$0.72 Izzet Goblin Creates Infinite Damage, Card Draw, and Storm Combos

In Commander, one theme I find very interesting to craft around is Experience Counters. Originally introduced in Commander 2015, this mechanic is easier to abuse than it might seem. Of the 16 legends that pay you off for building up your experience level, Mizzix of the IzmagnusMizzix of the IzmagnusWhenever you cast an instant or sorcery spell with mana value greater than the number of experience counters you have, you get an experience counter.
Instant and sorcery spells you cast cost {1} less to cast for each experience counter you have. is one of the most exciting, with combo potential through the roof.

MTG Mizzix of the Izmagnus

As a Spellslinger Commander at heart, Mizzix unsurprisingly encourages you to fill your deck with instants and sorceries. Early on, simple spells like Preordain or PonderPonderLook at the top three cards of your library, then put them back in any order. You may shuffle.
Draw a card. will help you start your experience counter train. The more counters you rack up, the bigger discount Mizzix provides, but you’ll need to keep casting spells of increasing mana value to keep triggering the Goblin Wizard.

With this in mind, you want your deck to encompass spells of varying costs. Rituals like Pyretic Ritual and Seething Song are therefore key to this deck’s game plan, letting you chain smaller spells into bigger ones and rack up experience counters quickly. It doesn’t take long before land-untapping spells like Frantic Search and Treasure-producing spells like Big Score start netting you mana, too.

All the while, you can churn through your deck in search of more impactful spells, including extra-turn spells like Time WarpTime WarpTarget player takes an extra turn after this one., that keep the experience counters coming. Notably, spells like Dig Through Time and Blasphemous ActBlasphemous ActThis spell costs {1} less to cast for each creature on the battlefield.
Blasphemous Act deals 13 damage to each creature., which can naturally be cast at big discounts, still help trigger Mizzix, making them elite additions.

Once you’re at a truly high amount of Experience counters, Proliferate effects like Radstorm and Flux Channeler can keep pushing things further. The latter even has the upside of synergizing with Harmonic Prodigy and similar trigger doublers, speeding up the experience counter growth. Doing so only makes other experience payoffs like Katara, Waterbending Master and Atreus, Impulsive Son more threatening over time.

With your engine running smoothly, your final step is to find ways to close the game. One approach is to use classic Spellslinger tools like Talrand, Sky Summoner, and Guttersnipe to maximize your Storm turns. Alternatively, you can also burn opponents out in one shot via Comet Storm or Jaya’s Immolating Inferno. For those who want to dig even deeper, however, there are also some infinite combo options that make ending games trivial.

Infinite Damage, Card Draw, and Mana

Mizzix enables a boatload of infinite combos, but the most effective way to end the spot centers on Urabrask and Searing Touch. Once you have four experience counters, you can cast Searing Touch with Buyback for just one mana, dealing 1 damage to an opponent. This in turn triggers Urabrask, dealing another damage and netting you a red mana. You can funnel this mana into Searing Touch again and again until each opponent takes lethal damage.

Importantly, other Buyback spells like Seething Anger and Haze of Rage also do the trick alongside Urabrask, increasing the combo’s redundancy. Similarly, you can replace Urabrask with Storm-Kiln Artist or Birgi, God of Storytelling and still get infinite damage from Searing Touch.

Beyond setting up infinite-damage combos, Mizzix also helps you draw your whole deck with Reiterate and Ashling’s Command. With three experience counters and four mana on hand, you can cast Ashling’s Command, choosing the Treasure-making and card draw modes. Then, holding priority, cast Reiterate with Buyback copying Ashling’s Command. When the copy resolves, you’ll net two Treasures, which you can use to recast Reiterate and keep the chain going.

Interestingly, Mizzix and Reiterate also combo nicely with any Ritual, allowing you to produce infinite mana instead. Doing so makes any of your Fireballs lethal immediately.

Fun, Unique, and Cheap

Whether you go heavy on combos or use Mizzix’s discount to cast a flurry of impactful spells, it’s hard to go wrong with this Commander. This makes it a bit surprising that fewer than 6,000 decks use this legend as their Commander, according to EDHREC.

Luckily, Mizzix’s low demand, coupled with its handful of reprints, has kept its price tag down at just $0.72. So, if using experience counters and a big discount to your advantage sounds appealing, you can always pick up a copy on the cheap to give it a shot.

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