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Melek, Izzet Paragon [PRIMER] (EDH)

Commander / EDH Combo Creatureless Multiplayer Spellslinger Storm Theme/Gimmick UR (Izzet)

Pakku

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Commander: foil Melek, Izzet Paragon

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Tutor (7)

Maybeboard

Other (165)

Welcome to slinging spells

This deck is originally based on and inspired by David McDarby's deck from SCG's Commander Versus -series circa 2013

After the spark of inspiration to make a Melek deck, I've done extensive playtesting and have to say Melek is one of my all time favourite EDH decks to play, it's changed a lot from the beginning and pretty much doesn't resemble at all of what it used to be, nor it couldn't even become what it was because the format has evolved so much during the years. As of 2022, it's not the best of the high powered UR storm decks but for sure it's been one of the most fun to pilot

The maybeboard holds cards that could be used in the deck. They are cards that I've tried out and switched out and/or cards I think that fit the theme and have left there as a reference for other people that want to build around Melek. This was created before services like EDHREC were a thing but I have left it there as it is

Thank you for your interest

As of 2022 you still could argue that Mizzix of the Izmagnus is the best UR storm deck commander in EDH for pure spellslinging purposes. Veyran, Voice of Duality likes going to combat and relying on magecraft triggers so the gameplay is too different with him. And I would agree, Mizzix has a magnitude of potential power over Melek but I think both Melek and Mizzix have their own unique pros and cons

In a hard cEDH environment I severely doubt neither would fare optimally against any of the other stormy decks that have access to black, making UR inherently a weaker color combination. This deck has been born and raised in a meta where the power levels fluctuate between mid and high, but I wouldn't call it exactly competitive. While the deck lies in a very optimized and honed state it can't rush to consistent wins due to UR storm's chaotic nature as well as the lack for black tutors. Still, while chaotic at times I will argue that the deck is still decently strong

Mizzix of the Izmagnus has the option to run a much larger curve of average CMC due to the fact that he is a perpetually growing cost reducer and as such can run some very hard hitting stuff like Enter the Infinite and Expropriate and cast those cards with ease. Spells with high CMC, X spells and spells with buyback work amazingly with Mizzix. I really love the little goblin and implore you to check him out as well, Mizzix's true beauty lies in its ability for the player to craft sub-optimal EDH spellslinger decks with sorceries and instants that are "lagging" behind the powercreep and cards that have fallen off the format in large scale use (I mean who runs Insurrection any more, no one I tell you, but with Mizzix it's not the worst pick in the 99)

However on the flip side Mizzix lists that capitalize on said cards will find themselves in a very rough spot against a Gaddock Teeg. Removal or constant denial of Mizzix also hits insanely hard if playing the larger curve. And when building the experience counters up becomes impossible, you're odds of winning plummet to zero. If a table recognizes the power of Mizzix as a cost reducer or have deemed it as a kill-on-sight general, they are more prone to remove him as opposed to Melek, which does not appear to be such a horrifying creature at first glance, especially in this day and age where he's more dated in terms of power creeped MTG cards

Melek has a built-in Future Sight that Twincasts instants and sorceries. It's good but it's not game breaking. He's got a banging 2/4 body so he's not much use in combat either but survives a bolt. You can at most put him in front of a token but that's pretty much it. Seeing permanents on top of your library hurts and he creates more value around spells that actually accomplish something or advances your game to a win, which leads and necessitates a deck that either doesn't run any countermagic at all (That's me, the big dumbo who doesn't counter anything in a blue deck) or run a very tight package of them. One could also argue that he works very well with counter magic from the top of your library, because you're increasing your odds of winning counterwars with your 2 for 1s

Melek's largest asset in my opinion is the fact that he combos instantly in a creatureless deck with Proteus Staff

Your game plan to victory is relatively simple, build up your board, build up your graveyard and try not to die

Try to ramp some mana, Fabricate, Trinket Mage (not in the deck but an option, disables option to win with Proteus Staff), Dizzy Spell (not in the deck but an option), Gamble (not in the deck but an option), (Personal Tutor, Mystical Tutor can get you Fabricate) all can tutor up a Sol Ring or Mana Crypt, just try to land some early rocks to help you get online faster

