What is it?
A forever WIP storm deck with Kess at the helm. This isn't a cEDH deck-- this is a deck based on cEDH themes, for vastly less budget.
This is an attempt to storm consistently / reliably for, so far, under $300. In perusing many cEDH Kess decks, such as Grixis Flux, you'll find that storm decks are often vicious... and expensive. To best capitalize on the storm mechanic, it's important to get a deck's average CMC as low as possible. Don't get me wrong, all good decks have the best cards at the cheapest costs, but to put it into perspective, storm could, and would, thrive if a deck was just low cmc card draw, 0 cost, inconsequential spells, lands and a
Tendrils of Agony
.
Because of this, the best storm decks, again, tend to be quite expensive. This deck has posed a challenge as I do not own, nor am likely to own any 0 cost mana rocks any time soon, as well as my current card inventory being limited. Storm has proven to be a unicorn with limited budget, though the deck continues to evolve, and when piloted properly is fairly reliable.
How it's played
Featuring a large quantity of card draw, this deck pilots fairly consistently across multiple potential wincons. Primarily focusing on storming, big bad
Tendrils of Agony
is your most common go-to, though
Mind's Desire
is also fantastic to storm on. Backup wincons include typical black hate such as
Torment of Hailfire
, big red burn in
Banefire
, a
Doomsday
which lends itself well to
Laboratory Maniac
with the amount of card draw that's present and lastly your good ol'
Aetherflux Reservoir
. This deck includes a
Past in Flames
, which can end games in many situations.
This deck does well when played 'in response to' and on opponents' end steps, so keep that in mind. Not really even the majority of time, but the large presence of instants facilitates keeping multiple open mana for counter spells (or head games) whilst providing additional draw on opponent's end steps in the event those counters weren't necessary.
Card draw assists in gaining storm counters, but is not ideal, use it whenever appropriate to draw into wincons that will better assist storming (
Dark Ritual
,
Snap
, etc), or are storm themselves. There is no reason for hanging onto
Brainstorm
if you don't have a wincon to begin with.
Strategy
Storm is an interesting mechanic as it requires a lot of moving parts. In reality, storm itself isn't challenging, as it's pretty easy to cast two or three spells on a turn-- technically even that is storming if you cast a spell with storm on top of it. But that's boring, yeah? We want to be casting like, 10-15 per turn when we actually drop down a
Tendrils of Agony
. For those uninitiated with storm, it's semantics explicitly state 'cast'. See below:
When you cast this spell, copy it for each spell cast before it this turn. You may choose new targets for the copies.
Cast is the most important bit of this mechanic, as cards that copy spells, like
Reverberate
, won't double dip like we wish they would. I've found that this deck does well by focusing 100% on the first wincon that presents itself. For instance, any starting hand with with a potential wincon and land is probably a keeper, as it will keep you focused on obtaining the other necessary pieces.
Ideally, lands and card draw starts are your best friends. As soon as possible, getting
Dack Fayden
as he's a massive enabler, and/or
Chandra, Torch of Defiance
out make this deck work. Dack enables draw and artifact (likely synonymous with 'mana rock') theft, while Chandra is a mana rock, additional removal or a free cast (with burn).
Obviously, Kess helps this deck work, but in it's current state it's not completely dependent upon her. Kess is a 3/4 flyer-- depending on your opponent, you may find that getting her out early enables free commander damage, though for the most part she should be reserved for casting prior to a turn in which you 'go off'. Generally speaking, Kess shouldn't be played unless some sort of protection is present / owned, such as any form of counter or removal. She enables the deck by allowing spells like
Cabal Ritual
to be repeated, so she should only be present when turns will require a repeated spell. In the event
Banefire
or
Torment of Hailfire
are cast from hand, Kess's ability will allow a replay the following turn, which puts a timer on the game. Again, only cast Kess when absolutely necessary and with protection.
Most importantly, obtaining and playing as much draw as possible. You want to draw into one of the potential wincons, then pursue it.
What will change
This deck will continue to change as cards are acquired, with exception to the zero cost artifacts.
The most prominent upcoming additions will be
Necropotence
,
Lim-Dul's Vault
and
Ad Nauseam
. As far as pure efficiency goes, two of the above will be replacing
As Foretold
and
Unexplained Disappearance
. Currently, I'm unsure regarding
Mana Geyser
but more play is necessary. I expect the three aforementioned cards to add a significant level of reliability to the deck.
This deck is built for 1v1, though I do have some cards set aside for multiplayer, for instance wincons like
Exsanguinate
.
Any feedback is welcome, any additional cards that have synergy and a low CMC are always of interest, the lower CMC the deck the better.
