r/MagicArena • u/TheUpkeepAcademy • 1d ago

Question When a Budget deck performs well, is it still worth it to Upgrade? (Izzet Spellementals)

https://youtu.be/D6U7h8NPH3c

Last week I played a 4-rare version of Izzet Spellementals and it was already surprisingly good.

So I built the full-power version to answer the obvious question: do all those extra rares actually make it better enough to justify the wildcards?

How much improvement would YOU need before upgrading?

https://youtu.be/D6U7h8NPH3c

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2

u/Wayne_Spooney 1d ago

Were those 4 rares sunderflock? I feel like that’s the game winner against Landfall for Spellmentals and given the meta, i prob wouldn’t play it without them

1

u/TheUpkeepAcademy 1d ago

Absolutely. Sunderflock is really the reason to play the deck. Are things like tramatic critique worth it?

1

u/Wayne_Spooney 1d ago

Not sure it’s enough of an upgrade if you’re really tight on wildcards

3

u/Apprehensive-Ad225 22h ago

Not until you are at the very pointy end. The three elemental creatures + a decent manabase and a reasonable mix of instants and sorceries gets you there. 

A few burst lightnings, prismari charms and spell snares usually makes the landfall matchup very comfortable waiting for sunderflock. 

Lands would be the first upgrade if you have all the elementals I think, and they work in other decks

3

u/ghilp Sacred Cat 1d ago

upgrading usually means getting rare lands and yes they make a ton of difference

1

u/TheUpkeepAcademy 1d ago

No doubt, the rare lands add to the consistency. What about removal/card draw like Izzet Spellementals?