As you may know, about two months ago, I built a deck around Mishra, Artificer Prodigy and wrote an article sharing it.

At the time, to generate any value from Mishra’s trigger, I had to pull crazy stunts such as casting my opponents’ artifacts to fetch copies out of my own deck, countering my own spells, and just using the trigger as a way to shuffle. How things have changed in just two months. You see, Dragon’s Maze was just released.

With both Possibility Storm and Mishra, Artificer Prodigy on the board, you can stack the triggers in whichever order you want when you cast an artifact from your hand. If you let Possibility Storm’s resolve first, the artifact will be exiled and replaced by a new artifact before being put on the bottom of your deck. Then, Mishra will let you search out a card with that name and stick it onto the board. In other words:

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This deal is offered every time you cast an artifact from hand, so any way to repeatedly bounce an artifact generates an additional free spell each time.

Better yet, the artifact you keep casting just might have an awesome enters-the-battlefield trigger.

Of course, it would be easier to assemble a free spell engine if we could cut out the middleman . . .

Leashling in particular will let you put an expensive artifact from your hand on top of your deck to cast for a discount, and if you don’t want to cast anything in your hand, it lets you ship a useless card to the bottom in exchange for the new random artifact.

Secret to Success

That all sounds wonderful, but Possibility Storm is just one card among ninety-nine. How can we reasonably expect to always have it? I mean, sure, you could run a lot of Demonic Tutors, but that would lead to repetitive gameplay after you start using them to grab other cards . . . Oh, uh, except that Possibility Storm will turn any nonartifact you grab into a random card of that type, so you won’t have to repeat the same game over and over again!

Nonetheless, running a lot of tutors is different than finding to extra copies of Possibility Storm. Most notably, if it’s destroyed, your deck won’t provide another. Green has always been full of Regrowth effects that you could tutor up, but recently, we received a card that works for Mishra.

The Possibilities are Endless

Possibility Storm’s interaction with Mishra is awesome, but if we plan to keep it in play every game, there’s no reason we should build around the enchantment any less than a full-fledged commander. What else can you do with Possibility Storm?

Well, for one thing, we could try to reap some benefit from the original spells we cast even though Possibility Storm is replacing them. Enter the Eldrazi.

If the Storm turns a lesser creature into an Eldrazi, you get the trigger, and you’re happy. If you have to let Possibility Storm turn Ulamog into a mere Precursor Golem, you still have a Vindicate to throw at something. You’re effectively having an extra spell tacked on. Or, you could, you know, have an actual spell tacked on.

But the spells don’t need to be rewarding to cast with Possibility Storm in and of themselves. If they trigger when you cast other spells, they’ll be twice as effective with the enchantment out!

And the same is true of cards that care about your opponents casting spells.

Copy That

And the possibilities don’t end there! Copies of spells will stick around and resolve just fine. This allows some cards with storm to be effective even without a million copies.

The Storm also makes replicating cheap spells feel like cheating.

Out of Control

Or you can just go crazy.

If you control both Knowledge Pool and Possibility Storm, you’ll be able to choose the order in which to stack their triggers whenever anyone casts a spell from hand. Knowledge Pool only gives you a spell if it successfully exiles the original, but Possibility Storm couldn’t care less, so when your opponents cast spells, you can let Possibility Storm’s trigger resolve first, effectively blanking Knowledge Pool. Then when you cast a spell, put the triggers in the opposite order. Knowledge Pool will take the spell you just cast and give you a new one, and then Possibility Storm will give you a free spell for your trouble.

Basically, you have your own personal Knowledge Pool giving out freebies while the rest of the table ignores it.

Put all of these interactions together, and you have something like this:

Ultimate Potential

• Commander (0)

• The Calm Before (13)
• 1 Possibility Storm
• 1 Gamble
• 1 Vampiric Tutor
• 1 Demonic Tutor
• 1 Brainspoil
• 1 Long-Term Plans
• 1 Diabolic Tutor
• 1 Beseech the Queen
• 1 Insidious Dreams
• 1 Demonic Collusion
• 1 Increasing Ambition
• 1 Rune-Scarred Demon
• 1 Codex Shredder

• Branching (22)
• 1 Knollspine Dragon
• 1 Kozilek, Butcher of Truth
• 1 Insight
• 1 Rhystic Study
• 1 Train of Thought
• 1 Knowledge Pool
• 1 Mind's Desire
• 1 Kathari Remnant
• 1 Deny Reality
• 1 Etherium-Horn Sorcerer
• 1 Leashling
• 1 Batterskull
• 1 Riddlesmith
• 1 Vedalken Archmage
• 1 Scroll Rack
• 1 Mind's Eye
• 1 Baleful Strix
• 1 Faerie Mechanist
• 1 Sphinx Summoner
• 1 Dreamstone Hedron
• 1 Thada Adel, Acquisitor
• 1 Grinning Totem

• Pruning (10)
• 1 Grim Poppet
• 1 Steel Hellkite
• 1 Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre
• 1 Shattering Spree
• 1 Kaervek the Merciless
• 1 Spine of Ish Sah
• 1 Duplicant
• 1 Bogardan Hellkite
• 1 Oblivion Stone
• 1 Nevinyrral's Disk

• Repeat (7)
• 1 Tidespout Tyrant
• 1 Mirrorworks
• 1 Prototype Portal
• 1 Phyrexian Metamorph
• 1 Crystal Shard
• 1 Erratic Portal
• 1 Master Transmuter

