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YIDRIS 90%: Storm Amalgam [[Primer]]

Commander / EDH Combo Competitive Four Color Multiplayer Primer Storm

Almost_A_Wizard

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Sorcery (23)

Instant (16)

Land (29)

Creature (7)

Enchantment (3)

Commander (1)

Commander: foil Yidris, Maelstrom Wielder

Artifact (20)

Planeswalker (1)

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So why are we using Yidris to pilot a competitive storm deck instead of other popular options like Jeleva or Thrasios/X? Well he does a few different things for our game plan; Yidris is an enabler, he turns everything we cast into a pseudo cantrip. Our cards transform into more cards while providing a beneficial effect. Storm is about walking a fine line of managing all of our resources to ensure we can cast enough spells to combo kill the table; Yidris just makes that job much easier.

In some fringe cases where we have no other way to win outside of commander damage, having a 5/4 with Trample can be just what we need.

In theory, this deck seems fairly simple to play. Yidris comes down and starts bashing heads, we cast a bunch of fun spells and then we win. Simple right? Well, not exactly, it does have a bit of a learning curve to get the hang of everything. We can pilot the deck with or without our commander. Yidris merely enables the storm, he doesnt contain it. Preferably, we want to use our commander and his ability to grant cascade to the spells we cast to out value everyone else and combo kill our opponents in one big flashy turn.

How exactly do we do that you ask? Well, Johnnies and Jennies, we start by ramping. In the early turns of the game, our primary task is to allocate the resources for the late game. Over 20% of our deck is dedicated to producing mana. Powering out cheap and efficient mana rocks on the first few turns can be used to accelerate us far beyond our opponents. Next we should focus on setting up for our big combo turn. Our deck runs a fair amount of tutors to allow constant access to the combo cards we need, while wheel effects can be used to refill our hand after dumping all our ramp pieces.

We should slam Yidris as soon as we can and start cracking face. Getting in for even one point of damage is the main objective before trying to storm our way to victory. In a multiplayer game, its likely that someone will be open and Yidris can get in.

The combo turn can be puzzling sometimes. This is when everything has to come together. Our storm can be a tad more erratic than traditional variations due to the random nature of the cascade ability. This is why its important to have a good understanding of our curve. Knowing what kind of spell youd cast for free off the cascade trigger can lead to some explosive plays out of nowhere. Managing our resources is the main priority; we can overextend and fail to come back from it because of not having enough mana or cards. The suite of tutors at our disposal helps ensure we always have access to what we need, along with many ways to use our graveyard to our advantage.

Now how do we deal with disruptions or Yidris being hated out? Well because of being cut off from counter spells, we need to play around disruptions by striping it from our opponents with targeted discard or hiding under the protection of Defense Grid. If our opponents are dead set on not leading Yidris resolve or get in for damage, then we can try to use that to our advantage and build up a situation where it becomes pointless to try to deal with Yidris because were going to combo off without him.

