Despite the prohibitive mana cost, Niv-Mizzet, Parun makes an immediate impact on the board. He's devastating against most of the format and pays for himself in spades. Like previous iterations of Niv-Mizzet, this one feels like a combo card. When you untap with him in play, you are quite often able to set off a chain of spells that can wipe creatures off your opponent's field or take a chunk out of their life total. Since it triggers so often, it is easy to clean up small creatures or pressure planeswalkers. We're in Blue, so we're already in the market to draw a bunch of cards. Niv triggers every time you draw a card, so something as simple as casting a Chemister's Insight during your main phase can help kick your cheaper removal spells up a notch and help take down bigger creatures. Since the format has been spell centric recently, even if Niv goes down you'll be able to refuel with at least one extra card. If you're concerned about Niv just dying, you can wait until you can cast a spell in response to their removal to gain some value. With all the cheap spells in the deck, gaining value off of Niv isn't much of a stretch. Other must kill creatures provide multiple targets for removal, making it harder for an opponent to ensure they can take care of Niv-Mizzet.

The first deck I wanted to explore was a Control deck. It makes a ton of sense to create a firm grip on the game state before slamming Niv and winning the game. The way Standard is shaping up, though, it has been hard to rely on too few threats. Crackling Drake serves as another win condition and a great speed bump on the way to Niv. Since Crackling Drake gets so big, if your opponent misses a beat, you can just kill them.

U/R Control | Guilds Standard | Rudy Briksza

• Creatures (6)
• 2 Niv-Mizzet, Parun
• 4 Crackling Drake

• Planeswalkers (1)
• 1 Ral, Izzet Viceroy

• Instants (26)
• 1 Disdainful Stroke
• 1 Negate
• 1 Shock
• 2 Essence Scatter
• 2 Expansion // Explosion
• 3 Chemister's Insight
• 3 Lightning Strike
• 3 Shivan Fire
• 3 Sinister Sabotage
• 3 Syncopate
• 4 Opt

• Sorceries (2)
• 2 Lava Coil

• Lands (25)
• 6 Mountain
• 7 Island
• 4 Izzet Guildgate
• 4 Steam Vents
• 4 Sulfur Falls

• Sideboard (15)
• 2 Disdainful Stroke
• 2 Negate
• 3 Fiery Cannonade
• 2 Fight with Fire
• 1 Ral, Izzet Viceroy
• 2 Lava Coil
• 3 Silent Gravestone

Buy This Deck Export text format

The benefit of playing a deck like this is that it lines up well Game 1 against most of the format. It has all the tools to beat everything and most decks have some awkward cards that don't line up well against what you're trying to do. I've included a multitude of cheap spells in order to really make use of the lower land count and to not only pump Crackling Drake but also be able to cast multiple spells in a turn to trigger Niv-Mizzet. Post board I've geared the deck even more toward beating Golgari. Lava Coil and Silent Gravestone go a long way in breaking up what those decks are trying to do. What's really good about the grave hate here is how nicely it plays with Crackling Drake since the Drake counts your instants and sorceries in Exile as well. You can make moves when you need to with Silent Gravestone without impacting your game plan!

The deck isn't without cons, however. It's very reactive, and it is hard to combat everything an opponent can do. Without a good way to answer planeswalkers, you're forced to hope your counterspells come at the right times. Fortunately, the power level of the individual cards is high enough that the deck will likely carry you across the finish line.

Another variant of the deck eschews some of the counterspells for Divinations (or my personal favorite, Secrets of the Golden City) in order to keep pace while trading off removal spells constantly and hitting land drops. In a tap-out deck, I'd lean toward three Niv-Mizzets, but I'm going to play a controlling game more often than not. If you want to play a tempo game, then you'll be more inclined to play the next deck.

U/R Tempo | Guilds Standard | Rudy Briksza

• Creatures (10)
• 2 Niv-Mizzet, Parun
• 4 Arclight Phoenix
• 4 Goblin Electromancer

• Planeswalkers (3)
• 3 Sarkhan, Fireblood

• Instants (14)
• 2 Chemister's Insight
• 4 Opt
• 4 Radical Idea
• 4 Shock

• Sorceries (11)
• 3 Lava Coil
• 4 Chart a Course
• 4 Discovery // Dispersal

• Lands (22)
• 6 Mountain
• 7 Island
• 1 Izzet Guildgate
• 4 Steam Vents
• 4 Sulfur Falls

