Piloting the Deck Take 1
Man Moxnix that sure is a lot of broken cards but how the heck do I use them? Well for starters let’s get down the basics of storm. Storm is a mechanic that allows you to put X copies of a spell with storm on the stack where X is the number of spells you have cast this turn. When looking at any card in magic the first question I ask myself is, how do I brake this? Well we need to cast a bunch of spells all in one turn but how do we accomplish this? The first thing we want is cheap spells. What’s cheaper than free? Can I get an order of Mox Diamond with a side order of Dark Ritual to go please. Uh Moxnix those cards are not free they cost you CARDS! Drat your right maybe I can think of some way to make up for this … I’ve got it how about we draw some cards! So there you have it the basics of storm make mana draw cards. That’s odd some of the most powerful cards in all of magic’s history did these things. That’s what I call some incredible SYNERGY. That’s right storm cards are a perfect fit for the most broken and powerful cards ever printed and guess what? They work so well that you need no other win condition!
Lets talk mana. At its roots this is a game of math. In this storm deck I judge the power level of cards based on their mana to efficiency ratio. A card like Mana Crypt cost you a card and instantly produces 2 Mana so not only is it a mana rock but it’s a mana ritual that nets you a brown dark ritual’s worth of mana 10/10. A card like Gush Can draw you 2 cards netting you 1 at the extreme cost of protecting your lands from strip mine or Armageddon. Eating two lands drops is no joke sometimes it can certainly be dead early on in your optimal line but on your win turn it still draws 2 for free in a deck loaded with top of deck tutors. It is also used in some of the most efficient doomsday piles in the deck. The card is very powerful 8/10. I thought we were talking about mana? We are! in this deck many times we will be tutoring for hightide or turnabout post Ad Nauseum or Recurring Insight and having cheap access to that ritual or even better Yawmoth’s Will or perhapos at the end your mind’s desire or tendrils. Having an efficient way to grab these cards makes a huge difference in the cost of your line. Ok ok so whats the plan?
In this deck the first angel of attack is Ad Nauseum. For five mana you get to draw 10-20 cards at instant speed and untap with a grip of typically 20+ cards. Remember when I said storm was a 1 card kill condition well it is. Now, what can one expect to see with about 1/5 of this deck in their grip with no less than 6 mana sources on the board? With the way it is set up you get a couple control cards lots of mana card lots of draw lots of tutors and insanely broken game ending bombs. When you draw that many cards almost any combination has a line to victory. If for example you hit Mind over Matter simply resolving it turns every card in your hand into a mox spirit guide. You can instantly without passing priority put multiple triggers on the stack to untap your lands before even opening yourself to a krosan grip. It is important to note you can put multiple triggers on one land and tap it in between triggers should it actauly get killed. If You then use one of those spirit guides to cast a High tide now they all exile for 2! Tutor into minds desire and flip 20 cards more tutors more instant win more storm. Cap it off by casting tendrils for 40 4 times with remand and Yawgmoth’s will slamming your opponents with over 300 tendrils damage. That is not even going to infinite!
Speaking of infinite, Tidespout Tyrant is a card that lets you generate infinite storm and mana by bouncing cards like ; Mana crypt, Sol Ring , Candelabra of Tawnos, Mana vault, Grim Monolith back and forth. You can also bounce them with any CMC 0 artifact or cheap permanent that can create a loop that nets mana. You can then use this mana to cast colorless fixing like gilded lotus to tutor up your kill card If need be. Cards like Mox Diamond and Chrome Mox can be bounced to color fix as well. If for some reason you don’t have reach but can resolve Tidespout Tyrant you can at worst bounce most if not all of your opponent’s board back to their hands palming a few control cards. In this way Tidespout Tyrant is a win condition all by himself. This is important for a lot of reasons. First, even the most knowledgeable opponent cant completely neuter us with a card like Sadistic Sacrament or graveyard hate because with these cards ; Grapeshot, Tendrils of Agony, Tidespout Tyrant, Laboratory Maniac. We have four strong separate TRUE win conditions. When I say true what I mean is things like notion thief can serve as win conditions but it does not do its work alone. While mind over matter may boast a better mana cost for getting there as a win card it can’t bounce everyone’s field all on its own.
Lets talk Doomsday. One of the harder kill conditions for a beginner to master in this deck would be Doomsday. This is one of my absolute favorite cards ever printed. Doomsday turns what’s more or less a guessing game into an exact science. Many decisions are based on guessing “what will I draw into” when choosing lines in storm. When you tutor for an Ad Nausuem with a hand full of all mana your saying “ I cant win with one card right now I need lots of them” . And in the end the cards you draw are random your 95% sure your going to go off but not 100%. With Doomsday there is no guessing you see your line right to its end. In fact in my dedicated doomsday deck I would play cards like telepathy because with perfect information I could only wiff to my own misplays!
