I Belong

 Alright, I think this is where I leave it.

4 Izzet Signet
3 Booby Trap
3 Lantern of Insight

4 Incinerate
2 Counterspell
4 Memory Lapse
2 Metamorphose
3 Fire // Ice
2 Sulfurous Blast
4 Risk Factor
2 Ionize

7 Mountain
2 Caldera Lake
7 Island
4 Temple of Epiphany
1 Shivan Reef
2 Izzet Boilerworks

1 Argivian Restoration
3 Storm's Wrath

I'll admit, this deck is still a glass cannon, desperate to land a Booby Trap to do the final points of damage. But it's an amusing glass cannon, and it doesn't have the anxiety of combo decks that 'may or may not' go off. Instead, it's the slow anxiety of whether or not you'll get the Booby Trap out...and if you can name the right card. The dread that an opponent faces knowing that the next draw is quite likely their last. 

Ionize was a nice addition and Fire//Ice have been doing great. 

Yeah, I still have a problem if an opponent lands a 5+ toughness creature too early, but let's face it, most decks are going to have that problem. And I like that this deck forces me to think differently when I play, trying to pick my most opportune moments to use a Risk Factor or a Counterspell. Sure, it breaks easy but when Call My Body Home goes off, it's a lot of fun. 

Deep Down In My Pores

 The problem is choice.

I love Risk Factor-opponents keep eating a lot of damage, instead of letting me draw cards. Which is great. Except, if I cannot close the game out then I'm still in trouble. 

And the problem with denying me cards is that I am less likely to see a Booby Trap, which is how I want to close games out. 

The upside: games are coming down to very thin margins. I feel as though I'm almost there. The downside: I'm not quite getting there. 

One spell that feels like it's been underperforming, surprisingly, is Hinder. It's good and it fits the theme, but it isn't contributing to the win condition. I'm looking at Ionize right now, but Dissolve and Sinister Sabotage help me dig into my deck and are also on my radar.

I've also been testing three copies of Storm's Wrath instead of one and two Rolling Thunder. Rolling Thunder can set up a big turn of damage, but Storm's Wrath does more for less, overall and will hit Planeswalkers, which just isn't something one can ignore anymore. The upside to Rolling Thunder-that it can kill 5 toughness creatures-isn't enough, I think. 

I believe I'm in the final stretch, though: just a little tweak here and there and Call My Body Home is almost done.

Crawling and Scraping

Is Risk Factor underrated? I ask because when was the last time you saw anyone run or talk about that card?

Looking at some stats at mtggoldfish.com, all I see are Commander decks-with one Brawl deck. So it doesn't seem to be setting the world on fire.

However; this card is doing some real work, and the Jump-Start ability isn't to be laughed at. 

It's an instant, it's cheap, it's repeatable. 

This might just meet the Hexdrinker rule. Because when I tested two copies, my opponents routinely just ate the four damage, even on the second activation. Since I can hold it as an instant, that means I don't have to drop shields to play it, if I have the counterspell and throwing an extra land away to do it again isn't the cost one might think.

With eight damage coming off one card, that means Booby Trap doesn't have to do quite as much work.

I think I'm going to have to bump Risk Factor up to four copies. 

Sorry Sorry Legs

Let's start with the changes. 

Fortunately, my mana base seemed pretty solid but there were some obvious tweaks I needed to make, after playing just one match against Noah. 

But it was very clear that Breaking Point wasn't cutting it, Dream Cache was too slow, as was Capsize and Whispers of the Muse. 

Noah's suggestion? Lantern of Insight.

Huh. Well that just saved me four mana. 

I could try copies of Hinder, too: they are in theme. Sulfurous Blast will do a better job of keeping creatures off of me than Breaking Point and also chips away at the opponent's life total.

Getting to six mana to cast Booby Trap is critical, and Caldera Lake is inefficient. I have a soft spot for the Tempest dual lands but they probably need to be delegated to Commander decks. I've got a couple lzzet Boilerworks, so they can sub in.

Thanks to the dismantling of other decks, I can also put in a Shivan Reef for mana, and copies of Fire/Ice, to help keep my options high and the mana curve low.

I also want to take a chance on two other cards: Risk Factor and Metamorphose. With the Jump-Start mechanic and instant speed, I'm hoping that Risk Factor will put a squeeze on opponents, helping me draw into needed cards. 

Metamorphose is flat out weird and I want to use that as a back pocket answer to troublesome permanents-including planeswalkers-that can then set me up for a Booby Trap play. But it's definitely a high risk, high reward moment.

Call My Body Home

OK, so where was I going with retiring all those Blue decks recently?

This: 

4 Izzet Signet
3 Booby Trap

3 Precognition

4 Incinerate
4 Counterspell
4 Memory Lapse
2 Whispers of the Muse
2 Capsize

8 Mountain
4 Caldera Lake
8 Island
4 Temple of Epiphany

2 Ghitu Fire
3 Breaking Point
2 Rolling Thunder
2 Dream Cache
1 Argivian Restoration

This is a very old deck, named after a Monkeywrench song, (which just rips).

And what Call My Body Home wants to do is use Precognition to allow me to name the precise card that Booby Trap needs to trigger. Rolling Thunder and Breaking Point are there to help keep the board clear of creatures, but I'm not above using an Incinerate to help, nor a Memory Lapse to substitute for Precognition's ability.

With 10 damage done, another Booby Trap, or the use of Argivian Restoration should do the trick. But, helpfully, a lot of Magic decks are interested in using their pilot's life total as a resource, so I'm certainly not above using Incinerate to finish the game either, after they've drained themselves for four or mroe life. 

And now that I have freed up some Blue and Red cards, including lands that will produce those colors, I'm hoping that I can buttress this deck into something that can play a reasonable game. It might be a little weird, and if I can keep the deck creatureless I'd like to do that. Being creatureless is a very difficult thing in Magic now, but that's the direction this deck wants to go in, I believe.