A little help with a transition for edh league.

Commander Deck Help forum

Posted on March 5, 2017, 5 p.m. by Randomdeath

So my LGS started an edh league and I love to play my melek deck it was very underpowered against to other decks there, (it runs like a train slow to start but once going can't be stopped) but in the early game in just setting up. So now I'm looking redoing the deck and running Mizzix of the Izmagnus and going super heavy on the instants and sorcerys and trying to go more of a storm route. Any suggestions to achieve this? I know Turnabout,Seething Song(and the like), Epic Experiment, High Tide what else?

CharonSquared says... #2

Storm is difficult to pull off in EDH due to A) the singleton, 100 card deck format, which makes it hard to find the specific cards you need and B) a multiplayer, 40 life format where you need a very high or infinite storm count to kill the table. With that said, if you do want to try it you'll likely want several Wheel of Fortune effects, rituals such as Mana Geyser, and several win conditions. If you get an infinite storm count, you can kill your opponents with Grapeshot or Brain Freeze. If you can get a storm count of 15-17 or so, Aetherflux Reservoir will let you take out the table. Or you can get infinite mana and win with Comet Storm or Rolling Thunder.

March 5, 2017 6:11 p.m.

Panas says... #3

March 5, 2017 6:12 p.m.

GoldenDiggle says... #4

Storm in EDH is difficult at best, with staring lifetotals at 40 and no Pyromancer Ascension, things can get tough.

Obviously, you want any kind of Brainstorm effect or cantrip. Serum Visions, Opt, Overmaster, etc. However, having hard draw also helps out immensely once you build your Experience counters. Deep Analysis, Rush of Knowledge, Browbeat, Blue Sun's Zenith, etc.

Bonus points if the draw spell allows you to untap lands, like Pore Over the Pages and Frantic Search, or if it allows you to scry, like Foresee and Glimmer of Genius.

The rest is like you said, untap effects Snap and rituals Inner Fire, Mana Geyser are the filler you want.

March 5, 2017 7:09 p.m.

SaberTech says... #5

Mizzix of the Izmagnus's ability counts towards reducing Reiterate's buyback cost if you choose to pay it, so if you have 4 experience counters you can cast Reiterate with buyback for just . If you cast a mana ramp spell that gives you at least 3 red mana, like Desperate Ritual or Seething Song, you can repeatedly cast Reiterate to copy it. That should give you infinite red mana and infinite storm count.

Dualcaster Mage can also net you infinite mana by copying a Ghostly Flicker that's on the stack. You use the copy of Ghostly Flicker to blink the Mage and a land, and then once the Mage enters the battlefield again you copy Ghostly Flicker again. Rinse and repeat until you have all the mana you want. The combo doesn't help your storm count though.

March 5, 2017 7:20 p.m.

Tk4890 says... #6

Honestly, I find that if you want storm, Yidris is your best bet... My friend uses him in even a slightly sub-optimal condition and absolutely wreaks havoc on everything. That said, it is still a volatile beast, and can be set back relatively easily. It runs as a bit of a slower storm win, and has very little as means of reactivity, as cascading into counter magic absolutely blows. However, depending on budget, or card availability, Mizzix could be just as good

March 5, 2017 7:58 p.m.

enpc says... #7

Just play combo control. A couple of infinite mana outlets, a Blue Sun's Zenith and a Comet Storm for your win conditions and then a crapload of counterspells and draw effects.

March 5, 2017 11:06 p.m.

Randomdeath says... #8

I'm leaning towards that, and am drawing up a rough draft now in my decks, what are all thoughts about wizards? Of course azami is the first go to but who else could make the cut and still be useful

March 5, 2017 11:16 p.m.

Randomdeath says... #9


Mastery of the mizzix

Commander / EDH* Randomdeath

4 VIEWS


Ok here is the rough draft so far anything that jumps out that doesn't belong?

March 6, 2017 midnight

KillKid20095 says... #10

Storm in EDH is extremely easy.

There are Mono U decks that do it, and Mono B decks that do it. Since youre already in one of those colors with a good commander it should be easy you. Firstly there is this card made of magic called High Tide that allows you to go off the turn you play it, along with that card you play cards like Turnabout that let you untap lands to keep the turn going. The rest of your deck will be cards to Search High Tide and other win-cons, tons of draw cards to dig deeper when you need, lots of mana rocks to ramp you up, and a protection package.

