The 21 Best Storm Commanders in Magic Ranked

Last updated on August 5, 2025

Urza, Lord High Artificer | Illustration by Grzegorz Rutkowski

Magic’s history is filled with controversial mechanics, ideas that maybe seemed good on paper or in controlled test environments. But the second they meet with some players’ penchant for trying to break anything and everything they can in this game, it turns out that these mechanics can become insanely broken.

It’s safe to say that a large majority of MTG players know about the storm mechanic and the Storm Scale. A mechanic that proved so incredibly broken back in its day that it spawned a scale of how unlikely we are to see specific mechanics again in a Standard Magic set. And storm sits right at the top of that list (or maybe it lost that place to companion?).

Storm absolutely broke formats like Standard, and found its place as a staple in Modern. Its luck in the Commander format has been somewhat different, though. Storm can somewhat struggle when facing off against several opponents at the same time. There are tons of ways to work around this and make it a more than viable strategy, but it still isn’t as game-breaking as it was in other formats.

Let’s go ahead and take a look at some of Magic's best commanders for a storm deck.

What Are Storm Commanders in MTG?

Orvar, the All-Form | Illustration by Chase Stone

For this list, we’re looking at commanders that play into storm strategies in one of two ways: either they enable it by allowing you to cast additional spells, copying spells, or by helping you take your storm count up. Or, they benefit from a high storm count, making them ideal for that one explosive turn where you cast everything you’ve got.

Keep in mind that a typical “storm” deck in EDH actually runs little to no cards with the storm ability. This term is used to refer to decks that cast an absurd amount of spells, probably going infinite at some point, while also either copying those spells, using buyback, or generating tons and tons of mana in the process.

My criteria for the following list includes how useful the commander may be in any individual case, how directly convenient it is for storm strategies, or how fun it can be to play. You may see some entries on this list that aren’t as straight-forward-powerful in a higher position than others, solely because they’re way more fun to play with (or even against). Sorry, cEDH players, I’m a big fan of casual and like when my silly game I play for fun is, well, fun!

#21. Loot, the Pathfinder

Loot, the Pathfinder might not look like an exceptional storm card with its once per game restrictions, but any Loot deck worth its sleeves circumvents the exhaust restrictions, typically by flickering it.

If you take the time to build an engine around Loot, which probably involves cards like Displacer Kitten, you have a commander that spits out copies of Dark Ritual and Ancestral Recall. Though more finicky than some of the other storm commanders, there’s something deeply satisfying about tapping and untapping Loot to draw half your deck.

#20. Aeve, Progenitor Ooze

It’s harder to make Aeve, Progenitor Ooze work as a storm commander than other options due to its mono-green color identity, but what’s EDH if not the format to make jank shine?

Green hardly has issues with mana generation, at least; there’s plenty of land ramp, and you can do some nasty stuff if you untap cards like Circle of Dreams Druid, Karametra's Acolyte, and Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx. As for card advantage, look no further than Glimpse of Nature and Beast Whisperer and other cards that make super cheap creatures cantrip. Is it the best or most competitive storm deck? No. But there’s something distinctly EDH about making a pile of jank spit out a bunch of oozes.

#19. Eruth, Tormented Prophet

I like when cards of a certain color combo feel very akin to a different color identity. Yes, Eruth, Tormented Prophet is definitely a very Izzet commander, but its accelerated and reckless play style also feels like a Rakdos commander. And if there’s one thing I like, it’s the weird, chaotic places where Rakdos () and Izzet () meet.

This human wizard can use reckless draw cards like Faithless Looting, Goblin Lore, or Careful Study to fill up your hand (well, technically your exile, but until the end of the turn it works as your hand) by doubling up all of their effects while avoiding the discard part.

A deck built around Eruth, Tormented Prophet can run a quasi-infinite combo with Birgi, God of Storytelling, Underworld Breach, and Burning Inquiry. Ironically, for this combo to work, your commander can’t be on the battlefield unless you have some other way to place at least three other cards into your graveyard for each time you recast Burning Inquiry. It’s not perfect, but it can definitely make for a very fun play.

