[EDH] Paradoxical Tide Kess (PTK)

Commander / EDH* UBR (Grixis)

SavageMushrooms

Instant (30)

• 1x Ad Nauseam
• 1x Brainstorm
• 1x Cabal Ritual
• 1x Chain of Vapor
• 1x Counterspell
• 1x Dark Ritual
• 1x Delay
• 1x Demonic Consultation
• 1x Dispel
• 1x Dramatic Reversal
• 1x Flusterstorm
• 1x Force of Will
• 1x Frantic Search
• 1x High Tide
• 1x Lim-Dul's Vault
• 1x Mana Drain
• 1x Mental Misstep
• 1x Mission Briefing
• 1x Mystical Tutor
• 1x Narset's Reversal
• 1x Pact of Negation
• 1x Paradoxical Outcome
• 1x Pyroblast
• 1x Rebuild
• 1x Red Elemental Blast
• 1x Snap
• 1x Spell Pierce
• 1x Swan Song
• 1x Unsubstantiate
• 1x Vampiric Tutor

Enchantment (4)

• 1x Copy Artifact
• 1x Mystic Remora
• 1x Necropotence
• 1x Rhystic Study

Planeswalker (1)

• 1x Jace, Wielder of Mysteries

Land (28)

• 1x Ancient Tomb
• 1x Arid Mesa
• 1x Badlands
• 1x Bloodstained Mire
• 1x City of Brass
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Flooded Strand
• 1x Gemstone Caverns
• 7x Island
• 1x Mana Confluence
• 1x Marsh Flats
• 1x Misty Rainforest
• 1x Polluted Delta
• 1x Prismatic Vista
• 1x Scalding Tarn
• 1x Steam Vents
• 1x Swamp
• 1x Underground Sea
• 1x Verdant Catacombs
• 1x Volcanic Island
• 1x Watery Grave
• 1x Wooded Foothills

Sorcery (14)

• 1x Dark Petition
• 1x Demonic Tutor
• 1x Gamble
• 1x Gitaxian Probe
• 1x Imperial Seal
• 1x Mind's Desire
• 1x Ponder
• 1x Preordain
• 1x Timetwister
• 1x Toxic Deluge
• 1x Transmute Artifact
• 1x Wheel of Fortune
• 1x Windfall
• 1x Yawgmoth's Will

Commander (1)

Artifact (17)

• 1x Aetherflux Reservoir
• 1x Arcane Signet
• 1x Candelabra of Tawnos
• 1x Chrome Mox
• 1x Dimir Signet
• 1x Fellwar Stone
• 1x Grim Monolith
• 1x Helm of Awakening
• 1x Lotus Petal
• 1x Mana Crypt
• 1x Mana Vault
• 1x Mox Diamond
• 1x Mox Opal
• 1x Sensei's Divining Top
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Talisman of Creativity
• 1x Talisman of Dominance

Creature (5)

• 1x Baral, Chief of Compliance
• 1x Dark Confidant
• 1x Dockside Extortionist
• 1x Laboratory Maniac
• 1x Notion Thief

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Paradoxical Tide Kess

Paradoxical Tide Kess (PTK) is a low tier cEDH Storm combo deck which is tuned to capitalise on both High Tide and Paradoxical Outcome for more of a manual storm style of play.

About the Author

Welcome!

Hey all!

My name is SavageMushrooms (Kyrenox on Discord). I am a cEDH enthusiast who love deck building "fun pet decks" to play at my local playgroup (Melbourne, Australia). I can normally be found playing cEDH with my Opus Thief deck or playing casual High Power custom home brew Storm decks. Thankfully my playgroup have accepted me for who I am, a Storm player!

My motivation revolves around tightening up my mechanical play when playing Magic. This motivation has recently extended to my deck building as well and I'm creating primers for my favourite custom EDH decks to both share my favourite decks with the EDH community and to improve myself further as a Magic player.