Finding your lines with doomsday in many decks can be very difficult for beginners but when using laboratory maniac the math is really quite simple. When we go off with doomsday in this deck we almost NEVER want to pass the turn. A exception to this would be a hand with say “ Fetch, DD, DR, Island,crap,crap,mulled away “ then we might possibly use a LED gush pile
This hand wins turn 2 piling
Gush , LED, Ponder, Yawmoth’s Will, Laboratory Maniac
The reason we use Ponder and not Gitaxin Probe here is the possibility of the duesh scoop. Gitaxin Probe is one of the most efficient tools this deck has for making doomsday piles but they are to be used with caution. If they feel like scooping to your combo there is a good chance they kill lab man and you bite it. The worst part is if you had any protection LED ate it. The piles can be tempting but with a deck with so many angles we will gladly play a more expensive line to avoid the risk unless we feel we are in a go off or lose scenario.
So now that we went over the unlikely scenario lets go the much more likely scenario we use it to win on turn. The first thing we need is a way to draw into our pile. When you open hand a doomsday in this deck your EoT tutor targets typically become Cantrips if you don’t have them. If you do they are typically dark ritual or pact of negation. The ideal scenario is having a cantrip and doomsday or a tutor and doomsday. These are the draw spells in this shell are as follows.
Ponder, Preodain, Brainstorm, Gitaxin Probe, Sensei’s DiviningTop, Wheel of Fortune, Windfall, Timetwister, Timespiral, Futuresight, Impulse, Nights Whisper, Frantic Search, Ad Nausuem, Gush, Reccuring Insight, Remand and to some extant necropotence though let’s be honest we have a better shot at opening the pile with a minds desire (which you can very much do).
Without one of these cards we cannot open our pile to win so if we don’t have one we get one. Moxnix which one should I get? Playing a deck like this makes every tutor choice very dependent on what is in your hand. I like to look at what I do have and make an optimal line trying to utilize the resources I have. In general to move through a doomsday pile you will need a way to draw at least 5 cards in your pile and enough mana so that you can cast them all and your lab man. So obviously the more mana we have and the more cantrips we have the more freedom we get with our pile. If for instance off Ad Nausueam we draw a hand that can get us to 10+ mana and hits doomsday we can do things like gush free counters into our hand cast our lab man without piling any mana and just winning off a wheel. When you make piles like this its good to put a backup plan underneath. Piling time spiral or Yawgmoth’s will underneath help in case someone sandbagged a counterspell and you’re not holding an answer.
There are a few unique cantrips in this deck for opening piles but none quite as good as Futuresight. While it does cost 5 you can now make piles for 0 mana because you can rip cards straight off the top. Check this pile out
Mana crypt, Lotus petal, Labman, Gush, Pact of Negation. This pile does not bin your hand to LED (though it feels like a black lotus in this situation). Best part is even without protection you don’t pass priority after labman, so if they have say a swords to plowshares by the time they get priority to respond to your gush you have a pact of negation on top of your deck. So this pile protects itself and pays for the cost of the cards.
Night’s Whisper is unique in that it draws you 2 cost black not blue and is great with gush offline. While rare turn 1 wins are possible with this deck via doomsday (as well as other less for sure ways ie Ad Nauseam since and with fewer cards than most other turn 1 combos. These hands will have the most efficient cantrips and mana sources in your deck with doomsday. LED, Lotus Petal, Dark ritual, Doomsday, land that taps for black, ponder/preordain/brainstorm. With a six like this we can go
Play petal > play land > Dark Ritual off land > LED> Doomsday
Pile
Night’s whisper
Dark Ritual
Yawgmoth’s Will
Laboratory Maniac
Pact of Negation
Pop petal( POST DOOMSDAY!) Crack Led to cantrip, BBB
Night’s Wishper Floating B
Ritual YW
LED UUU
Petal + DR BBB
Night’s whisper BUUU
Labman U
Cantrip
This Pile beats dismember or removal but loses to cmc 0-1counters on yawgmoth’s will. However unlike a turn 1 ad Nausuem we can see the win in the hand and go for it but the important lesson about that pile was why it worked. When I built it here was my thought process. Without Gush online the most efficient way to move through my pile was turned off but when you open doomsday with 6 extra mana it doesn’t really matter what turn it is or if your gush is online. Also the pile used nights whisper due to it being a draw 2 so it pairs well with a draws 1 in a yawgmoth’s will which is almost always efficient option when we already have a LED . All the cantrips are unqie in one way or the other brainstorm is great for putting a Yawgwin stuckin your hand down fratic search can cost nothing or net you mana while drawing 2 if you have extra cards in hadn making it excellent for protection piles. In the end this deck plays a very tight doomsday package because it alredy works with the cards we play and playing extra cards to make it “better” just makes the deck as a whole much worse.
If you want more practice with doomsday piles you can look though some of these brainteasers .
