One of Magic’s best qualities is its sheer quantity and variety of cards. The last twenty years have given us thousands and thousands of tools to use in every conceivable format. Magic combines the open, imaginative nature of analog gaming with a defined, sturdy rule base to craft whatever decks and strategies you want. Fathoming all of the possible interactions is mind-blowing; every instant, sorcery, enchantment, land, and creature interacts differently across infinite board states.
Following that thought, the Magic design team has made a habit of including a handful of random, chaotic cards in nearly every recent set. These cards, often red rare enchantments, rarely make a resounding impact on the game at large, but remember—anything is possible. Our most recent installment in this chaotic lineage is Possibility Storm[/author]“][author name="Possibility Storm"]Possibility Storm[/author].
Casting a spell then flipping through your deck for another one that shares a type with it perfectly represents the random, unpredictable nature of the bizarre rare red enchantment. In practice, using Possibility Storm[/author]“][author name="Possibility Storm"]Possibility Storm[/author] feels a lot like cascade; when you cast the spell, you get something else, but this time, it’s just a replacement instead of an addition.
I love the idea of making a casual deck based solely on the idea that you have no idea what you’re casting, but while browsing enchantments I noticed this intriguing interaction.
Uh oh.
That’s right; pinning the Curse to your opponent and resolving Possibility Storm[/author]“][author name="Possibility Storm"]Possibility Storm[/author] means that when your opponent casts a spell, another will replace it from their deck. But because he or she can’t cast a second spell, nothing happens. Your opponent cannot cast any spells from their hand for the rest of the game. Yikes!
Admittedly, I played a Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir Commander deck a couple years ago, and Knowledge Pool was forced upon me after this possible interaction was brought to my attention. I played it a couple times, resolved it, felt terrible, and scrapped the whole mono-blue list.
Standard is a different story though; people are Revelationing, Thragtusking, Sire of Insanity…ing. They’re out for blood! Lock them out with this simple, two-card combo and control the chaos!
In the world of semi-perfect mana, adding another color to the Boros-colored enchantment pair is pretty easy. I explored each of the three options. The Naya mix wasn’t really working; I tried a creature build with random singleton bruisers like Craterhoof Behemoth and mana dorks, but I was ultimately displeased. I tried blue next, and that actually had some moderate success using an instant/sorcery base. Although it was much smoother, it felt slow and more vulnerable. It led to some cute interactions and ideas that I could use, but for now I shelved the build. This led me to one of my favorite wedges, and that’s where I landed.
Creatures (9)
Planeswalkers (4)
- 1 Chandra, the Firebrand
- 1 Sorin, Lord of Innistrad
- 1 Ajani, Caller of the Pride
- 1 Gideon, Champion of Justice
Lands (23)
Spells (24)
- 1 Mountain
- 4 Faithless Looting
- 4 Lingering Souls
- 4 Curse of Exhaustion
- 3 Pillar of Flame
- 1 Staff of Nin
- 1 Dreadbore
- 1 Rakdos Keyrune
- 1 Boros Keyrune
- 4 Possibility Storm
Sideboard
As a side note, I have heard so many different names for this wedge. Unlike the others (Junk, USA, BUG and RUG) which have widely accepted names, there is little consensus for the W/B/R wedge. I’ve heard it called Oros, Nazi, Deka, Kaalia, Webber (what I call it), or the always fun to say Borzhovdos, and I’m sure you have one you use yourself.
Anyway, the goal here is to bide your time, hitting your land drops and killing their creatures until you find both pieces of the combo. Then you grind out advantage with your planeswalkers and other threats to finish them off.
Creatures
Although there were several more at the start, only nine creatures made it to the final list. Boros Reckoner is meant to be a sturdy roadblock against the aggro plan. The Minotaur Wizard is excellent at protecting planeswalkers, dissuading all manner of non-evasive attackers. Who knew that reducing Spitemare’s cost by one and giving it optional first strike would make it a staple?
Alms Beast, similarly, is an enormous wall. The lifelink isn’t a drawback when you consider that you’ll be effectively locking them out the game eventually, and the Beast eats ground creatures all day. Once you’ve assembled the lock, the 6/6 can plug away at their team, picking off the stragglers.
Pyrewild Shaman, another Dragon’s Maze gem, is a great pitch to Faithless Looting. Furthermore, it can also help chip away at an opponent’s life total in a non-spell fashion to avoid being caught up by the Storm. One Olivia Voldaren made it, too; she also cleans up the mess your opponent left.
Combo
The deck contains four copies each of the essential enchantments, and the playset of Faithless Looting will help you find it. After testing, there is no doubt that Faithless Looting does the heavy lifting, letting you shuck away either irrelevant spells, extra combo pieces, or excess land to dig for your pieces. Although it is ideal to resolve the Curse and then the Storm, resolving Possibility Storm[/author]“][author name="Possibility Storm"]Possibility Storm[/author] first lets you use your excess copies of Possibility Storm[/author]“][author name="Possibility Storm"]Possibility Storm[/author] to cascade into Curse of Exhaustion.
Non-Combo Spells
Taking a look at Lingering Souls, this anti-aggro card makes its umpteenth appearance here, too. Although it’s fallen a bit out of favor lately, this value engine can provide you the push you need on a combo-stalled board. Remember, you can safely cast this from your graveyard! Pillar of Flame is the removal spell of choice. It kills everything you need to as early as you need it. Never leave home without it.
