Page 11 of 65 FirstFirst ... 7891011121314152161 ... LastLast
Results 201 to 220 of 1284

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

  1. #201
    我不是你的英雄。
    Jonathan Alexander's Avatar
    Join Date

    May 2010
    Location

    Germany
    Posts

    854

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

    I've basically always played this deck with Burning Wish and to be honest I rarely need most of my wishtargets like Meltdown and Reverent Silence. They just don't make that much of a difference. I think your focus when playing this deck should be winning as soon as possible. Against stuff like Dragon Stompy, you'll lose against Trinisphere unless they got an abysmal hand, since if they can land turn one Trinisphere, they usually can land some kind of threat turn two. Faerie Stompy is this deck's worst matchup, but nobody plays Faerie Stompy. Counterbalance is often too slow, even when paired up with other countermagic. The odds of them being able to counter our first attempt to go off and then land Counterbalance on turn two are worse than the odds of us being able to go off turn one and then being able to Burning Wish for Reverent Silence. Plus SI often even maindecks some kind of disruption. I lose more games because I fizzle than because of my opponent disrupting my gameplan. I found storm combo to be more intimidating than CounterTop. Another rather bad matchup is Reanimate. They can counter our attempt to go off on turn one and still reanimate Iona on turn two. We can't handle Iona on black. We can pray to be able to cast Empty The Warrens for 8+ tokens without using our rituals, but good luck with that. Anyway, Reanimate is another matchup you won't face that often anymore, so this doesn't actually matter.
    I actually managed to pick up the deck again and I made a few changes to my list. Like I stated before, I figured that aiming for maximum speed game one is generally the best thing to do. The deck doesn't ever set up, it goes off. Therefore I'm playing a rather business-heavy version right now and I really like it so far. This is my list:

    //Lands
    1 Bayou
    4 Misty Rainforest

    //Creatures
    1 Dryad Arbor
    4 Elvish Spirit Guide
    1 Slithermuse
    1 Tinder Wall
    1 Wild Cantor


    //Other Spells
    4 Burning Wish
    4 Cabal Ritual
    4 Chrome Mox
    4 Cruel Bargain
    4 Culling The Weak
    4 Dark Ritual
    1 Empty The Warrens
    1 Ill-Gotten Gains
    3 Infernal Contract
    4 Infernal Tutor
    4 Lion's Eye Diamond
    4 Lotus Petal
    4 Summoner's Pact
    2 Tendrils Of Agony

    //Sideboard
    1 Deathmark
    1 Diminishing Returns
    1 Duress
    3 Empty The Warrens
    1 Ill-Gotten Gains
    1 Infernal Contract
    1 Reverent Silence
    1 Shattering Spree
    1 Tendrils Of Agony
    4 Xantid Swarm

    There's not much else to say about it. Against control I board out Slithermuse, Ill-Gotten Gains and Summoner's Pact for 2 Empty The Warrens and 4 Xantid Swarm. I still have the same amount of business but don't have to go all-in with Summoner's Pact. I also don't have to go all-in on a single spell chain but can rather go off bit by bit, often resulting in spell chains with about four or five elements which either end in Empty The Warrens or kill the opponent cumulatively.
    I'm not entirely sure about Infernal Tutor or Infernal Contract sideboard. It really depends which is better to have in the sideboard. Maindeck Ill-Gotten Gains is pretty good by the way.
    Here are a few sample hands:

    Hand 1: Lotus Petal, Chrome Mox, Chrome Mox, Lion's Eye Diamond, Dark Ritual, Cruel Bargain, Elvish Spirit Guide. Keep.
    Lotus Petal, Dark Ritual, Cruel Bargain into Burning Wish, Burning Wish, Misty Rainforest, Bayou.
    Could've been better but whatever. Storm 3, ten life, no mana floating.
    Chrome Mox (imprint Burning Wish), Chrome Mox (imprint nothing), Lion's Eye Diamond, Bayou, exile Elvish Spirit Guide, Burning Wish, crack Lion's Eye Diamond, Empty The Warrens for 16 tokens. Note that you can also wish for Diminishing Returns if it's of importance to win immediately, but I'd rather go for Warrens game one.

