Hello awesome folks! I hope your day is going to be super mega well today! As well as your week and month! Today I have something really fun for you!

Last week I looked at my favorite Pre-con and Theme Deck called "The Sparkler" It looks like a Counter/Burn with counters and with burn that buys back., it has strong elements of tempo like the buyback of Capsize and tapping things with Intruder Alarm and forcing taxes with Propaganda and more. What'll be hard is taking this deck with just three dorks, two of which are Walls. You can see my thoughts last week.

The first question is, will this be an Izzet Spellslinger deck with wins like Guttersnipe and Young Pyromancer? I think you can do so and be fine and dandy. That infrastructure already exists to keep you winning in a heavy instant and sorcery heavy brew and with just three creatures in the deck, that would make sense. But I don't feel it here. That's the obvious brew. Not here.

Who am I building around then?

I have four candidates.

Zaffai will turn a cast sorcery or instant into a scry 1 unless it costs 5, then you make a 4/4 then if it's 10, you shoot a foe for 10. Since your win cons are X spells, she can turn those into even bigger wins.

Najal, the Storm Runner costs 5, your sorceries have flash so your best spells can be cast instantly. When it attacks, you can spend 2 to make your next instant or sorcery get copied. This Efreet works well together with the heavy spell count and making your sorceries flash all in one dork. But it has to attack to get the copies, and that's not really this deck.

Aegar, the Freezing Flame is just three for a 3/3 Giant. When a creature or planeswalker is dealt excess damage, if it was from a Giant, Wizard or spell, you draw a card. This plays into the burn side of "The Sparkler" rather than the instant/sorcery version, which is a different take.

A smaller 3/2, but this has ward 2 to protect itself, and then when another source of yours deals 1 damage it deals 2 instead. You can easily build around the damage side with things dealing split damage like Arc Lightning.

The first one out is Ghyrson, the biggest change to the deck. The next one out is Najal since it's pricey, requires an attack to Fork, and then mana. Love the flash though!

So...Aegar or Zaffai, Zafai or Aegar?

The Lady or the Giant?

Hmmmm...

I like what each brings, having a win con or scry or dork maker or building around burn. Both work here and I can see them both in the 99 too. Aegar is cheaper and massive card flow in the Command Zone, Zaffai is more synergetic around my instants/sorceries and then makes dorks or shoots a random foe for a lot of damage. And he'll do it off copies too with magecraft. Fun stuff. The synergy or the burn. The burn or the synergy. Card flow or win con?

Let's do the synergy!

Hello Zaffai, Thunder Conductor! You are my leader!

Mana, Ramp, Lands

Let's kick this section off with mana rocks. Since Zaffai costs 4, you can drop her on the third turn with two-drop mana rocks. After that I tossed in some mana rocks that tap for two or three mana each to cast the big stuff like Worn Powerstone or this one. That way I have the mana needed for the big stuff.

Elementalist's Palette taps for any color of mana. Then when you cast a spell with an X in its cost, toss two counters on it and then you can add X for each counter on it, so over time it'll build up, and there is no opportunity cost since it'll always tap for one for three mana. Stonespeaker Crystal drops on turn 4, taps for 2, and then can be tapped with 2 to sacrifice and draw a card and exile all other graveyards at instant speed.

Now let's turn to two sorceries. The five-drop will trigger Zaffai's ability to craft a 4/4. Then you make mana equal to your opposing tapped lands, when timed right that could be a lot of mana, way more than the 5 spent to cast it. The seven-drop will make a Treasure for each land you control to save up mana over time for future big casts. And by the seventh turn when this is castable with mana rocks and land drops that could be 6 or 7 Treasures for one spell.

Now let's turn a quartet of lands! Mines of Moria usually arrives tapped, and then can be tapped with four mana to exile three cards from your graveyard to make two Treasure Tokens. We have no recursion here like Living Death or Eternal Witness, so exile away for this and a few tricks we'll see later. I am also running Treasure Vault to make Treasures from land sources. Mystic Sanctuary arrives tapped unless you have three or more Islands, and if you do you'll reload an instant or sorcery from your graveyard to the top of your library!

The City arrived untapped so there is no tempo loss and you can spend up to 4 to discard it and bounce a nonland permanent. It's a bounce spell in your land base. The Labyrinth taps for colorless, arrives untapped, and then can be tapped with four to remove an attacker or blocker from combat. I am also running Maze of Ith that does the same thing. Ideally you'll use this pair to keep creatures at bay that your own team can't handle

Tempo

Now let's turn to some tempo spells. The enchantment costs three, and then as your foes cast their stuff they are taxed for each spell cast by a mana, or you'll draw a card. I am also running Propaganda from our first deck. Capsize is also from the deck and costs three, bounces anything, and then can be bought back for three mana. Then you can use that to trigger your Commander for scries over and over again, as well as bouncing things that slipped past your counter shield or burn suite to try again. Good pair to start this section with!