As you're digging for mana in the form of land drops and rocks with your many cantrips, remember to keep eyes for the potential combo pieces as well and try to assemble something while simultaniously feeding the graveyard with Ponder, Opt, Preordain, Serum Visions, Thought Scour, Sleight of Hand etc

After getting sufficient mana, it's time to start either digging for the right pieces, the combos you will want to perform are going to vary from time to time and the composition of your variation of a Melek deck and the hands you've gotten and the cards you've drawn. If you want the simplest way to attain victory, just focus on digging and searching for pieces that lets you get Proteus Staff. It's the easiest route to take and should be the default for most times

You can play Melek as a go-balls-deep into an Epic Experiment just to see where the road will lead you, things can change radically like very good spells and a Wheel of Fortune, Sol Ring and a few more rocks, Tolarian Winds and by T5 you somehow have a graveyard full of toys and are staring a Mizzix's Mastery in your hand with the mana to cast it as well, it's all an elaborate tap dance if you will. Even as a hail mary, a totally chaotic and overloaded Mizzix's Mastery might win you the game, the problem with storm is that it's kind of chaotic and you can explode off a risky take that you're not sure if it accomplishes anything. That Jeska's Will might exile a Proteus Staff and you might have the game with that, you never know

This list doesn't have most of the cards I'm about to list any longer, as I've gone for the route of trying to rush to victory, but it's still very much advisable to include some of these "tempo" cards just because they make you that much more survivable. If you decide to make a Melek list your "main deck" you definitely will want to run tempo cards and mass bounces because people will know that you'll usually win explosively and not have a massive board state that heralds a victory from a few turns away

Cyclonic Rift, Blasphemous Act, Chain Reaction, AEtherize, Aetherspouts, Blustersquall, Illusionist's Gambit, Disrupt Decorum, Polymorphist's Jest, Reins of Power, Evacuation and many more can save yourself from aggression. Disrupt Decorum can possibly make a very dangerous scenario where you walk scoff free while the rest of the table has to fight amongs themselves for a whole turn, you can use AEtherize politically, by saving another player in exchange for something. You can Cyclonic Rift everyones large board state back to square one and be very mean and make them discard it all with Wheel of Fortune

Sphinx-Bone Wand

A dated wincon. Often ends up getting blown up before doing anything significant but the power of bone wand isn't that high that people automatically hate it off the table which is one of its advantages and thus has the power to blinside opponents. Hardcasting this is very painful for its CMC but you can at least cheat it out with Show and Tell

Aria of Flame and Sentinel Tower

Great alternatives to replace wand and are a bit more modern, the lower CMC helps out. Flame especially is harder to remove due to it being an enchantment and the drawback isn't terrible. You can't kill creatures with it but otherwise it's the same. Ral, Storm Conduit and Sorcerer Class both work too

Aetherflux Reservoir

Unlike the wand, this gets recognized and hated off usually real fast and not without a reason, it has the built in option to gain life and survive from harrassment you get in combat but most importantly it serves as an important piece to win with by blasting 50 to the face around the table

Eye of the Storm

The deck's secondary main-wincon. It serves as the most ridiculous powerhouse in this deck that will win you the game by an incredibly high storm count. This is the card you'll be worried about before playing it on the table. Highly advised that you do not put Eye on the table before you have a spell that gives you mana like Turnabout or a ritual as well as a dig spell to keep feeding it gas. With those you should be able to win the game. The CMC is steep but like with a bone-wand, can be cheated out. Thousand-Year Storm is a decent alternative but doesn't hold a candle to Eye in this case

Proteus Staff

A wincon and the baseline, primary one with this particular deck as it's a two card combo with Melek, Izzet Paragon on the field. You activate it, put Melek on the bottom of your library and then reveal your whole deck, putting Melek back on the field and then literally stack your deck so that you can keep going from the top with spells that you want and need to win the game, some suggested stacks will be discussed in the combos section

Note, a lot of the combos listed here do not exist any longer or have not existed at any point in the deck, but I feel these should be mentioned for anyone unexperienced in the Izzet colors to learn a bit more about spellslinging combos

The very basics / 101

If you know how to play storm and spam stuff from your graveyard with Past in Flames you're all set

