Kaladesh is a set that has a surprising amount to offer in Vintage. Last week we saw a few decks featuring vehicles and other exciting technology, but we didn’t see what, to me, looks like the most exciting card: Paradoxical Outcome. This is a card that has corner case applications in formats like Standard and Modern, but could be game-changing in Vintage. Let’s take a look at how players are storming out with Paradoxical Outcome:

Paradoxical Outcome Storm - Vintage | I_B_True, 4-0 Vintage Daily Event

• Spells (51)
• 4 Force of Will
• 4 Gitaxian Probe
• 4 Mox Opal
• 4 Paradoxical Outcome
• 3 Chrome Mox
• 2 Defense Grid
• 2 Grim Monolith
• 1 Ancestral Recall
• 1 Black Lotus
• 1 Brainstorm
• 1 Chain of Vapor
• 1 Demonic Tutor
• 1 Lion's Eye Diamond
• 1 Lotus Petal
• 1 Mana Crypt
• 1 Mana Vault
• 1 Memory Jar
• 1 Merchant Scroll
• 1 Mind's Desire
• 1 Mox Emerald
• 1 Mox Jet
• 1 Mox Pearl
• 1 Mox Ruby
• 1 Mox Sapphire
• 1 Ponder
• 1 Preordain
• 1 Sensei's Divining Top
• 1 Sol Ring
• 1 Tendrils of Agony
• 1 Time Walk
• 1 Timetwister
• 1 Tinker
• 1 Wheel of Fortune
• 1 Windfall
• 1 Yawgmoth's Will

• Lands (9)
• 1 Island
• 4 Polluted Delta
• 2 Underground Sea
• 1 Tolarian Academy
• 1 Volcanic Island

• Sideboard (15)
• 1 Island
• 1 Chain of Vapor
• 1 Defense Grid
• 1 Blightsteel Colossus
• 1 Empty the Warrens
• 2 Flusterstorm
• 2 Hurkyl's Recall
• 1 Mindbreak Trap
• 1 Pyroblast
• 3 Tormod's Crypt
• 1 Toxic Deluge

Buy This Deck

There are two key resources in Vintage storm: cards and mana. With few exceptions, your deck is packed with cards that generate a lot of one or the other of these resources. The few cards that can do both - Yawgmoth's Will and Mind's Desire, for example - rank among some of the most degenerate cards ever printed. Paradoxical Outcome sort of slots into that role for this deck.

If you can put enough artifacts into play early, Paradoxical Outcome can easily pay for itself by letting you get extra mana off of cards like moxen, Grim Monolith, and Mana Vault. In addition to that, it lets you draw a bunch of cards and generate extra storm by recasting your artifacts. The raw versatility of this card on your combo turns makes it an incredible resource for these decks, making it relatively easy to effectively draw your deck.

Previous iterations of the Storm deck were happy to use Chain of Vapor in this role, which was much more of an all-in card, since you have to give up so much to generate extra storm by bouncing your own permanents and don’t get the extra cards out of the deal. Paradoxical Outcome, on the other hand, is more of an up-front investment, but gives you all kinds of flexibility.

It’s not uncommon for this deck to lead off with a bunch of mana artifacts and try to cast a Paradoxical Outcome just to draw a few cards. Unlike other Storm decks, which had to hold back moxen so that you have enough spells on your critical turn, this deck can just afford to run out mana rocks and start jamming threatening card drawing spells. Eventually, you’ll resolve a Paradoxical Outcome, and, when you do, your opponent is definitely dead.