The Best Storm Cards In Magic: The Gathering

One of the most infamous mechanics in Magic: The Gathering, Storm is a bit of a boogeyman in the game. This mechanic can close out games in a matter of turns, taking only a little bit of effort to reach critical mass.

This mechanic works by tracking the number of spells you’ve cast in a turn and then copying the card with storm equal to the number of spells cast in a turn. So, if you play five other spells, you get five copies of your storm spell. If you’re curious about what some of the most powerful cards with this keyword are, we’ve got you covered.

8

Mordor On The March

Never Ending Legions

Win-more cards are always fun in Commander, and Mordor on the March can certainly give you overwhelming odds on the battlefield. This red and black spell lets you exile a single creature card from your graveyard. In exchange, you make a token copy of it, giving that token haste for the turn, but in exchange, you have to exile it at the beginning of the next end step.

When you storm out multiple copies of Mordor on the March, you can bring back your entire graveyard in a single turn. The caveat is that this spell already costs five mana, so you’ll likely need an excess of resources to make the most of it.

7

Dragonstorm

Here There Be Dragons

Nine mana is a lot, even for a spell as strong as Dragonstorm. That’s not a problem most of the time since you are rarely going to be paying for the spell anyway. Dragonstorm lets you search your deck for a Dragon creature and put it directly into play. You can get anything you want with this sorcery spell, from a Terror of the Peaks to The Urdragon, depending on the format you are playing.

There are plenty of plays that can get you in a winning situation with just a few specific Dragons like:

• Goldspan Dragon
• Ancient Copper Dragon
• Hellkit Charger

With Goldspan Dragon and an Ancient Copper Dragon out, you can generate tons of Treasure tokens and then make bonus mana off of them. Once you have enough Treasures, you can dump all that mana into a Hellkite Charger, and you have yourself an infinite combat loop.

6

Aeve, Progenitor Ooze

Many From One

Creatures with storm might seem a bit weird, but Aeve, Progenitor Ooze is an absolute powerhouse with a little bit of extra mana and some explosive turns. Aeve is a legendary creature with storm, letting you make token copies of it for each spell that has been cast before it. Aeve makes it so the token versions of it are not legendary, letting you make as many as you like.

Aeve gets bigger for each other Ooze you control, though they enter one at a time, so each one will progressively be bigger than the last. You will want a ton of card draw and plenty of mana in a commander deck with Aeve since you’ll want to be casting as many spells as you can with all the mana you can muster.

5

Brain Freeze

Think Warm Thoughts

Milling is one of the stranger ways to win a game, and with the storm card Brain Freeze, along with a healthy amount of spells cast before it, you can mill out your opponents very quickly. Brain Freeze has any player of your choice, yourself included, mill three cards. Multiply that by a dozen spells or so, and you’ll have a game-winning situation.

While Brain Freeze works better in games with a single opponent rather than in a multiplayer format, that doesn’t have to stop you from being able to take out the biggest threat from the table. Don’t forget that you can mill yourself too, letting you use Brain Freeze to fuel graveyard-based strategies or self-mill win conditions.

4

Flusterstorm

No One Is Having A Good Time

Keeping a counterspell up to protect your game-winning play is vital in plenty of decks, and if that combo involves casting more than a few spells, it might be worth your while to play a few copies of Flusterstorm in your list. This counterspell counters an instant or sorcery spell unless its controller pays one generic mana.

While one mana is easy enough to pay, when you have 5 copies of Flusterstorm on the stack, it becomes a lot harder for your opponent to manage. In formats where you have multiple opponents, like Commander, you have a prime opportunity for Flusterstorm to shine. Just wait for a time when your opponents have all cast multiple spells in response to each other, and then drop a Flusterstorm once they’ve all tapped out.

The way the storm mechanic works is that it counts all spells cast in a single turn, not just spells you have cast. So, if your opponents have cast five spells and you have cast one, you get six copies of Flusterstorm to pass around, as well as the original one you cast.

3

Grapeshot

Ping Them All

All you have to do with this card is count to 20, and you win the game. Grapeshot is a two-mana sorcery that deals one damage to any target. One damage might not seem like a lot, but once you get a spell loop going, it is just a matter of time until you can start directing those Grapeshots to your opponent’s face.

Most Grapeshot decks have a ton of cantrips, spells that have an effect and then draw you a card for a low mana cost, letting you dig deeper into your deck to find your copies of Grapeshot. The other key pieces of the puzzle are spells that add mana, like Pyretic Ritual and Manamorphose, since they tick up your storm count higher and higher while not tying up your mana for the turn.

With cards like Grapeshot, you never want to stop at your opponent’s life total. You never know if they’re going to have some weird instant speed lifegain spell or something to prevent damage. You don’t need to go to extreme measures, like dealing 1,000 damage or something, but just enough to seal the deal.

2

Mind’s Desire

Anything You Can Imagine

An absolutely brutal card in terms of sheer power, Mind’s Desire combines a bit of controlled chaos with free spells to help you win the game. This six-mana sorcery has you shuffle up your library when it resolves. Then, you get to exile the top card of your deck. You can cast that spell for free for the rest of the turn.

For years, this card has been banned in Legacy because of its fearsome power. Being the focal point of a combo deck makes it a prime target for being banned immediately, holding the record for being the fastest ban after its initial release in the history of Magic. Even though the hits are completely random with Mind’s Desire, you only need to dig a few cards deep to all but guarantee you hit something good.

1

Tendrils Of Agony

Make It Hurt

One of the cleanest ways to win your game, Tendrils of Agony is quite possibly the perfect storm card. For four-mana, you drain one of your opponents of two life, and then you gain two life. All you need is to get ten copies of Tendrils of Agony on the stack to take your opponent out in a single combo, making Tendils a fantastic win condition.

Tendrils of Agony is a popular card to find at the end of Legacy combo decks, The Tendrils combo can sometimes go off as early as your first turn with the right hand. Storm is a bit of a tricky mechanic to work with, so make sure you practice plenty to make sure you get it right.