Possibility Storm was the card that got me into playing more competitively. It's what drove me to play Standard in RTR/THS and after its rotation drove me into Modern. Although I have other decks, this is my pet deck which I've been tuning since then - and I think it's in a good place!
Let's begin with some FAQs
"How do you win?" For some people, it's not immediately obvious how this deck wins consistently. Put simply, our plan is to cast Possibility Storm, then cast Endless One for 0 mana. Because Endless One is a creature, we exile cards from the top of our library until we find another creature, and then we get to choose to cast it. Conveniently, Emrakul, the Aeons Torn is the only other creature in our deck, so we cast him, take our extra turn, attack and then (usually) win. Sometimes, it's less simple - we cant find Endless One. But we can still draw Tolaria West and Transmute into it, even through Possibility Storm.
"Why aren't you playing Snapcaster Mage?" This question is asked surprisingly often. Snapcaster Mage is an incredibly powerful card, especially in a deck full of cheap instants and sorceries. Unfortunately, we can't play him because of the chance we hit him when we're trying to get Emrakul. A 2/1 is not as good as an Annihilitor 6 15/15 which lets you take another turn and often when we cast Possibility Storm we have to win that turn.
"Where are your Scalding Tarns?" Unfortunately I keep spending my money on cards for different decks instead of optimizing my manabase for Possibility Storm, so I've not been able to obtain Scalding Tarns yet. Although sub-standard, the fetches I have been using work fine (although it's possible I should increase my number of blue fetches because of the sideboard Blood Moons).
"Why play this and not Twin?" Honestly, if you want to win a big Modern event, Possibility Storm is probably not your best choice. You'd likely do better with any Twin variant. However, I will note that with Possibility Storm you'll find a more controlling deck with more interaction which blanks many removal spells and a combo that's harder to interact with, although slower. As a result, I have found that the deck matches up well against Twin variants and other turn 3/4 combo decks as well as decks like Grixis control.
The Deck
Combo package:
This is how we will be winning most games. Very few decks can deal with a resolved Emrakul - and it's important to note that Possibility Storm casts the card you get, so we take our extra turn and attack before our opponent can even try.
We have only one Endless One so we're guaranteed to hit Emrakul when we cast it.
We have three Possibility Storms because against many decks we only want to cast it when we're ahead. Having four makes us very likely to draw it when we'd rather have removal or other interaction.
There are two Emrakul so that we can still go off if we draw one with no way to pitch it and shuffle it in. I used to run one, and this came up a lot. I haven't yet had both in my hand and needed to combo!
Tutor:
Tolaria West deserves its own special mention. It acts as copies numbers 2-5 of our Endless One as well as being a land drop. It can also get a number of utility cards.
Utility Package:
All of these cards are incredible targets for Tolaria West's transmute. Ruins and Explosives can lock some deck out of playing the game. Desolate Lighthouse lets us keep up with GBx decks' hand disruption and helps us out against other blue decks. Pact turns our Tolaria Wests into a counterspell if we need to push through Possibility Storm. Tolaria West is amazing!
Additional Threat:
Batterskull is a great card in Modern. Sadly, the printing of Kolaghan's Command means its fallen by the wayside now that so many decks have access to mainboard aritfact hate. However, it can still win games on its own! Resolve this against Zoo, Affinity or Burn and you're likely to ride it to victory. What's more, we can get it under Possibility Storm by casting Engineered Explosives for 0 in a pinch.
Removal:
I play 10 pieces of removal to help us stay alive until we get to Possibility Storm. Lightning Bolt is incredibly efficient. Electrolyze replaces itself. Izzet Charm is very flexible - it also acts as a counterspell and as a way to pitch Emrakul if she ends up in our hand. Because of that, and it's flexibility, it gets the spot!
Counterspells:
What we can't remove, we counter. Also included here can be Pact of Negation and Izzet Charm. Cryptic is another very flexible card, I don't think that really needs to be said. However, in this deck it can be used to Transmute a Tolaria West that was played earlier in drawn out games, allowing for the win with Possibility Storm and Endless One.
Card draw and filtering:
Many of our other cards also have "draw a card" tacked onto them too, so we can get through our deck fairly quickly. Serum visions is simply the best cantrip we have in Modern. Because it's our only maindeck sorcery, it's very useful under Possibility Storm as we can cast it, guarantee a scry and set up our next Possibility Storm trigger, or simply dig for Tolaria West / Endless One. Think Twice is a recent inclusion - it helps us recover from the card disadvantage we generate from casting Izzet Charm, and is also a free discard if our hand is very good! On top of that, it allows us to hold up mana for Remand and not worry that we're just not going to do anything for a turn. Really great card!
The Manabase:
I won't list all the remaining lands here, but I want to talk about a couple of them.The Breeding Pool Allows us to Engineered Explosives on 3. This is important as it allows us to kill Liliana of the Veil and Etched Champion, among other things. It could reasonably be any other blue shockland - I've been considering Watery Grave for Slaughter Pact. Alternatively, you can add Ancient Grudge to the sideboard - it really helps against Merfolk, as killing their vial is a big deal, as well as Affinity.We're also playing a lot of basic Islands to be sure we can still cast Cryptic and Transmute Tolaria West under a Blood Moon.
The Sideboard:
The sideboard is variable, and is based on my local meta. I think the Chalice of the Void is worth mentioning, though. It's very good on 1 against 8-rack, Lantern Control and Combo Elves, and I like bringing it in to cast on 0 for Affinity and Amulet Bloom. You can also Transmute for it with Tolaria West, so 1 Chalice in the sideboard is almost free.
Matchups
Coming Soon?
