A Guide to Storm Decks in EDH | How to Build a Storm Commander Deck #mtg

magic is a game with a tremendous amount of different decks and themes especially in commander and storm is not only one of the most iconic but also one of my personal favorite themes the storm mechanic has led to the Banning of cards in multiple formats and there are a bunch of Storm cards that have been banned as well it's Infamous for the long drawn out turns where in competitive magic you need to sit around and wait for because you never know when they might fizzle and fail to storm off storm was such a powerful mechanic that lead designer Mark rosewater named the storm scale after it if you don't know the storm scale it's a measure of How likely a mechanic is to show up again and Powerful mechanics like storm or dredge are very highly rated meaning they're not likely to show up the storm scale itself is very interesting I'll have a link in the description for you to check out cards with the actual storm mechanic are pretty few and far between but over the years there have been storm decks in many formats but as of writing the script in 2024 if we look at the metagame page for modern storm is basically dead popper had their Storm cards banned Pioneer has one storm like deck but no actual Storm cards standard has not had a storm card in a long time and in CDH manual storm has mostly been superseded by combos though there are a few commanders that still show up in CD occasionally Legacy and vintage are really the only places where you commonly see storm but most players don't engage with those formats at all so honestly when was the last time you saw a proper manual storm deck one that actually tries to cast 20 plus spells and use a storm card as a finisher storm is one of my favorite archetypes ever and the deck I've been playing longest is a manual storm deck so this is my guide to the Lost Art of storm for EDH I'll go over the arch type colors Price Power weaknesses everything you need to know to build a storm deck but first if you like my videos consider subscribing and checking out the patreon thanks first we need to look at what storm does storm says when you cast this spell copy it for each spell cast before it this turn a couple of things to note here storm does count your opponent's spells as well it's all spells that have been cast which is why something like fluster storm is so powerful against storm decks another important thing is that storm happens when the spell is cast meaning a spell copy effect just gets one copy not the entire storm effect so if we look at a storm card like the new amphibian downpour if your opponent casts a creature and then you cast this you'll get one other copy right cuz that's the second spell cast there has been one spell cast previously making amphibium downpour a two for one removal spell this is the most basic way to use storm a card that can be double or tripled up if you throw in a cantrip or wait for your opponent to cast something now that we know what storm does what makes a storm deck just having a storm card as your finisher is not really the same as being a storm deck you can use cards like grapeshot as a finisher to a tide spout combo but that's not a Stormwind that's a combo you have two cheap manok the tide spout and the grape shot a guaranteed win if you have all these cards not that having a combo in your storm deck makes it no longer a storm deck but I'll get into that more later so let's look at a classic modern storm deck I know this is about EDH but bear with me this deck aimed to untap with a cost producing card in play like baral or electromancer and then using Mana neutral cards like manamorphose or Mana positive cards like rituals you could get a lot of Mana since the cost is reduced then the deck will cast cantrips and rituals until you hit 19 spells and cast a grape shot as the 20th or often times you would cast 10 spells and then past in Flames to just cast the same grape shot twice casting your storm spell twice does give you more storm as opposed to copying it the hall Mark of a storm deck is none of this is guaranteed there isn't a set formula of you manamorphose into this ritual into this can trip into this then you win it's a combo you have to put together on the Fly you don't know what you're going to draw off the metamorphose you don't know what you're going to draw off the canra you have to figure out what you're doing mid combo if you don't get enough rituals you run out of Mana if you don't hit enough card draw you might have Mana but no way to draw onto your windcom failing to storm off is called fizzling and usually me means you're probably going to lose which brings me to the weaknesses of a storm deck the reason they've fallen out of favor in almost every competitive format is that there are almost always better ways to win usually with a combo why build a deck where the combo only wins 90% of the time when you could instead build a combo deck that wins 100% of the time once it gets the combo also since storm decks have so many moving Parts they fold to almost any type of stacks rule of law effects graveyard hate or spot removal for those cost reducers are all really great ways to slow down a storm deck so why play storm if it has all of these issues it's just worse than a combo deck it's fun I mean come on we're playing EDH here it's for fun storm is really exciting to play finding a win is like solving a puzzle looking at your hand looking at the board and trying to determine if you can Cobble together an actual win is just such a blast sometimes I'll take out my storm deck and just goldfish to see how early I can try and go for a win goldfishing by the way is when you play a deck against nobody just to test it fun fact that's where the MTG goldfish channel gets their name okay so you believe me that a storm deck is fun to play where do you start well let's look at colors there was a time where you could build a storm deck in any color combination easily I saw jund storm cnia storm and even some great colorless options but sadly Paradox engine my beloved is banned so now your options are a little bit more limited blue and red are by far the easiest but I'll go over how to make a stor deck in every color red has rituals which give you a ton of Mana especially combined with cost reducers plus red has a reasonable amount of can trips actually it's very easy to just fill your deck with these types of rituals and have a lot of storm action going on and you have amazing Commander options Bergie Zada her rasque blue doesn't have rituals but instead land untapping effects cards like Snap turnabout franic search are all Mana neutral meaning if you add a cost reducer they're suddenly Mana positive effects and