As for way to win i recommend Aetherflux Reservoir and a few ways to make infinite mana(My favorite being Palinchron + High Tide)

March 6, 2017 6:15 a.m.

JimWolfie says... #11

One thing that MTG has done consistantly over the years is print functional look alikes in their sets. It's their abuse of nostalgia is what makes EDH possible. This is what makes combo decks, not just storm, viable in edh. Storm specifically Good tutors, enough rituals, some disruption for potential counter-play, and most importantly a way to convert the tutors and extra mana into an actual kill. Heck the pool is deep enough that there are multiple variants of the spell based combo deck.

Mizzix specifically is fine. There's a general rule of thumb with decks in this area where you need to be weighing dropping the third color against your commander and how powerful it is. Adding black specifically gets you UBr, which gets you tutors like demonic and vampiric alongside rituals like dark ritual and cabal ritual. Mizzix herself can be seen as one mega ritual that let's you play through one of the common hate elemnts storm faces from thalia, sphere of resistance, tanglewire, and thorn of ameythist. Adding black will also lead to a more aggressive playstyle, mizzix shines more when you want to be more react and counterpunchy. The biggest drawback to mizzix is the fact that she's a giant target, which is why she isn't chosen more often compared to Zur and Jeleva. Although, it's very possible there isn't any clean way to deal with her specifically, you're going to need to play tightly to not auto lose to a swords to plowshares

The biggest hurdle new storm players need to overcome here is learning how to look outside the stated purpose of the card and find how it interacts with the rest of the deck. For example Mana Geyser is cool but it doesn't line up with when the deck wants to be doing it's thing, yet transmute artifact acts a tutor for some of your more powerful pieces fetching you mana (candleabra of tawnos or other rox), more cards (Memory Jar) and a good win condition (Aetherflux Reservoir)

Your nonland cards are a great start. However there are several noticeable omissions and some cards that don't help your strategy at all. this isn't a mark against you as a player, there's a very good chance you don't know about them. Most of what I'll should be suggesting is either something we've seen from recent reprints or absolutely critical to making the deck work. Take these as suggestions, this isn't something you're going to be able to go out and buy outright. If you are truly committed to playing a deck like this you should proxy up stuff and try out what you like. You're not going to stop playing magic suddenly, you have time to mess around with cards and see what works.

Multiple win conditions can and will brick you eventually. Strangely enough storm doesn't want all of the payoff cards it can run, it only wants just enough to function. The reason for a card's is then based on what it offers. Cards like brainfreeze and grapeshot are usually cute enough to work, as you can set up for a good mizzix mastery or a past in flames, or kill problematic creatures that would otherwise keep you from winning. However typically these are worse than just running more efficient versions like stroke of genius on the end-step or lightning bolt. Try to cut cards like beacon of destruction, volcanic awakening, and cinder storm. They are either overcosted for what you need them to do, don't actually do what you want, or brick your gameplan too much and you need redundancy in other areas.

Generally you need to really justify that a 4+ mana card will get you the resources needed to extract a win. Mizzix mastery and mind's desire are very powerful.

You lack a good mana base. This isn't just about your lands specifically. You're low on rituals, fast mana, and untapped dual lands to smooth out the mana requirment for your deck. You should be critically aware of how many basic islands you run, if you plan to run hightide every single island is an ancient tomb that doesn't hit you for damage. Depending on how far you take your mana rock count, look into dramatic reversal and paradox engine. You're already running isochron scepter, engine and dr combo really well with it. I would also include ancient tomb if you can but I'm weird and that's probably super bad.

Lastly the interactive spells you've chosen to run are a bit overcosted. Cards such as Disallow, spell crumple and venser are too slow when compared to things like swan song, dispell and spell pierce. The counterspells you've chosen are better for decks that aren't protecting a combo even if they're overcosted and largely unplayable without game winning synergy. I would look into 1 mana disruption first. You could also look into pernament cards that you aren't affected by like back to basics or blood moon. Granted this is all based on budget.

I hope this helps Random Death. If you have any questions, shoot me a message on discord (where I'll see it.)

March 6, 2017 7:30 a.m.

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