In the tactical landscape of the Commander format, the Izzet color identity has always been the premier home for mechanical velocity and spell manipulation. On Moxfield’s public deck building charts, the definitive modern standard for this strategy is driven by Ral, Monsoon Mage (who flips into Ral, Leyline Prodigy).
Ral has achieved massive community popularity because he acts as an incredibly cheap, 2-mana cost reducer for your instant and sorcery spells right in the command zone. However, he introduces an volatile, high-reward mechanic to the table: whenever you cast an instant or sorcery, you flip a coin. If you lose, Ral deals 1 damage to you; if you win, you can transform him into his Planeswalker form. As a Planeswalker, Ral can add immediate mana, copy your spells, and execute an ultimate emblem that allows you to cast noncreature spells from the top of your library for free, triggering a catastrophic storm chain.
Here is the operational tech breakdown of Moxfield’s premier Ral list, detailing how to engineer infinite spell loops and burn down the entire table in a single phase.
1. Core Mechanics & Strategic Phases
Piloting Ral requires a high degree of sequence calculation. You treat your hand and graveyard as a joint operational inventory, counting your available mana down to the single digit.
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Early Game (Turns 1–2): Deploy Ral as quickly as possible. Because he costs only 2 mana, he hits the board before your opponents can set up their counter shields. Utilize cheap cantrips like Brainstorm or Ponder—which now cost only a single blue mana—to sculpt your hand and fish for combo components.
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Mid Game (Turns 3–4): Build your storm count. Chain low-cost draw and ritual spells together. Keep track of Ral’s coin-flip triggers; you often want to delay his transformation until you have maximized his passive cost reduction for a long turn sequence, or flip him early to tick up his loyalty towards his ultimate ability.
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Late Game (Turns 4+): Execute your infinite storm combination. With your spells heavily discounted, you can loop recursion spells to generate infinite mana and infinite storm count, finishing the entire table simultaneously through direct effect damage.
2. Moxfield Highlights: The Instant & Sorcery Catalysts
The highest-rated community lists on Moxfield optimize Ral by running cards that turn his passive cost reduction into immediate card draw, resource refunds, and lethal damage scaling.
Birgi, God of Storytelling
The ultimate companion engine for an Izzet storm deck. Birgi generates a single Red mana whenever you cast a spell. Combined with Ral’s cost reduction, all of your 2-mana rituals and draw spells become completely free, allowing you to cycle through dozens of cards in a single turn without ever depleting your mana reservoir.
Past in Flames
The definitive mid-storm recovery card. If your sequence stalls or your opponents counter your primary win conditions, Past in Flames grants flashback to every instant and sorcery spell in your graveyard until end of turn. This effectively doubles your operational inventory, letting you recast your rituals and tutors directly from the bin.
Grapeshot
The classic, hyper-efficient mechanical finisher. Because Ral allows you to cast 10 to 20 spells in a single continuous phase, Grapeshot’s Storm mechanic copies the spell for each spell cast before it this turn. This creates an un-counterable wall of individual 1-damage pings that can be distributed to eliminate your opponents‘ life totals directly.
Archmage Emeritus
An indispensable structural utility card for the deck. It features a Magecraft trigger that draws you a card whenever you cast or copy an instant or sorcery spell. In a deck heavily optimized around low-cost cantrips and copy mechanics, Emeritus ensures that your hand is constantly refilled, preventing your storm chains from running out of gas.
3. Copy & Paste Ral, Monsoon Mage 100-Card Decklist
Use the text box below to copy the complete highly-optimized community list. It contains exactly 1 Commander and 99 mainboard cards, hitting the mandatory 100-card mark for a flawless import into Moxfield or MTG Arena.
1 Ral, Monsoon Mage
1 An Offer You Can't Refuse
1 Arcane Signet
1 Archmage Emeritus
1 Arid Mesa
1 Baral, Chief of Compliance
1 Big Score
1 Birgi, God of Storytelling
1 Blasphemous Act
1 Bloodstained Mire
1 Brain Freeze
1 Brainstorm
1 Cascade Bluffs
1 Chaos Warp
1 Command Tower
1 Consider
1 Counterspell
1 Cyclonic Rift
1 Deflecting Swat
1 Desperate Ritual
1 Electrostatic Field
1 End the Festivities
1 Exotic Orchard
1 Expressive Iteration
1 Fabled Passage
1 Faithless Looting
1 Fellwar Stone
1 Fierce Guardianship
1 Fiery Islet
1 Fiery Confluence
1 Flusterstorm
1 Frantic Search
1 Frostboil Snarl
1 Galazeth Prismari
1 Gamble
1 Gitaxian Probe
1 Grapeshot
1 Guttersnipe
1 High Tide
1 Isochron Scepter
1 Izzet Signet
1 Jace, Vryn's Prodigy
1 Jeska's Will
1 Kessig Wolf Run
1 Light Up the Stage
1 Lightning Bolt
1 Lotus Petal
1 Mana Confluence
1 Mental Misstep
1 Mind's Desire
1 Misty Rainforest
1 Mizzix's Mastery
1 Mystic Remora
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Narset's Reversal
1 Octavia, Living Thesis
1 Opt
1 Past in Flames
1 Phantasmal Image
1 Ponder
1 Preordain
1 Pyretic Ritual
1 Radkos Charm
1 Reactive Shielding
1 Red Blast
1 Reflecting Pool
1 Reliquary Tower
1 Rhystic Study
1 Runaway Steam-Kin
1 Scalding Tarn
1 Searing Touch
1 Seething Song
1 Shivan Reef
1 Sol Ring
1 Steam Vents
1 Storm-Kiln Artist
1 Strike It Rich
1 Sulfur Falls
1 Sulfurous Springs
1 Swan Song
1 Talisman of Creativity
1 Third Path Iconoclast
1 Thousand-Year Storm
1 Training Center
1 Treasure Cruise
1 Twinferno
1 Underworld Breach
1 Vandalblast
1 Veyran, Voice of Duality
1 Wash Away
1 Wheel of Fortune
1 Windfall
1 Windswept Heath
1 Wooded Foothills
1 Young Pyromancer
6 Island
6 Mountain
Summary: Command the Storm
Moxfield’s top deck builders prioritize Ral, Monsoon Mage because he provides a cheap, flexible discount engine that dynamically transitions into a high-loyalty planeswalker threat. By pairing his passive mana reduction with explosive multi-draw engines and storm finishers, you can melt down multiplayer games in a single cataclysmic phase. Copy the flawless 100-card decklist above, monitor your coin flips, and unleash the monsoon upon your next Commander pod.
