Introduction: Why I Registered 5C Niv to Light

I played 5-Color Niv to Light deck at the recent regional Players Tour qualifier in Brussels.

For those following the Magic Online metagame, the Pioneer metagame has been in constant flux since the last round of bans, with massive changes occurring in matter of days.

5-Color Niv to Light deck exploded in popularity at a time when mono-color decks were at the highest popularity. It had a great matchup not only against the more aggro version of those decks but also against the midrange versions that were trying to prey on the aggro deck. To give an example, it was good against the 12 1-drop versions of Mono Black as well as the 26 land, 4 《Glorybringer》 versions of Mono Red (the Big Red deck).

The metagame quickly adapted to it, with an uptick in Ensoul and Spirits occupying the metagame share of Big Red. At the same time, UB Inverter decks became popular. As a reaction to all of that, Mono Black Aggro and lower to the ground versions of Mono Red became popular again.

At the eve of decklist submissions, this was the metagame I expected and how I saw those matchups from the perspective of 5-Color Niv to Light:

Given this metagame prediction, it made sense to me to play 5-Color Niv to Light. Moving forward, if Spirits and UR Ensoul aren’t huge parts of the metagame, I think the deck will remain viable and its success will depend on tuning the sideboard against what is popular in each weekend. The deck has a ton of flexibility.

It is always difficult to have reliable estimates on who is favored in a matchup. The estimates above have some uncertainty to them. The ones and I was most confident about, and what ended up being the breaking point in me choosing the deck, were the results of my focused testing against UW, Mono Black Aggro and the newer versions of Mono Red Aggro, which confirmed they were all solid matchups.

The biggest unknown was the matchup against UB Inverter, but Gonçalo Pinto and Bernas Torres, who were practicing with the UB deck, said it was close overall.

A side note: it is very hard currently to have reliable information in how matchups play out. In eternal formats there is always the problem that small changes in sideboard options can have great impact on who is favored or not. But the most relevant impact to playtesting has been the London Mulligan, which makes the games more polarized. When playing on Magic Online, you can’t control how well your opponents are mulliganing and you can’t really account for the fact that you would keep different hands based on open decklists. The last factor is that the leagues on Magic Online are no longer competitive or casual, they are all mixed, which means there is a big range in the quality of opposition you are facing.

All of this means that there is a lot of value in having focused playtesting with a teammate and you can’t really count solely on Magic Online win rates to help you guide your deck selection decision. Since online data is unreliable, it also means you need to put more weight on having a good feeling for a deck being powerful and having a deeper understanding of what you need to do to win with it and sideboarding.

5-Color Niv to Light is a true midrange deck that is mostly looking to play a long game, while at the same relying on specific silver bullets to beat polarized matchups. In the maindeck, those bullets are 《Slaughter Games》 (which is well positioned given the popularity of UB Inverter) and the combination of 《Solar Blaze》/《Hour of Devastation》. The sweepers work so well because any other creature deck feels pressured to beat us early in the game or risk getting buried in card advantage, which means they can’t realistically afford to play around sweepers.

Card Choices

The final list we ran is a product of tuning from the geniuses at Czech House, Stan Cifka, Ivan Floch and Ondrej Strasky. I think they did a lot of cool innovations in the deck. Let me go over them:

28 Lands Including Temples

Most versions run 26 lands. Given how important it is to hit land drops until your 5th, the higher land count worked well for us and boosts the effectiveness of 《Uro, Titan of Nature’s Wrath》. The side effect of flooding in the late game is mitigated by a little by the Temples and by 《Nahiri, the Harbinger》, so overall it felt like a well-balanced deck.

《Gilded Goose》

3

《Paradise Druid》 is often played in this slot, but 《Gilded Goose》 offered some significant advantages: you can live the dream of turn 3 《Niv-Mizzet Reborn》 and you get the consistent life gain in the late game, which happens quite often. This added dimension, along Uro, is what allowed us to cut 《Siege Rhino》.

