The 34 Best Izzet Cards in Magic Ranked

Last updated on March 30, 2026

Izzet Charm | Illustration by Zoltan Boros

There are more than 3,000 instants in MTG, and Izzet () has access to more than half of them. In comparison, decks like Golgari (), Selesnya (), and Boros () only have 1,000 or so at their disposal.

That's why when we think of spellslinger decks that love playing on the stack and making non-permanent spells matter, Izzet is the first color pair that comes to mind.

Let's take a look at what red and blue have to offer when mixed together!

What Are Izzet Cards in MTG?

Niv-Mizzet, Parun | Illustration by Svetlin Velinov

In Magic: The Gathering, Izzet cards are those that require both blue and red mana to cast, but include no other mana color. Goblin Electromancer and Niv-Mizzet, Parun, for example, are Izzet cards.

The Izzet League is one of the 10 guilds from the Ravnica plane. Each guild is associated with a color pair, and since their introduction in Ravnica: City of Guilds, the guilds' names became the official designation for each color pair.

The Commander format uses a different definition: Izzet cards are cards with a UR color identity. This means that Izzet cards include both the and mana symbols in their cost and/or their rules text, but no other mana color. That makes Izzet Signet an Izzet card for EDH purposes (it has in its rules text) even though it's a colorless artifact that you can cast with generic mana.

In this ranking, I'll stick strictly with color identity, but there are of course many amazing red, blue, or colorless cards that you can include in a deck.

#34. Electrolyze

Electrolyze is just classic Izzet. It’s slightly worse than it was, say, 10 years ago, as creatures became larger on average, but sniping two small utility creatures or mana dorks and drawing a card is still very efficient.

#33. Roaring Furnace // Steaming Sauna

Roaring Furnace // Steaming Sauna is fueling some control decks, at least in the Standard format. With this card, you can combine an impactful removal spell with a long-term wincon, and that’s similar to what planeswalkers end up doing in a game. It’s easy to cast Roaring Furnace first and have an uncounterable Steaming Sauna later when battling control decks.

#32. Fire // Ice

Fire // Ice seems inoffensive, but it’s a card that’s seen play in almost every format, ever. Fire is excellent when you have to deal with many small creatures in aggro decks, while Ice ensures that you have something to do with the card (like cycling). Sometimes, just tapping a land your opponent has is a huge tempo swing.

#31. Ill-Timed Explosion

Damage-based sweepers are firmly in red’s slice of the color pie, and when you pay 4 mana, you’ll usually get 4-5 points of damage. With Ill-Timed Explosion, you can get some more cards, and a little extra damage. In good Izzet fashion, the results are a little unpredictable, but depending on your card choice, you can have the best sweeper available in these colors.

#30. Counterflux

Counterflux has two modes. The first is like having a silver bullet in a stack shootout: You can fire Counterflux and be sure other players can't Counterspell it in return.

And if you can pay its overload cost, it's like bringing a nuke to a gun fight: You get rid of everything on the stack. Even better, in fact: everything you don't control.

#29. Storm the Vault / Vault of Catlacan

Swimming in riches, for fun and profit!

Storm the Vault / Vault of Catlacan can slot into Izzet decks that focus heavily on slinging instants and sorceries, but it truly shines with artifact- or Treasure-matters commanders like Galazeth Prismari (or Breya, Etherium Shaper, if we expand the color palette). Storm the Vault / Vault of Catlacan is also a solid addition to the 99 of commanders that enjoy slapping faces repeatedly, like pirate commander Admiral Beckett Brass.

Note that Storm the Vault can trigger more than once per turn if your attackers can deal combat damage to more than one player at once.

#28. Rielle, the Everwise

Rielle, the Everwise is bonkers with cards like Cathartic Reunion, allowing you to discard two cards, draw three from the spell, and two more from Rielle. Every loot effect turns into a draw two, discard one, and of course, it triggers from cycling and other similar effects. It doesn’t take long for this card to attack as a 5/3 or greater.

#27. Bria, Riptide Rogue

The best aspect of Bria, Riptide Rogue is giving everybody prowess. Plus, when you cast a noncreature spell, a given creature can’t be blocked. That’s awesome with double strike creatures, and it’s a nice combo to dish out a lot of damage considering that equipment/aura spells trigger Bria, too.

#26. Galvanic Iteration

Galvanic Iteration has been a lynchpin of many spell-based combos, especially if you take into consideration spells like Time Warp. A “copy other spells” card also gets significantly better with flashback.

