Zethi Tempo Storm (EDH / Commander)

Introduction

Zethi is an unusual commander, as she offers a storm strategy in a color combination that isn't well known for that theme. Exiling instants for use on any of your later turns is pretty strong, but she comes with her own downsides. She needs to attack to copy the spells she's exiled, but she's only a 3/3. Attacking recklessly might be ok in the early game but even for the most creature-weak deck a 3/3 is pretty easy to kill with blockers alone, and opponents will be incentivized to do so when they realize your deck entirely revolves around her. Additionally we need to pay for all the spells she copies, meaning we often have to choose whether we're dedicating our mana to cards in our hand or the cards she's stored, which slows us down. If we want to add cards to her mana pool, we have to bounce her back to our hand and recast her to add those cards, which also slows us down. We have to cast the spells we want to add to her pool prior before we can target them in the graveyard, which slows us down further, and we generally need 6-8 instants available to us as a storm deck, which greatly increases the cost of our commander, which slows us down even more, and because our multikicker is white/blue only and most of our cantrips are 1 or 2 mana, we get little value out of sources that produce colorless mana, so we become more constricted on our mana options.

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Now that we know the challenges to her success we can design accordingly. To avoid hefty multi-kicker costs we instead copy Zethi herself, so that when we attack we'll make more copies of the spells originally exiled. This way we can cast her for 4 or 5 mana at the start and kick 1 or 2 instants, then we can build towards our 6-8 instants through the copies rather than reinvesting another 7-9 mana to recast & kick Zethi. Thus we're running cards like strionic resonator, vesuvan duplimancy, and helm of the host. We're using cards like resonator over Sakashima because they also have per-turn target flexibility, and even though Helm is comparable in cost it can scale our spell-pool much farther when left unanswered. Copying also offers the benefit of multiple instances of high-value instants. Having 4 Swords to Plowshares can wind up being more powerful than having 1 Swords to plowshares + pongify + generous gift + rapid hybridization. As an aside, I'm not a large fan of the later cards because the tokens they create are strong enough to block and kill Zethi without the right setup on our end, so they can work against us.

Additionally copying helps us to circumnavigate our lack of haste effects. Have a copy of her on the field, bounce the original to your hand and recast her to add your desired instants, then attack with the copy to immediately cast those newly added instants! This will be very useful when you've just used or discarded cards like Cyclonic Rift, Teferi's Protection or Beacon of Immortality, otherwise you give each opponent a full turn to answer you after you recast her and add those instants.

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Because she always needs to be protected we'll be running cards like mother of the runes and crystal shard. Permanents are important here because we always need them on hand for defense and evasion. Protection instants are nice and can be exiled by Zethi, but once they're added they'll only protect her during combat. Being able to answer removal during main phases and during your opponents turns will be necessary. Similarly we'll want dedicated and consistent card draw since most of our spells are low-cost to cast, so we'll be running things like Rhystic Study and Archmage of Emeritus. Cantrips for both effects are still included however. Our bounce permanents will also work double duty to add spells to our pool to recast her if copying her is unavailable.

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To avoid always needing to play the spells we want to put in Zethi's pool we're running connive effects like Ledger Shredder and discard spells like Faithful Mending and Frantic Search. Some of our most powerful cards we can add to Zethi's pool require us to discard them rather than cast as well, so having some discard available for those setups is needed.

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Because so much of the deck is dedicated to storm we're also running a decent amount of lifegain, both to help with our inevitable loss of life due to our lack of blockers and because they'll still play into our storm cards and thus simultaneously aid us towards our win conditions.

Win Cons

This deck wins through commander damage or direct damage from Aetherflux Reservoir, Sentinel Tower, or Sphinx-Bone Wand.