Feel more than welcome to ask any questions or provide feedback in the comments below.

Happy deck building!

About The Deck (WORK IN PROGRESS)

Background

I have played a considerable amount of games with ShaperSavants Jace, Vryn's Prodigy High Tide deck and I've always wanted to play a similar "manual storm" style within a Grixis shell (mostly due to my disdain for Diminishing Returns and love for the Notion Thief + Wheel of Fortune style combos commonly found within Opus Thief). The result is my Paradoxical Tide Kess (PTK) list.

The Deck

I have designed PTK to be a deck which can be used both in your standard "every day" EDH games and to also be viable in an EDH Variant called Kingdoms (which does not allow for alternate win conditions).

A lot of the card choices are a reflection of attempting to stay true to more to the more traditional High Tide EDH decks, similar to Shapers JVP HT deck and Sigi's Kess HT deck. PTK falls more in the middle of these decks. While it includes the grinder elements of Shapers list, it does not include the fast card advantage engines which are considered auto-includes as shown in Sigi's list. I was ultimately looking to play JVP while adding additional colours.

Why Play PTK?

Reasons you may enjoy playing PTK:

1. Storm is life.
2. You like to play manual Storm decks, especially High Tide or Paradoxical Storm.
3. You prefer playing a grinder game without having to go "all-in".
4. You enjoy playing a deck capable of being a major threat at nearly any stage of the game.

Reasons you may not like playing PTK:

1. You don't like playing Storm decks.
2. You prefer playing Creature centric strategies.
3. Your playgroup plays doesn't play High Power decks.
4. You don't like playing elaborate combo decks that can appear to win "out of nowhere".

How PTK Compares with Similar Style Decks

High Tide (Jace, Vryn's Prodigy) by ShaperSavant

Starting with the obvious premier High Tide cEDH deck.

Kess High Tide (Kess, Dissident Mage) by LabManiac_Sigi

Although this list is no longer kept up to date, it is a good example of a Kess High Tide list which includes the fast and powerful Black draw engines.

Tainted Desire (Kess, Dissident Mage) by Wedge-cEDH

Tainted Desire is the premier cEDH Kess Storm deck which relies on utilising a Consultation package. Wedge's new Kess storm deck does not include High Tide in lieu of Dockside Extortionist .

Rev 13:18 (Jeleva, Nephalia's Scourge) by reversemermaid

Considered by many Grixis Storm enthusiasts to be the go to Grixis Storm deck.

Gameplans and Engines

Storming Out

Storming out is a primary gameplan in PTK. Whether it be storming off manually with Aetherflux Reservoir or by assembling Isochron Scepter + Dramatic Reversal + Copy Artifact + Outlet, you'll need both a lot of mana and card draw to pull this off successfully. I'll go into more detail below on how to assemble these engines.

Mana Engines

High Tide

"What a card! It combos with the best card in Magic, a basic Island!" - Feline Longmore

When combined with Kess, Dissident Mage , High Tide can be cast a second time from the Graveyard.

Dramatic Reversal

Paradoxical Outcome

When Paradoxical Outcome is combined with Helm of Awakening and your suite of mana rocks, Paradoxical Outcome turns into a minor mana engine. You can do this by returning your mana rocks and Dockside Extortionist ) to your hand with Paradoxical Outcome , cast Helm of Awakening , and then recast your mana rocks and Dockside Extortionist .

In it's best case, it makes your mana rocks net positive when you recast them. Examples of cards that allow you to achieve net positive mana are Dockside Extortionist , Grim Monolith and Candelabra of Tawnos while under the influence of High Tide . Worst case, you've made your mana rocks net neutral with Helm of Awakening to allow Paradoxical Outcome to work as a draw engine.

Draw Engines

Paradoxical Outcome

"Paradoxical Outcome seems pretty sweet..." - Vintage Storm Players, ...probably

Not only has Paradoxical Outcome showed up as a mana engine, but it also doubles up as an impressive draw engine. This is where this card shines!

