Prismari, the Inspiration Commander Deck Guide

Prismari, the Inspiration | Illustration by Justin Gerard

Secrets of Strixhaven gave us five new mythic elder dragons, each one to represent a different college, and they each give an interesting, classic ability to instants and sorceries.

Today, we focus on Prismari, the Inspiration as a commander. Its main ability gives storm to your instants and sorceries, a very broken mechanic. This 7-mana dragon is powerful when it’s on the battlefield, but you’ll need a nice supporting cast when it’s not.

It’s time to chain up some spells and rack up that storm count!

The Deck

Galazeth Prismari | Illustration by Raymond Swanland

This is a fairly common storm/spellslinger EDH decklist. It’s a solid Bracket 3 deck with no Game Changers. I want this to be on a budget, and fortunately, the most commonly-played cards in blue and red decks are frequently reprinted commons and uncommons. To make this a Bracket 4 deck, you’ll need a more consistent approach with faster mana and better interaction.

The Commander: Prismari, the Inspiration

Prismari, the Inspiration is a 7/7 dragon with “Ward – Pay 5 life”, and it costs a whopping 7 mana. When it’s in play, your instants and sorceries have storm, so it’s like a giant Thousand-Year Storm dragon.

The nicest thing about this card as a commander is that the same instants you play to ramp it out, in the form of red rituals, also raise your storm count. You can have a turn when you chain two rituals, cast Prismari, and then cast an instant and sorcery with a storm count of 3, ready to reap the benefits right away, even if your commander dies quickly. Granted, it’ll cost 9 mana to cast it again due to commander tax, so it’ll be harder the next time around.

The main idea is to set up a board, spellslinger style, then cast your commander during a very explosive turn. If Prismari is in play and your opponents let it live, you can chain cantrips into rituals into something big like a Crackle with Power.

Creatures

You don’t want to play many creatures in a focused instants and sorceries deck, so these creatures must carry their weight and have something to do with spells (spellslinging creatures).

There’s classic spell cost reducers in Goblin Electromancer and Stormcatch Mentor, and cards like Guttersnipe and Electrostatic Field that you’ll leverage during a critical storm turn.

MTG has designed some interesting Izzet commanders () with magecraft, like Veyran, Voice of Duality and Zaffai, Thunder Conductor. It’s a critical mechanic for this deck, so you can play them here as well.

Archmage Emeritus and Archmage of Runes are also interesting cards to have around because you can refill your hand while casting spells.

Spellslinging

Spellslinging cards take advantage of your ability to cast many instants and sorceries (or noncreature spells, depending on the deck). Young Pyromancer gives you some blockers and attackers, while Snapcaster Mage and Flashback let you recast a key instant or sorcery from your graveyard.

I’m not playing Birgi, God of Storytelling here for budget reasons, but Electro, Assaulting Battery does a good impression.

Ral, Storm Conduit is very good in this deck, considering that it triggers with each spell you cast or copy. Ral also gives you the ability to keep scrying and copying spells, and that’s very good with Tormenting Voice or Seething Song.

Storm

Storm is the name of the game here, since Prismari, the Inspiration is a storm commander, and you want to storm it into play. To increase your storm count, you need to cast a lot of spells in one turn, and the classic way to do this is by chaining rituals and cantrips.

Your cantrips are Opt, Preordain, and Consider, while the rituals are Pyretic Ritual and Mana Geyser. You can get Seething Song from the original instant or from Blazing Firesinger.

Storm also stacks, so if you  play a storm spell like Grapeshot and you have Prismari, the Inspiration in play, you get double the copies. Each storm trigger resolves individually. Frantic Search does exactly what this deck needs, giving you more cards, a spell that was cast, and a mana refund.

Finally, a card like Boltwave acts as a pseudo finisher for this deck; a storm count between 4-5 deals 15-18 damage to everyone for 1 mana. Like storm decks across most formats, you also have Past in Flames so you can recast everything in a pinch, especially when your commander is around.

Treasure

Treasure creation is very nice in a deck like this. Sometimes you’ll cast your commander and follow it with a card like Big Score to draw some cards and make Treasure tokens. The benefits are twofold: If your commander dies, you have more mana available to cast it again, and if it lives, you untap with like double the mana available.

Cards like Big Score, Sanar, Unfinished Genius, and Storm-Kiln Artist are in the deck because they contribute to the storm plan and generate Treasure. Goldspan Dragon is a nice beater that doubles the mana your Treasure tokens produce.

Card Draw

You need to cycle through the deck to find the right pieces so you aren’t stranded with a hand that doesn’t do anything. Besides, you’ll likely draw many “useless” lands or spells along the way.

Red provides many discard and draw effects, like Thrill of Possibility, Tormenting Voice and Faithless Looting. Stock Up is very strong as a raw card draw spell, and you have ways to copy it, which makes it even better.

Interaction and Sweepers

As an Izzet deck, you have to interact with your opponents somehow. Blue is the king of countermagic, so I’ve included some counterspells like Arcane Denial, Counterspell, and Negate.