  • A lot of spells + Ignite Memories (or Grapeshot)

  • A lot of spells + Aetherflux Reservoir and blast everyone for 50

  • Reiterate with buyback to copy anything pretty much

  • Reiterate with buyback enables the wicked easy combo of infinite red mana and infinite storm when paired with Mana Geyser. This is even easier to execute when you cast Geyser off the top of your library with Melek, you let the copy of Mana Geyser resolve, giving you probably more than six red mana, and you then cast Reiterate to respond to the original Geyser that is still on the stack with Buyback, you then keep casting Reiterate for any amount of times as you wish

  • Brass's Bounty can also create the same infinite amount of storm and mana as long as you have more than six lands on the battlefield with the same trick. Note that Bounty is a high value card even if you only have a few lands on the field as it's the only red sorcery that can generate blue in the form of Treasure tokens in the deck and generating more than enough red mana from the various rituals is by all metrics easy as all hell to accomplish

Firemind's Foresight tutor examples

  • Mystical Tutor + Comet Storm + Reiterate + Melek, Izzet Paragon = Infinite mana and damage. Fetch Mana Geyser with Mystical Tutor, cast it and let the copy resolve and then respond to the original with a buybacked Reiterate, keep responding until you have infinite mana and infinite storm. Cast Comet Storm multikicked so that it kills the table and respond to it with the reiterate if someone tries to counter it

  • Lightning Bolt + Reset + Reiterate = Infinite mana and damage at instant speed. Cast Reset during an opponent's turn and respond to it with a buybacked Reiterate. Note that you need to have at least seven lands or special lands that produce more than one mana when tapped to go infinite. Keep casting a buybacked Reiterate with the original Reset forever on the stack for infinite blue and red mana and then cast and keep copying Lightning Bolt until everyone is dead. Another alternative is to use Quicken and then use Grapeshot or Ignite Memories. With infinite mana you don't have to have either of those storm spells in hand because you can just keep copying Quicken so that you're able to flash out all sorceries in your deck if you like

  • Mystical Tutor + Pyretic Ritual + Reiterate + Melek, Izzet Paragon = Infinite red and storm count. You fetch Bonus Round on top of the deck with Mystical Tutor and cast it, resulting in two active bonus round effects for the round. You now cast Pyretic Ritual, it gets copied twice from the active bonus round effects, let the two copies resolve to gain six red mana and respond to the original with a buybacked Reiterate, which also gets copied twice. The copies and the original resolve, giving you nine red mana with Reiterate returning to your hand, you keep repeating this any number of times

Eye of the Storm (alternatively Thousand-Year Storm, not as good in this deck)

So this big baby boy has become the bread and butter of this deck and the bane of my opponents. As mentioned before, you need to exile a Turnabout or something that generates you mana, like Mana Geyser or Brass's Bounty or even a Frantic Search due to its land untap feature. You'll also need to exile a dig spell like Impulse the moment you play it as this is going to be the moment you're aiming for a win. Whenever you cast a spell you'll gain a storm count which will trigger Aetherflux Reservoir (and Sphinx-Bone Wand, Aria of Flame or any effects similar to these if you're running them), the spell is then exiled and is recast again from the Eye, which generates a new storm count and new triggers

When you exile a mana generator and a dig spell under the Eye you'll ensure that you should in 99% of the cases have enough mana and can always keep digging for new fodder to exile under the Eye which will make ridiculous amounts of storm counts as well as mana very very fast. Eventually you'll find some type storm spell like Ignite Memories or a tutor to get them. Alternatively you can exile a Lightning Bolt with a Bonus Round under the Eye so that the bolts keep getting more and more copies and win from bolt copies. You don't have to copy and cast all the exiled cards so if you have like 30x Bonus Round effects and have exiled a Wheel of Fortune under the Eye, you don't need to cast it

Here's a basic, simple guide for Eye of the Storm to help understand it:

  • It's turn 5 and you have three mountains and two islands, you have just casted Show and Tell putting Eye of the Storm on the table for free using two mountains and an island

  • You cast Desperate Ritual with the the remaining island and the remaining mountain, you gain a storm count, the eye triggers and exiles the ritual. It then copies and casts the copy giving you an additional storm count and the three red mana when it resolves