• Aetherflux Reservoir is the most straightforward and needs the least amount of setup when drawn early, requiring a minimum of 8 mana (including reservoirs casting cost) if you have the right instants. The only downside to this card is that you won't have enough blockers to regularly stop damage, so it might be difficult at times to get back up to the 50+ life required to kill with Aetherflux. This can be alleviated however by giving Zethi lifelink when you've buffed her, or by casting beacon of immortality.
• Sentinel Tower needs 8 instants cast during your turn to deal lethal damage (for starting life totals) costing a minimum of 13 mana (including the tower's casting cost. Using Strionic Resonator or Lithoform engine reduces it to 5 instants for a minimum of 13-15 mana, and having both out only reduces it to 4 instants for a minimum of 18 mana. Sentinel Tower can be risky however because it deals damage whenever anyone casts an instant or sorcery during your turn, so you could cast all the instants needed to deal lethal damage, and then someone else adds 1 instant to the stack and kills you instead. I would only advise 1-shoting someone with this card if your opponents are tapped out or you have grand abolisher on the field.
• Sphinx-Bone Wand needs 9 instants cast to deal lethal damage (for starting life totals) costing a minimum of 18 mana (including the wand's casting cost). Using Strionic Resonator or Lithoform engine reduces it to 6 instants for a minimum of 17-19 mana, and having both out only reduces it to 5 instants for a minimum of 22 mana. Unlike sentinel tower the damage is based on counters rather than per-turn instances, and thus it's easier to build up to killing with it over multiple turns. It also lacks the weakness Sentinel Tower has in that it only triggers from your instants and sorceries, no one else's. Because it costs 7 mana however there may not be that many turns left in the game after you've played it.
  • The additional benefit of these cards is that when they're not serving to immediately kill your opponent they're either removing creatures of their board or gaining you more life to sustain towards winning.

There's many different ways to get to commander damage kills with this deck:

• Show of Confidence + Leonin Lightscribe + Kaya's Onslaught. Add 1 other spell into this combo, such as shadow Rift, and you'll be making Zethi a 12/12 with double strike, which will 1 shot any opponent if it goes unblocked for a minimum total of 8 mana.
  • If you're missing Kaya's Onslaught or Leonin Lightscribe from this combo it will take an additional 6 instants to buff Zethi enough to kill, a minimum of 10 mana.
  • If you're missing both it'll take an additional whopping 19 instants. At best this can be reduced by 8 power with our 6 other buffing instants, but we'll still need 3 more instants past those, which is still a minimum of 15 mana. The requirements vary though if we have more than 2 +2/+2 instants via copying Zethi. 2 copies of zethi with both +2/+2 instants exiled gives us +12/+12 with those 6 and +7 from show of confidence. The mana costs for such an outcome is actually higher, but puts less stress on how many cards we need.

How to Play

Early Game

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Mid Game

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Late Game

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Weaknesses and Contingencies

Graveyard hate, cost-increasers and early removal of your commander can all be devastating to this deck, making it all the more important that you have some available protection to your commander when you play her and retain your own removal spells for things that will put you under.

Combo's and Big Plays

• Teferi's Protection + Grand Abolisher. If you manage to discard the former you'll be able to Exile it with Zethi, casting it every turn with her attack trigger. Combined with the later makes you nearly untouchable; ensuring you can build up your board or spell list until you can win with it.
• Cyclonic Rift. Powerful in it's own right, it can still be cast for its overload cost after Zethi exiles it. Board wiping all of your enemies every turn is seriously oppressive and almost impossible to come back from for many decks.
• Mystical tutor + Nexus of Fate exiled by Zethi. Cast Nexus, shuffling it back into the deck, then attack with Zethi and cast the tutor to search for nexus again, allowing you to draw it again at the start of your extra turn. So long as you can ensure Zethi doesn't die during her attack this can be repeated indefinitely.
  • Nexus of Fate is interchangeable with Beacon of Immortality to instead double your life each turn. As Beacon is discard-able however Mystical Tutor is not required to set up to repeatedly cast it.
  • Narset's reversal is interchangeable with Mystical tutor for this combo, but is still required to be exiled by Zethi.
• Narset's reversal + Snap + Primal Wellspring. This combo provides infinite casts of snap. Cast snap using Primal Wellspring, creating a copy of snap. Let the copy resolve, untapping Primal Wellspring and another tapped land. Then tap those 2 lands again to cast narset's reversal, which creates a copy of narset's reversal. Have the copy target the original. When the copy resolves it'll return the original back to your hand and create a new copy. Have the new copy target snap, also returning that card to your hand and creating a copy of that. Finally use the copy of snap to untap the lands you tapped for narset's reversal, including Primal Wellspring. This will leave us with no lands tapped and both cards back in hand after having cast and copied both of them. Repeat the cycle as many times as you want to bounce every creature off the board.
  • Snap can be replaced by Frantic search to instead draw and discard as many cards as you want and gain 1 left over mana in your pool for each cycle, or be replaced by turnabout for as much land or artifact based mana you can produce (-6) per cycle.