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Lets face it, the more tuned a deck gets, the more run of the mill it becomes. This deck is fairly optimized and is supposed to remain consistent each game. Each card we play has a specific job to accomplish for us. While some do more things than others, we are able to adjust to whats currently happening in game and hopefully bounce back if we get knocked down. Below we are going to discuss the individual card choices.
As with any combo deck that aims to be consistent, we have to run a few tutors to allow us to consistently get what we need. Some of the tutor effects we run search for specific things or are only used to break the singleton nature of the format and only get one particular card.
  • Demonic Tutor
    • The best tutor we run. Its cheap, efficient and gets us whatever we need at any given time. Early game it can be used to get whatever ramp or card draw were missing and in the late game it can grab us a win condition like Aetherflux Reservoir.
  • Diabolic Intent
    • While its situational, its still another unconditional tutor for 2 mana. What a deal!? Now the additional cost is rather strange with a deck with less than 10 creatures, however we can offset that by either just sacrificing Yidris post-combat or a mana dork thats not needed. In Magical Christmas Land, we would normally just want to just sacrifice one the many Zombies we acquire from Waste Not. Either way, its a powerful tutor.
  • Vampiric Tutor
    • Basically the third copy of Demonic Tutor, however it does lend itself to be more flexible as it is an instant. This can be used to grab what were missing at the end step of an opponents turn before we try to combo off, or it can be used to set up a sweet cascade for Yidris during our turn.
  • Imperial Seal
    • While strictly worse than Vamp Tutor, and strictly more expensive, it still grabs whatever we need for one mana. Now with the number draw spells we run, the top of the library at sorcery speed can be overlooked. The reason Seal extra sweet for us is that it can be used to set up a cascade with any card.
  • Mystical Tutor
    • While this tutor is limited to instants and sorceries, it does allow us access to most of our deck. It can be used to grab some of our big payoff cards at someones end step, cards like Ad Nauseam, Wheel of Fortune or Paradoxical Outcome. Its also similar to Vampiric and Seal as we can use it to set up some cascade shenanigans with our commander.
  • Tezzeret the Seeker
    • Tutor? Yeah. Tez is primarily in here to fetch up a nigh-uncounterable Aetherflux Reservoir or utility artifact. However, he does have some added value in his +1 ability as he can also function as a ramp spell by untapping two of our many rocks. Hurts off Ad Nauseam, but overall really good.
  • Merchant Scroll
    • Probably our most situational tutor in the deck, barely having 9 targets, but the cards we can grab can be game changing. Usually we want to fetch Paradoxical Outcome and start to combo, but getting a Dramatic Reversal to untap and ramp us or a Chain of Vapor to bounce a STAX piece like Rule of Law is perfectly fine too.
To cast a lot of spells, we need a lot of mana right? Well, we have a dedicated around 20% of our spells to just producing metric crapton of mana. This where some of the most broken cards ever printed come into play. We want to drop as much fast mana as possible before anyone else to make sure we can hit our combo turn during the desired third to fifth turn.
  • Mox Diamond, Mox Opal, Chrome Mox
    • These 3 serve the same purpose, they come down for free and produce colored mana. While Mox Diamond and Chrome Mox have some restrictions on how you play them, they are zero cmc rocks. They are great for cascade because we can hit them off a Brainstorm or Ponder, and they are great in our opening hand because it will lead to some explosive early turns. If were going off with Paradox Engine they are essential for their colored mana production so we can cast all our spells without caring about being specific with how we tap. For some Spicy Tech, you can return Yidris when you bounce stuff with Paradoxical Outcome and imprint him under Chrome Mox for access to all your mana.
  • Lotus Petal
    • Another 0 CMC mana rock thats more of a one shot effect to fix or ramp. It gives us another 0 CMC target for Cascade, and can be used to get out Yidris a turn early. Plus dings for zero off Ad Nauseam.
  • Lotus Bloom
    • Functionally a Black Lotus if cast off the top with cascade. Its not too useful outside of being a 0CMC cascade target because of only being able to cast it from our hand through suspend.
  • Lion's Eye Diamond
    • The mana backbone behind Legacy Storm. We want to use it in a similar way to get the most value. Our hand gets discarded a lot anyway from wheel effects, so cracking LED in response to that is a great way to get around its discard effect since were getting a new hand anyway. Also, to help build storm count, we can activate it in response to Yawgmoth's Will to get mana, then recast and activate again for even more value.
  • Mana Crypt
    • A great colorless mana accelerant with a negligible drawback. Its also at 0 CMC so It can come down turn 1 and lead to broken things. Overall great card.
  • Mana Vault, Sol Ring
    • These two are basically the same in this deck: cheap, mana positive rocks at 1 CMC. These are good early to help power out our more expensive artifacts and later on their 1 CMC helps us cascade into a predicted 0 CMC card like Ancestral Vision.
  • Grim Monolith
    • Basically an artifact ritual, it hurts less to tap early on to power something out over Mana Vault and if Tezzeret is hanging around he can untap it for ramp shenanigans. Fantastic Rock.
  • Birds of Paradise
    • An excellent evasive blocker and good color fixing early game.
  • Bloom Tender
    • Probably the best mana dork when you have a four color commander. Four extra colored mana during the combo turn is amazing.
  • Deathrite Shaman
    • One of the best dorks in the game. Fetchlands are likely to be seen in most decks we face, so finding a land to exile is easy. The added utility of graveyard hate is just a bonus. Dork with upside and able to cast for a single ? Yes please.
  • Dimir Signet, Izzet Signet, Simic Signet, Talisman of Dominance,Fellwar Stone
    • All of these 2 CMC rocks allow for blue color fixing as blue mana can be hard to come by sometimes. The signets can help filter early for Yidris and late game they combo well with Paradox Engine and our colorless mana positive rocks to give us the colored mana to cast spells even if we have no lands to use. The Talisman and Stone allow for some colored ramp without too high of a cost.
