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Birgi Storm Top [cEDH Primer]

Commander / EDH Combo Competitive Mono-Red Storm

jaymc1130

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Land (Fetch/Mana/Utility) (27)

Sorcery (Draw/Tutor) (8)

Creature (Utility) (7)

Mystic Top Combo Package (5)

Artifact (Rock) (11)

Curio Storm Combo Package (10)

Artifact (Draw/Utility) (6)

Enchantment (Utility) (4)

Commander (1)

Commander: Birgi, God of Storytelling  Flip

Instant (Interaction) (11)

Flex Slots (6)

Planeswalker (Utility) (2)

Sorcery (Sweeper/Interaction) (2)

Maybeboard

Alternative Interaction (7)

Alternative "Rocks" (4)

Alternative Win Condition (2)

Alternative Lands (4)

Alternative Combo Component (1)

Welcome to Birgi Mono Red Storm featuring the Mystic Top combo!

For many years most mono colored decks have struggled mightily at the highest level of competitiveness in EDH. Even the most capable of mono color commanders like Urza, Emry, Godo, or Yisan have failed to break into the highest tiers of deck performance. These archetypes have struggled with how fast, interactive, and grindy the most powerful decks in the format can be. Enter our new contender: Birgi, God of Storytelling  , the most effective red card ever printed for EDH not named Wheel of Fortune.

The strength of Birgi as a commander in competitive play lies in a few key aspects: both of her card faces have extremely powerful effects (crazy mana generation/access to gas), a low cmc, a power and toughness large enough to present some issues for opposing creatures/removal, and a play pattern that can easily win from empty board states on any given turn of the game (turn 1 included) provided the deck has access to Birgi. While this does imply an inherent weakness for the deck due to dependence on it's commander, it is a weakness that is perhaps more easily worked around in mono red than any other color.

The primary gameplan of the deck revolves around the synergy between Birgi and Cloudstone Curio. With the recent printing of Rograkh, Son of Rohgahh there are now four total cmc Kobold creatures plus Dockside Extortionist that can combine with Birgi and the Curio for very easy access to as much mana as a pilot could ever want while simultaneously generating easy infinite storm count. Grinning Ignus combined with Ruby Medallion/Helm of Awakening and Birgi performs a similar feat, though the infinite mana generated will be of the colorless variety. In most games the goal will be to assemble one of these combos and win by finding either Grapeshot or Impact Tremors to make use of the repetitive creature casts.

These combos and their play patterns are quite difficult for opposing competitive decks to interact with normally as they are both creature based, bypassing much of the meta standard blue interaction. Additionally, because the commander herself provides the mana generation engine, a large number of card slots often dedicated to that purpose in mono red competitive lists are freed up for more interactive cards that allow a Birgi deck to effectively compete in interactive stack wars by piggy backing at instant speed with copy/change target spell effects. The density of redundant low cmc creatures to combo with the Curio also helps to make the deck very consistent as often times the only requisite tutor target will be the Curio itself.

The back up game plan of the deck is to assemble the Mystic Top combo of Mystic Forge, Sensei's Divining Top, and Helm of Awakening. This line of play offers a way to win games that does not require or depend on the commander in any way, decreasing the deck's vulnerability to opposing theft effects like Gilded Drake. With the combo assembled in play a pilot can simply play the Top off the top of the library for free and activate it to repeat the process and draw the whole deck. The library can then be looped if needed by casting Lion's Eye Diamond and Elixir of Immortality, cracking the LED for mana to activate the Elixir (netting 1 mana of any color in the process) and repeating the draw process with the Sensei's Top.
Curio is the central combo engine component of the deck and combines with Birgi and a variety of cards in a number of ways that can generate winning lines of play. The versatility and flexibility of these lines is a big part of what makes this deck so effective in competitive play. The standard set ups are both mana and card slot efficient, though these lines will require enough gas in the tank to convert the massive amount of mana into a win. The more niche set ups are more mana intensive (but still card slot efficient) and can often generate a winning line of play without needing to rip through the deck with additional cards to find a finisher component.
This is the most basic set up, usually requiring Birgi in play, Curio in play, and any of the mana Kobolds in play with one in hand or a pair of Kobolds in hand.

