Be water, my friend

Commander / EDH* Casual RUW (Jeskai, America) Storm

Lo_Pan

Instant (25)

• 1x Arcane Denial
• 1x Aura Blast
• 1x Brainstorm
• 1x Comeuppance
• 1x Crimson Wisps
• 1x Cyclonic Rift
• 1x Deflecting Palm
• 1x Desperate Ritual
• 1x Dramatic Reversal
• 1x Enlightened Tutor
• 1x Expansion / Explosion
• 1x Frantic Search
• 1x Leap
• 1x Mission Briefing
• 1x Muddle the Mixture
• 1x Mystical Tutor
• 1x Opt
• 1x Path to Exile
• 1x Pyretic Ritual
• 1x Remand
• 1x Seething Song
• 1x Shadow Rift
• 1x Shelter
• 1x Sphinx's Revelation
• 1x Swan Song

Creature (9)

• 1x Bloodwater Entity
• 1x Guttersnipe
• 1x Jeskai Sage
• 1x Monastery Mentor
• 1x Monastery Swiftspear
• 1x Narset, Enlightened Master
• 1x Niblis of Frost
• 1x Seeker of the Way
• 1x Stormchaser Mage

Land (31)

• 1x Boseiju, Who Shelters All
• 1x Buried Ruin
• 1x Cascading Cataracts
• 1x Clifftop Retreat
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Flooded Strand
• 1x Glacial Fortress
• 1x Hallowed Fountain
• 5x Island
• 1x Izzet Boilerworks
• 1x Kor Haven
• 3x Mountain
• 1x Mystic Monastery
• 4x Plains
• 1x Port Town
• 1x Prairie Stream
• 1x Sacred Foundry
• 1x Scavenger Grounds
• 1x Sea of Clouds
• 1x Sejiri Steppe
• 1x Steam Vents
• 1x Sulfur Falls

Artifact (13)

• 1x Aetherflux Reservoir
• 1x Boros Signet
• 1x Chromatic Lantern
• 1x Coalition Relic
• 1x Darksteel Ingot
• 1x Gilded Lotus
• 1x Isochron Scepter
• 1x Paradox Engine
• 1x Primal Amulet  ^Flip
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Thran Dynamo
• 1x Tormod's Crypt
• 1x Worn Powerstone

Commander (1)

Sorcery (16)

• 1x Artful Dodge
• 1x Austere Command
• 1x Gitaxian Probe
• 1x Grapeshot
• 1x Hour of Revelation
• 1x Ignite Memories
• 1x Merchant Scroll
• 1x Mind's Desire
• 1x Mizzix's Mastery
• 1x Overmaster
• 1x Past in Flames
• 1x Ponder
• 1x Recurring Insight
• 1x Slip Through Space
• 1x Supreme Verdict
• 1x Vandalblast

Enchantment (5)

• 1x Flickering Ward
• 1x Jeskai Ascendancy
• 1x Mark of Fury
• 1x Myth Realized
• 1x Wild Research

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Maybeboard

Instant (7)

• 1x Argivian Find
• 1x Boros Charm
• 1x Expedite
• 1x High Tide
• 1x Niveous Wisps
• 1x Quicken
• 1x Scout's Warning

Sorcery (4)

• 1x Cloak of Feathers
• 1x Crash Through
• 1x Mana Geyser
• 1x Serum Visions

Land (2)

• 1x Celestial Colonnade
• 1x Inkmoth Nexus

Enchantment (2)

• 1x As Foretold
• 1x Jace's Sanctum

Creature (2)

• 1x Dragon-Style Twins
• 1x Guttersnipe

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New framework, rebuilding this deck from the foundation up

I've suffered through this deck over countless variations (see original below). All were underwhelming, but I haven't given up for whatever reason. So, let's review where this deck is right now using the deck building template discussed on the Command Zone podcast on 3/21/17.

Deck Mission Statement: Cast as many non-creature spells as possible per turn; win with general or prowess combat damage, or storm out.

Ramp (Suggested 10, Actual 12) Darksteel Ingot , Chromatic Lantern , Sol Ring , Gilded Lotus , Primal Amulet  , Boros Signet , Coalition Relic , Seething Song , Worn Powerstone , Thran Dynamo , Pyretic Ritual , Desperate Ritual . Shu is a deceptively mana hungry commander, I feel better going over the max here after much testing.

