Mizzix's Lightshow - Can you hear the crackling? (EDH / Commander)

Origin:

When I started playing Magic at the 1990‘s, my original idea was building a blue-red deck. But the friend who introduce me to Magic told me that enemy color decks wouldn’t work well. So I started with white-blue instead.
It didn’t take me a long time, till I found out that it was bullshit and built my first blue-red-artifact-deck based on the combo Goblin Sharpshooter + Kormus Bell + Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth. But some years later I swipped completely to Commander. I didn’t rebuild that deck to a EDH-Deck since the Community I was playing with didn’t like land destruction anyway. So I didn’t play blue-red what became Izzet in the meantime for many years till 2015 the Mizzix-Commander-Deck was released.

So in fact, at first my Mizzix-Deck was a preconstructed one, but from the very beginning I started to personalize it. I balanced colors and put focuses on X-Spells, Buyback-Spells and the ability to copy spells.

Main strategy:

The main strategy is of course winning by direct damage due to spells like Fanning the Flames, Banefire or Red Sun’s Zenith.

Since the deck obiviously doesn’t have many creatures, it has to buy some time. One way is bouncing, removing, steeling or countering the opponents creatures for example with Capsize, Cyclonic Rift, Chain Reaction, Satyr Firedancer, Blatant Thievery, Desertion or any other Counter or creating Tokens for blocking with Docent of Perfection // Final Iteration, Release the Gremlins or Talrand, Sky Summoner.

The other way is literally buying some Time by Walk the Aeons, Time Stretch or Expropriate. Thanks to the high chance to copy Spells, Mizzix usually gets more than one Extra Turn.

Alternative win options:

Actually Mizzix doesn’t need alternative win options. But in fact, making combat damage is of course another way to win. Usually it is a mix from direct damage and combat damage.

But what if the opponent is able to gain infinite life? At the beginning, winning by commander damage was actually no realistic way. This changed after Sword of War and Peace as well as Docent of Perfection // Final Iteration found their ways into the deck. Although it is still unlikey to win by commander damage, it is at least not impossible any more especially since those cards even make Mizzix harder to block.

Last but not least winning by life loss is another option. When Psychosis Crawler is on the battlefield, each of the carddrawing X-Spells like Blue Sun’s Zenith, Invoke the Firemind, Stroke of Genius or Expansion // Explosion can be the finisher.

Synergies & Combos:

Charmbreaker Devils + Walk the Aeons or Time Stretch = possibly infinite Turns (depends on the graveyard and if Charmbreaker Devils are copied by Rite of Replication or Saheeli’s Artistry).

Charmbreaker Devils + Walk the Aeons + Blatant Thievery = possibly several Extra Turns by sacrificing the opponents Islands (depends on the graveyard and if Charmbreaker Devils are copied by Rite of Replication or Saheeli’s Artistry).

Sword of War and Peace or Sword of Forge and Frontier + Chain Reaction or Star of Extinction = Saves one of my creatures from my own mass removels.

Mizzix of the Izmagnus + Sakashima the Impostor = Double Experience Counters and Double Discount for Spells.

Urabrask + Sakashima the Impostor + Fanning the Flames + Mizzix of the Izmagnus and at least 3 Experience Counters = Infinite Damage

Urabrask + Skyclave Relic + Shattering Pulse + Mizzix of the Izmagnus and at least 4 Experience Counters = Infinite Damage

Erratic Cyclops + X-Spells = potential finisher