Cast the first Kobold from hand. Birgi will trigger, netting a . The Kobold will enter, triggering the Curio, decline the first trigger (unless there is already another Kobold in play). Cast the second Kobold, Birgi will trigger, netting another . The second Kobold will enter, triggering the Curio, have the Curio bounce the first Kobold. Repeat the Kobold casts after presenting the loop for infinite mana and end the loop with a Kobold in hand.

From this point the game is simply about using as many card draw effects as required to find a finisher component, typically Grapeshot or Impact Tremors. Cast the Grapeshot with infinite storm count to blast each opponent in the face for lethal or cast the Tremors and then repeat the Kobold bounce loop to achieve infinite triggers and ping each opponent for lethal. If a pilot lacks access to card draw effects once infinite mana is achieved then the remaining Kobold in hand can be cast again to trigger the Curio and bounce Birgi herself to hand. Birgi can then be cast on her alternate face as the Harnfel, Horn of Bounty and any excess cards in hand can be discarded to the Horn to exile cards from the top of the library to play that turn.

Dockside Extortionist can often be used in place of a second Kobold in this loop to potentially generate infinite treasure tokens if there are enough opposing artifacts and enchantments in play. With either Ruby Medallion or Helm of Awakening in play any of the deck's 2 cmc creatures can be used in place of a Kobold to generate infinite mana. With both the Helm and Medallion in play any of the deck's creatures except Dualcaster Mage and Birgi herself can be used in place of a Kobold to generate infinite mana.

The set up using only Curio, Dockside Extortionist, and Birgi is conditional, but the circumstance can be quite common in competitive play. With Birgi in play, Curio in play, Dockside in hand, and at least 5 opposing artifacts/enchantments on the field cast the Dockside. Birgi triggers, netting a mana. Dockside enters, triggering it's own ETB and the Curio (the order in which these triggers are stacked rarely matters), 5 treasures are created and Curio bounces Birgi to hand. Cast Birgi using the floating and 2 treasures, she enters triggering the Curio which bounces Dockside to hand. There are now 3 treasures remaining and only 2 are required to recast the Dockside, repeat the process after presenting this loop to generate infinite treasure tokens and end the loop with Dockside in hand and Birgi in play (unless you need to cast Birgi for her alternative face).

With less than 5 opposing artifacts/enchantments in play this loop can at least be used for value to "ramp" provided you aren't going to be recasting Birgi with the newly minted treasures. Simply use lands to cast the Dockside once, trigger Birgi once, bounce the Birgi once with Curio, and use remaining lands and floating mana to recast Birgi and bounce the Dockside back to hand to use again on the next turn to generate treasure tokens each turn. With exactly 4 opposing artifacts/enchantments in play this loop can be used to generate infinite storm (though no net mana or treasures will be generated) which can be useful if Grapeshot is already in hand or if Tremors is already on the field to win the game.

