[Deck] Spanish Inquisition (B/x Storm Combo)

[Vacrix]

- Spanish Inquisition -

- Introduction –

You’ve heard of the Spanish Inquisition, right? In 1500’s, tribunal officers went door-to-door asking the question “Is Jesus Christ divine?” hoping to purge Spain and Portugal of Jews and Christian heretics. Well, SI and its derivatives ask a similar question: “Do you have Force of Will?”

No we SI players aren’t purposely beating the shit out of Jews and Christian Heretics. Actually, we just indiscriminately beat the shit out of anyone that doesn’t play Force of Will.

Unfortunately, you don’t get to torture your opponents either while they scream for repentance. It’s over very quickly. We are kind.

Actually, this is merely a hilarious coincidence and was not how the deck got its name. Rather, the creator, Colby Evenpence, chose to name it the Spanish Inquisition because he planned on winning so quickly that his opponents would say "I wasn't expecting that," then Colby could reply, "Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!!" Sadly, nobody ever expects SI because only a handful of people play it in real life. Next to Solidarity and NLS, SI is considered one of the hardest decks to master in the entire format. In fact, most people doubt its viability simply because they don’t understand how it works.

Spanish Inquisition’s greatest strength and the reason to play it instead of another deck is its unmatched speed. SI is by leaps and bounds the fastest deck in the format; not even Belcher or Hulk Flash can hold a candle to it. In particular, PSI pushes +60% turn 1 kills in the hands of skilled pilot while I and a few other pilots have claimed as high as 70% turn 1 kills. However, there isn’t one set list you ought to play. There are several lists each with slightly different supplemental strategies. Each list is capable of consistently going off by turn 3 and due to the nature of its unique draw 4 engine, SI and its variants mulligan better than any other deck in the format. These claims might seem outrageous at first glance; however, the secret to the consistency at speed kills lies in SI’s ability to go off with relatively few resources. While a deck like Belcher will often invest its initial 5-7 cards going off, SI can go off with as few as 3 cards (i.e. Lotus Petal, Dark Ritual, Cruel Bargain). Therefore, mulligans become powerful when the new 6 need only yield a few redundant resources to facilitate a lethal spell chain. In theory, the deck can win on the first turn after a mulligan to 3, and I've finally done so Aug '10. In addition to great mulligans, investing few resources also enables SI to go off multiples times. A draw 4 that yields jank will still yield 4 cards worth of resources. A few topdecks later, SI can easily explode again. This principle also applies to countermagic. A single piece of countermagic will not keep SI down. Even if SI doesn’t get to keep the resources from its draw 4 (like in the previous case), it will often still have resources in its hand to go off again in a few turns.

All SI variants play the following shell:

4 Cruel Bargain (D4)
4 Infernal Contract (D4)
4 Dark Ritual
4 Cabal Ritual
4 Culling the Weak
4 Lotus Petal
4 Chrome Mox
X Tendrils of Agony (ToA)
0-4 Lion’s Eye Diamond (LED)
0-4 Infernal Tutor (IT)

As I mentioned before, SI runs a unique draw 4 engine but it also runs a unique piece of acceleration that facilitates this engine: Culling the Weak. Culling the Weak adds a whopping BBBB to your mana pool at the expense of a creature. Storm combo that runs creatures? What you say?

Different lists run different culling fodder. The original list ran this configuration:
4 Phyrexian Walker
4 Shield Sphere

Back in the day when Goblins was the dominant aggro deck, these so called Tallmen acted as both Culling the Weak fodder for acceleration, Cabal Therapy fodder for protection, and blockers to give you a few turns to comfortably set up the kill against aggro. They are still quite good at holding creatures at bay for the first couple turns; however, the advent of Zoo made this plan significantly weaker. A few of the lists still play this configuration, but in early 2008, Breathweapon shared a truly innovative list that did not run a single Tallman from the old configuration. Instead he ran the following configuration:
1 Dryad Arbor
1 Vine Dryad
4 Summoner’s Pact
4 Elvish Spirit Guide

The configuration is known as the Pact list. Instead of laying down Tallmen as potential blockers, the Culling the Weak fodder instead acted as protection against Daze and facilitated a better chance at an early Cabal Ritual.

Also, in 2008, Pulpfiction suggested that Manamorphose be run in the Pact list. It was immediately added in as a tuning mechanism, turning your draw 4 into a draw 5 as well as color fixing with Elvish Spirit Guides. The Manamorphose slots in the Pact list are now considered flex slots but in my experience it makes goldfishing a little easier.

The Pact list got a facelift in 2010 when theresurrection shared his list, which further abused Summoner’s Pact with the following three cards:
1 Eternal Witness
1 Odious Trow
1 Wild Cantor

Odious Trow quickly proved its worth as a replacement for Vine Dryad. Though Vine Dryad could remove spare Land Grants, Summoner’s Pacts, and Elvish Spirit Guides, Odious Trow could be cast with spare green mana OR spare black ritual mana. Also, Trow enabled Summoner’s Pact to fetch a black card to imprint on Chrome Mox.

Wild Cantor acted as either Culling the Weak fodder or as a color fixer for opening hands without a starting black source like ESG + Pact or x2 Pact. I dropped it from my build but it’s a fine replacement for Manamorphose or even Odious Trow.