#25. Magma Opus

Magma Opus is a very powerful spell that’s worth paying 8 mana for, but what if you could cast it for free with cards like Torrential Gearhulk or at a discount? Then it becomes devastating, and some Pioneer decks lean into these combos. It’s never a dead card because you can cycle it and make a Treasure.

#24. Niv-Mizzet, Visionary

Lacking some protection to be extraordinary, Niv-Mizzet, Visionary is a must-kill threat on the battlefield. It’s extremely easy to support this dragon and draw a bunch of cards, whether by using burn spells, pingers, or cards like Guttersnipe.

#23. Enthusiastic Mechanaut

Cheap, effective, and makes all your artifacts cheaper: Enthusiastic Mechanaut is the sort of card that’s glad to let other cards razzle and dazzle the audience… but keen observers know who's the real hero here.

#22. Expansion / Explosion

Spellslinging decks are often about flexibility, and Expansion / Explosion provides it in spades: You get to copy any instant or sorcery (not just yours) that costs up to 4, and in the late game you can offload a lot of damage to any target of your choice.

Also note that the first mode costs hybrid mana, so you can cast it by paying , , or . And remember that you can copy instants or sorceries even if they don't have targets (you just don't choose any target in that case, of course).

#21. Brudiclad, Telchor Engineer

Its first and second abilities are interesting enough (all your creature tokens get haste, and you get a 2/1 creature token when your combat starts), but Brudiclad, Telchor Engineer‘s real charm is the third: This artificer turns all your tokens into a copy of your chosen token.

Notice that the first two abilities refer to creature tokens, but the third refers to any token. You can turn Treasure tokens (that Storm the Vault may have created) or Blood tokens into the 2/1 Myr token that Brudiclad spawns.

And they all get haste!

#20. Thousand-Year Storm

According to Magic's head designer Mark Rosewater, the storm keyword “is probably the most broken mechanic we’ve ever created.” So much so that Mark's storm scale gauges how unlikely an existing mechanic is to return… with 10, the scale's maximum, being storm.

Thousand-Year Storm, one of the best Izzet enchantments, gives a storm-like effect to every instant or sorcery you play. The difference is that the storm keyword counts every spell type you've cast thus far this turn (that's to say, it includes permanents) while Thousand-Year Storm only cares about instants and sorceries. Needless to say, that's not too big a difference for spellslinger decks!

#19. Third Path Iconoclast

“Wizards” is what comes to mind when thinking about spellslinger decks, but here we have a monk providing a nice payoff.

Third Path Iconoclast is Izzet cosplaying as Young Pyromancer, with the small bonus that the tokens that your monk creates are artifacts (which tend to have more synergies, like affinity).

Third Path Iconoclast sees quite a bit of competitive play in EDH, above all serving under Ghyrson Starn, Kelermorph, and is also playable in Pioneer.

#18. Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind

All hail Niv-Mizzet (again), founder of the Izzet Guild!

Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind isn’t the dragon wizard's very best version, though. It's a solid addition to your 99 but that's about it; Niv-Mizzet's best iteration still awaits.

#17. Prismari Command

A top-tier spell in Modern (in Cascade Crash decks) and Pioneer (in Creativity decks), and also quite popular in Commander, Prismari Command is one of MTG's best commands.

Removal, card selection, mana fixing, and ramping – Prismari Command is an Izzet Army knife!

#16. Ral, Storm Conduit

Ral, Storm Conduit is here to put the “over” in overkill. All it needs is a couple of spell-copy spells, like Expansion or Twincast.

Here's how: First you need Ral, Storm Conduit on the board. Then put on the stack any instant or sorcery of your choice – you're in red-blue, so this part is easy. Then you copy the spell on the stack with Fork or Twincast, and then use Expansion to copy Fork. Let Expansion resolve and use the Fork copy to duplicate the original. Rinse and repeat forever while Ral, Storm Conduit machine-guns your foes.

#15. Goblin Electromancer

Goblin Electromancer is a very popular non-legendary creature in EDH decks and also playable in Modern, and a single glance at its short ‘n' sweet rules text should make it clear why: Discounting sorceries and instants is huge for spellslinging decks.

The effect is cumulative, by the way: If you get two Goblin Electromancers in play, you get a reduction of .

Best of all, Goblin Electromancer is a cheap card in all senses of the word: It just costs a few cents per copy.