    Hand 2: Misty Rainforest, Elvish Spirit Guide, Elvish Spirit Guide, Lotus Petal, Burning Wish, Infernal Contract, Lion's Eye Diamond. Keep, but possible mull. I'm usually too lazy to mull, except my hand is atrocious.
    Misty Rainforest for Bayou, going to 19.
    Lotus Petal, Exile both Spirit Guides, Lion's Eye Diamond, Burning Wish for Diminishing Returns (eight tokens are rather slow).
    Landdrop made, no mana floating, storm 4, Bayou is untapped. New hand: Lion's Eye Diamond, Summoner's Pact, Summoner's Pact, Misty Rainforest, Dark Ritual, Cruel Bargain, Tendrils Of Agony.
    Dark Ritual, Summoner's Pact for Elvish Spirit Guide, Summoner's Pact for Tinder Wall (could as well be Wild Cantor), Lion's Eye Diamond, Exile Elvish Spirit Guide, Tinder Wall, sacrifice Tinder Wall, Tendrils for 20.

    Hand 3: Misty Rainforest, Misty Rainforest, Dryad Arbor, Cruel Bargain, Slithermuse, Tendrils Of Agony, Lion's Eye Diamond. This is a clear mull.
    New hand: Dark Ritual, Culling The Weak, Infernal Contract, Elvish Spirit Guide, Summoner's Pact, Lion's Eye Diamond.
    Summoner's Pact for Wild Cantor, exile Spirit Guide for Wild Cantor, sacrifice Wild Cantor for Dark Ritual, Infernal Contract into Elvish Spirit Guide, Tinder Wall, Infernal Tutor, Misty Rainforest.
    Storm four, ten life, no mana floating.
    Misty Rainforest for Bayou, exile Elvish Spirit Guide for Tinder Wall, Culling The Weak, Lion's Eye Diamond, Infernal Tutor for Ill-Gotten Gains, in response sacrifice Lion's Eye Diamond for BBB.
    Storm eight, nine life, BBBBB floating.
    Ill-Gotten Gains for Dark Ritual, Lion's Eye Diamond and Infernal Tutor.
    Storm nine, nine life, BBBBB floating.
    Dark Ritual, Lion's Eye Diamond, Infernal Tutor for Tendrils Of Agony, in response sacrifice Lion's Eye Diamond for BBB.
    Tendrils for 26.

    In other news, I'm currently working on several lists with Ad Nauseam. They're somewhere between SI and Vintage Ad Nauseam Tendrils. They're definitely fun to play, but I'm still looking for a way to reliably get turn one Ad Nauseam. I'm not playing any cantrips right now, because I feel they only slow me down. There are basically two issues I have with the list that looks the most promising: I sometimes just die off Ad Nauseam and I sometimes don't get it. As soon as I found out how to improve this, I'll share a list. Anyway, turn one Ad Nauseam with Pact Of Negation backup is busted.

  2. #202
    Member

    Join Date

    Oct 2010
    Location

    Kingswinford, UK
    Posts

    59

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

    Glad to have you here.

    Sideboarding depends on your list. Quite often the classic LG builds play maindeck Cabal Therapy, in which case you only need to board in x4 more protection to get a fair amount. You don't want too much protection because then your spell chains will be weak.

    LG isn't obsolete per se; you should play whatever list suits your experience/skill level with the deck. Whether or not an SI variant is obsolete is mostly determined by how well you pilot it. Honestly I can't see myself playing the Land Grant list simply because I know how to play the Pact list and it does everything LG does only better, especially the post-board plan. Access to ESG opens up the avenue to Carpet of Flowers or Xantid Swarm quite often while Pact makes goldfishing much smoother. I think people freak out when they read the 'lose the game' line in the text. It rarely happens if you know how/when to use it and it often saves your ass due to Eternal Witness tricks. LG is still a great list though. Pretty much everyone in the thread plays his own variant of either PSI, SITES or LGSI. I don't think anyone is rocking QSI at the moment since TES is easier to play.

    Win percentages in an unknown meta depend on a lot of variables, namely, your piloting skills and the frequency of control. Non-FoW.dec is often just a bye.

