Treasure Cruise is an extremely silly Magic card.

Banned in almost every format, Treasure Cruise is still amazingly legal in Pioneer thanks to the lack of fetchlands and the fact that a deck that breaks it hasn't really been found yet. If you're working hard for it, Treasure Cruise will often just be Ancestral Recall, and Ledger Shredder is one of the best ways to work for it in the entire format.

As such, Izzet Phoenix is considered one of the top decks in Pioneer:

Izzet Phoenix | Pioneer | Ben Jones, Legacy European Championship Sofia, 1st Place, 12-1-2

• Creatures (9)
• 1 Thing in the Ice
• 4 Arclight Phoenix
• 4 Ledger Shredder

• Instants (21)
• 2 Galvanic Iteration
• 2 Spell Pierce
• 2 Spikefield Hazard // Spikefield Cave
• 3 Lightning Axe
• 4 Consider
• 4 Fiery Impulse
• 4 Opt

• Sorceries (11)
• 2 Chart a Course
• 2 Temporal Trespass
• 3 Treasure Cruise
• 4 Pieces of the Puzzle

• Lands (19)
• 2 Island
• 1 Otawara, Soaring City
• 2 Hall of Storm Giants
• 2 Stormcarved Coast
• 4 Riverglide Pathway // Lavaglide Pathway
• 4 Spirebluff Canal
• 4 Steam Vents

• Sideboard (15)
• 2 Abrade
• 1 Aether Gust
• 2 Brotherhood's End
• 3 Crackling Drake
• 3 Disdainful Stroke
• 2 Mystical Dispute
• 2 Saheeli, Sublime Artificer

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However, while this version of Izzet Phoenix has put up decent numbers in the last few months, the deck always has felt off to me.

The whole "copy Temporal Trespass with Galvanic Iteration" plan is cute when it works, but adds a ton of volatility to a deck that thrives on having the most velocity and smoothness of any deck in the format. You want to be able to keep casting spells over and over again, so when you get stuck with these awkward cards in your hand it just makes things, well, awkward. Furthermore, tapping out for Pieces of the Puzzle sucks.

Temporal Trespass and Galvanic Iteration are also awful against graveyard hate, meaning they get boarded out in almost every matchup. This same graveyard hate of course does a number on your Arclight Phoenixes as well, making the deck more vulnerable than it needs to be in post-board games while also being somewhat inconsistent overall.

The solution?

Izzet Drakes | Pioneer | Jim Davis, US Regional Championship

• Creatures (8)
• 4 Crackling Drake
• 4 Ledger Shredder

• Instants (21)
• 1 Fading Hope
• 1 Shore Up
• 2 Fires of Victory
• 2 Spikefield Hazard // Spikefield Cave
• 3 Spell Pierce
• 4 Consider
• 4 Fiery Impulse
• 4 Opt

• Sorceries (8)
• 1 Maximize Velocity
• 1 Strangle
• 2 Obliterating Bolt
• 4 Treasure Cruise

• Enchantments (4)
• 4 Fable of the Mirror-Breaker // Reflection of Kiki-Jiki

• Lands (19)
• 2 Island
• 1 Otawara, Soaring City
• 2 Hall of Storm Giants
• 2 Stormcarved Coast
• 4 Riverglide Pathway
• 4 Spirebluff Canal
• 4 Steam Vents

• Sideboard (15)
• 1 Abrade
• 2 Aether Gust
• 1 Anger of the Gods
• 2 Disdainful Stroke
• 2 Mystical Dispute
• 2 Rending Volley
• 1 Search for Azcanta
• 2 Thing in the Ice
• 2 Unlicensed Hearse

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Cut bad cards, add good cards - it's just Magic 101!

Fable of the Mirror-Breaker // Reflection of Kiki-Jiki is one of the best Magic cards printed in a long time, doing basically everything you could ever want a card to do. Rather than spending three mana to just draw some cards and fill your graveyard, you get a threatening creature, get to fill your graveyard and fix your hand anyway, and then get an extremely threatening creature. Why so threatening?

