A Tale of Two Izzies

Posted on September 24, 2026

In Standard right now, it's kinda sorta "Landfall against the world."

The Mono-Green version is almost 20% of the metagame. One reaction to this is to just, yourself, play the Landfall deck. Mono-Green is popular for a reason: It's quite powerful. It can come out fast with the Sazh's Chocobo draw, and take control of the midgame, almost regardless of matchup, via Sapling Nursery.

Or, you can play the Landfall that beats other Landfall decks: Green-White. The aforementioned Erode can take out whatever giant attacker just got the benefit of multiple Mightform Harmonizer triggers this turn in Game One. After sideboarding, the Selesnya version can keep the opponent from ever getting off the ground at all with Sheltered by Ghosts.

To be fair, Sheltered by Ghosts is a great topdeck at most points in the game, and is one of the few cards that doesn't care what the opponent's threat is: It can remove anything and everything, plus turn your best threat into a peerless racer.

So... Format solved, yeah? Landfall or the other Landfall?

Another way to attack Standard is -- stay with me here -- Izzet or the other Izzet!

Izzet Again

Izzet Spellementals is one of two Izzet () decks that deserve a look in the current Standard. One of the things that is great about this deck is that it hasn't been neutered recently.

Despite being in one of the most targeted color combinations, Izzet Spellementals didn't lose Gran-Gran like Lessons, Stormchaser's Talent like so many versions, or Badgermole Cub like the still-dominant Landfall decks. Izzet Spellementals is essentially still fully powered.

Izzet Spellementals | Standard | mehanske, 5-0 Standard League

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It's also uniquely well positioned for a format where Landfall is the most popular strategy, if not the best deck.

Izzet Spellementals: Plan A

While you can probably accomplish some weird long game where you cast your cards for retail, Izzet Spellementals is a quasi-combo deck where it...

Casts a bunch of cheap cantrips like Opt and Sleight of Hand, to...

Discount Hearth Elemental or Eddymurk Crab, which in turn....

Makes Sunderflock cost instead of

You don't need to go all the way up to Sunderflock to make Spellementals look good, but it is the biggest inducement to playing the deck. Sunderflock, in the current Standard, is so good because it trumps many of Landfall's best draws.

It doesn't matter how many Lands get animated with Earthbender Ascension or Ba Sing Se. It doesn't matter how many Treefolk the Landfall deck makes with Sapling Nursery, or how unkillable they seem with open.

Sunderflock returns everything to the opponent's hand. Ignore Indestructible. Death triggers never happen. Once "everything" returns to the opponent's hand, attacking for lethal (much of which will be in the air) becomes trivial.

Spellementals on Plan A can trade cards with the opponent: Prismari Charm those two Llanowar Elves, Spell Pierce your Lumbering Worldwagon, Spell Snare the Flashback on Esper Origins, all while setting up the first layer of discounting.

Once that first layer of discounting is online, the entire game often just follows. The opponent will often have to have gone pretty wide in order to beat a single Eddymurk Crab; and once the Crab lands, the Sunderflock is soon to follow.

In Plan A, Spellementals turns the corner really quickly. It will often go from "playing control" for a few turns, to playing one (or even two) Crabs, attacking for 5-10, then winning the next turn after sweeping the opponent's entire battlefield.

Because its cards do a pretty good Tarmogoyf / Tolarian Terror impression, Spellementals can contend with most of the decks in Standard, drawing just enough interaction to keep one Jeskai Revelation from resolving; then turning the corner just fast enough to make the game look close.

Izzet Spellementals SWOT

Strengths

Izzet Spellementals is an almost uniquely synergistic Standard deck. The cantrips draw into other cantrips. Those cantrips make Hearth Elemental and Crab cheap. But that's not all...

This is an incredible Get Out deck. Spellementals can bounce its own Eddymurk Crabs (sometimes two) with Get Out or Prismari Charm, and reload to continue managing the opponent's battlefield, while never missing an attack.

In addition to dealing big chunks of damage -- five then ten, then pretty close to lethal immediately -- it can actually finish games with direct damage. Burst Lightning and Traumatic Critique (or even one point from Prismari Charm) all have different primary roles, but can all help finish games.

Weaknesses

While graveyard hate doesn't technically completely shut down Izzet Spellementals, it will slow the deck down a lot. The card Rest in Peace isn't, again, technically unbeatable, but it's very hard for Izzet to beat.

Spellementals' whole bit is discounting its 5/5s, so if it has to pay 7-9 mana retail for them, the deck's 20-Land count becomes an eyesore.

Opportunities

By far the biggest reasons to play this deck are 1) its own potent Plan A (as long as the opponent isn't packing graveyard hate), but contextually 2) how well Sunderflock lines up against the potential width of Landfall.

All the Earthbending, all the Treefolk tokens (not to mention the actual Creatures the opponent might have cast) go somewhere where destruction, Exile, and Indestructibility have no purchase or upside.

Threats

The biggest problem for this strategy as far as I can tell is that other graveyard decks exist. Spellementals itself is not great at interacting with Cavern of Souls + Superior Spider-Man, but more importantly, the existence of the rug-pulling Bringer of the Last Gift deck incentivizes all potential opponents to run cards like Ghost Vacuum, Soul-Guide Lantern, and worst of all, Rest in Peace.

Spellementals nevertheless remains a great choice.

Izzet Again... Again

When was the last time you saw a Leyline of Resonance in play?

If you're a best-of-one player on Magic: The Gathering Arena, then maybe it's been a minute (Leyline of Resonance is banned in best-of-one).

That should tell you something: This is another deck that is a little more powerful than it maybe should be.

Izzet Fling | Standard | thisistodd, 5-0 Standard League

Enchantments (4)
4 Leyline of Resonance

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We think of this as an Izzet deck, but technically Starting Town can tap for Green for Grove's Bounty (comes up more often than you might imagine) and Black for Callous Sell-Sword (because either you didn't kill them or you just need a body).

Izzet Fling: Plan A

Whether or not you start with Leyline of Resonance in play, this deck has a ferocious Plan A. Turn one you might do all of nothing. Turn two you Plot Slickshot Show-Off to make sure your opponent can't remove it on their turn.

And even though you've signaled that there is a potentially lethal 1/2 coming in next turn, the opponent does something. It doesn't matter what. Make a Simulacrum Synthesizer? A Tablet of Discovery? A Stock Up? It doesn't matter. They're gambling and they're going to lose the bet.

You play the Slickshot Show-Off for zero.

Now you play two of your one mana buff spells. Let's say a Wild Ride and a Turn Inside Out.

Each of these is effectively +5 power thanks to Slickshot Show-Off's own ability. You're coming in for 11 Flying. Now with your third mana, you Burn Together with the Adventure side of Callous Sell-Sword. That's how we get a three turn kill.