(http://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/the-game/commander-edh/510498-doomsday-on-the-fly-real-situation-puzzles )
Let’s move on from doomsday and on to SpiralTide! (http://mtgsalvation.gamepedia.com/Spiral_Tide)
Hereis a great place to check it out! (http://www.mtgthesource.com/forums/showthread.php?20172-PRIMER-Spiral-Tide)
The Tech from Spiral Tide lets us make incredible amounts of mana to power out our storm chains. After we cast our Ad Nausuem / Recurring Insight / Time Spiral if you have a few pieces of this tech you can rack up some serious mana . With Hightide online Time spiral is a card that literally draws you a new 7 and ramps you 6 mana!.... well I guess that’s an exaggeration we don’t make it to turn 6 that often but untaping into a new hand with 7-8 mana is more than good enough for me. With our tutor/ wheel/ large draw density we have good odds of hitting a line that lets us cast Mind’s Desire for 10+ which is pretty huge. When your deck is loaded with nothing but tutor mana and draw casting 10 cards for free is pretty disgusting. From here we go find our tendrils of agony after casting 10 or more additional spells for free and go into infinite tendrils via tidespout or remand + tendrils or tendirls + remand or tendrils + grapeshot etc etc. We would also potentially hit Futuresight combos like Doomsday or Sensei’s Diving Top + Helm of Awakening. If the Futuresight is already on the field while we pop Mind’s Desire we get to reveal the top on each flip and can cast instants like high tide turnabout dark ritual or even a remand on minds desire in addition we can use instant tutors to put remand on top to bounce back our Mind’s Desire. Ideally we save this remand for our tendrils but part of what makes the cards in the deck so good is their versatility if remands just a counter early with a cantrip thats what it is. If you are not sure the mind’s desire will get their bounce it back cast it again and go infinite. Sometimes Your showboating and mind’s desire post doomsday in some hilarious way.
The other untap effects we run are Candelabra of Tawnos, Frantic Search, Turnabout. Other untapers like Cloud of fairies and Snap are also very playable. Mind over matter also has very good synergy with these combos as it can start untapping for 2 and typically we still get to cast binned cards when we tutor up our yawgwin to recast all our spells again! Cards votaic key can untap the candelabra and with the candelabra out if we drew other degenerate or larger mana rocks like mana vault and grim monolith or gilded lotus we might net more mana casting turnabout on the artifacts and then untapping the lands. Important note while under hightide dual lands add blue when tapping for other colors in addition to that color. Part of what makes the hightide tech so valuable is how it plays with yawgmoth’s will and past in flames. You can net even mana tutoring up missing hightide pieces and but the time your done casting them your alredy at a high storm count and your GY is full of tutors and untap effects that your going to now get double value off of after recasting high tide. By the time you grab minds desire your typically at an insane storm count and the pile for your deck on the table is pretty much gone because you can now cast every single card in it if you really wanted to. I Personally do not use cards like snap or cloud of fairies because they are fairly crappy when your not going off Cloud of fairies can filter a mana or cantrip for 2 and snap doesn’t even always have a target and creatures are typically what we are least worried about.
Piloting an average game – DISCLAIMER I Will be and have uploaded Live games with commentary to better help you learn the deck and I recommend you watch them as I can teach you way more like that by walking you through my decision’s as I play the deck. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWXPQ_saUN0Hl7bXSo_Tm8A
In general the strategy with this deck is to look for a wheel or large draw spell or a tutor or cantrips and then chain up your mana curve using rituals and free mana rocks to Draw tons of cards with our curve topers and storm off. You look for key powerhouse cards in your opening hand because every hand with those cards and some way of crafting becomes insanely powerful. So our Goals quite literally are make a few lands drops ramp or craft a few turns > cast a broken spell that typically draws us way to many cards for its cost > Chain spells together storm off. With lot’s of practice you can see your lines for the entire game as soon as you take you first turn. When choosing lines in a deck like this I always play to let the deck do the work for me. By this I mean I always want to be making plays I will aggressively tutor a wheel against some deck and wait a turn to Ad Nauseam against others. One of the hardest parts and most fun about piloting this deck is anticipating how our opponent’s will try and interact with us and when. The deck has so many lines that every turn we get to make a critical decision on how to play around their control cards and find a winning line. At a very competitive table You are going to need to know when to sit back and play control for a turn with certain hands and when to just race or go all in. You cannot be afraid to go all in and wiff with this kind of deck because that is your best line at a good table all too often.