  • You use some of that red mana to play a Faithless Looting, you gain a storm count, it gets exiled and the Eye casts Desperate Ritual and Faithless Looting. You gain more red mana, draw 2, discard 2 while your storm count increases by two

  • You now have more red mana and are able to play a Mana Geyser, you gain a storm count, it gets exiled and the Eye casts Desperate Ritual, Faithless Looting and Mana Geyser, giving you more mana, and additional three to your storm count

And so on it goes, each of these spell casts from your hand and from the Eye trigger Aetherflux Reservoir and all other possible permanents that have a wording like (Whenever you cast an instant or sorcery) as well. So if at the beginning of this example you had a reservoir on the table you would have gained 55 life:

Another great thing to remember for Eye of the Storm is that cards like Past in Flames that would exile your cards permanently can be instead exiled under the Eye, getting very high value from Past in Flames

Proteus Staff

So with Melek being your only creature, a staff activation means you get to literally stack your deck to win. Ramping into Melek and digging for Proteus Staff or a tutor that can get it is the easiest and fastest win you can get approximately 99% of the time. Here's a simple sample pile to get you started. Starting from cast order (first card is on top of your library and rest are under it):

Proteus Staff is such a good tool because it enables you to win fast instead of just advancing slowly through storm, resolving spells and crawling to a large enough storm count. You can clearly demonstrate the pile you're going to get and at that point you can ask if anyone has any countermagic or if you just won the game. Or better yet, design piles that would stay resilient through a counterspell or two or a removal of Melek by focusing on the instant speed cards, Quicken or more rituals that help you recast Melek if it's killed during the combo

Bonus Round

If you cast this from the top of your library all of your future instants and sorceries on that turn get copied twice, the cards cast from the top of your library will be copied thrice when combined with Melek

If on top of that, you get Bonus Round back with something like Flood of Recollection, Call to Mind or Mystic Retrieval and cast it once more, the new Bonus Round gets copied twice from the existing Bonus Round effects. Resulting in five active bonus round effects

By recasting it from Eye of the Storm it gets cumulatively larger each iteration. Here I'll show you:

  • You cast Bonus Round off your library, netting you two bonus round effects for the turn, each spell now gets copied twice

  • You play Eye of the Storm and flashback Bonus Round with Past in Flames so that it gets exiled under the Eye instead of just exiled, before the exile happens however the Bonus Rounds resolved earlier will create two copies of it to the stack and on resolve you will have four active instances of Bonus Round

  • The Eye automatically casts the Bonus Round you just flashbacked, it gets copied four times, the copies resolve and the Eye cast resolves resulting in nine total bonus round effects for the turn. Casting more spells under the eye makes it go even higher and higher to ridiculous quantities

Count them with your fingers if it makes it seems difficult to understand at first

  1. 2 Bonus Rounds - (Cast from top and copied with Melek)

  2. 4 Bonus Rounds - (Flashbacked and exiled under your new Eye of the Storm, it doesn't get calculated in but the two copies of it do)

  3. 9 Bonus Rounds - (The Eye casts Bonus Round and when it enters the stack it will get copied four times, you apply these total of five new resolutions to the pre-existing four bonus round effects)

  4. 19 Bonus Rounds - (You cast any spell, the Eye recasts it and Bonus Round, each get copied nine times, the copies resolve, the eye recasts resolve, you add these 10 new resolves of Bonus Round to the pre-existing 9 instances of it)

  5. 39 Bonus Rounds - (You cast any spell again, the Eye recasts it, the previous spell and the Bonus Round, each get copied 19 times, the copies resolve, the originals cast from the eye resolve, you add these 20 new resolves to the pre-existing 19 instances of Bonus Round)

And so on. With Bonus Round even Lightning Bolt becomes highly lethal, pretty much anything becomes highly lethal, even Gut Shot. Cantrips might kill you if you create too many instances of Bonus Round and end up drawing your whole deck by mistake, but casting a Quicken might be good because you can let them resolve one by one and put some hard sorceries under the eye to kill everyone before you deck yourself

Bonus Round and Lightning Bolt piles in tandem with Proteus Staff

This is a Proteus Staff pile that kills the table without the use of Ignite Memories, Aetherflux Reservoir or Eye of the Storm or Mana Geyser

