Izzet Lava Bombs - Pyromancer Build
deladude
Posts: 80 ✭
After playing through all color combos and classes with the exception of Dimir/Assassin and Simic I want to present my favorite creation so far in this game for others to enjoy.
Concept and Playstyle
I call it Izzet Lava Bombs because we set creatures on fire with lava and then they explode in a fireball that can often trigger a chain reaction of explosions that is sure to put a grin on your face. The build is fast - It aims to never have an empty hand and is built for mobility. You're meant to be constantly darting in and out of the action as you set things on fire and watch them explode! This playstyle has you in enemy range often so you have to stay sharp and use good judgement to keep your utilities available for when you need to pull out of combat and collect some health globes before darting back into the mobs. I've played through most the content on master with this build and its been the most consistent and fun build I've made so far (all level 5 spells, artifacts maxed, equip as shown).
After the build picture I will go over my build choices and strategies.
- Red - damage spells in constant rotation
- Blue - utilities and damage spells only used in certain situations
- Green - draw card in constant rotation
- Yellow - creatures in constant rotation
Build Choices and Strategies
Implement of Combustion and Blooming Totem are the two choices that have the most influence on the overall build so we'll cover artifacts first.
Artifacts
Implement of Combustion is kind of a given if you want to lean into DoTs because it turns every tick of spell damage into one. This is important to understand because this one artifact contributes more than 40% of the overall damage output when things really get cooking. It also helps explain why a DoT focused build only runs one spell that applies a DoT directly, and its in a utility slot - all of our DoT power comes from IoC and class abilities. The deck has four creatures because they increase the draw chance on IoC to 30% which allows us to run one fewer draw spells in exchange for another mobility/damage spell.
On the other hand Blooming Totem might not be so obvious. On its face it has no synergy with this build concept, but it does have a lot of synergy with various equipment and I just could not deny the overall power on tap here. If you lean into this artifact with eight sorcery spells, as we do, you get a globe every time you cast any spell that costs four or more mana. Just over half our spells cost four or more mana so the globes generated on top of what already drops naturally puts the healing and equipment synergies through the roof.
Cursed Idol helps with the overall damage output and its downside is countered by Blooming Totem which is a beautiful thing.
Lesser artifacts are focused on spark recharge and balancing out sorcery buffs. Note that blue is poorly represented because we get +250 from equipment procs.
Equipment
Helm of the Warden is a great piece I discovered while playing Geomancer. I find Choking Overgrowth procs about half as much on the Pyromancer but the secondary traits are also a big reason to have it slotted. Greater Might for 5s on Health Globe pick up is something this build should be able to keep up indefinitely when played right, and I aim for +750 spark recharge on all my builds so we'll take it where it comes.
Attire of the Dark Wander goes hand in hand with our high card draw and is a must have for most builds currently - the mana regen is just too good if you can keep your hand full. Utility potency is a nice bonus trait.
Bracers of the Harvester is here for its secondary traits that give utility recharge speed and max health potency, both of which we want more of in this build. The soul siphon on card draw is a cool effect but the damage doesn't scale so its just a pretty animation and that's about it for now. If it ever gets buffed we'll be nigh unkillable though!
Wild Seer's Boots gives us that extra blue potency on utility use, so the plan is to pump utility recharge speed high and combo it with telestrike as much as possible. Our utility is also a source of mobility so this all works toward the playstyle of darting around setting things on fire! The secondary that synergizes with health globes by disorienting enemies is also a great bonus. The disorient procs don't hit huge in this build but they do add a notable amount of chip damage, and keeping enemies stunned helps our squishy pyro dart around the mob packs without too much worry.
Armlet of Deception - almost a must for any high draw build because of the tokens it produces. I usually have six to ten running around at any given time and they can be good meat shields. It also has utility recharge which we really need, and the secondary potency is nice.
Steadfast Band - Max HP, utility recharge speed and secondary potency are all things this build wants.
