Thanks to Magic’s long history, players are often rewarded for delving into older sets. So long as you’re willing to look, there are plenty of opportunities to catch your Commander pod unawares. MTG Eye of the Storm is an example of this, both creating infinite combos and locking the table down. Whether you want to cast every Instant and Sorcery in your deck for one mana or shut down your opponent’s cards, Eye of the Storm tends to show its power when it’s too late.
MTG Eye of the Storm
Turning every Instant or Sorcery into a massive slew of spells, Eye of the Storm can make even the smallest cantrip into a game-ending play. Notably, because the enchantment exiles the card before copying everything, you’ll still be getting a copy of whatever spell gets exiled.
Sadly, the drawbacks to Eye of the Storm are twofold: it has a very high mana value, and everyone gets to use it. This makes copying your own massive spells with Eye of the Storm rather risky, since your opponents can access them, too. Fortunately, with a focused strategy, it’s extremely easy to break this card’s parity.
The easiest way to take advantage of Eye of the Storm is just to use a bunch of cantrips. Cards like Consider and Preordain allow you to access Eye of the Storm consistently, casting far more copies of the spells than your opponents. Stacking this with Magecraft triggers, like Archmage Emeritus and Storm-Kiln Artist, can easily get out of control. Should the stack of cards under Eye of the Storm be big enough, these two Magecraft cards could easily allow you to go through your entire deck.
Stacking a board wipe under Eye of the Storm can also easily shut some opposing strategies down. Turning every Instant or Sorcery into an optional Blasphemous Act means that board-based Commander decks will never have a chance to develop. This is also true of spells like Swords to Plowshares, which can continually pick off the scariest creature-based threat on the table.
If you aren’t playing a deck that’s creature-light, focusing on exile or copy-based strategies might be your best bet. Cards like Keeper of Secrets and Passionate Archeologist turn Eye of the Storm into a massive damage machine. Alternatively, Twinning Staff can directly double the value that Eye of the Storm creates.
Locking the Table
If casting a slew of spells isn’t what you have in mind, Eye of the Storm can also directly lock the table down. A vast majority of the locks only use two cards as well, making an Eye of the Storm lock extremely easy to set up.
The best locks you can set up with this card all include white. Drannith Magistrate, Teferi, Time Raveler, and Lavinia, Azorius Renegade will shut down any and all Instants and Sorceries your opponents play. Since Eye of the Storm casts its copied spells at instant speed from exile, Drannith Magistrate and Teferi, Time Raveler will just prevent opponents from casting any of these spells at all. Lavinia, meanwhile, counters any free spells your opponents cast, which includes all of the spells exiled with Eye of the Storm. While the creature costs more mana to cast, Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir does give players an option to pull this one-sided lock off in mono-blue.
There are tons of other two-card locks that you can use, but they will shut down Instants and Sorceries for the entire table. Archon of Emeria, Deafening Silence, Arcane Laboratory, and any other Rule of Law-esque effects will prevent players from casting any of the extra spells from Eye of the Storm, including the one it exiles. Alternatively, Vexing Bauble and Void Mirror will counter all of Eye of the Storm’s spells, but you can get around this using a card like Benevolent Geist. This just scratches the surface of the number of locks Eye of the Storm is capable of, but these are largely the most efficient options to choose from.
Going Infinite
If locking down Instants and Sorceries isn’t your cup of tea, Eye of the Storm also offers players a few different infinite combos they can use. The silliest of these involves using Spellshift, a one-mana Instant that will essentially let you cast every single Instant and Sorcery in your deck.
To start, with Eye of the Storm in play, all you really have to do is counter an Instant or Sorcery you control with Spellshift. This puts the card under Eye of the Storm, allowing your copy of Spellshift to counter a copy of another card. Since you control the spell that Spellshift countered, you can reveal cards from your library until you cast another Instant or Sorcery for free. This will also get exiled under Eye of the Storm, allowing you to Spellshift one of your own card copies again. Winning with this setup is rather trivial, so long as you include the right spells in your deck.
While Spellshift is, by far, the best way to go infinite with Eye of the Storm, Sorceress’s Schemes also creates an infinite combo. Since the card can essentially return itself after getting exiled by Eye of the Storm, a mana generator, like Seething Song, turns the loop into infinite mana. From here, a Storm payoff like Brain Freeze can easily end the game.
Extremely Cheap
With all these use cases, it’s a wonder why Eye of the Storm isn’t more popular. Right now, only about 7980 decks use the card according to EDHREC, with a vast majority of those decks being chaos-themed. While the enchantment can certainly make for a messy board state, many of these decks don’t seem to take advantage of the game-winning locks and combos it can create.
For players who want to try this enchantment, we have good news. Despite the card having only two printings, Eye of the Storm costs about a dollar to pick up. Factor in Spellshift’s 30-cent cost, and Eye of the Storm offers players an accessible, albeit high mana value, combo piece.
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