    A good hand against control also depends on many factors. Does your opponent put you on storm combo? That makes 'mulligan for FoW' more likely. In game 1, I usually try to go for a fast win. If you have access to Cabal Therapy, you can play that first to protect your combo turn. In general though:
    Chrome Mox +
    Dark Ritual +
    Culling the Weak +
    Lion's Eye Diamond +

    Lotus Petals -
    Land Grant -
    Cabal Ritual -

    +'s indicate you want these cards against control while -'s indicate that you do not want them as much. Chrome Mox is strong because its a perpetual resource. It allows you to make multiple attempts at a spell chain. Dark Ritual and Culling the Weak are both excellent pieces of acceleration that are usually easy to protect from Daze. LED is ridiculous against control; as you bait with your D4's, you can pile up LED's until you can IT for Belcher and win. Petals are non-perpetual and therefore not as good as Chrome Mox as initial mana while Land Grant reveals to your strategy to the opponent. Cabal Ritual is good once you have Threshold but otherwise its too hard to protect from Daze, requiring 3 initial mana sources instead of 2.

    In game 2/3, try to play a double threat on the first turn. The Pact list does this really well post-board; the deck slows down its actual kill but maintains its effective speed by doing something powerfully relevant on the first turn.
    I like to make plays in some combination of (Duress/Xantid Swarm/Carpet of Flowers/D4) + (Duress/Xantid Swarm/Carpet of Flowers/D4). Even if your opponent has FoW, you have still gained the upper hand from the exchange by adding a tactical piece to your equation:
    - If Carpet is your piece, then it allows you to play around Daze fairly consistently, and paying 2 for Spell Pierce is not uncommon either. From there you can bait with D4's. If your opponent counters the D4's then your opponent is losing his countermagic. Usually 4 FoW are the only 4 hard counters you will run into (exception being Landstill) so after about 2 D4's I've usually exhausted all of my opponent's resources. Then you can either IT for Belcher or just play out Belcher and win. If your opponent doesn't counter the D4's than you acquire more resources, play more protection, and then effectively resolve Belcher.
    - If Xantid Swarm is your piece, then your opponent basically must come up with STP or he will lose in short order.
    - If Duress is your piece, make sure to play it first. If it resolves, take your opponent's countermagic/lock piece and resolve your 2nd piece protected. If Duress is countered, your opponent isn't likely to have a 2nd piece of protection so play your 2nd piece protected.
    - If D4 is your piece, you can just continue to storm off and win, or acquire more resources and play protection until you can stick a Belcher.

    This strategy is fairly straight forward in the Pact list because the list runs ESG. ESG allows you to cast Carpet and Xantid with relative ease, and play around Daze. It will be harder to execute this strategy in an LG list with scarcer green sources.
    Wow. It's nice to get a speedy reply from someone with a lot more experience with the deck :). So, I felt inspired after this to 'man up' and go back to the pact list, mainly on the strength of those sideboarding strategies. The maindeck took a bit of getting used to again. I might drop the slithermuse and eternal witness for something, as they tended to kill me as much as they bailed me out of different situations (but I was only running 2 manamorphose, so maybe I should go up to 4... hmm.... (I do love to tinker.....).

    I REALLY did love the siding though :). It was nice to see control players contorting around wondering what to counter rather than me wondering what to bait with for a change ;). The one thing I will say though is I lost 1 game to killing someone with the random belcher in game 1, and then he opened with turn 1 pithing needle (belcher) and then turn 2 pithing needle (lions eye diamond) having probably put me on some mad variant of goblin charbelcher. So.... It was down to Urami, but he couldn't quite make it (getting him down to 5 before I died (Jace bounced him (sadface)). With this in mind I will definately put some natures claims in the side. Maybe 2 instead of duresses. Any other ideas about getting around annoying enchantments/artifacts? Would be nice to find some room for Empty the Warrens off the if it could be supported with the 'manabase' as an additional man-plan?

    I was maybe going to try a few 'doomsdays' as additional bombs although I must admit this is just because I just got some black bordered ones together...

    Peace out

    The Spanish Tunnel King.

    PS I just read my last sentence back, and even as I did it sounds like a bad idea.... lol

  3. #203

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

    The opponent can pithing needle all these cards without you caring:

    Lotus Petal
    Chrome Mox
    Lion's Eye Diamond
    Grim Monolith
    Mox Opal

    They're all mana abilities so you can still activate them. Pithing needle reads: As Pithing Needle enters the battlefield, name a card.

    Activated abilities of sources with the chosen name can't be activated unless they're mana abilities.