you have excellent Commander options as well orvar and my beloved Jace blackstorm is pretty interesting because there are actually some rituals although not as many as red but there are lots of other effects that let you sacrifice creatures for mana and you can easily turn those effects into cards as well Kirk son of yoth and Mastermind Plum are great options here green storm is pretty interesting normally when you think of green you don't think of instance and sorceries which is why they're often creature-based storm decks all of the salal are great options here basically you want a creature or multiple creatures that can tap for Mana hopefully more than one mana and then you can use creature untapping effects to continually get more Mana basically turning these into rituals white and colorless I'm going to lump together because both of these are best as artifact storm decks artifacts have a lot of cost reducers which can be used to make the cost of Mana rocks go down and especially when you pair this with rocks that tap for more than one Mana you can easily turn them Mana neutral or Mana positive tesar is pretty great here for mono white or swam can work as well if you're playing all Cheerios in colorless your options are a little limited you could probably build something out of paragen Dynamo or thos if you really wanted and of course if you're a multicolor deck combine all of these things if you're in black and red suddenly you have access to a huge amount of rituals so feel free to mix and match all of these ideas based on what you're building normally you won't have enough Mana to actually cast 20 spells in one turn meaning we need some way to cast all of these spells this is where enablers come in these are cards that in our storm turn get us more Mana some of the most common are cost reducing effects normally traditional ramp is just better in casual Commander but if you plan to cast multiple spells in a turn a cost reducer can often be way more effective and there are cost reducers for whatever you're trying to storm with artifacts creatures instance or sorceries or just if you're in monocolor pick one of the medallions these are getting reprinted in mh3 so get them while they're cheap Beyond cost reducers there are other ways to get more Mana mid storm turn if you want to go for an artifact eggs style deck something like Croc Clan Iron Works or KCI for short is a great way to do that KCI can turn zero Mana artifacts into plus two mana and one Mana artifact effects into plus one Mana if you have a lot of these and ways to draw cards you can turn through your deck pretty fast you can also do the same with creatures astron's alter fian alter or that new Goblin from mh3 are great ways to turn creatures into mana and there are tons of ways to get fodder on the board there are so many enablers for storm decks some can be generic like rituals you can put in basically any storm deck or maybe something more specific something like ktha rebirth in jira with a haste enabler can easily be plus three Mana it really depends on what you're playing so find ways that you can net more Mana mid turn Mana isn't everything you're going to need card draw to actually find the storm finishers canant trips which are lowcost cards that draw one card are generally the go-to for most combo decks including storm C trips are great since you get one card deeper and have plus one storm count for a low Mana cost this is why blue is the best for storm and red to a lesser extent because they have C trips luckily for non isit decks can tripping is not everything you also need regular card draw the problem with can trips is eventually you hit lands and then won't do anything so you need other cards that actually give card Advantage delve spells are great if you cast a bunch of can trips X spells are also excellent since they work well with cost reducers and let you dump any excess Mana from rituals into them okay we have enablers and we have card draw now we need to figure out how to actually win the game one of the easiest win consons to add to any storm deck deck is aetherflux Reservoir it gains life for each spell you cast so not exactly storm count this is actually a huge gripe I have with Aether flux it means when you're storming off you need to keep track of total spells cast for storm and spells you cast this turn because it's different regardless aetherflux Reservoir can easily get you to the 151 life to blast away the whole table if you don't want to use a reservoir then there are other storm finishers keep in mind how many spells you need to cast for these to actually win the game like grap trout for example this is going to be really difficult to win with because you likely won't cast 120 spells instead tendrils of Agony does twice the damage so you only need 60 spells and that also might sound like a lot but remember the second time you cast tendrils it's going to be even more so often times you want ways to recur storm spells back to your hand and cast it multiple times this way you can get that win much more easily then there are token generating Storm cards these are also great finishers usually you want a haste enabler or an Anthem or some other effect that deals damage when creatures come into play if you have something like a peros you can definitely storm off and make enough tokens to take the whole table out another bit of tech here is extra turn spells even those red ones that lose you the game next turn if you do one huge storm turn where you summon a massive amount of goblins with empty the Warren you can final Fortune to take one extra turn basically as a haste enabler and then drop your Anthem into Swing Out lastly you can have a combo finish I know I said that combo decks are not really storm decks but it's more how you find the combo if you're just playing removal and card draw to slow down the game until you get your combo then you're not a storm deck it's about non-deterministically spinning into the combo with wheels and card draw and cantrips that makes it more of a storm deck in terms of power level how strong are storm decks so there are variances that can affect the power level a lot usually depending on how much setup you actually need before you can pop off or how consistently you can find your important pieces but honestly storm decks are not super strong part of the reason this is the Lost Art of storm is because the archetype has fallen off a cliff in every competitive format you can build a storm deck that is strong and consistent and fast but it will never be stronger faster or more consistent than a combo Deck with lines that has guaranteed wins in Commander we have one card combos with inala zero card combos with goo so I don't think any storm