  • Manamorphose, Dark Ritual, Cabal Ritual
    • All of these spells do the exact same thing for the deck, a one shot of extra mana. They add a lot more to the deck during the combo turn if they have been granted cascade as ritual cantrips seem pretty broken. Manamorphose can steal games if youre stuck needing that last bit of colored mana to finish everyone off.
  • Baral, Chief of Compliance
    • While his second ability is rather useless outside of a fringe case with Pyroblast, his less color intensive cost reduction effect makes him a better Goblin Electromancer. There are 18 spells that can be reduced by Barals effect, while that may not seem like much, it makes chaining spells much smother. Four Mana Ad Nauseam?
  • Dramatic Reversal
    • This is a very situational card, but its still a strong player in the deck. It can, at best, give us a monumental increase in mana depending on the number of our nonland mana sources and at absolute worst, give our commander pseudo-vigilance.
Drawing cards is arguably the best feeling during a game of Magic. If we have all the mana we could ever want, but with a hand of 2 lands, were gonna have a bad time. Most of our card draw comes with additional upsides to help move our combo process along. If we dont have what we need, drawing a bunch cards is a good way to get it.
  • Wheel of Fortune
    • The original wheel effect. At 3 CMC its super cheap for what you get out of it. Play all the other spells in your hand, wheel, then play all the things again. It does some very nice things with we have our Waste Not out. Sometimes draw seven turns into draw 12 cards and get a bunch Zombies and mana.
  • Windfall
    • While similar in roles to Wheel of Fortune, this one has the added benefit of potentially drawing us more than 7. It is more dependent on everyones hand size, but is still a mainstay in the deck.
  • Whispering Madness
    • Not really the best card in the deck, but it puts in work. The cipher ability is most of the time irrelevant, the Windfall esque effect is greatly appreciated. Waste Not keeps this in the deck.
  • Wheel of Fate
    • Basically the same as Wheel of Fortune, however it has a 0 CMC. This can be used strategically to refill our hand when we cast a 1 CMC spell with cascade and unstrategically when we hit it on accident. Can be fed to Chrome Mox.
  • Ancestral Vision
    • As in the case of Lotus Bloom , this card is functionally like its Power 9 counterpart Ancestral Recall. It has a 0 CMC and can be cascaded into from a 1 drop. Also, if we have it in our opening hand, we can suspend it so we draw cards at the start of our combo turn. When card draw is no longer a concern, it can be given to Chrome Mox for Blue.
  • Ponder, Brainstorm, Preordain, Serum Visions
    • These all just technically just draw us a card and then set up the top of our library for cascade. They can also fix draw or be used in conjunction with a fetch land to shuffle away something we dont want, like a Lotus Bloom .
  • Dream Salvage
    • Now this is an odd one. Sometimes it doesnt draw you anything if you cascade into it, however, casting it after a wheel can get you 5-7 cards for one mana. Even just targeting someone with a Thoughtseize and then drawing a card afterwards seems pretty sweet.
  • Night's Whisper
    • We are gluttons for punishment. Two cards for two mana and two life is pretty good trade. Also its great with all the black mana we produce.
  • Paradoxical Outcome
    • While this is more of a combo card, it does count as card draw. In some situations, it can draw us more cards than Ad Nauseam by bouncing our numerous mana rocks, which we then recast for more Storm. It also targets each one, so we dont have to return all our artifacts like we do with Hurkyl's Recall.
  • Senseis Diving Top
    • Any deck that cares about whats on top of their library needs this little guy in their deck. Top allows for a bunch of filtering in what we draw as well as drawing us a card in a pinch.
  • Impulse
    • A good cantrip like card that lets us dig a little deeper for what we need. Its great for filtering cards away that we dont need on top. Its also an instant so we can do it on the end of someones turn in preparation for our turn to come. Very cheap for how many cards you get to look at.
  • Gitaxian Probe
    • Probe is a fun one. It technically costs us no mana, gives us a card and lets us see someones hand. (Preferably the opponent most likely to Foil our plans.) Great utility at all points of the game with more than 2 life.
  • Mystic Remora
    • A great card advantage engine to get the ball rolling. Most of the time someone is casting something during the first few turns of the game, so if we draw 3 more cards during a cycle, its better than Ancestral Recall. Seems good. Some players even go out of the their way to not cast any spells until it leaves, so we basically just set up for our combo turn while everyone else is waiting.
Our engine needs to be oiled every now and then. These cards either help smooth out our combo turn, give us reuse of spells or enable certain interactions to out value our opponents.
  • Defense Grid
    • A little taxing is good right? The grid is our protection against interaction from our opponents. The 3 mana can be super expensive during the early turns of the game, ensuring our opponents have little to say about us storming off and laughing manically.
  • Concordant Crossroads
    • The green Mass Hysteria . While it does provide haste to every creature, its downside of helping our opponents is mitigated by the massive boost it provides to us. Suddenly the dorks we cascaded into can be used for mana. JVP draws us a card and can probably flip so we can flashback a card. Even dropping on turn 2 and then slaming Yidris with haste can pick a clean turn 3 win.
  • Hurkyl's Recall
    • Now this probably can count as interaction against opposing artifact decks, however we mainly use it as a combo card to get more value by bouncing our own artifacts to recast them for more storm and mana. Worst case scenario we cascade into it and bounce someones Sol Ring or Signet.
  • Paradox Engine
    • Now this card may not be in the deck for very long as its chances of being banned are ever increasing, however this deck has been built mostly around this card. Were casting so many draw spells and nonland mana sources that it basically allows us to play our entire deck. The engine is scary good when built around. And best part is that we dont even need it to win, it just makes our job easier and more explosive.
  • Waste Not