  • Rite of Flame + Desperate Ritual + Bonus Round + Seething Song + Reiterate + Lightning Bolt

  • Cast Rite of Flame for and get 4x

  • Use 2x for Desperate Ritual and get get 6x (8x total in pool)
  • Use red mana to cast Bonus Round, gain two active instances of BR, followed by Seething Song which gets copied thrice, once for Melek and twice from the Bonus Round instances, let only the copies resolve, 17x in pool]
  • Respond to the original Seething Song on stack with a Reiterate buybacked, it gets copied thrice as well so you get another 20x and Reiterate goes to your hand on resolve
  • Each time you cast Reiterate buybacked from your hand from this point onwards, due to the Bonus Round effects you get 15x in your pool and Reiterate comes back to your hand. You can make infinite red, infinite storm and copy lightning bolt infinitely with this setup just like you'd do with Mana Geyser

We can technically do the same without Reiterate but it becomes a lot harder and while the number isn't infinite it's high enough

  • Rite of Flame + Desperate Ritual + Bonus Round + Seething Song + Reverberate + Brass's Bounty + Lightning Bolt + Flood of Recollection + Mystic Retrieval

  • Once again, cast your opening rituals, get mana

  • Cast Bonus Round, respond to Bonus Round with Seething Song, let it and the copy resolve for 10x
  • Cast Reverberate targeting Bonus Round on the stack, let everything resolve for 4x instances of Bonus Round
  • Cast Brass's Bounty, it gets copied five times (4 from Round, 1 from Melek), you need the treasures to get access to blue mana
  • Cast Lightning Bolt and deal 18 damage to someone's face (5 copies)
  • Sac two treasures for blue to cast Flood of Recollection. Get Ritual, Bonus, Seething, Reverberate, Brass and Bolt all back
  • Sac treasures to recast Ritual, Seething Song, Brass to get your mana back and new treasures
  • Recast Bonus Round from your hand, it gets copied four times due to the earlier four resolves of it, let the copies resolve (8 instances of bonus round) and while the original is on the stack, Reverberate it. Reverberate gets copied eight times, let the copies resolve (16 instances of bonus round), let reverberate and the original bonus round resolve. (18 instances of bonus round)
  • Bolt people to the face for 57 damage (original + 18 copies)
  • Sac four treasures to cast Mystic Retrieval, get 19 spells of your choice back
  • Recast all of your rituals, remember that they get copied 19 times
  • Bonus Round: Electric Boogaloo, it gets 19 copies on the stack. Let the copies resolve for 38 instances of Bonus Round, respond to the original with Reverberate, it gets 38 copies, let them resolve, 76 instances of bonus round, let the original reverberate and the original bonus round resolve, 78 instances of bonus round
  • Bolt the table to the face for 237 damage (original + 78 copies)
  • Flashback Mystic Retrieval, do it all once more
  • Bonus Rounds, copied for 78 times, copies resolve, reverberate, copied for 156 times, everything resolves, 158 instances
  • Bolt table for 477 (original + 158 copies)

Foolproofing your piles

You can add Gitaxian Probe + Eye of the Storm + Aetherflux Reservoir + Turnabout or (Frantic Search + 4 indifferent cards) or Brass's Bounty + Show and Tell + Past in Flames to the end of your piles. Casting probe with your life and drawing Eye and Reservoir. Then proceed to either cast Show and Tell to cheat them out for free or use Brass's Bounty, Turnabout or Frantic Search to generate the needed blue mana if you need it. You can then use Past in Flames as the last card in the pile so that you can start it all over from your graveyard again

If you decide to run Boseiju, Who Shelters All you can get your geysers and bounties out unhindered so that even if Melek gets killed you have the mana to recast him and continue casting your piles

Some times you hit up cards in the right combinations or can't exactly win a game, or some cards get removed from you. You can still setup some pretty nice plays and I'll demonstrate this with Bonus Round + Mana Geyser + Mystic Retrieval, it really speaks volumes about the strength of Mana Geyser also. Let's assume in this example that you have three opponents with five tapped lands each

You need

End result if you calculated your manas correctly, a pool with 170x, a storm count of 8 and all of your instances and sorceries are going to be copied seven times for the turn