Dreadbore made it in as a one-of. Dreadbore undoes a planeswalker your opponent managed to sneak through before resolving your combo, and it unconditionally answers every creature with ease. I have three artifacts: one each of Rakdos Keyrune, Boros Keyrune, and Staff of Nin. The Keyrunes each act as a half-land when considering mana. Once things slow down, you can punch through with these tricky combatants. If you happen to cast them after the Storm, they can also find your Staff of Nin, the grindiest of win conditions.
A quartet of planeswalkers round out the spells, and each provides a unique function to the deck. There is only one copy of each (to avoid the awkwardness of Storming into an extra copy), and once they’re out they can go to work without interruption. Sorin, Lord of Innistrad makes an army, and unchecked he can make emblems or steal errant critters. Chandra, the Firebrand has to be one of my favorite planeswalkers in the format, but she is often too slow or kitschy to be in a good deck sees very little play. Here, she copies your Lingering Souls or Pillar of Flame as usual. Note that she also lets you force one copy of your sorcery through if the Possibility Storm[/author]“][author name="Possibility Storm"]Possibility Storm[/author] is out, so you’ll get both the copy and the new spell. Eventually, she can overload and land the final blow herself.
Gideon, Champion of Justice and Ajani, Caller of the Pride make a tag team. Ajani can pump up Lingering Souls tokens, a Boros Reckoner, or even Gideon himself. If you happen to get Ajani out early, he can even make an impressive feline army. Gideon, Champion of Justice is a bruiser that’s not as bad when your opponent can’t answer him. Giving Gideon flying and double strike will also end the game in a real hustle.
In regards to the lands, I found the deck was too color hungry to include utilities.
The sideboard is a bit weird. In a perfect world, resolving your combo means that a sideboard will be irrelevant. Therefore, the sideboard should provide tools that will be helpful when something goes wrong. A suite of removal is lined up for the faster decks, anti-hate elements in the form of Slaughter Games and Witchbane Orb appear for slower decks, and graveyard hate in the form of Rakdos Charm closes us out.
In playtesting, this deck was able to assemble the combo at a very high frequency, often by turn 5. I’d often have both enchantments in my opening hand, and I’d use Faithless Lootings to find more lands instead. Honestly, I think we could replace each artifact with three lands and the deck would be good to go; maybe one of each Guildgate? The sideboard remains untested.
Looks like fun, huh? There’s no doubt that this concept and execution has some weaknesses, but that combo…
At the spur of the moment yesterday, I got a wild idea. What’s the worst card from Dragon’s Maze, and how do I build with it? I breezed through the spoiler looking for a worthy candidate. Turns out, the one I found wasn’t a bulk common or even a niche uncommon.
Alrighty then. Mind Bend is a neat card with ultimately an exceedingly narrow effect. Making it slower yet conditionally repeatable seems to be going in the wrong direction. If we look at just Standard, what’s even worth changing? As I considered the color modifiers in Standard, I couldn’t think of anything really relevant; without Celestial Purge, Deathmark, or others from that cycle, I seemed a bit lost.
When I looked at basic land types, however, Crypt Ghast came to mind. I guess I could make Crypt Ghast say Islands for a turn. Crypt Ghast doesn’t like being in anything that has non-Swamps in it, though. Realmwright could chip in to make all my Islands and other lands tap for two mana. Liliana of the Dark Realms cares about Swamps, too. Oh! And Stormtide Leviathan makes everything an Island, but if I changed it to Swamp, I could power out something silly!
Let’s cast off.
Creatures (15)
Planeswalkers (2)
Lands (17)
Spells (26)
This deck is stuffed to the gills with draw, countermagic, and, well, Stormtide Leviathan. The plan is to find Crypt Ghast, make it tap for all the mana, and resolve a Stormtide Leviathan, giving you an enormous, assault-stopping wall.
In the creature category, Realmwright provides perfect fixing and the all-important basic land type rider to make all of my Island and Swamp effects live. Augur of Bolas provides a nice backend while finding any of your instant answers. Crypt Ghast is our mana engine, and Stormtide Leviathan is our finisher. Although this behemoth is plenty fragile, some decks will be unable to answer it in a timely fashion. It can safely smash away each turn without lowering your defenses. The way I see it, if I’m going to hit you with an unblockable creature every turn, I don’t want to do it with the point of a dagger—I want to do it with a Mack Truck.
Besides that, the deck is heavily reliant on spells, and most explain themselves. Mutilate has the potential to go off at full power or less than depending on your planning or dumb luck. It has the added bonus of (most likely) not killing your Leviathan if you need to cast one after the Big Kahuna is online. Cackling Counterpart is a simple answer to removal that might otherwise be uncounterable; copying Crypt Ghast seems exciting, too, and you’ll often have the mana to cast one spell and hold this up.
There is a fair amount of on-curve draw power here to help with land drops and to drag you out of the doldrums of a bad opening hand. Divination is still pretty efficient, and I don’t see a problem dusting them off. Trait Doctoring is most often going to be used targeting Crypt Ghast or Liliana of the Dark Realms. Liliana is definitely more hilarious; killing something based on your Island count? Ridiculous! Popping for an emblem that says “Islands you control have “T: Add BBBB to your mana pool?” Absurd! Searching for an Island? Oh, Watery Grave. Never mind.
Ok, no fooling, this is a silly deck meant to do silly things. But that’s what I get for trying to build with the worst card in the set. The cards will certainly be easy to find, though, if you’re the seafaring sort.
That’s all for today. Pro Tour Dragon’s Maze is coming up this weekend, bringing to light the exciting Return to Ravnica Block format. I’ve been working on six Maze’s End decklists dabbling in it a bit and have a couple aggro decks that I’d love to bring to bear. More on that next week, though. Until then, don’t forget to untap all the possibilities!
– Matt
CaptainShapiro on Magic Online