Birgi as a commander is an archetype that is going to want to run as few lands as possible in order to facilitate storming off with mass card draw and exile from the top of library effects. Often times this can mean a pilot is left without a land drop to make every turn. With the Curio in play, however, lands can be bounced to hand to be replayed on the next turn after they've been tapped on the current turn, slightly inflating the amount of mana available to the pilot each turn. This can be particularly useful with City of Traitors. After tapping the City for , play a land. City of Traitors and the Curio will both trigger. Stack the triggers so the Curio trigger to bounce resolves before the City sacrifice trigger and bounce the City back to hand to be played next turn.
Both of the deck's tutor creatures can generate some impressive value with the Curio in play allowing a single card to be repeatedly cast for multiple tutor effects. For example, with just Birgi and Curio in play and access to at least 4 mana Imperial Recruiter can be cast to search up a Kobold and trigger Birgi for a mana. The Kobold can then be cast to trigger Birgi for another and a Curio trigger to bounce the Recruiter back to hand. The Recruiter can then be recast to net another tutor for another Kobold (or any other creature that might be needed) to assemble a full infinite mana combo. Then the Recruiter/Kobold loops can be repeated to put a number of creatures into hand before the final iteration of the loop is used to bounce Birgi herself back to hand to be recast on her alternate face as the Horn. The excess creatures in hand can then be pitched to the Horn to find enough gas to play off the top of the library to win the game.
With Birgi in play, Curio in play, and at least one of the cost reducers in play (Medallion or Helm), Dragon Mantle can be used with any of the deck's 2 cmc enchantments to draw the whole deck. With both cost reducers in play any of the deck's enchantments can be used in conjunction with the Mantle to draw the whole deck. Cast any of the enchantments, Birgi triggers netting a mana, Curio will trigger on ETB and decline the first bounce trigger (unless Dragon Mantle is already in play). Use the floating mana to cast the Mantle, Birgi triggers netting back the mana used, Mantle and Curio trigger on ETB to draw a card and bounce the original enchantment back to hand. Repeat the process to draw the deck and use any cmc cards found along the way to boost the amount of floating mana in the pool. With the whole deck in hand piecing together a win should be easy.
With at least Birgi and Curio in play some combinations of cards on the field can lead to infinite planeswalker loops that present game winning lines of play. Often times this will require some number of cost reducers as additional components, but not always. Repeat activations from Koth of the Hammer can net lots of mana from untapping mountains with his +1 ability or his -2 ability generating mana from each mountain a pilot has in play. Repeat activations from Daretti, Scrap Savant can turn less useful cards in hand into useful cards with his +2 ability or assemble the full Mystic Top Combo from the graveyard with his -2 ability if a pilot has enough other artifacts to sacrifice. Repeat activations from Chandra, Torch of Defiance can obviously win the game by killing opponents with her first +1 ability, generate infinite mana with her second +1 ability and specific board states when bounced in conjunction with Daretti or Koth, or wipe the board of creatures with her -3 ability. Repeat activations from Karn, the Great Creator can wipe the board of opposing cmc artifacts with his +1 ability (and potentially any artifact when combined with Chandra's -3 damage to creatures ability) or retrieve any exiled artifacts needed to win the game with his -2 ability.

While the Cloudstone Curio sadly does not combo with artifacts, it's ability to turn most of the rest of the deck's permanents into combo components is quite impressive and very valuable.

While the specific combo play pattern of the Birgi + Curio lines of play are less vulnerable to some of the typical interaction packages used in the most competitive decks in the format, the deck is certainly still vulnerable to various forms of hate.

Sphere of Resistance style effects significantly hamper the deck's gameplans and selective timing on when to remove these types of impediments will be required to go for a win.

Rule of Law style effects, likewise, will prevent a storm deck from doing storm things.

Drannith Magistrate types of effects will prevent the Mystic Top combo from functioning as well as prevent casting cards from exile and from the graveyard with Flashback or Underworld Breach.

Gilded Drake and other theft effects can always be a bit annoying, but the deck can win through these.

Rest in Peace and other graveyard hate effects will certainly complicate things, but the deck can win through this at times.

Hullbreacher is just a busted card and every deck in the format has found life more difficult since it's creation. The same goes for Opposition Agent, though Birgi is a bit less vulnerable to the Agent than most decks in the metascape.

This list has been put through the paces for just shy of 100 games (at the point of writing this article) to arrive at what has been mathematically determined (up to this point) to be the most optimal 99 cards to possibly include. What follows is some explanation for the various inclusions and notable exclusions.
Snow-Covered Mountain - Gotta make some red mana in order to cast red spells, and nothing beats the classic basic mountain. As the deck is running a pair of Blood Moon effects it will ideally want to include as many basic mountains as possible.

Scalding Tarn, Arid Mesa, Wooded Foothills, Bloodstained Mire, Prismatic Vista - Fetches are great to help thin the deck, find the one of Dwarven Mine when it's needed and shuffle the library to reset the top card when Mystic Forge is in play.

