THE MANA
Starting with the easy part, being the manabase. As I have the deck planned, it is an Izzet deck with some green splash (and a bit of black in the sideboard). To allow this, I have included Vivid Creek, and in general the cycle of lands that come with it. Even though they enter tapped, the deck is intended to be casual and on a budget, so it is in my opinion the most flexible choice, especially with the proliferate spells I will talk about in a bit.
Now, to the fun part. Manamorphose is in my opinion the MVP of the deck, and if combined with Strike it Rich the idea is to keep the mana flowing. I have considered including more rituals, like Desperate Ritual and Pyretic Ritual but the amount of non-red pips the deck has makes it not as useful, only generating red mana limitates them more than I liked. I may end up considering them, as the deck includes Invoke Calamity which is quite pip intensive, but I did not found much problem with it.
And I will now segue onto the funny mana rock.
Menacingly beating you with a piece of broken glass (spicy mana)
Pentad Prism. I think the idea from here is quite easy to explain. It enters the battlefield with a charge counter for each mana color spent on it, which you can then remove for mana. Normally a quite useless ability, but shall I present you again to the absolutely best, less frustrating and most interactive mechanic the phyrexians brought us: PROLIFERATE.
The deck includes four quite useful sources of proliferation: three instant/sorceries and a creature.
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Thirsting Roots is the cheapest of all, albeit the less impactful, either proliferating or searching a basic land to hand. Still quite useful, which keeps itself relevant almost at any point of the game.
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Experimental Augury and Contentious Plan, although not quite the same, serve the same purpose: proliferation that replenishes itself, although the first is objectively better, giving you a choice of cards to pick.
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Flux Channeler makes you proliferate for every noncreature spell you cast. It is probably the worst option of the four (at least in a vacuum), but it has the most potential. Given a bit of setup, it can generate a LOT of mana with even one Pentad Prism in board, and directly kill somebody with a Aria of Flame on board.
The proliferation package also fits quite nicely with the Vivid Creek land cycle, as you can proliferate its charge counters to never run out of mana fixing. It is not as impactful as proliferating with Pentad Prism but still quite nice.
Storming off
Finally we have reached the meat of the deck, although the hardest part of building a storm deck. This deck, as I have mention, relies on Aria of Flame. Due to it tracking the amount of spells through counters, not only it is not needed to storm in a single turn, but works beautifully with proliferation. By definition, it will be slower than just using Grapeshot, but it actually works in favor of this deck. As I really wanted to include the proliferate package, the deck does not have the same ability to really have such a powerful storm turn as a more traditional deck would have, but I don't really care. Part of the idea is to keep the core of Pentad Prism + Proliferate, so I have to work with what I got.
Now, even if I am not able to storm off in a single turn, that doesn't mean I will not try (but fail anyways). First off, mana discounts. For this, I have chosen Baral, Chief of Compliance. I know I am never using the second ability, but it does not requite that much mana fixing as other options like Goblin Electromancer (which may be a bit of a problem early) and I do not really care for it being legendary, as most of the cards cannot be discounted by more than (color pips). I know that there is an objectively better option in Ral, Monsoon Mage
, but the price is quite a bit out of the range. I do not discard it completely, but it is quite tough to fit it in the budget.
Then, there is quite a bit of cheap spells that draw cards and/or proliferate. I already mentioned Contingency Plan and Experimental Augury, as well as Manamorphose (I will also include Strike it Rich+Thirsting Roots even though they do not draw cards), and to them I added Consider, as a generally good instant, and Deep Analysis, as it draws quite a few cards and can be flashbacked for cheap. It also includes Reckless Impulse, but I may consider removing it as impulse draw does not always feel as good if you are not storming off the same turn.
The final piece of the deck, Invoke Calamity. This acts as quite a powerful recursion piece, and although it allows for casting from hand for free, I intend it to basically flashback some key instants or sorceries that would not only keep the storm turn going, but possibly even end the game if Aria of Flame is in play.
A sprinkle of Jank
The deck is now basically completed (at least its first version), but I am still considering an assortment of cards that may also fit quite well but I did not know how to fit them:
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Ezuri, Stalker of Spheres is a very fun card that allows to increase notably the cards drawn, acting as Archmage Emeritus on a budget, but the mana cost of 4 discourages me from both of them.
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Everflowing Chalice has the potential to generate tons of mana by proliferating its charge counters, but runs into the need of color mana.
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Past in Flames is also a classic recursion spell, but I did not find it as useful as Invoke Calamity, even with the ability of beig flashbacked itself.
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Drown in Ichor, which I have included in the sideboard, but the need of a new color may be too much this already budget and stretched manabase
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Wish, is a staple of storm decks, allowing to be able to tailor the finisher to the situation, and having direct access to the sideboard means anotehr 15 cards of choices and answers without being dead draws onn the mainboard. However, due to my lack of experience with this kind of decks, I really did not know how to include it.
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Other proliferate effects. Here I group other possible proliferation options. I initially considered Trummingbird and Dreamtide Whale, but I did not think they would fit a storm deck, as they are better suited for a poison counter deck or for a multiplayer environment. I also know of the existence of alternatives to Deep Analysis that also proliferate, like Vivisurgeon's Insight or Tezzeret's Gambit, but I am not sure if the proliferate extra justifies not having flashback. I also know there are some other cards like Serum Snare, but they are both more reactive and conditional, which I don't think would help my deck.
