---------------------------------------- Last update 2/24/2020!
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This is my "casual" multiplayer storm deck. This deck started with a desire to play the sub-optimal storm cards, with a self-restriction to purposefully not play blue (so no high tides, no frantic searchs, no aetherflux reservoirs, no mind's desire).
This deck has a bit of history, but in short, was born from wanting something different. I do maintain two other storm decks featuring Rakdos the Defiler (salvation post and tappedout list) and Jori En, Ruin Diver (tappedout list), but this KolaghanRakdos, the Showstopper one is perhaps my favorite to run!
The current decklist can be found below;
If you would like to playtest this using the tappedout site feature, click here.
~ The easiest way to win is to "draw big" via Ad Nauseam. The goal is to get a hand with over 25(ish) cards, so when we tutor up Inner Fire, we should have enough mana to storm off with whatever route is easiest to assemble. This goal is not necessary for the deck to win - it just makes things easier. There are more than enough high-draw/wheel, rituals, and recursion in the deck that we can still assemble lethal storm turns without ad nauseam.
~ This deck runs two alternative/back-up's to ad nauseam, in Necrologia and Necropotence. These two cards can help draw us more, but with the inclusion of an infinite hand size (reliquary tower/spellbook/thought vessel), we can draw 30+ and retain the cards in hand. Expedition Map is used almost always to get reliquary tower to help enable this. So there is potential to draw more than what ad nauseam can give us, but the issue here is that we do not have access to those cards for a full turn cycle. We can not EoT-Ad Nauseam surprise the opponents, and are vulnerable to the opponents attacking us. So when paying the life to draw hard, we have to consider and evaluate all possible incoming damage, the likelihood of a deck surprising us with haste effects, and even look for man-lands like creeping tar pit.
~ Depending on the amount of mana we have to work with, using increasing vengeance in combination with inner fire can make a somewhat complicated storm-turn very easy to navigate. Typically we want to retain as many cards in hand before casting inner fire, but if we also have increasing vengeance then it is absolutely worth casting a few rituals to allow us two extra red mana for increasing vengeance. If it isn't clear - we can copy inner fire with increasing vengeance, and since the copy resolves first, we will have the red mana from the copy to then flashbackincreasing vengeance from the graveyard for two more copies of inner fire. This means instead of just 25ish red mana, we can generate 80+ red mana.
~ A fun/casual interaction to help set up easy victory turns is built entirely around insidious dreams, using reforge the soul to give us a god-hand. If we are not up against someone that can counter insidious dreams (since discard is part of casting), we can usually win with just this one card. Since it is an instant, we want to end-of-opponents-turn cast it, discarding our entire hand (hopefully about 3(ish) cards). We can then just put reforge the soul + a few other parts on top of our deck, so we un-tap and get the miracle effect, and draw whatever cards we need to win the game. Depending on the volume of mana we have, and the number of parts we were able to assemble, we can try to go off immediately, but sometimes it is safer to just get ad nauseam + a ritual or two to cast on the following end-of-opponents-turn, setting up the win for the following turn.
~ With a nice draw+Inner Fire, we typically just want to sequence out as many cards as smoothly as possible. First we need to look at how many parts we have in-hand to win the game, and the number of tutors and recursion we have to use to make that happen, and what extra we have to durdle around with. Then we want to see if it is possible to re-buy inner fire from the graveyard to generate more mana. After we find the maximum amount of mana from inner fire, then we need to start casting more junk, starting with spell-reduction effects (helm of awakening/nightscape familiar/etc), and then other mana generation (rocks & minor rituals). Finally we push out our tutors to start collecting the parts we want to win the game with (such as finding empty the warrens, Impact Tremors and/or Purphoros, God of the Forge). We may need to wheel or recur a few spells/tutors/rituals during this entire process, and some cards do have ideal times to be cast (such as using gamble earlier than later).
~ Guttersnipe,Firebrand Archer, and Thermo-Alchemist are three mid-storm burn effects that hit each opponent. These are fantastic at helping lower the total damage required to kill multiple opponents, and can come out early to chip/block.
~ Dread Summons is a semi-backup to Empty the Warrens. It is a mana-sink, so right after a big inner fire play we can just tutor+resolve Purphoros, God of the Forge and then dump the rest in to Dread Summons for an easy win. Alternatively it can be used to fill the graveyward to enable mizzix's mastery. Sadly the tokens do come in to play tapped, so we can't immediately attack with them using Dragonlord Kolaghan's haste, or block with them when we need to survive.
~ Skirk Prospector is secretly a powerful ritual, acting as mid-storm ritual after a mild Empty the Warrens. If we get just 5x spells (including prospector & empty), we can then sack the goblens for 10x red mana, which is a nice jump to help recur our storm spell, or set up an overloaded Mizzix's Mastery.
~ Volcanic Awakening is a stall mechanic. Sometimes we have an "almost" storm turn, where we can spam out a few rituals, or try to set up a draw effect for a later turn. Sometimes we don't see a clear path, and we just end up casting dragonlord kolaghan and attacking with her. In these games we can use volcanic awakening to cripple the opponent(s) mana. This spell can be used even early-game to just blow out one opponent if we drop two mana-rocks/rituals and then kill their mana. While it seems over'costed and very odd, it has proven it's worth and power in this deck, giving the deck more than enough time to rebuild, kill with Kolaghan, or just make people scoop up their cards.
~ Even if we do not see any normal offensive enabling cards, we can still try to kill an opponent with just Dragonlord KolaghanRakdos, the Showstopper. Haze of Rage used to be in the deck for this, since mana-reduction effects (ruby medallion/nightscape familiar/helm of awakening) made it very easy to buy-back and spam-cast, easily pumping Kolaghan to 21+ power. With the volume of fast mana that this deck has, seeing a turn-2 KolaghanRakdos tends to happen when I want a distraction disruption, or if I just don't have any tutors/paths to victory. She he is quite good at murdering an opponent.
~ The new Underworld Breach combos with Wheel of Fortune and Lion's Eye Diamond, allowing us to continually cast them and sculpt a semi-perfect graveyard. We can continue casting the wheel + LED from the 'yard until we have enough rituals to put out purhp + empty, all while dramatically building storm.
An old/outdated video of this deck can be found here. It is from 2017, so I wouldn't use it for card choices, just for vocal chatter about interactions.
In the history of this deck, around April of 2018, a paradox engine variant was tested for mana-generation instead of inner fire. This version of the deck was found to be strictly worse and changed back to inner fire. Now that PE is banned, it's hardly worth noting, but the experimental history can be found here;
You can see the most current version of the deck here, and playtest it by clicking here.
Piloting the deck!
The same end goals are present for this as with the previous inner fire version, but instead of drawing big for high-cards to inner fire, we instead just want to try and resolve paradox engine with a compliment of mana-rocks, and then keep hitting draw effects to chain.
If paradox engine is allowed to stick, some number of mana-rocks and cost-reduction effects can make buy-back cards (lab rats and haze of rage) give infinite storm, and depending on the mana-rocks, infinite mana.
Paradox engine along with some mana-rocks also means null profusion can help us dig very deeply in to our deck. Combined with a buy-back card or ignus, we can draw our entire deck.
Change Log
Early December 2016, decklist created/adapted using a skeleton of my primary rakdos storm list. Deck is highly-budget with causal win-cons' included for generic testing
Jan 8'th
Switching back to Dragonlord Kolaghan over Baby-Kola, unreliable to wait a full turn without a haste enabler, easier to have it in the command zone. I also know I should remove Leering Emblem, since it is beyond erratic. I just have a desire to make the dumb thing work. Also tempted to remove Aetherflux Reservoir (a.k.a. n00b cannon) - as a combat based deck reservoir wins feel like I'm cheating with my own deck theme.
- Pyre Hound (has performed pretty mediocre)
- Storm Entity (almost always chump'ed)
+ Scroll of Masters added for testing
+ Mox Opal (still moving away from budget to optimal)
Jan 10'th
At this point I've decided to permanently keep Dargonlord Kolaghan as the commander. I'm seeing games where the haste beat-stick in the command zone can come out on turn-2 and that alone makes for a quick 1v1 game.
- Ogre Battledriver (high-cmc haste enabler painful off ad nauseam, we have Kolaghan)
- In the Web of War (high-cmc haste enabler painful off ad nauseam, we have Kolaghan)
- Aetherflux Reservoir (a.k.a. n00b cannon, obviously powerful but not on theme)
+ Volcanic Awakening (painful off ad nauseam but potential early-game bomb after a few rituals)
+ Dread Summons (graveyard filler + tremor/purph damage)
+ Sensei's Divining Top (moving further away from budget, ideal for streaming + top-deck tutor assistance)
Jan 11'th
- leering emblem (I wanted it to work, but it was too erratic)
- young pyromancer (ideal with purph/tremors burn, but rarely generated a meaningful presence)
+ pyre hound (trample is actually really relevant on this guy, especially with haze of rage)
+ storm entity (while easily chump'ed, can be an early game play)
Jan 25'th
- random utility
+ Orochi Hatchery (added for testing / another mass token producer or a 0cmc +1 storm)
Feb 12'th
Updated this site to match my more up-to-date tappedout list. Uploaded a video/visual of the deck on youtube here, and a link for people to playtest the current list here.