Individual card discussion - DISCLAIMER- I spent hours doing in depth deck tech videos for this deck. You should check them out if you want more detailed information on the uses and reason I play each card. I will however now tell you a little bit about why I like the cards for those who can’t stand to watch me rant for almost 2 hours on card choice…. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWXPQ_saUN0Hl7bXSo_Tm8A
videos all uploaded
DECK TECH VIDEO PACK https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL1fjFZq_6Dd8jzDr8o4M2EfaPX5R62Ecw&feature=c4-feed-u
The Mana Base
29 lands – The reason we play “only” 29 lands is because we have lots of ways to draw cards and lots of other mana sources. Our strategy revolves around drawing cards in huge chunks, when trying to get a combo “hit” off these draws you cannot be popping timetwister and getting hands like 5 lands duress Tendrils. You need to hit 1-2 lands cantrips tutors and free mana usable in addition to your land drops. If we were in green even on 29 lands we would most likely be splashing for cards like exploration Azusa and oracle of mul daya as this effect is brutal with most the cards in this shell but as we cannot instead we run cheap enablers and rocks. Dark ritual, Mana Vault, Sol Ring, Mana Crypt , Mox Diamond , Chrome Mox, Lotus Petal, Lion’s eye Diamond, Cabal ritual, Dimir Signet, Talismen of Dominance, Grim Monolith, Candelabra of Tawnos, High Tide, Everflowing Chalice, Helm of Awakening, Gilded Lotus , Seething Song , Voltaic Key, Frantic Search, Mind Over Matter, Turnabout, Time Spiral, Mana Drain. So on top of our 29 lands we have 24 non land cards devoted to making us mana. Considering we have almost 20 cards that cost 3 or less that can easily find us more mana via tutors or cantrips/draw our mana is PERFECTLY fine. In fact I think the islands are about as low as they can go at 20 possible island sub typing cards between fetches and duals/ basics. So one 5th of the deck can grab us Islands. Fetching to thin the land count also really helps in hitting good hands with our haymaker draw spells. The only colorless land that warrant’s a spot is reliquary tower for the insane power it has with necropotence ad nauseam and recurring insight which are our primary phase one tutor targets. Rainbow lands are played to support are red splash while not giving up black/blue sources or coming into play tapped. Sunken ruins is a very good land as it pairs quite nicely with a basic island in 2 land hands. It lets us fix into our double black and double blue spells which is very important as this deck is very fast and casting your spells on time is crucial. In a way i hate reliquary tower as I never want colorless mana on my land drops but its instant win potential with other broken cards that we play any way is something I cannot ignore so it’s a land that often is subpar but sometimes is game breaking which in my testing has been enough to play the card. This is fairly similar to notion thief who is blank a good deal of the time but simply wins the game due to its powerful interactions other times. I am very confident in my current mana base overall.
Now I could break these cards down by function but I am instead going to follow my list and break them down according to mana cost. The reason I want to do this is to emphasize the point that how good a card is in this kind of deck and most decks depends almost entirely on its cost. I am also going to mention cards with alternate cost out of order even though something like force of will is going to hit me for 5 off ad nasuam its more relevant that I almost only cast it for 0.
Zero drops- Zero drops are incredibly important to this build. First off if your put in postion where you are going off on turn with our main enabler in Ad nasueum or even getting an untap they are the best cards you can hit as they let you continue to hit at no cost and in many cases make the initial mana to get our chain off the ground. If we could run more of these cards we would
Lotus Petal – Lotus petal is a very strong cards because it cost nothing and makes mana. It has various uses in doomsday piles due to its interaction with Yawgmoth’s Will. It can accerlate our plays a turn early costing us nothing but a card and like all of our zero drops builds storm with no mana investment in fact it produces mana in a deck like this using hightide something like this can translate into the difference between doing nothing and casting our entire deck in one trun. This card is a staple uncutable.
Chrome Mox- Most players like to consider this card a “land slot” I don’t agree with this because it doesn’t use a land drop but it is very similar. This deck will almost always have a card or two at any given phase of our plan that we have no use for being able to turn those cards into free reusable mana acceleration is incredibly powerful. While we can’t double dip with it like we can petal in a Yawgmoth’s will chain we do get to use it multiple times and it’s a good card at every stage of the game Staple do not cut!
Mox Diamond – Similar to Chrome mox except you have to kill a land instead of a card to play it. It is a good card for all the same reason that petal and chrome mox are in that its almost always an excellent draw. Good on the back end for free mana and good in the opening hands to pull of turn 1 wheels quicker large draw spells and despite our low land count the draw power we have makes this card incredibly consistent. Staple do not cut !
Lion’s Eye Diamond- This card is a Black lotus with some risk involved. There is no denying the risk is there but IT’S A BLACK LOTUS!. This card has insanbe synergy with Yawgmoth’s will functioning as a triple lotus petal craking it with a tutor wheel or large draw spell on the stack is pretty standard while it does risk you getting blown out to a counter at times the risk is worth the reward it lets you go off turns faster than you should and creates the decks most efficient Doomsday piles. If this card is out of your budget its as pretty huge loss and makes doomsday less attractive but if you own one or can afford it play it. This is a high skill card in that you need to be able to decide when its worth the risk of using but often times the risk of letting your opponents untap is much higher than the risk of one of them holding a Force of will. Part of what makes storm such a fun deck for me to pilot is always weighing the odds and possibilities this card does this in a fairly extreme way. If you have it PLAY IT!
Tormod’s Crypt- this card is very good in a competitive metagame because many of the most powerful decks in the format use the greaveyard in this format including our own. At 0 mana it’s a free storm off our large draw spells and does little things like occasionally turn on a mox opal with no mana cost. We run a very light control package and this card makes the cut which speaks to how good I think it is. While I do not advocate using random 0 drops that do nothing this is not the case with crypt. It hoses entire graveyards while not hitting our own like relic of progenitus would. Open handing this against a deck like our or even worse hermit druid will typically slow them down at least a turn. Hermit druid players will have to tutor a way to kill the cards wasting multiple cards and mana giving us the time we need to go off while other storm players have to use less efficient lines to victory. It is also obviously very strong against reanimate strategies which are very fast so costing nothing is pretty important.
Mana Crypt – I don’t think I need to explain why a card that cost 0 and taps for 2 a turn is broken in this deck or any other, it is the best 0 drop in the deck you should play it if you have it period.