If you replace Mana Geyser with Seething Song in this example you'd need a lot more open mana with a setup of that results in 13x at the end

If you replace Mana Geyser with Jeska's Will in this example and if you had Melek on the field and an opponent had five cards in their hand the result is the same as with Seething Song but you'd also have 18 cards in exile that you could play that turn

So like previously mentioned, you can go to infinite with Reiterate and any of the red rituals as long as you have some Bonus Round effects active. Even Rite of Flame if you have four bonus instances

I'm going to give you a terrible combo, the only reason for its existence is to be super mean and make sure no one plays commander with you again, or they'll buy a digital timer for all of your turns in your future games in revenge. I give you this knowledge with that disclaimer. This is a combo that utilizes Mana Geyser and Reiterate but doesn't go infinite with them, just generates a stupidly large number that takes a lot of time to execute

The pile you create with Proteus Staff while Melek, Izzet Paragon is on the field goes as follows, from top down and casted in that order:

What's required:

Storm 1

Storm 2

Storm 3

Storm 4

Storm 5

Storm 6

  • Cast Mana Geyser, it gains the Melek copy and the two Bonus Round effects on the stack

Storm 7

  • Let the copies resolve, gaining 45x assuming a situation where you have three opponents with five tapped lands each. Respond to the original Geyser on stack with a non-buybacked Reiterate, gaining Melek + BR copies. Gain 60x, let original Geyser resolve, gain 15x

Storm 8

  • Cast Brass's Bounty, it gains Melek + BR copies. Assuming you have five lands on the battlefield you gain 20x treasure tokens

Storm 9

Storm 10

  • Cast Bonus Round again, it gains two copies from the existing BR effects, let the copies resolve for four active BR effects

Storm 11 - 30

  • Respond to the original BR with a buybacked Reiterate, it gets copied for four times, after resolving you'll have 9 active bonus round effects, do it again, it gets copied 9 times, 19 active bonus round effects. Do it again 18 more times (20 in total), and let all copies resolve each time before responding again to the original bonus round on the stack. Doing this takes 20 times in total takes 120 red mana so use up your pool and four from your remaining treasures. You will end up with 5 242 880 BR effects, here's the math:
  • 1 (reiterate) + 4 (amount of bonus round copies on the stack) + 4 (amount of resolved bonus rounds this turn = 9
  • 1+9+9=19
  • 1+19+19=39
  • 1+39+39=79
  • 1+79+79=159
  • 1+159+159=319
  • 1+319+319=639
  • 1+639+639=1279
  • 1+1279+1279=2559
  • 1+2559+2559=5119
  • 1+5119+5119=10239
  • 1+10239+10239=20479
  • 1+20479+20479=40959
  • 1+40959+40959=81919
  • 1+81919+81919=163839
  • 1+163839+163839=327679
  • 1+327679+327679=655359
  • 1+655359+655359=1310719
  • 1+1310719+1310719=2621439
  • 1+2621439+2621439=5242879+let the last original one resolve

You now control 12x treasure tokens, have no mana in pool, the storm count is at 30 (not that it matters) and each instant and sorcery spell that are being cast this turn will be copied 5 242 880 times. Bonus Round is in the graveyard, you have Mana Geyser and Reiterate in hand with a Mystic Retrieval waiting to get flashbacked. You can either torture the table for more and cast Geyser, flashback Retrieval and get everything from your grave back to your hand or cast bolt and make five million copies of it

If your (at this point) ex-friends have not yet died from old age or if they haven't left to seek a more fulfilling reason for their lives, if there's still that one blue player just waiting with a Flusterstorm in his or her hands you probably should keep that Reiterate up just in case

Unfortunately Bonus Round exists for all players so if you're such a dumbnut that you perform this with the blue player having his mana open, he unfortunately gets to copy spells five million times too. In those cases you'd need to change up your pile a bit to prepare for the shitstorm that's going to be the counter war you two are going to commence, here's to hoping for the best. (Add Quicken and pray)

By putting the five million copies of Quicken on the stack, you can let them resolve one by one and cast pretty much all sorceries you want at instant speed while slowly decking yourself. DO NOT CAST Jeska's Will OR YOU WILL DIE