Have you ever attacked for 14 out of nowhere with Crackling Drake, oh while drawing an extra card too?

Crackling Drake is a card often seen in Izzet Phoenix sideboards as a way to sidestep graveyard hate after sideboarding, but the card is just excellent by itself and incredible alongside Fable of the Mirror-Breaker. The Goblin Shaman token gives you extra mana to make sure you can cast Crackling Drake, preferably with mana up, while Reflections of Kiki-Jiki threatens to send a hasted copy of Crackling Drake into the red zone out of nowhere.

And this is to say nothing of the fact that Crackling Drake is card advantage in your grindy matchups, as well as at times difficult to kill. Lastly, Crackling Drake is a far better "solution" to Sheoldred, the Apocalypse than trying to attack for a few turns with Arclight Phoenixes, as Crackling Drake can end the game in one swing so those Sheoldred triggers don't add up.

This configuration loses you a few points in matchups where you want to be able to go really fast, but helps out a ton in grindy matchups as well as against all manner of graveyard hate. And the best news is that you get to play all the good cards of Izzet Phoenix anyway!

Ledger Shredder is still one of the best 2-drops in the format, while you get an unbelievably deep suite of one-mana interactive spells. Spell Pierce in particular is very impressive (much better when you don't need to proactively cast spells for Arclight Phoenix), and you've got a bunch of ways to kill Llanowar Elves on turn one or larger creatures whenever needed. All the cantrips and connive triggers hold it all together and find you what you need, while getting you set up to take a Treasure Cruise early and often.

Because of your card advantage and durable threats, you're also able to take either a more aggressive or more controlling role depending on the matchup which is very nice.

The Sideboard

The sideboard may look like a lot of one-ofs and two-ofs, but the reality is that for a deck that sees so many cards you'd much rather be hedging your slots rather than going buck wild with full playsets.

The extra removal spells come in where expected, with Rending Volley being particularly good against a large portion of the format. The lone Abrade is the only way to kill an artifact in the whole deck, but because you aren't nearly as vulnerable to a card like Unlicensed Hearse that's not much of an issue. You also get to safely play a three-damage sweeper because almost all of your threats survive.

While removal upgrades are all well and good, the most important part of the sideboard is the counterspells.

There are many big and scary things that can happen in a Pioneer game, which makes having cheap ways to answer them paramount. These are especially important in matchups that could otherwise be difficult like Mono-Green Devotion or Azorius Control and help you leverage all of your cheap spells. However, this is where the Crackling Drakes can be a little awkward because they often require you to tap out, so don't be afraid to shave a few of them when you're bringing in the counterspells against decks with must-counter spells.

Once these join the Spell Pierces in the maindeck you've got a nice interaction suite.

Otherwise, you've got a few other threats that fit the matchups.

Thing in the Ice is another graveyard-free threat that is great against decks that want to play to the board quickly and don't have good removal. Search for Azcanta is a nice bullet for super grindy matchups, while Unlicensed Hearse is an excellent piece of graveyard hate for the matchups that specifically care about that sort of thing.

As for what you are boarding out, you're usually shaving whatever removal spells or interaction isn't right for the matchup. You should almost never be boarding out the core of Ledger Shredder, Consider, Opt, and Treasure Cruise (unless they have an egregious amount of graveyard hate).

Wrapping Up

I played this deck at the Regional Championship at Dreamhack a few weeks ago and was very impressed, but unfortunately floundered after my 6-1 start.

The deck sees tons of cards every game, interacts well on multiple fronts, and can switch roles as needed, all things that I value very highly in a deck for a big event. Aside from the Ledger Shredders, Fable of the Mirror-Breakers, and lands, it's also pretty cheap too!

Attacking for 16 out of nowhere with a Crackling Drake is a joy that everyone should experience at least once!