Feb 20'th
- Mana Geyser (the deck tries to win before this becomes relevant)
+ Vessel of Volatility (a random gift from a friend, clearly not good but testing anyways)
June 10'th
- Shadow of the Grave (interesting & highly situational, irritating to keep graveyard ordered)
+ Diabolic Intent (another 2-drop tutor that just requires a creature to be in play)
Sept 15'th
I'm an idiot and forgot that I had not re-added top from testing, removing weak ritual for it.
- Rite of Flame (good but not good enough)
- Mass Hysteria (really on the fence about this - may come back)
+ Sensei's Divining Top (should have been in the list the entire time)
+ Izzet Chemister (a pseudo-yawgmath's will graveyard re-buy)
Sept 27'th
Saved up for a nice big purchase!
- Lotus Bloom (whimsical / often useless)
- Haze of Rage (fantastic win-con, but also the worst, with more tutors+consistency we don't need it)
- Vessel of Volatility (only lasted since it was a gift - clearly bad)
+ lion's eye diamond (swag)
+ imperial recruiter (swag)
+ Mass Hysteria (more testing / the card is at worst a 1cmc +1 storm)
July 9'th, 2018
Cards recently tested; Bonus Round is amazing. Bad early, but can make double tutors, double rituals, and double draw. When re-buying mass cards from the graveyard with Past in Flames/Yawgmoth's Will/Mizzix's Mastery, it gets insane. Since it's double-sided it does make us vulnerable to double counterspell blowouts. Sentinel Tower (to slow), Stunning Reversal (too high-variance), and Hazoret's Undying Fury (absolute *****) all tested and removed (notes added to July 9'th post here).
August 2018 - deck reverted back to non-Paradox Engine form
Jan 2019 - Dragonlord Kolaghan replaced with Rakdos, the Showstopper! A new commander that is pretty helpful for a black-red storm brew! While we do loose haste for tokens, and the threat of a hasty ritualed out commander as an alternative win-con, Rakdos, the Showstopper provides a little bit of interaction via random creature removal. He can also come out to ward off aggro and preserve our life total.
Feb 2020 - Allure of the Unknown sleeved up to test with over memory jar. Not sure how this will work out. I can foresee the regretful games where I accidentally give a Purphoros, God of the Forge away, but 5cmc psedue-draw-5 (gets around narset hate) seems good.
Untested cards, upgrades, and considerations!
Optimization progress; grim tutor was a consideration to replace cruel tutor, but this was already replaced with wishclaw talisman. If I ever pick one up IRL I'll give it some play in this deck first. Gravebreaker Lamia is a very interesting card, discounting all spells in the 'yard after yawmgoth's will, or even plugging past in flames seems legit. The 5cmc although seems really harsh. I'm sitting on her for a moment while I consider allure of the unknown. If the Lamia makes it in, and underworld breach becomes a linch-pin of the deck, then even entomb may make an appearance.
Cards to test with;
~ already tested everything suggested
Lion's Eye Diamond is great when you're resolving big draw spells and tutors.
Molten Slagheap is definitely not flashy, but it's a land that helps you to set up for your one big turn.
Mutavault can randomly be a second dragon to give your team another +1/+0.
Between Spellbook, Expedition Map for Reliquary Tower and Thought Vessel I get the feeling that you don't want to have a maximum hand size. Is this really necessary? Do you need more than seven cards in your hand to go off? Do you even routinely get up passed seven?
Private Mod Note
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Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
You would never guess, at the terrifying sight of the man, that Hunding was as charming a companion as one could wish for.
This is juicy stuff. What do you think of Pyromancer's Goggles? I have it in a jund deck and get loads of value forking things. Also what about Mana Geyser? I often get 10+ mana with it in my Mizzix deck.
I have never heard of nor seen this card, and I absolutely want this now.
I'm still saving up for a LED for my primary Rakdos deck. It, like many super-expensive cards (imperial seal/grim tutor) are all highly desired, but usually pushed to the bucket-list due to price. I actually chose to invest in this deck instead of pursuing a LED for my main deck. It absolutely should be in the deck, but financially I'd probably try to get fetch' lands for this first.
Between Spellbook, Expedition Map for Reliquary Tower and Thought Vessel I get the feeling that you don't want to have a maximum hand size. Is this really necessary? Do you need more than seven cards in your hand to go off? Do you even routinely get up passed seven?
They are required to retain a hand from a necropotence and necrologia draw, which is an alternative route compared to Ad Nauseam. Ad Nauseam is the easy one, but by using either 'necro we can actually dig way deeper. The issue is we just have to try and survive the turn cycle since this gives all opponents a blatant heads-up warning.
The fun part is trying to do the math to estimate how much damage all opponents can do to me during the turn I hold the grip of cards. In my primary Rakdos deck there have been some very memorable games for wasting tutors to get some dumb creature power boost effect just to try and kill me, or animating a man-land I missed
I did like the idea of adding prowess stuff, but the cmc on most of the "playable" ones was pretty high. I was considering Abbot of Keral Keep for the possible dig. I really wanted to run Bedlam Reveler, but to be honest with myself, it won't come out early, it will murder me when I Ad Nauseam, and when I'm trying to go off, the built in discard will also trash my hand.
This is juicy stuff. What do you think of Pyromancer's Goggles? I have it in a jund deck and get loads of value forking things. Also what about Mana Geyser? I often get 10+ mana with it in my Mizzix deck.
I do like both cards, but having more high-cmc hits off Ad Nauseam can hurt. The goggles may be good to copy one spell on the turn we go off, but if I needed that I'd prefer to run reverberate. Mana Geyser although is worth a consideration. Most of my storm decks are desgined for 1v1, and I hadn't even considered using this as a boosting ritual.
Thanks for the ideas! I'll have to pick up a few more cards and see what can be removed after tomorrows games!
They [hand size modifiers] are required to retain a hand from a necropotence and necrologia draw, which is an alternative route compared to Ad Nauseam. Ad Nauseam is the easy one, but by using either 'necro we can actually dig way deeper...
That makes sense but is Spellbook still good enough on its own?
Private Mod Note
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Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
You would never guess, at the terrifying sight of the man, that Hunding was as charming a companion as one could wish for.
I tried running my original rakdos storm list with just reliquary tower and thought vessel, and found that I was wasting a high volume of early tutors to snag one of those enablers when I naturally drew in to necro/necro. Ever since I added spellbook to the list I'm seeing the infinite hand size more frequently than the enabler that requires it, so I am more likely to tutor necro/necro. The change is slight, but I have noticed it.
I also really do like imperial recruiter here. After playtesting this for a little over a week now, having another way to snag grinning ignus seems very good, and it can pick up some other utility creatures like young pyromancer/pyre hound.
I have almost finished acquiring the legitimate cards to remove my temp-proxies (two more mox and a vamp tute are left), and then I'll be pursuing some of these alternative options.
After playtesting for a little over a week, I'm seeing that in this current design, the deck can go off approximately turn-7(ish), or around turn-5(ish) with one of the high-impact draw spells (necro/necro/ad naus). I've been playing it against 1, 2, and 3 opponents. While it is easier to stomp on fewer opponents, if the critical high-impact draw effects are countered/stopped, or if the deck faces stax effects, then everything falls apart. I've had to resort to just beating with nothing but a plain 6/5 Kolaghan on a few occasions, which can pull a win here and there.
Since the deck has so many routes to a possible victory (tremors/purhp burn, mass tokens, kolaghan beats, or a combination), it has been pretty difficult for my opponents to figure out exactly how to stop this. Most of my friends are aware of stopping ad naus/necro/necro if possible, but past a random fog or evacuation the chaotic nature of this deck seems to make for very interesting games.
So far it is playing as expected - all in attempt will either fail hard, or have a bizarre victory. I've ended up with a few non-winning storm turns where I was not able to kill enough opponents, and I've ended up with multiple blow-outs by a timely counter/bounce. The list needs more work.
It occurs to me that, since a lot of your card drawing also involves discarding, you could maybe sneak some free ramp in here with Drownyard Temple. It's not exactly free since it's yet another land that only taps for C, but you've got a lot of BR-producing lands and nothing that counts Swamps or Mountains.
Private Mod Note
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Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
You would never guess, at the terrifying sight of the man, that Hunding was as charming a companion as one could wish for.
So this deck is nearing 11 months old now, and has been played and tested weekly. I've recently gone over this entire post, deleting excessive rubbish, organizing the theory, refining the how-to, and making the change-log less of a rambling textbook.
The deck is missing three cards that I feel would make it 100% optimized (that is, optimized for the restriction and theme of remaining only black+red, using irregular win-cons, no n00b-cannon reservoir, and empty the warrens focused). Of the missing cards (scalding tarn/badlands/grim tutor), I will shortly have the two lands, but my own vanity is preventing me from pursuing a grim tutor (ugly white boarder in my pretty pimp deck).
I'll be uploading a new video shortly to display the deck and have a verbal how-to explanation. I'm going to also try and record a few live games with two different metas/tables where I play this at.