Mox Opal- While this card can be blank at times you can always cast it for value and it will eventually turn online. Like lotus petal and the cards we have already mentioned it is the best kind of card to hit off any large draw spell if you have one play it it’s a staple if there were more 0 mana cards that produced mana we would be playing them.
Everflowing chalice- This card makes the cut because it cost 0 mana. It cost us nothing to hit it off Ad Nauseam except a free storm count the number of times I cast this card for 0 is higher than you would think but it also serves as a simple mindstone in an opening hand making it good almost any time I draw it which is exactly what we are looking for in a card.
Pact of Negation – This card is a free hard counter. While paying the 5 is rough we almost never intend to do that. This card is a free way to stop opposing control players on our turn from disrupting us without pitching any cards or paying any mana. A perfect defensive anti control card that can be used tapped out on someone else winning in a pinch if your at 5 on your untap. Run it
Force of will- One of the best counterspells every printed it scares us and we love ours. Most of this deck is blue pitching a card is never a problem and it protects our efficient lines by countering spells for free . Not only that but this card can be used without a major drawback such as pact on oppoents spells like hatebears or problematic permanents to kill spells on our mana sources. Hitting 5 on our cruve is not very good but its too good to pass up.
Gush – Gush is another card that Finds itself at 5 on the curve but we almost never cast it for 5. This card protects our lands makes for the most efficient doomsday piles in the deck and serves as free cantrip to grab key spells post large draw spell off our top of deck tutors. Better with doomsday but still a staple in my mind even dodging a strip mine can be incredibly important with our low land count.
Gitaxin Probe – While this card looks like it cost 1 we play it because we can cast it without using any mana. The damage is actauly very relivant in this deck but the information it provides is crucial to going off. In addition it pulls top of deck tutors right into the hand at no mana cost post large draw spell. It also is one of the most efficient doomsday cantrips but it runs the risk of duesh scooping in multiplayer games. It thins the deck at worst and with 40 life this is an auto include.
One Drops – Keeping our curve low is very important for many reasons as such one drops are very desirable to us and this format is littered with powerful one drops. From crafting our hand to counter spells to making mana we want to play as mana good cards that fill this role at cmc 1 as possible.
Sol ring – Standard for every deck but we abuse it better than most not only will broken mana rocks like this enable faster wins by ramping out our large draw spells but it combos with tidespout tyrant for infinite mana and storm. Auto include in every deck this is no different we just abuse it harder.
Mana Vault – same story as sol ring it’s a broken mana rock. We can look at it as a brown mana ritual for 2 or a delayed brown mana ritual for 3 it can power out turn 2 Ad Nauseam and seal a game with 2 cards by turn 3 in many cases. Auto include
Voltaic Key- Not an auto include but it makes the cut for me due to the fact it can untap powerful artifacts like candelabra and gilded lotus along with netting mana off our broken mana rocks in Mana Vault Sol ring and Mana crypt it’s a ramp card at cmc 1. In addition you can simply use it to filter into colored mana with any mana rock we play which is quite relevant. Verdcit it makes the cut as it can do insane things on our back end and even if it does nothing early it will tap for mana eventually for its 1 mana investment early on.
Candelabra of Tawnos- This is a powerful artifact that combos with High Tide. Even when we do not have hightide online and its not tapping for more than our gilded lotus is it can filter red or colorless mana into black and blue which is very important in casting the cards we need to in order to go off. Auto include if you can afford one
Dark Ritual- Insanely powerful ritual for our deck powering out anything in the deck form gilded lotus and grim tutor to ad nasuam doomsday and necropotence this card is an all star in storm castable twice with yawgmoth’s Will or Past in Flames this card is just all kinds of awesome. If we could play 8 of them we would. Auto include Key card for turn one wins this deck can pull off.
High Tide – We heavily build around this card as it combos with all of our untap effects and is the only ritual that will net us blue mana even without a untap it is in general even better than dark ritual in this deck. Casting this card twice and double untapping with turnabout and frantic search builds you enough storm to win the game while making all the mana you need to do it. Simply casting it before time spiral has fairly good odds of simply ending the game on the spot. Auto include
Ponder- One of the best cantrips ever printed. This card gives incredible selection and a shuffle effect. Costing only 1mana makes it perfect for opening doomsday piles or grabbing cards placed with top of deck tutors. It is literally good at every single phase of our plan. Auto include
Brainstorm- Instant speed cantrip that lets us dig three and with fetch lands provides ancestral recall card quality. It can be used for all the things our other cmc 1 cantrips can do and has unique doomsday piles as well as the ability to hide key spells from duress or mindtwist effects. Cartable behind counters if we hold them up when someone gets a faster hand than we do. Auto include
Preordain- One of the weakest cantrips in the deck but it still easily makes the cut out cantrip density feels about right and card selection or 1 mana in storm is very powerful. Cards like this give the deck consistency and help keep our land count nice and low. Play it
Sensei’s Diving Top- One of the most unique Doomsday cantrips in the deck due to its ability to crack LED as well as adding cards back into the piles. It is a combo card that draws our entire deck with future sight and helm of awakening in addition it gives us incredibly good card selection with fetchalnds. It also serves the purpose of flipping top deck tutors for no cost on turn which is very powerful. Also being a colorless cantrip is very good as well as blue and black mana are far more important on any given turn. Auto include
Imperial Seal- This is a tutor that gets any card for one mana it’s broken. It can be the sol ring you need to go off two turns faster the Ad nauseam your missing or the force of will / Pact of negation for your already perfect hand . Later it can find us key high tide cards or rituals or our win conditions or second phase enablers like minds desire. Tutors are the best cards in this deck and this is the second or third best tutor we play auto include
Vampiric Tutor- This is like imperial seal but instant making it even better costing only 1on any turn with the free ways we have to draw and being playable turn 1 Make this the best tutor in our deck. In fact I would say this is the single best card in the entire deck …… it is literally never bad to see a Vampiric Tutor. Auto include
Mystical Tutor – Rounding out our tutor suite at converted mana cost one is mystical tutor is which is good for the all the same reasons as vampiric tutor but not as good because sometimes we want a broken mana rock yea that’s about the only time this card doesn’t fetch what we want when you would rather get mana crypt Sol Ring or LED …..