Comments
Spells
Fire Dance - Cheap, thematic, and procs IoC like crazy. I love this spell
Telestrike - Our one blue damage card is a great one. It provides mobility, crowd control and crits all packed into a three cost spell. It has a long strike distance which can be very helpful on the mobility front, but most of the time I use this spell in close quarters after gap closing with my utility for two reasons: the Wild Seer's synergy already mentioned, plus this card can actually proc its own crit condition if the distance to target is minimal. It works wonders for finishing off hardened targets that have had a DoT ticking for a few seconds.
Lava Vortex - Its a thematic hazard that helps pump out damage and apply DoTs. Truth be told I would much prefer to run Bathe in Dragonfire here but its just too expensive and slows down our momentum too much.
Magma Burst - Thematic, crits on DoTs, has an AOE cone knock down. This is another card I can't get enough of
Slag Strike - This is a flex spot. I like slag strike to really push the mobility on this build and it can be situationally good for taking down elites and the like.
Molten Shell - One of our two defensive spells. Hold this card for when you need to recoup health. It will give you a nice shield and a health globe. Grab the health globe and use the duration of the shield to grab a few more to get back to full before you start taking damage again.
Mistform - Our other defensive utility. Pop this alongside Molten Shell to expedite the health globe collection and allow you to get back into the fight faster.
Concentrate - Its the backbone of our draw engine, and is supplemented by IoC and mana surge to provide consistently full hands.
Stitched Drake - Doesn't live long but cycles a card when it dies so it makes the cut. Seems better than Muse Drake for this build anyway.
Experimental Scorpion - In theory the artifact creature is here because it will be easy to cast on account of the colorless mana cost and the discount for artifact creatures sometimes coming into play. In practice the the Spiderlings do a ton of damage relative to other 1/1 tokens and I don't know why but I like it!
Goblin Warchief - The bannerman is here to double the damage of all of our tokens, but we don't get a lot out of our creatures so its not important.
Water Elemental - The on summon affect is helpful for grouping enemies in theory but hasn't been that useful in practice.
Generally all of the creatures are changeable as they are really just here to thin the deck. I have tried to find a balance between creatures that will stay alive and out of the deck for a while with ones that won't cost too much. Four cost is the sweet spot for Blooming Totem so I lean on the more expensive side.
Traits
Heart of Iron - Given the aggressive playstyle we are going for this trait is a must. I often wait for Heart of Iron to proc before even bothering to get defensive. Once it procs I pop my utilities and go hoover up health globes until I'm full then play a bit more cautiously until I'm off cooldown. It works great.
Psychic Prowess - This is a flex spot. We cast a lot of sorceries and always have creatures of some sort on the field so it seems better than the other creature focused options.
Finale of Flames - This trait is a real joy if you like explosions, and its how we turn our lava into bombs! The cascading effect this can have at mana towers and in other high density mob fights is a thing of beauty and its a big part of why I felt compelled to share this build.
Interesting build, thanks for sharing it! I am currently going also with a DoT-IoC red/blue deck, but centered on spell storm to cast spells as fast as possible, instead of concentrate card draw. This is primarily because I have found an interesting synergy of spell storm with X costing spells such as unstable beam or earthquake: if you cast them as the last spell in your hand and keep pressed, the mana spent balances with mana regeneration, doing tons of damage (they damage twice per second, each time triggering IoC) while spending nearly no mana at all.
That a neat trick! I experimented with Unstable Beam a bit in my DoT builds but I found it hard to use without slowing down my momentum too much. It sounds like you found a nice solution I'll have to keep in mind for future builds.
Blooming totem for suffocating curiosity is my only suggestion. As the field may not spawn fast enough for them to fall. Awesome build!
The problem of unstable beam is that its damage/mana cost ratio is lower than other spells, so it shines when being casted for as much time as possible. But I also found it hard to use, since mostly I was always at low mana values and using it felt too slow. After trying spell storm, however, it became a must. As long as it is the last spell in your hand, you can cast it for max time (6 sec, damage 12 times) spending just the mana earned through mana regeneration. Even if you have another spell, you can still get full damage for as low as 6 mana.