MTG Salvation

Today Wizards finally gave Storm decks their present to make up for all the love that D&T has been getting in the form of Magus of the Will. While it's a "fixed" Yawgmoth's Will that gives your opponent an opportunity to deal with it, it's nonetheless still Yawgmoth's Will if you get to untap with it, a card that has been banned in Legacy for a long time, effectively because its legality would make Storm a much more powerful force to be reckoned with. Still, Past in Flames is its closest substitute, and despite its intensive mana cost, and its restriction of only working with instants and sorceries, is still a major player in both ANT and TES builds, giving Storm the ability to fight prolonged battles with permission heavy decks.

It's obviously tempting to just stick Magus into one of these shells, but that doesn't mean it's the best place for it. TES is designed from the ground floor up to be optimal at casting and performing with Ad Nauseum, and three drop cards are painful to hit. There's not many flex slots anyway, and the deck is reliant on Burning Wish to kill on its combo turn if Tendrils has not been boarded in, as it's usually not maindecked. There's not many flex slots anyway, aside from four Ponders and arguing about the third Chrome Mox.






ANT is a little slower, but more certain, and while Magus may find a happy home in its sideboard, the deck's stock configuration also isn't suited to deploy Magus without diluting the deck's main engine and hitting it as a stumbling block.

Default List from Mastodon, found here



This has prompted me to want to design a new breed of Storm deck that is geared to use Magus, but not rely on him since Lightning Bolt is a card after all. Magus grants resiliency to a storm deck getting its namesake cards countered after committing multiple ritual effects to the chain by being able to try again with the same assortment of cards the next turn. Past in Flames also allows for this, but requires more mana, and thusly, has its own issues that don't involve being a 3/3 that you need to untap with. Besides, Magus's mortality is also an upside. Most decks typically sideboard out their removal in exchange for countermagic, like Flusterstorm and such. If your opponent is capable of deploying Magus on T1, is that something you really want to do? Even if they can just kill you anyway without Magus?
The deck design is drawn from the need to offer both speed and resiliency. It's ok if Magus eats a bolt, but it's also ok if he sticks around. I've taken queues from TES in regards to the manabase, and the inclusion of red to allow for fast combos and access to Empty the Warrens as a viable route via Burning Wish toolbox, queues from ANT in regards to the ability to utilize cards that synergize heavily with a Yawgmoth's Will or Past in Flames effect (like Cabal Ritual's inclusion), as well as the preferred kill of a natural, lethal tendrils. This is version 1.0 and is being submitted for the community to look at as a framework and discussion piece and to get input from other Storm players on this forum. I've borrowed the TES wishboard list as it provides a good starting point offering a versatile toolbox with different paths to victory as well as answers to common permanent based problems that Storm decks face, as it's what I currently play now and have found it to be pretty solid.



Notes on new card choices:
Manamorphose and Gitaxian Probe- are the new draw engines in this build, they synergize heavily with Magus of the Will by providing free card advantage, or at worst, cantripping as free spells in an attempt to generate storm without Magus. They also help fuel Threshold for the Cabal Rituals. Chrome Mox was cut as imprinted cards aren't nearly as good as cards in the graveyard in a Will based deck. If we were looking at an ANT list, these would basically be replacing some of the blue dig spells, since when these are replayed via Magus, they are basically 0 mana draw two cards.
Cabal Ritual-
TES's Rite of Flames take up too much space and a single Cabal Ritual under threshold can produce almost the same gain as two Rite of Flames. Under the influence of Magus, it's capable of generating a whopping 8 black mana all on its own. Since Rite of Flame takes up 4 slots, it got the axe and this freed up 2 slots for a pair of Magus. ANT lists would lose their Top and another spell, but already play these as a 4x. We're just cutting back on the number since the deck is geared to be able to play one twice

I've also dropped out TES's Ad Nauseum, though I've left access to Empty the Warrens in both mainboard and sideboard. Just because you can't kill on turn 1 or deploy Magus doesn't mean you're not okay with making 14 Goblins instead. I value this possible route to victory as one of the best ways of snatching games from D&T and taking it away felt too risky. I don't think I'll miss Ad Nauseum in a deck playing this many 3 and 4 cost cards.

Anyway, what you're seeing here is elements of both ANT and TES with Magus added in and some card choices tailored to him a bit, but I did have to cut a single Duress from both ANT and TES lists, and I liked the 7 card discard package both decks offered. If you'd like to squeeze it back in, you could go down to 3 Magus, or drop down to a single Ponder, or cut either ETW or Tendrils from the maindeck, but I think the resiliency offered by Magus to help fight through countermagic is just as good as playing the 7th discard spell. If anything, since the deck is no longer reliant on Ad Nauseum, you could make a case for moving the Duresses to Thoughtseize to help further fight Thalia based decks.

Anyway, let me know what you guys think and what improvements might work better. It's been goldfishing pretty well, but I can't test it against actual opponents right now.
T1 Dark Ritual Magus is a pretty good play.
Lion's Eye Diamond is absurd with Magus. So is Manamorphose, Lotus Petal, and Gitaxian Probe.
You can now crack LED BEFORE you cast your IT. That's pretty neat.
Yawgwilling Therapies and Durresses is neat yo.

Letting your opponent untap with a Magus of the Will is NOT recommended, so sideboarding out your removal may not be a great idea.