U/R Unstorm (w/ Gifts Ungiven)
Credit goes to Pascal Wagner for creating the and piloting the deck. Check here for some of his gameplay and check here for Pascal Wagner's original decklist.
Obligatory Hook Line
Does this deck...
- Produce infinite mana? Check
- Win through infinite life? Check
- Blind your opponent with dozens of Lightning Bolts? Check
- Win at instant speed? Does it spawn infinite elemental tokens? Does it play with the card Gifts Ungiven? Check, Check, and Check!
If any of the above statements appeal to you, please feel free to check the deck out!
I initially found out about this deck when Pascal Wagner found some success with it at MKM Series Rome. I adopted the full list to try it out, found a lot of things to like in this deck, and decided to add my own twist to it.
In general, the deck plays a lot like a U/R control deck with cantrips in the early turns. The goal isn't to combo out as soon as possible, but to maintain a stable board state until you are able to safely perform the combo. You'll be burning the opponents' creatures with Lightning Bolt, countering their threats and gaining tempo with Remand, all the while trying to put counters onto Pyromancer Ascension.
My list is slightly different from Pascal Wagner's as it makes use of Gifts Ungiven and Snapcaster Mage in place of Cryptic Commands and Visions from Beyond. The reasoning to this is to increase your probability of finding spells that you need with Gifts packages, and being able to recur anything dumped into the graveyard with Snapcaster Mage + Noxious Revival. Playing the Gifts Ungiven package also changes the sideboard by playing differently named cards that perform similar functions to allow yourself some flexibility when choosing Gifts packages (e.g. Wear // Tear and Disenchant).
I jokingly told my friend that Noxious Revival is the secret MVP of this deck. Noxious Revival is what makes this deck work by functioning as a Demonic Tutor, your primary combo-kill, graveyard protection, graveyard disruption, and putting counters on Ascension incredibly quickly. As you play this deck, you will realize the importance of this card.
Win Conditions:
1. With an active Pyromancer Ascension, you can create an infinite mana and infinite mill loop:
- Graveyard contains Manamorphose and Noxious Revival
- Hand contains Manamorphose and Noxious Revival
- Cast Noxious Revival, targeting Manamorphose and Noxious Revival in the graveyard
- Cast Manamorphose to draw the two cards you just put into your graveyard
- Repeat the loop as many times as needed
What this loop does is create 1 extra colour of mana per loop. Repeating this loop creates infinite mana.
- With infinite mana, perform a similar loop by casting Noxious Revival targeting Thought Scour and Noxious Revival in your graveyard
- With Thought Scour added to the loop, you may mill your opponent to death
- There may be different variations to this loop without the use of infinite mana
2. With an active Pyromancer Ascension, Lightning Bolt to the face
This is often your secondary win-con. There are many ways to win with Lightning Bolt, especially when each cast is copied by Ascension. You can rebuy your copies of Lightning Bolt with Noxious Revival and, with my version of this list, rebuy it with Snapcaster Mage. This is a very viable win-con, and happens more than you think.
3. After sideboard, Young Pyromancer and elemental tokens.
This is your usually your tertiary or primary win-con depending on the matchup. With the amount of cantrips and cheap spells in the deck, you can often create an army of elementals to run over your opponent.
Some neat interactions include:
Rebuying spells in your graveyard with Noxious Revival + Manamorphose at instant speed (build your own Snapcaster). You'll often find yourself doing this when you need to remand an important spell. Simply target your Remand with Noxious Revival, Cast Manamorphose for UR, draw your Remand and counter
Rebuying destroyed Pyromancer Ascensions / Young Pyromancer. Abrupt Decay is your worst nightmare, especially in game 1 when Pyromancer Ascension is your primary win-con. Noxious Revival allows you to rebuy it.
Protecting your spells in your graveyard with Noxious Revival. I found myself doing this every now and then when I needed to rebuy + protect a Young Pyromancer or Lightning Bolt from a Scavenging Ooze.
Disrupting your opponents' graveyard shenanigans. Noxious Revival can be used to hose Reanimator and other graveyard strategies by placing their targeted card on top of their library. Bonus points if you catch your opponent off-guard in response to their fetchland.
Remanding your own spells. With an active Pyromancer Ascension, you can cast Remand to return a spell you control on the stack. For example, if you need to deal 9 damage with an active Ascension, Lightning Bolt, and Remand, you can cast Lightning Bolt while letting the copy resolve. Remand the original Lightning Bolt to your hand, and recast for a total of 9 damage.
Use Remand as a cantrip in response to a spell on the stack. When you or an opponent casts a spell, you can choose to use Remand as a cantrip by having the copied Remand counter your original Remand. If you have infinite mana, you can repeat this loop until you draw what you need.
Thought Scour to mill your opponent when he keeps his scry on top.
Quickly put 2 counters on Pyromancer Ascension. With a Gitaxian Probe in the graveyard, and a Gitaxian Probe + Noxious Revival in hand, in response to casting Probe, Noxious Revival the Probe in your graveyard to the top of your library, redraw it, and Probe again
Many, many, many choices for Gifts Ungiven packages. My mainboard and sideboard is intended to maximize Gifts Ungiven. You'll often make a pile containing Snapcaster Mage + Noxious Revival + Any 2 spells you need, forcing your opponent to gift you 2 or 3 cards.
Sideboard Tech:
Please keep in mind that many of these cards are one-ofs due to the nature of Gifts Ungiven. The cards chosen must be named differently, so I've opted to try a silver bullets approach to the sideboard.
These cards should buy you some time against aggro to find your combo pieces
Some additional removal against Affinity and spot artifact / enchantment removal
A general counterspell suite against control, combo, and Rock decks. It's definitely possible that I should play more Swan Songs as it is great in a larger variety of matchups
Your powerful alternate win-con. Many people won't expect you to board in creatures after seeing none in your mainboard
This is your singleton answer to problem cards such as Leyline of Sanctity, Rest in Peace, tokens, etc. Also happens to be great against Twin
Final Note:
And there you have it. I hope you enjoyed reading about U/R Unstorm. I am by no means an expert of this deck, and the changes I've made to the original decklist are for my testing purposes. The sideboard may also need work and I am very open to suggestions. Please let me know and comment if you have any thoughts. Cheers!
