First edh?

Not a bad deck for your first time. It needs some definite improvements, but this has potential. I'm not sure how much you know about EDH, but let me tell you some of what I know. A good EDH deck has a strong general that does at least one of 3 things. Swings for ridiculous amounts of damage (Rifiq of the Many, Thromok the Insatiable, Bruna, Light of Alabaster), constantly affects the board state (Hokori, Dust Drinker, Teysa, Orzhov Scion), or assist you towards a goal (Jhoira of the Ghitu, Animar, Soul of Elements, Rakdos, Lord of Riots). Niv-Mizzet, allong with most other commanders who let you draw, is a combo deck. His purpose is to let you draw cards until you find the one (or more) cards that will win you the game. In addition to the strong commander, each deck should have a Theme to it. For this deck, you have chosen to have a lot of instant and sorcery spells. That's not a bad theme, but the cards in your deck definitely need some work.

1: Your General
To begin with, swap generals. While Dracogenius is a good card, Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind is just superior. Dracogenius only lets you draw when he deals damage, and since you will have a limited amount of mana, you won't be able to use it to the fullest potential. Firemind lets you ping whenever you draw from anything. Spells that draw? Ping. Artifacts that draw? Ping. Planeswalkers that draw? Ping. What I'm getting at is that EDH is a much broader format than Standard or Modern. Since I don't play Standard or Modern, I'm not sure how effective he is in those formats, but he is definitely not up to snuff in EDH.

Before we move on, I'm going to tell you some card that work well in most Niv-Mizzet Decks.
-Omniscience
-Leyline of Anticipation

2: No Maximum Hand Size = Must
This is a 100 card, Blue/Red deck, with Niv-Mizzet as the commander, so you need much more than a Reliquary Tower to give you that. You should never have less than 5 or 6 cards in your hand once you get rolling. Some good cards to that effect are Library of Leng, Venser's Journal, and Tamiyo, the Moon Sage, but there are many others.

3: Draw Power
In EDH, you start with 40 life. That's twice as much as you do in every other format. Cards like Peek, or Thought Scour are nice because you get to draw a card, but that one draw usually won't have much of an effect. People are much more willing to loose life in EDH because they have so much. Generally, you want your spells to have a low a cost as possible, for as many cards as you can draw. Ponder and Brainstorm are excellent in this regard. Enter the Infinite is also a good card if you can properly use it. Keep in mind that there are a plethora of creatures that can draw for you. Jin-Gitaxis is an excellent choice. So is Concecrated Sphinx, Arcanis the Omnipotent, Psychosis Crawler, and Sphinx of Magosi to name a few.

4: Artifacts
Artifacts play a very important role in the vast majority of EDH. A lot of mana fixing goes on in Artifacts but Artifacts also let you draw. A lot. This is especially true for Niv-Mizzet, where every draw, is a burn for 1. Staff of Nin, Howling Mine, Font of Mythos, and Teferi's Puzzle Box are all huge drawers. Another big part of Artifacts is utility. Just cards that can help improve a deck. Like Isochron Scepter. If you can imprint a usefull spell on Isochron Scepter it makes a huge difference. Like Reverberate or Brainstorm. Being able to copy any instang or sorcery at instant speed every single turn is a huge advantage.

5: Enchantments
Like Artifacts, a lot of EDH decks have quite a few enchantments in them. Niv really only needs to concern himslef with enchantments that let you draw. A lot. Sigil of Sleep, Ophidian Eye, and Curiosity are all excellent Auras to pop on Niv, but there are other enchantments that also help a lot. Archmage Ascension, Thought Reflection, and Rhystic Study all work beautifully. While it is not a card that lets you draw more, Omniscience is a VERY powerful card and it can assuredly win you games. On the subject of powerful enchantments, Leyline of Anticipation would help your instant/sorcery theme along very nicely.

6: Removal
EDH is a long, long, long, format with huge games that can have anywhere from 2 to 7 people, even more than that if you have it. To deal with that much, you need spot removal. You need to be able to look at a card, and just make it vanish. Blue mostly does this with counter spells and bounce spells, and Red mostly uses burn. Your removal needs to be able to take out anything on the field on command, as soon as possible before a card gets out of hand. So, your removal needs to be very broad. Things like Naturalize in Green. Destroy an Artifact OR and Enchantment. Cards like Echoing Truth, since they affect one card and all cards with the same name, aren't as practical in EDH since everyone only has one of each card.

7: Creatures
Your creatures should contribute to the overall theme of the deck. In your deck, I see a Tandem Lookout, a Geltrode, a Goblin Electromancer, and a Guttersnipe. All great cards, and since you're trying to go for a more instant/sorcery based deck, they work well with the theme. Hypersonic Dragon, Izzet Cronarch, Nivix Guildmage Mnemonic Wall, and Wee Dragonauts also work well with this theme. Mulldrifter, Mercurial Chemester are also great cards, even though they don't necessarily fit the theme you're going for. Razorfin Hunter Izzet Staticaster, and Izzet Guildmage are just not worth it though. Razorfin and Staticaster just won't pull enough weight to make himself usefull, and the Guildmage's abilities are a bit too expensive to be practical. Any of the creatures I have mentioned in previous sections are applicable here. Augur of Bolas, Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir and Phryexian Metamorph/Clone are good choices. Clones can act as kill spells for your opponents Commanders.

I hope this was of some help to you. Please, tell me what you think. Also, some of these cards I have mentioned are not exactly cheap.

Not a problem at all man! Glad to help! I totally understand that you want to keep it under a budget, I'm not exactly Bill Gates myself.

One thing your friend has a token deck hmmm? Boy do I know the card for you. Leyline of Singularity. All nonland permanents are Legendary. And yes, that does include tokens. Since nothing in your deck makes tokens, it doesn't matter for you. But your friend, oh boy. His deck will be COMPLETELY shut down. He'll have no choice but to stand there and watch in horror as you just bide your time and wait for that Curiosity to come up and just wreck him.

If you're looking for pingers, I know some great ones. Frostwalker from Kamigawa is a pretty fun choice. The only downside is that it costs 2RR, but she's definitely worth it. I wouldn't say swap out Staticaster, but consider adding Frostwalker.


One other VERY important thing if forgot to talk about is Boardwipes. You NEED to have several. If your opponent starts getting out of control and your spells can't stop him, it's time to reset, even if it means resetting yourself too. Black Sun's Zenith for 10. Or since this is Red/Blue, Cyclonic Rift or Blasphemous Act. Be sure you have 3 or 4 and make sure some of them do more than just destroy all creatures because sometimes it could be an artifact that's screwing you over.