Zada Storm

     

   
         I was a bit trepidatious about Zada. While her ability is obviously powerful, there seemed like there would be one deck for her. Play her with lots of token makers and targeted buffs. A curious thing happened though. The deck took on a new direction while I was doing my research. The lists I was combing looked to me like Storm. Storm is a pretty ambitious endeavor in EDH even though Red has been a part of Storm in Modern/Legacy for a while now. Monored Storm hasn't really been viable due to the lack of card flow. Zada solves this problem while amplifying the damage of various cards to convert your hand into a kill.

Decklist: http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/zada-storm-3/
Bullshit Scale: 4

        This is perhaps the most volatile list I've ever put forth. Doing some testing with tappedout's goldfish mode, the deck is capable of some explosive draws, but will fail mid-combo about 25% of the time. There are better card choices that I haven't thought of yet, so that could probably be improved with time. I put the deck at a 4 purely because its a dedicated combo deck. It has a linchpin that targeted removal will kill, so its far more open to interaction than most combo decks, but its perceived nature will earn it significant rancor at random tables.

       There are a number of things going on here so I'm going to go through them piece by piece stating with Mana.

The Mana

        Getting to a critical mass of mana is vitally important in Storm. You need fuel and you need it all for one turn. EDH is traditionally about building up over a couple of turns with Rampant Growths or artifact mana. While artifact mana is welcome in Storm, in this sort of deck the artifact does need to make more mana than it costs. A significant fraction of the deck is mana since you need to achieve a threshold for the combo turn. Ruby Medallion and Helm of Awakening are both extremely useful, acting as multiple mana during a turn. Spawning Breath pulls semi-double duty. Unfortunately, the 1 damage is going to kill most of the tokens in the deck provided there hasn't already been a buff thrown down. As just a colorless ritual for the number of creatures in play it seems solid, and at its worst doesn't decrease the number of bodies you have. The tribal synergies are important, though, so only use it when you need some amount of mana and having Goblins doesn't matter as much.

The Velocity

        The other important aspect of Storm is that it needs to be going though the deck at an accelerated pace. This is traditionally why monored Storm has been difficult.With such a limited selection of cantrips and card velocity spells, achieving the density required for something like a Storm combo turn has been virtually impossible. This is where Zada comes in. Zada's ability turns your single card cantrips into net positive draw spells as long as you can control more than one creature. Her ability also functions as a way to win the game in a single turn since Crimson Wisps into Blazing Shoal and other pump spells is lethal. Wheel of Fate is included because its a free spell for Storm count and it lets us play out our whole hand before getting a new one. It is not ideal. Wheel is telegraphed and it can't be flashed back by Recoup or Past In Flames. However, its still one of the best options for a massive draw effect.

       Gamble is of particular importance. Red has virtually no tutors, which is one of the reasons that this deck has way more variance than any Storm list with Black or Blue. Its normally safe to Gamble, since generally you'll be Gambling in the early turns from whatever you are missing, and Gambling mid-combo almost always involves Past In Flames in some capacity. Past In Flames is absurdly good. It essentially doubles the number of spells that you have access to, which makes recasting things like Battle Hymn much more effective after the first Empty has gone off.

The Bodies

        Unlike other storm decks, Zada wants to have lots of bodies. The more creatures you have, the better your card draw and pump spells scale. However, since Brightstone Ritual, Krenko, and Empty the Warrens exist, I focused on Goblins as a tribal sub-theme. Its also important for Mana Echoes that the creatures share a tribe as much as possible. Young Pyromancer is great on his own and grows his elementals without any real support required. I am unconvinced about Rapacious One and Ogre Battledriver. Ogre Battledriver is a four mana creature that needs to be in play before the combo starts, which makes him compete directly with Zada. Zada wins that fight. Rapacious One has a similar issue in that six mana is so much for this deck. He also needs to attack and connect to get the juicy Spawn mana/bodies. He has a much greater upside than Battledriver, but odds are the deck will just never get to cast him. I'm not sure what I'd replace them with, probably more cheap creatures. I think the deck needs a density of bodies that hasn't quite been reached yet.

