I was interested in creating a competitive list for Ral, Storm Conduit with Expansion / Explosion as the signature spell. In general, this is a combo list, seeking to combo out with it's commander and signature spell, or with Underworld Breach combos. The fallback to both of those would be controlling the game with Ral and using Exansion as a value spell, grinding the game that way.
The main gameplan is as follows:
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to cast Ral, Storm Conduit
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Use the -2 of Ral, Storm Conduit
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Cast any of the copy spells here (ie. Dual Strike). Ral will copy it, and we want the copy to resolve.
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Once the copy of the copy spell resolves, maintain priority and cast the Expansion portion of Expansion / Explosion, which gets copied by the copy of the copy spell.
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This copy of Expansion will target the original copy of Expansion. The copy of Expansion creates a copy of Expansion. Repeat step 5 until desired result. (ie. Ral, Storm Conduit copied Dual Strike, the copy of Dual Strike resolves, you maintain priority casting the Expansion portion of Expansion / Explosion targeting Dual Strike, the copy of Dual Strike copies the Expansion portion of Expansion / Explosion. The copy of Expansion will target the original Expansion and make a new copy of it. This creates an infinite loop of copies, and Ral kills your opponents with his passive.)
If that fails, there is an Underworld Breach line using Brain Freeze and You've Been Caught Stealing:
Prerequisite: Have Ral, Storm Conduit on the battlefield, have at least three opponents.
Step 1: The easiest start would be using his -2 and casting the aforementioned You've Been Caught Stealing using the create treasures option. Ral, Storm Conduit creates a copy and his passive triggers twice. Use these triggers to damage two separate opponents.
Step 2: Let the copy of You've Been Caught Stealing resolve and maintain priority here to use the treasures (from the copy) to cast a Brain Freeze. Storm triggers and Ral, Storm Conduit triggers, making two more copies of Brain Freeze and dealing damage to any remaining opponents (the more opponents you have, the more treasures You've Been Caught Stealing can create).
Step 3: Have all the Brain Freezes target yourself and resolve the You've Been Caught Stealing you had on the stack originally. Ideally you have more than three opponents and create more than three treasures.
Step 4: Cast Underworld Breach. This gives cards in your graveyard escape, with the escape cost being to exile three cards in addition to other costs (alternatively, you can do this at Step 2 and have more storm triggers on Brain Freeze, proceeding with the rest of the combo).
Step 5: Escape You've Been Caught Stealing, exiling three cards not named Brain Freeze. Create at least three treasures. Ral, Storm Conduit deals a damage to one of your opponents.
Step 6: Escape Brain Freeze using treasures, exiling three cards not named You've Been Caught Stealing. Brain Freeze creates at least four copies of itself, you target yourself until your library is almost empty. Ral, Storm Conduit triggers at least four times, dealing more damage to opponents.
Step 7: Once your library is nearly empty, you can start targeting you opponents with Brain Freeze if they aren't already dead with Ral, Storm Conduit's triggers. This will empty their library and Ral, Storm Conduit triggers a bunch of times, dealing a lot of damage.
Things to note with the Underworld Breach combo:
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Fragility; it dies to any Krosan Grip effects, any Rest in Peace effects, well placed counterspells (ie. the You've Been Caught Stealing getting countered), and can't even work unless you have at least 3 opponents to deal damage to
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This combo can also be achieved with Dockside Extortionist and Quasiduplicate or Cackling Counterpart, but is even more fragile and requires more cards
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Combo can also be achieved with Hullbreacher and any Windfall effects, same issues as 2
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Cards like Xorn and Goldspan Dragon expedite the process and makes the need for opponents lower, but those die to removal and require slots in an already pretty tight list
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If all else fails, you can cast a Thassa's Oracle either from hand or graveyard (with Underworld Breach on the battlefield)