• Uncontrollable (8)
• 1 Artisan of Kozilek
• 1 Dragonstorm
• 1 Equilibrium
• 1 Hellkite Igniter
• 1 Wurmcoil Engine
• 1 Myr Battlesphere
• 1 Precursor Golem
• 1 Utvara Hellkite

• Realm of Possibility (39)
• 1 Pilgrim's Eye
• 1 Solemn Simulacrum
• 1 Academy Ruins
• 1 Volrath's Stronghold
• 1 Zoetic Cavern
• 1 Bojuka Bog
• 1 Tolaria West
• 1 Spinerock Knoll
• 1 Shizo, Death's Storehouse
• 1 Phyrexian Tower
• 1 Riptide Laboratory
• 1 Shadowblood Ridge
• 1 Darkwater Catacombs
• 1 Command Tower
• 1 Izzet Boilerworks
• 1 Dimir Aqueduct
• 1 Rakdos Carnarium
• 1 Frost Marsh
• 1 Tresserhorn Sinks
• 1 Rupture Spire
• 1 Transguild Promenade
• 1 Crumbling Necropolis
• 1 Sunken Ruins
• 1 Graven Cairns
• 1 Cascade Bluffs
• 1 Lonely Sandbar
• 1 Remote Isle
• 1 Polluted Mire
• 1 Barren Moor
• 1 Forgotten Cave
• 1 Smoldering Crater
• 1 Temple of the False God
• 4 Island
• 2 Mountain
• 1 Swamp

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Superposition

There are an uncountable number of ways a game could play out, but none of that does you much good in figuring out if this is an approach to Commander that you’d like to try, so why don’t I give you an example?

We started by laying down our commanders.

Everyone began playing lands, and Xira Arien dropped an Amulet of Vigor, followed on her second turn by Gruul Turf into Gruul Signet into Blade of the Bloodchief and Codex Shredder. Explosive! Marrow-Gnawer assembled some Lightning Greaves while I Demonic Tutored for Possibility Storm. Xira entered the battlefield.

Soon, the Rat had Attrition and Solemn Simulacrum on the board against my Rhystic Study and Mishra; all the while, Xira had been off drawing cards and milling random players with Codex Shredder. So despite not having done much, The Mimeoplasm’s game plan was advancing nicely. After Xira played both Horizon Spellbomb and Welding Jar, I began to wonder if this was some sort of Eggs deck (like the deck recently banned in Modern), but given the lack of white mana, it struck me as unlikely. Meanwhile, Marrow-Gnawer had pulled ahead into “broken” territory.

Without a fifth land for Possibility Storm, I summoned Master Transmuter, and then The Mimeoplasm finally entered the fray as an 8/8 Rune-Scarred Demon. Drawing a tap-land, I played Scroll Rack before passing back to The Mimeoplasm. I guess a slow hand just means lots of haymakers.

Rhystic Study and Necropotence hit the bin, but Welding Jar regenerated Blade of the Bloodchief to deny a Forest. After a shrug, the giant Rune-Scarred Demon attacked me. But I had an active Master Transmuter. I used Scroll Rack to swap four cards and then returned it to my hand to drop in a surprise.

Marrow-Gnawer summoned something to greaves up.

Maybe I should’ve saved that Duplicant.

Attrition let Solemn Simulacrum trade for my Master Transmuter, which left me casting Possibility Storm and hoping that somebody would randomly deal with Sheoldred. The first trigger set a high bar for the proceedings. Xira Arien cast this . . .

. . . and got this:

Marrow-Gnawer didn’t run quite as well, turning Plunge Into Darkness into Skeletal Scrying, and then untapping and turning Liliana of the Dark Realms into Sorin Markov. Relentless Rats, of course, became Relentless Rats. It’s not as though they’re not going to let one little Possibility Storm stop them. That’s what raincoats are for.

Ahem, the game—right.

I untapped and sacrificed Mishra to Sheoldred before casting a Grinning Totem Knowledge Pool. The game paused as I explained the aforementioned rules interaction.

The Mimeoplasm likewise sacrificed his last creature and then passed, opting not to play another into Sheoldred. Xira, on the other hand, flashed in Shimmer Myr during her upkeep. Possibility Storm triggered.

Sacrificing the Giant triggered Blade of the Bloodchief to make Charnelhoard Wurm a 7/7, and Attrition could do nothing about it. Charnelhoard Wurm hit, returning Welding Jar, which immediately became Salvaging Station. Not bad.

Marrow-Gnawer augmented his Swamps and Reliquary Tower with Cabal Coffers and went on to cast a bunch of sorceries. They kept turning into Damnations and Plague Winds until finally one became Increasing Ambition. Then he passed.

I recast Mishra and followed up with Baleful Strix. Knowledge Pool gave me The Mimeoplasm’s Lord of Extinction, and Possibility Storm delivered Erratic Portal. The Mimeoplasm went in on Inkwell Leviathan, but Possibility Storm turned it into an Oblivion Stone, which was promptly detonated when Xira’s Myr Retriever became Hellkite Igniter and swung for approximately a million.

Free from Possibility Storm, Marrow-Gnawer cast Vampiric Tutor, untapped, and played Deserted Temple.

“Is that lethal?”

It was lethal.

Anything Is Possible

Possibility Storm has some of the same issues as past red enchantments such as Grip of Chaos in that it makes it difficult for anyone to plan their turns, but if your playgroup doesn’t become too upset, it can make for some really exciting swings. And hey, who can resist playing Mishra? I’m sure there are more possibilities when it comes to building around our latest crazy enchantment, so I’d love to hear your ideas in the comments.