commander · Kalamax, the Stormsire
Arcane Maelstrom (C20).
A Temur spellslinger deck from Ikoria built to copy instants. Kalamax, the Stormsire copies your first instant each turn while tapped and grows every time, so the deck attacks, holds up mana, and doubles its spells for token armies and burn.
The Commanders
Arcane Maelstrom is the Temur spellslinger deck from Ikoria, and it wants to cast instants and get two for the price of one. The whole plan bends around a strange requirement: your commander has to be tapped for the payoff, so you attack with him and then start slinging spells on other turns. Copy a draw spell for double cards, copy a removal spell to two-for-one, or copy a fight spell to wipe two blockers.
Kalamax, the Stormsire copies your first instant each turn as long as he is tapped, and every time you copy an instant he grows with a +1/+1 counter. The key is getting him tapped without dying: swing on your turn, or use an untap-lands effect so you can cast on opponents' turns while he stays tapped. Each copy chooses new targets, so a single Growth Spiral becomes two lands and two cards, and a single Comet Storm hits twice. He turns cheap interaction into a snowball that also builds a real threat on the board.
Key Cards
Wilderness Reclamation
At the beginning of your end step, Reclamation untaps all your lands. That gives you a full pool of mana to hold up instants on each opponent's turn, which is exactly when you want to be casting with Kalamax tapped after combat. It doubles your effective mana every turn cycle without ramping. In a deck full of flash interaction and instant-speed draw, it is the engine that lets you play the whole game at instant speed.
Twinning Staff
Whenever you would copy a spell, the Staff adds one more copy on top. Kalamax's single copy becomes two, and any copy spell in the deck gets an extra swing. Cast an instant with Kalamax tapped and the Staff online, and one card resolves three times. It also has its own activated ability to copy an instant or sorcery, giving you a mana sink when you flood out.
Swarm Intelligence
Every instant and sorcery you cast gets copied, no tap requirement, no first-spell limit. Where Kalamax only copies your first instant while tapped, Swarm Intelligence copies all of them, including sorceries. Stack the two and your spells start resolving three or four times. It is expensive at seven mana, but Wilderness Reclamation and the deck's ramp get you there, and once it sticks every spell is a bomb.
Murmuring Mystic
Every instant or sorcery you cast makes a 1/1 flying Bird. The deck casts a lot of spells, and each copy effect that triggers off casting adds up to a growing air force. The Mystic gives the deck a way to close games that does not rely on Kalamax connecting. Protect it, cast your spells, and the sky fills up with blockers and attackers.
Talrand, Sky Summoner
Talrand makes a 2/2 flying Drake for each instant or sorcery you cast. Like Murmuring Mystic, he turns your spell count into a board, but with bigger bodies that pressure life totals faster. Run both and a single turn of interaction leaves you with a wall of fliers. He rewards the deck for doing what it already does and gives you a plan B when the copy engines get answered.
Dualcaster Mage
Flash him in and copy any instant or sorcery on the stack, including one of your own or an opponent's. He can steal a counterspell, double a removal spell, or copy your Kalamax-boosted instant for even more value. As a creature he also sticks around to block and trade. He is the flexible response that fits into every turn where you are already holding up mana.
Crackling Drake
Its power equals the number of instants and sorceries in your graveyard and exile, so by the mid game it is a large flier. It also replaces itself with a card when it enters. In a deck that burns through spells, the Drake is a cheap body that grows on its own and never costs you a card. It rounds out the flying beatdown that Murmuring Mystic and Talrand start.
How to Play
Ramp early with Growth Spiral, Sol Ring, and the deck's signets so you can play at instant speed sooner. Get Kalamax down, attack with him so he is tapped, then hold up your instants for opponents' turns; Wilderness Reclamation makes that painless by refilling your lands each end step. Use the first instant each turn to copy your best effect, and layer Twinning Staff or Swarm Intelligence to multiply every spell after that. Murmuring Mystic and Talrand convert your spell volume into a flying army while Kalamax grows into a threat of his own. The deck wins by out-valuing the table with doubled spells, then closing with fliers before anyone catches up.