《Nahiri, the Harbinger》

2

At some point we had 3 of them in the list but ended up going to 2 to lower the curve a little. Nahiri happens to be well positioned against 《Heliod, Sun-Crowned》 and the deck has had a very good target for the ultimate, but its most important job is flood protection.

No 《Siege Rhino》

0

《Siege Rhino》 isn’t a bad card, but we felt like we didn’t need it against aggro decks, and it has the downside of being killed by 《Fatal Push》 and getting ignore too often in the late game. I think early game interaction is often more critical, which is why I had 4 《Abrupt Decay》 and 1 《Dreadbore》. I would probably add more cheap removal spells before adding Rhino, if my goal was to improve further against aggro. Ultimately, Rhino was not a good enough as a bridge to the late game and, unlike its time in Standard, using him to pressure control or combo deck wasn’t impactful enough.

《Uro, Titan of Nature’s Wrath》

2

This is an incredible card and the reason why we have such a strong matchup against Mono Black Aggro. Since the deck is so reliant on ramping, Uro acts as the ideal bridge in the early game while being an incredible factor in the late game, often winning games by itself.

My Sideboard Plans in Brussels

Here are the sideboard plans I planned to use in Brussels:

Black Aggro

Against Black Aggro

Out

In

5C Niv to Light Mirror

Against 5C Niv to Light Mirror

Out

In

UR Ensoul

Against UR Ensoul

Out

In

UW Spirits

Against UW Spirits

Out

In

Red Aggro

Against Red Aggro

Out

In

Against Red Aggro (Midrange Style)

Out

In

UW Control

Against UW Control

Out

In

Mono Green Aggro

Against Mono Green Aggro

Out

In

Mono Green Ramp

Against Mono Green Ramp

Out

In

Lotus Breach

Against Lotus Breach

Out

In

UR Phoenix

Against UR Phoenix

Out

In

Dredge

Against Dredge

Out

In

UB Inverter

Against UB Inverter

Out

In

Moving Forward

Possible Changes

Moving forward, here are the cards I would consider moving in and out of the deck:

Cutting 4th 《Abrupt Decay》

I value having early plays with this deck and 《Abrupt Decay》 is particularly good against Ensoul and Spirits, your toughest matchups. However, the card can be narrow in matchups that are rising in popularity, like UB Inverter.

Because of this, the 4th copy could become 《Thought Erasure》. I like 《Thoughtseize》 too, but 《Thought Erasure》 has the added of benefit of being a good hit with 《Niv-Mizzet Reborn》. The way the games play out, a discard spell after turn 5 is still relevant and you can always combo it with 《Teferi, Time Raveler》. Another consideration for this slot is 《Uro, Titan of Nature’s Wrath》: the 3rd copy is pushing it because it is bad in multiples and you can’t easily pay the Escape cost, however it is so good so often that I would take the risk.

Cutting 2nd and 3rd 《Rest in Peace》

After a bad playtest session against UR Phoenix, I was convinced the deck needed help against graveyard decks. While this remains true, it is possible that such decks will continue to stay a small part of the metagame share, so those slots could be used somewhere else.

《Rakdos’s Return》 and 《Thoughtseize》 could be used in those slots, again making you stronger against UB Inverter and UW Control (a deck that was more popular than I expected in Brussels).

Adding 2nd 《Voice of Resurgence》

Voice has overperformed significantly, not only against UW and Spirits but also as a defense against Mono Black’s 《Self-Inflicted Wound》. I would consider an additional copy in the sideboard over 《Mystical Dispute》.

Adding an 《Enter the God-Eternals》

This card was a nice find by the Czech House and Paulo Vitor Damo Da Rosa (PV) before the tournament. It is very useful against the newer versions of Mono Red that rely on 《Torbran, Thane of Red Fell》 and can in theory it can also cheese careless UB Inverter players. I didn’t really have time to playtest its effectiveness against UB, however it was reported to me that the plan worked well enough. Because of this, I would consider taking out 1 《Infernal Reckoning》 for it.

Lucas (Twitter / Twitch)