[SJ_01] Chelsea Riverside by James Webb (1880s). Dragon Mage by Matthew D. Wilson.

Just a few days before writing last week's column, I happened to crack a collector's booster of Midnight Hunt. In that booster I found a couple of legendary creatures that really piqued my interest. One of them was Katilda, Dawnhart Prime, a Selesnya warlock that can turn your humans into mana dorks. I've been struggling with my Drizzt Do'urden deck and have been thinking about pivoting it to some other build, quite possibly with a tribal humans theme.

The other legendary I opened was Vadrik, Astral Archmage. Vadrik was recently covered by none other than Jason Alt. You can read about his voltron build here. It looks like a great deck and a fun time, but Jason's approach isn't where my mind went when I started thinking about how I'd build Vadrik.

Vadrik cares about day and night. Like Jason, I really don't care about that mechanic and I expect to pay little to no attention to that part of his text box. What I care about is that he'll reduce the cost of my instant and sorcery spells by X where X is his power.

I did think about loading up on equipment, but aside from Runechanter's Pike, which is in Jason's list, and Hero's Blade, which is only in my list, I'm not as concerned about trying to play a voltron game. I might be able to kill someone with Vadrik, but what I'm looking to do today is see how much of a storm deck I can wrap around Vadrik.

The Power of Pump

The first thing to note is that being in red gives me access to a ton of pump spells. With Vadrik out, I can load up on 2-mana pump spells that will give Vadrik +3 power until end of turn. Those 2-mana pump spells should cost me only a mana and if I'm drawing enough cards it's not unrealistic that I could cast two in a turn and have my instants and sorceries be 7 mana cheaper.

I can get a +3 power from Brute Strength, Inordinate Rage, Stolen Vitality or Titan's Strength and a +4 power from Fists of the Anvil or Invigorated Rampage for a paltry 1 mana with Vadrik on the field. All of those are great, but I've got much more interesting pump spells in this list.

Fists of Flame is a +2 if it's my first pump spell of the turn and I haven't drawn any extra cards, but it can be much more if I'm in the middle of a big turn. Another spell that is good early in a turn but could be great later in a big turn is Enrage. It can scale up to the mana I've got available, so if I've gotten Vadrik up to 5 power, I can spend one Red mana and push him up to 10 power.

Those are all instants, but I've got a couple of sorcery-speed pump spells as well. Recursion is incredibly important in a storm deck, so Reckless Charge's flashback will let me push Vadrik from 1 to 7 power for two mana.

Seething Anger is even better, with a buyback cost of 3. If I can play Hero's Blade and then play Vadrik so it attaches to him automatically, I'll be able to always pay that buyback cost. Buyback is calculated into the initial cost of casting the spell, so if I've got Vadrik at 3 power or higher I'm never going to run out of Seething Anger.

I already mentioned that I'm running Hero's Blade and Runechanter's Pike, but Conqueror's Flail deserves a special mention. This equipment may only give Vadrik +2/+2, but it will also lock my opponents out of casting spells on my turn. This is huge. Vadrik is going to look like a very unassuming deck until the turn where it pops off, so my opponents might just leave it alone.

Keeping the Ball Rolling

To successfully launch into enough spells to have a big turn, I will want to have ways to cast instants and sorceries and gain mana as a result. Even if I've done a good job of keeping most of my spells down to a single pip of colored mana, I still need to pay that one (or two) mana. I had initially planned to run rituals like Seething Song and Mana Geyser, but those spells both lock me into Red. I'm going to have a lot of spells that require Blue mana, both to protect my spells and to draw cards.

Sudden Breakthrough might only pump Vadrik up by +2, but is exactly the kind of spell I'll want in a storm build. It replaces the mana I spend on it with a treasure token. Not only does that help with color fixing for a later spell in the turn, it also increments my storm count for basically nothing. I'll be down a card in my hand, but that's what draw spells are for. Pirate's Prize will draw me two cards and again, it will replace the mana I spent on it with a treasure token. Jeska's Will will cost me a single mana and could net 5-7 mana (or more) and three cards to play. Even though that's not card draw, it's nearly as good. I can even play a land out of those three cards if I haven't played my land for turn yet.

