MTG Salvation

The basic premise of the deck is to dump artifacts in an attempt to draw either paradox engine or a card that searches for paradox engine. Once engine is out the deck plays spells that either trigger Jhoira, Weatherlight Captain or allow another card (such as azor's gateway) to draw more cards in order to cast more cards (rinse, repeat, yadda-yadda) until win conditions such as aetherflux reservoir, psychosis crawler, or Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind are found.

Right now my biggest concern is that I still have some slower cards that nine times out of ten wind up only being useful because they trigger jhoira during the combo run (padeem, slobad, karn, and ugin often fall into this category). Even worse, they sometimes clog up the combo early on because they require too much mana to cast and continue. Part of me just wants to play more rocks (maybe basalt monolith or grim monolith), but they haven't improved consistency or speed enough to warrant the risk.

I would appreciate suggestions.

I'm sure you can find some way to sneak in Words of Wind.

Cuts I would make:
Etherium-Horn Sorcerer
niv-mizzet, dracogenius
ral-zarek
mirrorworks
hellkite igniter
karn liberated
brittle effigy
duplicant
Spine of Ish Sah
dreamstone hedron

I think these cards add little to the gameplan of winning with paradox engine as fast as possible.

Cards I would consider adding:
cavern of souls naming artificer
academy ruins - Gives a bit of resilience by getting back your paradox engine
Krark-Clan Ironworks - Massive mana potential and can sac itself
mishra's bauble - Free draw
walking ballista - Can be cast for 0 for an untap trigger + draw or be an infinite mana sink
isochron scepter + dramatic reversal - Reliable alternate win condition
hurkyl's recall - Add some reliability to the combo
lotus petal - Free spell for untap trigger + draw + acceleration
transmute artifact - One of the strongest artifact tutors
astral cornucopia - Can be cast for 0 or be a mana sink if you need colored mana
spellskite - Protects both your general and paradox engine from targetted removal
frantic search - Filter and "free"
mystical tutor - Searches out your paradox engine tutors or other utility
myr retriever/junk diver - Can make the combo more reliable by just giving you infinite artifacts to cast
metalworker - Big mana dork

You run a lot of basic lands. You can probably steal a fair number of games by adding blood moon and/or back to basics to just lock people out of the game for 3 mana.

There's also almost no interaction in your deck, you are at big risk of just getting locked out of the game through permission and removal, or having people combo off faster than you.
Consider cards like:
mana drain
force of will
pact of negation
swan song
dispel
negate
counterspell
vandalblast
by force
red elemental blast
pyroblast
pongify
rapid hybridization
reality shift
chaos warp

how have aetherflux reservoir and psychosis crawler worked out for you?

i cut both from my list because what generally happened with psychosis crawler was that it did maybe 5 damage before i combo'd off so it felt totally pointless because i could just run something to protect the combo better or dig for it harder, actually this is why i cut locust god too. it'd generally make me like 6 tokens and then i'd combo off anyway

reservoir i cut for very similar reasons though if i had more combos that let me infinitely cast things... but at the same time, if jhoira is in play you're going to dig through your entire deck that way anyway so might as well just run a lab maniac or an infinite mana dump or something to dig better harder faster, or some protection

i also don't like hellkite igniter or mirroworks here. how have they been for you?
mirroworks... the tokens don't trigger her and copying your combo pieces is totally unnecessary, which kinda just leaves rocks.

35 lands with so many rocks might be a little high too...

have you considered mycosynth lattice as an alternate wincon?
vandal blast wins you the game with that, or if you have infinite mana and need a dump you can now turn your etherium horn sorcerer into a way to cascade/draw your entire deck

capsize goes infinite with the right rocks and paradox engine, there's another wincon, or you could do fanning the flames too

slobad is a neat inclusion i somehow missed, hows that been working out for you?

cogwork assembler can also be fun. enough powerstone shard and its infinite tokens. enough artifacts in hand plus metalworker is infinite tokens. they might be worth considering

how has saheeli been working out? i cut her recently. the token was pretty much all i ever used her for, and the majority of the time it was just to make more mana to play something else so it felt pointless.

other things to consider might be:

grim monolith
basalt monolith
rings of brighthearth
staff of domination
lotus petal
power artifact
lion's eye diamond
paradoxical outcome

if you're married to the locust god style effects have you considered reckless fireweaver?

trinket mage trophy mage and fabricate are decent includes too.

you could add things like goblin welder and trash for treasure to go with a reanimation route

the antiquities war has also been awesome for me

i run ruby medallion and sapphire medallion to get her out a little faster, they've been cuttable but decent so far

chromatic lantern has also been exceptional for mana fixing as colored sources can be difficult to come by once you get rolling

i've also been testing defense grid and ensnaring bridge as a means to protect myself from disruption or craterhoof, but the jury is still out on them.

Thanks for all the suggestions, guys. After playing a few games over the last few days I learned the value of some of your suggestions. Counterspells were especially useful as I found myself having to try and stop other combo decks, though I never got the chance to use one to defend my own plays. Remand was especially silly, as I wound up using it to counter one of my own spells for an additional two draws (1 for casting the spell that triggers jhoira, another for Remand, and a third for casting the same artifact spell again).

I cut a lot of the silly win-more stuff (like the niv mizzets), as I decided to go smaller and took some inspiration from eggs. Other casualties of going lean were cards like Tezzeret the Seeker, who often times felt kind of like bloated "storm count" cards for Aetherflux Reservoir or a free draw from Jhoira after he untapped something like basalt monolith and sol ring. However, I have still kept multiple win conditions in Aetherflux Resevoir and Laboratory Maniac.

Big thanks for the Laboratory Maniac suggestion. His trigger was a lot harder for opponents to to interact with compared to Psychosis Crawler.

The biggest change was going smaller on the average CMC. It only brought the deck down about a turn in reliability for the combo (t6 to t5), but the upshot has been less outlier games where the deck completely stalls out. In fact, I've had more outlier games trend to t4 wins (disclaimer: it could also be luck, as I've only played a dozen or so games since the changes).

I still haven't tested Blood Moon or Back to Basics, but I do like the suggestion and will hopefully get around to testing it. Transmute Artifact hasn't made the deck because of current monetary restraints, but I'll probably play it over gamble when the time comes.

kuldotha forgemaster maybe?

I also think you might want to replace the worse mana rocks like worn powerstone, thran dynamo and dreamstone hedron for ones like mox diamond, grim monolith and such.

Do you still play this deck? I’m making a Jhoira combo deck (not storm), and had some ideas, and got some ideas from your list.