Swan Song- Swan song is an incredibly good card that can serves as combo protection for 1 mana while still being useful proactively on opposing sorceries and enchants it beats out every other card that it fight for a slot which are cards like REB pyroblast Misdirection dispel or spell perice. The verstilit is inasnly good and at cmc 1 it’s perfect for our curve.
Pyroblast- This card is also great protection at cmc 1. While its primary purpose is to stop opposing counterspells for 1 mana it can also destroy many very annoying blue permanents including every general with blue after the fact. Its partner in crime REB just misses the cut but you could easily be playing both cards. Another good cheap powerful versatile control card
Duress – Duress is a card that hits almost every problem card we care about. Unlike counters we can use it to build storm on turn as well as use it the turn before we go off to save the mana for our kill turn. If we have extra mana we can strip counter spells form the player with open blue mana to clear the path. Sometimes it’s just nice to cast turn 1 when the rest of your turns already have plays in the line you think you are going to take. Giving you good information and taking the best card our scariest opponent has. Even striping a gas card form someone who opened with broken mana is very strong these effects are very under rated.
Thoughtseize- All the same awesome things that we like about duress but it gets rid of hate bears and problematic creatures as well at the cost of 2 extra life.
Chain of Vapor- Our catch all answer to problem permanents at CMC 1. This card can rarely be turned back against us and if it can be no one really wants to sac a land to bounce your sol ring or signet. It can be used a giant mana ritual and storm engine by bouncing all your own mana rocks back to your hand and recasting them all again. It can some do some cute things with top . Mainly it is just a way to protect our cards at 1 mana remove their promblems for 1 mana . Auto include good at every stage of the game.
Converted Mana Cost 2- Not as good as one drops but these make up the next largest section of our remain cards. Cards that cost 2 mana need to be exceptionally powerful to make the cut in this deck.
Dark Confidant- Great card for getting the extra draws we need to win a game. While he is not the best top deck he is great in the opeinig hand drawing us 2-3 cards for 2 mana in games we win quickly and tons of cards in the tough games where we need him the most. He can easily be binned to a wheel chrome mox mind’s desire trigger or whatever if you draw him later in the game. He is incredibly powerful turn one with a cmc 0 rock and hurts us very little with our curve. If you don’t own one he is not needed but if you do use it.
Night’s Whisper- Pretty good cantrip that nets us card advantage. While it is not the most exciting card it is unqie in that it is a black cantrip which is relevant for doomsday piles when you don’t have 2 islands for gush. This si ebucase it draws 2 cards and dark ritual is a thing. In general it smooth’s out our draws and adds to consistency very efficient with something like Helm of awakening on the board. At worst it’s a cheap way to get something better and we need a heavy cantrip density for many phases of our gameplan. Not going to be making my top 20 list, but it’s not something I have ever considered bad enough to cut for something else
Merchant Scroll – Blue Demonic tutor. This card is not quite as good as demonic tutor but with acces to Mana Drain Force of Will High Tide TurnAbout Mystical Tutor Pact of Negation Frantic Search Gush Brainstorm and Swan Song it can pretty much always grab us something we need and at a very cheap price. Great tutor at cmc 2 auto include.
Demonic tutor – The second or third best tutor in the deck it puts any card we want into our hand for 2 its broken it’s always good don’t think I need to convince you that this card is the nuts in storm let’s just say without these cards the deck get a lot weaker. Auto Include
Impulse- One of the weaker cantrips In the deck but with selection of 4 cards and instant speed it just makes the cut giving us good selection as a cheap cost in 1U. Good for all the same reasons ponder is just not as good at cmc 2
Helm of Awakening- Finishes off our future top combo while at the same time acts as a massive ritual paying 1 mana for all of our artifacts and seplls with any colorless in their cost when your casting 20 spells in a single turn this cards is pretty amazing in its own right and at worst functions like a cmc 2 rock in making our large draw spells as wheels come out one turn faster and cheaper. Auto include
Lim-duls-Vault – this is a decent tutor it can get around tutor lock effects and being able to stack the top of the deck is pretty awesome that being said the life loss works against ad nauseam which is not great and at cmc 2 I would rather it goes into my hand that being said it is an unconditional tutor at cmc 2 so it makes the cut. A more fair vampiric tutor run it
Counterspell- While it may seem weak to run any cmc 2 counters in a build like this counterspell just makes the cut over another cmc 1 counterspell because it is so versatile. Being able to use it to stop faster decks while still protecting key spells when you have extra mana up make it fairly strong but it by no means something you have to run over misdirection or REB but it has been a very solid card for as many times in a good meta your not always in the lead and this is great card for stopping a turn 3-4 win and then winning behind it.