As always, I'm always open to suggestions, and looking for new cards to test with!
I'm still tinkering with which mana-rocks to plug and what (if any) rituals to remove. The pair of diamonds are likely being pushed due to my own fanaticism for them, but other 2-drop options that come in play untapped don't produce color. After more testing I may drop the diamonds for veinfire borderpost (since the discount still casts the card per storm#).
This experiment may just go away, as I'm not sure if I like the inclusion of paradox engine here or not just yet. If I feel that it is good and stable enough to support then I'll update the main decklist with these adjustments.
While this change is slight, the bigger adjustment may be the release of Garna, the Bloodflame. At the time of this post the official card has not been spoiled, but we have a new haste enabling rakdos commander with a slight twist;
Garna, the Bloodflame
3BR
Legendary Creature - Human Warrior
Flash
When Garna, the Bloodflame enters the battlefield, return to your hand all creature cards in your graveyard that were put there from anywhere this turn.
The bad part about Garna although is not what she offers, but what we loose by removing dragonlord kolaghan. An all-to-frequent path to victory for this deck in 1v1, is to simply ritual out Kolaghan on turn-1 or turn-2, and beat face with a giant haste flyer. Garna doesn't offer this option.
Ok I'm getting back to catching up with all of my forum spamming. This deck is still something I run quite frequently. I've updated the original thread with the most recent version of the deck running paradox engine for mana-generation.
The adjustment from inner fire to paradox engine required a fairly large overhaul to make the deck functional. It changed how mana was created, how the goal of getting to that state was accomplished, the overall mana-curve of the deck (relying on more mana-rocks), and even adjusted some of the win-conditions. A run-down on some of my thought-process is spammed here;
A change like this works backwards into the foundation of how the deck works. When focusing on Inner Fire it was important to rely on high-impact draw spells like Necrologia/Necropotence/Ad Nauseam, two of which are best with infinite hand size enablers like Spell Book/Thought Vessel. There are also some cards in the original list that were dedicated to function well with Inner Fire such as Increasing Vengeance.
Not only does the card function take an impact from this change, but the actual converted mana-cost of this approach needed to be considered. Adding another 5-cmc hurts, but relying on Paradox Engine means that a higher volume of mana-rocks would be needed. The issue is that this is still a 2-color deck, so we don't have access to many more good color-fixing rocks that we are not already running (3-color decks get 3x signets, etc). Fellwar Stone is in, but tap rocks like Charcoal Diamond/Fire Diamond are also being added over 3+ mana artifacts (replacing things like Thought Vessel).
One highly situational rock is Mox Amber was tested already, and may make its way back. When Paradox Engine is successfully firing, we can frequently cast our commander for zero effort. If I feel the consistency is there then I may replace Bubbling Muck with Mox Amber, as both are dead draw/ritualistic cards early game, but would have the same impact late game.
One questionable change is Null Profusion, so we can go nuts once Paradox Engine is running. The issue is that this is a 6-cmc spell, and currently the most expensive card in the deck. A few more draw cards (Commune with Lava & Act on Impulse) are added for the same effect, but the potential to nearly play out the entire deck with Null Profusion + Paradox Engine makes for dangerously fun potential.
After playtesting for some time, I've become fond of Null Profusion. In some stale games I can dump it early to just try and cantrip off a few rituals (filling the graveyard for Mizzix's Mastery), fully aware that it will likely get destroyed (so I can just recur it with Yawgmoth's Will). It's interesting that even with a mediocre handsize I can still use Sensei's Divining Top with it to dig a few deeper and always flop-top for an easy draw + play. Also if I ever do have Paradox Engine running with it, a buy-back spell or Grinning Ignus spam can sometimes mean I just draw my entire deck.
The Inner Fire variant felt more spontaneous and capable of going off earlier, while the Paradox Engine variant feels more stable when making mana. Building a large hand and working up to Inner Fire makes for complex and puzzle like games, while dropping an un-answered Paradox Engine typically means the game is already decided. In my personal opinion, I enjoy the Inner Fire route more. It feels more like a storm deck should, with more thought-power and puzzle solving involved. Paradox Engine is easy to abuse and break, and it can make games go faster since I only have to display a few cards for my opponents to concede.
For the time I will continue to run Paradox Engine, but I will likely return the deck to the Inner Fire variant. It may be the less reliable version of the deck, but the reason I play storm is for the puzzle, not for the ease of victory. Otherwise I'd be playing blue and run Aetherflux Reservoir like everyone else...
Now as per the newer cards and recently tested cards;
Bonus Round is absolutely staying in the deck. It doesn't do much early, but it can make double tutors, double rituals, and double draw. When re-buying stuff from the graveyard with Past in Flames/Yawgmoth's Will/Mizzix's Mastery, it becomes insane. The card is dangerous and we have absolutely failed to a double Counterspell blow-out.
Sentinel Tower didn't do enough, and was often times a worse Sphinx-Bone Wand. Since my deck is more artifact/creature based, it just doesn't fit, and would only be serviceable when rebuying the entire graveyard with Mizzix's Mastery. Sentinel Tower fits likely in a mizzix deck. Yes my deck still runs things like Thermo-Alchemist, but that comes out very early, can block aggro, hits all opponents and does so at least once every turn.
Stunning Reversal seemed amazing in theory, but after testing it for a few weeks, it has been mostly a dead card in hand. Yes with enough mana it can let us pseudo draw our deck with Ad Nauseam, and it can help us survive a lethal attack from an opponent, but most of the time it doesn't directly help us win. The most frequent play I used it for was after the Ad Nauseam play, where I had lowered myself down to 5 or less life, and I would cast it and then try to kill myself with a Vampiric Tutor/Sign in Blood or by tapping Ancient Tomb. That high variance and situational setup meant that the card was too hard to work with. In all honesty Reforge the Soul is better 99% of the time, and most people I've talked with find Reforge the Soul to be a questionable inclusion in this deck. TLDR Stunning Reversal is a good-stuff black card to play in a deck if your opponents tend to kill you when you have 4 mana open. It isn't good enough for storm, even casual-jank-storm like this.
Hazoret's Undying Fury was just a terrible idea and I regret purchasing the card to even playtest with. A 6-cmc drop is bad when playing Ad Nauseam. Yes it has the (unlikely) potential of giving us up to 20cmc worth of cards, but honestly it's garbage. Anything over 4cmc has to be very impactful, or just strait win the game, and a random 4x free cards isn't going to cut it.
This deck is awesome and hilarious. Paradox Engine and I are best friends recently, so any deck that plays it is one I need to at least check out. Making a swarm of rats and Goblins to then eat your opponent with is funny. Otherwise, I think the core of your deck is really strong.
I don't remember seeing it in your list, but Reiterate seems like a natural inclusion in this deck. It can build a storm count and with the Inner Fire version of your deck can generate functionally infinite mana.
I did test reiterate in the original rakdos 1v1 storm list I ran, but it was quickly cut. While possible to go infinite with inner fire or mana geyser (or with 2x spell reduction effects even seething song), the issue is the start-up mana investment.
Using reiterate for anything past a single shot reverberate requires 6 mana In the common scenario this specific deck takes we want to retain as many cards in-hand for inner fire, so even deploying cost reduction effects beforehand may eat up too much mana, cards, or both.
There is also the issue of running too many fork effects in the deck. I love using increasing vengeance since it only requires red+red to get the first copy, and I can use that copys' mana to then cast increasing vengeance from the graveyard. It's also silly under yawgmoth's will. Then there is bonus round which is just a stupid card if it ever resolves. Running a 3rd fork effect may cause the copy spells to be seen more often than the desired-to-copy spells.
My partner has been admitted in the hospital for the last 4 weeks and I've been making some very long road trips once a week to return home and take care of our cat. The good thing is that these trips include a 30-minute detour to StarCityGames store location. Last week I had a chance to sit down with a brilliant competitive EDH player that helped me break down some of the numbers, win/loss chances, and reasons for failure.
To be blunt, he suggested I get off my high horse and add interaction
My normal go-to would be small 1-mana disruption spells like duress/lightning bolt/thoughtseize/vandalblast, but he made the suggestion of defense grid. This literally blew my mind. I've owned a vintage storm deck for years (granted the p9 is all fake), and this runs 2 maindeck defense grids. I feel pretty dumb not even considering it for my 1v1 deck.
While I do like the paradox engine take, I think it's more that I'm enjoying the nostalgia of playing with a card like null profusion again, since I used to run recycle in my high-school casual 60-card deck days. I'll be transforming the deck back to the inner fire variant while testing the above new cards and figuring out how to squeeze some interaction in the deck. I'm going to keep all of the paradox engine enablers although and continue experimenting with that route as new cards come out.
It's been some time since I've updated any of my public lists or published any videos.
I still love and run this deck when I can. My primary two playgroups are still competitive, but not quite cEDH, so it fairs well. I went ahead and updated this post to reflect my current list, updated all the change-logs to reflect everything I've tested with over the two years, and also fixed a bunch of dead url/links.