#14. Stormcatch Mentor

Stormcatch Mentor compares closely to Goblin Electromancer. With this card, you’re trading 1/1 worth of stats for haste plus prowess. Since decks that want Goblin Electromancer also want this card, there’s zero problem running both.

#13. Izzet Charm

Modal spells offer great flexibility, and all of Izzet Charm‘s choices come in handy. Note that unlike Prismari Command, you can only choose one option, but they’re all useful at some point in the game.

Izzet Charm sees high-level play in Pioneer as a one-of in Arclight Phoenix decks, and it’s extremely popular in Commander decks.

#12. Saheeli, Sublime Artificer

Mixing a spellslinging payoff with an artifacts-matter theme, Saheeli, Sublime Artificer pairs well with commanders like Brudiclad, Telchor Engineer if you’re going for aggression, or Galazeth Prismari if you prefer ramping to cast big spells or lots of stuff.

#11. The Locust God

Izzet decks just love drawing cards. I mean, everybody does, of course, but Izzet decks tend to have lots of payoffs for doing so.

The Locust God is a great example, spewing a swarm of 1/1 fliers to either chump-block attackers, offer sacrifices for the greater good, or push through the last bit of damage to finish off the enemy.

The Locust God is a competent commander but more often serves as a 99er for drawing-matters commanders the likes of Niv-Mizzet, Parun, Nekusar, the Mindrazer, or Gavi, Nest Warden. And it has made some inroads into competitive Pioneer as a sideboard card in Creativity decks.

Notice that, in Commander games, this return-to-hand ability means you can dodge the commander tax.

#10. Flame of Anor

Flame of Anor has had quite a big impact in Modern since its printing in The Lords of the Ring: Tales of Middle-earth.

At a base level, Flame of Anor is efficient and flexible, and with a wizard on board it’s in most cases better than Prismari Command.

#9. Veyran, Voice of Duality

Doubling Season, but for triggered abilities! Or a Panharmonicon on a stick, if you will.

Triggered abilities are one of the things that make spellslinger decks tick. The whole idea is to cast instant or sorceries and get additional value with the likes of Third Path Iconoclast, Young Pyromancer, or Guttersnipe.

Any effect that lets you get twice the mileage for your triggers takes your deck a long way, and Veyran, Voice of Duality is here for it. Both of Veyran's abilities care about casting instants or sorceries, and Veyran's second ability doubles every triggered ability, including Veyran's first one.

These abilities make Veyran, Voice of Duality a fairly competent Izzet commander, but it shines in the 99 98 of decks lead by Krark, the Thumbless partnering with Sakashima of a Thousand Faces.

#8. Expressive Iteration

Expressive Iteration was banned in Legacy and Pioneer (according to Wizards, for the crimes of providing outstanding card selection and card advantage to Izzet decks), but if you're playing Commander your deck is a safe haven for this convicted criminal.

In return, you get exactly what the jury found Expressive Iteration guilty of!

#7. Jhoira, Weatherlight Captain

Speaking of Izzet loving to draw cards, here's Jhoira, Weatherlight Captain: Every historic spell (sagas, artifacts, and legends) that you cast gets you an extra card. Good sagas and legendary cards aren’t that frequent in , but there's a gazillion artifacts to make Jhoira click as one of Izzet's best competitive commanders, and one of Magic's best artifact commanders.

#6. Krark, the Thumbless + Sakashima of a Thousand Faces

By themselves, neither of these two commanders are : One of them is red, the other is blue. Strictly speaking, neither of them meets the Izzet color identity criteria I set before starting.

But!

Krark, the Thumbless and Sakashima of a Thousand Faces are awesome EDH partners, and they merge their color identities into bona fide . When doing so, Krark & Sakashima is one of the most proficient Izzet decks in the competitive EDH scene.

#5. Dack Fayden

In MTG's lore, Dack Fayden was the (self-proclaimed) greatest thief in the multiverse, and its planeswalker card lends a lot of credibility to those claims!

In Commander games, Dack Fayden‘s second ability snatches any of those surplus Sol Rings or Esper Sentinels that your foes don't need that badly. And this light-fingered rogue is swift enough to sneak its way into Legacy and even Vintage.

#4. Exalted Flamer of Tzeentch

Exalted Flamer of Tzeentch feeds the flames and fuels your hand each of your turns, while helping you burn your foes down. Spellslinger decks have a penchant for pinging opponents to death (Izzet's version of “Death by a Thousand Cuts”), and Exalted Flamer is excellent in that regard.

