Mizzix's Seize Control | Precon Remastered

Mizzix of the Izmagnus | Art by Cliff Childs

Entering the Laboratory

Greetings and welcome to Precon Remastered! Here, we take older decks and give them new life using newer cards. This week, we're doing an archetype so popular it's been the theme of many a precon. Even covering this one feels like beating a skeletal horse. Who might we be covering this week?

Mizzix of the Izmagnus was all the rage back in the day as the go-to Spellslinger commander (beyond that you have an old favorite of mine, Melek, Izzet Paragon). The idea is to cast cheap spells early on, racking up experience counters, then cast even bigger spells at a significant discount.

We need to lay the groundwork, as is tradition.

Laboratory Rules

As always, here are our rules for remastering precons:

1. The value of the deck cannot exceed $120. This will apply to the reprints only, which gets to my first personal quirk.
2. Every card unique to the original precon stays in the deck. All those new cards that get released with precons remain in the list.
3. The land package should closely reflect what we get in precons these days (and, in my humble opinion, they're actually pretty good).
4. At least until 2020, we're not tied to a particular set, so we're free to choose whatever we want. You can be assured I have ideas for 2020 and beyond, though.
5. Universes Beyond cards are not added. No exceptions, unless they have an in-universe variant. Granted, this will change when we get there.

With that out of the way, let's see what the original list looked like.

The Original List

Amassing the Components

The reprints here are decidedly decent, but nothing truly screams out. We do get a few notables like Windfall and Vandalblast, but compared to the more recent Spellslinger precons, we basically got scraps. Such is the evolution of Commander precons, but I digress.

The precon has a slight "draw cards" theme, featuring the likes of Psychosis Crawler and Dragon Mage, primarily off the back of the secondary commander (who I'll touch on in the next section). While it does help to go through our library, it also takes away from what our commander's trying to do.

And what's the goal? Cast big spells! Epic Experiment and Blatant Thievery are great examples of the spells meant to be discounted. Note, however, that our commander needs to stick around in order for the costs to be reduced, so we do need to protect her at all costs. The deck doesn't do well on that front, sadly.

Also, Mizzix will reduce the cost of spells with kicker, so we can cast Rite of Replication for an absurdly low cost if we got enough experience counters.

Shiny New Components

We can't begin this section without discussing the precon's secondary commander and theme. Arjun, the Shifting Flame wants us to drop cheap spells so we can keep wheeling and wheeling. Now, this is good for a dedicated deck, but that's not what this precon is about. If anything, it's a distraction to what our real commander wants to be doing, like I said earlier.

Beyond the remastered version below, I'd seriously consider gutting the subtheme first thing.

Anyway, the other new cards here are okay, but nothing worth writing home about, save for the deck's confluence card, Mystic Confluence. The card does a fairly good impression of Cryptic Command, except we could be drawing an additional card, or bouncing something. Maybe two things.

I admit I wanted to like Meteor Blast when it came out, and our commander does give it some extra reach, but being stuck to four damage each can only go so far, especially in the late game.

However, the best new card here is Mizzix's Mastery, which can let us reuse a spell from our graveyard one last time (all of them if we overload it). Being able to cast everything in there can be a good way to rack up a storm count (or, in this case, experience counters).

So, with that out of the way, shall we take a gander at the remastered list?

Seize Control Remastered

The Experiment Itself

Old Price: $80.04

New Price: $112.76

With the remastered list, I attuned it to have much stronger X-spells for our commander, like Crackle with Power and Expansion // Explosion. These allow us to close out games better than the original list.

Also included are a greater number of cards that reduce the cost of our instants and sorceries. Cards like Dirgur Focusmage will make it easier to cast our big spells, which in turn will make it easier for us to net an experience counter, assuming our commander's out.

Speaking of that, I've added more protection to ensure Mizzix of the Izmagnus sticks around. That said, if there isn't enough, that can be expanded on with further upgrades.

Those upgrades would also include Reiterate, which I didn't add here because it creates an infinite combo with a card I added here, Mana Geyser. However, I did add Capsize to be a royal nuisance to our opponents.

Experiment's Aftermath

I'm sure this deck's remastering was a success, even if it's hindered by the drawing subtheme. While next week is a new entry in my other series, Commander Makeover, the week after is when I get to finish off Commander 2015 with a precon whose commander I know very, very well. So much so that it even got featured in an article authored by none other than Jason Alt himself!