I'm also currently testing Allure of the Unknown in place of memory jar. This card I'm not really sure about. I like cards that bypass "draw" hate like narset, and I like that it's a color spell over memory jar so ruby medallion & nightscape familiar can discount. I've thus far giving away a free tutor two times, and also lost my empty the warrens to the opponent opting to not cast it from exile. It's interesting and chaotic which makes me like it, but in this particular deck may be strictly worse than memory jar.
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Last update 2/24/2020!
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This is my "casual" multiplayer storm deck. This deck started with a desire to play the sub-optimal storm cards, with a self-restriction to purposefully not play blue (so no high tides, no frantic searchs, no aetherflux reservoirs, no mind's desire).
If you like the common win-con's for storm, then you're in the wrong place.
There are a lot of storm-like cards that get dismissed and ignored due to various levels of optimization, and in this deck I'm wanted to explore those cards. Empty the Warrens was always the focus, but other goodies like Grinning Ignus, Pyre Hound, Haze of Rage, Volcanic Awakening, Storm Entity, Scroll of the Masters, Leering Emblem, Izzet Chemister, Young Pyromancer and others have all been given some play in this deck over the years.
This deck has a bit of history, but in short, was born from wanting something different. I do maintain two other storm decks featuring Rakdos the Defiler (salvation post and tappedout list) and Jori En, Ruin Diver (tappedout list), but this
KolaghanRakdos, the Showstopper one is perhaps my favorite to run!The current decklist can be found below;
If you would like to playtest this using the tappedout site feature, click here.
last updated Feb 2020
1x Rakdos, the Showstopper
Creature (6)
1x Dockside Extortionist
1x Guttersnipe
1x Imperial Recruiter
1x Magus of the Wheel
1x Nightscape Familiar
1x Purphoros, God of the Forge
Instant (12)
1x Ad Nauseam
1x Cabal Ritual
1x Dark Ritual
1x Desperate Ritual
1x Increasing Vengeance
1x Insidious Dreams
1x Necrologia
1x Pyretic Ritual
1x Seething Song
1x Tainted Pact
1x Thrill of Possibility
1x Vampiric Tutor
Sorcery (26)
1x Bonus Round
1x Bubbling Muck
1x Cathartic Reunion
1x Dark Petition
1x Demonic Tutor
1x Empty the Warrens
1x Faithless Looting
1x Finale of Promise
1x Gamble
1x Imperial Seal
1x Inner Fire
1x Magmatic Insight
1x Mizzix's Mastery
1x Night's Whisper
1x Overmaster
1x Past in Flames
1x Recoup
1x Reforge the Soul
1x Scheming Symmetry
1x Shreds of Sanity
1x Sign in Blood
1x Tendrils of Agony
1x Tormenting Voice
1x Wheel of Fortune
1x Wild Guess
1x Yawgmoth's Will
1x Impact Tremors
1x Necropotence
1x Underworld Breach
Planeswalker (1)
1x Chandra, Acolyte of Flame
Artifact (19)
1x Bag of Holding
1x Chrome Mox
1x Gilded Lotus
1x Grim Monolith
1x Helm of Awakening
1x Lion's Eye Diamond
1x Mana Crypt
1x Mana Vault
1x Memory Jar
1x Mox Diamond
1x Mox Opal
1x Rakdos Signet
1x Ruby Medallion
1x Sensei's Divining Top
1x Sol Ring
1x Spellbook
1x Talisman of Indulgence
1x Thought Vessel
1x Wishclaw Talisman
Land (32)
1x Ancient Tomb
1x Arid Mesa
1x Badlands
1x Blood Crypt
1x Bloodstained Mire
1x Canyon Slough
1x Command Tower
1x Graven Cairns
1x Luxury Suite
1x Marsh Flats
8x Mountain
1x Polluted Delta
1x Scalding Tarn
1x Smoldering Marsh
8x Swamp
1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1x Verdant Catacombs
1x Wooded Foothills
Mana Curve
Average ~ 2.31
0-cmc = 6
1-cmc = 13
2-cmc = 25
3-cmc = 10
4-cmc = 7
5-cmc = 6
6-cmc = 1 (commander)
Piloting the deck!
~ The primary goal of the deck is to make a bunch of goblins from Empty the Warrens. We can then try to attack,
giving them haste from our commander Dragonlord Kolaghan,or we can just try to burn out the opponents using Impact Tremors and/or Purphoros, God of the Forge.~ The easiest way to win is to "draw big" via Ad Nauseam. The goal is to get a hand with over 25(ish) cards, so when we tutor up Inner Fire, we should have enough mana to storm off with whatever route is easiest to assemble. This goal is not necessary for the deck to win - it just makes things easier. There are more than enough high-draw/wheel, rituals, and recursion in the deck that we can still assemble lethal storm turns without ad nauseam.
~ This deck runs two alternative/back-up's to ad nauseam, in Necrologia and Necropotence. These two cards can help draw us more, but with the inclusion of an infinite hand size (reliquary tower/spellbook/thought vessel), we can draw 30+ and retain the cards in hand. Expedition Map is used almost always to get reliquary tower to help enable this. So there is potential to draw more than what ad nauseam can give us, but the issue here is that we do not have access to those cards for a full turn cycle. We can not EoT-Ad Nauseam surprise the opponents, and are vulnerable to the opponents attacking us. So when paying the life to draw hard, we have to consider and evaluate all possible incoming damage, the likelihood of a deck surprising us with haste effects, and even look for man-lands like creeping tar pit.
~ Depending on the amount of mana we have to work with, using increasing vengeance in combination with inner fire can make a somewhat complicated storm-turn very easy to navigate. Typically we want to retain as many cards in hand before casting inner fire, but if we also have increasing vengeance then it is absolutely worth casting a few rituals to allow us two extra red mana for increasing vengeance. If it isn't clear - we can copy inner fire with increasing vengeance, and since the copy resolves first, we will have the red mana from the copy to then flashback increasing vengeance from the graveyard for two more copies of inner fire. This means instead of just 25ish red mana, we can generate 80+ red mana.
~ A fun/casual interaction to help set up easy victory turns is built entirely around insidious dreams, using reforge the soul to give us a god-hand. If we are not up against someone that can counter insidious dreams (since discard is part of casting), we can usually win with just this one card. Since it is an instant, we want to end-of-opponents-turn cast it, discarding our entire hand (hopefully about 3(ish) cards). We can then just put reforge the soul + a few other parts on top of our deck, so we un-tap and get the miracle effect, and draw whatever cards we need to win the game. Depending on the volume of mana we have, and the number of parts we were able to assemble, we can try to go off immediately, but sometimes it is safer to just get ad nauseam + a ritual or two to cast on the following end-of-opponents-turn, setting up the win for the following turn.
~ With a nice draw+Inner Fire, we typically just want to sequence out as many cards as smoothly as possible. First we need to look at how many parts we have in-hand to win the game, and the number of tutors and recursion we have to use to make that happen, and what extra we have to durdle around with. Then we want to see if it is possible to re-buy inner fire from the graveyard to generate more mana. After we find the maximum amount of mana from inner fire, then we need to start casting more junk, starting with spell-reduction effects (helm of awakening/nightscape familiar/etc), and then other mana generation (rocks & minor rituals). Finally we push out our tutors to start collecting the parts we want to win the game with (such as finding empty the warrens, Impact Tremors and/or Purphoros, God of the Forge). We may need to wheel or recur a few spells/tutors/rituals during this entire process, and some cards do have ideal times to be cast (such as using gamble earlier than later).
~ Guttersnipe,
Firebrand Archer, and Thermo-Alchemistare three mid-storm burn effects that hit each opponent. These are fantastic at helping lower the total damage required to kill multiple opponents, and can come out early to chip/block.~
Dread Summons is a semi-backup to Empty the Warrens. It is a mana-sink, so right after a big inner fire play we can just tutor+resolve Purphoros, God of the Forge and then dump the rest in to Dread Summons for an easy win. Alternatively it can be used to fill the graveyward to enable mizzix's mastery. Sadly the tokens do come in to play tapped, so we can't immediately attack with them using Dragonlord Kolaghan's haste, or block with them when we need to survive.~
Skirk Prospector is secretly a powerful ritual, acting as mid-storm ritual after a mild Empty the Warrens. If we get just 5x spells (including prospector & empty), we can then sack the goblens for 10x red mana, which is a nice jump to help recur our storm spell, or set up an overloaded Mizzix's Mastery.~ Mizzix's Mastery is, in general, an absurd card. When overloaded, it "casts" each spell from the 'yard, and we can choose the order of which the spells are "cast." So pitching a storm card from something like Faithless Looting/Cathartic Reunion/Tormenting Voice/Wild Guess/Insidious Dreams is actually a very easy tactic to set up a Mizzix's Mastery win. Dread Summons is included to help aid the self-mill strategy, and/or create more tokens for purhp/tremors
~
Volcanic Awakening is a stall mechanic. Sometimes we have an "almost" storm turn, where we can spam out a few rituals, or try to set up a draw effect for a later turn. Sometimes we don't see a clear path, and we just end up casting dragonlord kolaghan and attacking with her. In these games we can use volcanic awakening to cripple the opponent(s) mana. This spell can be used even early-game to just blow out one opponent if we drop two mana-rocks/rituals and then kill their mana. While it seems over'costed and very odd, it has proven it's worth and power in this deck, giving the deck more than enough time to rebuild, kill with Kolaghan, or just make people scoop up their cards.~ Even if we do not see any normal offensive enabling cards, we can still try to kill an opponent with just
Dragonlord KolaghanRakdos, the Showstopper. Haze of Rage used to be in the deck for this, since mana-reduction effects (ruby medallion/nightscape familiar/helm of awakening) made it very easy to buy-back and spam-cast, easily pumping Kolaghan to 21+ power. With the volume of fast mana that this deck has, seeing a turn-2KolaghanRakdos tends to happen when I want adistractiondisruption, or if I just don't have any tutors/paths to victory.Shehe is quite good at murdering an opponent.~ The new Underworld Breach combos with Wheel of Fortune and Lion's Eye Diamond, allowing us to continually cast them and sculpt a semi-perfect graveyard. We can continue casting the wheel + LED from the 'yard until we have enough rituals to put out purhp + empty, all while dramatically building storm.
