So, I've always liked the Punishing Fire decks and thought Thing in the Ice is pretty cool, and with Miracles gone I feel it gets slightly better. I'm still trying to figure this one out.

The goal with the creature base is to get the max value out of the Awoken Horror trigger, as well as using its trigger to clear the opponents board. Snapcaster Mage lets us flashback Instants/Sorceries, and Baleful Strix gives us card draw, not only that, but it's deathtouch is pretty nice against decks with big beat sticks. Leovold, Emissary of Trest is there to try in the helping of slowing down opponents, since Thing in the Ice can be slow, and not guaranteed in our opening hand. Maybe Leovold, Emissary of Trest would be better in the side and have a 1 of Bedlam Reveler in the main since Leovold, Emissary of Trest might not do anything in some match ups.

11 Creatures

3 Thing in the Ice
3 Snapcaster Mage
4 Baleful Strix
1 Leovold, Emissary of Trest


2 Planeswalkers

2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor


2 Artifacts/Enchantments

1 Sylvan Library
1 Engineered Explosive


26 Instants/Sorceries

4 Punishing Fire
4 Ponder
4 Brainstorm
3 Lightning Bolt
1 Fatal Push
2 Spell Pierce
4 Force of Will
1 Counterspell
3 Thoughtseize


19 Lands

4 Grove of the Burnwillows
3 Volcanic Island
3 Underground Sea
1 Tropical Island
4 Scalding Tarn
4 Polluted Delta


15 Side Board

2 Abrupt Decay
3 Pyroblast
2 Surgical Extraction
1 Toxic Deluge
1 Ancient Grudge
2 Diabolic Edict
1 Pithing Needle
2 Flusterstorm
1 Fatal Push


Our early game goal is to disrupt our opponent. We'd like to be able to set them back and land an early Thing in the Ice, once Thing in the Ice is down, hand sculpting with cantrips and controlling the board with Punishing Fire and counters until our Thing in the Ice flips. Once it flips, it's a pretty quick clock, and it tends to be bigger than everything else on board. Back up plan is Jace, the Mind Sculptor ultimate, and back up back up plan is Punishing Fire slow death, I guess with beats by Snapcaster Mage.

The mana base can probably be reworked a bit (I just grabbed lands from my Grixis Delver deck and threw in some Grove of the Burnwillows. We may also want to cut some things to up our land count a bit. I was also thinking about trying Mox Diamond or other mana accelerators (Deathrite Shaman I don't feel pairs well with Awoken Horror's trigger), but then I feel we have to squeeze in Life from the Loam, which may get a little tricky since we'd have to cut more cards probably, as well as up our land count to have things to pitch to the Mox Diamond. I think it might be right to shave some spells to up the land count or run Deathrite Shaman anyways. Running both Punishing Fire and Lightning Bolt might be over redundant anyways...

I didn't include Daze because I don't feel we can afford to be set back a land in this deck except after we've landed our first threat (which is turn 2), which also means Daze probably won't counter the removal coming after it. I also thought Gitaxian Probe might be nice to have a free spell to remove a counter, but it doesn't really do too much to disrupt our opponent, so that's where I think Thoughtseize is a good card for this, it provides intel on what your opponent is playing, and gives us some disruption without setting us back.

Please feel free to make suggestions or provide feedback! I'm horrible when it comes to brewing.