Oona's Grace is an unassuming little card draw spell that has retrace. If you've managed to pump Vadrik even a little, you'll be able to pay one Blue mana, discard a land and cast it from your graveyard. Petals of Insight will let me look at the top 3 cards of my library and if I want to scry them to the bottom of my library I can return Petals to my hand to try again. If I want to draw those cards, I can draw them and let Petals go to the graveyard. Brass's Bounty might not draw me cards, but if I've managed to pump Vadrik up, I can spend 1 red mana and get a treasure for each land I control.

Draw spells with X in the casting cost are particularly good with Vadrik because all those pump spells can really pay off. If you've somehow managed to make Vadrik 10 power and have two blue mana available, you'll be drawing 7 or 8 cards. This deck could easily surpass that if you're really in the middle of a big turn.

Storm

This deck is a storm deck, but I haven't dug into any of my storm spells. Storm is a powerful mechanic that will allow me to make copies of a spell equal to the number of spells I've cast so far that turn. Empty the Warrens is a classic storm card, creating 2 Goblin creature tokens. In some storm decks, it makes a lot of sense, and there's an argument that this deck should be running it. I do have the capability of casting an arbitrary number of spells with the Dramatic Reversal / Isochron Scepter combo.

With enough mana rocks I can make really go crazy, but I didn't actually include Empty the Warrens in this list. My Dramatic Scepter combo can get poured into a Comet Storm, but this combo really isn't the main focus of the deck.

Thousand-Year Storm is the sort of permanent that just demands to be removed. Every turn your tablemates let it sit on the field, they are tempting fate because you can get a ridiculous amount of value out of it. As an example, Petals of Insight cast partway through a turn with Storm on the field will put three cards into your hand for every copy it makes. Petals of Insight lets you put it back into your hand, but a copy of Petals on the stack can't be returned to your hand so there's no reason not to just draw three cards. If you've got the extra blue mana available, you might want to return the actual Petals of Insight to your hand so you can do it again.

All this storming and pumping and digging has to be for some greater purpose. When putting this list together my first thought was to drive after some tired old cEDH wincon, but I wasn't convinced that I'd be able to build a better cEDH deck than the ones already out there. I thought about building extra turns, but I've already got a Narset, Enlightened Master extra turns deck and I wasn't convinced that an extra turns game plan would be right for Vadrik. Laboratory Maniac and Thassa's Oracle were definitely on my mind. I wanted to do something interesting and new. Falling into a Thassa's Oracle gameplan just didn't appeal to me. It wins games, but it took a very special, very high mana card to make me realize what I needed this deck to be.

I needed this deck to be a Dragonstorm deck.

This 9-mana sorcery has found its way in and out of a bunch of my decks over the years. The problem was always that a Dragons deck like Lathliss, Dragon Queen or even The Ur-Dragon aren't the kinds of decks that are likely to put cast enough spells in a single turn to make it worthwhile. With a handful of pump spells, I can not only get a decent storm count, I can also get my casting cost for Dragonstorm down to where I can realistically cast it at the end of a long turn.

The question remained: could I assemble enough Dragons to be able to win the game off of a single Dragonstorm casting?

Dragons For The Win

My initial thought was that I would probably need a ton of Dragons to do the job, but I needed to sit down and do the math to find out for sure. As it turned out, if I could pick the right dragons and order them correctly, it's entirely possible to kill a table of players at 40 life in one turn.

It's worth noting that all of my Dragons don't enter at the same time. Each copy of Dragonstorm resolves separately. That means I do have to get the order right.

Lathliss will let me make a 5/5 Dragon Token when a non-token Dragon enters the battlefield under my control. Terror of the Peaks will push out damage equal to the power of each creature entering under my control. Scourge of Valkas will deal damage equal to the number of Dragons I control when a Dragon enters the battlefield under my control.

Lathliss goes first because I'll want to make those 5/5 tokens. Terror then hits, making a 5/5 token Dragon, which lets Terror deal 5 damage. Scourge of Valkas hits next, causing Terror to deal 4 and Scourge to deal 4 damage. Lathliss will make another 5/5 token Dragon, causing Terror to deal 5 and Scourge to deal 5 damage. We're three dragons in, and someone has already taken 23 damage.