Ancient Tomb - Turn 2 Birgi is a very strong opening and the deck wants this circumstance to happen as consistently as possible.

City of Traitors - Same reasoning as Ancient Tomb, and the drawback can be easily avoided in a deck centered around Cloudstone Curio.

Gemstone Caverns - This card is just amazing ramp in competitive play, outperforming Chrome Mox in this this regard.

Inventors' Fair - A land that tutors for the combo components is excellent card slot value.

Dwarven Mine - Sometimes a random 1/1 chump blocker is exactly what the deck needs, and the opportunity cost to include the Mine is very low.

Forgotten Cave - Most often this card is simply a 1 mana cantrip with a low opportunity cost and moderate reward.

Cloudstone Curio - Probably the single card with which Birgi has the most synergy in all of MtG. A no brainer auto inclusion.

Kobolds of Kher Keep, Rograkh, Son of Rohgahh, Crookshank Kobolds, Crimson Kobolds - cmc non artifact creatures are the perfect combination with Curio and Birgi for infinite mana/storm generation. The fact there are 4 of them means the density of redundant pieces is high enough that a tutor will rarely be required to find them.

Dockside Extortionist - The next best bet after the Kobolds to combine with Birgi and the Curio to generate infinite storm/red mana.

Grinning Ignus - A relatively easy to acquire 2 card combo with any cost reducer to generate infinite storm/colorless mana.

Grapeshot - A very mana efficient win condition that can still be effective at times when forced to be used for value.

Impact Tremors - The next best win condition possible given the lines of play a typical Birgi deck wants to pursue.

Lion's Eye Diamond - A flexible component that can be cracked for value by holding priority with a wheel effect on the stack, used in conjunction with Underworld Breach for lots of mana/storm count plus potentially a win with wheel effects in the yard, and as the piece that generates infinite mana/storm as part of the Mystic Top combo.

Sensei's Divining Top - A powerful tool for filtering the top cards of a library and an even more powerful combo piece as part of the Mystic Top combo.

Mystic Forge - While less useful outside the full combo than other pieces in this grouping, being able to play 25% of the deck off the top of the library (often for 0 mana) can still be excellent value.

Helm of Awakening - While most decks would not want to play this card without it representing a combo win, Birgi is a deck that often doesn't mind playing it early on simply because the cost reduction often represents twice as much saved mana for the pilot as it does for opponents with a good density of potentially "free" spells in the deck.

Karn, the Great Creator - A fantastic asymmetrical hate piece that is quite difficult to remove from the board that also provides resilience to the deck by preventing exile effects on important combo pieces from completely locking the deck out of any chance to win.

Elixir of Immortality - A library loop enabler for looped combo wins with cards like Wheel of Fortune that also provides some utility by protecting the graveyard and preserving life total.

Jeweled Lotus - Turn 1 Birgi is amazing. At worst, if the lotus is drawn later in the game it can be a ritual.

Mox Opal, Mox Diamond, Mox Amber, Chrome Mox, Lotus Petal - cmc ramp that also acts as a ritual on storm turns.

Mana Crypt - A meta staple that needs no explanation.

Sol Ring - A meta staple that needs no explanation.

Mana Vault - A ritual rock that performs wonderfully in conjunction with wheel effects in particular, but also any of the deck's other higher cost spells.

Urza's Bauble, Mishra's Bauble - cmc cantrips that are mana positive when Birgi is on the field.

Chromatic Sphere, Chromatic Star - cmc cantrips when Birgi is on the field can be very helpful for upping the storm count and churning through the deck on storm turns.

Conjurer's Bauble - An excellent cantrip trinket with the useful side effect of returning any important cards in the graveyard back to the deck to be used again at a later time.

Ruby Medallion - A red spell cost reducer that provides excellent value while also contributing as a combo engine component in certain configurations.

Fork, Reverberate, Reiterate, Dualcaster Mage - Some of the most capable stack interaction spells available in red allowing pilots to piggy back on opposing spells and tutors to deal with opposing board states or protect it's own board state from permission elements.

Pyroblast, Red Elemental Blast - The best 1 mana conditional counter magic and removal spells in red.

