Thread by @Chosler88

I'm not an expert on *playing* the Izzet Phoenix deck, but I've watched it a TON over the past month and talked to the best players in the world about it (and I can type the list with my eyes closed by now).

Anyway, short thread since I think many people misunderstand the deck.

Yes, the deck has broken starts. Yes, sometimes it puts a million birds into play on turn 2 or flips a Thing on turn 3. It's powerful because it has broken starts. But Modern has dozens of decks capable of openers just as explosive, and they've never come close to this dominance.

But viewing the deck through that lens is like looking at Legacy and saying "it's degenerate combo and the games all end on turn 2!"

Anyone who plays the format knows that's the exception and not the rule, and Izzet Phoenix is the same way.

People want to overload on graveyard hate to fight the deck, and I get it. The problem is almost all the non-Surgical hate is rarely enough. Look at that sideboard - this deck reminds me a lot of Twin. It combos you with a perfect game 1 and then turns into a fair deck if need be

That Keranos sideboard tech is straight out of the Twin playbook, and the Chandras you see in the board accomplish the same thing. Additionally, it's trivially easy for good Phoenix players to play around most graveyard hate and just go for one big turn to thwart many hate cards.

The reason the deck is so dominant isn't because it can play through graveyard hate - it's that many times it doesn't need it at all. If you contort your deck to beat one angle, it comes with another. Kaya? Hold Birds to dump on a big turn. Rest in Peace? Crackling Drake you.

Another factor is that this is the best "xerox" deck there is. As @BrianDeMars1 (who Top 8'ed this event with Phoenix) said in this excellent article (channelfireball.com/articles/decks…), efficient cantrips make this possible. We're seeing 18 lands in a deck with multiple four-drops.

More than a third of the stock list is a card that when cast will replace itself by drawing card - and I'm not even counting spicy stuff like Snapcaster Mage that provide their own card advantage. That means this deck sees an unreal amount of cards in an average game.

Players can afford to play many ways depending on the matchup/sideboarding/board, and it plays perfectly into the hands of pros very good at these type of turns. When a deck can fuel its primary game plan simply by digging for interactive spells, your graveyard hate has no shot.

I've heard a lot of educated opinions on the deck, from Hall of Famers to Izzet devotees, and with a few exceptions the consensus is that the deck is not going anywhere. I'll be honest - I'm a bit worried about how much of the field at #MTGLondon is going to be rocking Phoenix.

I guess this thread wasn't that short. Ultimately, Izzet Phoenix functions as a hyper-efficient interactive deck (removal, Spell Pierces, Thing in the Ice, etc) while getting to essentially freeroll some very powerful win conditions, both of which are necessary to its success.

This is why you see people finding success against the deck not with dedicated graveyard hate other than Surgical (which is broken in its own right because Phyrexian mana), but with flexible cards that shore up the graveyard side of the matchup while being useful in other games.

Anafenza, Kalitas, Chalice of the Void, Eidolon of the Great Revel - these are the cards that found success this weekend, and you'll notice a theme - they're all good cards even outside of what they do to graveyards.

I guess I've essentially written an article at this point, so I'll leave you with this (kudos if you made it this far).

Izzet Phoenix is the best deck because it is supremely flexible in what questions it presents. If you want to beat it, your answers need to be just as flexible