Too-Specific Top 10 - Discarding Impulse
December 15, 2023 by
DougY 
(Inti, Seneschal of the Sun | Art by Victor Adame Minguez)
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Welcome to Too-Specific Top 10, where if there isn’t a category to rank our pet card at the top of, we’ll just make one up! (Did you know that Path of the Pyromancer is the only wheel that also adds mana to your mana pool?)
As long time readers will know, I'm a bit of a Storm fiend. And as anyone who's played a lot of Storm will know, there's two things you need to go off: Positive mana, or positive cards.
Pretty much everyone at this point can probably name the mono-red Storm commander that gets you that positive mana that keeps things going. In The Lost Caverns of Ixalan, however, we have a new entry that's a mana cheaper and breaks even on the other side of things. Or does she?
The answer, of course, is in the cards you choose to pair with Inti, Seneschal of the Sun. By herself, she does let you discard a card once a turn and rip another off the top to break even. Given that this is a well-known phenomenon in red, the color of rummage and wheels, however, there is no shortage of cards that already "break even" that Inti pushes over the top into unfair territory.
So, with that in mind, why not look at what cheap Storm-bait cards we can abuse with Inti?
Top 10 "Wheels" That Are Cheaper Than A Wheel
And... that's it! Great top ten, no?
In all seriousness, I'm keeping the title, because it's too good, but we're gonna have to expand things out some.
Criteria: Red instants and sorceries costing two or less that discard a card (or your entire hand) and draw at least two cards. As is tradition, all results are ordered by EDHREC score.
We'll have a lot more to cover in the Honorable Mentions, and it should at least be mentioned that we've gotten dangerously close to this territory when we covered Eruth back in 2021, but this should more than get us started on abusing what Inti can do. Let's go!
10. Dangerous Wager
(2,883 Inclusions, 0% of 1,591,347 Decks)
When we were glossing through the intro, I'm sure some of you immediately asked what a lot of folks did when Inti was spoiled: Why would I play this over Rielle, the Everwise? I have two answers for that question: One, two mana is innumerably less mana than three (unless you can count to one), and two, Dangerous Wager. There are many effects in red that have you discard your whole hand, and that kind of thing will give you pause when a commander like Rielle is constantly filling your hand. When it's all in exile, though? Fire away!
9. Goblin Lore
(3,593 Inclusions, 0% of 1,591,347 Decks)
While I'm sure that to many of my readers, this concept will be old hat, I should at least cover some basics of card advantage that Goblin Lore and other rummage cards bring up. At first glance, you might think that Goblin Lore ended up with you having an extra card. After all, counting to one again, four is one more than three, right? Well, not quite. What that math doesn't count is the card itself, which you cast, and therefore use up, making the net "gain" a whopping zero once things have resolved and you have four new cards in the graveyard.
Now, to be clear, Inti will take that zero and crank it back up to a one. What she will not do is get rid of the major downside of Goblin Lore: That random discard. Which would be a big deal, if we didn't, in all likelihood, want cards in the graveyard in our Inti brew.
With the amount of cards we'll be discarding, we'll want a few engines and win-cons that will care about the graveyard or allow us to win with them in the graveyard, and there are plenty to choose from. As for those dreading the existence of an Underworld Breach or the attempted resolution of a Mizzix's Mastery, what can I tell you other than with a two-mana Storm commander, this was always going to be a high-powered deck.
8. Wild Guess
(11,994 Inclusions, 1% of 1,591,347 Decks)
Which is precisely why I'm not as much of a fan of Wild Guess. Don't get me wrong, there's a chance that it will end up in our 99, but with the amount of cards we've gotten in this vein in the last few years, it seems less and less likely. Doing the "I can count to one" math again, two red pips are twice as hard to cast as one red pip, and there are a ton of cards that offer this same effect at a less problematic mana cost, often at instant speed.
In fact, let's take a break to look at the newer, better versions of Wild Guess that have been printed in the last couple years, and haven't had time yet to make it to this list.
