I've always likes Nin. Ever since I saw her get released in the commander sets years ago, I thought she'd make a good Izzet general. She has pretty tough competition too, considering "Niv Mizzet, the Combo Lord" or "Jhoria, I Play 10 CMC Cards For Free" are the champions of the colors. However, Nin has a great ability in allowing you to not only play politics in group EDH games by allowing people to get cards, but also has a special card she synergizes so well to be used in the deck. The issue with Red/Blue is that primarily on the latter, it's expensive to build a centered controls deck that allows you to play politics and not make you an immediate target. There are certain cards that I would've added if they (a. Didn't cost $20 or more or (b. Just didn't make you seem like the biggest annoyance at a game for playing it, immediately putting all the focus on you. So for a median of under a $100, I decided to build out a "Nin, I want card advantage but don't want to piss everyone off" deck.
You should play this deck if:
- You like drawing lots of cards
- You like playing politics with giving people draws
- You like being able to live through threats
- You're a masochist ;)
The biggest draw to this deck is it's longevity. You'll want to stay alive as long as possible while making it undesirable to attack you. There are a few creatures in this deck I've added because of this:
Psychic Membrane, Wall of Frost, and AEther Membrane all have some sort of trigger that comes from blocking. Guard Gomazoa is just great because having something that can't die from combat damage increases a cards longevity on the board. These creatures are also great targets for Nin's ability to deal damage, as you can net cards at the end of opponents turns and still keep the creatures alive.
Other creatures have utility and great abilities without painting a target like Steel Hellkite (SCIENCE DRAGON!), Clone (allowing you to either copy some of your better creatures or maybe snag a copy of an opponents creature), Djinn Illuminatus (making all your instant and sorcery spells immediately better because you can recast them), Willbender (being that One-Two surprise to someone attempting Swords to Plowshare/Path to Exile something or just removal in general), Goblin Electromancer (because who doesn't like spending less on their spells?), Graceful Adept (for the times you don't have a Spellbook), Hoarding Dragon (when you want to pull out vital artifacts from your deck and have a nice beater to boot), and Whirlpool Warrior (who is a Windfall... ON A STICK).
Then we have the creatures who probably will paint a target or two, but by the time you drop them you should already be set to the point where you know you can live a few punches.
Creepy Doll (an incredible blocker with the possibility to remove stuff), Inferno Titan (for those Beater moments), Hypersonic Dragon (cuz playing stuff on opponents turn is kewl), Dragon Mage (let's refill hands every combat. Yay!), Spellbound Dragon (I just discarded Insurrection. Eat 11?), Dominus of Fealty (you may not always have good stuff. Take theirs!), and Mindwrack Liege (which is just a great bonus to your creatures and allows you to play bigger stuff on the cheap).
The deck has some flavor.. and other bombshell creatures. The biggest one is Stuffy Doll, who allows you to ping it, draw the cards from Nin's ability and deal damage to your opponent. This way you'll be free from having to worry about dealing lethal because it's indestructible.
Niv-Mizzet didn't get free from this list and he's apart of the decks only infinite combo of Mizzet + Curiosity. Great way to just say "Games Over" once the game is almost done.
Psychosis Crawler is a big guy that paints a large target on you. Usually you will play him when you know you have the game. Being able to have him on the field, draw something absurd like 10 with Nin, have everyone lose 10 life, and then being able to swing for anything from 10 and above is nuts.
Finally Melek, Izzet Paragon. This guy is terribly underrated. Being able to copy any instant or sorcery spell you cast AND being able to cast the top card of your library is an amazing ability and let's you abuse some draw spells like Gush and Jace's Ingenuity.
When it comes to spells, this deck isn't short of them.
Being a U/R control deck, it needs it's counters. I decided to stay away from some of the more mainstream counters and use a few other's I found that syngergize with the deck better. You have your obvious includes like Spell Crumple and Hinder, but I decided to add some like Rites of Refusal and Memory Lapse that allow you to benefit the draw advantage you give yourself and your opponent. A card they'll draw that they already had is one less new card they get. Power Sink is one of my favorite counters and has great art (original art), so I figured I'd add it. If you want, Counterspell can replace it. Exhaustion isn't a counter, but stasis is something to consider is someone decides to tap out,
Copy abilities are fun. Not only being able to copy stuff, with Melek, you can copy your copies to copy your copies and copy all the copies!
Wild Ricohet is great because it allows you to take a target, change it, copy it and do it again. A great idea is when the game is low and someone wants to end it with Exsanguinate, you can copy it and have yours resolve first, hopefully being able to win instead before the original copy has a chance to resolve.
Reververate and Increasing Vengeance are general copies, with one being able to played again.
Cackling Counterpart let's you double up on some of your creatures TWICE. How's 3 Goblin Electromancer's sound? Being able to cast Insurrection for 5 instead of 8.
Draw advantage on cards in blue is a must. Basic cards like Ponder and Brainstorm are self explanatory, same going for Gush and Jace's Ingenuity but Thirst for Knowledge and Izzet Charm have a choice advantage/drawback. Fabricate let's you search for some of the pivotal artifacts in the deck.
Removal is difficult to find in U/R without dropping money (Chaos Warp anyone?). So Pongify, Blasphemous Act, and Mizzium Mortars let you control the field so nothing get's too dicey.
Other great spells like Ray of Command and Reins of Power can either net you some damage or be a Fog effect to save you from damage. Wash Out and Devastation Tide are to great ways of resetting the board so you aren't overwhelmed by creatures before you can set up your own board.
Some of the decks more fun spells are Windfall, Molten Psyche, and Reforge the Soul. These cards are cheap, easy to find, and easy to play because no one is going to say no to a new hand that isn't a combo loving loser. Especially if someone else has a lot of cards in hand, and now everyone has that many cards. Whats fun is playing Windfall on an opponents turn with Hypersonic Dragon out. Molten Psyche is great if you drew a lot of cards of Nin, and then play this with three artifacts out.
The deck really only has two other win conditions other than Niv-Mizzet + Curiosity. Insurrection and Stitch in Time. Insurrection is an end all card you do when everyone has set up to the point where they're ready to kill. Stitch in Time is a cheaper Time Warp with a chance to fail. Still fun tho because that extra turn should mean it's game over.
The non creature artifacts in the deck are pretty staple to it. Lightning Greaves, Spellbook, Izzet Keyrune, Tormod's Crypt, and Darksteel Ingot need no explanation but cards like Feldon's Cane let you recycle your deck when you get low, Isochron Scepter let's you put things like Ponder and Brainstorm on it so you can have foresight into the future, and Mimic Vat let's you utilize other players utility creatures or anything they'd have to discard with the rest of the cards in the deck's abilities. Finally, Staff of Nin for flavor and draw power.
Ral Zarek, being the only planewalker in the deck (and being dirt cheap at that) is fun. Lightning Bolt on a stick and eventually being able to take up to 5 turns with a base of luck. Not as good as Jace or Chandra, but still very fun.
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Overall this deck shows it's price. Being a budget, I tried to be as creative and effective as possible. There are plenty of cards you can put in to make it better, but I feel that given what is there, you can make the best out of a situation by giving your opponents cards in exchange for them not wanting to attack you. This deck is fun, relatively cheap and makes usage of a lot of cards that just honestly never see the light of day.
Strengths:
- Not as squishy as other control decks
- Has great access to card advantage
- Doesn't paint you a huge target from the get go
- General is cheap to play, doesn't mind dying 1-2 times
Weakness:
- No really good game winning combos.
- Sacrifices power for budget, it shows
- No real enchantment/artifact removal
- Late game you become a BIG threat