Let's turn to mass bouce stuff like Cyclonic Rift. Evacuation will bounce everything of a creature persuasion to everyone's hands, yours too. This was in the first deck and it's a key mass bounce emergency spell that will stop you from dying. Since most of your stuff costs 2 or 3, this isn't a big setback for you. Then the four cost will bounce attackers only for one fewer, so your stuff is safe. It's also a great stop to the attacking. The Rift will bounce stuff that's not yours for 7 mana overloaded at instant speed, but just a scry tirgger for Zaffai. Along with Aetherize, this plan should slow down your foes in a multiplayer game way more than you.

Blockers

Now let's turn to Walls. Since the first deck had Walls to block, we will too. You want to drop one or two in the second or third turn and then block away my friends, block away.

The Bank is the best pure blocker. It drops on turn 2, it flies, and it takes no combat damage, so it can block lots of early attacks that come your way. The Frost Wall costs a cheap three, gives you a massive 7 defense, it's on the ground and can be beaten down by bigger stuff later but unlike the Bank will absorb more damage from tramplers. It will also keep something it blocks from attacking for a turn, so its tempo in Wall form.

Wall of Tears costs two and rocks a smaller 0/4 body. But when it blocks you can bounce all blocked dorks at the end of combat. It's also tempo in Wall form and was in the first deck.

Wall of Stone is the highest toughness printed on a three-drop Wall, and it's in our colors. It's very strong at blocking with a massive 8 defense and most Commander decks today may not even run a dork to crack it. I am also running two 0/7 Walls: Wall of Granite and Glacial Wall.

Synergies and Winning Conditions

Let's turn to these three win conditions. The first enchantment costs a massive seven but your instants and sorceries will make one free copy each. Since you have magecraft, that'll be two triggers for each copy. Note that unlike other options this is not just once per turn, or requires mana. The Typhoon has a noncreature cast trigger to make a X/X sized dork with flying for that spell. Since I have a bigger sized spells to trigger our Commander already, that made sense here as well.

Answers (Counters and Burn)

Let's start with counters! Desertion costs five and triggers your Commander, then counters any spell! Was it a creature or artifact? Great! Gain control of it! It's a win con in counter clothes. Reinterpret just costs four, you can counter any spell, and then cast, for free, a spell with that mana cost or less from your hand, which is great if you kept your mana open for a counter but want to impact the battlefield.

Let's finish our counter section with this duo that also cost five or more to make a 4/4 dork! Swindle costs five and you get Treasures equal to the countered spell's casting cost, future ramp and making a 4/4 dork and countering a spell all in one thing. Nasty here!

The 'Jack costs a harder to cast six, counters anything, exiles it, and then you can cast it from exile for free, but you have to wait until your main phase unless it's instant or flash thing. I also tossed in Cryptic Command that can counter and bounce for tempo, Mystic Confluence for triggering Zaffai for a 4/4 and also countering, bouncing or drawing a card, preferably the first two. Good stuff here!

Now let's turn to burn, or our other win-cons. Rolling Thunder was printed in Tempest first as a common but was missing from the Stronghold precon. It's great since you can spend X mana from a double Red start and split its damage to various sources to kill multiple creatures and planeswalkers or players. I am also running Fanning the Flames to kill players with buyback. Comet Storm can also kill players or their stuff. The X burn spells are great here if they are totaling 10 then you shoot a random foe for 10 too.

Next is a burn spell of Izzet cards. The sorcery costs three, shoots a dork for damage equal to your instant/sorcery count in your graveyard, and then you can shoot their controller for excess damage. Nasty creature and player control in one spell! The instant costs a massive 8, and then will shoot four damage divided as you choose, tap two permanents like tempo, and then make a 4/4 from it and one from Zaffai and then draw two cards. Draw, removal, creature making and tapping is strong in one card!

Every deck needs mass removal as an emergency release valve; ours is Blasphemous Act. Its cost is reduced by one for each creature on the battlefield, so in a four-way game this should easily cost 4 or 5 mana mid game. I also am running Vandalblast to destroy all opposing artifact for five-mana overloaded (a fine Shatter replacement).

Shatterskull Smashing that can turn to smashing when it needs to. Just two creatures but you can clear out two. If X is six or more, you deal double that damage and are much more likely to clear out two dorks for one spell. I also am running four more modal spell // lands that can act as a land if needed or a spell to trigger your stuff, and it's an X spell for the Palette and getting 10 mana for 10 random damage.

