Patience is the key to unleashing your inner storm
The Deck
Introduction & Deck History
Shu Yun is very unique among Jeskai Commanders. He is blue and yet focuses on combat. His very simple yet interesting abilities immediately caught my attention and I knew I needed to build a deck with him as the commander.
My first take on Shu Yun was a traditionnal spellsligner build that had a small equipment subtheme, pretty similar to your average EDHREC Shu Yun deck. After some initial playtesting, I've found that the list was waaaay too "all-in" for my tastes, solely focusing on Shu Yun one shotting players one at a time with cheap combat tricks and evasion. It ran out of cards to play very quickly, and while the deck had surprising success in my playgroup, I found myself not satisfied at all with that version of the deck.
There were some interesting gameplay elements that I wanted to toy more with though. Spellweaver Volute and Talent of the Telepath, for example, had way more success than I originally imagined they would have, and that's because they were cards that turned single noncreature spells cast into many.
"Multiple spell casts" was the starting point for this new version or, as we all know it, "storm." I got rid of the equipment package and of almost all the non-cantriping combat tricks and cheap protection spells from the initial list and wanted to add more mana rocks and ridiculously fun cards to this build. I then thought of tstorm823's incredible Zedruu deck that often managed to cast a gigantic amount of spells in a single turn and grab splashy wins from out of nowhere. Since we are also in Jeskai colors, I chose to incorporate some of that deck's super fun elements into this new Shu Yun list. Cards like Possibility Storm, Knowledge Pool and Eye of the Storm all turn a single spell being cast into multiple ones, each triggering prowess or other abilies in the deck. In this new version, Shu Yun acts more as a spontaneous delete button for an opponent that patiently waits in the command zone for the turn we will storm off. He is, after all, the Silent Tempest (or in this case, the Silent Storm).
Why Shu Yun?
You might like this deck if...
... you like Storm. Even if this deck only has one card with the litteral Storm keyword, its main focus is to cast a ridiculous amount of spells in a single turn and benefit from that in many ways that will often lead to either victory or an incredible advantage in the game.
... you like efficiently filtering through your deck. This deck runs a lot of cards that cantrip, meaning that they draw cards as part of their resolution. It also has card draw stapled on spells with delve that become really easy to cast. This means that it's possible to regularly get the cards you need exactly when you need them.
... you want a deck with many different ways to win. Even though most Shu Yun decks try to win though commander damage (like my first list), this is only one of the ways to win a game with this deck.
... you like to play with weird or underused cards. This list runs a ton of cards we don't get to see often in EDH that can create very interesting board states, cards such as Mirrorweave or Precursor Golem.
You might dislike this deck if...
... you want a fixed game plan. Stay away from this list if you want a deck with one dedicated plan and a super effective way to get rid of all your opponents at once. You never know how or when you will be able to end a game with this deck.
... you want your commander to play central role in your games. Many Shu Yun lists are voltron decks that rely almost only on him one shotting opponents with commander damage to win. This isn't one of those decks. Even if it was, Shu Yun's abilities aren't particularily exciting or innovative for a legendary creature (as opposed to, say, Grenzo, Dungeon Warden or Muldrotha, the Gravetide).
... you want a deck full of format staples and strong individual cards. This deck runs lots of weird spells that might look unimpactful or just bad when looked at individually such as Reckless Charge or Artful Dodge.
... you want a simple deck. The cards in this deck can interact with each other in a quite complicated way. This is unfortunately not a beginner friendly deck, and some turns can be real puzzles to solve. Just don't take too much time to avoid pissing everybody off (as I do way too often...)
What makes him unique?
Shu Yun is one of the only spellsligner commander that has access to white. This grants us access to a variety of versatile utility spells such as Vanish into Memory, Boros Charm or Mirrorweave. It also makes Monastery Mentor playable in the deck as well as the great Jeskai Ascendancy, two very good cards that benefit from casting a lot of noncreature spells.
Shu Yun's ability kit, while being very simple, directly rewards our game plan. Our commander is essentially an additional winning condition in the command zone, which is seriously awesome. This deck also has ways to benefit from the double strike ability with cards like Surrakar Spellblade or an encoded Stolen Identity.
Knowledge Pool: Super weird card that can create some very surprising and interesting games. I love playing with other player's cards, as this punishes players with a lot of highly valuable cards such as Kokusho or big nonsense spells, which we can play by paying U with a simple Serum Visions. It costs 6, but you have control over when you choose to play it, and that's where the advantage comes from. It's one of the cards that can also make out storm count go very high because each spell cast doubles with this in play.
Primal Amulet: Casting four spells is a piece of cake in this deck, and the payoff is just so interesting! The cost reduction in the meantime isn't bad either.
Sentinel Tower: This only works during your turn, but it's my only complaint about that card. It triggers on opponent's spellcasts during your turn, it can get rid of creatures and it gets exponentially bigger as you cast more and more spells. This is exactly what this deck wants!
Thada Adel, Acquisitor: She is basically another source of ramp for the deck, stealing your opponent's precious artifacts. She works really well with Shu Yun's double strike ability to steal two artifacts per combat. You can end up with a lot of mana rocks on the field if she is not dealt with quickly.
Talrand, Sky Summoner, Young Pyromancer, Monastery Mentor: Getting tokens on instant and sorcery spell cast can get out of hand quickly in this deck. The real MVP here is Monastery Mentor, because he triggers with any noncreature spells and so do his tokens. Honestly, if he was a Jeskai legendary, I'd consider making him my commander. He's just that good. Talrand's creatures have flying, and Young Pyromancer is just so cheap, so they all have their perks, but Monastery Mentor is the coolest of them all.
Surrakar Spellblade: Very cool source of card draw. With all the cantrips we run, he is very useful at refilling our hand early in the game. We also have ways to give him evasion with cheap spells like Shadow Rift to make sure he hits when we want him to. Going all in can be quite dangerous here, as he is quite weak and vulnerable to removal.
Guttersnipe: Super mean goblin. He is almost always killed on sight in my playgroup and it's very understandable. He is this deck's Purphoros.
Precursor Golem: I got a playset of those immediately when the set came out. I absolutely love fringe effects like this. It makes our cheap combat tricks that cantrip into Ancestral Recalls, how cool is that? Also, the effect can become exponential if you copy the golems with a cards such as Stolen Identity! Of course, an opponent can remove the golems with a single removal spell, but honestly we're just glad they wasted that spell on those instead of Shu Yun or Monastery Mentor.
Fatestitcher: It might look like just an expensive mana dork or Whipcorder by iself, but this card is so much more than that. With Gilded Lotus, it's T: Add three mana. With Jeskai Ascendancy, it's an almost endless source of mana. If you have lots of tokens on the field, he makes Mirrorweave into a mana ritual. He can untap Primal Wellspring to copy more spells. This guy is just so useful, and the Unearth ability is an incredible bonus as you don't even care to discard him to Desperate Ravings.
Jeskai Ascendancy: Incredible card in this deck. The filtering effect alone is super efficient to help get the cards we need when we need them. The team +1/+1 on noncreature spell cast is also amazing, especially considering our many ways to generate tokens. The untap effect becomes just insane with Fatestitcher on the field.
Spellweaver Volute: This is one of those cards that just look super clunky on the first read but that plays so well it makes you forget how uneasy it made you feel when you first saw it. Almost all of our instants in this deck make us draw at least one card, so this basically turn all of our sorceries into sources of card advantage. What's nice with this card is that you're not restricted to your own instants, and I love using my opponent's cards against them.
Eye of the Storm: This card is so ridiculous (in a good way). Its two major downsides are its high cost and the fact that it also helps our opponents, so the timing is very important here. But when this hits the field, we can start playing an absurd amount of spells. Lets start at 0: you cast your first spell, it exiles itself, then Eye of the Storm casts it. Storm count =2. You cast your second spell, it exiles itself, then Eye of the Stoem casts it and the last spell. Storm count = 5. The third spell does the same and the storm count is now 9. If you manage to get a few cantripping spells and Turnabout in there, it's basically game over since you can always untap all your lands.
Possibility Storm: This card also does exactly what we want here, which is casting more than one spell when we only cast one It also has the advantage of solidly messing with our opponents while not doing much for us. Casting a Serum Visions will at worst reveal a Slip Through Space, and at best a Time Spiral. Honestly, it's a risk I'm always willing to take, especially if it means twice the tokens with Monastery Mentor or twice the damage with Guttersnipe.
Crimson Wisps, Expedite, Leap, Shadow Rift: Cheap combat tricks that survived the first list. I never don't want cantripping combat tricks in my hand, whether it's early or late, because they replace themselves so easily and they still count for a spell cast. Having such cheap instant spells in the deck is also very cool with Knowledge Pool or Eye of the Storm on the field.
Brainstorm: Useful with fetchlands to shuffle the cards we don't want back in. It's also useful with Knowledge Pool or Possibility Storm out, because we get to control what we possibility into, or what we want in the pool from our library.
Mental Note, Thought Scour: Almost twice the same effect. Cool with Brainstorm to get rid of the two cards you just put on top if you don't want them. The graveyard fuel is also useful for our delve cards or Spellweaver Volute.