Storm pile

Start by casting Quicken off the top, let its copy resolve drawing the indifferent land card, your next sorcery has flash. While the other Quicken is still on the stack respond to it by flashing out a Rite of Flame, let the copies of it resolve, keep responding to the first Quicken with Pyretic Ritual and Seething Song getting you even more to work with. Cast Reverberate targeting the first Quicken that's still on the stack. Let one copy of it resolve and draw an indifferent card, cast Mana Geyser with flash, let its copy resolve. If you for some reason need more red mana and keep responding to the original copy with a buybacked Reiterate for infinite storm and infinite red, let geyser and reiterate resolve and there's still the first Quicken on the stack as well as one copy of it from a Reverberate, let the reverberated one resolve drawing you an indifferent card so that you can flash out Ignite Memories or Grapeshot at instant speed

Lightning Bolt pile

Lightning Bolt pile without Mana Geyser + Reiterate infinite combo

Cast Quicken, let a copy of it resolve, draw an indifferent card, cast Rite of Flame and let it and the copy resolve, respond to quicken by casting Pyretic Ritual and Seething Song and let them resolve. Cast Reverberate targeting the original quicken, let one copy of it resolve drawing indifferent card and cast Bonus Round. Let the second quicken copy from the reverberate resolve drawing you an indifferent card and then cast Brass's Bounty which now gets copied once from Melek and twice from active Bonus Round effects to a total of four resolutions, you need it for the blue mana of Mystic Retrieval or alternatively you can use Frantic Search but this requires the start of this combo to have one extra blue mana open. Let the original quicken resolve drawing you an indifferent card and then cast Mystic Retrieval and respond to it with Lightning Bolt

After the four copies of lightning bolt have hit the grave and mystic retrieval is fetching you your four cards from your grave get back Bonus Round, Quicken, Reverberate and Brass's Bounty. Start by casting Quicken and keep letting the copies resolve one at a time while responding to them with your sorceries that now have flashback as well as instants, first fill your mana resources back up with bounty and cast bonus round which gets copied for 2x pre-existing bonus round effects, let the two copies resolve (4 bonus round effects in total), respond to the original with reverberate which now gets copies for 4 times, let all 4x copies and the original reverberate as well as the original bonus round resolve for a total of 10 bonus round effects. You still have a quicken or two in the stack so let them resolve so that quicken enters the grave again, flashback mystic retrieval with the quicken flash and get 10 spells back from your grave, get the usual suspects back so quicken, bounty, bonus round, reverberate and bolt. Get your mana up, recast bonus round which gets copied ten times, let the ten copies resolve, cast reveberate targeting original bonus round which gets copied twenty times and let everything resolve for 42 active bonus round effects and cast lightning bolt and copy it 42 times

So I can give you some other interactions with some cards from the maybeboard that have once been in etc. This is a crazy rambling corner

Passionate Archaeologist allows you to create very nice mono red piles with Proteus Staff. After generating infinite or near infinite red you're able to dump it all into Commune with Lava and then use Archaeologist to burn off everyone with Melek on the table. It also works well with Mizzix's Mastery by making it potentially lethal as casting the copied cards happen from exile, thus triggering Archaeologist

With the release of Underworld Breach, you can create new combos with Bonus Round as you could theoretically add it as a secondary pseudolike Past in Flames to your decklist. It being an enchantment is a downside as you can't tutor it that well (except with cards that have transmute like Muddle the Mixture, or with something like Long-Term Plans) which is its obvious downside. However, what reach enables you to do is keep spamming cards for multiple resolutions as long as you have fodder to exile in your grave instead of dumping them straight into exile like with Past. Ignite Memories and pretty much all storm spells become very good even at lower storm counts if you have a way to generate enough mana due to the fact that you can cast them more than once, which then trigger storm again. The traditional Bonus Round + Mana Geyser etc, loops do not require multiple casts of Mystic Retrieval as you can substitute this in, if you play or want to play Epic Experiment or you've dumped some rocks like Mana Crypt in your graveyard via the various effects like Cathartic Reunion, Faithless Looting, Fact or Fiction you can dig them out back to the field with little effort which was previously impossible to do as there was no graveyard interaction to cards that weren't instants or sorceries. Truly a great card which has great potential, I implore you to test it out. This is pretty much the closest thing to a Yawgmoth's Will we'll be getting for a while

