UNTAP STORM. count mana, fuel and storm.

Opening hands

Seven cards from this build. Commanders start in the command zone. In multiplayer Commander, the first mulligan is free. For later mulligans, draw seven again; once you keep, put one card on the bottom for each mulligan beyond the free one.

KeepShow the seven

• Underground Sea
• City of Brass
• Lotus Petal
• Dark Ritual
• Demonic Tutor
• Silence
• Mystic Remora

Two colored lands support early card flow or a tutor plan, and Ritual/Petal can fund a later attempt. Preserve Silence mana for the committed turn. This is a setup hand, not proof of a turn-one win.

BorderlineShow the seven

• Command Tower
• Sol Ring
• Lion's Eye Diamond
• Grinding Station
• Underworld Breach
• Brain Freeze
• Pact of Negation

Several engine pieces are present but the colored mana and initial graveyard fuel are not yet sufficient. LED would discard useful cards, and Pact requires winning or paying later. Prefer a free mulligan at seven over assuming the next draws supply all missing resources.

MulliganShow the seven

• Command Tower
• City of Traitors
• Force of Will
• Fierce Guardianship
• Pact of Negation
• Last Chance
• Rite of Flame

The hand has conditional interaction and burst resources without a draw engine, tutor or complete win. City of Traitors also complicates later land development. Last Chance and Pact create deadlines that this opening does not yet support.

Kraum, Ludevic's Opus + Tymna the Weaver strategy guide

What this deck is, and how it differs from Blue Farm

This build shares its partners with Blue Farm and emphasizes rituals, Lion’s Eye Diamond and Underworld Breach. It commits more resources to a single turn, making the fuel and protection budget central. Both partners begin in the command zone; they can rebuild a hand after a stopped attempt.

A slower pod may give time to prepare a protected turn; a disruptive pod may require resolving engines and removing hate first. Do not choose the list on an unsupported matchup ranking or assume Blue Farm only wins on opponents’ turns.

The commanders

Tymna the Weaver, {1}{W}{B}, 2/2 lifelink. Pay X life at each of your postcombat main phases, where X is the number of opponents dealt combat damage this turn, and draw X cards. Any creature can deal the damage for Tymna; her own lifelink only offsets the payment when she actually deals damage.

Kraum, Ludevic’s Opus, {3}{U}{R}, 4/4 flying haste. Draw whenever an opponent casts their second spell each turn.

Both matter beyond the cards. Fierce Guardianship, Deflecting Swat and Jeska’s Will all check whether you control a commander, so keeping a body on the battlefield turns three cards in the deck on: one free counterspell, one free redirect, and a ritual that gives you both modes instead of one. Deflecting Swat counters nothing; it changes the targets of a spell or ability, which is how you save your combo from removal or point their removal somewhere else. Beseech the Mirror is not one of the three. Its condition is bargain, not a commander.

How you win

Line A: Underworld Breach, Lion’s Eye Diamond and Brain Freeze. Finite storm.

Start with Breach on the battlefield, LED and Brain Freeze in the graveyard, and seven disposable graveyard cards besides those pieces when Oracle is still in the library. Six is sufficient to start if Oracle is already separately reserved in the graveyard. The starting hand must be expendable because LED discards it. This is an opening fuel budget; each newly revealed card changes what you can safely exile.

1. Escape LED by exiling three disposable cards. Once it resolves and you have priority, activate it: discard your hand, sacrifice LED and add {U}{U}{U}. Its mana ability has an instant-timing restriction, so you cannot activate it in the middle of paying for another spell.
2. Escape Brain Freeze for {1}{U}, exiling three more disposable cards. One blue remains. LED was cast this turn, so even with no earlier spells, Freeze has one storm copy and can mill six.
3. Track each target and the actual mill. A full first cycle spends six cards, mills at least six, returns LED and Freeze to the graveyard, and nets one blue. The next cycle has two additional spells in the storm history; its mill is larger, not a fixed six.
4. Stop once you can win. If the first six-card mill contains Oracle, the seven-card starting reserve leaves six disposable cards for the next full LED/Freeze cycle. Starting with only six would leave five and stall. Preserve Oracle and recalculate fuel before continuing. Before emptying your library, reserve {U}{U}, Oracle, and three other cards for its escape. Do not start a final cycle that cannot pay its costs.