An old/outdated video of this deck can be found here. It is from 2017, so I wouldn't use it for card choices, just for vocal chatter about interactions.
In the history of this deck, around April of 2018, a paradox engine variant was tested for mana-generation instead of inner fire. This version of the deck was found to be strictly worse and changed back to inner fire. Now that PE is banned, it's hardly worth noting, but the experimental history can be found here;
You can see the most current version of the deck here, and playtest it by clicking here.
1x Dragonlord Kolaghan
Creature (9)
1x Firebrand Archer
1x Grinning Ignus
1x Guttersnipe
1x Imperial Recruiter
1x Magus of the Wheel
1x Nightscape Familiar
1x Purphoros, God of the Forge
1x Skirk Prospector
1x Thermo-Alchemist
Instant (10)
1x Ad Nauseam
1x Cabal Ritual
1x Commune with Lava
1x Dark Ritual
1x Desperate Ritual
1x Insidious Dreams
1x Pyretic Ritual
1x Seething Song
1x Tainted Pact
1x Vampiric Tutor
Sorcery (25)
1x Act on Impulse
1x Bonus Round
1x Bubbling Muck
1x Cathartic Reunion
1x Cruel Tutor
1x Dark Petition
1x Demonic Tutor
1x Empty the Warrens
1x Faithless Looting
1x Gamble
1x Haze of Rage
1x Imperial Seal
1x Lab Rats
1x Magmatic Insight
1x Mizzix's Mastery
1x Night's Whisper
1x Past in Flames
1x Recoup
1x Reforge the Soul
1x Shreds of Sanity
1x Sign in Blood
1x Tormenting Voice
1x Wheel of Fortune
1x Wild Guess
1x Yawgmoth's Will
1x Impact Tremors
1x Necropotence
1x Null Profusion
Artifact (20)
1x Charcoal Diamond
1x Chrome Mox
1x Fellwar Stone
1x Fire Diamond
1x Gilded Lotus
1x Grim Monolith
1x Helm of Awakening
1x Lion's Eye Diamond
1x Lotus Petal
1x Mana Crypt
1x Mana Vault
1x Memory Jar
1x Mox Diamond
1x Mox Opal
1x Paradox Engine
1x Rakdos SignetRU
1x Ruby Medallion
1x Sensei's Divining Top
1x Sol Ring
1x Talisman of Indulgence
Land (32)
1x Ancient Tomb
1x Arid Mesa
1x Blood Crypt
1x Bloodstained MireRU
1x Canyon Slough
1x Command Tower
1x Graven Cairns
1x Marsh Flats
8x Mountain
1x Polluted Delta
1x Reliquary Tower
1x Scalding Tarn
1x Smoldering Marsh
1x Sulfurous Springs
8x Swamp
1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1x Verdant Catacombs
1x Wooded Foothills
Mana Curve
Average ~ 2.35
0-cmc = 6
1-cmc = 12
2-cmc = 25
3-cmc = 12
4-cmc = 5
5-cmc = 6
6-cmc = 2 (including commander)
Piloting the deck!
The same end goals are present for this as with the previous inner fire version, but instead of drawing big for high-cards to inner fire, we instead just want to try and resolve paradox engine with a compliment of mana-rocks, and then keep hitting draw effects to chain.
If paradox engine is allowed to stick, some number of mana-rocks and cost-reduction effects can make buy-back cards (lab rats and haze of rage) give infinite storm, and depending on the mana-rocks, infinite mana.
Landing a purph/impact tremors with grinning ignus or lab rats with paradox engine/rocks just ends the game.
Paradox engine along with some mana-rocks also means null profusion can help us dig very deeply in to our deck. Combined with a buy-back card or ignus, we can draw our entire deck.
Change Log
Early December 2016, decklist created/adapted using a skeleton of my primary rakdos storm list. Deck is highly-budget with causal win-cons' included for generic testing
Dec 25'th
Dragonlord Kolaghan was swapped for Kolaghan, the Storm's Fury for testing (trading haste for a +1/0 boost)
- Priest of Gix (original conceptual idea / was terrible)
- Priest of Urabrask(original conceptual idea / was terrible)
+ Battle Hymn (potential big-ritual)
+ In the Web of War (haste-enabler for goblins after mild empty the warrens)
Jan 8'th
Switching back to Dragonlord Kolaghan over Baby-Kola, unreliable to wait a full turn without a haste enabler, easier to have it in the command zone. I also know I should remove Leering Emblem, since it is beyond erratic. I just have a desire to make the dumb thing work. Also tempted to remove Aetherflux Reservoir (a.k.a. n00b cannon) - as a combat based deck reservoir wins feel like I'm cheating with my own deck theme.
- Pyre Hound (has performed pretty mediocre)
- Storm Entity (almost always chump'ed)
+ Scroll of Masters added for testing
+ Mox Opal (still moving away from budget to optimal)
Jan 10'th
At this point I've decided to permanently keep Dargonlord Kolaghan as the commander. I'm seeing games where the haste beat-stick in the command zone can come out on turn-2 and that alone makes for a quick 1v1 game.
- Ogre Battledriver (high-cmc haste enabler painful off ad nauseam, we have Kolaghan)
- In the Web of War (high-cmc haste enabler painful off ad nauseam, we have Kolaghan)
- Aetherflux Reservoir (a.k.a. n00b cannon, obviously powerful but not on theme)
+ Volcanic Awakening (painful off ad nauseam but potential early-game bomb after a few rituals)
+ Dread Summons (graveyard filler + tremor/purph damage)
+ Sensei's Divining Top (moving further away from budget, ideal for streaming + top-deck tutor assistance)
Jan 11'th
- leering emblem (I wanted it to work, but it was too erratic)
- young pyromancer (ideal with purph/tremors burn, but rarely generated a meaningful presence)
+ pyre hound (trample is actually really relevant on this guy, especially with haze of rage)
+ storm entity (while easily chump'ed, can be an early game play)
Jan 16'th
Considering delving deeper into the self-mill plan. This would require lowering the volume of win-conditions in the
deck, but in theory would make finding them easier, and greatly enhance the mizzix's mastery wins.
- pyre hound (I want it to work, but it isn't good enough)
- storm entity (I want it to work, but it isn't good enough)
- battle hymn (only good when we are already winning)
- 4x random utility cards for testing
+ collective defiance
+ dark deal
+ magmatic insight
+ shattered perception
+ fateful showdown
+ skeletal scrying
+ read the bones
Jan 19'th
Nope, nope, 100% nope. Magmatic Insight was worth keeping, shattered perception was likely the best of these terrible cards, but the card-depreciation wheels were just bad.
- collective defiance (utility was nice, but card-depreciation bad)
- dark deal (card-depreciation bad)
- shattered perception(flashback was nice, but card-depreciation bad)
- fateful showdown (instant was nice, but card-depreciation bad)
- skeletal scrying (we need the graveyard, no time for an x-spell)
- read the bones (too high-cmc for too little draw)
+ mass hysteria (another cheap haste enabler)
+ Paradise Mantle (cute interaction with thermo-alchemist)
+ 4 previously removed utility
Jan 25'th
- random utility
+ Orochi Hatchery (added for testing / another mass token producer or a 0cmc +1 storm)
Feb 12'th
Updated this site to match my more up-to-date tappedout list. Uploaded a video/visual of the deck on youtube here, and a link for people to playtest the current list here.
Feb 14'th
- Orochi Hatchery (win-more, everflowing chalice would have been better)
+ Overmaster (a personal pet/favorite card)
Feb 20'th
- Mana Geyser (the deck tries to win before this becomes relevant)
+ Vessel of Volatility (a random gift from a friend, clearly not good but testing anyways)
May 13'th
- Scroll of the Masters (really fun with Kolaghan but only when resolved early)
- Jeweled Amulet (weak mox, good to +1storm but not powerful enough)
- Tainted Peak (really unreliable)
+ Canyon Slough (another swamp+mountain fetchable)
+ Rhystic Tutor (funny tutor being tested, obviously better options like grim tutor exist)
+ Shadow of the Grave (a nice potential draw after a wheel or two)
June 10'th
- Shadow of the Grave (interesting & highly situational, irritating to keep graveyard ordered)
+ Diabolic Intent (another 2-drop tutor that just requires a creature to be in play)
Aug 15'th
Updated this site to match my more up-to-date tappedout list.
