Gustha EbbasdotterGustha Ebbasdotter | Art by Karl Kopinski

BrainstormBrainstorm is easily somewhere in my top five favorite Magic cards. The Tony DiTerlizzi art of Brainstorm from Mercadian Masques and Mark Poole's CounterspellCounterspell from Alpha take turns being my all-time favorite piece of Magic art. Among the many gifts bestowed by Mystery Booster Commander Edition is Gustha EbbasdotterGustha Ebbasdotter, a creature that gives out Brainstorms for the low, low price of casting spells on the opponents' turns. I couldn't have dreamed up a more perfect commander. In this deck tech, I'm going to take a stab at Gustha Ebbasdotter.

What Does Gustha Ebbasdotter Do?

Gustha EbbasdotterGustha Ebbasdotter is a 3/3 Human Wizard with protection from red for . Whenever you cast your first spell during each opponent's turn, you draw three cards and put two cards from your hand on top of your library. In other words, she casts a BrainstormBrainstorm! Unlike Brainstorm, this ability is card advantage rather than card neutral, like casting a Brainstorm from your hand would be. Functionally, Gustha is similar to Wavebreak HippocampWavebreak Hippocamp or Archmage EmeritusArchmage Emeritus, simply stapling a draw spell onto the spells you cast.

The 99 of a Gustha deck will often look a lot like Alela, Cunning ConquerorAlela, Cunning Conqueror or Katara, Waterbending MasterKatara, Waterbending Master, due to them all having the same input: casting a spell on an opponent's turn. Where they'll differ is in what output the commander provides. Katara decks turn all those spells into massive quantities of card draw, and will often win with a Laboratory ManiacLaboratory Maniac or Thassa's OracleThassa's Oracle. Alela's output is creating a wide board of evasive tokens that can win from a pump effect like Coat of ArmsCoat of Arms. The question Gustha has to answer is "How can I turn the output of casting a Brainstorm over and over again into a win?"

My build of Gustha is going to be a control deck. Her ability has a natural synergy with CounterbalanceCounterbalance, and rewards interacting with opponents on their turns. The game plan is very simple: draw a lot of cards, use interaction to stay alive, and then find some compact way to win before the table's ire overpowers me. Like with any control strategy, the success of the deck will hinge on whether or not it can drag the game past turn eight, nine, or potentially even later.

Key Cards for Gustha Ebbasdotter

CounterbalanceCounterbalance is the most powerful engine piece in the deck. In a lot of cases, Counterbalance can transform any instant in the deck into a CounterspellCounterspell. Mana values from one to eight are represented to accommodate Counterbalance. Anything outside of that range can be dealt with through the deck's other counters. One of Counterbalance's key strengths is the safety it can provide versus combo decks. For example, a Counterbalance with a two-mana spell on the top of the library completely shuts out a win attempt with Underworld BreachUnderworld Breach, as it blocks Underworld Breach, Brain FreezeBrain Freeze, and Thassa's OracleThassa's Oracle!

Counterbalance's biggest drawback is that a mono-blue deck has few ways to reliably find it. Long-Term PlansLong-Term Plans and Muddle the MixtureMuddle the Mixture are the only tutors that can access this enchantment. As a result, I can't rely too much on Counterbalance, as it just isn't going to show up every game. More ways to capitalize on getting three free BrainstormBrainstorms per turn cycle will be necessary.

GusthaGustha is adept at setting up spells with miracle, like Devastation TideDevastation Tide or Temporal MasteryTemporal Mastery. Molecule ManMolecule Man can grant any card miracle, which can create many absurd scenarios. I think of Molecule Man like a really potent ramp spell. He's hard to set up, but just one or two miracles can generate more mana than a Sol RingSol Ring or Gilded LotusGilded Lotus would over multiple turns. Imagine casting a Sea Gate RestorationSea Gate Restoration for free!

Next up is a card that I missed when I covered Legacy Miracles in an installment of 60 to 100: Trade RoutesTrade Routes. When combined with Mystic SanctuaryMystic Sanctuary, Trade Routes allows me to recur high-impact instants and sorceries and play them over and over again. Cyclonic RiftCyclonic Rift and Devastation TideDevastation Tide are two of the most common spells that get looped this way. This synergy intersects with Counterbalance, as it can be used to keep seven or eight mana spells in circulation against decks where that mana value matters.

The dark side of repeatedly using a Brainstorm effect is that bad cards can get stuck on top. I've seen a lot of people use that as a justification for excluding Brainstorm from their blue Commander decks. The more often I can shuffle bad cards away after using Gustha's ability, the more advantage I can gain from each trigger. Thankfully, there are so many ways to clear the top of the library!

Cards can be milled with Thought ScourThought Scour or Mental NoteMental Note, which also helps set up delve cards like Dig Through TimeDig Through Time. There are loads of ways to shuffle the deck, either with fetch lands, like Polluted DeltaPolluted Delta or Fabled PassageFabled Passage, or instant speed tutors like Step ThroughStep Through and Lórien RevealedLórien Revealed.