Eternal Witness is a very tricky piece of theresurrection’s build. With enough spare mana it could be cast to return whatever was necessary to continue the spell chain whether it be the win condition, acceleration, starting mana, or business. Previously unplayable draw 4’s like Tallman x2, LED x2 were now playable with Pact, ESG, LED x2; play both LEDs, remove ESG, then play Pact for Eternal Witness, breaking the LEDs in response for BBBGGG. Then return business to your hand to keep the spell chain going.

At some point in my own testing of the Pact list, I became fascinated with D7 effects like Diminishing Returns and Slithermuse. I removed some of the MD win conditions from Pact SI and replaced them with Burning Wish. The list was fantastic at first, but after more testing it proved to be more volatile than I was comfortable with. Recently, Direlemming began testing his own variation on this Burning Wish build with maindeck Tinder Walls. This build is still being fine-tuned but it is very promising.

Obviously SI wins with Tendrils of Agony; however, the faster lists also play either Empty the Warrens or Goblin Charbelcher as an alternative win condition. The original Land Grant SI and Pact SI tend to play Goblin Charbelcher while SITES always plays EtW. QSI used to play Brainfreeze in the board and sometimes plays EtW postboard as well.

Another defining characteristic of SI is known as the IGG loop, originating in the old school combo deck IGGY Pop. The IGG configuration looks like this:
4 Infernal Tutor
4 Lion’s Eye Diamond
2 Ill-Gotten Gains
X Tendrils of Agony

First you would play some acceleration, usually Dark Ritual, to begin the loop. Then you would play Lion’s Eye Diamond, followed by Infernal Tutor, breaking the LED in response for BBB. Then you find Ill-Gotten Gains, play it, and return Dark Ritual, Lion’s Eye Diamond, and Infernal Tutor to your hand. This play would allow you to build up storm, and then repeat the loop, eventually finding Tendrils of Agony for the win. IT + LED would also allow you to go for Empty the Warrens or Belcher, depending on the situation.

IGG also serves another purpose. If played on the first turn, IGG acts as a pseudo-Mindtwist, forcing the opponent into a mulligan to 3. It would be virtually one sided as well since you can drop mana sources, tallmen, LED’s, etc, and then return acceleration and/or business to your hand. This play is particularly strong because it turns back the opponent’s clock significantly, especially considering you could drop tallmen to hold whatever creatures the opponent had at bay. In 2010, I suggested replacing Ill-Gotten Gains with Slithermuse. I found that games where I would play IGG as Mindtwist, I would much rather not go into topdeck mode. If IGG resolved against control, then why would I bother going into topdeck mode when I could simply win with Slithermuseon the spot? I tried out Slithermuse in the Pact list and absolutely loved it. Unfortunately, the Pact list is the only list where it is playable because you have such a high chance of going off on the first few turns of the game. If you have to wait a turn it becomes a D5 instead of a D7. I didn’t find it difficult to win after drawing 7 cards instead of completing the IGG loop. Also, it would allow me to still get the win when I had the ‘wrong ritual’ in the graveyard. Returning something like Dark Ritual, LED, IT is certainly strong, but when your acceleration is Cabal Ritual or Culling the Weak, the IGG loop doesn’t always work because you may not have enough mana floating after you cast IGG. Slithermuse makes more opening hands keepable than in the IGG version, and it also has an occasional interaction with Culling the Weak. However, its gets weaker if you are on the play or if you don’t go off in the first few turns of the game. It’s a personal choice though and I don’t recommend it unless you are very comfortable piloting the Pact list.

Now, not every SI variant plays this IGG configuration. The list that doesn’t is the anti-control list known as Quasi-Spanish Inquisition (QSI). Its not nearly as fast but has a pretty consistent kill rate between turns 2 and 3. As you can probably imagine, the IGG loop is terrible against control; its akin to putting all your eggs in one basket, banking on the opponent not having an answer for IT, as well as giving the opponent back their countermagic through IGG. QSI takes a different approach:
4 Meditate
4 Brainstorm
4 Ponder

The QSI list also plays Underground Seas and Polluted Deltas to facilitate multiple attempts at a lethal spell chain. Meditate at the end of turn is one of QSI’s strongest plays against control. Either your opponent uses up his counterspell and you can go off after you untap, or you can go off on your turn with 11 cards in hand. Brainstorm and Ponder allow you to sculpt a decent hand before you go off or help you dig deeper on your combo turn. QSI also plays a good protection suite:
4 Cabal Therapy
4 Shield Sphere
4 Phyrexian Walker

Often you should just name Force of Will or Counterbalance. Tallmen enable you to play the flashback. Therapy is an excellent piece of protection because you can use it twice if you need to go off more than once or you can remove multiple pieces of protection from your opponents hand before going off. The tallmen also enable you to block for the first few turns of the game while you play your cantrips, protection, and hit your land drops.

- How to Play -

Due to the volatile nature of the draw 4 engine, SI is a very difficult deck to play. Whenever you have invested resources into a draw 4, you must constantly evaluate the odds. How much business is left in the deck? What do you need to continue the spell chain? Do you have mana floating? These are obviously very important questions, but there are two questions that are significantly more important:
- Should I mulligan?
- Should I continue the spell chain?