    Had it happen on Saturday where a guy needled chrome mox and I was just like suuuuuuure. Then I played chrome mox and tapped it for mana and he's like "You can't" and I say "It only affects nonmana abilities. Pithing needle is not like null rod otherwise I'd be screwed." It didn't play out exactly like that but yeah next game he named belcher and I didn't care since I tendrils'd him out easily. Too bad you can't imprint artifacts on chrome mox...
    Bread Connoisseur on MTGSalvation Forums
    Currently Playing:
    All flavors of storm combo
    Quote Originally Posted by Vacrix
    Lands is a joke for Solidarity. Its like asking a morbidly obese parapalegic to run the mile with his shoes tied.

  4. #204

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

    I was thinking of getting into this deck. The PSI version on the primer looks interesting enough, but that particular list looks like it would have trouble with the white Leyline.

  5. #205
    我不是你的英雄。
    Jonathan Alexander's Avatar
    Join Date

    May 2010
    Location

    Germany
    Posts

    854

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

    Quote Originally Posted by Sintheros View Post
    I was thinking of getting into this deck. The PSI version on the primer looks interesting enough, but that particular list looks like it would have trouble with the white Leyline.
    You can easily run Deconstruct in the board. Or win via Empty The Warrens. Or run Burning Wish, like in the DSI lists. Being able to play Burning Wish for Reverent Silence is pretty good here, since you can just combo off until you got at least storm ten, 3BBR in pool and a forest in play. With storm eight and 4RR in pool you could also just wish for Empty The Warrens, swinging for 20 the next turn. This is also possible with Infernal Tutor as long as you have Empty The Warrens maindecked. SI is able to win games from nothing and against a lot of hate. You just have to know your options, play tight and maybe get a bit lucky. You can basically tune the deck for every expected meta, it's more versatile than most other decks, even most storm combo. There will always be a viable list that suits your playstyle.

  6. #206
    Psilovibin
    Vacrix's Avatar
    Join Date

    Apr 2008
    Posts

    2,203

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

    Quote Originally Posted by The Spanish Tunnel King View Post
    I was maybe going to try a few 'doomsdays' as additional bombs although I must admit this is just because I just got some black bordered ones together...
    I've been thinking about a similar strategy as I also have a playset.

    SB:
    4 Carpet of Flowers
    4 Doomsday
    4 Duress
    1 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
    1 Goblin Charbelcher
    1 Shelldock Isle

    I'd think our game would be much better against CB if we expect a CB heavy metagame. Unfortunately we don't have the maindeck tools or the sideboard space to craft more than the Emrakul pile but baiting with D4's into Doomsday sounds savage in SI. Drawing Emrakul kinda sucks but limiting ourselves to one makes the chance of drawing it very low, especially if we are baiting with D4's instead of reaping the resources from our draws.


    Also, I'm working on a list that takes advantage of Death's Shadow.

    SI - Grim Reaper
    Business 22
    4 Pain's Reward
    4 Cruel Bargain
    4 Infernal Contract
    4 Infernal Tutor
    4 Death's Shadow
    1 Tendrils of Agony
    1 Ill-Gotten Gains

    Acceleration 38
    1 Eternal Witness
    1 Odious Trow
    4 Culling the Weak
    4 Dark Ritual
    4 Cabal Ritual
    4 Elvish Spirit Guide
    4 Summoner’s Pact
    4 Lion’s Eye Diamond
    4 Chrome Mox
    4 Lotus Petal
    4 Land Grant
    1 Bayou
    1 Dryad Arbor

    Sideboard 15
    4 Carpet of Flowers
    4 Xantid Swarm
    4 Goblin Charbelcher
    2 Duress
    1 Slot

    vs. U.dec
    OUT 14
    -4 Infernal Tutor
    -4 Summoner’s Pact
    -2 Cabal Ritual
    -1 Tendrils of Agony
    -1 Ill-Gotten Gains
    -1 Odious Trow
    -1 Eternal Witness


    IN 14
    4 Carpet of Flowers
    4 Xantid Swarm
    4 Goblin Charbelcher
    2 Duress

    I had often overlooked Pain's Reward as an unplayable POS; however, if you don't get to draw the cards, then your opponent loses life. This is huge if we can find some fast way to deal a lot of damage. Conveinently, Death's Shadow is only playable if our life totals are low and the deck is the best around at doing that quickly. Further, Death's Shadow doubles as acceleration as a tallman for B that pitches for Culling the Weak and Chrome Mox. Pain's Reward either works like a Draw4, which is great already as we can play it now using ESG's mana, or it makes the opponent lose a lot of life allowing us to take advantage of Death's Shadow as a fast clock. Further, Death's Shadow can be an excellent backup plan against bears.