Desperate Ravings: I hesitated for a long time between this and Faithless looting. I finally ended up chosing straigh up card advantage and instant speed for the cost of random discard. Up until now, I have not been disappointed by this card since I don't really mind discarding anything, it just makes me find other ways to win.
Dig Through Time: Very strong effect in a deck like this that can put cards in the graveyard so quickly. It's always great to play, and even greater to re-play via Spellweaver Volute or double with Primal Wellspring.
Boros Charm: Whether it's to use that double strike trigger without Shu Yun on board, to slap an opponent on the face or to protect your board from nasty wipes, Boros Charm's utility is detinitely an asset in this deck. Note that the 4 damage to face becomes increasingly dangerous when Boros charm is in Eye of the Storm.
Chaos Warp: Probably my favorite removal spell of all time. The randomness is the key. Pretty fun to use on your own Golems to try and find a good permanent!
Shelter: This spell is either protection or evasion, which makes it useful and versatile. Worst case scenario, it can still be cycled for 1W if you're digging for other cards.
Fact or Fiction: Super interesting political card advantage for EDH, I just love this card.
Gush: At worst it's draw 2 for 5 at instant speed. The fact that it can be cast for free is incredible though!
Impulse: I really like this card's utility, it's a mini Dig Through time that helps us in any stage of the game.
Mirrorweave: Aahhhh this is probably one of my favorite cards of all time. It was just sitting there in my binder, patiently waiting for its time to shine. And it's this deck. We have many ways to produce tokens in this deck, so we can turn them all into Blightseel Colossi and swing for the win. Or we can turn all creatures into tiny elementals in response to an opponent attacking. Or we can turn all of our tokens into Guttersnipe and cast one or two spells and deal tons of damage. Or we can turn our Monastery Mentor's tokens into more Monastery Mentors and cast more spells to make more tokens. Or draw tons of cards with an army of Surrakar Spellblades. Casting this on Precursor Golem can draw you soooo many cards with a single Crimson Wisps or steal all your opponent's creatures along with Catch. The possibilities are endless here.
Mystical Tutor: This deck runs so many different spells that play different roles that having a way to reliably search for the one you need is definitely super helpful.
Swords to plowshares: Cheap and useful removal that helps us buy some time against super quick decks that spiral out of control such as Yisan or Brago. It can also gain us a ton of life and exile all creatures along with a Mirrorweaved Precursor Golem.
Turnabout: This is a modal spell with six modes. Six super useful modes. Six amazingly distinct and situational modes. I love this card.
Vanish Into Memory: Very cool card with a unique effect. It works well with Prowess since you'll draw a lot of cards when you exile a creature with increased power, but only discard a few when it comes back with its original toughness. It can be used to protect Shu Yun, drawing us four cards in the process (prowess trigger) and discarding two when he comes back. With Precursor Golem, it's draw 9, discard 3. It gets even more ridiculous when Jeskai Ascendancy is involved. It can also be used to temporarily remove a dangerous attacker and buy us the time we need to find a more permanent answer.
Artful Dodge, Reckless Charge: Two more cheap combat tricks that stayed from the first version of the deck. The flashback is what's very interesting for both of those cards, and they are both hidden gems in this deck.
Catch // Release: Very versatile and interesting card. The Catch side will be played more often here, but the Release side isn't to be underestimated. If you manage to Fuse the spell while casting Catch on a Golem, Release will also get copied, so this can be very surprising.
Deep Analysis: The flashback is very appealing here, and it costs only two. This means that we don't care about getting this card in your graveyard by discarding it or milling it at all since it can still draw us cards for very cheap.
Disrupt Decorum: We can watch our opponents fight among themselves while we laugh and patiently wait for our own victory. What's not to like?
Mind's Desire: With the enormous amount of spells we cast in a turn with this deck, how could we not include this card? It becomes particularily ridiculous and funny when it's exiled in Eye of the Storm.
Stolen Identity: A more expensive Phyrexian Metamorph, I'm aware of that, but I chose this card over the former for many reasons. The cipher ability can be relevant with all the evasion we have in the deck, meaning we can cast more spells in a turn for some cool postcombat storm action. Giving double strike to a creature with an encoded Stolen Identity is more shenanigans. The fact that it's a spell also becomes very interesting with Precursor Golem for even more spell copying nonsense.
Talent of the Telepath: As I've already mentionned a few times now, I love to play with my opponent's cards. Of course, this spell will sometimes fizzle, but most of the time you cat get some incrediblevalue out of it depending on which decks you're facing. Also, Spell Mastery is incredibly easy to achieve in this deck.
Time Spiral: This is as close as draw 7 cards for free as things can get. Probably one of the best cards of this deck and definitely my favorite to play.
Treasure Cruise: More card draw for very cheap. Seriously, having cards in our graveyard is very easy with all those cheap cantrips we're running.
Windfall: This should maybe be Wheel of Fortune, but I only have one copy and it's currently in my Edgar deck. Windfall is a very cool replacement though, and if you have a big hand it draws even more than seven cards, so it's still a very good card for this deck. I often end up searching for it early with Mystical Tutor to refresh my hand and open up new possibilities.
The lands listed here are those I currently have in the paper version of the deck, which is why I don't currently have all the fetches I could run and I don't have a Volcanic Island. I won't go over what I'd call the "basic land base" bue there are some land choices worth discussing.
Flamekin Village: We don't have an elemental in the deck, so this will always come tapped. It doesn't really matter though because the haste ability is just too good here. It's hard to see Shu Yun as a threatening presence if he's patiently sitting in the command zone, dodging all those nasty boardwipes. I also prefer this over Hall of the Bandit Lord because of the colored mana it gives and the fact that we don't need to give our commander haste all the time (as opposed to Narset, Enlightened Master or Etali, Primal Storm), making the 3 life cost more of a nuisance than anything for us.
Explanation
I swapped some basics for new lands I traded for. The Commander's Sphere swap for Chrome Mox greatly improves this deck, as I often don't care losing a card to gain free mana and storm count. Shelter replaces Emerge Unscathed because I'd rather have a card that replaces itself than one that rebounds.
Lastly, I removed Titan's Strength because I don't need power increasing combat tricks anymore in this build and I was always disappointed when I drew it. Jeskai Charm took its place but I'm not convinced that I like the card, so it might only be temporary.
The list has been changed to its current Storm build and I started the thread revamping
Added a card by card analysis of the deck and more sections will be added to the post soon, including some game reports and an "how to play the deck" section.
It's just a thought, but this kind of shell seems ideal for it.
Apart from that, there's a few other notable cards it seems like you're missing.
Docent of Perfection gives you yet another Talrand/Young Pyro type trigger, and a rather powerful one at that. You might also consider Goblinslide. It's a little less efficient, but it itself triggers Talrand, prowess, and similar.
Bedlam Reveler is a fairly cheap creature most of the time in this shell with Prowess and a miniature wheel when you cast it.
It's just a thought, but this kind of shell seems ideal for it.
Apart from that, there's a few other notable cards it seems like you're missing.
Docent of Perfection gives you yet another Talrand/Young Pyro type trigger, and a rather powerful one at that. You might also consider Goblinslide. It's a little less efficient, but it itself triggers Talrand, prowess, and similar.
Bedlam Reveler is a fairly cheap creature most of the time in this shell with Prowess and a miniature wheel when you cast it.
I had considered Curiosity and Ophidian Eye when I built this deck because of the double strike trigger making us draw lots of cards. I didn't think about guttersnipe effects and I think it might be a very cool way of keeping our hand full. I want to test some more games with this version before making any changes, but this is definitely an interesting suggestion
Docent of Perfection and Snapcaster Mage are both cards I don't own yet but that I plan on including in the deck as soon as I have them. Same for mini-Jace. As for Bedlam, I want to see how often I'll have less then 3 cards in hand before including it, though the cost reduction is definitely interesting.
Thanks for the suggestions, I'll keep you updated of the changes I make and how they play
In
+ Reflecting Pool: Color was just too important and not worth the possible 0/1 body from Kher Keep for my Equipments, which was my original idea. I might even add more multicolored lands such as Mana Confluence or Exotic Orchard since this deck is very color intensive.
+ Minamo, School at Water's Edge: Better than an Island if I need to block with Shu or untap it and give it haste for a kill if an opponent has Blind Obedience in play.
+ Artful Dodge: Two casts when I decide was better than the 1 attack from Distorsion Strike I think. Also, I can discard Artful Dodge when I'm filtering and still use it later, which is one "free" spell cast trigger and can be very useful.
+ Time Spiral: Big addition to my collection and amazing card for this deck. It's basically a 0 mana 7 card draw spell, which is a free spell cast trigger that refills my hand and disrupts my opponents. I have high expectations for this card!
This deck looks awesome. I've really come to enjoy these decks where lots of niche effects find a home. It's refreshing to build without 20 staples and still have the deck be really good.
Private Mod Note
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Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
I can't say I'm pleased to see you and must warn you I may have to do something about it.
