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Neriv, Heart of the Storm is a Mardu (red/white/black) Spirit Dragon fromMagic: The Gathering’sTarkir: Dragonstorm set. In the story, Neriv helps the Mardu to liberate themselves from the Dragonlord Kolaghan and regain their independence and old way of life.
In the game, Neriv, Heart of the Storm offers a unique playstyle that rewards you for dealing damage with creatures that enter the battlefield that turn. There are multiple ways to achieve this, including mobilize (also introduced in Tarkir: Dragonstorm), myriad, and directly giving your creatures haste. If you like aggressive creature-based decks, look no further than Neriv, Heart of the Storm for your commander.
Avenger of the Fallen
Terror of the Peaks
Will of the Mardu
x5 Mountain
x4 Plains
x3 Swamp
Tainted Peak
Vault of the Archangel
The decklistcontains 32 creatures, four sorceries, seven instants, 12 artifacts, ten enchantments,and34 lands. Most of the creatures have an effect that creates more creatures for the turn, with other permanents dealing burn damage when creatures enter.
Key Cards
Neriv, Heart Of The Storm
The commander of the deck, Neriv, Heart of the Storm is what everything is built around. Itcauses your creatures to deal double the damage if they entered the battlefield that turn. This isbest achieved with cards that have myriad, mobilize, or abilities that create attacking creature tokens, which most of the creatures in the deck have one of these abilities.
If other permanents are on the battlefield that can double/triple the damage dealt by your creatures, these effects all stack, and you can determine the order they do.
Neriv wantspermanents that grant haste on the battlefield, as in most cases,the tokens generated from other permanentsonly have one power. Haste granters allow you to deal much more damage with your more powerful creatures, including Neriv itself.
Enduring Courage
Enduring Courage isone of the main ways to grant your creatures haste. What makes this better than similar cards is that italso provides them with a +2/+0 stat boost. While this boost to power isn’t huge, when stacked on with Neriv’s effect, you can deal devastating amounts of damage in one turn.
A strength of Enduring Courage is thatit will stay on the battlefield when it dies. Rather than going to the graveyard, itreturns as an enchantment, which are much harder to remove than creatures. Enduring Courage lasts for longer than other, similar permanents while providing a ton of value for what the deck wants to be doing.
Legion Loyalty
Legion Loyalty is a simple card thatgives all your creatures myriad. This will make it so every time you attack with one of your creatures, three other copies will be made attacking your other opponents. WithNeriv on the battlefield, these copies will also deal double damage.
Legion Loyalty doesrequire a large eight mana investment, but the payoff is worth it as it combined with Neriv can be enough to win the game the turn you attack. Whilelegendary creatures will have myriad, the legendary rule still applies, meaning you may only control one and be forced to sacrifice all but one. Theywill still trigger any enter the battlefield effects, however.
Orthion, Hero of Lavabrink
Orthion, Hero of Lavabrink is an easy way tocreate copies of any creature you control with haste. While you can target legendary creatures, you want to focus on your nonlegndary creatures instead.Make sure to choose to copy your creatures with high statsso that Neriv can make them massive threats that need to be answered.
There is a combo withOrthion, Hero of Lavabrink and Terror of the Peaks. This combo isn’t infinite, but it deals a ton of damage that’s enough to take everyone out of the game, assuming no one gained life past their starting life total. Here is how the combo works.
Prerequisites: Orthion, Hero of Lavabrink (and can tap itself) and Terror of the Peaks are on the battlefield. Three red and six generic mana available.
Step 1: Activate Orthion’s second effect, paying nine mana to tap itself to create five token copies of Terror of the Peaks.
Step 2: Five tokens of Terror of the Peaks enter. They all see each other enter, along with the original.
Step 3: The original Terror of the Peaks triggers five times, each token copy triggers four times. This gives you 25 instances of being able to deal five damage to any target (for a total of 125 damage).
Results: Capable of dealing 125 damage to up to 25 different targets. If Neriv is on the battlefield, the token copies will deal double the damage.
How To Play The Neriv, Heart Of The Storm Commander Deck
A Neriv, Heart of the Storm Commander deckis a very aggressive deck, wanting to constantly be putting the pressure on your opponents by dealing large amounts of damage. There is no shortage of ways to deal damage with creatures that entered that turn, with thebest being creatures that make tokens that stick aroundlike Otharri, Suns' Glory and Anim Pakal, Thousandth Moon.
Most of the tokens created from your creatures have low stats. Fiery Emancipation, City on Fire, and Neriv itself can help to make these deal more damage as their effects to double the damage dealt stack. Make sure to get these on the battlefield as quickly as possible.
Your creatures often have mobilizeand myriad, meaning those tokens are sacrificed at the end step and end of combat, respectively.Zurgo, Thunder’s Decreecan stop the mobilize tokens from being sacrificed, whileThe Master, Multipliedprevents any triggered abilities from sacrificing your creature tokens.The Master also lets your legendary tokens stick aroundas it makes it so the legend rule doesn’t apply to your tokens.
Theprimary win condition of the deck is winning through combat. With all the creatures you can generate quickly that deal double the damage, you can bring life totals down fast. You canalso win through burn damagewith cards that deal damage when creatures enter the battlefield. These both complement each other and make it easier to bring life totals to zero.
Thebiggest weakness of the deck is its heavy reliance on creatures. It needs creatures on the battlefield to always be attacking, soaboard wipe can be backbreakingand very difficult to recover from. The deck is aggressive enough that you might be able to win before your opponents can play one, but that is not always the case. Thelack of ramp available in Mardu also hurts it, as there aren’t many great ways to ensure you can play your high-mana spells early.
