We finally have our top eight for Pro Tour Final Fantasy, and Izzet Prowess was unsurprisingly the talk of the tournament. Not only did it make up over 40% of the field, but it ate up four slots in top eight. The other four slots went to mono-red aggro, showcasing just how absurdly dominant the color red is in Standard.
While this is bound to raise discussion about potential bans to Cori-Steel Cutter and Monstrous Rage, these two decks weren’t the only red archetypes to find success at the Pro Tour. A more combo-oriented Izzet shell built to maximize Vivi Ornitier boasted an 8-1 Constructed record in the hands of renowned MTG pro Paulo Vitor Damo da Rosa.
This brew is quickly starting to pick up steam, with the finals of yesterday’s Magic Online Standard Challenge being an Izzet Vivi mirror. Not only that, but you won’t find any copies of Cori-Steel Cutter or Monstrous Rage in any of the decklists! This deck has a lot going for it, so let’s take a closer look at how the deck operates.
Vivi and Cauldron Team Up
This Izzet shell doesn’t function like a Prowess deck. Instead, you’re looking to generate tons of mana with Vivi Ornitier’s activated ability to gain a massive advantage. Obviously, casting Vivi and following up with noncreature spells is the traditional approach, but this deck has some other tricks up its sleeve.
This is because of the presence of Agatha’s Soul Cauldron. Cauldron allows you to exile creatures from graveyards, distribute +1/+1 counters on your creatures, and those creatures gain all activated abilities of cards exiled with Cauldron. As such, one of your strongest lines of play is to actually discard Vivi and exile it with Cauldron.
To help support this gameplan, there are some strong ways to add a bunch of +1/+1 counters to your creatures at will. At the top of the list, we have Proft’s Eidetic Memory. Proft’s Eidetic Memory lets you put +1/+1 counters on a creature of your choice equal to the number of excess cards you draw each turn.
Naturally, this includes the card you draw when Proft’s Eidetic Memory enters. Once you factor in the playset of Winternight Stories, though, you can start to go ballistic. Winternight Stories is a premium card draw engine. If you can cast it and then cast it again via Harmonize, when you got to combat, Proft’s Eidetic Memory will make one of your creatures massive.
Well, if you’ve exiled Vivi with Cauldron too, now you’ll have a boatload of mana to work with and relish all of those extra cards. Add in other creatures like Marauding Mako and extra copies of Vivi that naturally grow with +1/+1 counters, and you’ll be able to net insane amounts of mana each turn.
Besides attacking with your beefy threats, if you can get a copy of Voldaren Thrillseeker exiled with Cauldron, you can start flinging your big threats and end the game outside of combat. Once you get your train rolling, winning the game isn’t difficult.
Enabling Cauldron
In order to help set things up, you need low-cost ways to discard Vivi and Voldaren Thrillseeker. Luckily, this deck has a multitude of strong cards that naturally let you loot away cards you want in the graveyard.
Winternight Stories is one of your best options, given how well it synergizes with Proft’s Eidetic Memory. In the creature slot, both Fear of Missing Out and Tersa Lightshatter add to the board while doubling as discard outlets. Having a high enough creature count is important when it comes to maximizing Cauldron.
In the noncreature slot, besides Winternight Stories, Glacial Dragonhunt serves as a removal spell and discard outlet. The fact that all of these cards work to buff Marauding Mako and maximize Proft’s Eidetic Memory in addition to enabling Cauldron makes this deck very cohesive. Churning through your deck to find your missing pieces is easy with so much card filtering.
The remaining card slots go to interactive elements like Into the Flood Maw and Abrade. Your sideboard features a nice mix of removal, Counterspells, and grindy tools like Enduring Curiosity to address a wide variety of decks you might face.
A Cause for Concern?
This archetype is very new, but it’s strong and consistent. While the “combo” aspect of the deck involving Cauldron is very scary, this deck is more than capable of playing a fair game. Proft’s Eidetic Memory and Winternight Stories excel in attrition battles, while Marauding Mako presents a very fast clock that can put the opponent on the backfoot in no time.
It’s still early, but it’s hard not to feel a little concerned about Standard moving forward. Cori-Steel Cutter and Monstrous Rage undoubtedly have targets on their backs following such an incredible Pro Tour performance. This version of Izzet is so different than traditional Prowess or red aggro, and a ban to these two cards would leave the deck unaffected.
There’s definitely a chance players are able to adapt and keep this new Izzet variant in check. It’s also possible Vivi proves to be an elite force for the foreseeable future. For now, we’ll just have to wait and see how the ban announcement and the following weeks shake out. Just make sure to keep this deck on your radar moving forward, and don’t be surprised if it’s a top tier strategy soon.
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