Mana Drain – Does everything counterspell does but also give sus a huge mana ritual making it worth it to pass with open mana just ot use it like a mana vault very powerful card and at times the countering any spell for 2 mana feels like the additional free effect….. one fo 2 cmc 2 counter auto includes
Remand- This card is actually more important to the build than mana drain is !!! When being used for tempo early in the game the cantrip makes it stronger than a hard counter. IT is most often used to bounce back our strom spells multiple times to cast tendrils or minds desire multiple times in one turn. It can also be used as a cantrip in a pinch when you have none by countering your own spells. This card is an allstar at every phase of the game . auto include
Cyclonic Rift- This card gets you out of any tight situation you could imagine. Our catch all answer to hatebears or stax decks this card pulls you out of places no other card could. It has great synergy with the wheeling effects and is never dead because it is castable for 2 mana.
Talisman Of Dominance – Standard mana rock at cmc 2 produces blue and black our most important colors the turn it hits the field ramps us into our phase one large draw spells and comes out of the hand faster than additional lands
Dimir signet- The same as Talisman these rocks that tap for blue or black at cmc 2 and come in untapped are great early and can tap for even with helm late and this one can even filter us colorless mana into colored which is awesome.
Grim monolith – Mana vaults slightly less efficient brother still nets you mana on turn making it great after a large draw spell but it’s even more deadly dropped turn 2 to ramp you into them. Auto include
Hurkyl’s Recall- Newest card in the deck for me replacing tezzeret the seeker who I felt was too slow. This card functions similar to chain of vapor in that it can net us extra storm by bouncing all our artifacts without even sacking our lands leaving up turnabout, Frantic search high tide lines. Can be used before wheel effects to stip an artifact heavy deck of everything. Great for just tempoing a player you think has counterspells making them want to tap back out to go off. Artifacts are some of the most powerful cards in the format and this deals with them while having some great synergy with the build being good at most phases of the game.
Grapeshot- Stand alone Kill Condition that can be used early as a spot removal or wrath of god on smaller hate bears or mana dorks. Mainly a kill condition Auto include
Cabal ritual – Fixes for black which is important because we have quite a few key cards that cost double and triple black and our color skew simple has lots of good black cards. Having threshold is a bonus that lets us do things like cast AD Nauseam off 2 land or Kill with post wheel doomsday on 3 lands and almost any cantrip. The card is insane there are 9 skulls on this card… auto include
Converted Mana cost 3- these cards are very powerful effects or I would not play them as anything that cost 3 or more needs to really have a alrge impact to get a slot in this kind of deck
Seething Song- Mana ritual that nets us 2 mana while red is pretty much colorless in this deck netting 2 mana on turn is no joke in a storm deck and we can easily filter this mana into blue or black with our untap effects. Storm decks want rituals this is a good one
Grim Tutor- Into hand tutor for 1BB is not the best in the world but we need a high tutor density and since it puts the card in our hand at 3 mana it just makes the cut since it can grab any card. Auto include if you have one.
Necropotence- this card is stupidly broken. It instant wins with reliquary tower drawing you more cards than you would off of Ad nauseam. Can be cheated out very fast with dark ritual and simply get their on its own for 3 mana. Combos with future sight quite well and honestly I can think of many games I have lost with a resolved necro in any deck. Auto Include Broken Massive draw spell activate without passing priority to avoid krosan grip.
Laboratory Maniac- Win condition. Combo card with doomsday. Yep that’s all it has to do to be good our win conditions are very compact in this deck. This card is what makes doomsday deadly and serves as a back up win condition even without it making us more resilient to deck exiling effects or whiffing with our yawgwin.
Intuition- Instant speed tutor that can be used in conjunction with cards like past in flames and yawgmoth’s will to instantly win grabbing all our high tide tech. There is a pile for any situation be it a free counter a mana source or a tutor you need intuition can always make a powerful pile. At cmc 3 and being an into hand tutor with extra value it easily makes the cut. Auto include
Frantic Search- Untap effect that combos with High tide. This makes it one fo our few blue rituals as well as a free cantrip as well as mana filtering early in the game is their any thing this card is not good for? Nope auto include
Wheel of Fortune- These cards are insane they are draw 7’s for 3 mana. I will gladly splash red just to play a few cards this power level when my mana is nearly perfect in 3 colors. There is a reason these cards are banned in legacy and its because storm deck would be led chaining these things and killing you turn 1-2 every single game. They let you run less lands let you easily build into a win and combo with cards like notion thief quite well. This one feeds your yard for yawgwin with left over cards 10/10 auto include
Timetwister- Just as broken as wheel of fortune except It shuffles your cards back in and is blue making it sometimes better sometimes worse depending on what your graveyard looks like and how the game has developed. Either way we would play every single draw 7 and cmc 3 that we can no matter what. Casting cards for free mana like mox diamond or sol ring then spinning the wheel ends games fast
Windfall- the same as wheel and twister but not as good since it’s not a guaranteed 7 but its still a 10/10 card never cut the wheels….