#18. Orvar, the All-Form

There are tons of ways to exploit Orvar, the All-Form’s first ability. Being able to target your own permanents with harmless or inane spells to start creating copies of them is just such an absurdly fun strategy. This is obviously great at first glance, but it also has some additional potential.

This blue commander’s ability is just plain silly when you realize you can use it to ramp. You can technically start creating token copies of lands you control by targeting them with your spells. This’ll allow you to build up your mana base relatively quickly. And in addition to that, Orvar, the All-Form can go into some really fun infinite combos with Peregrine Drake.

#17. Mizzix of the Izmagnus

I mean, do I need to explain why having a card that reduces the costs of instants and sorceries is great for storm strategies? This Izzet goblin wizard may not be a perfect enabler for storm at first glance, but it definitely has no issue getting there.

Mizzix of the Izmagnus is particularly useful when paired with Seething Song and Reiterate, which, if you have enough experience counters, leads to infinite red mana and an infinite storm count. Infinite storm count means infinite Grapeshot which means winning.

#16. Niv-Mizzet, Visionary

Niv-Mizzet, Visionary is rather expensive, but it provides more than enough card advantage to fuel a storm gameplan. It just needs a little support from pingers like Firebrand Archer and Vivi Ornitier, which you already want to play as extra sources of damage.

Throw in a variety of infinite combos with cards like Niv-Mizzet, Parun, and you have the start to an excellent brew.

#15. Tameshi, Reality Architect

Tameshi, Reality Architect allows you to reanimate artifacts and recur enchantments from your graveyard to the battlefield with little to no noticeable drawbacks. This alone makes it a pretty interesting card to have in the command zone. But of course, what’s the point of an Azorius commander in a storm deck without the chance to have at least one infinite combo?

Tameshi, Reality Architect pairs up with Patron of the Moon and Lotus Bloom for an infinite mana, infinite storm count combo that additionally lets you bring back all artifacts and enchantments in your graveyard.

The fact that this combo is pulled off by the interaction between a lotus artifact (which are very prominent in East Asian and Japanese Buddhist art and symbology), a moonfolk from Kamigawa (a plane directly based on Japan), and the legendary creature that represents the patron spirit of all moonfolk? What a wonderful flavor win.

#14. Flubs, the Fool

Storm and Flubs, the Fool pair very well together because all of Flubs’ abilities facilitate big, explosive turns. Flubs offers excellent card draw and mana ramp to chain a series of spells, once you’re hellbent.

And don’t worry about discarding cards to reach the card advantage. Storm decks often use the graveyard as a resource, with cards like Underworld Breach and Past in Flames that love how efficiently this weird little frog fills that zone.

#13. Stella Lee, Wild Card

I find Stella Lee, Wild Card to be kind of interesting for storm decks because it serves as sort of an enabler at the beginning of the game. It lets you get some much needed rewards for playing many spells per turn. This rogue commander‘s first ability in particular can be pretty useful when building up your storm count by giving you access to some extra spells, while the second one grants some extra copies of your spells for extra profit.

#12. Storm, Force of Nature

Could there be a more perfect storm commander?

Storm, Force of Nature is notably flexible. It doesn’t have to be the finishing blow, where you copy your Lightning Bolt an untold number of times. You can set up game-winning turns with Growth Spiral, produce oodles of mana with Frantic Search, or draw the game out with more copies of Chaos Warp than your opponents can keep up with.

The flexibility and potential to work as a mana or card advantage engine make it a truly powerful storm commander, even more than if it had the keyword itself.

#11. Krark, the Thumbless + Sakashima of a Thousand Faces

Krark, the Thumbless and Sakashima of a Thousand Faces make up a very interesting pair for storm partners. First off, they give you access to Izzet colors. But what you should care most about is the absurd and funny possibilities that Krark, the Thumbless enables.

With this card’s ability, spells you cast either return to your hand without resolving, or get copied. If you’re aiming for a storm strategy, you may actually hope to lose the coin flip. The spells count as cast, adding to your storm count and any “whenever you cast a spell” effects, while also letting you return them to your hand so that you can keep casting them for as long as you have mana available.

