considering how frustrated players have been playing against Izzet nonstop for months. As frustrating as it may be if Izzet remains a top-tier archetype, though, there’s still some hope that a Vivi-only ban will allow other decks to flourish and contain the Izzet menace.
For example, Azorius control has a lot of appeal against Cauldronless Izzet. All of the additional removal spells are extremely weak versus control. Counterspells like No More Lies line up well against Winternight Stories and Quantum Riddler. From there, you have plenty of removal spells to contain early creatures and Proft’s Eidetic Memory, and threats like Marang River Regent are solid game enders in the matchup.
As good as this Izzet shell seems to be, it may not constrict the format quite as much without the Vivi Cauldron nonsense. It’s much safer for players to tap out without fear of dying to a combo. Graveyard and artifact hate become less of a necessity.
Izzet should remain a strong archetype choice moving forward. If its metagame percentage dips and other strategies like Azorius control, Dimir midrange, and various aggro strategies rise, we could still see a balanced and enjoyable distribution of decks, but as things stand, the deck still may be too powerful even with Vivi gone.
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