- Rhystic Tutor (funny and just bad, replaced with cruel)
- Paradise Mantle (worse than everflowing chalice unless thermo-alchemist is out)
- Diabolic Intent (never good when needed, don't want to sac' important creatures)
+ Firebrand Archer (redundant snipe/thermo burn is always good)
+ Cruel Tutor - (same cmc as rhystic, but top-deck seems bad)
+ Mox Diamond (swag, deck is hardly "budget" now)
Sept 15'th
I'm an idiot and forgot that I had not re-added top from testing, removing weak ritual for it.
- Rite of Flame (good but not good enough)
- Mass Hysteria (really on the fence about this - may come back)
+ Sensei's Divining Top (should have been in the list the entire time)
+ Izzet Chemister (a pseudo-yawgmath's will graveyard re-buy)
Sept 27'th
Saved up for a nice big purchase!
- Lotus Bloom (whimsical / often useless)
- Haze of Rage (fantastic win-con, but also the worst, with more tutors+consistency we don't need it)
- Vessel of Volatility (only lasted since it was a gift - clearly bad)
+ lion's eye diamond (swag)
+ imperial recruiter (swag)
+ Mass Hysteria (more testing / the card is at worst a 1cmc +1 storm)
Oct 18'th
- Izzet Chemister (fairly awkward, not good w/o paradox engine, at best a re-purchased wheel of fortune if it is allowed to survive)
- Mass Hysteria (in-and-out-and-in-and-out, I'll keep playing with it)
- Grinning Ignus (good to translate mana or up storm#, but only with reduction / too much setup)
- Rain of Filth (may go back in, a very good ritual, but not one we can use early)
+ Unearth (a painless reanimate, hits everything except Purphoros, God of the Forge and can be cycled early)
+ Dark Confidant (testing ol'bob)
+ Imperial Seal (moving further away from budget)
+ Tainted Pact (recommended by a buddy, seems very good here)
Oct 26'th
Optimizing lands, I've stripped a modern deck and was able to trade for ideal fetch's, still need scalding tarn and a badlands, will likely replace myriad landscape and 1x swamp.
- Temple of Malice
- Foreboding Ruins
- Shadowblood Ridge
- 2x Mountain
+ Arid Mesa
+ Marsh Flats
+ Polluted Delta
+ Verdant Catacombs
+ Wooded Foothills
Feb 21'st, 2018
Catching up since I haven't kept this list updated.
- swamp
- expedition map
+ scalding tarn
+ treasonous ogre
March 15'th, 2018
- Magus of the Will
+ Bubbling Muck (a change that I kept forgetting to update)
April 2nd, 2018
The deck is currently under experimentation with Null Profusion and Paradox Engine
July 9'th, 2018
Cards recently tested;
Bonus Round is amazing. Bad early, but can make double tutors, double rituals, and double draw. When re-buying mass cards from the graveyard with Past in Flames/Yawgmoth's Will/Mizzix's Mastery, it gets insane. Since it's double-sided it does make us vulnerable to double counterspell blowouts.
Sentinel Tower (to slow), Stunning Reversal (too high-variance), and Hazoret's Undying Fury (absolute *****) all tested and removed (notes added to July 9'th post here).
July 9'th, 2018
Added secondary decklist that runs paradox engine over inner fire. Multiple cards are exchanged to make this transition. I'm not sure which is better, but do know that the inner fire route is more explosive and possibly quicker, and the paradox engine route is more stable but slower.
Major card changes;
- treasonous ogre
- dark confidant
- unearth
- inner fire
- increasing vengeance
- spell book
- necrologia
- volcanic awakening
- Thought vessel
- overmaster
+ act on impulse
+ commune with lava
+ bonus round
+ charcoal diamond
+ fire diamond
+ fellwar stone
+ paradox engine
+ Grinning Ignus
+ haze of rage
+ lab rats
-/+ a few others
August 2018 - deck reverted back to non-Paradox Engine form
Jan 2019 - Dragonlord Kolaghan replaced with Rakdos, the Showstopper! A new commander that is pretty helpful for a black-red storm brew! While we do loose haste for tokens, and the threat of a hasty ritualed out commander as an alternative win-con, Rakdos, the Showstopper provides a little bit of interaction via random creature removal. He can also come out to ward off aggro and preserve our life total.
Jun 2019 - Throes of Chaos added for testing over Dread Summons. With enough red-reducing effects this sounds fun to build high storm for value. Bolas's Citadel replaces Volcanic Awakening. Both very expensive cards, but the citadel has massive upside when paired with Aetherflux Reservoir and/or Necropotence. Aforementioned reservoir was added over treasonous ogre for the additional win-con.
July 2019 - Chandra, Acolyte of Flame & Scheming Symmetry added, removing the newb-cannon and throes of chaos. Aetherflux Reservoir being removed again just illustrates how boring the card is to me. Yes it's powerful, but good lord is it lame.
August 2019 - Dockside Extortionist is insanity in card-form. Fetchable with imperial recruiter? Solid inclusion. Removing Dark Confidant for the silly goblin.
October 2019 - Wishclaw Talisman & Thrilling Possibility added, removing Cruel tutor and thermo-alchemist (the worst of the pingers since it needs haste).
January 2020 - Underworld Breach was printed. What...on...earth. So we already have yawgmoth's will and past in flames[/c]. Why not a 3rd? The deck already runs lion's eye diamond and wheel of fortune, so this degenerate enchantment fits right in. Removing Firebrand Archer for it. Also removing electrostatic field for bag of holding to combo with necropotence and our wheels. This does sort of non-bo with underworld breach but it is otherwise amazing.
Feb 2020 - Allure of the Unknown sleeved up to test with over memory jar. Not sure how this will work out. I can foresee the regretful games where I accidentally give a Purphoros, God of the Forge away, but 5cmc psedue-draw-5 (gets around narset hate) seems good.
Untested cards, upgrades, and considerations!
Optimization progress;
grim tutor was a consideration to replace cruel tutor, but this was already replaced with wishclaw talisman. If I ever pick one up IRL I'll give it some play in this deck first.
Gravebreaker Lamia is a very interesting card, discounting all spells in the 'yard after yawmgoth's will, or even plugging past in flames seems legit. The 5cmc although seems really harsh. I'm sitting on her for a moment while I consider allure of the unknown. If the Lamia makes it in, and underworld breach becomes a linch-pin of the deck, then even entomb may make an appearance.
Cards to test with;
~ already tested everything suggested
Links to my most current deck lists;
Primary EDH; Rakka Mar Token Perfection, Crosis Mnemonic Betrayal, Cromat Villainous, Judith Gravestorm, Rakdos Empty Storm, Exava Artifacts, Bant Trash, & Fumiko Voltron!
EDH kept at home; Ruzzian Isset & Rakdos LoR!
EDH (nostalgic/pimp/retired) in storage;
Latulla Burns, Akroma Smash, Jeska Voltron, Rakdos Storm, Bladewing Darghans, Lyzolda Worldgorger, Xantcha Steals your Heart, Jori Storm, Wydwen Permission, Gwendlyn Paradox, Jeleva Warps, & Sigarda Brick!
Legacy Showanimator and High Tide!
I love this kind of stuff.
Other than that the only card coming to my mind right now is Dragon-Style Twins.
In Progress
GBIshkanah, Grafwidow ~ BWGRTymna the Weaver & Tana, the Bloodsower ~ UGRashmi, Eternities Crafter ~ RGAtarka, World Render
I have never heard of nor seen this card, and I absolutely want this now.
I'm still saving up for a LED for my primary Rakdos deck. It, like many super-expensive cards (imperial seal/grim tutor) are all highly desired, but usually pushed to the bucket-list due to price. I actually chose to invest in this deck instead of pursuing a LED for my main deck. It absolutely should be in the deck, but financially I'd probably try to get fetch' lands for this first.
They are required to retain a hand from a necropotence and necrologia draw, which is an alternative route compared to Ad Nauseam. Ad Nauseam is the easy one, but by using either 'necro we can actually dig way deeper. The issue is we just have to try and survive the turn cycle since this gives all opponents a blatant heads-up warning.
The fun part is trying to do the math to estimate how much damage all opponents can do to me during the turn I hold the grip of cards. In my primary Rakdos deck there have been some very memorable games for wasting tutors to get some dumb creature power boost effect just to try and kill me, or animating a man-land I missed
I did like the idea of adding prowess stuff, but the cmc on most of the "playable" ones was pretty high. I was considering Abbot of Keral Keep for the possible dig. I really wanted to run Bedlam Reveler, but to be honest with myself, it won't come out early, it will murder me when I Ad Nauseam, and when I'm trying to go off, the built in discard will also trash my hand.
