Gnostro, Voice of the Crags

[(o ×) 228]

So this is a very interesting boy. He received a lot of criticism upon reveal and release, as he supports a storm strategy without giving your storm count a payload you can win with. But honestly, I think that's fine, as far as design goes. Scrying is likely the best option in context, as it helps you dig through your deck as you storm off, trying to find something like Jeska's Will, Turnabout, or even a win condition like Aetherflux Reservoir or Empty the Warrens. Additionally, there is another synergy that I've come upon that I find particularly exciting:

With this, every single cantrip or ramp spell you play will untap Gnostro. His scry becomes incredibly potent in keeping the storm train going, his burn can clear most boards with ease, and his life gain matches Aetherflux Reservoir, which I find to be an incredible accomplishment. All the while, he gets bigger and bigger, and you loot your way to the cards he is scrying up for you. Even six years later, jeskai ascendancy finds itself at the center of exciting combos.

Another potential direction this deck can go is utilizing the popular Dramatic Scepter combo.

  

For those unfamiliar, imprinting Dramatic Reversal onto the Scepter creates a feedback loop, and if you have at least two sources of nonland mana (common in EDH) you can tap and untap forever. A third source will then provide you with infinite mana.

Looking through the different commander options in Jeskai, I believe that Gnostro has the most direct synergy with the combo. Not only do you get infinite life and infinite removal, the infinite scry helps you find your win condition. Brain Freeze into Thassa's Oracle, anyone? By making use of cards like Enlightened Tutor, Mystical Tutor, Gamble, Muddle the Mixture, Spellshaper, Tribute Mage, et cetera, you can find quite a lot of consistency in this combo without compromising a powerful interaction suite in some of the best colors to use it.

Even though a lot of people, myself included, heard price is right trombones upon reading Gnostro, upon further inspection I believe him to have quite a lot of potential. Are there any other synergies people see with the first legendary chimera? How viable do you think such a deck would be? Discuss Gnostro, and the wider topic of storm strategies in EDH.

[radio414 907]

I assumed Swans of Bryn Argoll would be an easy include given that it turns Gnostro's ability into cards cheaper than that sphinx Eligeth does but apparently the former doesn't show up at all on edhrec. Boros Reckoner, Stuffy Doll, and Brash Taunter also show up but Spitemare is omitted.

I only play mono-green storm anyway, so what do I know.

[(o ×) 228]

8 hours ago, radio414 said:

I assumed Swans of Bryn Argoll would be an easy include given that it turns Gnostro's ability into cards cheaper than that sphinx Eligeth does but apparently the former doesn't show up at all on edhrec. Boros Reckoner, Stuffy Doll, and Brash Taunter also show up but Spitemare is omitted.

I only play mono-green storm anyway, so what do I know.

Oh, I really like this. Swans is powerful as hell here. I don't think the spitemare effects can go very far in this deck, considering all of them under 5 mana will often die to Gnostro, and stuffy doll has to chose a player on ETB.