EDH: UGEdric
Pauper: URDelver
Modern: UGRDelver
Draft my cube: Eric's 390 Unpowered
Melek just seems bad here. I have been playing around with a janky shuyun list for a while and one under represented creature here is Medomai the ageless. He is straight up nuts with shu yun's doublestrike trigger (especially if you get the additional combat stuff shown below). Additionally, I like additional combats with shu yun. You don't want to hit too far into the endgame with this guy, or try to sit still behind a pillowfort and cross your fingers that someone isn't looking your way. The two best I found were seize the day and waves of aggression. You could also consider additional equipment in o-naginata and hero's blade. They seem pretty self explanatory.
Hey, I'm back almost a year later and I've made some pretty huge changes to the deck as well as to the main post. The list has been completely reviewed to what I now consider the 2.0 version of the deck, new and improved! There are too many changes to be all consigned into one single changelog, but the changes I'll make from now on will be added to an up to date changelog in the main post.
I've also added a complete card by card discussion as well as a list of cards I'm considering for the deck.
I'd like to thank tstorm823 for his awesome Zedruu list that inspired me to build this new list for one of my favorite commanders!
One thing I always advice Shu Yun players is Dismiss into Dream. Not that Shu Yuns' trigger goes on the stack, targeting something, which triggers dismiss. You don't have to pay for Shu Yuns' ability to... dismiss things to the graveyard just by treatening to give them double strike. It basically turns every non-creature spell into removal.
Arkham, the 1920's. Investigators battle horrors from beyond time and space, risking life and sanity while conspiracies of cultists and malign servitors seek gateways for their outer gods to return...
Soon, the stars will be right! Great Cthulhu shall rise!
One thing I always advice Shu Yun players is Dismiss into Dream. Not that Shu Yuns' trigger goes on the stack, targeting something, which triggers dismiss. You don't have to pay for Shu Yuns' ability to... dismiss things to the graveyard just by treatening to give them double strike. It basically turns every non-creature spell into removal.
I just added that card to my "to be tested" list, thanks! It also turns all my small cards like Shadow Rift and Crimson Wisps into removal, which is very cool. Thanks for the suggestion!
Also try View from Above. Not only does it add evasion, it's a cheap way to trigger prowess and with, say, Mentor you can just keep casting it.
My current Shu Yun deck also has Chaos Wand. I haven't tested it yet, but predicting what players have and trying to cast their stuff for fun and profit seems like a good way to gain cardadvantage over time, while adding some unpredictability to the deck.
Arkham, the 1920's. Investigators battle horrors from beyond time and space, risking life and sanity while conspiracies of cultists and malign servitors seek gateways for their outer gods to return...
Soon, the stars will be right! Great Cthulhu shall rise!
Also try View from Above. Not only does it add evasion, it's a cheap way to trigger prowess and with, say, Mentor you can just keep casting it.
I considered View from Above for my current list, my only problem is that I only have two white permanents right now, so I wouldn't get the spell back very often. I'd much rather play Leap or any other evasion spell. I might also add Cloak of Feathers to the deck since it's another 1 mana cantrip that gives evasion.
My current Shu Yun deck also has Chaos Wand. I haven't tested it yet, but predicting what players have and trying to cast their stuff for fun and profit seems like a good way to gain cardadvantage over time, while adding some unpredictability to the deck.
This is also a card I considered, but in the end i decided to go with Talent of the Telepath when it comes to playing with my opponent's toys. I like that it's only 4 mana to get immediate value, often even two spells. The Wand's repetitive ability is nice, but there is far too much artifact removal in my playgroup for me to be even sure to get one activation out of it.
Would you mind sharing your list? You have some good ideas I could definitely be inspired by!
Not a problem, though it could take me a while to write it down. The deck I have has a few stipulations:
- the first idea was to have a martial arts / kung-fu / streetfighter kinda feel with storming off feeling like a flurry of blows.
- It started out mostly as monk tribal, and I made a rule of not including any wizards, to differtiate the deck from other Izzet / Jeskai decks I've made. This means no Baral or Electromancer to storm off, even when that may be practical.
- I'm trying to foil it out, and while it does have some expensive foils I had laying around, some obvious things aren't included, because of access. This also sadly means no Taigam, Ojutai Master, Serene Master, or Zedruu, because they don't exist in foil.
- Also, rule of cool applies, so some cards included aren't the best, like Wandering Champion, but adds to the kungfu feel, and I use Ojutai Exemplars, which actually works a bit with my plan, but isn't really an EDH staple.
So, now that I've set some expectations, I'll get on it to give you a complete list but it can take me a couple of days to get it sorted.
Arkham, the 1920's. Investigators battle horrors from beyond time and space, risking life and sanity while conspiracies of cultists and malign servitors seek gateways for their outer gods to return...
Soon, the stars will be right! Great Cthulhu shall rise!
Bruse and Ishai can function as alternate commanders, because why the hell not.
ROIL SHAPE ELEMENTAL SLAM!!!
Noyan Dar, Roil Shaper is there to make a large creature, or several creatures. While there is a risk involved, turning just one land in a huge, possible double striker isn't that dangerous. Or you just make an army. As it goes with land creatures: Go woke, get broke. I guess. But there will be storming later on, and Noyan capitalizes on this by making you an army. There is also a minor combo with Jeskai Ascendancy here. Stack it right, chain some spells, and you get extra mana out of the untapping lands. Extra mana is always useful. Especially when you try to combo off.
ILLUSION STRIKE!!!
Now that our monks are on the Path of Enlightenment, they realize everything is illusionary, and we step out of reality to punch it really hard! Dismiss into Dream should give Voltron nightmares, but we can get a little proactive by using the triggers of Shu Yun, Mistfire Adept, Niblis of Frost and/or Ojutai Exemplars to force sacrifices by triggering off our non-creature spells. Note that you don't have to choose to pay for the triggers, creating a target is enough. (Although sometimes opponents won't believe you when you explain how this works. That's ok, you don't believe their creatures have actual substance when Dismiss is out...) Note that you can link this to the next combos, and destroy reality, hard.
THOUSAND BOUNCE SLAP!!!
This is probably the easiest of combo of the deck, because there are some redundant parts and the single elements aren't that expensive to cast. You'll need an opening to attack, or a way create one. Then, make sure you have a creature that untaps when you play an artifact - say Zephyr Scribe or Pristine Skywise - or create the effect with Paradox Engine, or Jeskai Ascendancy. Then cast Banishing Knack or Retraction Helix and bounce an artifact that's either free or can pay for itself. Bounce, play, untap, repeat.
Now you should have a thousand Prowess triggers, possibly infinite mana, or a million activations to bounce all opposing non-land things to their hand (can happen if you had both Knack and Helix or multiple untaps per artifact.)
ULTIMATE STORM TECHNIQUE!!!
Yes, we dismissed the dream, but this is where we came for: The Dream. Eye of the Storm. This is where we embrace our Satsui No Hado and go Instant Hell Murder on things. Maybe. Hopefully. The trick is to keep getting mana and cards.
This is why we run Spell Swindle, and counter our own spells to get treasure. We untap land and rocks with Twitch. Maybe Noyan Dar can chip in with his Ascendancy combo. Well, you have an idea how this works, this was the idea of the deck in the first place.
Just make sure there is direct damage in there somewhere, because maybe prowess alone doesn't cut it when you want to eliminate the whole table.
Changes and Additions
Decks evolve and change. This is my current list, but there are some things I'm concidering.
- Gilded Lotus. Because some of the setups cost lots of mana.
- Mystical Tutor / Merchant Scroll. I think tutors beat the purpose of singleton, and risk decks playing the same. Still, going off and having some guaranties to keep playing spells is nice to have.
- Fieldmist Borderpost It's basically a land that also is a spell that triggers Prowess.
- Out: Negate In: Arcane Denial for one, it counters more things. Secondly, in a multiplayer game the card disadvantage is similar, as only one player goes up a card, instead of 2 players in a 4 player game. Third: You can counter your own stuff to slow cycle it. not that that will come up often, but it's good to have the option. Especially when you're Eye of Storming.
- Out: Confirm Suspicions In: Mystic Confluence. It's more flexible, and I don't have to pay extra for the draws. Also handy for Dismiss Into Dream.
The Future
Is it me or is Mission Briefing amazing with Eye of the Storm? It's exiling things anyway, and I get to find more stuff ánd use spells I already cast in the game before, so I don't have to hold back as much while things are setting up. It does everything. EVERYTHING!
Thousand-Year Storm makes thematically sense, but doesn't help prowess. But. Just. Imagine. With Eye you probably need a spreadsheet to keep track of the stack. Awesome, but it doesn't really add anything.
Erratic Cyclops. Because I already run Twisted Image and the "Suddenly I have a 8/1 trample doublestrike creature" school of thought appeals to me, and Invert // Invent seems a good Eye of the Storm target. You can cast the cheap side, and get the expensive side out of the storm.
Arkham, the 1920's. Investigators battle horrors from beyond time and space, risking life and sanity while conspiracies of cultists and malign servitors seek gateways for their outer gods to return...
Soon, the stars will be right! Great Cthulhu shall rise!
I hadn't considered Noyan Dar, Roil Shaper but with a lot of storm triggers or Jeskai Ascendancy it's just really sweet, I think I'll make room in my deck for that card. I might also make room for the Zephyr Scribe + Retraction Helix combo because I'd like to try that out. As Foretold is also a good idea because it gives you one more (free!) spell per turn.