As I mentioned earlier, SI mulligans better than any other deck in the format; its one of SI’s greatest strengths. Knowing when to mulligan and when to keep is crucial to playing SI. When looking at your 7, you ought to quickly identify initial mana sources, business, and acceleration. If you cannot identify a keepable hand quickly, your opponent might put you on combo and mulligan for hate.

Now, trying to explain how to play SI is entirely list dependent. A PSI line of play will be completely different from a QSI line of play. In general, I will speak of the faster lists. QSI is a completely different animal but it is not hard to judge how to play QSI if you learn first how to play the faster, more volatile lists.

In game 1 against an unknown opponent, you should try to get a fast hand. If your hand is all mana sources and acceleration, you might want to mulligan that hand for a hand that can go off on the first turn. Then again, a hand with perpetual resources can be very powerful. Getting down some early land and Chrome Mox will allow you to go off multiple times. Such hands with perpetual resources are great against control because they allow you to go for the throat more than once, while one-time-use mana sources like Lotus Petal only allow you to go off once. If you can scout ahead and put your opponent on a deck, then you can better decide how to mulligan. In general, you should let non-disruptive aggro play first, and even non-disruptive combo like Belcher. Being on the draw makes going off much easier. Against control, try to win before they have access to resources other than FoW. If you are on the draw against control, try to mulligan into a hand with perpetual resources, or a hand that requires few resources to go off, or a hand with protection (if you play it).

Now, SI’s speed is its greatest strength, on the field and off the field. Against non-FoW decks, your games will likely be brief. I’ve had matches end in less than 5 minutes. That gives you a lot of time to scout and put players on decks, even watch them board. In smaller tournaments where scouting is actually relevant, fast games work to your advantage because your opponents will not be able to see what you are playing or how you are boarding. Even if you are known as ‘the SI guy’ in a local metagame, the MD and the SB are both very flexible and allow you to play different tech whenever you feel like it.

- Boarding -

One of the most common tech players switch between is playing a post-board protection plan or a man-plan. Protection plans vary quite a bit but they usually run a few of the following cards:
- Cabal Therapy
- Duress
- Unmask
- Pact of Negation
- Xantid Swarm

Cabal Therapy and Xantid Swarm see the most play because both provide protection in more than one instance; however, Therapy can sometimes miss and requires you to play multiple creatures while Swarm is vulnerable to creature removal. Unmask and Pact are both free protection, but Pact of Negation is bad with LED and Unmask requires you to pitch something.

Recently, Autumn’s Veil was unveiled in the M11 spoiler. This is the best protection spell we could have ever hoped for. Not only is it a virtual Orim’s Chant, protecting our spell chains from countermagic, it doesn’t have to be played before we go off. If the opponent responds to a spell with FoW, we can respond with Veil. Once Veil resolves, FoW can no longer legally target your spell. In that sense, we aren’t forced to play Veil until we need to. This is a huge advantage as we might need the Veil to imprint on Chrome Mox later in the spell chain or we might need the green source to play a Cabal Ritual. It also protects our Xantid Swarms from blue and black removal (though this is marginal as we usually encounter white removal STP or PtE).

The man-plan, pioneered in LGSI by B.C., runs a configuration of a few of the following cards:
- Tomb of Urami
- Tombstalker
- Avatar of Discord
- Phyrexian Negator
- Phylactery Lich
- Death’s Shadow

Phyrexian Negator was great in the days of Landstill but it doesn’t see much play these days. Death’s Shadow is decent as a 1 of’; you need to lose life before its playable so its not good to see these guys in multiples. Tomb of Urami is easily the best part of the man-plan. After the first game, the opponent will usually let you play your acceleration and try to counter the business. Unfortunately for them, you can drop your Tomb after you hit 4 mana and then crack it. I have yet to test Lich but it looks pretty good. Avatar of Discord is probably the worst, second only to Negator, for obvious reasons. Tombstalker requires cards in the grave, but conveniently you can remove the rituals and mana sources you use to accelerate into it.

In addition to protection spells and man-plan, there are several utility spells that the SI board can use.
- Dark Confidant
- Carpet of Flowers
- Death Mark
- Rebuild
- Wipe Away
- Chain of Vapor

Dark Confidant is great; drawing an extra card each turn allows you to sculpt a great hand against control. It can also be pitched to Culling the Weak or Cabal Therapy. Carpet of Flowers is amazing tech. It acts as both a potential ritual mid combo and as a perpetual resource to facilitate multiple attempts at going off. Carpet has errata that enables you to choose which main phase you’d like to add the mana. So if your opponent has a few islands and you play it in your mainphase while going off, you can pass to your 2nd mainphase to add mana like a ritual. Its bad against Daze because then the opponent will have fewer islands, but even adding just 2 mana per turn is worth it in SI. Death Mark is great for taking out hatebears like Meddling Mage, Ethersworn Cannonist, and Gaddock Teeg. Usually you can just win before these guys hit play, but if a deck like Bant Survival or UW Tempo packs both bears and countermagic, it becomes a much stronger choice post-board. Rebuild is usually played in QSI as an answer to Trinisphere and Chalice of the Void. Wipe Away is QSI’s answer to CB. Chain of Vapor is good both as a potential storm generator and as an answer to hatebears. Chain of Vapor can generate storm in QSI by playing out some artifacts, and then sacrificing lands to bounce the artifacts back to your hand. A few of these utility cards are usually run in addition to the man plan or the protection plan.

