Elsha of the Infinite
is an amazing storm commander. The reason for this is that Elsha works with many infinite combos, is in good colors, can be used herself to end the game after a series of spell procs, and turns all tutors into true instant speed tutors due to her top of deck ability.
In order to best abuse Elsha's abilities, we are going to turn several cost reducers for ramp and various effects in order to proc her Prowess and Top of Deck abilities more often.
Etherium Sculptor
,
Foundry Inspector
, and
Helm of Awakening
will allow us to play out our ramp earlier, and faster. On top of this, having any one of these permanents on the battlefield with Elsha and
Sensei's Divining Top
is an infinite combo. Use the Top's ability, draw a card, and put the Top on the top of your deck. Then, using Elsha's ability to play the top card of your deck, you can play the Top again for free since you have a cost reducer on the field. Thus, we can repeat this combo indefinitely until we draw out our deck.
There are several infinites to draw out the deck here. The other setup for an infinite draw will also instantly kill an opponent or gain you so much life you cannot lose from combat damage in most matches. The combo involves imprinting
Isochron Scepter
with
Dramatic Reversal
while having various artifacts out to create infinite mana. The most basic setup for this is
Isochron Scepter
+
Dramatic Reversal
+
Thran Dynamo
which will generate one colorless mana every rotation. You tap the
Thran Dynamo
to create three colorless mana, then use two of the mana to use the Isochron's ability with
Dramatic Reversal
to untap all your nonland permanents. This will allow you to repeat the process infinitely. To create colored mana, the simplest setup is Isochron + Reversal +
Sol Ring
+
Izzet Signet
. Since White is more or less a splash color in this deck for removal and wrath effects, having
Izzet Signet
on the field for this combo is ideal. Tap the
Sol Ring
to tap the
Izzet Signet
. This will leave 1 colorless mana, one red mana, and one blue mana in your mana pool. Use one of the colorless mana and one of the colored mana to use the Scepter's ability, which will generate one colored mana of your choice (blue or red) each cycle. You can then repeat this process infinitely.
Now that you have infinite mana, what can you do with it? Well casting Expansion//Explosion to draw your entire deck and instantly kill an opponent isn't a bad way to start. From there you have infinite mana of red and blue to cast the majority of your deck. If you play
Jace, Wielder of Mysteries
and use his ability or draw a card with him in play, you win the game. The same thing can be done with
Sphinx's Revelation
but instead of doing damage, you will gain life.
If you do not want to draw out your entire deck, you can simply make an infinitely large
Comet Storm
and multikick it to target each of your opponents infinite times (they can only counter a single copy targetting them for each removal spell, so without an infinitely large
Flusterstorm
to combat this, they will die t o the effect).
Another infinite combo is
Ral, Storm Conduit
+ any two copy effects such as
Narset's Reversal
and
Increasing Vengeance
. Because of Ral's static ability, these two copy spells will infinitely copy each other on the stack and ping your opponents down for infinite damage.
You can also simply win via combat damage from casting numerous spells with Elsa on the field. The most powerful creature in this deck for this win condition is
Monastery Mentor
, which will basically make smaller more basic versions of Elsha and the Mentor himself. Every single time you cast a noncreature spell, the monks will all get more powerful, making for a strong board presence to close out a game.
There is also the option to simply copy a large amount of damaging spells such as
Comet Storm
for a non infinite amount. In order to win via spells you need to have
Thousand-Year Storm
or
Aetherflux Reservoir
in play. Cast the mana rituals in the deck:
High Tide
,
Desperate Ritual
, and
Seething Song
in that order. From there, simply play a few 1 CMC spells (most of which are draw spells in this deck) in order to increase your storm count. You will soon be doing way too much for a 1 cost card. For example, with three storm counters on
Thousand-Year Storm
, if you cast
Brainstorm
you will draw twelve cards for 1 mana, and be able to shape your hand to return 6 to the deck (you have to do this one at a time, so it actually turns into draw 3, then draw 1, draw 1, draw 1. But for 1 mana drawing 6 cards is twice as good as
Ancestral Recall
). From this position you should have enough mana left to cast either
Bonus Round
if
Thousand-Year Storm
is in play, or simply as many low cost spells as possible for
Aetherflux Reservoir
. The
Bonus Round
route will allow you to create an insane amount of copies of each spell you play after, allowing you to completely warp the board state to your advantage. The
Aetherflux Reservoir
route can end the game on the spot depending on your mana pool and board presence at the time you chain your spells together.
We also have some creatures in the deck that simply synergize amazingly with the deck:
Guttersnipe
allows the deck to output incredible amounts of damage in a single turn.
Kykar, Wind's Fury
will generate mana ramp and board presence each time we interact with the field.
Dockside Extortionist
will help us to have those big spell turns by providing mana to pump into the large chain of spells.
Niv-Mizzet, Parun
will create insane card advantage and cause a decent amount of damage when chaining spells. He is also a 5/5 flying creature for 6 CMC which is pretty great.
Baral, Chief of Compliance
allows us to cycle through our hand when we interact with our opponents, while making all of our spells more efficient.
Sun Titan
allows us to get back our permanents as they are removed throughout the game. Increasing the value of early trades as he slowly allows us to rebuild our board.
In order for this deck to consistently function with the greedy mana base, there are several tutors in the deck.
Mystical Tutor
brings an immediate response into play if
Elsha of the Infinite
is in play.
Enlightened Tutor
can be used to bring
Thousand-Year Storm
,
Aetherflux Reservoir
,
Diplomatic Immunity
,
Intruder Alarm
, etc. It is in the deck to answer multiple types of decks.
Fabricate
is in the deck to tutor up
Aetherflux Reservoir
,
Isochron Scepter
, and
Sensei's Divining Top
.
Gamble
is in the deck because we run
Past in Flames
and it should only be used when the hand is relatively full to minimize discarding what you tutored for.
Muddle the Mixture
is in the deck to transmute for spells such as
Comet Storm
and
Open the Armory
.