This is a finite sequence: the library and exile fuel run out. If the very first Freeze empties a short library, its one floating blue is not by itself enough for Oracle; an additional blue source or a separately funded LED escape is required. Milling opponents is not an immediate win unless another effect converts it; their losses normally occur on later failed draws.

Line B: Underworld Breach, Grinding Station and a zero-mana artifact. Finite self-mill.

Use Lotus Petal, LED, Memnite, Chrome Mox, Mox Opal or Mox Amber. Chrome Mox need not imprint because Station only needs an artifact. Mox Diamond requires a fresh land discard to enter on every iteration, so do not treat it as a repeatable zero-cost piece.

Requirements: Underworld Breach and Grinding Station on the battlefield, a reusable zero-mana artifact in the graveyard, six disposable graveyard cards besides it, and {U}{U} available outside the loop. If Oracle is already in the graveyard, do not count it among those six. Oracle must be accessible in the library or graveyard; if it is already in hand, reserve it and hard-cast it instead. This is a conservative sufficient fuel budget, not the minimum for every board state. No effect may prevent casting from the graveyard, artifacts entering, Station activating, or cards reaching the graveyard.

1. Escape the artifact, exiling three disposable cards. Its entry triggers Station; let that trigger untap Station.
2. Tap Station and sacrifice the artifact to mill yourself three. The artifact returns to the graveyard; a full three-card mill replaces the three exiled cards. This makes no mana.
3. Inspect the newly milled cards before another escape. Preserve Oracle and three other cards for its terminal escape; never spend a required piece as fuel. A final mill of only one or two cards reduces the available fuel, which is why the starting reserve matters.
4. With the library empty, escape Oracle for {U}{U} and exile three other cards. Let Oracle resolve, then its trigger; an empty library satisfies the win condition at any devotion.

Fuel check: if the first mill finds Oracle and two disposable cards, starting with only three disposable cards leaves just two for the next escape and stalls. Starting with six leaves five disposable cards after protecting Oracle. Subsequent full mills maintain that reserve; a final one-card mill still leaves three. This line is finite, bounded by the library. Taxes add costs to every escape, Rule of Law limits casts, and graveyard hate can stop the engine. Opponents receive priority at the ordinary spell, trigger and ability windows.

Line C: Birgi plus Underworld Breach plus Grinding Station. Red mana per iteration.

Birgi, God of Storytelling reads “whenever you cast a spell, add {R}. Until end of turn, you don’t lose this mana as steps and phases end.” Every escaped spell is a cast, so Line B run with Birgi on the battlefield also generates {R} per iteration. This is not infinite. Each iteration mills three off your own library, so the loop is bounded by library size: roughly a third of your remaining deck in red mana, banked by Birgi’s “you don’t lose this mana as steps and phases end”, and then you are out of library and escaping the Oracle. Large and finite, which is all you need.

Line D: Oracle plus Consultation costs three mana; Oracle plus Pact costs four.

Cast the Oracle for {U}{U} and let it resolve. The trigger does not exist until the creature enters (CR 608.3a, 603.6a). With the trigger on the stack, respond with Demonic Consultation for {B}; name a card not in the deck when Consultation resolves. Consultation exiles your whole library, then the trigger resolves with a library of zero and you win.

This is not counterproof. Consultation is an ordinary instant cast under the trigger, so anything that counters an instant beats the line, and the trigger then resolves against a full library and does nothing. Three separate mechanisms stop you and they are not interchangeable: counter the Consultation, counter the trigger with Trickbind or Stifle, or prevent the win outright with Angel’s Grace, which counters nothing. You are trading a countered Oracle for a countered Consultation, which is the right trade because your library survives it. Killing the Oracle in response to the trigger does not stop it once the library is empty. The trigger is its own object, and an empty library satisfies the win clause at any devotion, because devotion is never negative. That protection is specific to the empty library: with cards still in your library, devotion decides it and removal in response can take the win away. Exiling your library is not a loss by itself; the 2008-10-01 Consultation ruling says you lose the next time you would draw.

Do not hold priority off the Oracle and Consult underneath it. If you do, a counterspell on the Oracle leaves you with no library and you lose on your next draw. Resolve the Oracle first and a counter costs you only the Oracle.