- Lists -

The different versions of SI are as follows. I will provide some example list but please note that each list is particularly flexible.
- The Original List (SI) -
Colby Evenpence’s original list with some outdated tech.
SI
Initial Mana Sources
4 Land Grant
2 Bayou
4 Lotus Petal
4 Chrome Mox

Tall Men
4 Ornithopter
4 Phyrexian Walker
4 Shield Sphere

Acceleration
4 Dark Ritual
4 Cabal Ritual
4 Culling the Weak
4 Lion's Eye Diamond

Business
4 Cruel Bargain
4 Infernal Contract
4 Diabolic Intent
2 Ill-Gotten Gains
4 Tendrils of Agony

SB
4 Naturalize
4 Massacre
4 Cabal Therapy
3 Defense Grid

- Land Grant SI (LGSI) –
Emidln and Team Blitzkrieg’s variation on the original list. It plays minimal protection in the form of Cabal Therapy, usually plays a man-plan post-board, and plays Goblin Charbelcher as an alternative kill condition. It has a 50% turn 1 kill rate.
LGSI
Initial Mana Sources
2 Bayou
4 Land Grant
4 Lotus Petal
4 Chrome Mox

Tallmen
4 Phyrexian Walker
4 Shield Sphere

Acceleration
4 Dark Ritual
4 Cabal Ritual
4 Culling the Weak
4 Lion's Eye Diamond

Protection
4 Cabal Therapy

Business
4 Cruel Bargain
4 Infernal Contract
4 Infernal Tutor
2 Ill-Gotten Gains
3 Tendrils of Agony
1 Goblin Charbelcher

SB
4 Xantid Swarm
4 Tomb of Urami
4 Tombstalker
3 Phylactery Lich

- Glimpse SI (GSI) –
Iranon’s variation on the LGSI that runs Glimpse of Nature as a supplemental draw engine. It’s a little faster than the classic LGSI list but foregoes protection for this additional speed boost.
GSI
4 Land Grant
2 Bayou

4 Lotus Petal
4 Chrome Mox
4 Lion's Eye Diamond
4 Dark Ritual
4 Cabal Ritual
4 Culling the Weak

4 Shield Sphere
4 Phyrexian Walker
2 Ornithopter

4 Infernal tutor
4 Cruel Bargain
4 Infernal Contract
2 Glimpse of Nature
2 Ill-Gotten Gains

3 Tendrils of Agony
1 Goblin Charbelcher

- SI-TES –
A variation on LGSI that drops Charbelcher for Empty the Warrens and Land Grant for a Fetchlands/Badlands suite. The current lists also play Burning Wish. It has about a 40% turn 1 kill rate but can often just land an early Empty the Warrens and win on turn 2.
SITES
Business
1 Tendrils of Agony
3 Empty the Warrens
2 Infernal Tutor
4 Burning Wish
4 Cruel Bargain
4 Infernal Contract

Acceleration
4 Crimson Kobolds
3 Kobolds of Kher Keep
4 Dark Ritual
4 Cabal Ritual
4 Culling the Weak
4 Simian Spirit Guide
4 Lion's Eye Diamond
4 Lotus Petal
4 Chrome Mox
4 Bloodstained Mire
2 Badlands
1 Bayou

SB
1 Diminishing Returns
1 Balance of Power
1 Empty the Warrens
1 Tendrils of Agony
1 Deathmark
1 Meltdown
1 Shattering Spree
1 Reverent Silence
1 Thoughtseize
3 Xantid Swarm
3 Autumn’s Veil

- Quasi-SI (QSI) –
Emidln’s variation (props to Marit for contributing an updated list) on SI that lacks the IGG loop, but plays Meditate and cantrips to improve the control matchup. It has a relatively low turn 1 kill rate but kills consistently on turns 2/3.

QSI
Lands
4 Polluted Delta
4 Underground Sea

Creatures
3 Phyrexian Walker
4 Shield Sphere

Spells
4 Cabal Ritual
4 Culling the Weak
3 Cruel Bargain
3 Meditate
3 Tendrils of Agony
4 Dark Ritual
4 Brainstorm
4 Cabal Therapy
4 Infernal Contract
4 Chrome Mox
4 Lotus Petal
4 Ponder

SB
1 Meditate
4 Dark Confidant
4 Rebuild
2 Island
2 Wipe Away
2 Swamp

- Pact SI (PSI) -
Breathweapon’s variation on LGSI that plays Summoner’s Pact and Elvish Spirit Guide in place of the tallmen. It is the fastest list with a turn 1 kill rate of 60-65%.
PSI
Business
1 Slithermuse
2 Goblin Charbelcher
3 Tendrils of Agony
4 Infernal Tutor
4 Infernal Contract
4 Cruel Bargain