Okay, so that last one hasn't actually been printed yet, but is nonetheless easily the strongest of these three, all of which are arguably stronger than Wild Guess. In other words? The days of Wild Guess in the 99 of any deck are numbered.
7. Burning Inquiry
(21,115 Inclusions, 1% of 1,591,347 Decks)
Burning Inquiry, on the other hand, still has it's most dynamic feature keeping it alive: It costs a single mana. Sure, sure, it's actually card disadvantage, when we do the full math of drawing three and using/discarding four, but if you're trying to end up with mass quantities of cards in hand and cards in the graveyard on the cheap? It really can't be beat.
6. Cathartic Pyre
(24,654 Inclusions, 1% of 1,591,347 Decks)
Another rummage card that actually ends up being more card disadvantage than advantage, Cathartic Pyre makes up for this by giving you the option to use it as an Abrade instead. That's not exactly anything to write home about, but when you need removal, you need removal!
5. Wheel of Fate
(28,772 Inclusions, 2% of 1,591,347 Decks)
Here is where my enthusiasm wanes. On some level, I understand why folks like Wheel of Fate; It's a less expensive Wheel of Fortune. With that said, I think the only deck I've ever included Wheel of Fate in was when I put together a Storm deck dedicated to Suspend. If you're actually waiting the four turns, though? You're never going to see this resolve, or by the time it does it will be to someone else's advantage.
In short, I continue to be underwhelmed by Wheel of Fate, and would argue that even outside of high-powered decks, you should be too.
4. Tormenting Voice
(60,847 Inclusions, 4% of 1,591,347 Decks)
If you were looking for strictly better Wild Guess, then it appears in many forms, but none most accurately as Tormenting Voice. Featuring the same words on every mechanical piece of card, Tormenting Voice is Wild Guess with a generic mana instead of a red pip. And they only get better from here, as we've already covered. The real question is, are there enough better versions out at this point that Tormenting Voice is also not making the cut?
3. Cathartic Reunion
(72,878 Inclusions, 5% of 1,591,347 Decks)
Digging a bit deeper, there's Cathartic Reunion! At the same mana cost and speed as Tormenting Voice, there would be many that would call this "strictly better", but there is actually a huge drawback here that many people miss right up until it jumps up and bites them: You need two cards in hand to cast Cathartic Reunion, not one. Doing the singular math once more, that's twice as many required cards. As such, I'm actually more of a fan of Tormenting Voice, although I will admit that generally, if you're playing one, you're playing both.
2. Thrill of Possibility
(182,895 Inclusions, 11% of 1,591,347 Decks)
Before you play any of them, however, you play Thrill of Possibility. Or at least, that was the case, up until the recent spoiling of Demand Answers! A safer "strictly better" claim, Demand Answers has the exact same results as Thrill of Possibility, only with an option to sacrifice an artifact instead of discarding a card. That might not make much of a difference in the average deck, or even our Inti brew, but I can tell you that it's going to be much sought after in artifact decks. Plus, it's better anyhow. Why would you not make the switch?
1. Faithless Looting
(282,915 Inclusions, 18% of 1,591,347 Decks)
I can pretty much guarantee, however, that we're not going to be seeing a strictly better version of Faithless Looting anytime soon. One mana to loot, not rummage, two cards, is just a heck of a rate, and then they tacked on a Flashback for three just because. What was anyone thinking when this was in design?
Honorable Mentions
Before we delve into yet another wannabe cEDH brew, there are a few more middle-of-the-road cards I'd like to go over that didn't quite make our list for one reason or another.
If there was a card I was expecting to show up on this list over about half of the options, it would have been Seize the Spoils. The extra mana over the typical Tormenting Voices is meaningful, but the Treasure on the backend makes up for a lot of it. Now, add in some Treasure synergies or cost reduction, and we have a card that should probably be seeing more play than say, Wild Guess.
As for the other two, both Collector's Vault and Mishra, Excavation Prodigy are fairly new, and haven't had a whole lot of time for their numbers to filter down and around decklists. With that said, both of these cards are absolute fire in artifact or discard decks, providing loots and rummages galore while also making mana. If you're brewing up anything in that arena, make sure you're giving these cards a look.