From here on, each Dragon will cause Terror to deal damage equal to its power and cause Scourge to deal damage equal to the number of dragons I control. I've got 8 Dragons in the list, and I haven't even gotten Goldspan Dragon or Utvara Hellkite into the mix yet. If I focus on opponents with flying blockers, even if I come up short I should be able to finish off any player without flyers by going to combat.

Niv-Mizzet, Parun gives me card draw for anyone playing an instant or sorcery spell. Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind not only helps with my Dragon theme, but also pairs nicely with Tandem Lookout and Curiosity as an alternate win condition.

All the rest of my Dragons have haste, and that isn't an accident. I want to be able to hit my Dragonstorm in the first main phase and be able to swing for the win if I didn't kill the table outright. Hellkite Charger not only has haste but can give me an extra combat step if I've got enough mana. Tyrant's Familiar has haste and is a 7/7 if I've got Vadrik on the field.

Hypersonic Dragon will let me cast sorcery spells as though they had flash. It'll be nice to have good sized creatures I can run out as blockers to help keep me alive as I dig for my real wincons. When they bring extra value like Hypersonic Dragon, that's icing on the cake.

Early Returns

I did a lot of goldfishing before this deck saw its first game. Those early test runs were how I figured out I didn't want to go after an extra turns strategy, and how I stumbled upon this being a way for me to finally build around Dragonstorm.

In its first game, I had the delightful experience of getting Dramatic Scepter online, but having a Mystic Remora on the field so I couldn't just make infinite mana. Each casting of Dramatic Reversal would draw my tablemate a card, so with Counterspell and Cyclonic Rift in hand I got up to where I could overload the Rift with backup to make sure it resolved. Infinite mana does not win games, at least not by itself, and I soon found my Isochron Scepter sent to the graveyard. I hadn't been able to draw into anything helpful.

I had Vadrik out from early on, but I didn't draw into any pump spells. In all my goldfish test runs, I never had a problem drawing into Red pump, so it was a very strange first game. I wound up playing Lathliss, Dragon Queen, getting her enchanted with Curiosity and later paired up with Tandem Lookout to try to draw into anything helpful. I spread out my Lathliss attacks and eventually drew into what I needed.

I had gotten Thousand-Year Storm on the field, but with one card in hand, nobody thought I'd be much of a threat. I wound up getting Conqueror's Flail equipped to Vadrik and was able to launch into a game-winning turn. Petals of Insight played a big part in the game, and I was able to play a Dragonstorm for seven with Lathliss already out.

The game was a bit strange, as I hit infinite mana, but couldn't put it to good use, I never hit any pump spells, and yet I was still able to nail down the win. After the game I shared the deck with a couple of the guys who know their way around high power and cEDH Commander decks and ended up adding in the X casting cost draw spells thanks to their feedback.

I expect future games will see more pump and more draw spells, but I really don't know how high this deck's ceiling is. It's hard to imagine that a Dragonstorm deck could edge up into fringe cEDH, but I am sure better deckbuilders than I could tune it up further and make a run at playing with cEDH decks.

How Many Dragons?

I definitely found myself wondering how many dragons would be too many. I wanted to keep a balance between pump spells, draw spells, storm support and dragons. I do want to add in a copy of Goldspan Dragon and Utvara when I get my hands on them. The former has haste and can give me more treasures. Hellkite combines beautifully with this deck's game plan. It would let my hasty Dragons swing and make 6/6 Dragon tokens to deal out more Terror and Scourge damage as I try to nail down the win. I've got both cards in other decks, but I don't proxy and wasn't ready to pull them out. I did pull Terror of the Peaks out of my Grumgully, the Generous deck. That wasn't an easy choice but it's too important to this deck's gameplan to not have it in the list.

I ended up going with eight dragons, with two other creatures: Dockside Extortionist and Tandem Lookout thrown in for good measure. I could see adding more, and will likely tweak this deck a lot over the next few months as I try to find just the right combination of support cards, pump, draw, tutors and of course, Dragons!