Here are my thoughts about some of your card choices:
Center Soul: Shelter has worked better for me than the rebound protection spells. Rebound doesn't work well with Eye of the Storm either. If you still want to keep a rebound protection spell, I'd recommend Emerge Unscathed since it's the same effect for 1 less mana.
Twitch is a very cool idea because it cantrips and this is what this kind of deck wants. Have you considered trying Turnabout? It doesn't cantrip but it's super versatile and can untap your lands for more storm shenanigans. And it's complelely insane when you manage to put it into Eye of the Storm.
What do you use Twisted Image for? I'd recommend cutting that and adding Shadow Rift or Slip Through Space since they not only cantrip like Twisted Image but also allows you to one shot an opponent with an unblockable gigantic double strike creature.
Surreal Memoir: Spellweaver Volute has done amazing work for me and it's not a very well known card so you might want to try it out since it fills the same role as Surreal Memoir, which is recurring instants.
Jeskai Banner: Maybe this is a flavor thing, and if so I understand, but Commander's Sphere sacrifices itself for free, saving you three valuable colored mana!
Also, regarding your changes and additions, I strongly recommend Gilded Lotus. It has done some amazing work in my build! And I agree that Mission Briefing does wonderful things for this deck and is well worth testing. So does Mizzix's Mastery in my opinion.
Thanks again for sharing the list, it gave me some good ideas for possible changes and things to test out!
I've already made some changes to the list which I'll post to this thread soon.
Explanation
I swapped some basics for new lands I traded for. The Commander's Sphere swap for Chrome Mox greatly improves this deck, as I often don't care losing a card to gain free mana and storm count. Shelter replaces Emerge Unscathed because I'd rather have a card that replaces itself than one that rebounds.
Lastly, I removed Titan's Strength because I don't need power increasing combat tricks anymore in this build and I was always disappointed when I drew it. Jeskai Charm took its place but I'm not convinced that I like the card, so it might only be temporary.
A changelog section has also been added to the main post, starting with the big 2.0 Storm revamp of the list.
I have now played quite a few games with the deck and I have to say that it's quicly becoming my favorite EDH deck. It's incredibly fun to play and all games so different from one another. I'll write up some game reports and add them to the main post some time in the near future!
The theory here is that it provides card advantage, as well as turn into a tutor when going off with Eye of the Storm when I have Trail of Evidence out. Yeah, I'm probably better off just running a damn tutor anyway. I won't be able to find Eye of the Storm with, say, Merchants Scroll, but I don't want tutors to set up a combo that much, as it would make games too samey. I could change my mind and put a Enlightened Tutor or Idyllic Tutor in the deck, but it isn't a priority right now.
Most likely, this is where Gilded Lotus goes; I'll keep Trail of Evidence for now, and the lotus can pay for Investigate.
Center Soul: Shelter has worked better for me than the rebound protection spells. Rebound doesn't work well with Eye of the Storm either. If you still want to keep a rebound protection spell, I'd recommend Emerge Unscathed since it's the same effect for 1 less mana.
Yeah, it's a leftover flavour choice. Shelter is a good pickup. Note that I weighted my instants towards U, so I have a better chance to have WR open to activate Shu Yun's double strike ability. Gilded Lotus changes that a little, but the double strike ability is less important when going off.
Twitch is a very cool idea because it cantrips and this is what this kind of deck wants. Have you considered trying Turnabout? It doesn't cantrip but it's super versatile and can untap your lands for more storm shenanigans. And it's complelely insane when you manage to put it into Eye of the Storm.
It's a good card. Sadly, I want to foil out the deck and this one isn't available foil. I have to get a bit more creative in my mana generation though.
What do you use Twisted Image for? I'd recommend cutting that and adding Shadow Rift or Slip Through Space since they not only cantrip like Twisted Image but also allows you to one shot an opponent with an unblockable gigantic double strike creature.
It uhm... buffs Elusive Spellfist? To be fair, it just looks cool, maybe messes with combat once in a while and it can randomly kill something. Basically, it cantrips, and it will become relevant after Guilds of Ravnica comes out, due to Erratic Cyclops. Once I find space for that, I'll keep it in addition to Invert/Invent. Slip Through Space is certainly a strong concideration though.
Surreal Memoir: Spellweaver Volute has done amazing work for me and it's not a very well known card so you might want to try it out since it fills the same role as Surreal Memoir, which is recurring instants.
Spellweaver Volute is somewhat expensive though, and it exiles. It also removes the card-ness from the recurred spell, making it interact worse with Eye. This kind of effect is important though, and I want some varieties of Call to Mind / Flood of Recollection, but ultimately I'll settle on Mission Briefing.
Surreal Memoir does add a couple of triggers though when not going off.
Jeskai Banner: Maybe this is a flavor thing, and if so I understand, but Commander's Sphere sacrifices itself for free, saving you three valuable colored mana!
Also, regarding your changes and additions, I strongly recommend Gilded Lotus. It has done some amazing work in my build! And I agree that Mission Briefing does wonderful things for this deck and is well worth testing. So does Mizzix's Mastery in my opinion.
Yes, flavour reasons / foil reasons for Jeskai Banner. Do run Commander's Sphere if you want another 3 mana rock, as it's the superior option / stricktly better.
The mana rocks are there to ramp/fix while triggering prowess. Bonus points go to cards that pay for themselves, so the fit in the Banishing Knack combos.
Other options include:
Talisman of Progress - a cheaper rock, and basically the fourth Signit. I'm not married to all the red in my deck. I mainly have R for Dragon-Style Twins, also a flavour choice. The deck should have double strike in spades, and Erratic Cyclops is slightly easier on the red. Mox Amber - A risky mox, that has a lesser chance of fixing your colours in this deck, and it needs Shu or someone else on the table to work. It fits the bounce strategy, and even makes you go up mana when you do. The Crome Mox you picked up is fine in this regard as well. Lotus Petal did do some good work while it was in the deck. I mean, anything free prowess is awesome, and you can hardly go wrong there.
Other conciderations for the future:
- Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir - I have the non-wizard rule to keep the deck unique in my vast collection of decks. However, Teferi may be too good to pass, since he'll protects our Eye of the Storm combo. Note that with Teferi on the table opponents can't cast spells of Eye of the Storm. Any instant or sorcery gets exiled with Eye, and they can't cast anything during the Eye's trigger resolution, so not only makes it Eye more safe to have, it disables the resolution of any instant/sorcery your opponents have.
You also run Possibility Storm and Knowledge pool, same thing there. Except with these, Teferi shuts down all opponents' spells! Nasty.
- I feel haste is somewhat important; Not only it reduces the chance of creatures being killed before they can act, going off with Monastery Mentor right away while all the tokens are buffed by their prowess is important. Fervor seems good in this regard, but for more spell-slingery cards I might try Crimson Wisps / Expedite. The latter two are more complicated stack-wise, though, and require more work. Another approach to haste is Threaten effects. Not only does it allow you to steal something (wicked during an Eye combo) but you can give your own creatures haste as well. And untap them. Quite flexible when you use them not-as-intended.
Getting back on mana rocks, the upcoming Guild Lockets actually gain you card advantage. Not a fan of the costs involved, though.
Edit:
I see you are running Sentinal Tower. I was very impressed with it during the Battlebond event. Aetherflux Reservoir is similar and triggers off all spells.
And I just saw a deck on CFB that runs Bonus Round. I guess it's there to double any rituals, but I think it's hilarious with Eye of the Storm. It doesn't add to storm, really, but it keeps multiplying the stack, and turn things really crazy.
Arkham, the 1920's. Investigators battle horrors from beyond time and space, risking life and sanity while conspiracies of cultists and malign servitors seek gateways for their outer gods to return...
Soon, the stars will be right! Great Cthulhu shall rise!
Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir: This card certainly interacts very well with our multiple game changing cards such as Possibility Storm and Knowledge Pool. However, people in my playgroup already get annoyed when I play those cards because it slows their gameplans down, and I don't think I want to ruin their fun even more by adding a complete lock to this deck.
I plan on adding a "voluntarily omitted cards" section to the main post soon and I'll definitely include Teferi in there for this reason.
Haste: I agree that it's very important. In my list I have three haste enablers that are all one-off single targeted instants or sorceries: Crimson Wisps, Expedite and Catch. The first two replace themselves and the last one is super versatile and it has won me some games because of that. They are mostly there to give haste to Shu Yun and kill someone unexpectedly. However, in my last game I won by playing Faerie Conclave as my land for turn, turning it into a creature, then giving it haste with Crimson Wisps while I had Jeskai Ascendancy on the battlefield. It allowed me to storm off for a looooong time with 1 cost cantrips that kept untapping the land-creature due to the Ascendancy trigger and Guttersnipe finished everyone off. This wouldn't have been possible that turn without one small haste-giving spell!
Sentinel Tower: This is in my deck for the same reason as Guttersnipe, which is alternative win cons. Sure, Shu Yun can kill people, but I still want to be able to win if he's not on the field or I can't cast him and give him haste. I also considered Aetherflux Reservoir, but the more I think about it, the more I dislike the idea of one-shotting someone by paying 50 life. It feels too quick for my tastes. With Sentinel Tower, you can also kill creatures while casting 2-3 instants or sorceries in your turn, which is a nice bonus. To kill a player with the tower, you have to get an incredibly high storm count and I feel like it's more rewarding than the "simple" requirement of paying 50 life.