I do like both cards, but having more high-cmc hits off Ad Nauseam can hurt. The goggles may be good to copy one spell on the turn we go off, but if I needed that I'd prefer to run reverberate. Mana Geyser although is worth a consideration. Most of my storm decks are desgined for 1v1, and I hadn't even considered using this as a boosting ritual.
Thanks for the ideas! I'll have to pick up a few more cards and see what can be removed after tomorrows games!
Links to my most current deck lists;
Primary EDH; Rakka Mar Token Perfection, Crosis Mnemonic Betrayal, Cromat Villainous, Judith Gravestorm, Rakdos Empty Storm, Exava Artifacts, Bant Trash, & Fumiko Voltron!
EDH kept at home; Ruzzian Isset & Rakdos LoR!
EDH (nostalgic/pimp/retired) in storage;
Latulla Burns, Akroma Smash, Jeska Voltron, Rakdos Storm, Bladewing Darghans, Lyzolda Worldgorger, Xantcha Steals your Heart, Jori Storm, Wydwen Permission, Gwendlyn Paradox, Jeleva Warps, & Sigarda Brick!
Legacy Showanimator and High Tide!
While we're at it, Imperial Recruiter would be great here...
That makes sense but is Spellbook still good enough on its own?
I also really do like imperial recruiter here. After playtesting this for a little over a week now, having another way to snag grinning ignus seems very good, and it can pick up some other utility creatures like young pyromancer/pyre hound.
I have almost finished acquiring the legitimate cards to remove my temp-proxies (two more mox and a vamp tute are left), and then I'll be pursuing some of these alternative options.
After playtesting for a little over a week, I'm seeing that in this current design, the deck can go off approximately turn-7(ish), or around turn-5(ish) with one of the high-impact draw spells (necro/necro/ad naus). I've been playing it against 1, 2, and 3 opponents. While it is easier to stomp on fewer opponents, if the critical high-impact draw effects are countered/stopped, or if the deck faces stax effects, then everything falls apart. I've had to resort to just beating with nothing but a plain 6/5 Kolaghan on a few occasions, which can pull a win here and there.
Since the deck has so many routes to a possible victory (tremors/purhp burn, mass tokens, kolaghan beats, or a combination), it has been pretty difficult for my opponents to figure out exactly how to stop this. Most of my friends are aware of stopping ad naus/necro/necro if possible, but past a random fog or evacuation the chaotic nature of this deck seems to make for very interesting games.
So far it is playing as expected - all in attempt will either fail hard, or have a bizarre victory. I've ended up with a few non-winning storm turns where I was not able to kill enough opponents, and I've ended up with multiple blow-outs by a timely counter/bounce. The list needs more work.
Links to my most current deck lists;
Primary EDH; Rakka Mar Token Perfection, Crosis Mnemonic Betrayal, Cromat Villainous, Judith Gravestorm, Rakdos Empty Storm, Exava Artifacts, Bant Trash, & Fumiko Voltron!
EDH kept at home; Ruzzian Isset & Rakdos LoR!
EDH (nostalgic/pimp/retired) in storage;
Latulla Burns, Akroma Smash, Jeska Voltron, Rakdos Storm, Bladewing Darghans, Lyzolda Worldgorger, Xantcha Steals your Heart, Jori Storm, Wydwen Permission, Gwendlyn Paradox, Jeleva Warps, & Sigarda Brick!
Legacy Showanimator and High Tide!
The deck is missing three cards that I feel would make it 100% optimized (that is, optimized for the restriction and theme of remaining only black+red, using irregular win-cons, no n00b-cannon reservoir, and empty the warrens focused). Of the missing cards (scalding tarn/badlands/grim tutor), I will shortly have the two lands, but my own vanity is preventing me from pursuing a grim tutor (ugly white boarder in my pretty pimp deck).
I'll be uploading a new video shortly to display the deck and have a verbal how-to explanation. I'm going to also try and record a few live games with two different metas/tables where I play this at.
As always, I'm always open to suggestions, and looking for new cards to test with!
Links to my most current deck lists;
Primary EDH; Rakka Mar Token Perfection, Crosis Mnemonic Betrayal, Cromat Villainous, Judith Gravestorm, Rakdos Empty Storm, Exava Artifacts, Bant Trash, & Fumiko Voltron!
EDH kept at home; Ruzzian Isset & Rakdos LoR!
EDH (nostalgic/pimp/retired) in storage;
Latulla Burns, Akroma Smash, Jeska Voltron, Rakdos Storm, Bladewing Darghans, Lyzolda Worldgorger, Xantcha Steals your Heart, Jori Storm, Wydwen Permission, Gwendlyn Paradox, Jeleva Warps, & Sigarda Brick!
Legacy Showanimator and High Tide!
Over the past week I've been experimenting with Null Profusion and Paradox Engine in place of Cruel Tutor and Memory Jar. Charcoal Diamond, Fire Diamond, Felwar Stone, and Mind Stone have been pushed in over irregular random bits for engine testing (Bubbling Muck / Recoup / Nightscape Familiar / Ruby Medallion).
I'm still tinkering with which mana-rocks to plug and what (if any) rituals to remove. The pair of diamonds are likely being pushed due to my own fanaticism for them, but other 2-drop options that come in play untapped don't produce color. After more testing I may drop the diamonds for veinfire borderpost (since the discount still casts the card per storm#).
This experiment may just go away, as I'm not sure if I like the inclusion of paradox engine here or not just yet. If I feel that it is good and stable enough to support then I'll update the main decklist with these adjustments.
While this change is slight, the bigger adjustment may be the release of Garna, the Bloodflame. At the time of this post the official card has not been spoiled, but we have a new haste enabling rakdos commander with a slight twist;
This return ability could help recur some earlier spent creatures already in the deck skirk prospector/magus of the wheel/etc), but also opens up doors to ritualistic creatures (blood pet/bog witch/priest of urabrask/priest of gix/priest of yawgmoth/skirge familiar), along with phyrexian altar/burnt offering/carnival of souls antics.
The bad part about Garna although is not what she offers, but what we loose by removing dragonlord kolaghan. An all-to-frequent path to victory for this deck in 1v1, is to simply ritual out Kolaghan on turn-1 or turn-2, and beat face with a giant haste flyer. Garna doesn't offer this option.
Links to my most current deck lists;
Primary EDH; Rakka Mar Token Perfection, Crosis Mnemonic Betrayal, Cromat Villainous, Judith Gravestorm, Rakdos Empty Storm, Exava Artifacts, Bant Trash, & Fumiko Voltron!
EDH kept at home; Ruzzian Isset & Rakdos LoR!
EDH (nostalgic/pimp/retired) in storage;
Latulla Burns, Akroma Smash, Jeska Voltron, Rakdos Storm, Bladewing Darghans, Lyzolda Worldgorger, Xantcha Steals your Heart, Jori Storm, Wydwen Permission, Gwendlyn Paradox, Jeleva Warps, & Sigarda Brick!
Legacy Showanimator and High Tide!
Bonus Round seems like a good pick-up for the deck.
How did the Null Paradox experiment hash out?
I really enjoy your decks, you're one of my favorite brewers
The adjustment from inner fire to paradox engine required a fairly large overhaul to make the deck functional. It changed how mana was created, how the goal of getting to that state was accomplished, the overall mana-curve of the deck (relying on more mana-rocks), and even adjusted some of the win-conditions. A run-down on some of my thought-process is spammed here;
A change like this works backwards into the foundation of how the deck works. When focusing on Inner Fire it was important to rely on high-impact draw spells like Necrologia/Necropotence/Ad Nauseam, two of which are best with infinite hand size enablers like Spell Book/Thought Vessel. There are also some cards in the original list that were dedicated to function well with Inner Fire such as Increasing Vengeance.
Not only does the card function take an impact from this change, but the actual converted mana-cost of this approach needed to be considered. Adding another 5-cmc hurts, but relying on Paradox Engine means that a higher volume of mana-rocks would be needed. The issue is that this is still a 2-color deck, so we don't have access to many more good color-fixing rocks that we are not already running (3-color decks get 3x signets, etc). Fellwar Stone is in, but tap rocks like Charcoal Diamond/Fire Diamond are also being added over 3+ mana artifacts (replacing things like Thought Vessel).
In an earlier revision Imperial Recruiter was removed when the creature count dropped (Dark Confidant was removed, and thus so was Unearth). But with Paradox Engine in the deck, Grinning Ignus is back, and thus Imperial Recruiter is back to help tutor for ignus. With the creature count being higher again, Unearth may also eventually return.
One highly situational rock is Mox Amber was tested already, and may make its way back. When Paradox Engine is successfully firing, we can frequently cast our commander for zero effort. If I feel the consistency is there then I may replace Bubbling Muck with Mox Amber, as both are dead draw/ritualistic cards early game, but would have the same impact late game.
One other large change in this deck has been an adjustment in victory-conditions. Empty the Warrens is still the primary goal, but using Paradox Engine we can now abuse buy-back spells more, making Haze of Rage an ideal replacement for Volcanic Awakening, as well as Lab Rats to possibly go infinite and just win with Purphoros, God of the Forge/Impact Tremors.