deck even maxed out on power can really be more than Fringe CDH tier 2 CDH but for casual Commander I think it's somewhat powerful storm decks can really punish players who are not aggressive enough and don't play enough non-creature removal to get rid of the enabling cards but otherwise it still folds to removal in the same way that a lot of other combos do so I don't think it's too strong I would put storm in casual Commander at upper mid power now is it expensive monetarily to build a storm deck and although I do think a budget storm deck is possible budget is also a pretty limiting factor for these decks you often have one or two key cards that are really crucial so tutors are pretty important and if you're not in red the budget problem is actually even worse because outside of red and I guess dark ritual the best Mana positive cards are all colorless fast Mana pieces yes soul ring is easy to get but manac Crypt manav Vault MOX Diamond Grim monolith Chrome MOX are all very expensive usually I don't think the moxes with card disadvantage are really worth it in casual Commander but in storm decks they kind of are a MOX diamond is so good mid storm turn cuz it's just plus one mana and you get rid of a useless land you didn't need I don't want to discourage anyone from trying to build a storm deck on a budget especially if you stay in red I'm just saying it's more difficult to build a storm deck on a budget than other themes okay so let's put everything together enablers card draw wind cons what does a finished storm deck look like well I have my Fringe CDJ deck that I've been playing and tuning for years let's take a look at it there's also a link in the description for you to check out since this deck is mono blue high tide and extra planter lens are great enablers high tide really is the best option here it basically doubles your Mana if you have all islands and even though it's only for one turn a Mana doubler for one Mana is insane I actually think people should be playing this in almost every mod Blue Deck in casual anyway even if you're not a storm deck the extra planer lens is mostly a backup plan if high tide gets exiled or countered or whatever this deck is chalk full of tutors for high tide and artifact tutors for the lens once you resolve high tide those blue untapping effects are all Mana positive like with SNAP for example you can tap two islands for four mana and then spend two mana on Snap to untap both of those giving you an extra two Mana with the commander though Jace lets you go crazy the flip side is a planes Walker that lets you cast an instant or sorcery in your graveyard the goal is to cast high tide again which means your Islands tap for three Mana each so now snap is going to gain you four Mana cuz you tap two lands for six and spend two on the snap this deck aims to use a double high tide with fiveish lands in play and all of these untapping effects to storm off the deck is full of cantrips to hit those tutors early game or turn through the deck during the storm turn and then big untapping effects like time spiral and hour of Revelation are often enough cards and Mana to win the game this deck usually wins by casting enough spells with an Aether flux in play to win the game there is a scepter reversal combo backup or if you have six Lanes in play and one high tide effect palen cron will go infinite or five lands and two high tide effects or or four lands two high tide effects and a sapphire Medallion and if that sounds convoluted that's because it is you usually don't know how you're going to win because the deck uses Wheels to draw into those winds and this convoluted nature is why I love the deck so much each game is going to be different to find the actual win sometimes the correct line is copy artifact on a reservoir to double the life gain sometimes the line is to cast reversal by itself to untap your Mana rocks to get that little boost of Mana to can up a little further to find your next un Tapper or maybe it's casting a mind's desire for six casting all of those spells and then flashing back the mind's desire for now 12 and sometimes you find displacer kitten as an engine and you're able to just use that to get Mana there are so many different ways this deck can go off it's just so fun to find different ones every time I want to finish this video off by giving you some overall tips on building and playing Storm one you should goldfish the deck a lot take your clat out and play the deck a bunch storm decks often take long turns because they're very complicated and require a lot of spells to be cast you should know your deck inside and out you should know what you're going to tutor for in each situation please practice your deck a ton before taking it into a real game honestly you should be doing this with most decks but it's especially important for storm second is to bring tokens to represent floating Mana if you have a bunch of dice on the table it can be confusing to figure out what's man Mana what storm count or whatever else if you don't want to make or buy Mana tokens you can use basic lands third don't worry too much about the board removal is good to have and important sometimes you'll run into a card that really hurts the storm plan and you need to remove it but otherwise try to focus more on getting enablers in play and not worrying too much about chip damage even if you're at one life if you manage to storm off you probably won so that's how to build a storm deck enablers to get you Mana mid turn cheap and efficient draw to turn through your deck and some finisher that makes use of all the Spells you've cast so far storm is an incredibly fun and challenging way to brew and play it's a dedicated combo deck that needs real setup to get going but once you learn a storm deck it can be so rewarding I encourage you to give it a try and be patient it's a learning process storm is difficult you're going to lose to your own deck multiple times and especially if someone throws removal at you mid combo it can really shake up your game plan and it just means you need to do more adjusting on the fly but if you like Decks that win in different ways every single game I think you might like storm let me know your favorite storm commander in the comments below and drop other storm deck building tips down there as well thank you so very much for watching and special thanks to my tier three patrons whose names you see here if you want to be in the credits or check out any of the other perks link to my patreon is in the description [Music]

Channel: The Trinket Mage

Views: 20,716

Keywords: mtg, edh, commander, elder dragon highlander, magic the gathering

Id: jznTrOhWp3I

Length: 19min 38sec (1178 seconds)

Published: Fri Jun 07 2024