Bonus Round: Wow I completely missed this card when I looked at the Battlebond cards. I'll add it to my "to be considered" list and might en up testing it soon, thanks!
Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir: This card certainly interacts very well with our multiple game changing cards such as Possibility Storm and Knowledge Pool. However, people in my playgroup already get annoyed when I play those cards because it slows their gameplans down, and I don't think I want to ruin their fun even more by adding a complete lock to this deck.
I plan on adding a "voluntarily omitted cards" section to the main post soon and I'll definitely include Teferi in there for this reason.
Haha fair enough. This is why I have no wizards at all.
Haste: I agree that it's very important. In my list I have three haste enablers that are all one-off single targeted instants or sorceries: Crimson Wisps, Expedite and Catch. The first two replace themselves and the last one is super versatile and it has won me some games because of that. They are mostly there to give haste to Shu Yun and kill someone unexpectedly. However, in my last game I won by playing Faerie Conclave as my land for turn, turning it into a creature, then giving it haste with Crimson Wisps while I had Jeskai Ascendancy on the battlefield. It allowed me to storm off for a looooong time with 1 cost cantrips that kept untapping the land-creature due to the Ascendancy trigger and Guttersnipe finished everyone off. This wouldn't have been possible that turn without one small haste-giving spell!
Sentinel Tower: This is in my deck for the same reason as Guttersnipe, which is alternative win cons. Sure, Shu Yun can kill people, but I still want to be able to win if he's not on the field or I can't cast him and give him haste. I also considered Aetherflux Reservoir, but the more I think about it, the more I dislike the idea of one-shotting someone by paying 50 life. It feels too quick for my tastes. With Sentinel Tower, you can also kill creatures while casting 2-3 instants or sorceries in your turn, which is a nice bonus. To kill a player with the tower, you have to get an incredibly high storm count and I feel like it's more rewarding than the "simple" requirement of paying 50 life.
Fair enough. I think the livegain keeps us in the game longer, But I can't think of a card slot. Sentinel Tower was just so great in games I played, and while I can't think of a slot, I'm really inclined to include it, because the card is so cool.
Bonus Round: Wow I completely missed this card when I looked at the Battlebond cards. I'll add it to my "to be considered" list and might en up testing it soon, thanks!
Yeah, I don't know if it'll actually do things. I guess it helps Twitch out of control more. Similarly, I'm concidering Hidden Strings for the mana creation role too.
As for what I'll be doing with Jeskai Banner - this should become Paradise Mantle at some point, as it's another free card for my bounce combo, and generates mana with Ascendency and Eye.
Arkham, the 1920's. Investigators battle horrors from beyond time and space, risking life and sanity while conspiracies of cultists and malign servitors seek gateways for their outer gods to return...
Soon, the stars will be right! Great Cthulhu shall rise!
After the prerelease I made one minor change: Out: Faithless Looting In: Expansion // Explosion. Faithless Looting is a fine card, but I wanted to try out my cool prerelease foil, which offers a bit of Judo/Aikido to Shu Yun. It's a bit situational, but Commander games have lots of situations. The Expansion side can ramp, copy a removal spell, countering a counterspell or copying something else of value. Worst comes to worst, I can copy one of my own draw spells to cycle it.
The Explosion side is expensive, but it is card draw at instant speed (or it can force one player to draw out their deck while burning another to death if you somehow make infinite mana.) It also works as removal for 4, if you have Dismiss Into Dream. All in all there is great flexibility.
Another thought for inclusion is Runic Repetition. With that, you can unexile a cheap flashback spell from Eye of the Storm and replay it, triggering all the exiled spells (and Runic Repetition) agian. Look for cheap Flashback spells like Artful Dodge, Defy Gravity or Dream Twist to keep Eye of the Storm going for as long as you can make blue mana.
Arkham, the 1920's. Investigators battle horrors from beyond time and space, risking life and sanity while conspiracies of cultists and malign servitors seek gateways for their outer gods to return...
Soon, the stars will be right! Great Cthulhu shall rise!
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Shu Yun is very unique among Jeskai Commanders. He is blue and yet focuses on combat. His very simple yet interesting abilities immediately caught my attention and I knew I needed to build a deck with him as the commander.
My first take on Shu Yun was a traditionnal spellsligner build that had a small equipment subtheme, pretty similar to your average EDHREC Shu Yun deck. After some initial playtesting, I've found that the list was waaaay too "all-in" for my tastes, solely focusing on Shu Yun one shotting players one at a time with cheap combat tricks and evasion. It ran out of cards to play very quickly, and while the deck had surprising success in my playgroup, I found myself not satisfied at all with that version of the deck.
There were some interesting gameplay elements that I wanted to toy more with though. Spellweaver Volute and Talent of the Telepath, for example, had way more success than I originally imagined they would have, and that's because they were cards that turned single noncreature spells cast into many.
"Multiple spell casts" was the starting point for this new version or, as we all know it, "storm." I got rid of the equipment package and of almost all the non-cantriping combat tricks and cheap protection spells from the initial list and wanted to add more mana rocks and ridiculously fun cards to this build. I then thought of tstorm823's incredible Zedruu deck that often managed to cast a gigantic amount of spells in a single turn and grab splashy wins from out of nowhere. Since we are also in Jeskai colors, I chose to incorporate some of that deck's super fun elements into this new Shu Yun list. Cards like Possibility Storm, Knowledge Pool and Eye of the Storm all turn a single spell being cast into multiple ones, each triggering prowess or other abilies in the deck. In this new version, Shu Yun acts more as a spontaneous delete button for an opponent that patiently waits in the command zone for the turn we will storm off. He is, after all, the Silent Tempest (or in this case, the Silent Storm).
You might like this deck if...
- ... you like Storm. Even if this deck only has one card with the litteral Storm keyword, its main focus is to cast a ridiculous amount of spells in a single turn and benefit from that in many ways that will often lead to either victory or an incredible advantage in the game.
- ... you like efficiently filtering through your deck. This deck runs a lot of cards that cantrip, meaning that they draw cards as part of their resolution. It also has card draw stapled on spells with delve that become really easy to cast. This means that it's possible to regularly get the cards you need exactly when you need them.
- ... you want a deck with many different ways to win. Even though most Shu Yun decks try to win though commander damage (like my first list), this is only one of the ways to win a game with this deck.
- ... you like to play with weird or underused cards. This list runs a ton of cards we don't get to see often in EDH that can create very interesting board states, cards such as Mirrorweave or Precursor Golem.
You might dislike this deck if...1 Shu Yun, the Silent Tempest
His relics
1 Azorius Signet
1 Boros Signet
1 Chrome Mox
1 Fellwar Stone
1 Gilded Lotus
1 Izzet Signet
1 Knowledge Pool
1 Lotus Petal
1 Primal Amulet
1 Sentinel Tower
1 Sol Ring
1 Talisman of Progress
His students
1 Fatestitcher
1 Guttersnipe
1 Monastery Mentor
1 Precursor Golem
1 Surrakar Spellblade
1 Talrand, Sky Summoner
1 Thada Adel, Acquisitor
1 Young Pyromancer
His mantras
1 Eye of the Storm
1 Jeskai Ascendancy
1 Possibility Storm
1 Spellweaver Volute
His quick moves
1 Boros Charm
1 Brainstorm
1 Chaos Warp
1 Crimson Wisps
1 Cyclonic Rift
1 Desperate Ravings
1 Dig Through Time
1 Expedite
1 Fact or Fiction
1 Gush
1 Impulse
1 Jeskai Charm
1 Leap
1 Mental Note
1 Mirrorweave
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Shadow Rift
1 Shelter
1 Swords to Plowshares
1 Thought Scour
1 Turnabout
1 Vanish into Memory
1 Artful Dodge
1 Catch // Release
1 Deep Analysis
1 Disrupt Decorum
1 Gitaxian Probe
1 Merchant Scroll
1 Mind's Desire
1 Ponder
1 Preordain
1 Reckless Charge
1 Serum Visions
1 Sleight of Hand
1 Slip Through Space
1 Stolen Identity
1 Talent of the Telepath
1 Time Spiral
1 Treasure Cruise
1 Windfall
His training grounds
1 Adarkar Wastes
1 Battlefield Forge
1 Bloodstained Mire
1 Cascade Bluffs
1 Command Tower
1 Eiganjo Castle
1 Faerie Conclave
1 Flamekin Village
1 Flooded Strand
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Irrigated Farmland
4 Island
1 Minamo, School at Water's Edge
1 Misty Rainforest
1 Mountain
1 Mystic Gate
1 Mystic Monastery
3 Plains
1 Plateau
1 Polluted Delta
1 Reflecting Pool
1 Rugged Prairie
1 Sacred Foundry
1 Sea of Clouds
1 Scalding Tarn
1 Shivan Reef
1 Steam Vents
1 Tundra
1 Windswept Heath
1 Wooded Foothills
2 Mountain
1 Island
1 Emerge Unscathed
1 Titan's Strength
1 Commander's Sphere
1 Thirst for Knowledge
1 Mystic Gate
1 Scalding Tarn
1 Faerie Conclave
1 Shelter
1 Jeskai Charm
1 Chrome Mox
1 Merchant Scroll
I swapped some basics for new lands I traded for. The Commander's Sphere swap for Chrome Mox greatly improves this deck, as I often don't care losing a card to gain free mana and storm count.