Printed in The Ruinous Powers preconstructed deck from Warhammer 40,000 Commander, Exalted Flamer of Tzeentch‘s pinging pairs perfectly with one of Izzet's most popular commanders: Ghyrson Starn, Kelermorph, also from the 40K set.

#3. Talisman of Creativity + Izzet Signet

Due to EDH’s extreme popularity, Talisman of Creativity and Izzet Signet are must-include staples in almost every blue-red deck. Not only do they fix your mana, but jumping from 2 to 4 mana is a big swing. And let’s not forget the dreaded land + Sol Ring + mana rock start.

#2. Ghyrson Starn, Kelermorph

Speaking of pinging opponents to death, Ghyrson Starn, Kelermorph shoots a Shock whenever one of your sources deals exactly 1 damage to a target.

Notice that Ghyrson Starn, Kelermorph doesn't just work with single-target pings, though – with Starn on the board, End the Festivities becomes a 1-mana, 3-damage sweeper. And your gunslinging tyranid is the source of the extra damage: slap a Curiosity on it, and it'll draw cards every time an opponent takes 1 damage from you.

#1. Niv-Mizzet, Parun

Niv-Mizzet, Parun is the quintessential Izzet card. Literally: “Parun” is Ravnican for “Founder of one of the Guilds,” and this good ol' dragon is the founder of the Izzet League.

The most popular Izzet spell in EDH decks and the strongest Izzet commander at competitive play, and it’s one half of Izzet's most famous combo; Niv-Mizzet, Parun is wings, neck, and shoulders above any other creature when it comes to power level.

And when your Parun leads Izzet into the fray, it makes many other Izzet cards shine. Ghyrson Starn, Kelermorph, Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind, or Goblin Electromancer are all excellent under Niv-Mizzet, Parun‘s command.

But, truth be told… as befits one of the most brilliant minds in the multiverse, Niv-Mizzet's best friend is Curiosity. Just make sure you don't deck yourself out!

Best Izzet Card Payoffs

Not trying to sound like Captain Obvious here, but the payoff of playing Izzet cards is that you get to play Izzet cards!

There are indeed some cards that give you a payoff for casting spells of certain colors. Mana Cannons deals damage every time you play a multi-color spell… but that's hardly a reason to play Izzet cards.

Also, it's extremely rare for an Izzet deck to only have Izzet cards. Nearly all Izzet decks have a combination of red cards, blue cards, and red-blue cards; some of the best enablers and payoffs for a spellslinger deck are mono-colored cards like Young Pyromancer, Baral, Chief of Compliance, or Guttersnipe.

Izzet cards usually excel at allowing you to cast many spells a turn, or gives you benefits for doing so. In this vein, cards like Arclight Phoenix, Chrome Host Seedshark, Shark Typhoon, and Metallurgic Summonings are excellent payoffs for this kind of deck.

What Is Izzet Good at in MTG?

Blue has some of the best card draw and countermagic in MTG, while red provides removal and interaction. This brings a certain internal tension in Izzet decks: Red tends to be the most proactive color in MTG, while blue is the most reactive.

The way to connect blue and red is often through cards that reward you for playing a lot of instants and sorceries: Many of the best Izzet cards provide a payoff just for casting spells. Izzet also has a knack for using card draw as either enabler (like Niv-Mizzet, Parun) or payoff (like Jhoira, Weatherlight Captain).

As noted by Magic's head designer Mark Rosewater in an article about designing MTG cards for the Izzet color pair: “When you combine the intellect of blue with the passion of red you get creativity. I like to refer to the Izzet as passionate thinkers. Blue-red wants to do things where things interact with other things and the end result is something bigger than the sum of its parts.”

Another angle for Izzet decks is artifact synergies, as illustrated by Jhoira, Weatherlight Captain.

One thing that makes Izzet effective, design-wise, is that WotC is almost always aiming at a spells-based tempo gameplay with these two colors. There are secondary themes that appear sometimes, like caring about artifacts, drawing, discarding, or cycling, and more recently, we’ve had payoffs for drawing two cards or casting two spells a turn. But these secondary themes still orbit around the spellslinger planet.

Wrap Up

Expressive Iteration | Illustration by Anastasia Ovchinnikova

And that finishes our ranking of MTG's best Izzet cards. I hope it's been an informative bit of spellslinging!

If you have comments or questions about these rankings, do stop by the Draftsim Discord for a chat.

And good luck out there!