    • In the same regards to Paradox Engine, this card is stupidly good in this deck more so than originally thought. We make our opponents discard from wheel effects and from our targeted discard so the amount of value we can get out of this for 2 mana is absurd. Great way to get the triple black for Doomsday.
  • Regrowth
    • This gets us whatever we want from our graveyard for two mana. Great card, excellent utility.
  • Noxious Revival
    • This little instant is great recursion at instant speed and a combo enabler. Putting something on top in response to a cascade is pretty nifty and doing it for free is even better.
  • Yawgmoth's Will
    • The big bad recursion spell for our deck. This probably should be listed as a win con, because very rarely does casting this not win us a game. It helps with our Doomsday plan and does cute things with Lion's Eye Diamond.
  • Jace, Vryn's Prodigy  
    • An arguably better Snapcaster Mage, at least when it comes to our deck. JVP does some cool things for us like drawing and filtering cards, but mainly we want him for his minus ability recast a spell. Hes okay to cascade into and great if he has haste. Usually will flip super-fast.
To be honest, we dont have a lot of options when it comes to interacting with our opponents. As with any fast combo deck we want to focus primarily on doing our thing and doing it well. These spells can slide into our combo lines and do just fine.
  • Pyroblast
    • Blue is a very common color, especially at higher levels of play. This can either deal with a troublesome commander or protect our combo from counter spells. If we cascade into it, theres almost always something for us to blow up.
  • Chain of Vapor
    • The catch all when it comes to answers. Cheap, efficient with a little downside. However, its true power comes in when we use it to strategically bounce all our cheap mana rocks all for and a few lands.
  • Collective Brutality
    • A modal discard spell? Nice. For us, counter spells can rustle our jimmies and make storming off a bad time. Being able to make someone discard their Force of Will or Swan Song while also maybe killing a Thalia, Guardian of Thraben is a pretty sweet effect. The third ability isnt too relevant except maybe against other decks running Ad Nauseam.
  • Thoughtseize, Inquisition of Kozilek,Duress
    • These 3 are our one mana targeted discard suite. They all aim to remove interaction from our opponents hands so we can combo off freely. If we have Waste Not out, we can turn them into card advantage or get whatever effect we need at the time.
  • Vandalblast
    • Artifacts are scary, we should know! One strategy that can be particularly hard to deal with for us is STAX, and usually those decks pack a lot of powerful artifacts. This is our answer to that. Its cheap with some explosive potential. Plus, worst case, you hit someones Sol Ring. Thats pretty neat.
  • Tormod's Crypt
    • Theres a lot of decks who abuse the graveyard, ours included. Sometimes you just need to just exile someones reanimation target or combo piece. Also can be used for silly bounce shenanigans and hits for 0 off of Ad Nauseam.
Weve come this far, so whats our big finish? Weve cast a bunch of spells, drew more cards than we can count and we need to do something to finish the game. Or perhaps its the late game and we have get creative to win. Either way these cards either give us the game, or put us in a position where were so far ahead that if we dont win, its probably our own fault.
  • Aetherflux Reservoir
    • One of the coolest cards ever printed and the main win condition of the deck. This makes killing the table a fairly easy job. We need to cast 14 spells after casting this with most of our starting life to deal 50 damage to 3 other players. If we want to get technical, we can respond to each instant we cast which makes it so we gain a whole lot of life at once because when they resolve, we gain life from each one equal to how many spells we had cast in response. Example, we cast a Demonic Tutor, let it resolve, then cast a Regrowth to get it back. We gained 1 life from the Demonic Tutor, then 2 life from the Regrowth. Now if we cast Demonic Tutor, respond to it by casting Brainstorm, then responding to that with Dark Ritual, we now gain 3 life per spell as they resolve.
  • Laboratory Maniac
    • When reducing our opponents life total to zero isnt an option or were drawing so many card that it just make sense to, we win with this. If we have a Notion Thief, theres a solid chance we might just accidently draw our entire deck, so throwing this down before that happens is a no brainer. Lab man is not only a win condition, its also a component to our Doomsday plan.
  • Mind's Desire
    • While this doesnt win us the game by itself, it just pushes us so far ahead that we stumble into our other win conditions. Its a great finisher when we run out of cards to cast in hand and graveyard. Tapping out with this and a high storm count isnt a bad thing, well probably get a ritual or a mana rock to refuel our mana reserves and allow us to keep going.
  • Ad Nauseam
    • As with Mind's Desire, this doesnt necessarily win us the game, but if we cast it, we probably will. A notorious draw spell that with our relatively low curve means we can draw 15-20 cards for 5 mana. Its an instant, so we can do it the turn before win on someones end step, or in the middle of our combo turn to ensure we have the resources to go off.
  • Doomsday
    • Winning with this card does take some getting used to and is probably worth it to practice a few different piles. All of our piles involve Laboratory Maniac. On a cascade turn, it does get a little easier to do. For a super spicy win, if we have Whispering Madness in hand and cast that to break open the pile and hit lab man and draw out. There are few other options we can use that fall more in line with traditional piles. Were not running Gush so that does cut us off from a lot of the more mana efficient options. The go to pile is: Have a cantrip in hand and cast that into: 1. Night's Whisper 2. Gitaxian Probe 3. Lion's Eye Diamond 4. Yawgmoth's Will and 5. Laboratory Maniac. So for an investment of 6 life and 1 we get to win.
Now while this deck does fall somewhere on the cEDH spectrum, there are room for improvements to get to that 100% level. There arent many optimal choices that have been left out, but the ones that have are almost strictly because of their monetary investment. The missing cards include: Timetwister, Volcanic Island, Tropical Island, Underground Sea, Badlands, and Bayou. The ABUR Duals will be included eventually when the funds allow, however the Twister may remain just a dream.