Shelter replaces Emerge Unscathed because I'd rather have a card that replaces itself than one that rebounds.
Lastly, I removed Titan's Strength because I don't need power increasing combat tricks anymore in this build and I was always disappointed when I drew it. Jeskai Charm took its place but I'm not convinced that I like the card, so it might only be temporary.
Added a card by card analysis of the deck and more sections will be added to the post soon, including some game reports and an "how to play the deck" section.
Special thanks to @tstorm823 for his amazing Zedruu list from which I drew inspiration for this deck! The thread can be found here: https://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/the-game/commander-edh/multiplayer-commander-decklists/598449-zedruu-the-greatest-of-all-time
Custom set projects:
Aenyr: Art is Magic (100% done and fully draftable!)
Elestral: Astronomy, Weather and Duality (Currently in early design.)
Multiplayer commander decks
RGWU Bruse and Thrasios: Enchanted Alliance | BR Grenzo's Jail of Malevolence | RWU Shu Yun's Teachings | B Toshiro Umezawa's Eternal Journey | WU Ephara's City of Wonders
Avatar art by Stephan A. McGowan
Guttersnipe has a few cousins, Firebrand Archer and Thermo-Alchemist. You can then pair these cards with Curiosity, Ophidian's Eye, or Tandem Lookout, and turn every instant or sorcery you cast into multiple cards into your hand (as well as damage to each opponent). Imperial Recruiter and Recruiter of the Guard can find a piece of either side of the equation, and Drift of Phantasms can transmute for the Snipe or Eye.
It's just a thought, but this kind of shell seems ideal for it.
Apart from that, there's a few other notable cards it seems like you're missing.
Docent of Perfection gives you yet another Talrand/Young Pyro type trigger, and a rather powerful one at that. You might also consider Goblinslide. It's a little less efficient, but it itself triggers Talrand, prowess, and similar.
Bedlam Reveler is a fairly cheap creature most of the time in this shell with Prowess and a miniature wheel when you cast it.
Jace, Vryn's Prodigy gives you a powerful spell recursion engine. Snapcaster Mage, Mnemonic Wall, and Archaeomancer are all worth considering as well.
Currently Playing:
Legacy: Something U/W Controlish
EDH Cube
Hypercube! A New EDH Deck Every Week(ish)!
Docent of Perfection and Snapcaster Mage are both cards I don't own yet but that I plan on including in the deck as soon as I have them. Same for mini-Jace. As for Bedlam, I want to see how often I'll have less then 3 cards in hand before including it, though the cost reduction is definitely interesting.
Thanks for the suggestions, I'll keep you updated of the changes I make and how they play
Custom set projects:
Aenyr: Art is Magic (100% done and fully draftable!)
Elestral: Astronomy, Weather and Duality (Currently in early design.)
Multiplayer commander decks
RGWU Bruse and Thrasios: Enchanted Alliance | BR Grenzo's Jail of Malevolence | RWU Shu Yun's Teachings | B Toshiro Umezawa's Eternal Journey | WU Ephara's City of Wonders
Avatar art by Stephan A. McGowan
- Kher Keep
- Island
- Distortion Strike
- Compulsive Research
In
+ Reflecting Pool: Color was just too important and not worth the possible 0/1 body from Kher Keep for my Equipments, which was my original idea. I might even add more multicolored lands such as Mana Confluence or Exotic Orchard since this deck is very color intensive.
+ Minamo, School at Water's Edge: Better than an Island if I need to block with Shu or untap it and give it haste for a kill if an opponent has Blind Obedience in play.
+ Artful Dodge: Two casts when I decide was better than the 1 attack from Distorsion Strike I think. Also, I can discard Artful Dodge when I'm filtering and still use it later, which is one "free" spell cast trigger and can be very useful.
+ Time Spiral: Big addition to my collection and amazing card for this deck. It's basically a 0 mana 7 card draw spell, which is a free spell cast trigger that refills my hand and disrupts my opponents. I have high expectations for this card!
Custom set projects:
Aenyr: Art is Magic (100% done and fully draftable!)
Elestral: Astronomy, Weather and Duality (Currently in early design.)
Multiplayer commander decks
RGWU Bruse and Thrasios: Enchanted Alliance | BR Grenzo's Jail of Malevolence | RWU Shu Yun's Teachings | B Toshiro Umezawa's Eternal Journey | WU Ephara's City of Wonders
Avatar art by Stephan A. McGowan
EDH: UGEdric
Pauper: UR Delver
Modern: UGR Delver
Draft my cube: Eric's 390 Unpowered
Credit to DolZero for this awesome sig!
I've also added a complete card by card discussion as well as a list of cards I'm considering for the deck.
I'd like to thank tstorm823 for his awesome Zedruu list that inspired me to build this new list for one of my favorite commanders!
Custom set projects:
Aenyr: Art is Magic (100% done and fully draftable!)
Elestral: Astronomy, Weather and Duality (Currently in early design.)
Multiplayer commander decks
RGWU Bruse and Thrasios: Enchanted Alliance | BR Grenzo's Jail of Malevolence | RWU Shu Yun's Teachings | B Toshiro Umezawa's Eternal Journey | WU Ephara's City of Wonders
Avatar art by Stephan A. McGowan
• Call of Cthulhu CCG Servitor for the Netherlands!
Arkham, the 1920's. Investigators battle horrors from beyond time and space, risking life and sanity while conspiracies of cultists and malign servitors seek gateways for their outer gods to return...
Soon, the stars will be right! Great Cthulhu shall rise!
Custom set projects:
Aenyr: Art is Magic (100% done and fully draftable!)
Elestral: Astronomy, Weather and Duality (Currently in early design.)
Multiplayer commander decks
RGWU Bruse and Thrasios: Enchanted Alliance | BR Grenzo's Jail of Malevolence | RWU Shu Yun's Teachings | B Toshiro Umezawa's Eternal Journey | WU Ephara's City of Wonders
Avatar art by Stephan A. McGowan
My current Shu Yun deck also has Chaos Wand. I haven't tested it yet, but predicting what players have and trying to cast their stuff for fun and profit seems like a good way to gain cardadvantage over time, while adding some unpredictability to the deck.
Finally, my deck tries to pull some Banishing Knack / Retraction Helix combos with untapping techniques that, say, Zephyr Scribe / Jeskai Ascendancy, using cards that either pay for themselves (Sol ring, Pentad Prism for example) or that are free to cast for infinite prowess.
• Call of Cthulhu CCG Servitor for the Netherlands!
Arkham, the 1920's. Investigators battle horrors from beyond time and space, risking life and sanity while conspiracies of cultists and malign servitors seek gateways for their outer gods to return...
Soon, the stars will be right! Great Cthulhu shall rise!
This is also a card I considered, but in the end i decided to go with Talent of the Telepath when it comes to playing with my opponent's toys. I like that it's only 4 mana to get immediate value, often even two spells. The Wand's repetitive ability is nice, but there is far too much artifact removal in my playgroup for me to be even sure to get one activation out of it.
This is really interesting and I might give this a try. It's also infinite tokens with Monastery Mentor.
Would you mind sharing your list? You have some good ideas I could definitely be inspired by!
Custom set projects:
Aenyr: Art is Magic (100% done and fully draftable!)
Elestral: Astronomy, Weather and Duality (Currently in early design.)
Multiplayer commander decks
RGWU Bruse and Thrasios: Enchanted Alliance | BR Grenzo's Jail of Malevolence | RWU Shu Yun's Teachings | B Toshiro Umezawa's Eternal Journey | WU Ephara's City of Wonders
Avatar art by Stephan A. McGowan
Not a problem, though it could take me a while to write it down. The deck I have has a few stipulations:
- the first idea was to have a martial arts / kung-fu / streetfighter kinda feel with storming off feeling like a flurry of blows.
- It started out mostly as monk tribal, and I made a rule of not including any wizards, to differtiate the deck from other Izzet / Jeskai decks I've made. This means no Baral or Electromancer to storm off, even when that may be practical.
- I'm trying to foil it out, and while it does have some expensive foils I had laying around, some obvious things aren't included, because of access. This also sadly means no Taigam, Ojutai Master, Serene Master, or Zedruu, because they don't exist in foil.
- Also, rule of cool applies, so some cards included aren't the best, like Wandering Champion, but adds to the kungfu feel, and I use Ojutai Exemplars, which actually works a bit with my plan, but isn't really an EDH staple.
So, now that I've set some expectations, I'll get on it to give you a complete list but it can take me a couple of days to get it sorted.
• Call of Cthulhu CCG Servitor for the Netherlands!
Arkham, the 1920's. Investigators battle horrors from beyond time and space, risking life and sanity while conspiracies of cultists and malign servitors seek gateways for their outer gods to return...
Soon, the stars will be right! Great Cthulhu shall rise!
