Hello again! Today, I have the pleasure of presenting you with a guide on the deck that has taken Standard by (dragon)storm — Izzet Prowess! 

Thanks to Cori-Steel Cutter's omnipotent powers, Standard has seemingly turned into a "beat it or join it" situation. If you aren't ready for this deck, it will make quick work of your life total. Below is the list I have decided on after testing a decent amount with Izzet Prowess and playing a ton against it in recent weeks. I came to some minor differences compared to the average Izzet lists, and I will explain those differences in detail in this article. 

Let's start by talking about the elephant in the room and the card that makes Fable of the Mirror-Breaker look pale in comparison.

I am sure Cori-Steel Cutter will forever be used as a prime example when explaining the "snowball" effect. The card is already great when it creates just one Monk token and is tough to beat one-for-one, much similar to Fable of the Mirror-Breaker. But unlike Fable, Cutter snowballs in a way that isn't similar to what we have seen before. When you let your Izzet Prowess opponent untap with Cori-Steel Cutter in play, you may just concede the game to save some time. 

It's a mixture between Urabrask's Forge and Monastery Mentor incorporated into a two-mana card. I wouldn't be surprised if this card finds itself on the banlist of multiple formats down the line, but here we are, and we sure will make most of the power of it for our own advantage. It's the primary reason Izzet Prowess is such a highly-tiered strategy in Standard right now.

The cards that make the core of the deck are Sleight of Hand, Opt, Stormchaser's Talent, Monstrous Rage, Monastery Swiftspear, Burst Lightning, Cori-Steel Cutter and Slickshot Show-Off. I wouldn't advise touching this core or making any changes to it. You need the eight draw spells to keep double-spelling and to find your Steel-Cutter if you haven't drawn it yet. The twelve Prowess creatures are the best we have, and I am happy running all of them as you want to end the game as quickly as possible, and those follow that mission the best.

Slickshot Show-Off is extra good here as using Plot it on turn two allows you to Flurry easily with Cori-Steel Cutter on turn three. In addition, I like the Bird Wizard a lot against Control decks that are holding up removal and as a way to use your mana without further committing to sweepers. In Control matchups, I usually leave my Slickshot Show-Off in Plot for a couple of turns, waiting for the right moment to strike while I pressure them with the other smaller threats in the meantime. 

With this core, when playing twenty lands, this leaves us with eight flex slots. Many Izzet Prowess players are choosing to run four copies of Stock Up and fill the rest with four copies of Boltwave or Spell Pierce and interactive spells, may it be Into the Flood Maw or This Town Ain't Big Enough. I have found Stock Up to be quite clunky and Wrenn's Resolve to be more elegant as "Expressive Iteration at home" does the trick well enough. It's not too slow and gives you a two turn window to resolve the two cards you found with it. 

I am playing two copies of Into the Flood Maw as I found that card to have its uses. The Flood Maw can bounce a Temporary Lockdown to go for the final strike, it can also be valuable in the extremely tight races in the mirror of bouncing a Slickshot Show-Off or delaying a Screaming Nemesis out of Mono-Red Aggro. In addition to clearing out an annoying creature like Sheoldred, the Apocalypse is often all you need to deal them the final blow. They won't come back from that kind of swing. 

Stormchaser's Talent allows you rebuy Into the Flood Maw on the cheap for continuous bouncing, which could come up in a late-game situation against Temporary Lockdown. Admittedly, I have been contemplating running Spell Pierce. I did try them at one point, but the thing is, for a spell to be included in your deck that is not castable proactively to trigger Cori-Steel Cutter and Prowess, it has to be very good. And while Spell Pierce is strong on occasion, you don't want to find yourself in a spot where you have it and can't use it to Flurry. I would rather play another Shock and the first copy of Stock Up, but I wouldn't fault anyone for swapping the main deck Stock Up for one copy of Spell Pierce out of the sideboard.

Shock gives you another cheap interactive spell that can target the opponent, which is often all you want to do anyway with your burn spells. Boltwave is okay but inflexible and much worse when playing the spell from behind.

I've liked the twenty land mana base with a singular tap land, the mana isn't as good as it is in Izzet Phoenix in Pioneer, but it's good enough. Running more land cards makes you prone to flooding despite being drawing so many cards. I don't think you want Restless Spire as you have various mana sinks between activating Stormchaser's Talent and casting draw spells over and over again. So, having a land to enable your Riverpyre Verges and to dig you towards the spells you need in Thundering Falls is more desirable. I would advise you to be hesitant in keeping hands reliant on Shivan Reef to cast your spells versus other aggressive decks. 

The Sideboard of Standard Izzet Prowess

Spell Pierce is your anti-combo or Control card and comes in on the draw in the mirror match. There's not much else to say there, as it's a great spell to have access to. I like Disdainful Stroke a lot these days. Tarkir: Dragonstorm brought us some powerful Dragons to counter in the form Shiko, Paragon Way and Marang River Regent. In addition to those, notable ones you can stop with Stroke are Abuelo's Awakening, Day of Judgment, and Beza, the Bounding Spring. I feel three counterspells is a good number, as going higher decreases your consistency a little too much for my liking.

Three copies of Torch the Tower are there to shore up the mirror and against opponents on Red Aggro, an absolute all-star in creature matchup. Be aware that you can Bargain your Stormchaser's Talent or one of your creature tokens away to deal more damage, which is also relevant to play around Monstrous Rage against Slickshot Show-Off in the mirror. Burst Lightning can be blown out by Rage in response, but Torch the Tower with Bargain cannot.

