Ever since its introduction back in 2003’s Scourge, Storm has been one of the most notoriously broken mechanics in Magic. Heck, the Storm Scale, which measures how likely a mechanic is to return to Standard, is even named after it. Storm decks continue to thrive in Modern and Legacy to this day, but in Pauper most of the powerful Storm cards are banned. That said, it seems you can’t keep a good archetype down. In a Pauper League yesterday, CosmicCharles went 5-0 with a spicy new Temur Storm list.
This deck takes a different approach to Storm lists of the past. Rather than relying on Grapeshot or Empty the Warrens, this deck brings in an overlooked common from Innistrad Remastered. The result is a fresh yet familiar brew, and one with a real chance to make an impact in post-High Tide Pauper.
Temur Storm In MTG Pauper
CosmicCharles’s Temur Storm deck in MTG Pauper revolves entirely around one card: Seize the Storm. For five mana, this gives you a token with Trample, which scales up based on the number of instants and sorceries in your graveyard.
The aim of the deck is to create a massive token with Seize the Storm, and finish the opponent off with it swiftly afterwards. There are a couple of different ways to go about this, but step one is always to fill your graveyard. Cards like Faithless Looting and Stream of Thought are ideal enablers here, putting a lot of cards in your ‘yard for very little mana.
Glimpse the Impossible is similarly excellent, serving as a way to ‘mill’ three cards and make three Eldrazi Spawn. This mode alone is fine, since it can easily ramp you into an early Seize the Storm. Alternatively, you can cast the cards it exiles before they hit the graveyard, which adds to the deck’s momentum.
Once you have a chunky graveyard established, you can unleash Seize the Storm. In many games, simply casting it with five or six cards in the ‘yard should be enough. Big creatures are hard to deal with in Pauper, so there’s a good chance it’ll live to swing in next turn. It’s also worth noting that the token’s stats will increase over time if you put more cards in your graveyard later.
You can also aim for a combo-style finish by pairing Seize the Storm with Bitter Reunion. If you have an extra mana lying around, you can sacrifice this enchantment to give the token Haste and smash in right away. Reunion also helps fill your graveyard during the setup stage, so it’s a good all-rounder here.
Fuel For The Fire
The above game plan is exciting, but it’s only half the story when it comes to this deck. The other half is the typical Storm package of cantrips, rituals, and cost reduction effects, which come together to greatly increase the deck’s explosive potential.
For starters, the deck plays nine total cards that can reduce your mana costs. Goblin Anarchomancer and Thornscape Familiar get full playsets, while Nightscape Familiar sneaks in as a one-of. If you can land one of these early, it becomes much easier to chain through the deck with draw spells. If you can get two in play, a lot of your draw spells suddenly become mana-positive rituals.
Big Score and Pirate’s Pillage both generate two Treasures for you on cast, so bringing them down to two mana essentially makes them ‘free’ draw twos. Manamorphose is even better, becoming a cantrip that gains you mana with just one cost reduction creature in play. Throw in some more standard rituals like Seething Song, and draw spells like Laughing Mad, and you have a deck that you can easily tear through. This helps you fill your graveyard, and find Seize the Storm and Bitter Reunion.
This deck’s many ritual spells aren’t the only means it has of gaining a mana advantage: its unique land suite helps out there too. Other than a few Mountains, CosmicCharles’s list exclusively runs Depletion Lands and Sac Lands. You don’t see these cards often, since the downside of sacrificing them for a quick burst of mana is too much for most decks. Here, however, the explosive potential is well worth it.
This deck wants as much mana as early as possible in order to get the wheels turning. Cashing in a Sandstone Needle or Tinder Farm can let you Storm off a turn earlier than usual, which is huge for a Combo deck like this.
Storm In A Teacup?
CosmicCharles’s Temur list is an exciting new direction for Storm decks in Pauper. We’ve seen Cycle Storm and Poison Storm variants crop up over the years, but nothing has really come close to the explosive plays of classic Grapeshot Storm. This deck very much plays in the same space, which gives it real potential in the current format.
Against decks like Mono-Red Madness, for example, Temur Storm shines. An early Seize the Storm can totally stonewall them on board, as they lack any good removal for it. Assuming you can land a cost reduction creature on turn two, this should be totally achievable on turn three. Since this deck lacks any real way to interact with your plan, a bad draw is all that can really trip you up here.
Mono-Blue Terror and Jund Wildfire are different stories. The latter is challenging primarily because of the excellent removal it tends to play. Cast Down can get rid of your Seize the Storm tokens with ease, at instant speed, no less. Cleansing Wildfire is also great at cutting off your access to non-red mana, which can really mess up your plans in some games.
Terror is tricky on multiple axes. It packs ample countermagic for stopping Seize the Storm, making it especially difficult in game two. Even if this doesn’t work, Terror can put big threats in play early too, meaning it can race quite effectively if you struggle to find your core card.
Unfortunately, these rough matchups mean Temur Storm is unlikely to break out in Pauper at the moment. It is a very cool brew, mind you, and one well worth keeping an eye on for the future.
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