Firemind's Retort (Standard)

This is a mouthful, so here it goes: this is an Izzet-Wizard-Tribal-Counter-Burn deck.

It works by controlling the game from the get-go, slowly chipping away at your opponent with opportunistic creature swings, Risk Factors, and Ionizes. This is a control deck at heart, you want the game to run long. Niv-Mizzet, Adeliz, and Explosion are your finishers here.

So, here is a rundown of how to play the deck:

For the early game (turns 1 and 2), bide your time, play lands, maybe get a Goblin Electromancer or Siren Stormtamer out early. Save your Adeliz and Wee Dragonauts -- we want to save those for the end game (plus, we want the mana open).

For the mid-game (turns 3 through 5), you should be playing a land and passing EVERY turn -- you want mana up for your counters and hand-replenishers. At this point in the game, if an opponent plays something scary, counter it if you can. Or burn it if you can't. If you can't do either of those, or if your opponent doesn't do anything noteworthy, play a Risk Factor or Chemister's Insight at the end of their turn. Risk Factor is the BREAD AND BUTTER of the deck. If your opponent chooses to take 4 to the face, good. If they decide to give you more gas, even better. Either way, you win in the end. Be aware that Risk Factor is not a guaranteed draw, so if you REALLY need cards in hand, cast a Chemister's Insight instead, if you have it. Goblin Electromancers are straight VALUE at this point in the game (four land can get you two casts of Risk Factor! Ouch!), so protect them with the Siren Stormtamers or even a counterspell (if the situation calls for it). Remember: you don't play Magic on YOUR turn, you play it on your OPPONENT'S turn.

For the late-game (past turn 6), you want to put your opponent out of their missery. Start playing your bombs -- Adeliz, Wee Dragonauts, and especially Niv-Mizzet. If you can, keep some mana up -- enough to counter a spell or draw some cards. You want to stop playing land after your 6th land drop -- every land from now-on should be used for Jump-Staring spells.

Now that we have how to PLAY the deck out of the way, let's talk about how the deck was constructed. It's all about balancing the draw with the burn with the counter-magic. For me, with my store's meta, this decklist I have here works well, but feel free to swap cards out of the sideboard and mainboard them, depending on what you are going up against. I've also included a few spells in the maybeboard that are good, but meta-dependent. I would use Wizard's Retort as a last resort counterspell. I've playing them, and they don't really pull their weight (especially with an Electromancer on board).

The sideboard here is very flexible. If the need arises (say I'm playing against Elves or another weenie based deck), I trade out a lot of the counter for more burn and maybe a River's Rebukes. If I'm playing against an Aggro deck, and I died very quickly last game, I'll swap the Chemester's Insights and the counter for some more burn plus a few River's Rebukes and an Adeliz (for that extra speed). If I'm playing against another control deck, I'll take out all the burn and put in all the counterspells plus another Niv-Mizzet (because he is HARD for control decks to answer). This deck usually does well against mid-range decks, but swap counter for burn when necicary (keeping the draw power in).

I've recently removed the River's Rebukes and Lava Coils for a playset of Fiery Cannonades (because the Rebukes are too high cost and never get you out of the bad situation you are in until it is much too late.) Even though it hits your creatures too, the good news is that most of them survive. Siren Stormtamer is a pirate and doesn't get hit. Adeliz would get hit, but she buffs herself up to 3/3 whenever you cast this. And Wee Dragonaugts can survive it. The only creature that can't quite make it is Goblin Electromancer. However, if you have Adeliz out already, he gets to live, too! If you are going against a lot of tokens (Boros, Selesnya) or against a lot of "go wide" decks (Elves, Golgari Explore), then this card is straight VALUE. Just be sure to use it at the right moment.

And that's the deck! Let's Make Counter/Burn Great Again!