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

[kicks_422]

Was going to make a new thread for this since I feel it's a bit different from SI but here's my list I've been testing on and off the past few weeks
(decklist)

A less budget version of this: Mono-Black Storm

I agree that it has its merits. Never gotten around to testing it with Infernal + LED though, but I definitely approve of it.

[Rood]

Very strange build. How do the four of AdN + double ToA work together? Don't you lose to bad flips from time to time?

Very rare do you fizzle once AdN goes off. I think maybe over 300 games I've played I've fizzled maybe 3 times. It's really actually not an issue at all.

[kicks_422]

The average cc of the deck is much lower than other AdNauseam decks, if you compute for it.

How is 4 MD protection working for you? I've got 8 in the MD, but with those many bombs in the deck, I can see dropping the Therapies.

[GhekoN]

Hi, i am very interested into Spanish Inquisiotion and i have a little appeal for you: Can someone recommend me a good list WITHOUT Lion's Eye Diamond?
I have all cards or can buy ( i have near all base deck and also burning wishes, pacts etc. ) all cards of every version here, but i cant afford LED's in the moment. My metagame is Zoo/Loams/Merfolks( a lot of )/Standstills/Elfes/Dredge, so i think something between control-oriented and fast version.
Thanks!

Only non-LED version i see is this-

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


Is it still actual? Because after some my testing, often i have big storm, but i cant find final tendrils.

[jrsthethird]

Vacrix, have you played in any tournaments lately? I'd like to see a tournament report or something, with an idea of how you sideboard for blue matchups. I've bee playing around with Direlemming's D7 list that you posted, except I've been trying a Cabal Therapy in the board instead of Duress.

Also, what do we do about artifact hate, like Canonist, Chalice, Thorn? I'm thinking of putting a Deathmark in the board against Canonist, Teeg, and Meddling Mage, but I realized that Teeg can be handled with Grapheshot and Mage on Tendrils can be handled with either Grapheshot or ETW, so Deathmark seems unnecessary. I saw Meltdown in a previous list, seems like an ok option, but have you considered Deconstruct? It's essentially a free spell/storm count, and it avoids blowing up your own Moxes/LEDs.

[Vacrix]

I haven't played magic in like 3 weeks. I've been on the East coast attending various fencing camps and kinda travelling around visiting relatives. I will attend my local events regularly, but I switch back and forth between Solidarity and SI.

Death Mark is great. Feel free to run it if you are running into a lot of bears. Against most decks, you don't really care about bears though, you can usually just race them. Diluting the deck with cards that don't help your combo is a little inhibiting in that list. Bears only become a problem if you run into a good control deck. Decks like UWT and some survival lists pack both perma hate and FoW. Thats really where you get tripped up by bears. A deck like QSI, though, really has to board in some removal because its so slow.

@Ghekon
Yes that version is a real version. If you are looking for a budget deck though, Underground Seas aren't exactly the cheapest cards around. You do sometimes have trouble finding ToA. Its a much harder list to play if you aren't experienced with SI. Other lists run crutch cards like IT and BW that let you be much more lazy with your mana and spells. With QSI, you really have to do a lot of calculation.

[DukeDemonKn1ght]

I kind of like the idea of Deconstruct. Maybe I'm misjudging here, but it seems to me like the decks that we would want to blow up multiple artifacts against in the first place are Stax and Stompy variants. I would think that in these matches, being able to nuke one artifact is going to be as good as nuking multiples about 9 times out of 10.

However, this is just a first reaction to the idea.

[Volrath]

But GGG is useless, you cant cast anything of it.

[Vacrix]

Yes, GGG is a hard to certainly hard to use. However, a while back someone suggested Orochi Leafcaller to make use of mad mad green mana. Even if we could convert it to make it free, getting to the point at which you can cast 2G with a Chalice of 3sphere down isn't as easy as it sounds.

[Vacrix]

Just wanted to share something amazing. This just happened, while I was testing PSI on the draw (where you can mulligan more aggressively because you get an extra card).
Mulligan no initial mana 7 into, no business 6 into, no business 5, into no initial mana 4, into:
Dark Ritual, Dark Ritual, Infernal Contract
Draw: Land Grant
Land Grant--> Bayou, Dark Ritual x2, Infernal Contract
Draw 4: Summoner's Pact, Culling the Weak, Infernal Tutor, Infernal Contract
Summoner's Pact-->Odious Trow, Culling the Weak, Infernal Contract
Draw 4: Cabal Ritual, Slithermuse, Summoner's Pact, Infernal Contract
Summoner's Pact--> ESG, Cabal Ritual, Infernal Contract
Draw 4: Eternal Witness, Tendrils of Agony, Land Grant, Cabal Ritual
Cabal Ritual, Land Grant, Tendrils of Agony for 28

I don't think I've ever done something that profoundly amazing with SI. Mull to 3, win turn 1 on the draw.



