Taylor Swiftspear found herself a boyfriend who may actually stick around for once - Stormchaser Mage! Songs about Stormchaser won't be emotional country-pop ballads, but anthems of victory!
Because prowess is a relatively new ability and isn't quite so prolific as one could want, we have Delver of Secrets
bolstering the creature roster. Blistercoil Weird was a considerable candidate, but Delver's consistent 3 power in the air is preferable to the potential of a wombo spell chain with Blistercoil.
The Primer
Why Temur?
Short answer: Because. Long answer: Because Temur is awesome. Longest answer: I'm more than slightly partial to the Khans wedges, and very quickly fell in love with Atarka's Command. I collected a foil playset and then tried to make a terrible Gruul deck way back when. Once Stormchaser was leaked, I immediately went to work on a deck based on it... and figured I'd put those Commands to good use while I did.
Critters
Monastery Swiftspear: The quintessential Prowess beater, a staple in the color, format, entire game at this point. Wizards doesn't often push a creature's power as hard as Swiftspear's.
Stormchaser Mage: A flying Swiftspear with 1 more toughness for 1 more mana. While costing double certainly lowers his damage output, he soars over Spellskite, Siege Rhino, Tasigur, the Golden Fang, and Thought-Knot Seer. Being able to block Inkmoths is handy too, because if any deck goes faster than prowess, it's infect.
Delver of Secrets
: A must-have for blue aggro. 3 in the air on turn 2 is immense. Assuming a turn 2 flip and no removal or blocks in either instance, Delver cranks out damage better than Goblin Guide. While he has a frustrating tendency to deny his insectile destiny, Serum Visions and Noxious Revival help us align the stars for him, so to speak.
Snapcaster Mage: Because this deck tends to go past turn 3, being able to recur a Command for the kill or a Remand in times of need is a great trick to have up one's sleeve. Sticking around to block or throw beats afterwards is more than welcome, too.
Spells
Atarka's Command: Command pushes the damage output of a single Swiftspear or Stormchaser from 1 to 6, and gets impressively more powerful the wider my board has gone. In certain situations it can be held up to deny lifegain too, but I think the +1/+1 mode is what makes it better than Skullcrack.
Become Immense: The singleton bomb. While a turn 2 cast is entirely possible, sitting on more than one of these would suck, and it also sucks to have it Remanded. This may not be Infect, but if I resolve this and my opponent survives, something weird happened.
Gitaxian Probe: 2 life is a small price to pay for a prowess trigger, some recon, and a new card. Probe lets me know how far I can extend, if I need to hold up a block, or just digs me down to the good stuff.
Lightning Bolt: Bolt may have fallen from grace as the format's premier removal spell, but plenty of things still die to Bolt... including players!
Manamorphose: A versatile card. Do I need to turn a
Copperline Gorge
and Island into an Atarka's Command? Manamorphose can do that. What about a Forest and a Stomping Ground into Remand? Sure! What if I need prowess triggers and really hope I get something good off the top? That's how it usually goes. Dropped 1 of these for a Noxious Revival.
Might of Old Krosa
: Unlike Swiftspear, Stormchaser and Delver can have their pumps applied pre-combat and usually see the same result. Might takes the cake over Groundswell for being able to pump for 4 no matter when I draw it.
Noxious Revival: Not drawing gas? Delver won't flip? Let's save the planet and recycle! While it doesn't cantrip like Probe, it does fix my next draw and doesn't have to cost mana. In sticky situations I can use this, target a counterspell, then use Manamorphose to draw and cast it.
Remand: Less a counterspell, more a poor man's Time Walk. Remand is the favored mainboard countermagic for hitting any counterable spell, and drawing a card. Against decks that like to blow my stuff up in response to pump spells, I'll replace these with Dispel.
Serum Visions: Trigger prowess, keep my hand from deflating, make sure Delver flips or I don't draw two lands. I keep this at 2 because it doesn't directly increase my damage output beyond prowess triggers, but it's great to have in an opening hand.
Vapor Snag: Perhaps the greatest flavor of Unsummon, Snag still provides damage if I have to cast it on my opponent's turn. Clearing out flying blockers or creatures with oppressive effects is always nice, and against other decks swinging with one big bad beater, it can turn an opponent's alpha strike into a slew of wasted resources.
Land
Unfortunately there are no enemy-colored Mirran lands, otherwise I'd be all over 'em. I tend to fetch and shock for Steam Vents turn 1 for Delver, and then drop in a
Copperline Gorge
and the world's my oyster. 18 is a good count for the deck that prevents flooding while not being terribly inconsistent. Ghost Quarter or any other land destruction strategy would probably tear this deck a new butthole.
Sideboard
Destructive Revelry: Great against Affinity, Blood Moon, Spellskite, and the increasingly-popular Dragon's Claw. Like Vapor Snag, sneaking in damage makes it a less terrible play off turn.
Dispel: Answers almost every problem this deck could face: removal and other countermagic. One blue, hard counter. Pretty busted. I can expect to see thrown on the before-combat-damage stack on my own turn pretty often.
Hurkyl's Recall: The big blue middle finger to Affinity, and is nice for slowing down Tron a bit too, making them recast their maps and rocks.
Twisted Image: Kills Spellskite, draws a card. The best part is how I can cast this on an unblocked Swiftspear or Stormchaser to get more damage through and possibly pop up another pump.
Vapor Snag: Against aggro, I'll board out Remand for this and Spell Snare. Snag is great, but against decks without many creatures there's not much value in drawing a bunch of them.
Vexing Shusher: If Swiftspear would just be plinking against Spellskite or Wall of Omens, I'll board these guys in to make sure my pumps resolve on my flying dudes.
Spell Snare: Counters Spellskite, Dragon's Claw, Terminate, Arcbound Ravager, Eidolon of the Great Revel... all kinds of stuff!
Maybeboard
Electrolyze: 2 for 1 is always good, and drawing cards is good. My dissuasion here is the hefty 3 CMC, but it could be more than worth it against decks cranking out Noble Hierarchs and Lingering Souls.
Gut Shot: Same general ideas as Electrolyze, but has the advantage of a Phyrexian mana cost. Free, instant prowess triggers are great, and so is killing dorks.
Vines of Vastwood: An effective counterspell in response to targeted removal that can also pump as much as Might. This isn't infect, though, and I wanted to focus much more on chaining prowess triggers than dumping pumps on one guy.
Simic Charm: Draws comparison to Vines of Vastwood, but has its own merits.
Closing
I've taken this deck to one FNM so far, and it did pretty well. I can blame my losses on terrible misplays and a general lack of focus. Now that I'm learning the deck better I expect to start getting more 3-1s and 4-0s and eventually take it to more competitive environments, but of course I know it can be improved so feel free to offer any suggestions.