Mana
1 Eternal Witness
1 Odious Trow
2 Manamorphose
4 Summoner's Pact
4 Elvish Spirit Guide
4 Lion's Eye Diamond
4 Lotus Petal
4 Chrome Mox
4 Dark Ritual
4 Cabal Ritual
4 Culling the Weak
4 Land Grant
1 Bayou
1 Dryad Arbor

SB
4 Carpet of Flowers
4 Xantid Swarm
3 Duress
2 Goblin Charbelcher
2 Tomb of Urami

- Draw-7 SI (DSI) -
An experimental variation on PSI that Direlemming and I have been working on that runs Burning Wish and Infernal Tutor, which adds additional speed through a D7 engine in the wishboard. Its still in its developmental stages but the most recent list is pushing a 70% turn 1 kill rate.
No list available ATM. Still in developmental stages.

- Potential Tech -
This is a section for tech you can use in your lists that may not necessarily be in any of the conventional lists. If something isn't on this list that you think could go here, give it a test and tell us about it.

Null Profusion - Decent as a 1'of engine. Works better in Land Grant lists
Manamorphose - Color fixing cycler
Living Wish - Facilitates a wish board in PSI
Death Wish - A decent supplement to Infernal Tutor
Grim Tutor - See above
Oxidize - Artifact removal
Slaughter Pact - Creature removal
Serum Powder - Improve mulligans post-board
Pact of Negation - Free protection
Unmask - Free protection
Defense Grid - Protection that doesn't die to creature removal
Planar Void - Cheap way to hose decks that like graveyards
More to come...

- Matchups -
This section is entirely list dependent. I will have some basic percentages up at some point but I will leave it blank for the moment. Just know that the close to PSI the list is, the worse it probably is against control. SITES falls in the middle, and QSI is great against control.

- Suggested List -

PSI
Business - 19
1 Empty the Warrens
1 Ill-Gotten Gains
4 Goblin Charbelcher
1 Tendrils of Agony
4 Infernal Tutor
4 Infernal Contract
4 Cruel Bargain

Mana - 41
1 Deathrite Shaman
1 Wild Cantor
1 Skyshroud Cutter
4 Summoner's Pact
4 Elvish Spirit Guide
4 Lion's Eye Diamond
4 Lotus Petal
4 Chrome Mox
4 Dark Ritual
4 Cabal Ritual
4 Culling the Weak
4 Land Grant
1 Bayou
1 Dryad Arbor

SB - 15
4 Carpet of Flowers
4 Lotus Bloom
4 Duress
3 Thoughtseize


This is the list I would suggest. The maindeck has many Pactmen options. Deathrite Shaman is a much better version of Odious Trow since we can keep it in against Threshold as an occasional bomb that shrinks their yard and softens our life total. Skyshroud Cutter is a 0cc creature if you've played Bayou, Dryad Arbor is 0cc if you haven't played Bayou. Wild Cantor is a fantastic color fixer. Empty the Warrens > Slithermuse since EtW can stay in post-board, gives us maindeck outs to a few hate pieces like Leyline of Sanctity. IGG is better than PIF because its pretty much an autoloop. 4 Charbelcher is necessary for the post-board plan. You board out your Pacts/Pactmen/Culling package for timebomb acceleration like Lotus Bloom and Carpet. They aren't as explosive initially, but they provide you with a much better long game against control as you pound at their hand with disruption. Thoughtseize is actually quite good since it can take bears and Vendillion Clique. Clique + Karakas against a UW variant on top of all their hard permission is pretty tough to work around.



- Sample hands -

- PSI Sample Hands -
PSI
Business
1 Slithermuse
2 Goblin Charbelcher
3 Tendrils of Agony
4 Infernal Tutor
4 Infernal Contract
4 Cruel Bargain

Mana
1 Eternal Witness
1 Odious Trow
2 Manamorphose
4 Summoner's Pact
4 Elvish Spirit Guide
4 Lion's Eye Diamond
4 Lotus Petal
4 Chrome Mox
4 Dark Ritual
4 Cabal Ritual
4 Culling the Weak
4 Land Grant
1 Bayou
1 Dryad Arbor


Color added for clarity.

H1: Pact, Pact, Dark Ritual, Land Grant, Cruel Bargain, Culling the Weak (mull to 6)
Land Grant--> Bayou, Dark Ritual, Cruel Bargain
Draw4: Infernal Tutor, Infernal Tutor, Cabal Ritual, Chrome Mox
Chrome Mox (IT), Pact-->ESG, Pact--> Odious Trow, ESG--> Trow, Culling the Weak (BBBB), Cabal Ritual (BBBBBBB), Infernal Tutor--> Tendrils for 22.

Notice that another line of play allows you to go first for Culling the Weak line of play, then Dark Ritual, which allows you to Infernal Tutor for Cabal Ritual for extra storm.
Also, please note that I have not played either of the 2 Pacts until after I’ve drawn 4. This is not always the optimal play. Considering Culling the Weak is already in hand, we know that we are going to play Pact-->ESG and Pact-->Odious Trow; however, I played this hand more conservatively. If played a Bargain into no Business, then it might be a better plan to wait until you draw a business spell, having already had Bayou in play. The other option is to fetch those 2 cards out of your deck and play Culling the Weak before you play the D4. This increases your chances of not drawing those cards off the D4 itself. The other down side to this would be not having access to the Eternal Witness line of play if you drew a topdeck like LED, LED, Trow, Lotus Petal. It’s a trade off and ultimately up to the pilot, who should take into account if he needs a win now situation, or a more conservative line of play.