Draw/Filter (Suggested 10, Actual 20+) Draw Recurring Insight , Sphinx's Revelation , Narset, Enlightened Master , Mind's Desire , Explosion. Filter Jeskai Ascendancy , Brainstorm , Gitaxian Probe , Opt , Ponder , Slip Through Space , Shelter , Arcane Denial , Shadow Rift , Remand , Aura Blast , Leap , and others. Ok, I'm cheating by including 'filter' i.e., cantrips, so if we count each as 1/2 of a draw, I'm still over 10, and comfortable here. This deck utilizes the graveyard, so filtering my storm cards to the G/Y for an end-game Mizzix's Mastery is a solid Plan B if not traditional 'draw.'

Single-target removal (Suggested 5, Actual 3) Aura Blast , Path to Exile , Grapeshot . I'm ok with this for the moment, given the additional control pieces Forbid , Remand , Arcane Denial , I should consider more targeted artifact removal though.

Board wipes (Suggested 5, Actual 4) Supreme Verdict , Austere Command , Hour of Revelation , Cyclonic Rift . Easy. These are all staples, feel confident cheating here as well.

Lands (Suggested 38, Actual 32) I'm comfortable with lowering the land count to increase rocks and permanents that can be affected by Paradox Engine or Dramatic Reversal . The draw/filtering in this deck makes helps make land drops more consistent.

Meat (Suggested 32, Actual 36). Versatility and cycling through the deck to smooth land drops (i run a lean 33), assemble combo pieces, and/or set up that one giant storm turn are the key with the non-creatures. Likewise, protection effects can work both defensively and offensively, protecting my creatures or making them de facto unblockable. Other cards that might not make sense on the surface are Deflecting Palm or Comeuppance . These cards dissuade combat against me, since I'm likely to have too few blockers and look like a tempting target. Hitting one would help me bluff going forward.

--Original Incarnation (circa January 2015) Description:--

Voltron is a strategy that hasn't really appealed to me, but as I was in the midst of making my second (terrible) token deck, I decided that maybe a change of pace might help get me out of the mediocre-to-terrible deck building phase in which I've found myself lately. Also, since it fit flavor-wise and with the strategy of this deck, I made an homage to my meta by putting a commander from each of their decks in my 99: Daxos, Talrand, Gisela (in for Sword of FIre/Ice), and Geist of St. Traft

Like I said, I'm new to the strategy, so phase I of this deck will strictly adhere to the Seven-by-Nine principle to give me an initial framework until I feel comfortable enough to Muddle the Mixture .

We're on Phase II of this deck and I've blown past the austerity of my initial 7-of-9 build (having removed and added whole categories and fudging totals) but it kept me honest early and really helped me to better focus my deck. I intend to begin all my new decks in a similar way.

Here's how the deck looked entering play-test mode, see how it's changed above, by functional category:

1. Cantrips (9): Gitaxian Probe , Quicken , Peek , Brainstorm , Visions of Beyond , Twisted Image , Ponder , Preordain , Shadow Rift

2. Control/Stax (6): Chaos Warp , Swan Song , Counterspell , Propaganda , Portcullis , Aura of Silence

3. Utility/TokenGen Creatures (6): Anger , Stoneforge Mystic , Monastery Mentor , Talrand, Sky Summoner , Young Pyromancer , Sun Titan

4. Alternate voltron options (3): Daxos of Meletis , Geist of Saint Traft , Gisela, Blade of Goldnight (she's in the deck in place of sword of ice/fire until I can validate spending $50 on it.)

5. Equipment (9): Sword of Body and Mind , Sword of Feast and Famine , Sword of Fire and Ice , Sword of Light and Shadow , Sword of War and Peace , Swiftfoot Boots , Darksteel Plate , Hero's Blade , Champion's Helm

6. Removal (8): Path to Exile , Swords to Plowshares , Terminus , Cyclonic Rift , Wrath of God , Austere Command , Shattering Spree , Lightning Bolt

7. Ramp/Rock (7): Land Tax , Sol Ring , Braid of Fire , Chromatic Lantern , Azorius Signet , Izzet Signet , Darksteel Ingot

8. Buff/Protection (9): Flickering Ward , Shimmering Wings , Vanishing , Reconnaissance , Reckless Charge , Brute Force , Infiltrate , Distortion Strike , Iroas, God of Victory

9. Tutor/Misc (7): Sunforger , Enlightened Tutor , Steelshaper's Gift , Nahiri, the Lithomancer , Luminarch Ascension , Assemble the Legion , Jeskai Ascendancy

Date added	9 years
Last updated	4 years
Legality	This deck is not Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	5 - 0 Mythic Rares 40 - 0 Rares 17 - 0 Uncommons 26 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	2.58
Tokens	Bird 2/2 U, Monk 1/1 W
Folders	+1 Decks I Want to Emulate, Commander, Retired