Tibalt's Trickery - A powerful 2 cmc chaos hard counter that serves as protection and permission. At times the chaotic nature of the spell can lead to bad results, but the upside of it being a net positive play in the majority of situations where it will be used more than makes up for the drawback.

Starstorm, Mizzium Mortars, Pyroclasm, Vandalblast - The most flexible/versatile effective board sweepers red has access to.

Abrade - A single target burn or artifact removal spell that serves both as a means of disrupting opposing board states as well as a means of destroying Harnfel, Horn of Bounty in the event a pilot needs to regain access to Birgi.

Deflecting Swat - A powerful free spell to protect a board state or hijack an opposing spell to serve the pilot's own ends.

Ricochet Trap - A very effective change target spell in blue dominant metas.

Wild Ricochet - Expensive mana investment, but it comes with a very powerful effect both hijacking a spell with a target and copying it.

Chaos Warp - The best generic single target permanent removal red has access to, and it's only real way to deal with troublesome enchantments on it's own.

Skullclamp - A powerful draw engine trinket that can turn the deck's creatures into gas in hand. A top level performer in both grindy game states as well as storm turns.

Tectonic Reformation - An effective loot engine that turns unneeded lands into useful spells while also providing a potential combo win line when paired with Dragon Mantle.

Dragon Mantle - A cantrip enchantment that's free to play with Birgi on the field and allows the deck to combo off with enchantments, Birgi, and the Curio. Can be used to apply pressure to life totals in a pinch, or even one shot a vulnerable opponent in some situations.

Gamble - The best generic tutor red has access to.

Goblin Engineer - A creature that tutors for, and recurs, artifacts while having nice synergy with the Curio.

Imperial Recruiter - A creature that tutors for the deck's other combo creature components while having nice synergy with the Curio.

Light Up the Stage, Jeska's Will, Apex of Power, Ignite the Future, Commune with Lava - The most effective and efficient exile and play from top of library effects available. Jeska's Will, in particular, is an all-star performer.

Wheel of Fortune, Wheel of Misfortune, Reforge the Soul, Memory Jar, Magus of the Wheel - The most capable wheel effects the deck has access to. Staying gassed up enough to storm out the game is critical and there are not many better ways to do that in MtG than big draw 7s.

Magmatic Insight - An effective cantrip that turns itself and a land in hand into 2 potentially more useful cards while being effectively "free" to cast with Birgi in play.

Throes of Chaos - An astonishingly effective way to turn extra lands in hand into assured spells. Unfortunately the cascade effect whiffs when it hits copy or change target spells in the deck, but since most of the cards that provide real gas are 3 cmc or less the density to value ratio is excellent in the deck. With both cost reducers in play it essentially turns all lands in hand into free spells out of the deck as Birgi will trigger both for the Throes and the spell it cascades into replacing the mana investment spent to cast Throes with Retrace. Generally speaking, if a pilot has a choice between this or activating Tectonic Reformation, it's better to retrace the Throes of Chaos.

Magus of the Moon, Blood Moon - The most effective hate pieces red could ask for or want at an affordable mana investment. Occassionally just resolving one will win the game.

Memnite - A free spell that rituals with Birgi on the field and provides nice fodder for Skull Clamp, Goblin Engineer, and Daretti.

Underworld Breach, Past in Flames - The two most effective means of replaying useful spells from the graveyard that red has access to.

Chandra, Torch of Defiance - An effective and flexible value piece that function as an outright combo win condition in some engine configurations.

Daretti, Scrap Savant - A functional source of card selection and extremely powerful artifact recursion engine.

Koth of the Hammer - An effective source of mana generation and a fairly scary quick ultimate threat with the potential to wipe opposing board states of creatures or ping low life opponents to death.

Seething Song and other ritual spells - Quite simply, these are cards the deck does not need or even want. Birgi is already turning many of the deck's spells into outright rituals and mana generation is never the problem. Having enough useful things to do with the mana, on the other hand, can be a real issue. A pilot is much better off focusing these cards slots on ways to gas up rather than on ways to make even more mana while the tank is empty with nothing impactful to do in hand.