    Moreover, Death's Shadow allows us to Bluff on offense. Imagine we have a scenario in which I threaten Pain's Reward. I'm already at 10 life from a previous draw 4. If the opponent bets 9 life to keep me off the draw, then I can kill him with Death's Shadow because Pain's Reward will put him at least at 11 life. You can also disguise the true nature of the deck by being clever with Chrome Mox.

    Obviously Pain's Reward is bad if you are at 5 life from your D4's, but its great from either 10 or 20 life. I have no testing data yet to support this idea but I will get on it as soon as I can.



    Now Pain's Rewards is really a double edge sword. The opponent will firstly, not know what you are playing if you lead with it. He might point a counter at it or rationalize the situation that you need it to win and pay a lot of life to gain the card advantage, allowing you go for the Death's Shadow line of play, which can be made very, very easily via IT + LED or just hard casted. Then again, the other outcome is that the opponent doesn't pay much life. Either way, we have a solid game plan and will basically mindfuck every opponent we play, especially when we have an unconventional postboard plan.



    EDIT:
    Further, at low life Death's Shadow becomes an amazing topdeck, something that will allow us to put down some meat to block Goyf and friends as well as swing in for the finish against an unprotected opponent (like in the Landstill or CB matchup where creatures are fewer).
    Luck is a residue of design.



    I'm an aspiring Psychedelic Trance musician. Please feel free to enjoy my sense of life:
    http://soundcloud.com/vacrix


    Expect me or die. I play SI.

  7. #207
    我不是你的英雄。
    Jonathan Alexander's Avatar
    Join Date

    May 2010
    Location

    Germany
    Posts

    854

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

    Doomsday adds a lot more versatility to the deck. But I think it doesn't fit the deck. How often will baiting for countermagic until resolving Doomsday be better than simple discard? In general, protected turn two kills are good enough against blue decks. You only need about a single Duress and an extra Ritual more than if you go off unprotected. But you can cast Duress off almot any land the turn before you go off.
    I also don't like Doomsday without the ability to immediately win with it. But this might absolutely be me not fully understanding the Counterbalance matchup. I rarely play it since it's not important in my meta. Most blue decks I play against are either tempo or Merfolk, and sometimes stuff like Show And Tell and Reanimate. Against all of them going off as fast as possible game one and discard postboard are the best strategies.
    Pain's Reward is a card that I've thought about before but to be honest I dismissed it before I actually tested it. That list with Death's Shadow definitely looks interesting. What's the average amount of life you pay for Pain's Reward? And do you have any results yet?

    I did some testing with my list from post #201 by the way. Some serious testing. I basically did nothing else today, and these are my results:
    Average turn one win percentage is around 40%. It would be better if I hadn't played poorly during the last part of the testing session.
    Around 10% of all games are won via Empty The Warrens. I think this proves that the card is worth playing.
    Another 30% of all games were turn two kills. Sometimes this is too slow, but against most decks (protected) turn two IGG-kills are good enough.
    The remaining games were shit. I mostly lost due to bad mulligan decisions on my part or mulligans in general. I had like four or five games in a row where I mulliganed to four.

    Playing two Tendrils maindeck is good. It was the last thing I changed to the deck and I would have lost some games without having the second copy.
    I never wanted the maindeck Empty The Warrens to be Tendrils.
    Burning Wish is really good, but I almost only use it to get Tendrils, Ill-Gotten Gains or Diminishing Returns.
    Having Ill-Gotten Gains both maindeck and sideboard improves the deck.
    Both Tinder Wall and Wild Cantor are worth playing. I'm frequently using both of them.
    I sometimes want to have Skyshroud Cutter. I dislike pacting for Wild Cantor or Tinder Wall to use Culling The Weak just because I already played a land.
    I sometimes want to cut lands.
    I sometimes want Misty Rainforest to be Land Grant.
    The deck wins against everything non-blue, non-Belcher. The only exception is Zoo dealing nine or more damage until turn two, which happens from time to time.