This list runs zero basic lands and every card name is unique, so Tainted Pact can exile the entire library if you decline every revealed card. {1}{B} for the same kill.

Line E: Ad Nauseam into rituals.

Ad Nauseam can provide a large hand, but the safe stopping point depends on life, revealed mana values and the remaining threats. The payoff sequence is:

1. Ad Nauseam down to a life total you can survive, with Tymna’s lifelink and the life you have banked in mind.

2. Rain of Filth: until end of turn, your lands gain “Sacrifice this land: Add {B}.” Tap lands for needed colors first, then sacrifice only the lands required for a committed attempt. Black mana cannot replace the blue Oracle needs.

3. Convert the rest. What each one is actually worth on the turn you cast it:

   Source	Cost	Converts to
   Dark Ritual	{B}	{B}{B}{B}, net +2
   Culling the Weak	{B}	{B}{B}{B}{B}, net +3, and it eats a creature
   Mana Vault	{1}	{C}{C}{C}, net +2
   Rite of Flame	{R}	{R}{R} plus one per Rite of Flame in any graveyard, net +1 or better
   Sol Ring	{1}	{C}{C}, net +1
   Grim Monolith	{2}	{C}{C}{C}, net +1
   Jeska’s Will	{2}{R}	both modes with a commander out
   Simian Spirit Guide	from hand	{R}, needing no permanent and no land
   Lotus Petal, Chrome Mox, Mox Amber, Mox Opal	{0}	one mana each, on their own gates
   Arcane Signet, Talisman of Dominance, Talisman of Progress	{2}	one mana, net negative this turn

   Mana Vault is the one that gets forgotten, and it ties Dark Ritual for raw output off a one-mana investment. Simian Spirit Guide matters most, because it makes mana from your hand with no permanent and no land, which is exactly the board state Rain of Filth leaves you in. Mox Diamond can still make mana if a land card remains in hand to discard; sacrificing battlefield lands does not remove lands from your hand.

4. Underworld Breach, or Oracle plus Consultation, ends it.

Rain of Filth creates permission to sacrifice lands; it does not force you to sacrifice any. Budget a complete line and its protection before spending lands, because rebuilding after a stopped attempt may be difficult.

Last Chance is the same kind of card: {R}{R} for an extra turn, and you lose the game at that turn’s end step. Plan to win during the extra turn or otherwise handle its delayed loss trigger; casting it does not give you an extra main phase in the current turn.

Beseech the Mirror: tutor, bargain and timing

{1}{B}{B}{B} with bargain (sacrifice an artifact, enchantment or token as you cast it). Bargained, it searches for any card and lets you cast it free if its mana value is 4 or less.

The 98 cards outside the command zone include 71 nonlands, but Beseech itself is on the stack while it searches. 68 of its 70 other potential nonland targets have mana value 4 or less. Only cards still in the library are available to find. The only two it can find and not cast are Ad Nauseam and Force of Will, both mana value 5. The ones you are usually reaching for: Underworld Breach (mana value 2), Thassa’s Oracle (2), Demonic Consultation (1), Wheel of Fortune (3), The One Ring (4) and Grim Monolith (2). Lotho’s Treasures, any Mox, Memnite and Lotus Petal are all bargain fodder, but sacrificing a mana source or engine is a real cost; retain the mana and pieces needed after the search.

Ad Nauseam is mana value 5 and goes to your hand instead of being cast free. Plan for that.

Lotho is not a storm engine, and he costs you life. Read the whole card.

Lotho, Corrupt Shirriff: “Whenever a player casts their second spell each turn, you lose 1 life and create a Treasure token.”

Two things people miss. First, it is once per player per turn, on their second spell only. Your own spell chain gives Lotho one trigger during your storm turn. Opponents’ second spells can add more, but additional spells from you do not.

Second, it says a player, not an opponent, so you trigger it yourself, and every trigger costs you 1 life. In a four-player game the ceiling is four triggers in a single turn, one per player. This deck’s Line E is Ad Nauseam, so that life is not free. Count what Lotho has already taken before you decide how deep to go.