H2: ESG, Lotus Petal, Infernal Contract, Tendrils, Cabal Ritual, Cabal Ritual, Infernal Tutor
ESG, Lotus Petal (BG), Cabal Ritual (BBB), Cabal Ritual (BBBB), Infernal Contract (B)
Draw 4: LED, Chrome Mox, Chrome Mox, Cabal Ritual
Chrome Mox (Tendrils) (BB), Chrome Mox (nothing), Cabal Ritual, LED, Infernal Tutor (breaking LED in response for BBB) --> Tendrils for 20.

Notice that another line of play allows you to imprint Cabal Ritual on Chrome Mox, and Infernal Tutor for Belcher. You will be mana short of activating it, but you already have 2 mana in play and mostly mana sources in the deck. Yet another option would be to break LED for UUU and find Slithermuse, drawing 7 cards.

H3: ESG, Tendrils, Manamorphose, Chrome Mox, Dark Ritual, Infernal Contract (mull to 6)
ESG, Chrome Mox (Tendrils) (GB), Manamorphose (BB) draw--> Tendrils of Agony, Dark Ritual (BBBB), Infernal Contract (B)
Draw 4: Pact, Chrome Mox, LED, LED
LED, LED, Chrome Mox (Tendrils), Pact (breaking LED’s for GGGBBB) --> Eternal Witness--> Infernal Contract (BB)
Draw 4: Tendrils of Agony, Infernal Contract, Culling the Weak, Land Grant
Land Grant--> Dryad Arbor, Culling the Weak (BBBBB), Tendrils for 24.

H4: Pact, Pact, Pact, Slithermuse, Lotus Petal, LED (mull to 6)
Pact--> ESG, Pact--> ESG, Pact--> ESG, LED, Lotus Petal (GGGU), Slithermuse (breaking LED in response for BBB)
Draw 7: Culling the Weak, Tendrils of Agony, Tendrils of Agony, Chrome Mox, Infernal Tutor, Land Grant, Culling the Weak
Land Grant--> Dryad Arbor, Culling the Weak (BBBBBB), Chrome Mox (Culling the Weak) (BBBBBBB), Tendrils for 20.

H5: Pact, Pact, Chrome Mox, Dark Ritual, Cabal Ritual, Cruel Bargain, Infernal Contract
Pact--> Odious Trow, Chrome Mox (Trow) (B), Dark Ritual, Cabal Ritual, Infernal Contract
Draw 4: Land Grant, Land Grant, Pact, Culling the Weak
Land Grant--> Dryad Arbor, Culling the Weak (BBBB), Infernal Contract (B)
Draw 4: Manamorphose, Eternal Witness, Slithermuse, Chrome Mox
Pact-->ESG, Pact--> ESG, Manamorphose (BBU) drawing Culling the Weak, Chrome Mox (Culling the Weak) (BBBU), Slithermuse
Draw 6: LED, ESG, Pact, Manamorphose, ESG, Lotus Petal
LED, ESG, Pact--> ESG, ESG (GGG), Manamorphose--> (BGG) drawing Dark Ritual, Dark Ritual (BBBGG), Lotus Petal (BBBBGG), Eternal Witness (BBB)--> (breaking LED in response for UUU) Slithermuse (BB)
Draw 7: Land Grant, Chrome Mox, Bayou, Infernal Tutor, Tendrils of Agony, Infernal Contract, Cabal Ritual
Chrome Mox (Infernal Tutor) (BBB), Cabal Ritual (BBBBBB), Tendrils for 44

H6: Pact, ESG, Manamorphose, Dark Ritual, Infernal Tutor, LED (mull to 6)
Pact--> ESG, ESG, Manamorphose (BB)--> Land Grant, Land Grant--> Bayou, (BBB), Dark Ritual (BBBBB) LED, Infernal Tutor (breaking LED in response for UUU) (BBBBBU) --> Slithermuse (0)
Draw 7: Dark Ritual, Lotus Petal, Lotus Petal, ESG, Land Grant, Infernal Tutor, Chrome Mox
Chrome Mox (Land Grant), Petal x2 (BBBBG), ESG, (BBBBGG), Dark Ritual (BBBBBBGG) Infernal Tutor--> Tendrils for 24.

H7: Land Grant, Land Grant, LED, Dark Ritual, Chrome Mox, Goblin Charbelcher (mull to 6)
Option 1:
T1: Land Grant-->Dryad Arbor, pass
T2: Draw Chrome Mox, Land Grant--> Bayou (BG), Dark Ritual (BBBG), LED, Belcher, activate for the kill.
Option 2:
T1: Land Grant--> Bayou, Chrome Mox (Land Grant) (BG), Dark Ritual (BBBG), LED, Belcher, activate for 28.