    I hope to be able to play a few more games this week. Please note that I'm pretty exhausted right now, but I wanted to share my results. I'm sorry if something I'm saying doesn't make sense.

  8. #208

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

    Vacrix, that Death's Shadow list is 62 cards.

  9. #209
    Member

    Join Date

    Oct 2010
    Location

    Kingswinford, UK
    Posts

    59

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

    Quote Originally Posted by Jona View Post
    Doomsday adds a lot more versatility to the deck. But I think it doesn't fit the deck. How often will baiting for countermagic until resolving Doomsday be better than simple discard? In general, protected turn two kills are good enough against blue decks. You only need about a single Duress and an extra Ritual more than if you go off unprotected. But you can cast Duress off almot any land the turn before you go off.
    I also don't like Doomsday without the ability to immediately win with it. But this might absolutely be me not fully understanding the Counterbalance matchup. I rarely play it since it's not important in my meta. Most blue decks I play against are either tempo or Merfolk, and sometimes stuff like Show And Tell and Reanimate. Against all of them going off as fast as possible game one and discard postboard are the best strategies.
    Hey. Yeah, to be honest I think you're right about it probably not being better than a simple discard effect (sadly). But if you could float a shed-load of mana (maybe 7...), a doomsday followed by a draw4 would be game via the storm route too (esp with LEDs etc). And on the same turn to boot (I guess you might need a IGG maindecked too...) and would give you a nice out against some of the more awkward matches by: T1 duress T2 ritual doomsday T3 Emerakul. Not to mention you could surprise some show and tell player with your own Emerakul. Lol. It wins against counterbalance because they can't counter it (put in to play via shelldock isle) and blows everything up straight away because you get the extra turn. And fighting through an active counterbalance/top (if you've taken a gamble on a 'slow' hand or fizzled or got forced once or whatever) is actually a nightmare (esp game 1).

    All in all, it is probably not optimal, or might make another deck entirely, but I might put together something like a hybridised SITES/doomsday list and take it for a spin. I might even put a show and tell on the side ^^. I'll let you'all know how it works out...

    The Spanish Tunnel King

  10. #210
    Member-ish
    kicks_422's Avatar
    Join Date

    Feb 2006
    Location

    Manila
    Posts

    1,209

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

    Death's Shadow? Pain's Reward? Doomsday?

    Why? What was wrong with Pact SI? I'd like to know why there's such a need for drastic innovation when the deck's been performing great as it is.
    The Source: Your Source for "The Source: Your Source for..." cliche.

  11. #211
    *
    DarthVicious's Avatar
    Join Date

    Jun 2010
    Location

    Central NY
    Posts

    358

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

    Doomsday brings versatility, but it may be too demanding for this deck. QSI might be able to use it better given that it already runs more blue, then meditates and the shelldock package may not be too much to ask for.

    I'm going to have to go ahead and agree on Pain's Reward. Giving your opponent choices is not something we want to be doing, even if they lose x life from it. It's also horrible later on in a spell chain.

    I have been a huge fan of Death's Shadow since its printing, and it's tailor-made for this deck. Perfect for the man plan, effortlessly castable, and imprints black on mox.

    I've been testing Warrens as my business spells 17-20 with SSG MD, and having three colors aggravates me to no end. It's nice when it works, but I'm going back to IT and walkers. Birds over cantors.

  12. #212
    Member

    Join Date

    Oct 2010
    Location

    Kingswinford, UK
    Posts

    59

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

    Quote Originally Posted by kicks_422 View Post
    Death's Shadow? Pain's Reward? Doomsday?

    Why? What was wrong with Pact SI? I'd like to know why there's such a need for drastic innovation when the deck's been performing great as it is.
    Of course the list is pretty awesome, but I personally find that I need to innovate/tinker with my decks to keep up with metas and to just keep the deck fresh. Maybe its a personal thing. If some big tournament is coming up (sadly not so often here in the UK), then I'll go with a fairly base list that i'm really comfortable with (or play enchantress ^^). Who knows what will come of messing around a bit with the lists? After all PactSI seems to have been a huge innovation from the original LGSI list. Innovation is a good thing :).

    As for doomsday, in some fairly limited testing it didn't seems to up the odds against counterbalance that much at all. Maybe a little on the draw..... But if you can get an early/protected doomsday off you might as well have just gone off anyway, and it dilutes the sideboard a bit too much...

