For grave-hate to be effective, it either needs to be a continuous effect (like
Leyline of the Void) or instant-speed (
Tormod's Crypt). Sorcery-speed is just bad, and a land that enters tapped is bad. Therefore
Bojuka Bog is an all-around bad choice.
Tormod's Crypt and
Nihil Spellbomb both make good choices for a storm deck.
Relic of Progenitus is usually a good choice, but with
Kess, Dissident Mage you want to avoid exiling your own graveyard.
Now let's talk storm.
With a storm deck, you aim to have one big explosive turn. In simple terms, this means casting upwards of 20+ spells in one turn. Your spells need to be low-cost, draw more cards, and net mana. If you've tested this deck out, you may have seen this already. Cast
High Tide, then cast
Frantic Search. You get two new cards, net positive mana, and increase the storm count. Now you just have to keep doing stuff like that for the whole turn, while looking for
Aetherflux Reservoir or the Dramatic Scepter combo. If at any point in your combo turn you find you can't keep casting spells, the game is over for you.
So here's the gameplan: Turn 1 and 2 are your setup turns. Use these to play mana ramp and some draw effects (
Windfall,
Mystic Remora). Turn 3 you're playing Kess. Turn 4 you're going to try to storm off and win. Seeing as how some cards will be out of your price range, turn 5 might be the better turn for you to try and win on, and you can use turn 4 to set-up for that explosive turn.
Let's break down your decklist now.
Mana RampArcane SignetBaral, Chief of ComplianceCabal RitualChromatic Lantern
Commander's SphereCopy ArtifactDark RitualDimir SignetFellwar StoneGoblin ElectromancerHigh TideIzzet SignetMana Geyser
Primal Amulet // Primal WellspringSol RingTalisman of CreativityTalisman of DominanceI've already explained why you should remove
Chromatic Lantern,
Commander's Sphere, and
Goblin Electromancer, so I won't go over it again.
Mana Geyser takes a lot of mana to cast, and gives only red; the least desirable color of mana for this deck.
Dockside Extortionist will be a good swap. Primal Amulet takes too much of an investment with not enough of a benefit to be worth using.
Helm of Awakening is absolutely better. Throw in a
Mana Vault and
Lotus Petal as well if you can.
Card DrawBrainstormConsecrated SphinxDack FaydenFaithless LootingFrantic SearchGitaxian ProbeMystic RemoraNarset, Parter of VeilsNotion ThiefOptPonderPreordainRhystic StudySerum VisionsSleight of HandThought ScourWindfallConsecrated Sphinx gives really good card draw, but it comes out too late to be viable in cEDH.
Thought Scour seems like a weird choice to me. There's better card draw you can use. I'm also on the fence about
Narset, Parter of Veils. If stopping your opponent's card draw is important in your meta, keep her in. Otherwise, you may as well just use
Impulse. You've actually got a really good amount of card draw. The only thing that's really missing is
Ad Nauseam and the wheel effects, but those can be expensive.
Storm win-conAetherflux ReservoirChain of VaporGuttersnipe
Increasing VengeancePast in FlamesTalrand, Sky SummonerThousand-Year StormUnderworld BreachGood call on getting rid of Talrand.
Guttersnipe can go at the same time. Both of them need to be on the battlefield at the start of the combo turn to be any good, whereas something like
Aetherflux Reservoir or
Tendrils of Agony can be used at the end of the turn. Instead,
Mind's Desire can replace one of them. It doesn't win you the game
per se, but I've yet to see a storm deck lose after resolving one. Depending on what you're opponents play you might want
Mnemonic Betrayal. It's at least worth testing out.
Increasing Vengeance I'm on the fence about. I've never seen it used in a storm deck because it's very situational when you would want to cast it. If you find it works well, keep it in, but think about replacing it with either
Rebuild or
Paradoxical Outcome.
You might also be surprised to see
Chain of Vapor in this section instead of the removal section. That's because in a storm deck you can use it on a mana rock, and then sacrifice a land to target another mana rock. This can really increase your storm count, and with something like
Helm of Awakening out, you could net positive mana.
Other win-consDemonic ConsultationDramatic ReversalExsanguinate
Finale of PromiseIsochron ScepterJace, Wielder of MysteriesLaboratory ManiacThassa's OracleExsanguinate and
Finale of Promise in this deck are "dead cards". These are cards that are only good for the combo, and have no use without some other cards in the deck. In this case, they are useless without the Dramatic Scepter combo. You can toss them away.
TutorsDark PetitionDemonic TutorIncreasing AmbitionMerchant ScrollMystical TutorIncreasing Ambition costs a lot of mana, making it impractical.
Gamble is the only other budget option I can think of.
Removal and interactionAbradeAnger of the GodsCounterfluxCounterspellCyclonic RiftDisallowDreadboreJaya's Immolating InfernoMuddle the MixtureNarset's ReversalNegateSwan SongToxic DelugeAnger of the Gods and
Jaya's Immolating Inferno seem like strange choices. If
Anger of the Gods is a meta call, keep it in. As for Jaya's, replace it with
Fire Covenant.
Dreadbore can also go (sorcery-speed).
Counterflux can be replaced with
Flusterstorm, the more versatile version. If possible, try to replace the 2 mana counterspells with 1 mana versions. Even something like
Spell Pierce can be very useful.
One last thing...Storm decks are very hard to pilot. This really is a case of practice makes perfect. Keep rehearsing the deck and trying out new things. Get a feel for what kinds of starting hands you should keep, and which ones you should mulligan away. If ever you're having difficulties, I know that
Yidris, Maelstrom Wielder is an easier storm deck to pilot.
English
Deutsch
Español
Português
Italiano
Français