Commander Deck Tech: Prismari, the Inspiration

Playing new commanders in your favorite colors is always a treat, and my favorite colors are blue/red. In today's article, we'll see how the founder of the iconic Prismari magic school performs in eDH as a solid alternative for anyone who enjoys Storm archetypes.

Prismari, the Inspiration is the new version of the old Galazeth Prismari and today's main star.

Prismari, the Inspiration is a 7/7 creature with flying and ward - pay 5 life. Its body is already quite relevant, particularly because it also has flying and survives regular combat quite well. But its last ability is what we came for, as it gives all instants and sorceries storm.

In practice, this means every spell you cast each turn will scale into something bigger. An Opt or Consider will draw you some cards, sure, but they'll also let you dig through your deck. A ritual will give you some mana and many other options as well. A simple Grapeshot will become a real threat in eDH, particularly because it already has storm.

Prismari's main weakness is that it costs 7 mana, so you can't build this list as if it were to come into play early and solve everything all by itself. You won't find nice ramp in Izzet colors either, so lists with this commander need to do something before it enters play. You'll have to pray you get all your lands, mana rocks, and maybe some rituals. You'll also have to filter your hand and keep protection, all to make sure this commander can enter play as fast as possible so you can get something out of it.

Today's list is an Izzet Spellslinger that clearly takes advantage of storm. The main game plan is to cast lots of cheap spells, use rituals to create a lot of mana, get ahead in cards, and finish the game with spells that scale really well with storm and a lot of mana.

Personally, I believe relying solely on your commander is not the best strategy, so this list performs well without Prismari as well. The commander is the best thing about it, but it is not the only engine in it. Other cards in this deck will allow you to keep playing even if your commander takes a while to enter play or is removed.

Here it is:

Ramp and Rituals

As Prismari costs 7 mana, we need to get a lot of it as fast as possible. Sol Ring is the most obvious mana rock in eDH and will help you get to Prismari. Arcane Signet, Izzet Signet, Talisman of Creativity, and Fellwar Stone do the same. They'll get you to the mid-game with enough mana to play and develop long storm turns.

Thought Vessel is also relevant. In many decks, it is only the right mana rock, but in this one its other effect, which lets you keep as many cards as you want, is important too. Sequences with Archmage Emeritus, Rhystic Study, and storm itself will give you lots of cards at once, so keeping all of them for the following turn is a welcome bonus.

Rituals are the core of every Storm list. Desperate Ritual, Pyretic Ritual, Seething Song, and Rite of Flame will help you turn a little bit of mana into long turns. In traditional Commander lists, this type of card might seem risky because it only creates resources once, but in this one, they do exactly what this deck needs.

With Prismari in play, each of your Rituals will have storm. This means that, if you cast a Seething Song after two or three spells, you may get loads of red mana back. And, with this mana, you'll draw cards, interact with your opponents, and even win the game. The same goes for Mana Geyser. Jeska's Will is also excellent because it can create mana and "impulse" draw at the same time, particularly when your commander is in play.

Cantrips and Card Selection

Cantrips act as glue in this list. Brainstorm, Ponder, Preordain, Opt, Consider, and Sleight of Hand will fix your starting hands, find lands, get particular cards for you, and set up your storm turns. They'll do all of this for very little mana, so you'll be able to play several spells in the same turn even when you don't have a lot of resources.

After Prismari enters play, storm will add another layer to your cantrips. If you cast Opt as your fourth spell in a particular turn, you'll draw many cards. Ponder will let you look at the top cards in your deck numerous times and find exactly what you need. Brainstorm gets even better. All these cantrips will make your long turns even more useful.

Card Advantage

This second group of cards that will get you ahead in resources is a bit more solid than your cantrips. Faithless Looting is one of the best cards in this list because it is cheap, puts cards in the graveyard, and also comes back into play with flashback. It also helps you set up Underworld Breach and lets you discard spells that you can reuse later. Frantic Search lets you untap lands, so you'll get more mana and draw cards at the same time.

Expressive Iteration helps you set up your turn and find your next cards, whereas Big Score, Unexpected Windfall, and Seize the Spoils are more expensive but give you Treasures. These, in turn, are perfect ways to set up your following turns or just keep playing.

Spellslinger Payoffs

Archmage Emeritus is one of the most important creatures in this list because, whenever you cast or copy an instant or sorcery, it will draw a card for you. Storm counts as "creating copies", so Emeritus will draw several times after you play just one spell. Oftentimes, this is what will keep you going as you link card after card.

Storm-Kiln Artist plays a similar role, but it turns spells into Treasures. It is one of the best payoff cards possible for storm strategies because each spell you cast and copy creates mana for the next spells. With storm, you might feel as if you're creating too many Treasures at once, but you'll be able to play Crackle with Power or several Underworld Breaches because of them.

Veyran, Voice of Duality will make these triggers even more useful and allow you to scale pretty well with your own pieces. Meanwhile, Guttersnipe is a "damage payoff", so it makes everything on the board smaller while we do what this deck is all about.

Support to Stretch Your Turn

Birgi, God of Storytelling is perfect for this type of strategy. With it, each spell you play creates red mana and helps you keep going even when you feel like you're spending all your resources. In lists full of cheap spells, Birgi often lets you stretch out your turns really well with just a little bit of mana.

Goblin Electromancer and Stormcatch Mentor discount costs and are very efficient in this strategy. Making each cantrip, ritual, and card draw tool cost 1 mana less changes each turn considerably. This is often what allows you to cast more spells before you play your finishers. Abstract Paintmage and Vivi Ornitier are extra ways to turn spells into mana. Resonating Lute will give you more mana for your instants and sorceries. As a result, they'll make your turns smoother.

Interaction and Protection

This deck is pretty proactive, but it still needs to interact. Counterspell, Fierce Guardianship, and Deflecting Swat are critical when it comes to protecting Prismari and preventing an opponent from winning before you can. As Prismari costs a lot of mana, losing it to a simple removal will often delay you considerably.

Cyclonic Rift is this list's reset button. It stalls aggressive opponents and paves the way for your final turn by removing problematic permanents. Pongify and Abrade are cheap, critical answers precisely because they won't disrupt your sequences a lot and they also scale with storm.

Win Conditions

Grapeshot is the most classic finisher for this archetype, and, with Prismari in play, it gets particularly dangerous. It already has storm and will get another one from your commander. This means you'll copy many spells at once, particularly after you play several rituals and cantrips.

Crackle with Power is another classic way to win with lists that create a lot of mana in specific turns. A single big Crackle can remove two or three players at once, in fact. When this spell is well-fed with mana and you copy it with Prismari or Thousand-Year Storm, the match tends to end immediately.

Speaking of which, Thousand-Year Storm is the second big engine in this list. It doesn't replace Prismari perfectly, but it allows you to follow the same game plan and keep copying spells even if you don't have your commander. As for Underworld Breach, it turns your graveyard into an extension of your hand and lets you reuse cantrips, rituals, and finishers. It is probably the most dangerous card in this list when your graveyard is full of spells.

Braingeyser is deceiving because it seems to be made to draw cards for very little investment back. However, in late turns, after you play lots of spells in a row, you can also use it on an opponent as an alternative win condition.

Out of all the commanders in this set, this is the one I liked the most. Izzet holds a special place in my heart and my deck boxes, and a commander that lets me play one of the best strategies in this color combination ever fills me with joy. Unfortunately, we couldn't add Manamorphose to this list. Maybe one day we'll get a blue/red one, right?

What do you think? Tell us your thoughts in our comment section below.

Thank you for reading, and see you next time!