    And for anyone interested, it seems like the PactSI sideboard does fit quite well into the original LGSI lists. Lots of green sources after imprinting various green things on moxes or resolving a carpet of flowers. There is also a bit more space on the side because the duresses are 'pre-boarded'. This means i've gone for empty the warrens off the side (seems more sensible to beef up the man-plan against the layline rather than trying to disenchant it). I've not had any trouble casting EtW (as a 2 of) or any green source problems :). But I do use Kobalds instead of the walker set up new, so maybe that helps... And it leads to turn 1 - Kobalds of Kher Keep, the question 'Do you scoop?' and then tendrils based fun :).

    Keep rocking the turn 1's ppl!

    The Spanish Tunnel King
    Last edited by The Spanish Tunnel King; 11-08-2010 at 10:06 AM. Reason: Forgot to put some stuff in

  13. #213
    Member-ish
    kicks_422's Avatar
    Join Date

    Feb 2006
    Location

    Manila
    Posts

    1,209

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

    Found a chink in the impenetrable armor I thought I had with Pact SI - resolved permanents.

    Found myself COLD to a resolved Gaddock Teeg - had no way in my 75 to handle that when the Zoo player dropped it on Turn 2 going first. I turn 1'd him Game 3 though, for the 2-1 win.

    Next match was against some U/W control variant. Lost Game 1 closely due to a bad draw 4 (needed just one extra mana to Tendrils him out). Won Game 2 off the back of Xantid Swarm. Game 3 he dropeed a Turn 0 Leyline of Sanctity - and once again, I'm COLD.

    My SB's like this:
    4 Duress
    4 Xantid Swarm
    4 Carpet of Flowers
    2 Goblin Charbelcher
    1 Dosan, the Falling Leaf

    What can I do? Thinking of replacing the Duress with Thoughtseize for hate bears, and then maybe an Empty the Warrens for Dosan?

    It's either that or I just switch to the straight-up man plan - 4 Tombstalker, 4 P.Lich, etc.
    The Source: Your Source for "The Source: Your Source for..." cliche.

  14. #214
    Member

    Join Date

    Mar 2008
    Location

    Boa Vista RR (in the brazilian jungle)
    Posts

    37

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

    What can I do?
    - 4 MD protection
    - If you fear Gaddock, play Therapy
    - Cut Dosan for removal

  15. #215
    Site Contributor
    Admiral_Arzar's Avatar
    Join Date

    Feb 2010
    Location

    Denver, CO
    Posts

    1,289

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

    Quote Originally Posted by kicks_422 View Post
    Found a chink in the impenetrable armor I thought I had with Pact SI - resolved permanents.

    Found myself COLD to a resolved Gaddock Teeg - had no way in my 75 to handle that when the Zoo player dropped it on Turn 2 going first. I turn 1'd him Game 3 though, for the 2-1 win.

    Next match was against some U/W control variant. Lost Game 1 closely due to a bad draw 4 (needed just one extra mana to Tendrils him out). Won Game 2 off the back of Xantid Swarm. Game 3 he dropeed a Turn 0 Leyline of Sanctity - and once again, I'm COLD.

    My SB's like this:
    4 Duress
    4 Xantid Swarm
    4 Carpet of Flowers
    2 Goblin Charbelcher
    1 Dosan, the Falling Leaf

    What can I do? Thinking of replacing the Duress with Thoughtseize for hate bears, and then maybe an Empty the Warrens for Dosan?

    It's either that or I just switch to the straight-up man plan - 4 Tombstalker, 4 P.Lich, etc.
    I had the same problems with PSI, which eventually led me to play versions with Burning Wish instead. However, if you want to continue playing that list, run a couple of Empty the Warrens in the board, and replace Duress with Thoughtseize.
    Lord of the Chalice

    Quote Originally Posted by Julian23 View Post
    Since playing against Spiral Tide provides a lot fun for both players is something only someone who's not had sex for quite a while could enjoy, I pull out GW Maverick.
    Quote Originally Posted by Brainstorm Ape View Post
    Spikes are supposed to enjoy winning by leveraging their talents, but this card can't fetch the most SKILL INTENSIVE card in all of Magic?