A third copy of Into the Flood Maw helps against the various big creatures running around. I do like it against Mono-Red to answer Tersa Lightshatter, Screaming Nemesis, and to have an insurance policy against Monstrous Rage on their double-striking mouse. Lithomantic Barrage helps against Esper Pixie and especially Jeskai Oculus, but this isn't a must-have as it's one of the weaker cards in the sideboard. 

One copy of Abrade to destroy Cori-Steel Cutter and deal with creatures. I like it a little more than Untimely Malfunction as it's difficult for both sides of Abrade to be bad at a given moment, but on the other hand, Untimely Malfunction might sit dead in your hand at times.

Ral, Crackling Wit is a neat sideboard card that can activate its ultimate swiftly in this deck. And that Ultimate is maybe one of the most fun of all Planeswalkers out there, at least to me. The Izzet Planeswalker comes in against Temporary Lockdown decks and stuff like Orzhov Pixie that have a tough time dealing with a Planeswalker. 

Stock Up fills the same role as Ral, but can also come in against Black Midrange decks. Again, I don't dislike the card, but I don't like it in this Standard environment that happens to be quite fast, so I would rather bring the card in for the slower matchups. Screaming Nemesis is still the best roadblock against Red Aggro, and I found the card quite decent in the mirror, too.

Lastly, there are two copies of Ghost Vacuum as they are mainly for Abuelo's Awakening to respect Azorius Omniscience, which has been one of the tougher matchups for me. Unlike the Control decks, Azorius Omniscience can threaten a fast win, making it difficult to apply a decent amount of pressure but still have to play around Temporary Lockdown. You sometimes have to gamble that they can't combo you or they don't have Lockdown. As long as they don't have Omniscience in the graveyard, you have some leeway and don't have to go all-in.

How to Mulligan with Standard Izzet Prowess

I like to mulligan somewhat aggressively, especially on the draw. If you know you're up against a flavor of Red Aggro and you have a hand with a Shivan Reef as your only red source on a seven-card hand, that is a mulligan in most cases. Any hands that don't have Cori-Steel Cutter and are low on draw spells to find should be shipped as well. Also, any hand with four lands is often dicey as well — more often than not — you would want to mulligan them. 

When you are on the play, your hands are less reliant on having power and more on curve and pressure. Also, considering you have one fewer card, I am less strict on what I mulligan as a hand with two Prowess creatures, Sleight of Hand, Opt and three lands is fine to keep on the play, whereas it would be borderline keepable on the draw as it doesn't have interaction and is already land heavy. On a six-card hand, my stance on mulliganing changes drastically and becomes more relaxed. I keep a lot more sixes, even if they are somewhat medium, as going to five is extremely bad. After all, you are a Prowess/Flurry strategy that needs a high density of cards to make all of the "payoffs" work.

Standard Izzet Prowess Sideboard Guide

Now you know how to play Izzet Prowess and have an idea how to mulligan, let's break down how to sideboard:

Izzet Prowess

On the Play: 

  • In: 3 Torch the Tower, 1 Abrade, and 2 Screaming Nemesis
  • Out: 1 Stock Up, 2 Into the Flood Maw, and 3 Sleight of Hand

On the Draw:

  • In: 3 Torch the Tower, 1 Abrade, 2 Screaming Nemesis, and 2 Spell Pierce
  • Out: 1 Stock Up, 1 Slickshot Show-Off, 2 Into the Flood Maw, and 4 Sleight of Hand

Mono-Red Aggro

  • In: 3 Torch the Tower and 2 Screaming Nemesis
  • Out: 1 Stock Up and 4 Sleight of Hand

Esper Pixie

  • In: 1 Stock Up, 1 Lithomantic Barrage, and 3 Torch the Tower
  • Out: 2 Into the Flood Maw, 2 Slickshot Show-Off, and 1 Monstrous Rage

If you play against a creature-light version of Esper Pixie, feel free to side in Ral, Crackling Wit and a copy of [[Spell Pierce], you can leave the Torch the Towers in the sideboard.

Jeskai Oculus

  • In: 1 Into the Flood Maw, 1 Lithomantic Barrage, 1 Ghost Vacuum, and 3 Torch the Tower
  • Out: 1 Stock Up, 1 Shock, and 4 Sleight of Hand

Jeskai Control

  • In: 1 Disdainful Stroke, 2 Spell Pierce, 1 Lithomantic Barrage, 1 Stock Up, 1 Ral, the Crackling Wit, and 2 Screaming Nemesis
  • Out: 1 Shock, 1 Into the Flood Maw, 4 Burst Lightning, and 2 Monastery Swiftspear

Azorius Omniscience

  • In: 2 Ghost Vacuum, 2 Spell Pierce, and 1 Disdainful Stroke
  • Out: 1 Shock and 4 Burst Lightning

Domain Overlords

  • In: 1 Disdainful Stroke, +2 Spell Pierce, and 1 Into the Flood Maw
  • Out: 1 Shock and 3 Burst Lightning

Golgari Midrange

  • In: 1 Into the Flood Maw, 1 Ral, Crackling Wit, and 1 Stock Up
  • Out: 1 Shock, 1 Monstrous Rage, and 1 Burst Lightning

Dimir Midrange 

  • In: 1 Stock Up and 1 Torch the Tower
  • Out: 2 Slickshot Show-Off

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