Now if the playgroup at hand is okay with Proxies, then be more than welcome to add in the missing pieces. Go down three islands and two swamps for the duals and then Whispering Madness for the Twister. The deck still functions rather well and the difference will be small with the only real notable change being that we get to get a little more liberal with using our life as a resource.

Overall, this is a very fun deck to pilot. Hopefully this primer has given those interested enough insight to enjoy and play the deck. As more sets get released and key cards stay legal, well hopefully have a deck that continues to grow and become a prime example of what a multiplayer storm deck can be.

Thanks for taking the time to look at my list! Give it an upvote if you liked it!

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MAJOR UPDATES: Stormageddon > Storm Amalgam — June 29, 2017
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The deck has went through substantial changes, we've shifted into a mixture of various storm decks from Modern, Legacy and Vintage. The move added more resiliency and combo lines to allow for a varied style of play. Our curve lowered also to allow for a better average yield from Ad Nauseam.

Additional Mini Update Tinder Wall and Izzet Charm out for Mystic Remora and Collective Brutality. While the Charm is eh as it is, it has proved useful in past games, but the discard and possible removal from Brutality while being less color intensive gets the spot. Remora has been in and out of this deck a dozen times. It usually puts in a lot of work, and the wall has been disappointing to say the least, so we'll try the fish again.

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Revision 6 See all

(6 years ago)

-1 Bloodbraid Elf maybe
Top Ranked
  • Achieved #59 position overall 6 years ago
Date added 7 years
Last updated 6 years
Exclude colors W
Splash colors R
Legality

This deck is not Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)

9 - 0 Mythic Rares

48 - 0 Rares

20 - 0 Uncommons

12 - 0 Commons
Cards 100
Avg. CMC 1.84
Tokens Emblem Jace, Vryn's Prodigy, Zombie 2/2 B
Folders EDH, Primers - All of them, EDH, lol i wish, Brainstorm Brewery, Refferences, Decks, Yidris Storm, Commander Decks, EDH Decks for Reference
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