Since the format’s inception, Storm has been a reasonable deck in Modern. It’s had to have both Rite of Flame and Seething Song banned to stay reasonable, in addition to Ponder and Preordain. Despite all these bannings, we still see people casting Manamorphose and Pyromancer Ascension, sometimes in conjunction with cards like Increasing Vengeance in addition to Past in Flames to help make it easier to reach the requisite amount of spells to get your opponent dead. It’s been awhile since the deck was prominently represented in the Modern metagame, but Aether Revolt may have changed that:

Blue-Red Storm - Modern | GamesOnSummerSide, 5-0 Modern League

• Creatures (7)
• 3 Goblin Electromancer
• 4 Baral, Chief of Compliance

• Instants (22)
• 3 Remand
• 3 Thought Scour
• 4 Desperate Ritual
• 4 Gifts Ungiven
• 4 Manamorphose
• 4 Pyretic Ritual

• Sorceries (13)
• 1 Empty the Warrens
• 2 Grapeshot
• 2 Past in Flames
• 4 Serum Visions
• 4 Sleight of Hand

• Lands (18)
• 1 Mountain
• 2 Island
• 1 Hallowed Fountain
• 1 Shivan Reef
• 2 Steam Vents
• 3 Flooded Strand
• 4 Scalding Tarn
• 4 Spirebluff Canal

• Sideboard (12)
• 1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
• 1 Iona, Shield of Emeria
• 1 Shattering Spree
• 1 Unburial Rites
• 1 Wear // Tear
• 2 Blood Moon
• 2 Empty the Warrens
• 3 Lightning Bolt

Buy This Deck

Sure, Pyromancer Ascension is a reasonable backup engine. The problem is it’s a slow backup engine. It’s great in attrition-based matchups where you’re going to get hit by multiple disruption spells. It’s much less good when you’re in a racing situation. Enter Baral, Chief of Compliance. Baral is another Goblin Electromancer, giving you more resiliency against disruption and an increased ability to race opposing aggro decks.

Sure, you lose the extra power of Pyromancer Ascension, but you get to open up slots for Gifts Ungiven to help make your engine more consistent. In the maindeck, the purpose of Gifts is to let you find a suite of Rituals and Past in Flames, either at the end of your opponent’s turn or mid-combo, to make sure your graveyard is stocked with plenty of fuel. You also gain access to Unburial Rites packages out of the sideboard against decks particularly soft to the likes of Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite and Iona, Shield of Emeria.

Storm is a popular deck just missing a couple of tools to help it consistently keep up with the blistering pace of Contemporary Modern. Baral may well be exactly the piece missing to bring Storm back into contention for the top tier of Modern strategies.