Doomsday- My favorite card ever… This card lets you see your win right to the end with a cantrip in hand and this you only need 5-6 mana to win and if you have more you can do it without leaving yourself open to a counterspell on yawgwin. Great backup win condition if you have lost a lot of key spells and wiffed on storm. A I WIN card in your opening hand that makes tutoring a ponder or gush a faster win than tutoring ad nuaseam …..This card has the most likely turn 1 kill potential of any card in the deck.
Yawgmoth’s Will – Yawgwin is card that simply just wins the game after playing this deck a few turns. It lets us ramp up massive storm counts and reuse all of our rituals and untap effects as well as storm cards. Auto include truly yawgwin here if I resolve this card its already over.
CMC 4+ Cards that cost more than 3 have to be INCREDIBLY powerful for me to include in my build as we want a low curve
Past in Flames- A slightly weaker version of yawgwin. That being said recast every ritual in are yard is still stupidly powerful and game ending even at 4 or 5 mana that fact that we can cast it from the yard and that it does not cause us to exile all of our spells is aswesome. This lets us bin it with a wheel early then finish everyone off with it later. It also means that we can recast in after using more tutors and ritual after the first cast which is just gravy. Auto include
Turnabout- this is the largest ritual in the deck untapping for massive amounts of mana with Hightide this card fuels our storm engine in the mana department. It can also be used to filter mana or as a smaller Ritual used on a board littered with mana rocks . Auto include
Notion Thief - Shuts down our opponents large draw spells and instant wins off all of our wheels mind twisting our opponents and drawing us 28 cards to typically win on the spot. Makes every tutor + wheel or tutor + theif hand into a easy instant win. Auto include
Tendrils of Agony – Main kill condition in the deck. Cast it after we cast everything else watch the table die.
Future sight- Futuresight is an insane card and one of my favorites. It combos with alredy powerful cards necropotence Doomsday Top. In the case of top its instant win with helm of awakening. Just as a 5 drop however it I very powerful letting us play card off the top of our deck is awesome. This has insane synergy with top of deck tutors since it’s a combo piece and lets you cast the card without needing a cantrip. Top can then chomp through lands casting rituals etc as you go. It can be used to cast cards mid minds desire which is also pretty hilarious. Like you know tutor my remand then cast the exiles cabal ritual for free form the 5th trigger flip and then pop remand on mionds desire and cst it for 30 the next time … Auto include
Gilded Lotus- This card taps for UUU or BBB or RRR and comes into play untaped . It also notable that it can be cast with all colorless mana. That is awesome. Gets us the mana to guarantee a win off hitting gas on a large draw spell or wheel that strikes gas. We have some very important 3 and 4 color cost black and blue spells and this fixes to all of them. It also has powerful synergy with mind over matter. The fact we can cast almost anything on our curve behind it and ti can protect itself is just gravy. Not having to tap lands with high tide to cast high tide and other card’s can make the UUU feel like BBUUUU. Play it
Ad Nauseam- The most powerful enabler in the deck at phase one. Strong enough to win entire games on its own even tapped out or on someone else’s turn out of nowhere. A one card combo that speeds this decks kill clock up almost a full turn maybe 50% of the time we pilot it. It’s broken Play it
Reccuring Insight- A Fair version of Ad nauseam that is great when we have taken a lot of damage in the early game. Good enough to use over Ad Nauseam if open handed. Overdraws you a hand of card some you may be able to use lets you craft to a perfect 7 with 4-7 extra cards incoming on your next turn completely untapped. That is enough cards to hit a win in this deck more often than not. Play it
TimeSpiral- A free wheel that ramps is mana with hightide … at 4 lands. Like insight and Ad Nauseam it is a midgame “turn3-4” bomb of card even without hightide it’s a wheel that cost less than the other wheel ands with set up can spiral tide you straight into a win vie minds desire. Freewheel > Freewheel > gg. Play it
Mind Over Matter- seemingly Infinte mana With a large draw spell resolving this typically just ends the game at your final phase with ease. IT can bin cards for mana early on or on a turn you intend to refill. Combos with every card that taps for more than 1 mana. If you cast Ad Nauseam on someone else’s turn and you hit this card you win.
Mind’s Desire – Ah the most broken storm card of all time I think we might want to play this card …. It lets you turn a giant storm chain into instant wins. Casting all the mana draw and tutor cards for free in a deck like this should almost always have a way to win. The last phase enabler that wins us more games than any other. Must play
Tidespout Tyrant- A win condition is his own right and a card that enabler infinite storm and mana combos in this deck. Casting it is similar to mind over matter in that you can normally then instantly go off upon resolving it. I have won games that I had no reach or other win conditions and just bounce entire players fields with tidespout tyrant. Play it..
Jeleva – She is the best commander in these colors because she is the only general that gives us reach. The only time we would want to cast any general in these colors is if we ran out of gas and she is the only gas commander.