Mulligan

Keep: any hand with fast mana and a tutor. The ones that find your own combo piece are Vampiric Tutor, Demonic Tutor, Imperial Seal, Mystical Tutor, Enlightened Tutor, Gamble, Intuition, Gifts Ungiven and Beseech the Mirror.

Praetor’s Grasp is not one of them. It searches target opponent’s library, exiles a card face down, and lets you play it. It is a hoser and a steal, not a tutor: use it to strip the one Thassa’s Oracle out of a blue deck, or to take a win condition you can cast yourself. Never keep a hand on the strength of it.

Keep: Ad Nauseam plus the mana to cast it plus a ritual.

Keep: Underworld Breach plus a way to fill the graveyard (Wheel of Fortune, Gitaxian Probe, Exhibition Tidecaller, Cephalid-style self-mill from Grinding Station).

Ship hands that cannot develop a resource engine or funded attempt. In a heavily interactive pod, a functional partner-based value hand can be better than a fragile all-in hand.

Gemstone Caverns changes your mulligan math. If you are not the starting player and it is in your opening hand, you begin with it on the battlefield with a luck counter, exiling a card. That is a free land plus effectively going first on mana.

Protection while you go off

• Hexing Squelcher: cannot be countered itself, and spells you control cannot be countered. This is the card that lets a storm turn survive three blue opponents.
• Grand Abolisher: during your turn, opponents cannot cast spells or activate abilities of artifacts, creatures or enchantments. It does not stop land abilities.
• Silence: one mana, opponents cannot cast spells this turn.
• Drannith Magistrate: opponents cannot cast from anywhere except hand. It shuts off their commanders, their Breach and their flashback. It does not touch a Consultation or Tainted Pact into Thassa’s Oracle, because every card in that line is cast from hand.
• Deflecting Swat: free with a commander, redirect a removal spell or a targeted trigger. Ordinary Demonic Tutor and Vampiric Tutor have no targets, so Swat cannot redirect their searches.
• Pact of Negation and Fierce Guardianship: free counters. Remember Pact’s {3}{U}{U} on your next upkeep.
• The One Ring: cast it and you gain protection from everything until your next turn. Read that literally. It protects you, not your permanents, so it does nothing for Underworld Breach, Grinding Station or Lotho. What it buys is a turn cycle where you can still be attacked, but relevant damage to you is prevented and you cannot be targeted, which is enough when the thing killing you is Orcish Bowmasters or a swing from Kraum.

Common mistakes

• Activating Lion’s Eye Diamond with cards still in hand. Empty the hand first unless you are deliberately fuelling the graveyard.
• Starting the Breach loop without counting the graveyard. Line A needs seven disposable cards when Oracle remains in the library (six if Oracle is already separately reserved) to start, then continuing fuel and a funded terminal Oracle; it is not indefinitely self-sustaining.
• Spending lands with Rain of Filth without a complete mana budget, or casting Last Chance without a plan for its extra-turn deadline.
• Wheeling into a table with more cards than you. Wheel of Fortune refills three opponents as well as you. It is a storm enabler and graveyard filler first.
• Wheeling with Necropotence out. Necropotence reads “whenever you discard a card, exile that card from your graveyard,” so discarded cards trigger exile from your graveyard rather than remaining reliable Breach fuel. Wheel discards the hand you actually have, which need not be seven cards. The two cards are close to anti-synergy: wheel first, or resolve Necropotence after.
• Forgetting that Opposition Agent does not stop Demonic Consultation or Tainted Pact. Neither one searches a library; they exile from the top.
• Casting Ad Nauseam without a plan for the mana afterward.

Pod notes

State spells, targets, floating mana and trigger counts clearly, and pass priority at each relevant window. Agree on a finite shortcut and its resulting state; another player may interrupt at a specified point. Revealed or drawn cards can change decisions, so do not shortcut conditional hidden-information choices. Choose a numerical X when casting an X spell.

Track Pact and other delayed triggers openly. If something is missed, pause and apply the table’s rules or call the event judge; do not infer intent or invent penalties. The rules allow a player to concede at any time. Agree on considerate concession etiquette before play, and consult a named event’s published policy for tournament procedures.

Bracket references: October 2025 definitions and February 2026 update. Combo timing and shortcuts follow the August 2026 Comprehensive Rules. Turn windows here are untested estimates, not measured win rates.