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Alania, Divergent Storm is one of the many commanders introduced inMagic: The Gathering’sBloomburrow set. This Izzet (blue/red) commander is the go-to commander if you are planning to play an Otter-based deck, or just want a different flavor of spellslinger (or in some cases, both).
Alania, Divergent Storm is “classic Izzet,” wanting you to cast and copy a ton of different spells for various effects that offer either damage or value. With Alania’s ability to copy the first spells you’re casting, you can double up on a lot of powerful instant and sorcery effects, as well as your best Otter cards.
x12 Island
x10 Mountain
Stormcarved Coast
Sulfur Falls
The decklist consists of one planeswalker, 25 creatures, 11 sorceries, 17 instants, eight artifacts, four enchantments, and33 lands. The majority of the creature lineup consists of cards that benefit fromcasting noncreature spells, which about half of the deck is made up of.
Key Cards
Alania, Divergent Storm
The commander of the deck,Alania, Divergent Stormis what enables it. Copying your best instant, sorceries,and Otters is great. This applies to the first spell ofeach category. This means youcan copy the first instant spell, the first sorcery spell, and the first Otter spell you cast each turn, letting youcopy up to three spells.
If you copy a spell that requires an additional cost (such as discarding a card), youdo notneed to pay the extra cost again. Instead, you will just get the effect twice while only paying the cost once.
There is alayer of a group hug element to Alaniasince you have to have an opponent draw a card in order to copy the spell you cast. However, thecopying effect is optionalif you don’t need to actually copy something. However, if you don’t use the effect on the first spell you won’t be able to use it on any spell that turn.
Ashling, Flame Dancer
Ashling, Flame Danceris a great tool for making sure you always have excess mana to work with. Since Izzet can struggle to ramp on its own, Ashling provides a way to store red mana for however long it’s on the battlefield. Even as your turn endsyou do not lose red mana until Ashling leaves the battlefield or you spend it.
Since you are going to be casting and copying a ton of spells, triggering Ashling’s magecraft ability is very easy. It can help you todig through your library,burn your opponents and creatures, andgive you even more mana to work with. The four red mana Ashling generates on the third trigger of magecraft sticks around thanks to Ashling’s static effect if you don’t spend it.
Arcane Bombardment
You are going to be casting a ton of great spells, andArcane Bombardmentwill let you keep casting them without having to pay their mana cost. While the instant or sorcery that gets exiled from your graveyard is random, you can exile a lot with Arcane Bombardment quickly to begin copying a ton of spells each turn.
Arcane Bombardment triggers the first time you cast an instant or sorcery spell each turn, not just your own. That means with instant spells, you can trigger the effect on your opponent’s turn and copy all the spells already exiled with Arcane Bombardment.
The copies you make with Arcane Bombardment arestill cast,meaning you can copy them with Alania’s ability. You canchoose the order you cast the copied spells, making sure you’re copying the spells you want.
Twinning Staff
Twinning Staffcauses all the spells you’re copying to be copied again. With both Twinning Staff and Alania on the battlefield, you’ll be able to castthree separate instants of the spell. With the very impactful spells, this can be game-winning, and if not that, put you far ahead of the rest of your opponents.
If you have a lot of mana to work with,Twinning Staff can copy spells on its own. However, this cost is rather steep, and you’re playing it more for the passive ability to gain extra copies rather than copying with Twinning Staff itself, but it’s a nice effect to dump mana into if you have it.
How To Play The Deck
Alania, Divergent Stormis a spellslinger deck. This means you are going to be casting a ton of cheap spells to trigger various effects. With Alania, these can be copied to trigger even more effects and push you closer to your win condition.
There is aton of draw power in the deckso you always have a hand full of spells. Cards likeTreasure Cruise, Unexpected Windfall,andBig Scorecan net you a hefty amount of cards into your hand if they’re copied. This helps you to get to your key cards quicker, allowing you to start running away with the game.
One of your mainwin conditions is winning through combat.This is primarily done by amassing a large number of token creatures created by casting noncreature spells. These cards includeThird Path Iconoclast, Talrand, Sky Summoner, andYoung Pyromancer.
Alternatively,another path to victory is by burn damage. Cards likeGuttersnipe, Kindlespark Duo,andCoruscation Mageall burn for your noncreature spells. You can also raise your creatures' stats withBalmor, Battlemage Captain,andBria, Riptide Rogueto make your creatures threatening attacks to clean up your opponents' life totals after dealing a hefty amount of burn damage.
You can generate an infinite number of spells cast by imprintingDramatic ReversalontoIsochron Scepter, which can lead to infinite burn damage, infinite creatures, and infinite power and toughness on your creatures, all of which can win you the game depending on what permanents are on the battlefield.
Thebiggest weakness of the deck is that it is very fragile. If you do not have any spell copy enablers out, the deck does not do a whole lot to hold off attackers. You have to set up quickly and start drawing through your deck to get to your key pieces, and the benefit of how long it takes to set up is thatyour opponents likely won’t see you as a threat, allowing you to not be a prime target when it comes to being attacked.