Walking Ballista, Aetherflux Reservoir, Purphoros, God of the Forge - Any of these win conditions is a legitimate option to hold a card slot. This current list has elected to go with the most mana efficient options for the sake of performance consistency.

Buried Ruin - This land could easily hold the slot taken by Forgotten Cave or Dwarven Mine. It's recommended to keep the basic mountain count at and above 15 (ideally 17 or 18) to maximize the effectiveness of the deck's Blood Moon effects and minimize reliance on nonbasic utility lands, plus the deck already has a number of redundant artifact recursion options. Personally, I've been swapping out those three lands pretty much at random and haven't noticed any significant change in performance one way or another. It'd definitely be recommended to include this land in a meta that sees a lot of artifact removal spells from opponents.

Rile and other 1 cmc cantrip instants - These cards do not offer consistent performance and lead to lines of play that are highly vulnerable to standard blue interaction packages. The types of effects they offer are also very weak from a competitive standpoint and they just aren't plentiful enough to make up for these drawbacks.

Treasonous Ogre - Much like the red ritual spells, this card isn't needed in the deck as a mana generation engine since Birgi already performs that role in a much superior fashion. It's a much more reasonable card to run than the rituals, but it still doesn't bring very much to the table.

Krark, the Thumbless - This card can be an amazing performer in a storm deck, but is best when utilized in a package that includes several clone effects and support cards. Without access to blue clones or the card slot space for the supporting cast it's best to leave this guy for the Sakashima of a Thousand Faces partner helmed Izzet storm decks that can make much better use of him.

Tormod's Crypt - A spectacular silver bullet card against graveyard focused decks, slap this card into a flex slot when playing in metas that include graveyard strategies.

Geier Reach Sanitarium - Another silver bullet card that has emerged as an excellent universal answer to the ever present Thassa's Oracle, Lab Maniac, and Jace Maniac win conditions. As long as a player has the Sanitarium untapped and available to make use of it the empty library win conditions are often instead empty library "lose conditions". A reasonable card to hold a flex slot in metas where these win conditions are present.

Runaway Steam-Kin - This card is a magnificent mana generation engine and it has unbelievable synergy with the Curio and Kobolds. The only downside is that it's a creature and it tends to get removed rather easily. Because this card is a very clear threat when it hits the board it will tend to draw removal spells before a pilot ever gets a good payoff from it. The upside here is fantastic, so if a pilot wants to include this card it's a fine choice but it does mean the pilot will have to adjust play patterns to avoid wasting the opportunity this card presents.

Suggestions

Updates Add

Updated to current. — March 18, 2022
Edit

Minor tweaks, mostly to standard flex slot inclusions to match with what I'm trying IRL at the moment.

Seasoned Pyromancer - Once in a while I find myself in a game where I've assembled the Curio/Birgi combo for infinite mana but lack the gas to make use of it. In these situations Seasoned Pyromancer offers a method to draw out the deck while also being a genuinely decent performer when played for value outside of this scenario (not to mention that an infinite army of token 1/1s is technically a win condition). Repeatable card draw on a creature ETB has been a nice addition to the deck so far. This guy is the one change that's probably the most significant.

Jeska, Thrice Reborn, Chandra, Acolyte of Flame - Testing for performance, in particular in situations where they can be used to help close out the game as outright win conditions with Curio combo in place.

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Casual

98% Competitive

Revision 3 See all

(3 years ago)

-1 Apex of Power main
+1 Chandra, Acolyte of Flame main
-1 Commune with Lava main
-1 Conjurer's Bauble main
+1 Curse of Opulence main
-1 Dwarven Mine main
+1 Emergence Zone main
+1 Jeska, Thrice Reborn main
-1 Koth of the Hammerfoil main
-1 Magmatic Insight main
-1 Memnite main
-1 Pyroclasm main
+1 Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer main
+1 Runaway Steam-Kin main
+1 Seasoned Pyromancer main
+1 Voldaren Epicure main