Storm, Force of Nature Commander Deck Guide

Storm, Force of Nature | Illustrated by Magali Villeneuve

The mechanic so powerful we use it to gauge the strength of other mechanics is back! Storm makes its gloriously overpowered return to Magic: The Gathering on the Universes Beyond Storm, Force of Nature card, and what a return it is!

Marvel’s Storm’s ability to give any instant or sorcery you cast the storm mechanic is easily broken. From extra combats to extra turns, this Storm, Force of Nature Commander deck is sure to turn your pod into an awesome game of solitaire with three spectators.

How can you suck all the joy and life from the table? Let’s find out!

The Deck

Neheb, Dreadhorde Champion | Illustration by Igor Kieryluk

This Storm, Force of Nature Commander deck aims to run out your Temur commander () as fast as possible, stick it to the field, then go storm-crazy before connecting with your commander and copying something like Beacon of Tomorrows four or five times. This is usually enough to pull you into another extra turn spell, which you can then copy again, and so on and so forth until your opponents are defeated or concede from exhaustion.

The Commander

Storm, Force of Nature comes from MTG x Marvel Secret Lair. It’s a 4-mana 3/4 mutant hero with flying and vigilance. Not to bury the lede, but whenever this creature deals combat damage to a player, the next instant or sorcery you cast this turn has storm. Giving storm to spells without that ability is universally regarded as a powerful effect – everything from Lightning Bolt to Giant Growth gets better when you can copy it for no additional cost (minus the other spells you’ve cast this turn). With Storm’s unbelievably easy-to-trigger storm effect, you have some wild opportunities for oppressive play patterns in this deck.

Increasing Winds

Playing and sticking your storm commander to the field shouldn’t be all that hard. You’re playing a Temur deck after all, so you should ramp fairly quickly into the requisite 4 mana, and we’ve got more than a few counterspells to keep them around for a whole rotation. No, where this deck really needs to focus is on bumping up that storm count before your commander actually deals combat damage to an opponent. This means you’ll be casting a lot of net-0 spells like Manamorphose and cantrips like Brainstorm, plus “free” spells like Noxious Revival, Frantic Search, and Crop Rotation.

In addition to your net-0 spells, you have a few options you can use to actually make more mana than you put in. I’m talking about the rituals like Seething Song and Apex of Power – both go nuts with even just one storm count behind them. Neheb, Dreadhorde Champion and Ashling, Flame Dancer both swell up your pool of red mana to prepare for a huge mana dump into a Crackle with Power.

Whenever you can, you want your cheap spells to replace themselves in some way, either with more mana or more cards. This means running the cantrip version of a double-strike instant in the form of Psychotic Fury, and Big Score and Frantic Search over traditional loot spells.

Arcane Bombardment and Thousand-Year Storm turn every instant or sorcery you cast into its very own mini-storm, copying a whole mess of cards and ticking your storm count ever higher.

Category 5 Hurricanes

Now onto the fun stuff! These spells are the preferred follow-ups for Storm’s combat damage trigger.

Seize the Day and Fury of the Horde are your extra combat generators – copying these with Storm should result in another combat damage trigger (or two, or three). I’ve chosen these two specifically because of the flashback option on the former and the free cast option on the latter, both of which help with this deck’s consistency. World at War gets you an extra combat and a free tick up on the storm count when it rebounds on the following turn.

You have four options for taking an extra turn, which should turn itself into even more extra turns. Temporal Manipulation is the simplest of these, while Temporal Trespass is the easiest to cast, in most cases only costing you after you delve away your entire graveyard. Next is Beacon of Tomorrows and Expropriate, both of which generate at least one extra turn and hopefully multiple per cast.

If you’ve been somehow locked out of victory after generating 14 extra turns, you can always use Crackle with Power and dump every available mana you can into a stormed copy. Someone smarter and better paid than me can do the math for you on when to stop casting spells to increase the storm count before you cast Crackle with Power and what the trade-off of spells-to-X-value looks like. Or, you could just start thinking through this problem out loud and bore your opponents to defeat.

If all else fails, get your storm count up to five or six and cast Warp World. The game is effectively over. Good luck resolving all that.

Disaster Relief

How do you make sure Storm, Force of Nature actually connects with an opponent?

Of course, you can keep it safe in the traditional ways with Swiftfoot Boots and Lightning Greaves, and Counterspell and Fierce Guardianship are both excellent ways to stop removal spells dead in their tracks. Veil of Summer, while semi-conditional, still saves all your spells from being countered, even if you don’t expect any targeted removal.

Clear the way for Storm with Snap and Distortion Strike, or even Rogue's Passage if you must. Dual Casting makes a great aura for Storm, since its vigilance means it’ll still be untapped by the end of combat if you want to get one more copy off your next instant/sorcery.

The Mana Base

Much of what makes this deck go is its mana base: You need to have enough mana to continue casting spells, you need to have access to exactly to delve into your Temporal Trespass, you need to keep 1 or 2 mana up to tutor for whichever key combo piece you’re missing in the moment. You won’t have a lot of time to execute your plan once Storm, Force of Nature is on the field, since it’ll draw removal like nobody’s business. You need to act fast.

