Since I opened my first copy of Dragonshift during the Dragon's Maze pre-release, I have wanted to build a nasty Izzet deck with Dragonshift as the main win condition. During my various Dragon's Maze shenanigans, I managed to acquire a full playset, which makes the dragon deck even more appealing.
The final straw came from seeing my favorite Magic Online streamer, callmechalk, build a pretty cheap (and surprisingly effective) Dragonshift deck, so I've given in and ordered my first set of singles online (it's not a huge investment, though, as some friends had given me a monetary gift with the provision that I only spend it to order cards).
Anyway, here's the deck, with primary credit going to chalk for smashing face with a very similar deck online.
Creatures:
4 Goblin Electromancer
4 Young Pyromancer
Instants:
4 Battle Hymn
4 Dragonshift
4 Shock
4 Think Twice
Sorceries:
4 Faithless Looting
4 Krenko's Command
4 Molten Birth
1 Teleportal
Lands:
7 Island
12 Mountain
4 Sulfur Falls
The basic strategy is pretty straightforward: Generate a bunch of tokens using the Pyromancers, Krenko's Command, and Molten Birth; use the Electromancer to make those spells cheaper, then Overload Dragonshift to end the game in a hurry.
Cards like Think Twice and Faithless Looting not only help find pieces of the combo that you need, they do double duty with the Pyromancers, making tokens when flashed back. Battle Hymn raises the funds necessary to blast Dragonshift, and Shock cheaply generates tokens through Pyromancers while serving as early-game protection from pesky creatures.
While this deck is generally aggressive, looking just to get 5 or 6 tokens in play to overwhelm your opponent in one attack, Teleportal serves as a slower late-game win condition, if you can get to the point of having ten creatures in play (and you're desperate).
Teleportal is probably weakest link, followed perhaps by the Electromancers or Shocks, as those don't contribute as directly to the game plan, but I think it works pretty well as is. Plus I don't have anything that seems to fit better, so I'll run with this for now.
As for the dual lands - I included some copies of Sulfur Falls primarily because they're pretty cheap right now; the more recently printed Steam Vents is nearly three times more costly. I think Steam Vents are really only preferable if your starting hand has only nonbasic lands, as in that case, the Falls are guaranteed to play slowly. Otherwise, I think Vents would be unnecessary, so I can justify the cost.
For an added bonus, this deck is currently Standard-legal, at least for a couple more weeks. Get in there and dominate Friday Night Magic while you can!
To close it out, I want to plug callmechalk again, both for his fun stream and for the deck inspiration (and most, if not all, of the list, I honestly can't remember exactly what his Dragonshift deck runs). Check him out if you're into Magic Online streams.
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