avnica, both the original and our return there, introduced us to many unique and memorable characters. Perhaps none were as memorable as the Firemind leader himself, Niv-Mizzet. Over at GatheringMagic.com, Jules Robins decided to tackle the smartest of all dragons, Niv-Mizzet, Dracogenius for his Commander column. And since this is Izzet week, what could be more appropriate?
If there is one thing Niv-Mizzet is good at, its drawing cards, and Jules is quite aware of that. But unlike with the original Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind, Jules points out that this new breed only asks for one thing in order to draw cards: mana. So, despite green traditionally harboring the ramp decks in Commander, Jules is sure to include plenty of ramp in here to allow him to ping the opponent as many times as possible, therefore drawing as many cards as possible. Whereas the first Niv-Mizzet rewarded you for drawing cards, the new dragon wants to do you the favor of drawing them in the first place!
With all these cards in your hand, though, yet no mana to cast them, what is a Planeswalker to do? Jules thought of that, too, as he included cards like Reliquary Tower to keep you from discarding all of those spells, but, better yet, he also included a lot of mana cheats. For example, think about drawing all of those cards with a Dream Halls in play! Now you are casting a big portion of your deck! Or, if you want to dream really big, you can always turn to the biggest free enabler in the game: Omniscience!
Jules Robins's Pure Dracogenius
Commander – Niv-Mizzet, Dracogenius