Adding Time Warp, Expropriate and other extra turn effects would also make this more powerful

You are fragile to aggro and 1v1 isn't the deck's biggest forte if you're running against a fast clock. If the Krenko player has you in sights, you're in for a rough time

Also as a personal touch, I don't really prefer to run extra turn effects. If you're inclined to do so, I reccomend ditching some cantrips to run cards like Time Warp to make the deck even stronger

Gaddock Teeg, Ruric Thar, the Unbowed and noncreature spell limiting cards are all huge logs in your cogs and you're in for a rough time. Stax effects in general hurt

Gaddock Teeg is still a doable matchup if they don't have a Rule of Law and/or a Null Rod / Stony Silence similar effect on the field due to lower curve that you can kill people without going above CMC 4, especially when you can Show and Tell out Eye of the Storm, Aetherflux Reservoir or Sphinx-Bone Wand. Artifact nulling disables your option to go off with Proteus Staff so everything gets a little tricky, but still way more doable than with Ruric Thar, the Unbowed

Nekusar, the Mindrazer really taxes your constant cantripping and you might just end up getting wheeled to death before you can combo off, also Grixis colors and UB in general with cards like Painful Quandary just make it a pain to even try. Naturally same applies in rakdos colors and in red, where there are effects like Kaervek the Merciless and Zo-Zu the Punisher groupslug decklists that run Eidolon of the Great Revel etc

Like in burn, hexproofed players and damage prevention like Glacial Chasm is a large problem, chasm doesn't protect against decking your opponent with a Blue Sun's Zenith or Temporal Fissure so that's always an option

February 1st, 2019

Testing out with switching out larger and slower CMC cards for rocks or cheaper value cards even if they have good value to try to combo earlier

July 2019

My ideas from february were garbage, but I did switch out Firemind's Foresight, Primal Amulet   and Reset to more cantrips, I might try switching Thought Scour with Cathartic Reunion

February 2021

This will probably my last update on Melek, I'm happy with the deck as it is and have no drive or intention to change it any further, you can keep your eyes on new and interesting UR instants and sorceries that are released after this point to make changes that suit you, or suit the deck better if more optimal cards get released. I'm returning to work on UR storm only if another legendary creature gets released that rivals my interest in Melek and Mizzix. Newest interesting variation of this type of spellslinger would be Elsha of the Infinite which synergizes better with rocks than only instants and sorceries, you the reader might want to try brewing her as well

April 2021

Well scratch that about being happy with the list. I just had a game where I drew Epic Experiment into my opener. I don't like this card in my opening hand, it's a great card. It works well in Melek decks, but it's just not the right card in this particular deck at this stage of its life where it tries to be a more optimized list

It's a great card, it's fun as heck. It's just not the right tool this list needs right now. I'm switching it out to a cantrip or something, it really doesn't make a difference as long the CMC is 1-2

I took a Fire Diamond off my shelf and slapped it in, fine for now. (Might replace it with a Talisman later, just to be sure). Swear this is my last edit, cross my heart. Until Wizards print a Pyretic Ritual for blue mana

Actually, screw Fire Diamond, screw Talisman of Creativity and screw Arcane Signet! (although I should probably replace Prismatic Lens with the signet one of these days at least). What I'm putting as a replacement for Epic Experiment is going to be a Rite of Flame that's right (edit: and it was the right call)

October 2021

Some final tuning. I took out Mana Flare for its volatility and put in Solve the Equation. Replaced Muddle the Mixture with Thrill of Possibility, Temple of Epiphany with City of Brass and Izzet Boilerworks with Training Center

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Revision 32 See all

(1 year ago)

+1 Relic of Legends main
-1 Worn Powerstone main
Top Ranked
Date added 9 years
Last updated 1 year
Legality

This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)

4 - 0 Mythic Rares

29 - 0 Rares

20 - 0 Uncommons

29 - 0 Commons
Cards 100
Avg. CMC 2.42
Tokens Treasure
Folders cool, 1, Storm, EDH Decks, Inspiration, Melek, Melek, cEDH, decks for inspo/reference, Izzet Inspiration
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