Cycle Storm

Cycle Storm cycles cheap creatures into its graveyard, turns that graveyard into black mana with Songs of the Damned, buys the creatures back with Reaping the Graves, and wins because Drannith Stinger deals damage to the opponent on every cycle. It is a niche choice at 0.8% of the field, but it has results behind it: StudentAnselmus won the Pauper RC Super Qualifier with it on June 27 and placed 5th in the Pauper Challenge on August 30, and several players have posted undefeated League runs with it since July.

The deck beats control decks that give it time to set up its big turn and apply too little pressure to punish the life it pays along the way. It is favored against Spy Combo, Jeskai Ephemerate, Golgari Gardens, White Aggro, and Familiars.

It struggles against aggressive decks that win the race while it spends life digging, and against decks that back a fast clock with counterspells for the two spells that have to resolve. It is unfavored against Blue Terror, Mono Red Madness, Mono Blue Faeries, Elves, Grixis Affinity, Mono Red Rally, Dimir Terror, Black Sacrifice, Naya Gates, Gruul Ramp, Ruby Storm, and Bogles.

Cycle Storm wins by cycling. Drannith Stinger deals damage to the opponent each time you cycle another card, and the rest of the deck exists to cycle as many cards as possible in a single turn. Getting a Stinger onto the battlefield before the cycling starts comes first, because every cycle without one only draws a card and stocks the graveyard, with no damage to show for it. Almost every game decision is about making one big turn larger: more creature cards in the graveyard, more mana from them, more cyclers returned to hand.

With Drannith Stinger and Drannith Healer in play, every cycled card deals 1 damage to the opponent, gains you 1 life, and usually leaves a creature card in your graveyard. Songs of the Damned then makes one black mana for each of those creature cards. Reaping the Graves, copied by storm for each spell you cast earlier in the turn, returns one cycled creature per copy so you can cycle them all again. Page, Loose Leaf taps for mana and digs for the next instant or sorcery by discarding a spare copy of itself. The chain is large but finite, because Reaping the Graves cannot return itself.

The early turns are setup. Cast Drannith Stinger off Great Furnace or a Lotus Petal, add Drannith Healer when a Petal can pay the white, and cycle a card or two each turn to chip in damage and stock the graveyard. The payoff turn chains Lotus Petal, Dark Ritual and Cabal Ritual into Songs of the Damned, spends that mana on Reaping the Graves, and cycles everything a second time. The game closes when the Stinger triggers deal the last points of damage, without any attack.

When the Stingers die or the damage comes up short, the same mana casts the big cyclers instead. grows with every cycle or discard that turn, and and are large enough to survive most cheap damage-based removal. These creatures win through combat. returns whatever the opponent killed, Stingers included, and keeps drawing toward the next attempt.

Drannith Stinger

The Stinger is the kill: every other card you cycle deals 1 damage to the opponent, and two Stingers double it. It needs red mana, which only Great Furnace and Lotus Petal provide, so those sources are reserved for it. Its triggers come from cycling, which is an activated ability, so a counterspell cannot stop the damage once the Stinger has resolved. A third or fourth copy in hand cycles for one mana and feeds the ones in play.

Drannith Healer

The Healer gains 1 life for every other card you cycle, which pays back the life spent on Street Wraith and Rowan's Grim Search and buys turns in a race. The deck has no white land, so casting it takes a Lotus Petal. Without a Petal, treat it as a one-mana cycler that adds a creature card to the graveyard. It is the weakest card in the deck when the opponent is not attacking your life total.

Street Wraith

Printed as a five-mana 3/4, the Wraith is almost always cycled for 2 life and no mana. That makes it the best creature to return with Reaping the Graves: it triggers the Stinger again while all your mana goes to the next spell. With a Drannith Healer in play each cycle costs a net 1 life. Its cost is all black, so mana from Songs of the Damned can cast it as a fallback attacker.

Imposing Vantasaur

Cycle Storm is a linear combo deck whose main deck carries no interaction at all. It cannot take the control role in game one against anyone, because it has nothing to answer a threat with. In every matchup class it is the side trying to end the game, and what changes is how much time it has and what the opponent can do to the graveyard, the Stinger and the two key spells.

Vs. Aggro. Both decks are the beatdown and the game is a race. Your combo turn usually comes on turn three or four, and you pay life to get there, so the opponent starts ahead. The play that defines this class is casting Drannith Healer with a Lotus Petal before you start cycling Street Wraith, so each cycle gives back part of what it costs. Go for the big turn as soon as it can plausibly win; waiting a turn for a bigger chain usually costs more life than it gains in damage.

Vs. Midrange. You are the beatdown, and the fight is over Drannith Stinger and your mana. Expect cheap removal to be held for the combo turn, and expect artifact and creature removal to be aimed at your lands and Page, Loose Leaf. The defining play is leaving a Great Furnace untapped through the chain so a Stinger returned by Reaping the Graves can be recast right away. When the removal keeps coming, casting Horror of the Broken Lands gives the opponent a second threat that needs a different answer.

Vs. Control. You are the beatdown, with medium inevitability: Reaping the Graves lets you rebuild and try again, but each countered Songs of the Damned is a turn's mana gone. The defining play is landing a Stinger early and cycling one or two cards every turn. Cycling is an activated ability, so the damage comes through counterspells, and the chip damage forces the opponent to tap mana on their own turn, which opens a window for the big turn.

Vs. Combo. You are the beatdown again, because you cannot disrupt the opponent in game one and a long game only helps whichever deck assembles first. The defining play is taking the first turn that can kill, even with a small and a short storm count. Skip the Healer unless it costs you nothing, and spend your Petals on speed.

1. Cycle every creature you can, and discard a spare Page, Loose Leaf to grandeur, before you cast Songs of the Damned or Cabal Ritual. Both spells read the graveyard as they resolve. Songs makes one more mana for each creature card already there, and Cabal Ritual goes from three mana to five at seven cards. A creature cycled after Songs resolves adds nothing to it, so spend your lands and Dark Ritual mana on cycling costs first and cast the graveyard-counting spells last.
2. Cast Lotus Petal, the rituals and Rowan's Grim Search before Reaping the Graves, and do your cycling in between. Storm counts only spells cast earlier in the turn, so cycling adds nothing to it, and a Petal you do not need for mana is worth holding until this turn. On turn four with two Drannith Stingers, three lands and a Street Wraith already in the graveyard, cycle three creatures with two lands and the Petal. Then Dark Ritual off the last land pays for Songs of the Damned, which adds four mana. Reaping the Graves has three spells ahead of it and returns all four creatures, the remaining mana cycles them again, and the seven cycles deal 14 damage through the two Stingers.
3. Keep a Great Furnace or a Lotus Petal available for every Drannith Stinger you intend to recast. Songs of the Damned and the rituals make only black mana. If your red sources were spent on cycling costs early in the chain, a Stinger returned by Reaping the Graves stays in your hand and every later cycle deals one less damage. Pay generic costs with black and colorless mana and leave the red for last.