One questionable change is Null Profusion, so we can go nuts once Paradox Engine is running. The issue is that this is a 6-cmc spell, and currently the most expensive card in the deck. A few more draw cards (Commune with Lava & Act on Impulse) are added for the same effect, but the potential to nearly play out the entire deck with Null Profusion + Paradox Engine makes for dangerously fun potential.
After playtesting for some time, I've become fond of Null Profusion. In some stale games I can dump it early to just try and cantrip off a few rituals (filling the graveyard for Mizzix's Mastery), fully aware that it will likely get destroyed (so I can just recur it with Yawgmoth's Will). It's interesting that even with a mediocre handsize I can still use Sensei's Divining Top with it to dig a few deeper and always flop-top for an easy draw + play. Also if I ever do have Paradox Engine running with it, a buy-back spell or Grinning Ignus spam can sometimes mean I just draw my entire deck.
A quick synopsis of the Inner Fire storm approach vs this Paradox Engine mana approach;
The Inner Fire variant felt more spontaneous and capable of going off earlier, while the Paradox Engine variant feels more stable when making mana. Building a large hand and working up to Inner Fire makes for complex and puzzle like games, while dropping an un-answered Paradox Engine typically means the game is already decided. In my personal opinion, I enjoy the Inner Fire route more. It feels more like a storm deck should, with more thought-power and puzzle solving involved. Paradox Engine is easy to abuse and break, and it can make games go faster since I only have to display a few cards for my opponents to concede.
For the time I will continue to run Paradox Engine, but I will likely return the deck to the Inner Fire variant. It may be the less reliable version of the deck, but the reason I play storm is for the puzzle, not for the ease of victory. Otherwise I'd be playing blue and run Aetherflux Reservoir like everyone else...
Now as per the newer cards and recently tested cards;
Bonus Round is absolutely staying in the deck. It doesn't do much early, but it can make double tutors, double rituals, and double draw. When re-buying stuff from the graveyard with Past in Flames/Yawgmoth's Will/Mizzix's Mastery, it becomes insane. The card is dangerous and we have absolutely failed to a double Counterspell blow-out.
Sentinel Tower didn't do enough, and was often times a worse Sphinx-Bone Wand. Since my deck is more artifact/creature based, it just doesn't fit, and would only be serviceable when rebuying the entire graveyard with Mizzix's Mastery. Sentinel Tower fits likely in a mizzix deck. Yes my deck still runs things like Thermo-Alchemist, but that comes out very early, can block aggro, hits all opponents and does so at least once every turn.
Stunning Reversal seemed amazing in theory, but after testing it for a few weeks, it has been mostly a dead card in hand. Yes with enough mana it can let us pseudo draw our deck with Ad Nauseam, and it can help us survive a lethal attack from an opponent, but most of the time it doesn't directly help us win. The most frequent play I used it for was after the Ad Nauseam play, where I had lowered myself down to 5 or less life, and I would cast it and then try to kill myself with a Vampiric Tutor/Sign in Blood or by tapping Ancient Tomb. That high variance and situational setup meant that the card was too hard to work with. In all honesty Reforge the Soul is better 99% of the time, and most people I've talked with find Reforge the Soul to be a questionable inclusion in this deck. TLDR Stunning Reversal is a good-stuff black card to play in a deck if your opponents tend to kill you when you have 4 mana open. It isn't good enough for storm, even casual-jank-storm like this.
Hazoret's Undying Fury was just a terrible idea and I regret purchasing the card to even playtest with. A 6-cmc drop is bad when playing Ad Nauseam. Yes it has the (unlikely) potential of giving us up to 20cmc worth of cards, but honestly it's garbage. Anything over 4cmc has to be very impactful, or just strait win the game, and a random 4x free cards isn't going to cut it.
Links to my most current deck lists;
Primary EDH; Rakka Mar Token Perfection, Crosis Mnemonic Betrayal, Cromat Villainous, Judith Gravestorm, Rakdos Empty Storm, Exava Artifacts, Bant Trash, & Fumiko Voltron!
EDH kept at home; Ruzzian Isset & Rakdos LoR!
EDH (nostalgic/pimp/retired) in storage;
Latulla Burns, Akroma Smash, Jeska Voltron, Rakdos Storm, Bladewing Darghans, Lyzolda Worldgorger, Xantcha Steals your Heart, Jori Storm, Wydwen Permission, Gwendlyn Paradox, Jeleva Warps, & Sigarda Brick!
Legacy Showanimator and High Tide!
I don't remember seeing it in your list, but Reiterate seems like a natural inclusion in this deck. It can build a storm count and with the Inner Fire version of your deck can generate functionally infinite mana.
UB Dralnu, Lich Lord
RBW [Primer]-Kaalia of the Vast
BUG [Primer]-Tasigur, the Golden Fang
GWU [Primer]-Arcades, the Strategist
WUB Primer-Aminatou, the Fateshifter
UBR Nicol Bolas, the Ravager
I did test reiterate in the original rakdos 1v1 storm list I ran, but it was quickly cut. While possible to go infinite with inner fire or mana geyser (or with 2x spell reduction effects even seething song), the issue is the start-up mana investment.
Using reiterate for anything past a single shot reverberate requires 6 mana
There is also the issue of running too many fork effects in the deck. I love using increasing vengeance since it only requires red+red to get the first copy, and I can use that copys' mana to then cast increasing vengeance from the graveyard. It's also silly under yawgmoth's will. Then there is bonus round which is just a stupid card if it ever resolves. Running a 3rd fork effect may cause the copy spells to be seen more often than the desired-to-copy spells.
My partner has been admitted in the hospital for the last 4 weeks and I've been making some very long road trips once a week to return home and take care of our cat. The good thing is that these trips include a 30-minute detour to StarCityGames store location. Last week I had a chance to sit down with a brilliant competitive EDH player that helped me break down some of the numbers, win/loss chances, and reasons for failure.
To be blunt, he suggested I get off my high horse and add interaction
My normal go-to would be small 1-mana disruption spells like duress/lightning bolt/thoughtseize/vandalblast, but he made the suggestion of defense grid. This literally blew my mind. I've owned a vintage storm deck for years (granted the p9 is all fake), and this runs 2 maindeck defense grids. I feel pretty dumb not even considering it for my 1v1 deck.
Other cards I will be testing will be Plunge into Darkness, Morbid Curiosity, and Reprocess.
While I do like the paradox engine take, I think it's more that I'm enjoying the nostalgia of playing with a card like null profusion again, since I used to run recycle in my high-school casual 60-card deck days. I'll be transforming the deck back to the inner fire variant while testing the above new cards and figuring out how to squeeze some interaction in the deck. I'm going to keep all of the paradox engine enablers although and continue experimenting with that route as new cards come out.
Links to my most current deck lists;
Primary EDH; Rakka Mar Token Perfection, Crosis Mnemonic Betrayal, Cromat Villainous, Judith Gravestorm, Rakdos Empty Storm, Exava Artifacts, Bant Trash, & Fumiko Voltron!
EDH kept at home; Ruzzian Isset & Rakdos LoR!
EDH (nostalgic/pimp/retired) in storage;
Latulla Burns, Akroma Smash, Jeska Voltron, Rakdos Storm, Bladewing Darghans, Lyzolda Worldgorger, Xantcha Steals your Heart, Jori Storm, Wydwen Permission, Gwendlyn Paradox, Jeleva Warps, & Sigarda Brick!
Legacy Showanimator and High Tide!
I still love and run this deck when I can. My primary two playgroups are still competitive, but not quite cEDH, so it fairs well. I went ahead and updated this post to reflect my current list, updated all the change-logs to reflect everything I've tested with over the two years, and also fixed a bunch of dead url/links.
Currently I'm enjoying the new underworld breach as another degenerate combo since Lion's Eye Diamond and wheel of fortune were already in the deck.
I'm also currently testing Allure of the Unknown in place of memory jar. This card I'm not really sure about. I like cards that bypass "draw" hate like narset, and I like that it's a color spell over memory jar so ruby medallion & nightscape familiar can discount. I've thus far giving away a free tutor two times, and also lost my empty the warrens to the opponent opting to not cast it from exile. It's interesting and chaotic which makes me like it, but in this particular deck may be strictly worse than memory jar.
After Allure testing, I'll be looking at Gravebreaker Lamia. Since underworld breach+LED+Wheel is already a strong combo, an entomb + discount for yawmoth's will/past in flames seems legit. Her mana cost is the only thing stopping me from stuffing her in immediately.
Links to my most current deck lists;
Primary EDH; Rakka Mar Token Perfection, Crosis Mnemonic Betrayal, Cromat Villainous, Judith Gravestorm, Rakdos Empty Storm, Exava Artifacts, Bant Trash, & Fumiko Voltron!
EDH kept at home; Ruzzian Isset & Rakdos LoR!
EDH (nostalgic/pimp/retired) in storage;
Latulla Burns, Akroma Smash, Jeska Voltron, Rakdos Storm, Bladewing Darghans, Lyzolda Worldgorger, Xantcha Steals your Heart, Jori Storm, Wydwen Permission, Gwendlyn Paradox, Jeleva Warps, & Sigarda Brick!
Legacy Showanimator and High Tide!