    Clearly aimed at Modern plebs, not gonna be a pillar of our format.
    Stompy Discord: https://discord.gg/6cesvkz

  16. #216

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

    If you expect troublesome permanents in PSI you just have to include deathmark and/or nature's claim. You design your SB to fit your metagame. For what you mentioned I suggest your SB go like this:

    4 Thoughtseize
    4 Xantid Swarm
    4 Carpet of Flowers
    2 Nature's Claim
    1 Deathmark

    That way gaddock teeg shouldn't be a problem and you can draw into nature's claim if they lay it turn 0 while you're comboing out or if you have it in your opener great. Same with a resolved teeg you draw into the deathmark during combo.

    I don't like doomsday in SI it seems to be unneeded and uses up a lot of board space. True it can be done but is it better than just a normal protection plan i.e. duress, carpet, xantid swarm etc. etc.
    Bread Connoisseur on MTGSalvation Forums
    Currently Playing:
    All flavors of storm combo
    Quote Originally Posted by Vacrix
    Lands is a joke for Solidarity. Its like asking a morbidly obese parapalegic to run the mile with his shoes tied.

  17. #217

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

    I was just wondering if anyone has explored the idea of Pyromancer Ascension in SI? and also if there are any updates about the draw seven version of the deck.

  18. #218
    我不是你的英雄。
    Jonathan Alexander's Avatar
    Join Date

    May 2010
    Location

    Germany
    Posts

    854

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

    Quote Originally Posted by Hand_of_God View Post
    I was just wondering if anyone has explored the idea of Pyromancer Ascension in SI? and also if there are any updates about the draw seven version of the deck.
    Note that DSI basically shouldn't be named DSI here. It does nothing really special that other lists can't do nor does it have any draw seven that isn't played in other variants. It's rather Pact SI with Burning Wish and Slithermuse maindeck. The only real draw seven is Diminishing Returns off the wishboard. It's the list I personally like the most as it can do a lot of different tricks to get to enough storm. You often only have to play a single draw four to win the game, because you have lots of mana and tutors. I think my list from post #201 is the newest one. The statisticts from post #207 are slightly off by the way. I did a lot of testing that day and during the last 50 or so games I was pretty exhausted and kept hands I shouldn't have kept, Burning Wished for Diminishing Returns when I should've gotten Empty The Warrens and so on. My actual turn one percentage is around 60%, not counting Empty The Warrens kills. Counting Empty The Warrens it's slightly above 70%. The fizzle rate is roughly 5%. I think this is okay, other decks fizzle as well, not only combo, it's just that nobody says "look at that Merfolk player, he fizzled" when he just drew five lands or something. This is the luck factor of the game.
    As for Pyromancer Ascension, to me it seems cute. The effect is quite cool, but until you profit from it you will have cast at least six spells, not counting starting mana. You have to cast Pyromancer Ascension, four spells to get the counters on it (or you could have something like three Dark Ritual, okay) and then you have to cast another spell that will get copied. Here you just could have played another business spell or ritual, whatever you copied. Most of the time you will cast 8+ spells until you profit from it. Why not just cast Tendrils Of Agony, Empty The Warrens or a tutor for one of these? On top of that it's basically one of the worst possible draws mid-chain. It's almost as bad as drawing extra lands. I'd always play real business/rituals.

  19. #219

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

    I was just wondering if anyone has explored the idea of Pyromancer Ascension in SI
    Oh please stop that has got to be one of the worst suggestions ever....pyromancer ascension has to be built around to be good with cards like brainstorm, manamorphose, preordain...so many cards but as a topdeck in the spell chain it is horrid as Jona pointed out because of so many reasons. And overall it seems very unneeded it doesn't do anything the deck can already do without it. And you open yourself up to enchantment hate needlessly. And if you do build around the card it is no longer SI but pyromancer ascension combo.

    Sorry for ripping on you in the opening sentence of this post.
    Bread Connoisseur on MTGSalvation Forums
    Currently Playing:
    All flavors of storm combo
    Quote Originally Posted by Vacrix
    Lands is a joke for Solidarity. Its like asking a morbidly obese parapalegic to run the mile with his shoes tied.

  20. #220

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

    Not a problem for the rip. I am trying to piece together this deck and run with it as my legacy deck and I was just thinking of things that may work with it and had not seen a post with the ascension in it.

Thread Information

Users Browsing this Thread

There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)