You also have red Commander staples like Chaos Warp and Blasphemous Act. Cards like Prismari Command and Lightning Bolt are extra pieces of interaction that you don’t mind copying with your commander in play.

The Mana Base

My mana base is very heavy on basic Islands and Mountains. You have a few dual lands to help fix your mana, and between the filtering and Treasure creation, you’ll have a competent mana base. It’s heavier on red than blue.

I’ve added the blue and red medallions (Sapphire Medallion/Ruby Medallion), cards that help a lot with spellslinging, and Thought Vessel, because sometimes you’ll draw a bunch of cards. The main “ramp” for this deck is rituals, Treasure tokens, and cost reducers like Goblin Electromancer.

The Strategy

The biggest problem with playing a storm combo deck is that each hand is wildly different, and many hands won’t do anything right away besides drawing and discarding. You’ll want at least one or two creatures in the early game that trigger on instants and sorceries so your cantrips and rummaging generate extra value.

Ruby Medallion in your opener is very nice, considering that the spells you actively want to cost less (your rituals) are red. Sapphire Medallion isn’t bad, it’s just worse in this deck. It’s important to notice that.

In the early game, you’ll want to make your land drops, cast a mana rock, and start to sculpt your big turn by drawing and discarding. To go off, you’ll need something like two strong rituals and a card to cast right after your commander, be it a cantrip, something that produces Treasure, or a discard and draw spell. Ideally, you’ll have payoffs for noncreature spells on your board as well.

The first time you cast your commander and a storm spell, it’s probably not going to win you the game right away, but it can set the base for a future, even stronger storm turn. And if you can safely untap with your commander, things get ugly for your opponents very quickly.

Combos and Interactions

This is a combo deck at heart, but not that “Splinter Twin + Pestermite” two-card combo.

But if you have a Guttersnipe and Veyran, Voice of Duality in play and you follow up with three rituals, your commander, and a single Opt, some stuff will happen on the board. Let’s dissect that:

• The rituals give you three Guttersnipe triggers, doubled thanks to Veyran. That’s 12 damage to everybody. Your storm count is at 3. You then cast Prismari, the Inspiration; storm count is at 4. You cast Opt, putting four copies on the stack. You’ll draw five cards and trigger Guttersnipe twice more, bringing the total damage to 16.
• If you had Archmage Emeritus in play, you’d have drawn a dozen cards at least, considering the individual triggers alone, plus the doubling Veyran provides.
• If you have Ral, Storm Conduit in play in this scenario, that’s at least 20 damage to someone.

That’s essentially how the deck plays and wins. Just be aware that unlike magecraft cards, storm copies won’t trigger effects like Young Pyromancer or Guttersnipe.

Rule 0 Violations Check

This deck can win out of nowhere if you cast your commander and can chain enough rituals or cantrips. Bracket 3 should handle that possibility pretty well, and it’s easier said than done.

This list runs two tutors: Solve the Equation and Micromancer. There are no Game Changers or two-card combos.

Budget Options

This deck is already on a budget. Most cards are under $5, and the total deck costs under $350 or so. If you already have the cards and aren’t that worried about budget, here are a few interesting additions:

• Jeska's Will ($40+) is excellent in this deck. It does everything you want: It’s a good ritual most of the time, like Seething Song, but it can impulse draw you some cards, and it’s great when you copy it.
• Monument to Endurance ($20+) is nice in this deck considering that you’ll draw and discard a bunch of cards. You’ll have to choose between more Treasure, damage to your opponents, and drawing more cards, and all of these are good choices.
• Birgi, God of Storytelling ($30) or Urabrask ($15) are nice cards to add to your storm deck since they add more mana as you cast your spells.
• Reckless Endeavor ($10) is a sweeper that can also create Treasure.
• Shock lands and fetch lands improve your mana base a lot. Fast mana like Ancient Tomb and Mana Crypt gives you faster starts.

Other Builds

I’ve seen some different takes on Prismari, the Inspiration. You could use your commander and storm capabilities to copy land destruction spells, and add more cards like Magmatic Hellkite for more consistency. You could copy Clone effects that are instants and sorceries. You can make a “draw-matters” deck that takes advantage of storming a cantrip and drawing a lot of cards in a given turn. You can also use wheel effects or cards like Niv-Mizzet, Parun, and then slot a Laboratory Maniac in there to create an alternate wincon.

Commanding Conclusion

Prismari, the Inspiration | Illustration by Wayne Reynolds

This is a really budget but fun take on Prismari, the Inspiration. It uses elements that are common to many spellslinging decks in Commander, but this one focuses on taking your big scary monster out of the command zone in a powerful, splashy turn.

A third of this deck is instants and sorceries, and most of them work very well with the Prismari founder, like Rapturous Moment. Or maybe storm a Stock Up and see a good chunk of your deck while putting a lot of key spells in hand.

What do you think about Prismari, the Inspiration as a commander? Did you build a deck around it, but in a totally different way? Let me know in the comments section below. And for more on EDH and Secrets of Strixhaven, be sure to check out our YouTube channel, The Daily Upkeep.

Thanks for reading, and I’ll see you around.