The Kill

        I like building Storm lists because they push you in abnormal directions. Your intuition is off since Storm plays such a different game. One thing that remains constant though, you have to make your opponent dead. In EDH that's a tall order since there's 80-120 life to deal with. For a deck that wants to attack to kill everyone, and do it in one turn, that's ludicrous. Zada can pull it off though. Any pump spell gets multiplied by the number of creatures you can attack with, which makes damage pile up fast. Of course, Ignite Memories can be devastating as well since people routinely play 7-10 mana spells in the format, but relying on that is dubious. Much better to just attack for insane amounts of damage. Haze of Rage shines here. It also scales with the number of creatures, and the number of spells, and has buyback. It can be a one card victory condition. Grapeshot makes an appearance, but its mostly for clearing creatures out of the way. The rest are just efficient pump spells, getting the most damage per mana spent. Reckless Charge and Uncanny Speed are fantastic. That they give Haste is notable, given that the deck really needs to kill in one turn. I think it might be worthwhile to include some additional mass evasion cards to ensure the team makes it through for the same reason. I'm currently unsure what that would be, but the forerunner in my mind is Eldrazi Monument. Akroma's Memorial might be better overall, but it does cost 7 versus monument's 5. It also doesn't protect versus as much. Monument is also better in the event you have to pass the turn without everyone dead.

        Its worth noting that you can pull off a percentage of the combo at instant speed, surprising people after blocks with tons of damage.  Most of the time though, the deck operates at sorcery speed. Temur Battle Rage can kill at instant speed, but the real heavy lifters are Final Fortune and Seize the Day. Each gives additional attack steps, though Final Fortune has ways more applications than just additional attacks. Frequently it can be used to have an extra combo turn without interruption. If you can sculpt a hand and board so that the next turn is a sure thing, it essentially wins the game. Seize the Day is a fantastic way to multiply your pump spells an additional time or two. The math for each pump spell becomes +N power x Number of creatures x Number of attack steps. Plugging in 3 for each variable makes it 27 damage. Its actually not that hard to kill people, if you can get to that point.

Lands

        The land count is low. A paltry 30 lands. While good EDH decks with lots of ramp tend to run fewer lands and lean on artifact mana and Rampant Growth effects, Zada has a different reason to run as few lands as possible. Simply, drawing lands mid-combo severely hampers your ability to win the game. Every land is a dud. So the fewer the lands, the more hits from the card drawing spells. The mana base takes some risks, Dwarven Ruins and Sandstone Needle are going to be sacrificed usually before you can be certain that the combo is going to work. That's just part of the game though. This is a deck that has to go for it big. About the only land I didn't include that I maybe should have was Crystal Vein. I do think that its worth considering, but colorless mana has a lot less value to it than Red mana. The other option is to run more cycling lands, but their cost in enters the battlefield tapped lands is not worth paying since there are already an number of them above.

Powering Up

       There's actually not that much that I can suggest here. I do like the idea of having more ways to get the attackers through to ensure the kill turn actually kills people. I rejected the various mana doublers like Gauntlet of Might since there are so few lands in the deck, and I think you get more upside by including nonbasics than getting to play the doublers. If the deck was built the other way, with 32ish mountains and zero nonbasics, the doublers and Koth would be included. The various other Red Planeswalkers are of middling value. I could see them, but their mana cost is 4+ on all of them, which makes them much harder to play mid-combo. Of them, Daretti and this Chandra are the most likely to get played.

Conclusion

This deck was a blast to build. Zada exceeded my expectations. If you like explosive high variance Red decks then I would seriously give Zada a look. The deck is also much cheaper than anticipated. Though the few expensive cards, Gamble, Chrome Mox, Mana Crypt, etc, are important. Once you get past the first few though, the average cost drops like a rock.

I'll be back next week with more Battle for Zendikar legends. Only two left, and they're both Giant Monsters!

Cheers!