Sorcerers are raw magical power in Dungeons & Dragons. The class doesn’t need to use books or dark pacts to defeat opponents, they naturally use magic to their advantage. That lack of drawback makes them a little less powerful overall, but they’re certainly going to pack a punch regardless.
What best exemplifies the Sorcerer is the spellslinger archetype in Commander. Spellslingers throw out lots and lots of often low costs sorceries and instants and ultimately overwhelm the rest of the table in a combination of damage and card advantage. Cantrips are a must, as are big, booming spells that bring damage raining down on everyone.
So we’re basically in red-blue, because the Izzet are Sorcerers through and through. Not learned scholars, not cursed casters, just nutcases with more power than is reasonable. Perfect.
Options in Izzet vary wildly, from the pure power of Niv-Mizzet, Parun, to the simple sorcery of Rootha, Mercurial Artist. In fact, just being in this color combination makes you a Sorcerer by default. There are some outliers, but red-blue is sorcery and sorcery is red-blue.
With that in mind, who do we choose to lead the deck? Veyran, Voice of Duality offers a dualcasting build that’s very flavorful, while Mizzix of the Izmagnus lets you sling spells at a discount over time. Rielle, the Everwise turns into a beater with enough spells and Zaffai, Thunder Conductor floods the board with creatures and deals direct damage if you go big enough.
The list could go on, but you get the idea. The commander just needs to enable you firing spells off like an unhinged nutcase with a grudge against permanents. You don’t need creatures, you need to Comet Storm, to Arcane Bombardment, to Invoke Calamity, to Reverberate and Reiterate.
Sorcerers just get to go wild with spells, blasting away at the table until everyone is dead or they go down in a blaze of glory. You can support that craziness with cantrips to keep the cards flowing like Serum Visions, Preordain and Brainstorm.
Some creatures will help your battle plan, but Sorcerers don’t rely on them. Still, Goblin Electromancer, Dualcaster Mage, Baral, Chief of Compliance and Murmuring Mystic fit too well to leave out.
The big, crazy spells need to resolve too so Negate, Disdainful Stroke and any number of Cancel effects can fit in between damage and combos and spell copying effects. You don’t even really need a win con, you just need enough nonsense to cause maximum mayhem, though if you do want something there are huge numbers of combos that work in these colors.
Sometimes though, all you need is to blast Lightning Bolts and copy them enough times with say, Reiterate and Turnabout. Or just Epic Experiment to some sort of win. You didn’t read books, you’re not a wizard, you just cast spells, and some of the time, they work every time.
