Step 1) Cast Yawgmoth's Will.

Step 2) Win Game.

At the end of my last article I wanted to be able to give a good overview of the rainbow stairwell deck piloted by Aaron Fortino (one of the owners of Armada Games.) Unfortunately Aaron has taken the deck apart and is looking to sleeve up a fresh sixty in the near future. That’s alright though, I’ve been waiting to show my combo deck since the format introduction article.

The first I heard of the format was from Sheldon Menery. As I mentioned it can be difficult to get together enough players for a proper group game of EDH and we needed a diversion before the festivities so to speak. In the interest of full disclosure I was not particularly interested in the idea of rainbow stairwell at first.

The idea of the format seemed more restrictive than I usually enjoy. It’s not that I dislike singleton formats or even limits on converted mana cost, the initial deal breaker for me was the mana. There's nothing quite so frustrating for me as being unable to cast spells because of mana inconsistency. Obviously with the previous deck we got around that concern, though that deck was not actually my first foray into the format.

The first deck I constructed for Rainbow Stairwell actually came as a challenge from Sheldon. Sheldon challenged me to build a viable combo deck for the format. Challenges like that appeal to me on a number of fronts. I like complex card interactions and the degree of skill it takes to pilot them correctly. Please note that I'm not saying I always have that skill, I just like the interactions!

With the gauntlet having been thrown I set to work. Most combo decks require an unfortunate degree of redundancy. It's very difficult to get that redundant effect when you can only run one of each card. There simply are not enough functional equivalents of many combo pieces. Since I was not going to be able to build an "old school" combo I had to turn to the most recent trend in combos, Storm. I've become convinced that the easiest way to break a card is have it cost two more and give it storm!

Armed with the world’s most unfair mechanic I set out.

Since we want to get as many spells in a single turn as possible it's very important that spells either kill, provide pretty severe card advantage or act as a one shot "ritual" effect. We can afford to throw a spell away adding nothing but mana to our pool if it's going to enable our ultimate goal.

Without further delay, let’s take a look at the list I decided on:

Blue

1. 1 Brainstorm
2. 1 Tolarian Winds
3. 1 Timetwister
4. 1 Gifts Ungiven
5. 1 Dream Halls
6. 1 Mind's Desire

Black

1. 1 Vampiric Tutor
2. 1 Demonic Tutor
3. 1 Yawgmoth's Will
4. 1 Tendrils of Agony
5. 1 Promise of Power
6. 1 Yawgmoth's Bargain

Green

1. 1 Fastbond
2. 1 Manamorphose
3. 1 Elvish Spirit Guide
4. 1 Channel the Suns
5. 1 All Suns' Dawn
6. 1 Recycle

Red

1. 1 Rite of Flame
2. 1 Recoup
3. 1 Wheel of Fortune
4. 1 Empty the Warrens
5. 1 Ignite Memories
6. 1 Nucklavee

White

1. 1 Enlightened Tutor
2. 1 Balance
3. 1 Idyllic Tutor
4. 1 Pursuit of Knowledge
5. 1 Turn the Tables
6. 1 Open the Vaults

Artifact

1. 1 Sol Ring
2. 1 Pentad Prism
3. 1 Coalition Relic
4. 1 Etched Oracle
5. 1 Memory Jar
6. 1 Composite Golemn

Land

• 1 Bayou
• 1 Overgrown Tomb
• 1 Plateau
• 1 Sacred Foundry
• 1 Tundra
• 1 Hallowed Fountain
• 1 Underground Sea
• 1 Watery Grave
• 1 Taiga
• 1 Stomping Grounds
• 1 Badlands
• 1 Blood Crypt
• 1 Scrubland
• 1 Godless Shrine
• 1 Tropical Island
• 1 Breeding Pool
• 1 Volcanic Island
• 1 Steam Vents
• 1 Savannah
• 1 Temple Garden
• 1 Ancient Tomb
• 1 City of Traitors
• 1 Reflecting Pool
• 1 City of Brass

There are a few omissions of note. Ad Nauseam draws a lot of cards... sometimes. In a deck like this Ad Nauseam rolls the dice in a way that we really can't afford on a consistent basis. Another card that feels like a good fit for this deck (or any deck for that matter) is Sensei's Divining Top. I have opted for the acceleration of Sol Ring over the card advantage generated by the Top, though if you find fewer aggro decks in your area the Top might be the better call for you.

There are a few rules tips and tricks you can use. If you cast Mind's Desire and hit Recoup you will be able to Recoup the Mind's Desire itself! Additionally if you Recoup a storm card the card will get storm for all the cards cast that turn including the Recoup. Memory Jar now has a delayed trigger ability that triggers at the beginning of end of turn step. If you wait until all end of turn triggers have occurred on your opponent’s turn you can activate the Memory Jar and keep all the cards until your end step!

There are a few more tricky rules interactions. If you have a Dream Halls in play you cannot cast a card with flashback using both its flashback ability and the ability of Dream Halls. If you have a Pursuit of Knowledge in play and you Brainstorm skipping the draws you would still need to put two cards back (but you would do so before drawing the seven!) A final warning comes from Recycle. Remember that you do get to draw a card from playing a land using recycle but you do not get to draw a card from removing Elvish Spirit Guide since you haven't played a card!

There are a few suggestions to be made for fixing up the deck if you should want to invest the money. My original list included Ancestral Recall and Timewalk as my blue two and three drop spells. There is nothing wrong with having them and they are certainly brutally effective but do not be surprised if you find yourself without a play group if you use the "unfair" power. It's also worth considering Death Wish in the five mana slot and Diminishing Returns in the slot over Gift's Ungiven. The likelihood of losing all your kill conditions as well as Death Wish is exceptionally low.

In addition to Rainbow Stairwell and EDH I find myself playing Pack Wars and Pack War variations quite a bit and so I'd like to discuss them a little bit. Pack Wars is a very simple format and it can be a ton of fun! All you need are two packs and thirty lands. Simply open a pack, shuffle in three of each basic land type, have your opponent do the same and you're ready to play! Pack Wars offers a great alternative to simply opening a pack and it's great fun.

As a judge I open a lot of sealed product. At most of the events I work I take my compensation for working in booster pack form because it's just more fun that way. As such typical pack wars can be time consuming to do when you're opening three to four boxes. Since I still love to open boxes the local judges and I have come up with a pack wars variant I'd like to describe.

Each player begins with a pack that they open and remove the token. Any foils get windmilled face up and start in play. Note that if the foil is a creature it will have haste since you've technically controlled it since the start of the turn. Each player then plays the game like a normal game of magic except you only begin with one card in hand. Additionally each player has infinite mana to use and to make the games more interesting x-spells and x-damage creatures (Nantuko Shade for example) are capped at five. That being said, cards that rely on lands and basic lands themselves cycle. So if you draw a card like Tendrils of Corruption you can cycle it.

That's it! Go to town!

A few people have their own rules they like to impose and if you think something would be more fun than change away!

That's all I've got for this week. Join me next week when this odyssey of wacky formats continues and takes us to the wacky land of Demon Dice. It's an odd variation but it's one of my favorites! Until next time this is Benjamin McDole bringing you a hundred reasons to play magic!