For the past few months, Vivi Ornitier has been a dominant force in Standard. Its synergy with Agatha’s Soul Cauldron is so powerful that Wizards practically confirmed the problematic card would be banned on November 10th. While players shouldn’t have to worry about the Standard menace long-term, it appears that Standard isn’t the only Constructed format where Vivi can thrive.
In the same 198-player Pioneer Showcase event where Eddie Brock/Venom, Lethal Protector secured a top eight finish, a sweet Izzet Prowess shell featuring Vivi Ornitier made it all the way to the finals. While this deck is quite different than typical Izzet Cauldron decklists in Standard, it still does a great job maximizing both of Vivi’s abilities.
Izzet Prowess
Despite being a Vivi deck, this Pioneer Prowess list doesn’t feature Agatha’s Soul Cauldron or Proft’s Eidetic Memory. Prowess decks are generally quite aggressive in their nature, so players may also find the absence of typical Prowess standouts like Monastery Swiftspear and Slickshot Show-Off unusual. Instead, this archetype is more focused on generating value and winning grindy games.
With this in mind, the strongest value engine and most threatening card in the mix is undoubtedly Cori-Steel Cutter. With access to so many one-mana cantrips, triggering this artifact turn after turn is trivial. As such, Cori-Steel Cutter lines up perfectly against removal-heavy strategies by producing a continuous flow of tokens to attack with.
Interestingly, Cori-Steel Cutter isn’t the only two-mana play that will run away with the game if left unchecked. Dreadhorde Arcanist is yet another powerhouse that works to maximize your wealth of one-mana cantrips and removal. While the creature is vulnerable to Fatal Push and some other commonly played removal spells, the fact that its toughness outsizes Burst Lightning makes it a powerful option against Mono-Red Aggro.
The same can be said for Vivi Ornitier, your only three-mana play in the maindeck. As long as you’re able to untap with this creature, you should have no problem growing Vivi and generating a boatload of mana. Even if you run out of spells to cast with this excess mana, Stormchaser’s Talent‘s Level Up abilities provide a solid way to get ahead. That said, your chances of running out of spells in this deck are very slim.
Tons of Spells
Nearly every spell in this Izzet Prowess list falls into one of two categories: card selection/card draw and interaction. Your one-mana card selection spells keep your game plan super consistent. Not only do Sleight of Hand, Consider, and Opt all dig for your impactful threats, but once you have Cori-Steel Cutter or Vivi in play, they make it more likely you’ll chain cantrips together for big turns.
As you continue to churn through your library and fuel your graveyard, Treasure Cruise becomes one of your strongest draws. It has some awkward anti-synergy with Dreadhorde Arcanist since you’re often forced to Delve away your cheap spells, but the reward of stocking your hand with a bunch of fresh cards more than makes up for this downside.
In order to ensure you have enough time to relish all of your card advantage against aggressive decks, Fiery Impulse, Torch the Tower, and Into the Flood Maw play an essential role. Pairing them with Dreadhorde Arcanist is your best path to victory against Mono-Red Aggro, Azorius Spirits, Mono-White Humans, or any other assertive creature deck.
Wild Ride is the one outlier in the spell slot, but it more than pulls its weight. It leads to your most explosive turns with Vivi by enabling you to float a bunch of mana, cast more spells, and then attack for a huge chunk of damage. If your opponent ever taps out for a board wipe, this combination of cards may ensure they never get another turn.
Matchup Versatility
Ultimately, what gives this deck its biggest edge in Pioneer is its versatility. This deck is capable of both presenting a fast clock and pulling ahead on resources in the long game. So, depending on the matchup, you can take on a more aggressive or a more controlling approach.
Against Rakdos Midrange, there’s a good chance your Otter tokens from Stormchaser’s Talent and your copies of Dreadhorde Arcanist eat removal spells on sight. Therefore, instead of relying purely on tempo to win the game, you can use your removal to keep their threats under control and buy time until Treasure Cruise and Cori-Steel Cutter take over the game.
On the flip side, against combo archetypes like Simic Scapeshift, curving Stormchaser’s Talent into Cori-Steel Cutter will put your opponent on the back foot in short order. From there, using a couple pieces of disruption to take care of problematic cards can buy you enough time to cross the finish line.
This isn’t to say the deck doesn’t have its weaknesses, though. Specific hate cards like High Noon out of Azorius Control make it impossible to fully leverage Cori-Steel Cutter as a token-spewing machine. Meanwhile, Temporary Lockdown can clean up all of your tokens and Cutters at once, and Rest in Peace singlehandedly makes Dreadhorde Arcanist and Treasure Cruise look foolish.
Given that these problematic enchantments aren’t overly abundant in Pioneer, however, Izzet Prowess is certainly a strong choice in the current metagame. With Vivi likely to bite the dust in Standard in just a few weeks, it looks like competitive spell-slinging aficionados will still have a place to get the most out of the Izzet Wizard.
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