Finally, let's take a look at some cEDH cards you're going to want to be highlighting in higher-powered brews of Inti, Seneschal of the Sun.
We focused mostly on instants and sorceries today, but it cannot be overstated just how good the likes of Mox Diamond and Lion's Eye Diamond are (even more than usual) with Inti. Laying down Inti and immediately following her up with a zero-mana rock that loots? It's insane. As for LED, any high-powered Storm brew worth its weight is going to be playing Underworld Breach, and I'm sure you're well aware of how the interaction of LED and Breach goes. In Inti, though? You'll often be playing down Lion's Eye Diamond and immediately using it to get yet another trigger and to play a card from exile. It almost feels like Black Lotus with an Inti in play, and that's only a bit of hyperbole.
Lastly, many out there probably are aware of the three-card combos with Underworld Breach, but did you know there was a two-card combo with, of all things, a Planechase card? Ignore the bottom text of Path of the Pyromancer, and with at least five cards in hand, you can get near-infinite mana and near-infinite card draw with a Breach in play.
As for how a mono-red Storm deck would win if your Breach happened to get exiled or discarded? Well, let's take a look at the decklist to find out.
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For those confused on some of the non-Breach win-cons, let me and Commander Spellbook enlighten you:
- Cloudstone Curio and Dockside Extortionist: This one doesn't actually win the game, but it does give you both infinite Treasures and infinite Stormcount, provided you have another creature in play besides Dockside. It's up to you from there to find the Grapeshot to end it all!
- Reiterate and Jeska's Will: This one is a bit clunky, but if you can manage to have nine mana available, you can play a Jeska's Will, hold priority, and cast a Reiterate with buyback. If there's an opponent with six cards in hand, then this results in infinite Storm count and impulse drawing your entire deck. If there's someone with seven or more, then you also get infinite mana.
- Mizzix's Mastery: I wouldn't call this a "win-con" by itself, but there's no question that resolving an overloaded [/el]Mizzix's Mastery[/el] with a decently full graveyard should put you in a state to win a game. Just be aware that you have to pay all the additional costs of these rummage spells before anything resolves, meaning you'll need to have at least a couple cards in hand or you'll have to live without all those sweet, sweet extra cards.
Other than that, the deck I think more or less speaks for itself, and kills consistently on turn four, even getting ahead of itself and pulling it off on turn three every once in a while. Give a goldfish a try, if you're interested!
Nuts and Bolts
There always seems to be a bit of interest in how these lists are made (this seems like a good time to stress once again that they are based on EDHREC score, NOT my personal opinion…), and people are often surprised that I’m not using any special data or .json from EDHREC, but rather just muddling my way through with some Scryfall knowledge! For your enjoyment/research, here is this week’s Scryfall search.
What Do You Think?
I'm usually in the camp of maligning the constant power creep, but actually found myself pleasantly surprised when it came to getting a better version of Thrill of Possibility. Perhaps that's because it's seemed for a while with the constant upgrades that Wizards has been trying to find the right effect for the price when it comes to a rummage spell, whereas in many other areas it more felt like we'd set prices and then those norms were being broken. What do you think?
And finally, what do you think of Inti? Do you think trying to fit her into cEDH was the right move, or is there a more fun build to be had at a lower power level? Do you like Demand Answers, like I do, or do you think it's yet more power creep that's ruining the game?
Let us know in the comments, and we'll see you at the table that magically rights itself every time someone flips it. Cool trick, that.
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DougY
Doug has been an avid Magic player since Fallen Empires, when his older brother traded him some epic blue Homarids for all of his Islands. As for Commander, he's been playing since 2010, when he started off by making a two-player oriented G/R Land Destruction deck. Nailed it. In his spare time when he's not playing Magic, writing about Magic or doing his day job, he runs a YouTube channel or two, keeps up a College Football Computer Poll, and is attempting to gif every scene of the Star Wars prequels.
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