Vadrik Dragonstorm | Commander | Stephen Johnson

• Commander (1)
• 1 Vadrik, Astral Archmage

• Creatures (10)
• 1 Dockside Extortionist
• 1 Hellkite Charger
• 1 Hypersonic Dragon
• 1 Lathliss, Dragon Queen
• 1 Niv-Mizzet, Parun
• 1 Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind
• 1 Scourge of Valkas
• 1 Tandem Lookout
• 1 Terror of the Peaks
• 1 Tyrant's Familiar

• Instants (23)
• 1 Brute Strength
• 1 Chaos Warp
• 1 Comet Storm
• 1 Counterspell
• 1 Cyclonic Rift
• 1 Dramatic Reversal
• 1 Enrage
• 1 Fierce Guardianship
• 1 Firemind's Foresight
• 1 Fists of Flame
• 1 Fists of the Anvil
• 1 Flusterstorm
• 1 Force of Will
• 1 Inordinate Rage
• 1 Invigorated Rampage
• 1 Mystical Tutor
• 1 Oona's Grace
• 1 Silundi Vision
• 1 Stolen Vitality
• 1 Stroke of Genius
• 1 Sudden Breakthrough
• 1 Swan Song
• 1 Titan's Strength

• Sorceries (18)
• 1 Brass's Bounty
• 1 Dragonstorm
• 1 Epic Experiment
• 1 Fabricate
• 1 Galvanic Relay
• 1 Ingenious Mastery
• 1 Introduction to Prophecy
• 1 Jeska's Will
• 1 Merchant Scroll
• 1 Mind Spring
• 1 Mind's Desire
• 1 Past in Flames
• 1 Petals of Insight
• 1 Pirate's Prize
• 1 Reckless Charge
• 1 Seething Anger
• 1 Solve the Equation
• 1 Unexplained Vision

• Enchantments (3)
• 1 Curiosity
• 1 Thousand-Year Storm
• 1 Underworld Breach

• Artifacts (12)
• 1 Arcane Signet
• 1 Chrome Mox
• 1 Conqueror's Flail
• 1 Fellwar Stone
• 1 Hero's Blade
• 1 Isochron Scepter
• 1 Izzet Signet
• 1 Mana Crypt
• 1 Mana Vault
• 1 Mox Opal
• 1 Runechanter's Pike
• 1 Sol Ring

• Lands (33)
• 13 Island
• 13 Mountain
• 1 Command Tower
• 1 Exotic Orchard
• 1 Riptide Laboratory
• 1 Scalding Tarn
• 1 Steam Vents
• 1 Sulfur Falls
• 1 Training Center

Buy This Deck Export text format

This deck comes in higher on the power level than most of the decks I share with you. It's more expensive as well, as it's running Mana Crypt, Chrome Mox and Mox Opal. I'm sure you can build this on a budget and still win games. Just don't neglect your mana rocks if you want to keep the Isochron Scepter / Dramatic Reversal combo in the list. You have to have those nonland permanents to untap. It's worth noting that the one Niv I'm not running, Niv-Mizzet, Dracogenius is a fantastic way to kill the table with infinite mana, so I might just have to add it in. If it makes sense to run Curiosity and Tandem Lookout because of Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind then I think it makes sense to run Dracogenius because of the Dramatic Scepter combo.

Final Thoughts

Some of my favorite decks are ones that can be turned in different directions relatively easily just to keep them interesting. I think this is one of those lists. I could change up my Dragon army, work in a Thassa's Oracle plan or even experiment with good old-fashioned burn.

If you ever wanted a deck to play Dragonstorm in EDH, I think this might be it.

Dragonstorm is a high mana sorcery and not many Dragon-focused decks can mount a big enough storm count to both cast it and make it worthwhile. What baffles me is that I'm not sure anyone else has clued into this fantastic pairing. I don't often think I'm breaking new ground in high-powered Commander deckbuilding, but this might be one of those times.

I could imagine this list getting a bit stale if it was too efficient and the games always played out the same way, but in real games against real opponents I think it's more likely this will end up being a fun, resilient, explosive deck that can play at high powered tables and might even be able to edge into cEDH territory.

If you've ever played Dragonstorm successfully in Commander, I'd love to hear about it in the comments. I'm sure there must be decks that have made it playable, but I would be surprised if there was a better Dragonstorm commander than Vadrik.

That's all I've got for today. Thanks for reading and I'll see you next week!