1 Shu Yun, the Silent Tempest
Creatures
1 Bruse Tarl, Boorish Herder
1 Dragon-Style Twins
1 Dragonlord Ojutai
1 Elusive Spellfist
1 Ishai, Ojutai Dragonspeaker
1 Kefnet the Mindful
1 Lotus-Eye Mystics
1 Mistfire Adept
1 Monastery Mentor
1 Niblis of Frost
1 Noyan Dar, Roil Shaper
1 Ojutai Exemplars
1 Pristine Skywise
1 Sage-Eye Avengers
1 Soulblade Djinn
1 Wandering Champion
1 Zephyr Scribe
Instants
1 Banishing Knack
1 Center Soul
1 Confirm Suspicions
1 Impulse
1 Negate
1 Opt
1 Peek
1 Retraction Helix
1 Spell Swindle
1 Think Twice
1 Twisted Image
1 Twitch
1 View from Above
1 Words of Wisdom
1 Curse of the Swine
1 Declaration in Stone
1 Faithless Looting
1 Gitaxian Probe
1 Master the Way
1 Mind's Desire
1 Ojutai's Summons
1 Serum Visions
1 Surreal Memoir
Enchantments
1 As Fortold
1 Dismiss Into Dream
1 Eye of the Storm
1 Imprisoned in the Moon
1 Jeskai Ascendancy
1 Nahiri's Machinations
1 Trail of Evidence
Artifacts
1 Azorius Signet
1 Boros Signet
1 Chaos Wand
1 Everflowing Chalice
1 Izzet Signet
1 Jeskai Banner
1 Mana Crypt
1 Paradox Engine
1 Pentad Prism
1 Sol Ring
1 Sword of the Animist
1 Tamiyo's Journal
1 Umezawa's Jitte
10 Island
5 Mountain
5 Plains
1 Azorius Chancery
1 Boros Garrison
1 Command Tower
1 Evolving Wilds
1 Flooded Strand
1 Mana Confluence
1 Mystic Monastery
1 Port Town
1 Shivan Reef
1 Spirebluff Canal
1 Stone Quarry
1 Swiftwater Cliffs
1 Temple of Enlightenment
1 Temple of Epiphany
1 Temple of Triumph
1 Tolaria West
1 Tower of the Magistrate
1 Tranquil Cove
1 Wind-Scarred Crag
Bruse and Ishai can function as alternate commanders, because why the hell not.
ROIL SHAPE ELEMENTAL SLAM!!!
Noyan Dar, Roil Shaper is there to make a large creature, or several creatures. While there is a risk involved, turning just one land in a huge, possible double striker isn't that dangerous. Or you just make an army. As it goes with land creatures: Go woke, get broke. I guess. But there will be storming later on, and Noyan capitalizes on this by making you an army. There is also a minor combo with Jeskai Ascendancy here. Stack it right, chain some spells, and you get extra mana out of the untapping lands. Extra mana is always useful. Especially when you try to combo off.
ILLUSION STRIKE!!!
Now that our monks are on the Path of Enlightenment, they realize everything is illusionary, and we step out of reality to punch it really hard! Dismiss into Dream should give Voltron nightmares, but we can get a little proactive by using the triggers of Shu Yun, Mistfire Adept, Niblis of Frost and/or Ojutai Exemplars to force sacrifices by triggering off our non-creature spells. Note that you don't have to choose to pay for the triggers, creating a target is enough. (Although sometimes opponents won't believe you when you explain how this works. That's ok, you don't believe their creatures have actual substance when Dismiss is out...) Note that you can link this to the next combos, and destroy reality, hard.
THOUSAND BOUNCE SLAP!!!
This is probably the easiest of combo of the deck, because there are some redundant parts and the single elements aren't that expensive to cast. You'll need an opening to attack, or a way create one. Then, make sure you have a creature that untaps when you play an artifact - say Zephyr Scribe or Pristine Skywise - or create the effect with Paradox Engine, or Jeskai Ascendancy. Then cast Banishing Knack or Retraction Helix and bounce an artifact that's either free or can pay for itself. Bounce, play, untap, repeat.
Now you should have a thousand Prowess triggers, possibly infinite mana, or a million activations to bounce all opposing non-land things to their hand (can happen if you had both Knack and Helix or multiple untaps per artifact.)
ULTIMATE STORM TECHNIQUE!!!
Yes, we dismissed the dream, but this is where we came for: The Dream. Eye of the Storm. This is where we embrace our Satsui No Hado and go Instant Hell Murder on things. Maybe. Hopefully. The trick is to keep getting mana and cards.
This is why we run Spell Swindle, and counter our own spells to get treasure. We untap land and rocks with Twitch. Maybe Noyan Dar can chip in with his Ascendancy combo. Well, you have an idea how this works, this was the idea of the deck in the first place.
Just make sure there is direct damage in there somewhere, because maybe prowess alone doesn't cut it when you want to eliminate the whole table.
Changes and Additions
Decks evolve and change. This is my current list, but there are some things I'm concidering.
- Gilded Lotus. Because some of the setups cost lots of mana.
- Mystical Tutor / Merchant Scroll. I think tutors beat the purpose of singleton, and risk decks playing the same. Still, going off and having some guaranties to keep playing spells is nice to have.
- Fieldmist Borderpost It's basically a land that also is a spell that triggers Prowess.
- Out: Negate In: Arcane Denial for one, it counters more things. Secondly, in a multiplayer game the card disadvantage is similar, as only one player goes up a card, instead of 2 players in a 4 player game. Third: You can counter your own stuff to slow cycle it. not that that will come up often, but it's good to have the option. Especially when you're Eye of Storming.
- Out: Confirm Suspicions In: Mystic Confluence. It's more flexible, and I don't have to pay extra for the draws. Also handy for Dismiss Into Dream.
The Future
Is it me or is Mission Briefing amazing with Eye of the Storm? It's exiling things anyway, and I get to find more stuff ánd use spells I already cast in the game before, so I don't have to hold back as much while things are setting up. It does everything. EVERYTHING!
Thousand-Year Storm makes thematically sense, but doesn't help prowess. But. Just. Imagine. With Eye you probably need a spreadsheet to keep track of the stack. Awesome, but it doesn't really add anything.
Erratic Cyclops. Because I already run Twisted Image and the "Suddenly I have a 8/1 trample doublestrike creature" school of thought appeals to me, and Invert // Invent seems a good Eye of the Storm target. You can cast the cheap side, and get the expensive side out of the storm.
• Call of Cthulhu CCG Servitor for the Netherlands!
Arkham, the 1920's. Investigators battle horrors from beyond time and space, risking life and sanity while conspiracies of cultists and malign servitors seek gateways for their outer gods to return...
Soon, the stars will be right! Great Cthulhu shall rise!
I hadn't considered Noyan Dar, Roil Shaper but with a lot of storm triggers or Jeskai Ascendancy it's just really sweet, I think I'll make room in my deck for that card. I might also make room for the Zephyr Scribe + Retraction Helix combo because I'd like to try that out. As Foretold is also a good idea because it gives you one more (free!) spell per turn.
Here are my thoughts about some of your card choices:
Thanks again for sharing the list, it gave me some good ideas for possible changes and things to test out!
I've already made some changes to the list which I'll post to this thread soon.
Custom set projects:
Aenyr: Art is Magic (100% done and fully draftable!)
Elestral: Astronomy, Weather and Duality (Currently in early design.)
Multiplayer commander decks
RGWU Bruse and Thrasios: Enchanted Alliance | BR Grenzo's Jail of Malevolence | RWU Shu Yun's Teachings | B Toshiro Umezawa's Eternal Journey | WU Ephara's City of Wonders
Avatar art by Stephan A. McGowan
2 Mountain
1 Island
1 Emerge Unscathed
1 Titan's Strength
1 Commander's Sphere
1 Thirst for Knowledge
1 Mystic Gate
1 Scalding Tarn
1 Faerie Conclave
1 Shelter
1 Jeskai Charm
1 Chrome Mox
1 Merchant Scroll
I swapped some basics for new lands I traded for. The Commander's Sphere swap for Chrome Mox greatly improves this deck, as I often don't care losing a card to gain free mana and storm count.
Shelter replaces Emerge Unscathed because I'd rather have a card that replaces itself than one that rebounds.
Lastly, I removed Titan's Strength because I don't need power increasing combat tricks anymore in this build and I was always disappointed when I drew it. Jeskai Charm took its place but I'm not convinced that I like the card, so it might only be temporary.
A changelog section has also been added to the main post, starting with the big 2.0 Storm revamp of the list.
I have now played quite a few games with the deck and I have to say that it's quicly becoming my favorite EDH deck. It's incredibly fun to play and all games so different from one another. I'll write up some game reports and add them to the main post some time in the near future!
Custom set projects:
Aenyr: Art is Magic (100% done and fully draftable!)
Elestral: Astronomy, Weather and Duality (Currently in early design.)
Multiplayer commander decks
RGWU Bruse and Thrasios: Enchanted Alliance | BR Grenzo's Jail of Malevolence | RWU Shu Yun's Teachings | B Toshiro Umezawa's Eternal Journey | WU Ephara's City of Wonders
Avatar art by Stephan A. McGowan
Sword of the Animist
It buffs. It triggers prowess. It ramps and fixes. I suppose it also generates card andvantage and deck thinning.