Backup Gameplan: Laboratory Maniac

This line only requires a two card combo to be able to pull off, so it ends up being a matter of finding the cards you need, then executing the combo once you've found a good combo window. However, there is a fancy "cheat" way of pulling off this combo with Intuition .

It is worth noting that I am not currently running Intuition ; however, if you end up drawing the Intuition and none of the Consultation combo pieces, fret not! Cast Intuition with Kess, Dissident Mage on the battlefield and a draw spell in hand. Once Intuition has resolved, target an opponent, then search your deck for Laboratory Maniac , Demonic Consultation and Unearth . No matter what your opponent picks, you can win on the spot with this Consultation line.

Win Conditions (WORK IN PROGRESS)

The Primary Wincon: Manual Storm

Aetherflux Reservoir + Lots of Spells

The Secondary Wincon: The Consultation Line

Laboratory Maniac + Demonic Consultation + Card Draw

Notable Inclusions and Exclusions (WORK IN PROGRESS)

Notable Inclusions

Notable Exclusions

Recurring Insight

Recurring Insight had been added to this deck in lieu of Ad Nauseam as a card advantage engine. See more within the Notable Exclusions section below.

Ad Nauseam

Ad Nauseam has been excluded from this list for a number of reasons. The first reason being that the cards that I want in a High Tide deck (such as card:Turn About, Time Spiral , etc) are of a higher cost. By extension, it also allows me to play higher CMC cards without having to worry about hitting them off Ad Nauseam , such as Dig Through Time , Recurring Insight , Mind's Desire , and Dark Petition .

Secondly, the exclusion Ad Nauseam allows for a grinder game plan which is more in line with what JVP High Tide offers. This allows PTK to not be forced to go "all-in" on an Ad Nauseam, while being able to be greedy by sitting back for an extra one or two turns in slower metas.

Necropotence

"Don't throw the Necropotence out with the Ad Nauseam." - Famous Idiomatic Expression

Not including Necropotence looks to be a case of throwing the baby out with the bath water, but it has been deliberately removed to add alternatives to actively make PTK work better in grinder games. It is also a not used, as a personal preference, in an effort to bring down the power level of this deck. However, if you are looking to speed up the deck for faster metas, you can look to include Necropotence over a card like Rhystic Study .

Laboratory Maniac / Demonic Consultation

There is only one reason why I do not play Consultation lines in PTK. It is exclusively for the deck to be playable in an EDH variant called Kingdoms. In the Kingdoms variant, alternative Win Conditions do not work as they would in normal EDH games. If this was not the case, I would add the consultation line (listed in the Maybeboard) as a backup win condition instead of the Isochron Scepter Dramatic Reversal line.

City of Brass / Mana Confluence

Both City of Brass and Mana Confluence produce all of the three colours we need in this deck and considering we're not playing Ad Nauseam and Necropotence , we're in a better position to pay life in longer EDH games; however, they do not synergise with High Tide and they do not ramp our mana like Ancient Tomb and Gemstone Caverns can. Ultimately, the PTK mana base is still being tested and City of Brass and Mana Confluence may be included in later revisions.

Concluding Remarks

Thank you!

You made it to the end of this primer? Thank you very much for taking the time to read the primer that I have put together. I hope that this primer was informative and helpful to you in some meaningful way.

Feel free to drop a comment on this primer if you have any questions, feedback or just to say hi. Other people challenging this list is one of the best ways for me to improve PTK.

If you enjoyed this primer, please consider upvoting this decklist. Every thumbs up is greatly appreciated!

DISCLAIMER: Quotes within this primer may or may not have been made up as a poor attempt at humour...

Date added	4 years
Last updated	4 years
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	12 - 0 Mythic Rares 46 - 0 Rares 16 - 0 Uncommons 18 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	1.96
Tokens	Bird 2/2 U, Treasure