Having Sakashima of a Thousand Faces enter as a copy of your other commander also makes it so that if your coin flips are good enough, you can have a copy of the spell resolve while you also have the original spell return to your hand when each of your commanders get different coin flip results. Obviously, this strategy needs tons of support for coin flips to give you some control over the randomness of this mechanic, but hey, what fun is life without some silly risks?

#10. Emry, Lurker of the Loch

To make this one relatively simple to explain, you just need to pair one of the best affinity commanders with Mirran Spy and Mishra's Bauble. Basically, you sacrifice the artifact, activate your merfolk commander to play it from your graveyard, trigger Mirran Spy to untap your commander, then rinse and repeat as many times as cards you have left in your deck.

But we’re not done! At the beginning of your next turn, you’ll draw your entire deck. In that deck, you should have cards like Brain Freeze and Flusterstorm. Start your combo again, essentially giving yourself an infinite storm count which’ll in turn allow Brain Freeze to take out all of your opponents. And don’t worry about any defensive measures your opponents take, since that’s what Flusterstorm‘s here for. That and other counters that should be in your massive pile of a hand.

#9. Urabrask / The Great Work

Storm wants you to cast a ton of spells in a single turn. Urabrask rewards you for casting spells by giving you extra mana. Red has tons of 1-mana cantrips. Should I keep going?

This red commander allows you to start digging through your deck without spending almost any mana, while also dealing out direct damage to your opponents. This’ll allow you to build up your storm count relatively quickly until you can use something like Grapeshot to take out your opponents. This strategy is arguably stronger during the late game, when most opponents already don’t have too much life left, making it easier to build a proper storm count.

#8. Emet-Selch, Unsundered / Hades, Sorcerer of Eld

Storm decks care far more about Hades, Sorcerer of Eld than Emet-Selch, Unsundered. It’s just Yawgmoth's Will on a stick, a card already famous for being one of the best storm enablers in the game. It facilitates massive turns where your graveyard becomes a supersized hand full of card draw and mana production. You can even use hyper-efficient Entomb effects as regular tutors with this thing!

#7. Vivi Ornitier

When we look back on Final Fantasy, we’ll remember Vivi Ornitier as an influential card on par with Orcish Bowmasters and The One Ring. And it’s a great storm commander.

You need mana and a means to convert the many spells you cast into a win condition, and Vivi does both. It even offers a potential source of card advantage once you suit it up with Curiosity or a similar effect. It offers an absurd amount of value for a mere 3-mana commander.

#6. Niv-Mizzet, Parun

Is anyone even surprised to have another of Niv-Mizzet’s iterations show up in a list related to spellslinging commanders and storm strategies? Niv-Mizzet, Parun enables access to plenty of great storm cards, while also being a very powerful engine piece by itself.

This legendary dragon technically doesn’t enable any storm count combos, but it has some of Izzet's absurdly strong infinite card draw combos that can in turn be used to build up your play to unleash a proper storm count during the mid to late game.

#5. Jhoira, Weatherlight Captain

As it turns out, a lot of artifact spells are usually very good for storm decks thanks to their low mana values. Now let’s add Jhoira, Weatherlight Captain, one of the best artifact commanders in the game, drawing you cards for each artifact you cast and thus giving you additional resources and spells to cast.

This human commander pairs excellently with combos that let you play Sensei's Divining Top from the top of your library. Mystic Forge and things like Helm of Awakening already give you access to almost infinite storm count and card draw, which paired with your commander gives you some faster and additional card draw. Mostly, this commander works as a cheap enabler for the rest of your strategy.

#4. Kykar, Wind’s Fury

I’ve mentioned that Izzet's essentially the best color pair for storm decks, right? Well, Jeskai () can be even better. In this case, Kykar, Wind's Fury brings a very similar advantage as Urabrask, but with a greater variety of spells you can access to build up your storm count, not to mention that instead of generating mana, you generate creature tokens that can either be used for mana or to build up a huge army.

This Jeskai commander also enables a great infinite combo, but we’ll talk about it later since it relies on the next entry.

