Magic the Gathering - Mages of the Guild - Izzet Guildmage VS Nivix Guildmage

by  ElspethFTW, Old School Duelist

Today on Mages of the Guild, we’re going to switch things up. That’s right, we’re looking at the old guard first! Let’s take a look at the senior Guildmage,  Izzet Guildmage  from Guildpact!

Izzet Guildmage from Guildpact

Izzet Guildmage is a very good creature with two very good abilities. For 2U (2 colorless, 1 Blue) you can copy target instant spell you control with converted mana cost 2 or less. You’re also able to choose new targets for that copy. Then, for 2R (2 colorless, 1 Red) you can do the same thing for a target sorcery spell you control. Copying spells is nice, but what’s even better is that with a little one-drop Blue Enchantment called Training Grounds, those abilities become only 1U and 1R, respectively.

Having these abilities able to be used at a significant discount is important. Cards like Desperate Ritual,  Rite of Flame, and  Manamorphose  suddenly are playable for free! You can create infinite mana with the Ritual and Rite of Flame, since they remain on the stack to copy. With that mana, you just cast Banefire,  burning them infinitely for the win.

In fact,  Rite of Flame  is so powerful in this combo that it’s banned in Modern! Izzet Guildmage Combo was a real deck at one time in the now-defunct Extended format. This is why Wizards was so quick to ban Rite of Flame in the Modern format early on. The combo is still playable in Modern with the other two cards, but the deck now only mostly sees fringe play in Legacy. Talk about a combo enabler!

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So the new kid on the block,  Nivix Guildmage, must be better then, right? For 1UR (1 colorless, Blue, Red), you can draw a card, then discard a card. Woo-hoo, card filtering! But the second ability, oh, wow, it’s just like Izzet Guildmage‘s ability, except that it’s 2UR! Actually, that one extra mana means a lot. Sure, there’s  Goblin Electromancer  around to cheapen your instants and sorceries a bit and there is  Training Grounds. But the only combo you can really make in 60-card Constructed with  Nivix Guildmage  is infinite card draw with Manamorphose. He can help you get to the  Izzet Guildmage combo, and little more.

In Commander, Nivix Guildmage is a tad more versatile, and that first ability is more relevant to filter dead cards out of the hand. Also, like Izzet Guildmage, he can also create infinite mana, but it requires a lot more initial mana investment. The infinite mana combo revolves around Turnabout from Urza's Saga. You use Nivix Guildmage to copy Turnabout, tap all of your lands for mana, and let the copy of Turnabout untap all your lands. Then, keep copying Turnabout without ever letting the original Turnabout resolve. It's similar to the classic High Tide & Palinchron combo, but it's much slower.

Still, Izzet Guildmage  is still the far better card here. Nivix Guildmage  is still Constructed-playable, but he's nowhere near the efficient combo enabler of his senior associate. He is simply a useful creature that combos well with Manamorphose (which creates two of any colored mana). Having the Blue/Red combination there hurts it with any of the Red mana producing spells besides that one. Sorry, Nivix Guildmage, but you don’t stand a chance in this match-up.

Winner:  Izzet Guildmage, for single-handedly making Rite of Flame banned in Modern.

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