• Sideboard (15)
• 1 Banefire
• 2 Disdainful Stroke
• 2 Negate
• 2 Fiery Cannonade
• 2 Fight with Fire
• 2 Rekindling Phoenix
• 2 Firemind's Research
• 1 Silent Gravestone
• 1 River's Rebuke

Buy This Deck Export text format

While this version seems a little light on land for Niv-Mizzet, I think between Sarkhan and the sheer amount of cards you see every game you'll have no trouble at all tearing through your deck and casting Niv. This deck has been popping up recently, although it hasn't contained Niv in the main deck just yet. This list makes it easy to set up several turns where you get to cast three to five spells. With Niv in play this results in mowing down the opponent's life total while setting up to bring your Arclight Phoenixes back into play quickly. While Golgari decks are playing setup and trying to craft their board state, you're dominating them in the air and churning through your deck. I'm unsure if Experimental Frenzy would be good in this kind of deck, but you can bet I'll try it at some point. The deck can burn through spells quick enough that it might be a reasonable card anyways.

This is the deck I'm the most excited about. Half combo, half tempo, and all sorts of fun. You get to do so many neat things, and the deck rewards you for sequencing well and playing to your outs. I'm certainly going to miss a card like Tormenting Voice, but Jump-Start lets you do a half impression and really get moving. Goblin Electromancer might be the secret best card in the deck since it reduces costs and lets you cast multiple spells a turn. The Goblin almost makes this feel like a watered down Modern Storm list.

Post board we get access to the same Silent Gravestone tech which really lets us play our own game with Jump-Start cards and Phoenixes while shutting down a lot of what Golgari decks are trying to do. Rekindling Phoenix lets us get more flying threats that are tough to deal with.

But if you're like me, you might want to go deep on the early Niv-Mizzet and pair Sarkhan with some real Dragons.

Grixis Dragons | Guilds Standard | Rudy Briksza

• Creatures (9)
• 2 Niv-Mizzet, Parun
• 3 Thief of Sanity
• 4 Nicol Bolas, the Ravager

• Planeswalkers (3)
• 3 Sarkhan, Fireblood

• Instants (10)
• 1 Expansion // Explosion
• 1 Moment of Craving
• 2 Shivan Fire
• 2 Spell Pierce
• 2 Syncopate
• 2 Vraska's Contempt

• Sorceries (12)
• 1 Notion Rain
• 2 Discovery // Dispersal
• 2 Ritual of Soot
• 3 Lava Coil
• 4 Thought Erasure

• Enchantments (1)
• 1 The Eldest Reborn

• Lands (25)
• 1 Swamp
• 2 Island
• 2 Mountain
• 4 Dragonskull Summit
• 4 Drowned Catacomb
• 4 Steam Vents
• 4 Sulfur Falls
• 4 Watery Grave

• Sideboard (15)
• 2 Disdainful Stroke
• 2 Moment of Craving
• 3 Negate
• 1 Search for Azcanta
• 2 Fiery Cannonade
• 1 Vona's Hunger
• 1 Chemister's Insight
• 1 Phyrexian Scriptures
• 2 Expansion // Explosion

Buy This Deck Export text format

Nicol Bolas, the Ravager is a powerful threat on its own and can easily just win games. Curving Sarkhan into Bolas lets you hold mana up for any removal or possibly a protection spell. I think Thought Erasure is one of the best cards in the format. Vivien Reid and The Eldest Reborn are starting to pick up steam and Thought Erasure nabbing those cards can ensure your Niv or Nicol Bolas gets to fly their own personal friendly skies with no interruption. This is closer to a control deck than a midrange deck, but it has a lot of powerful tools. The mana can be poor at times since it plays 12 buddy lands alongside eight Shock lands. There will be plenty of times you'll be sitting on weird turns in terms of sequencing while playing a turn behind, even on the play. The benefit to playing Grixis and dealing with the shaky mana is immensely powerful Nicol Bolas and fantastic removal options like Vraska's Contempt.

I've included Spell Pierce in the list to compensate for the mana, but I also think it might be one of the most underrated cards in Standard. Everyone is using all of their mana every turn and being able to not only protect your creatures but also eat an entire one of their turns can swing the game dramatically. Perhaps Spell Pierce is going to be great in the tempo deck I talked about earlier, but I am having trouble really making room for everything the list may want.

I haven't had a ton of time with any of these lists, but I am excited to keep jamming. There are lots of awesome cards and there is so much room to explore. All of these decks have potential to beat the current Golgari menace with a little love and fine tuning. Niv is waiting for the right deck; and, when we find it, Niv-Mizzet is going to make same waves.