#3. Elsha of the Infinite

I’m a simple guy. I like martial arts, I like Jeskai, I like spellcasting, and Elsha of the Infinite has all of that. But leaving personal biases aside, it’s also a very good card. Having access to the top of your library at any time is already a wonderful ability. This helps by giving access to additional spells to build up your storm count while also making those at the top of your library akin to cantrips: As soon as you cast them, you can cast the following one as long as it’s not a creature.

This Jeskai commander also enables some really silly infinite storm count and infinite card draw combos with Sensei's Divining Top and a variety of cards like Birgi, God of Storytelling, Helm of Awakening, or Kykar, Wind's Fury. This lets you generate an almost infinite storm count, and infinite card draw. It's also an excellent prowess card, so not too shabby in combat.

#2. Birgi, God of Storytelling / Harnfel, Horn of Bounty

I’ve already brought up Birgi, God of Storytelling as a piece for combos enabled by other creatures. This red creature is great in any deck that wants to keep playing cheap red spells, and so this means it’s basically great in its own deck.

As a red commander, it doesn’t just enable other combos, but has some great combos for itself. Birgi, God of Storytelling makes a wonderful pair with Grinning Ignus since they can make an infinite storm count loop with no drawbacks. If you throw a Helm of Awakening in there, you also get infinite mana. Not bad for a combo that you can feasibly play on turn 3.

#1. Urza, Lord High Artificer

Well, look at that. It’s the usual suspect when it comes to combo decks: Urza, Lord High Artificer. In this case, we’ll give it the benefit of the doubt since most of the storm combos in decks built around this card don’t really need it to work properly, but still.

This blue commander is a great card by itself, with tons of options for extremely good combos. In this case, one of the most basic combos you can have is Hullbreaker Horror, Sol Ring, and any 0- or 1-mana value artifact. In the case of a 1-MV artifact, you can go straight into building an infinite storm count with just those three cards. Make it a 0-MV artifact and you have infinite storm count and infinite colorless mana. Of course, if you have Urza, Lord High Artificer in play, you can add infinite blue mana to all that. Not a cheap combo to pull off by any stretch, but very classic Urza shenanigans.

Best Storm Commander Payoffs and Enablers

Well, let’s get the obvious out of the way. Grapeshot is one of red's best win conditions if you have infinite storm count, so it’s a must-have in storm decks. Same goes for Brain Freeze, which can become brutal real quick.

If you’re looking to build a storm deck, keep in mind that free and cheap spells are key. Ornithopter, Lotus Petal, Everflowing Chalice, Swords to Plowshares, etc., all work towards building your storm count quickly and as cheaply as possible. If you have cards that get you some additional mana for each spell you cast, like some of the aforementioned commanders, you can definitely go off very quickly.

Infinite loops are an excellent way to set up a storm deck as many loops generate infinite storm by happenstance. For example, Gravedigger + Phyrexian Altar? Infinite storm. Hullbreaker Horror and two 0-mana artifacts? Infinite storm. The most famous of these combos is probably Sensei's Divining Top with Mystic Forge and an artifact cost reducer. These are all reasonably competitive, and they’re a great way to power up your storm deck.

Value engines are also vital to keep the cards flowing. These are often permanents that generate tons of mana or card advantage. Think of Whirlwind of Thought, Smothering Tithe plus wheels, and rituals with copy effects. These are critical to generate the resources necessary to find a storm win condition.

Commanding Conclusion

Elsha of the Infinite | Illustration by G-host Lee

Storm is a weird one for me because I find it fun in its absurdity and the sheer power it has, but it also requires an ultra-competitive mentality that I usually struggle with. I like ultra-strong combo decks, but they’re not my favorite (and sometimes I don’t really understand them all that well).

But enough about what I think. What’s your favorite commander for storm decks? Did I miss any key ones? What’s your favorite competitive strategy in MTG?

Leave a comment letting us know! And while you’re here, make sure to pay our Discord server a visit. There you’ll find an amazing community of MTG fans to share your hobby with!

That’s all from me for now. Have a good one, and I’ll see you next time!