All of these shuffle effects require the pilot to play a little unintuitively. Conventional wisdom dictates that you play your fetch lands out first and use them to find tapped lands or just thin the deck in the early game. Here, I'll always elect to hold onto a fetch land until Gustha is in play or it's the last land in my hand. Because none of the lands that the fetches find enter tapped, other than Mystic Sanctuary in the early turns, there's never a reason to crack one on an opponent's end step. Generally speaking, they should be used at the last possible moment: your upkeep, or to shuffle away dead cards before a Gustha trigger or draw spell resolves.

There are a few more cards that can squeeze extra value out of casting spells on an opponent's turn. These effects were subthemes in both Theros Beyond Death and Lorwyn Eclipsed, and that gives me a few pieces to work with. Stinging LionfishStinging Lionfish is effectively a removal engine, tapping down a threatening attacker at the same time Gustha triggers. Often, Stinging Lionfish will create a perfect opportunity to play politics. "Want to attack with that creature this turn? Maybe send it somewhere else."

Wavebreak HippocampWavebreak Hippocamp adds even more card advantage on top of Gustha's ability. It's important to remember to stack Wavebreak Hippocamp and Gustha's triggers such that Hippocamp's resolves first. It will maximize the number of cards seen rather than resolving Gustha's trigger first and then drawing a card that you just put on top of the library. This is the same reason it's bad practice to fire off a Brainstorm on an opponent's end step rather than in your own turn, after your draw step.

Unwelcome SpriteUnwelcome Sprite is another solution to the dreaded Brainstorm lock, where two cards you've already seen are stuck on top of your library. For just two mana, this Faerie will surveil two on the same cast trigger as Gustha, Wavebreak Hippocamp, and Stinging Lionfish. Stacking this trigger gets a little more intricate, as there are valid reasons to place it anywhere on the stack!

How Does This Gustha Ebbasdotter Deck Win?

My compact combo of choice is Iron Man, Armored AvengerIron Man, Armored Avenger paired with Pensive ProfessorPensive Professor. These two start a loop of Iron Man placing a +1/+1 counter on Pensive Professor when a card is drawn, drawing a card off Pensive Professor's ability, and placing another +1/+1 counter on it as a result. This combo will draw the entire deck and produce one very large creature. The next question is "How can I win after drawing my whole deck?"

There are three options for winning with near-infinite draw. The first, and most reliable, option is Laboratory ManiacLaboratory Maniac. Lab-Man creates a replacement effect that wins the game when you attempt to draw from an empty library instead of losing. You can even go for this win without having him in hand, as you can send a +1/+1 counter to Iron Man to stop the loop, deploy Laboratory Maniac, then cast any of the deck's thousand draw spells to re-initiate the loop.

Psychic CorrosionPsychic Corrosion can use the combo's card draw triggers to mill the opponents' entire libraries. If deployed early, it's possible to win with Psychic Corrosion the hard way after GusthaGustha has BrainstormBrainstorm'd enough times. In that way, it's very similar to Psychosis Crawler which can easily burn the table out with or without drawing the entire deck.

Finally, I've included TriskaidekaphileTriskaidekaphile as an alternative win condition. This Wizard will win the game in your upkeep if you have exactly 13 cards in hand, which isn't too difficult to achieve. There are two other cards that remove maximum hand size in the deck, and it isn't too hard to set up a sequence of casting Temporal MasteryTemporal Mastery for its miracle cost, deploying Triskaidekaphile, sculpting a 13-card hand, and then passing to the next turn to win the game. High Fae TricksterHigh Fae Trickster also makes these setups significantly less difficult, allowing Triskaidekaphile to come out on someone's end step, minimize vulnerability to sorcery-speed removal, and maximize mana efficiency.

The Deck List

Conclusion

I'm placing my build of Gustha EbbasdotterGustha Ebbasdotter in the lower end of Bracket 3 (Upgraded). There are three Game Changers, a late-game infinite combo, and an extra turn spell. Each of those disqualifies the deck from Bracket 2 (Core), so up to Bracket 3 it goes! I place it on the lower end of Bracket 3's power level spectrum due to the inherent difficulties a mono-blue control deck encounters in Commander. Blue is not known for effective removal or board wipes. As a result, a table of streamlined, aggressive creature decks will often just be too much for Gustha to handle.

My original build fell into Bracket 2, but I couldn't in good conscience give up on Temporal MasteryTemporal Mastery or Cyclonic RiftCyclonic Rift. In testing, the original version of the deck was unable to generate any meaningful threat until well after I'm sure I'd be killed, likely after one opponent interprets me countering one of their terrifying creatures as signaling the beginning of a blood feud. The jump to Bracket 3 enables me to include better interaction, better ramp, and adds a couple more trick arrows to the deck's quiver.

Overall, building and testing this list was a task akin to frolicking in the happiest corners of my mind palace. I'd recommend Gustha to more tactically minded players that really like the challenge of fighting an uphill battle where unintuitive decisions must be made to maximize your odds of winning. Just casting one BrainstormBrainstorm and making the correct choices with it is a difficult task that many Magic players will spend their lives learning to optimize. Casting three per turn cycle is a good recipe for smoke pouring out of your ears!