I'm a Queen Marchesa player as well. I noticed that I seldom lose the Monarch. Why? Well, my Commander has Deathtouch. So I always have a Deathtoucher on the ground. And then there are other countermeasures I use. But mostly, being the Monarch is fine, I get extra cards. Not being the Monarch is fine as well, because if people go after being the Monarch, they typically go after each other, and they do all the work for me. Oh, and I get some little tokens, which are not amazing but further help keeping people off my back, and help me get the Monarch back.
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.
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.
After the expertise is exiled each card already exiled is copied and put onto the stack let's say you have a Lightning Bolt only and then Expertise is played. So you can cast them in any order, but they won't resolve until they are all on the stack so you'll have a stack that has either Bolt resolving first or Expertise resolving first either way this finishes the Eye of the Storm ability. When you resolve the expertise and cast Brainstorm the same situation happens , but if you had anything still left to resolve from the first Eye of the Storm it would still be at the bottom of the stack and would resolve after everything played from the new trigger. So if you still had that bolt left to resolve you would have
Bolt<-Brainstorm-<Expertise<-Bolt
with the new storm/expertise/new bolt in any order
So, the Brainstorm is eventualy exiled, and triggers a new Eye cycle where I can bolt, brainstorm and expertise again?
What happens so for is that Eye triggers, it exiles Expertise, makes a copy of Expertise and I van play it during the resolution of the initial trigger.
When the Expertise resolves, I get to play another spell, for instance: Brainstorm. Since that is an instant, Eye of the Storm should have triggers trying to exile brainstorm. But does it succeed? When does the trigger actually go on the stack, because brainstorm is played during the resolution of the original Eye trigger?
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.
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.
My insticts say this is better than it looks. At least it's flexible. In a guild (2 colour) deck you'll get a bear that kan pew-pew up to two times, and if you have ways to grow the counters, even better. Sadly, I'm a Commander player, and WUBERG doesn't come up often in an Artifact commander deck, so it'll quickly run afoul of colour-identity restrictions. All in all it has potential, but it was designed to be a little bit too save and not be another Ballista.
Considering people dump their hand to Flame of Keld, this seems a good way to create card advantage later on when you are low on hand anyway. It's like a colorshifted Precognition Field, but without the instants/sorceries only clause. Pretty cool.
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.
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!
So, the Brainstorm is eventualy exiled, and triggers a new Eye cycle where I can bolt, brainstorm and expertise again?
I have Eye of the Storm on the table. Then I play an Expertise, say Baral's Expertise.
What happens so for is that Eye triggers, it exiles Expertise, makes a copy of Expertise and I van play it during the resolution of the initial trigger.
When the Expertise resolves, I get to play another spell, for instance: Brainstorm. Since that is an instant, Eye of the Storm should have triggers trying to exile brainstorm. But does it succeed? When does the trigger actually go on the stack, because brainstorm is played during the resolution of the original Eye trigger?
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.
It uhm... buffs Elusive Spellfist?
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.
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.
Looks like that's pretty high on the Storm Scale, Maro! Excellent!