Since its debut in Scourge 23 years ago, the Storm mechanic has become infamous for its broken applications, causing repeated bans throughout its life cycle. Yet, despite this, Wizards has continued designing unique cards featuring the keyword. Now, Commanders like Aeve, Progenitor Ooze let you abuse Storm in a unique but powerful way.
MTG Aeve, Progenitor Ooze
Like most Storm cards, Aeve, Progenitor Ooze gets better and better the more spells you can cast before it. Your reward is basically an army in a can that creates token copies of itself, each bigger than the last. Given that Aeve is a bit on the expensive side at five mana, though, it takes some work to cast a flurry of spells before it on the same turn.
Your first step to maximizing Aeve is to build up a mana advantage using cheap cards like Birds of Paradise or Rampant Growth. These then help get more robust engines like Circle of Dreams Druid and Karametra’s Acolyte into play ahead of schedule, giving you a burst of mana for your big turn. Badgermole Cub
Badgermole CubWhen this creature enters, earthbend 1. (Target land you control becomes a 0/0 creature with haste that's still a land. Put a +1/+1 counter on it. When it dies or is exiled, return it to the battlefield tapped.)
Whenever you tap a creature for mana, add an additional {G}. is particularly strong here, dialing up your extra mana production across all your dorks.
To cast a flurry of spells in one turn, draw engines like Beast Whisperer and Glimpse of Nature can pair incredibly well with Ornithopter and similar free creatures. Cost reducers like Emerald Medallion also make it much easier to pop off.
Once you have an army of Aeves, token doublers like Parallel Lives
Parallel LivesIf an effect would create one or more tokens under your control, it creates twice that many of those tokens instead. and +1/+1 counter effects like Hardened Scales can scale your army immeasurably. Besides amplifying Aeve’s Storm trigger, cards like Second Harvest, alongside Populate effects like Full Flowering, can keep putting Oozes in play. If these synergies aren’t enough, you can also add typal payoffs like Biowaste Blob and Biogenic Ooze to get more mileage out of your Ooze squad.
All the while, Garruk’s Uprising, Tribute to the World Tree, and similar card advantage engines help refuel your hand in a heartbeat. If you’re fortunate enough to find a Haste enabler like Concordant Crossroads off the extra draws, you should be able to end the game on the spot.
Infinite Tokens and Mana Combos
While Aeve is perfectly serviceable as a pure value engine, the legend shines as a combo payoff. Generating infinite tokens and mana isn’t hard, with Food Chain creating a two-card combo with the Ooze.
With Food Chain in play and at least one spell cast before Aeve, you’re free to cast your Commander, netting at least one token. From there, you’ll want to exile one token and the nontoken copy of Aeve via Food Chain, netting 12 green mana and putting Aeve back in the command zone. This lets you recast Aeve once more, netting more tokens in the process.
These extra tokens make it trivial to pay Aeve’s Commander tax alongside Food Chain, letting you cast Aeve infinitely. After generating infinite tokens, a Haste enabler lets you attack for lethal, guaranteed. Alternatively, you can cast a massive Walking Ballista with the excess mana to win the game.
The only downside with this Food Chain combo is that you can spend infinite mana only on creatures, but other combo lines can get around this. Pairing Aeve with Ashnod’s Altar and a color filterer, like Gemstone Array or Energy Refractor, will do the trick, for instance. While this does give Aeve a fair few ways to go infinite, they’re more or less all the same.
A Great Deal
Whether you go the combo route or focus on maximizing Aeve without infinites, the Ooze legend is an excellent Commander option. Considering Aeve’s massive upside as a build-around, it’s a bit surprising that it commands just 6,277 decks according to EDHREC.
Luckily, thanks to its limited level of demand, this creature’s price tag sits at a budget-friendly $0.36. This makes Aeve a risk-free purchase with the potential to dominate your Commander Nights. Consider giving it a shot; you may be surprised how powerful it truly is.
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