Umezawa's Jitte
It does some of the things Sword of the Animist does, and then it also does the rest. It interacts with Double Strike and well, what doesn't it do?
Tamiyo's Journal
The theory here is that it provides card advantage, as well as turn into a tutor when going off with Eye of the Storm when I have Trail of Evidence out. Yeah, I'm probably better off just running a damn tutor anyway. I won't be able to find Eye of the Storm with, say, Merchants Scroll, but I don't want tutors to set up a combo that much, as it would make games too samey. I could change my mind and put a Enlightened Tutor or Idyllic Tutor in the deck, but it isn't a priority right now.
Most likely, this is where Gilded Lotus goes; I'll keep Trail of Evidence for now, and the lotus can pay for Investigate.
Yeah, it's a leftover flavour choice. Shelter is a good pickup. Note that I weighted my instants towards U, so I have a better chance to have WR open to activate Shu Yun's double strike ability. Gilded Lotus changes that a little, but the double strike ability is less important when going off.
It's a good card. Sadly, I want to foil out the deck and this one isn't available foil. I have to get a bit more creative in my mana generation though.
It uhm... buffs Elusive Spellfist? To be fair, it just looks cool, maybe messes with combat once in a while and it can randomly kill something. Basically, it cantrips, and it will become relevant after Guilds of Ravnica comes out, due to Erratic Cyclops. Once I find space for that, I'll keep it in addition to Invert/Invent. Slip Through Space is certainly a strong concideration though.
Spellweaver Volute is somewhat expensive though, and it exiles. It also removes the card-ness from the recurred spell, making it interact worse with Eye. This kind of effect is important though, and I want some varieties of Call to Mind / Flood of Recollection, but ultimately I'll settle on Mission Briefing.
Surreal Memoir does add a couple of triggers though when not going off.
Yes, flavour reasons / foil reasons for Jeskai Banner. Do run Commander's Sphere if you want another 3 mana rock, as it's the superior option / stricktly better.
The mana rocks are there to ramp/fix while triggering prowess. Bonus points go to cards that pay for themselves, so the fit in the Banishing Knack combos.
Other options include:
Talisman of Progress - a cheaper rock, and basically the fourth Signit. I'm not married to all the red in my deck. I mainly have R for Dragon-Style Twins, also a flavour choice. The deck should have double strike in spades, and Erratic Cyclops is slightly easier on the red.
Mox Amber - A risky mox, that has a lesser chance of fixing your colours in this deck, and it needs Shu or someone else on the table to work. It fits the bounce strategy, and even makes you go up mana when you do. The Crome Mox you picked up is fine in this regard as well.
Lotus Petal did do some good work while it was in the deck. I mean, anything free prowess is awesome, and you can hardly go wrong there.
Other conciderations for the future:
- Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir - I have the non-wizard rule to keep the deck unique in my vast collection of decks. However, Teferi may be too good to pass, since he'll protects our Eye of the Storm combo. Note that with Teferi on the table opponents can't cast spells of Eye of the Storm. Any instant or sorcery gets exiled with Eye, and they can't cast anything during the Eye's trigger resolution, so not only makes it Eye more safe to have, it disables the resolution of any instant/sorcery your opponents have.
You also run Possibility Storm and Knowledge pool, same thing there. Except with these, Teferi shuts down all opponents' spells! Nasty.
- I feel haste is somewhat important; Not only it reduces the chance of creatures being killed before they can act, going off with Monastery Mentor right away while all the tokens are buffed by their prowess is important. Fervor seems good in this regard, but for more spell-slingery cards I might try Crimson Wisps / Expedite. The latter two are more complicated stack-wise, though, and require more work. Another approach to haste is Threaten effects. Not only does it allow you to steal something (wicked during an Eye combo) but you can give your own creatures haste as well. And untap them. Quite flexible when you use them not-as-intended.
Getting back on mana rocks, the upcoming Guild Lockets actually gain you card advantage. Not a fan of the costs involved, though.
Edit:
I see you are running Sentinal Tower. I was very impressed with it during the Battlebond event. Aetherflux Reservoir is similar and triggers off all spells.
And I just saw a deck on CFB that runs Bonus Round. I guess it's there to double any rituals, but I think it's hilarious with Eye of the Storm. It doesn't add to storm, really, but it keeps multiplying the stack, and turn things really crazy.
• Call of Cthulhu CCG Servitor for the Netherlands!
Arkham, the 1920's. Investigators battle horrors from beyond time and space, risking life and sanity while conspiracies of cultists and malign servitors seek gateways for their outer gods to return...
Soon, the stars will be right! Great Cthulhu shall rise!
Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir: This card certainly interacts very well with our multiple game changing cards such as Possibility Storm and Knowledge Pool. However, people in my playgroup already get annoyed when I play those cards because it slows their gameplans down, and I don't think I want to ruin their fun even more by adding a complete lock to this deck.
I plan on adding a "voluntarily omitted cards" section to the main post soon and I'll definitely include Teferi in there for this reason.
Haste: I agree that it's very important. In my list I have three haste enablers that are all one-off single targeted instants or sorceries: Crimson Wisps, Expedite and Catch. The first two replace themselves and the last one is super versatile and it has won me some games because of that. They are mostly there to give haste to Shu Yun and kill someone unexpectedly. However, in my last game I won by playing Faerie Conclave as my land for turn, turning it into a creature, then giving it haste with Crimson Wisps while I had Jeskai Ascendancy on the battlefield. It allowed me to storm off for a looooong time with 1 cost cantrips that kept untapping the land-creature due to the Ascendancy trigger and Guttersnipe finished everyone off. This wouldn't have been possible that turn without one small haste-giving spell!
Sentinel Tower: This is in my deck for the same reason as Guttersnipe, which is alternative win cons. Sure, Shu Yun can kill people, but I still want to be able to win if he's not on the field or I can't cast him and give him haste. I also considered Aetherflux Reservoir, but the more I think about it, the more I dislike the idea of one-shotting someone by paying 50 life. It feels too quick for my tastes. With Sentinel Tower, you can also kill creatures while casting 2-3 instants or sorceries in your turn, which is a nice bonus. To kill a player with the tower, you have to get an incredibly high storm count and I feel like it's more rewarding than the "simple" requirement of paying 50 life.
Bonus Round: Wow I completely missed this card when I looked at the Battlebond cards. I'll add it to my "to be considered" list and might en up testing it soon, thanks!
Custom set projects:
Aenyr: Art is Magic (100% done and fully draftable!)
Elestral: Astronomy, Weather and Duality (Currently in early design.)
Multiplayer commander decks
RGWU Bruse and Thrasios: Enchanted Alliance | BR Grenzo's Jail of Malevolence | RWU Shu Yun's Teachings | B Toshiro Umezawa's Eternal Journey | WU Ephara's City of Wonders
Avatar art by Stephan A. McGowan
Haha fair enough. This is why I have no wizards at all.
Ah yes, manlands are great with Jeskai Ascendancy. I'll take note of this. Speaking of lands, I run Tower of the Magistrate to de-equip opponents creatures, but it also works great with Dismiss into Dream. Same for Slayers' Stronghold, which also is an answer to the haste problem.
To top the Dismiss of, I'd run Eiganjo Castle, Minamo, School at Water's Edge and Shinka, the Bloodsoaked Keep because they offer so much compared to the opportunity cost they have. Sadly, they are really expensive in foil, but they are an autoinclude otherwise.
Fair enough. I think the livegain keeps us in the game longer, But I can't think of a card slot. Sentinel Tower was just so great in games I played, and while I can't think of a slot, I'm really inclined to include it, because the card is so cool.
Yeah, I don't know if it'll actually do things. I guess it helps Twitch out of control more. Similarly, I'm concidering Hidden Strings for the mana creation role too.
As for what I'll be doing with Jeskai Banner - this should become Paradise Mantle at some point, as it's another free card for my bounce combo, and generates mana with Ascendency and Eye.
I also added the thoughts on this deck to my site here http://magic.rlyeh.nl/?p=2023
Thank you too for helping bringing this thing to a higher plane!
• Call of Cthulhu CCG Servitor for the Netherlands!
Arkham, the 1920's. Investigators battle horrors from beyond time and space, risking life and sanity while conspiracies of cultists and malign servitors seek gateways for their outer gods to return...
Soon, the stars will be right! Great Cthulhu shall rise!
The Explosion side is expensive, but it is card draw at instant speed (or it can force one player to draw out their deck while burning another to death if you somehow make infinite mana.) It also works as removal for 4, if you have Dismiss Into Dream. All in all there is great flexibility.
Another thought for inclusion is Runic Repetition. With that, you can unexile a cheap flashback spell from Eye of the Storm and replay it, triggering all the exiled spells (and Runic Repetition) agian. Look for cheap Flashback spells like Artful Dodge, Defy Gravity or Dream Twist to keep Eye of the Storm going for as long as you can make blue mana.
• Call of Cthulhu CCG Servitor for the Netherlands!
Arkham, the 1920's. Investigators battle horrors from beyond time and space, risking life and sanity while conspiracies of cultists and malign servitors seek gateways for their outer gods to return...
Soon, the stars will be right! Great Cthulhu shall rise!