After the 36 lands (including the bounce lands for Snap and Frantic Search purposes!), this deck runs a resounding six standard mana rocks in the form of your Signets, Sol Ring, Arcane Signet, and Mox Amber. In addition, I’ve brought along the cycle of medallions in Storm’s colors: Ruby Medallion, Emerald Medallion, and Sapphire Medallion.

On top of those, there are three mana dorks in the form of Llanowar Elves, Elvish Mystic, and Birds of Paradise.

This deck also runs six ramp spells to search for lands from your library, plus two rituals in Seething Song and Mana Geyser (technically three if you count Apex of Power).

The Strategy

This strategy is fairly simple and doesn’t even involve any complex combos like Storm, Force of Nature could. The plan is to run out Storm as soon as you can, usually turn 3 or 4, and get into combat as soon as you can storm off. You’ll need around 5 or 6 mana for your best storm turns, but you can reach that easily with your rituals.

The early game should be spent ramping. There are dozens of ramp spells and mana rocks in this deck, so it’s unlikely you won’t see at least three of them in the first three turns. If you can use these effectively, you’ll be at 6 or 7 mana by turn 4, perfect for casting Storm, Force of Nature and leaving some blue up to threaten with a Counterspell.

You then have to plan carefully. Swinging in with Storm on a turn when you won’t be able to follow up storming off with an impactful spell means whiffing on that turn, basically. Best practice is to think a turn or two into the future and use your Mystical Tutor and Gamble to fetch exactly what you need. Just going for extra turns? Fetch the cheapest option with Temporal Manipulation to get the ball rolling. Need to find Archaeomancer to fetch Fury of the Horde back? Use the Worldly Tutor. Trying to double-storm on the next card? Psychotic Fury grants Storm double strike and draws you into whatever you fetched to the top.

Ending the game looks pretty punishing. If you can storm or double-storm an extra turn spell, the game should be over right there. While it’s not a sure thing, no opponent really wants to watch you take five extra turns in a row. Honestly, if my opponents don’t concede after I resolve five or six Temporal Trespasses in a row, I’d concede out of respect. We’ve all got lives to lead, I’ve got work in the morning, and I can’t hang around here all night.

Combos and Interactions

There’s one stupid combo I couldn’t bring myself not to run here, and it’s Underworld Breach, Brain Freeze, and the $400 Lion's Eye Diamond.

With both permanents on the field, you can activate the LED, adding 3 blue to your mana pool, then escape it from your graveyard by exiling three cards. Then, cast Brain Freeze from your graveyard by paying and its escape cost. You’ll have at least two copies of Brain Freeze to allocate; use two on yourself and the rest on your opponents. After milling yourself six cards, recast LED and Brain Freeze using escape, and mill your opponents flat out! This combo is simply easier to execute under Storm, Force of Nature, and each of the pieces are also useful outside of this combo.

Rule 0 Violations Check

During your Rule 0 conversation you may need to make sure your playgroup is okay with extra turns and extra combats, but otherwise it’s a fairly straightforward deck: You still need to keep your commander alive and make it connect with an opponent before you can storm off.

Budget Options

That combo is cool and all, but Lion's Eye Diamond is $400 at the lowest. That entire combo is an easy cut if you’re looking to lower the overall cost of this nearly $800 deck.

Much of this deck’s value is tied up in its mana base; I went a little overboard on the fetch lands and shock lands because I wanted to be absolutely certain you could Storm off quickly. If you’d like, you can cut all the $10+ lands I’ve included and swap in guildgates, tap lands, gain lands, and other budget lands to save yourself $100.

In addition, ditch the $30 Fierce Guardianship. A Negate serves you just as well – you’ll just have to be a bit more careful when casting Storm, Force of Nature.

Other Builds

It’s going to be a feat of strength not to build Storm, Force of Nature as a storm commander. However, I could see a fun, thematic deck where Storm leads a host of air and wind elementals. Cards like Arashi, the Sky Asunder, Ball Lightning, Living Tempest, and more all fit with Storm’s, well, storm theme, without being the punishingly oppressive storm deck we’ve immediately come to expect.

Commanding Conclusion

Distortion Strike | Illustration by Goran Josic

I’m not a huge fan of these Solitaire-like decks, at least not in Commander. It’s a form of torture to watch your opponent dawdle through their cards for 30 minutes trying to decipher whether they’ve won or just taken 15 extra turns to find no win con. That said, I think Storm, Force of Nature puts an end to that. It’s probably the strongest Universes Beyond legendary we’ve seen yet, and I’d be surprised not to see it show up in at least one other Constructed format (these cards are legal in Legacy, right?).

What are the best spells to storm off with Storm? What am I missing from this ceaseless tempest of a deck? And how would you build around Storm, Force of Nature? Let me know in the comments or over on the Draftsim Discord.

Thanks for reading, and remember that few can weather the storm!