The first option has less risk of a misfire. Even so, you have both Land Grant and Bayou in play in option 2, which means you have a high probability of a 2nd activation if the first misfired.

H8: Lotus Petal, Dark Ritual, Cruel Bargain, Infernal Contract, Tendrils of Agony, Land Grant (mull to 6)
Lotus Petal (B), Dark Ritual (BBB), Infernal Contract (0),
Draw 4: Culling the Weak, Culling the Weak, Chrome Mox, Belcher
Land Grant--> Dryad Arbor, Chrome Mox (Tendrils) (B), Culling the Weak--> Arbor (BBBB), Infernal Contract (B)
Draw 4: Bayou, Pact, Dark Ritual, Cabal Ritual
Dark Ritual (BBB), Pact--> Odious Trow (BB), Culling the Weak (BBBBB), Cabal Ritual (BBBB BBBB), Belcher, activate for the kill

H9: Land Grant, ESG, Infernal Contract, Cabal Ritual (mull to 4)
T1: Land Grant--> Bayou, ESG (GB), Cabal Ritual (BBB), Infernal Contract
Draw 4: Land Grant, Belcher, Culling the Weak, Culling the Weak
Pass
T2: Draw--> LED
Land Grant--> Dryad Arbor, Culling the Weak (BBBB), Belcher, LED, activate for the kill

H10: Infernal Contract, Infernal Contract, Culling the Weak, Lotus Petal, Cabal Ritual, ESG, Dark Ritual
Lotus Petal, Dark Ritual, Cabal Ritual, Infernal Contract (B)
Draw 4: Infernal Tutor, Pact, Pact, Dark Ritual
Dark Ritual (BBB), Pact--> Dryad Arbor, Culling the Weak (BBB BBB), Pact--> ESG (BBB BBB G), Infernal Contract (BBB G)
Draw 4: Infernal Tutor, Cabal Ritual, Chrome Mox, Culling the Weak
Chrome Mox (Culling the Weak) (BBBB G), Infernal Tutor--> Cabal Ritual (BBB), Cabal Ritual (BBB BBB), Cabal Ritual (BBB BBB BBB), Infernal Tutor--> Tendrils for 30.

Old Threads:
http://www.mtgthesource.com/forums/s...Storm-Combo%29
http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?t=58807

[Vacrix]

reserved for matchups and sample hands

[Hanni]

Actually, this is merely a hilarious coincidence and was not how the deck got its name. Rather, the creator, Colby Evenpence, chose to name it the Spanish Inquisition because he planned on winning so quickly that his opponents would say "I wasn't expecting that," then Colby could reply, "Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!!"

Awesome. I approve of this primer.

[TheSleeper]

This is fantastic - thanks Vacrix!

Which of the above lists would you class as the 'easiest' to learn (even if sacrificing some speed)? I know you once mentioned a version of PSI that had more manamorphose in it. Would be good for newcomers to know where best to start.

[Vacrix]

It really depends on your playstyle (glasshouse vs. slowroll) and familiarity with storm. SI-TES is probably the easiest though. Usually you will just play one D4 into EtW for like 20 tokens and win on turn 2. Its a very easy to list to learn on IMO. There aren't too many intricate lines of play, not even an IGG loop. Just BW + LED into Tendrils or a D7 or IT into Tendrils/EtW/BW. My plan is to have 10 sample hands up for each basic list in order to show basic play and the more intricate puzzles people run into, especially in the more convoluted lists like PSI.

[Gocho]

Wow! Great Primer.

EDIT:
The hands plays are very useful, but I think that you use 5 ESG in your H5 and forgot to cast Dark Ritual before the fisrt Draw spells in your H3 and H6 hands ;)
I need 4 Cruel Bargain ASAP :D

[GoldenCid]

Mm....i think that question could be better answered by vacrix or finalfortune

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[Holly]

4 carpet of flowers
4 Lotus bloom though some numbers of tomb are fine too depending on the matchups you're expecting.
4/3 split of duress/thoughtseize/autums veil

[rhinoflipper]

4 carpet of flowers
4 Lotus bloom though some numbers of tomb are fine too depending on the matchups you're expecting.
4/3 split of duress/thoughtseize/autums veil

Ok, this sounds good. Am I correct in saying that postboard, my plan is to resolve belcher and eat away at my opponents' life? Since I board out a lot of explosive cards, am I really trying to win with tendrils? If I am correct, then wouldn't swarms be better than veil?

Thanks!

[GoldenCid]

Maybe you could show us how you side in order to help / lear in the best form.

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[Holly]

You can play Swarms if you want, as I said it depends on the matchup you're going to face. If you're playing against tempo decks with lightning bolt the swarm is no good, they will keep them in, in anticipation of the swarm and to fasten their clock.
If all you're facing are slow blue decks like Miracles, Blade-Control or something like High Tide swarm is good.

Boarding.. well start by cutting the Pact-stuff since you don't want to pact versus blue.
4 Summoners Pact
4 Culling the Weak
1 Skyshroud Cutter
1 Wild Cantor
1 Ill-Gotten Gains (sucks without an active Swarm/Veil)
4 more to go which now varies a lot imho.
You could shave 1-2 ESG, 1 d4, the Tendrils, the Empty, the Arbor, 1 tutor.
it does depend what deck your opponent plays and what hes seen so far.
Did you kill him with ETW/does he expect it? If yes he will board something -> you can cut it.
Is his deck slow enough for a natural Tendrils, using his storm count? Leave it in.

