Everyone loves when Izzet is a good deck, right? Casting spells, triggering prowess, drawing cards... monopolising the game clock. Great stuff. In Limited, it comes around often enough that I didn't have to look too hard for today's trio.

Honourable Mention: Kaladesh Remastered

I'm never quite sure how to treat remaster sets in these articles. While Izzet was the best colour pair to play in this arena-only format, there really aren't that many games to draw from compared to more traditional sets. Still, worth a quick sentence or three.

Final Fantasy

This is arguably the most fun Izzet has ever been in Limited. The tweaking of "spells matter" into "mana value four spells matter" led to two cool things happening. Firstly, you weren't just cantripping and cycling through your deck for incremental benefits - you actually played spells that did something. Secondly, that meant that your opponent got to play the game, too. Yeah, they were probably losing, but at least they got to do something other than watch you play solitaire. Win-win, right?

Seriously though, playing expensive spells and triggering cool abilities like Shantotto, Tactician Magician or Ultros, Obnoxious Octopus was extremely satisfying. God forbid you had a rare like Tellah, Great Sage in play when you cast your Choco-Comet. You really got to live the combo dream in FIN draft, and the win rates suggest that it was usually right to do so.

Lost Caverns of Ixalan

One of the things that makes Izzet such a beloved guild is its flexibility. I came into this article expecting to have to find ways to write about spells matters in three different ways. I forgot that Izzet also gets to be really good with artifacts sometimes - and LCI was one of those times.

When we take a look at the rares, this isn't necessarily obvious. Bonehoard Dracosaur was just a messed up card on its own merits. Magmatic Galleon is an artifact, but would still be incredible in a deck with no artifact synergies. It's lower down the rarities that we start to see what was happening in the format: Zoetic Glyph being better than most rares; Spyglass Siren being an evasive threat, pseudo card advantage, and artifact synergy piece all in one common; Staunch Crewmate actually hitting good targets. Blue even got one of the best Wind Drakes of all time in Waterwind Scout, which, yep, also synergised with artifact pay-offs.

It helped that many of the other colour pairs fell a bit flat in this set, especially the graveyard-centred sultai colours. Meanwhile, jeskai - and Izzet in particular - got power and synergy in spades.

Dominaria

We have to go back quite a ways to get to our next Izzet format (ignoring KLR). Dominaria is a set remembered fondly by a lot of people for a lot of reasons. Izzet Wizards being the best deck might be one of them, depending on how you feel about Academy Journeymage looping Blink of an Eye looking Academy Journeymage. All five of the best commons in the 17lands data are Izzet and only three of the top ten are from other colours. Even the Izzet signpost uncommon got an A-, at 63.3% win rate when drawn.

When we factor in the rares, the power becomes a little more even, but with Blue and Red (but especially Blue) cards dominating the lower rarities, it's no surprise Izzet was the strongest colour pair in DOM. This was one of the slowest draft formats of the Arena age, one in which lumbering, value-focused Blue decks could spin their wheels without too much risk of dying in the process. Regular old Divination was not just playable, but excellent - perhaps the last time you could really say that.

At the same time, though, Wizards could end games quickly if you built that way. Although most of the cards I've mentioned so far are grindy and controlling, Ghitu Lavarunner was also a top-five common in the set. Adeliz, the Cinder Wind was a kill-on-sight threat that could end games out of nowhere and there was plenty of burn that could go to the face if needed. On top of that, there a slew of great tempo plays that made it hard for other decks to get their feet under them. Time of Ice, Merfolk Trickster, and Firefist Adept all made it difficult for opponents to put blockers in the way of your wizards, paving the way for a kicked Fight with Fire if the game should go long enough.