Card Flow

Let's finish with card flow! Since "The Sparkler" has just one card draw spell (Whispers of the Muse) I needed to really update that! Enter Finale of Revelation, which will also trigger the Palette. Stroke of Genius printed just two sets later and was so powerful it was banned in Standard. This costs three to start and then draws you X mana, and it's pretty splashable. I also tossed in Blue Sun's Zenith.

Now let's turn to two delve options, this is the other thing to use your graveyard for in addition to Treasures for Mines of Moria. The common costs a splashable eight can delve everything but one, and draws you three while triggering Zaffai for a 4/4. The rare costs eight as well with double blue. You dig seven, draw two and the rest go on your library's bottom. I also tossed in Tidings to draw four and trigger Zaffai for a dork.

I just have two magecraft cards other than Zaffai. The Kiln Artist to make Treasures for ramping, and then this Human Wizard! This is my only four-drop critter other than my leader. Every magecraft trigger draws you a card! With the five modal spells in here as well as my normal suite of 34 other spells here to trigger it plus copies, that's a lot of power and card flow in one dork.

The Experiment triggers the Palette and Zaffai if at 8 or more in the X. You exile the top X spells from your library and cast all instants and sorceries revealed this way for free if they cost that X or less. What you didn't cast? Toss it into your grevayrd so it's fodder for delve and Mines of Moria, Gandalf's Sanction.

Ready for my deck list?

"The Sparkler" | Commander | Abe Sargent

• Commander (1)
• 1 Zaffai, Thunder Conductor

• Creatures (9)
• 1 Archmage Emeritus
• 1 Fog Bank
• 1 Glacial Wall
• 1 Hover Barrier
• 1 Storm-Kiln Artist
• 1 Wall of Frost
• 1 Wall of Granite
• 1 Wall of Stone
• 1 Wall of Tears

• Instants (23)
• 1 Aetherize
• 1 Blue Sun's Zenith
• 1 Capsize
• 1 Comet Storm
• 1 Counterspell
• 1 Cryptic Command
• 1 Cyclonic Rift
• 1 Desertion
• 1 Dig Through Time
• 1 Drown in Dreams
• 1 Evacuation
• 1 Fact or Fiction
• 1 Jwari Disruption // Jwari Ruins
• 1 Lightning Bolt
• 1 Magma Opus
• 1 Mystic Confluence
• 1 Reins of Power
• 1 Reinterpret
• 1 Silundi Vision // Silundi Isle
• 1 Spell Swindle
• 1 Spelljack
• 1 Stroke of Genius
• 1 Valakut Awakening // Valakut Stoneforge

• Sorceries (16)
• 1 Banefire
• 1 Blasphemous Act
• 1 Brass's Bounty
• 1 Epic Experiment
• 1 Fanning the Flames
• 1 Finale of Revelation
• 1 Gandalf's Sanction
• 1 Insurrection
• 1 Jeska's Will
• 1 Mana Geyser
• 1 Rolling Thunder
• 1 Sea Gate Restoration // Sea Gate, Reborn
• 1 Shatterskull Smashing // Shatterskull, the Hammer Pass
• 1 Tidings
• 1 Treasure Cruise
• 1 Vandalblast

• Enchantments (4)
• 1 Propaganda
• 1 Rhystic Study
• 1 Shark Typhoon
• 1 Swarm Intelligence

• Artifacts (13)
• 1 Arcane Signet
• 1 Elementalist's Palette
• 1 Everflowing Chalice
• 1 Gilded Lotus
• 1 Glittering Stockpile
• 1 Hedron Archive
• 1 Izzet Signet
• 1 Sol Ring
• 1 Stonespeaker Crystal
• 1 Talisman of Creativity
• 1 Thought Vessel
• 1 Thran Dynamo
• 1 Worn Powerstone

• Lands (36)
• 8 Island
• 8 Mountain
• 1 Castle Ventress
• 1 Command Tower
• 1 Dust Bowl
• 1 Izzet Boilerworks
• 1 Labyrinth of Skophos
• 1 Maze of Ith
• 1 Mines of Moria
• 1 Molten Tributary
• 1 Mystic Sanctuary
• 1 Otawara, the Soaring City
• 1 Shivan Reef
• 1 Sokenzan, Crucible of Defiance
• 1 Steam Vents
• 1 Temple of the False God
• 1 Temple of Epiphany
• 1 Training Center
• 1 Treasure Vault
• 1 Volatile Fjord
• 1 War Room
• 1 Wasteland

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And there we go! 100 cards later, I hope that you enjoyed my take on "The Sparkler!" What other Preconstructed Decks or Theme Decks would you like to see Commander-tized?