5 Color Niv-Mizzet Reborn in Modern
Five Color decks have proven difficult to pull off throughout Magic’s lifetime, and for good reason. Players aren’t meant to be able to do whatever they want with their decks, and the colors and mana system are tools for keeping things that way. Obviously though, this doesn’t always work. People are persistent, and if someone is dedicated enough or the deck is good enough, it’ll still be built. An example of the former is Slivers, a tribe that hasn’t proven itself to be terribly powerful, but people like the idea enough that they develop it anyway. For the latter, we have Humans, a tribe that has proven its power through continued results ever since Ixalan block. Today’s deck finds itself firmly planted in the “because it’s fun” category, but that’s as good a reason as any to try and take something to a 5-0 finish on MTGO. And would you look at that? Cavedan did it!
The deck, at first glance, is an absolute pile. But the list actually felt pretty smooth playing it a bit, and mana issues aren’t as prominent as you might expect. The Birds of Paradise help make sure we keep our mana going smoothly, and helps ramp us up to our big payoffs. Speaking of payoff, Niv-Mizzet Reborn is an insane value card in this deck, giving us a 6/6 flier and 3+ cards for just five mana. Sure, it can be hard to piece together the WUBRG cost, but when we do, drawing five cards on turn 3 can be plenty to make up for that downside. Finally, we have one Sin Collector, which can be hit off of Niv, gives us a body, and takes a card from our opponent.
Most of our cards are spells, and many of them two colors. This gives us a good chance of getting Niv hits while also letting us use some of the most powerful value cards in the format. First up we have Domri, Anarch of Bolas. He gives us a nice bit of ramp, turns our Niv into a 3-turn clock instead of a 4-turn one, and also acts as removal once we land Niv. Kaya gives us a valuable source of lifegain, which is useful considering how painful our manabase can be at times, and also gives us removal and reach with the -1 and ult. Inquisition of Kozilek can’t be hit off Niv, but does give us a nice bit of early-game interaction so we can set up. Safewright Quest is a great way to make sure we get all of our colors, and can be found off of Niv if we still need more mana after landing him. Assassin’s Trophy is a great piece of catch-all removal, and while it may give the opponent a land, the cost is well worth paying considering its versatility.
For countermagic we have Countersquall and Izzet Charm. Both of these only take care of noncreature spells, but squall has a nice bit of upside in the life loss, and Izzet Charm has versatility in its ability to take care of creatures or filter our draws. Lightning Helix is lifegain, removal, and reach rolled into a single 2-mana instant, and is an all-around fantastic card. Thought Erasure gives us a decent discard spell with some filtering thrown in, and Kolaghan’s Command has proven itself to be a huge value for its cost. Unmoored Ego helps us against combo decks and other strategies that rely on a single card, Supreme Verdict helps us survive long enough to stabilize with Niv, and Primal Command does a great job of both keeping us alive and finding Niv if we need it. Detention Sphere is nice catch-all removal, and Bring to Light turns our entire deck into a toolbox, finding absolutely anything we need for the current situation, whether that’s a Supreme Verdict to keep us alive, or a Niv-Mizzet to help us win the game.
The lands are a bit different than what a normal deck would have, but obviously this is not a normal deck. As usual, we have fetches, shocks, fastlands, and a few basics. However, we also have a single Creeping Tar Pit to help push through damage, as well as some very nice fixing. Mana Confluence gives us unrestricted access to any color of mana at the cost of 1 life per use, and Pillar of the Paruns gives us any color of mana at no cost, with the restriction that it has to be used on a multicolored spell. Of course, this deck has no shortage of those.
Our sideboard has quite a few standard choices, while also keeping in mind the fact that we have Niv to dig for hate as well. Grafdigger’s Cage locks up Storm, Phoenix, and Dredge, while Abrupt Decay is useful against a wide array of permanents we could end up facing down. Cindervines is helpful against combo decks and artifact-based decks, Damping Sphere slows down Tron and Storm, and Lavinia is useful against Tron and any Surgicals that might come our way. Rest in Peace is pretty standard graveyard hate, and Ashiok also fills that role while also being a hit for Niv and stopping our opponent from searching their library. Firespout is a nice 3-mana boardwipe that Niv can grab for us, Izzet Staticaster does wonders against tokens and small-creature strategies, and Kambal gives us a nice cushion against spell-based decks. Knight of Autumn is an incredibly versatile threat, keeping us in the game against whir decks, burn, or even just giving us a decent beater when we need it. Fracturing Gust is a nice hedge against Affinity, and Crumble to Dust is a great way to stop Tron in its tracks if we can get it out early enough.
Tips:
- It won’t happen often, but you can get Niv out as early as turn three. Turn 1 Birds into turn 2 Birds or Domri will lead you to a turn 3 Niv, and Domri also means that the opponent won’t be able to counter him.
- Bring to Light can find almost any card in the deck. If you need to, you don’t have to tutor straight for Niv with it. You could grab Primal Command, gain life or bounce something, then use Command to find Niv if you want to.
- Speaking of Primal Command, it’s important to remember that the middle to abilities can be used together to shuffle something into its owner’s library, and with Phoenix running around, putting your opponent’s graveyard into their library isn’t necessarily the worst thing you could be doing.
- Assassin’s Trophy is not Path to Exile. You can’t point it at your own things to get another land, so keep that in mind when planning out future turns. If you’ve played with the card you know this by now, but it’s an important thing to keep in mind for people who haven’t.
- Safewright Quest doesn’t specify that you need to get a basic Forest or Plains. You can grab Breeding Pool & Co. with it if you want to.
Extra Spice:
- Dovin’s Veto is a decent enough sideboard card if you want another Negate variant, and one that can’t be countered.
- Time Wipe can be found with Niv-Mizzet or Bring to Light, and can give you a second Niv trigger in addition to wiping the board.
- Bloodbraid Elf can be a huge amount of value, and can be found with both Niv and Bring to Light.
- Saheeli is a fun card that can make an army of tokens with all the noncreature spells we have running around, and she can be hit off Niv and BtL.
Niv-Mizzet may be hard to cast, but he seems well worth the cost. Landing a 6/6 with flying while also drawing five cards is a great way to demoralize the opponent, even if it doesn’t outright win the game every time. The deck’s still in its infancy, and while it may not reach the top tables, I hope people continue working on it, because the deck is a blast to play and can do a lot of weird things.
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