[rhinoflipper]

Maybe you could show us how you side in order to help / lear in the best form.

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Typically I do:
-4 culling
-4 pact
-4 esg
-1 cutter
-1 cantor
-1 arbor

+everything

Against Thresh, I leave my tombs out and leave in usually esg.

[Final Fortune]

If you cut Belchers from the lists with Land Grant then you may as well cut Land Grant and play Fetchlands so they can't see your hand and then counter your land drops.

If you want to play the mono black version of this deck, just play with the robots, Vault of Secrets and Mox Opal to max out on all of the fast mana or Swamps and Kobolds so you can build up a wasteland proof manabase and feed your dead cards to Chrome Mox.

[GoldenCid]

I am not saying that we should cut all belcher copies. I just think that i prefer more copies of toa over belcher.

Morever....i was goldfinishing the deck and i really want to increase my t1 combio ratio. How do you think i could do that?? Maybe i'm the problem but i can hardly go off without fizzle t1.

This is the list i goldfished:

8 D4
4 petal
4 mox
4 Pact
4 IT
4 ESG
2 Shaman
1 Cutter
1 Cantor
4 Culling
4 D. ritual
4 C. ritual
1 IGG
4 Tedirils
1 Belcher
4 LED
4 Land grant
1 Bayou
1 Dryad arbor

Thx!!

[rhinoflipper]

I am not saying that we should cut all belcher copies. I just think that i prefer more copies of toa over belcher.

Morever....i was goldfinishing the deck and i really want to increase my t1 combio ratio. How do you think i could do that?? Maybe i'm the problem but i can hardly go off without fizzle t1.

This is the list i goldfished:

8 D4
4 petal
4 mox
4 Pact
4 IT
4 ESG
2 Shaman
1 Cutter
1 Cantor
4 Culling
4 D. ritual
4 C. ritual
1 IGG
4 Tedirils
1 Belcher
4 LED
4 Land grant
1 Bayou
1 Dryad arbor

Thx!!

Run Empty. That card is OP.

[GoldenCid]

In place of?

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[rhinoflipper]

In place of?

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-1 Shaman
+1 Empty

[GoldenCid]

Ops, i thoguht on igg. Creatures makes culling the weak worth

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[Eclipsebolt]

In this deck:


[deck]Mana:
4 Dark Ritual
4 Cabal Ritual
4 Culling the Weak
4 Lion's Eye Diamond
4 Land Grant
1 Bayou
4 Lotus Petal
4 Chrome Mox

Cheeri0s:
4 Ornithopter
4 Phyrexian Walker
4 Shield Sphere

Draw 4:
4 Cruel Bargain
4 Infernal Contract

Tutors:
2 Diabolic Intent
4 Infernal Tutor

Business:
1 Ill-Gotten Gains
3 Tendrils of Agony
1 Goblin Charbelcher[/deck]


Are these keep-able hands? or do you throw them away?(this is game one against unknown opponent)


hand 1:
1 tendrils
3 LED
1 infernal tutor
1 walker
1 dark rit


hand 2:
3 land grant
1 bragain
1 thropter
1 walker
1 culling

hand 3:
1 culling
2 walker
1 dark rit
1 cabal rit
1 mox
1 sphere


hand 4:
1 belcher
1 tendrils
1 cabal rit
1 petal
1 contract
1 dark rit
1 LED

for this hand, do you crack led in response to your D4 and drop your win cons? or do you hope to draw mana sources?

hand 5:
1 petal
2 walker
2 contract
1 culling
1 belcher

do you belcher and hope to draw mana? or D4?

[Zupponn]

Okay, so I was looking at the last few pages and started playing around with stuff. I'm usually not a combo player, but Spanish Inquisition has always intrigued me (might be because of the name?) so I took a shot at creating something silly.


4x Veteran Explorer
1x Primeval Titan
1x Dryad Arbor

4x Lion's Eye Diamond
4x Lotus Petal
4x Culling the Weak
4x Dark Ritual
4x Cabal Therapy
4x Green Sun's Zenith
4x Diabolic Intent
4x Infernal Tutor
2x Infernal Contract
2x Cruel Bargain
1x Ad Nauseam
1x Ill-Gotten Gains
1x Tendrils of Agony

4x Bayou
4x Verdant Catacombs
4x Swamp
1x Forest
1x Thespian's Stage
1x Dark Depths

I started with Final Fortune's list 2 pages back (I think) with the GSZs and started playing around with it. I found that it can generate a buttload of mana really fast and I was finding myself usually with more mana than I knew what to do with. The thought occurred to me, "Why don't I give Prime Time a try with Stage/Depths combo?" and I giggled at the thought, so I tried it out. It works, surprisingly, and I've been able to go both the Tendrils route and the Stage/Depths route multiple times when goldfishing. I haven't really tried it against anyone yet, so I have no clue how good it is, or even if my numbers are right, but it does make me smile when it goes off. :D