In other news, I'm also testing this board ATM:
x4 Xantid Swarm/Autumn's Veil
x3 Duress
x4 Carpet of Flowers
x2 Tomb of Urami
x2 Goblin Charbelcher

[Vacrix]

In other news, I'm also testing this board ATM:
x4 Xantid Swarm
x3 Duress
x4 Carpet of Flowers
x2 Tomb of Urami
x2 Goblin Charbelcher

This board is amazing. Just tested it against New Horizons about 5 full matches. I won 3 of them, and every game I lost, without exception, was a very close game. A few of those games were just to Belcher misfires as well so there was a little bad luck in that case. Then again, boarding in 2 lands doesn't necessarily increase your chances of getting a good Belch. In that case, I might switch those Tombs to Birds of Paradise. Both act as an initial B, even if its a turn slower, while providing Culling fodder and a potential chump blocker. After learning how to manipulate this list, I'm getting turn 3-5 protected kills consistently. I goldfished it for a while in addition to playing these games, trying to play through 1 countermagic. It can. I'm very happy with the maindeck as well, same one I've been playing:

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

This is how I'm boarding out:
-4 Summoner's Pact
-3 Tendrils of Agony
-2 Manamorphose
-1 Land Grant
-1 Dryad Arbor
-1 Slithermuse
-1 Odious Trow
-1 Eternal Witness
-1 Culling the Weak
(-15)
+15 board vs. U.dec

It works so well that I might just start playing this over Solidarity. I've always loved the Merfolk matchup, where Tomb of Urami is even better. I'd imagine that the Merfolk matchup would be even better than the New Horizons matchup because the usual builds don't have an answer for Xantid Swarm or Tomb. In short, I'm very satisfied and I highly suggest anyone who is playing the Pact list to test this SB ASAP, cause its seriously tearing shit up right now. Its even difficult to play against when you know what the opponent is playing. You might think, I'll play mana denial, and then the opponent is just sitting on a lot of mana, while sometimes you think, I'll counter the business and then your opponent has heavy business. After I explained it to my friend on New Horizons, he still wasn't sure what to counter, and it was often the wrong thing just because I know how to bait out what he should counter that way I can play my hand on my terms.

[Philipp2293]

As slower control seems to be on the rise, and these decks sometimes run Meddling Mage in the SB, do you just hope they name Tendrils?

Also, I'm not too happy about the tombs with a 4 Belcher/0 Tendrils configuration, how often do you fizzle postboard?

[Vacrix]

Yes. You hope they name Tendrils. And it works. Seriously, the control players expect you to board out the Belchers because they can be countered. Actually, if they resolve, its usually GG. If I see MM though I will keep in Tendrils, or if I expect MM. Often at least in smaller tournaments, you playing SI will finish in like the first 20 minutes, whether or not you win or lose, allowing you to see how your opponents will board.

Post-board I'm actually not fizzling because you don't need to keep the spell chain complete. All you need to do is keep acquiring more resources until you can eventually land a game winning threat. So I might D4, play Xantid Swarm, and pass. Then D4 again, then win. So basically you might 'fizz' more implying that your spell chains are shorter, but your wins are significantly more consistent. Basically, you just try to find LED + IT --> Belcher, or Belcher, usually with a protection spell in there somewhere. The only fizzing that has been happening is from Belcher misfires, likely from my boarded in Tombs. I like the Tombs because they provide a different line of attack, but they might not be worth it at the end of the day if my plan is just to use Belcher.

Also, this deck actually loves playing against slower control (exception = CB). These aggro control matchups are the problem matchups (even though the game plan is fairly good against them). I'm only losing games to countermagic + fast clock. Medium speed (turn 6-7) clocks aren't cutting it because I'm still able to go off between turns 3-5 fairly consistently.

[TheSleeper]

Vacrix: With that SB-out plan, the deck shell is the same as the Land Grant SI list minus 4 x ESG. Could that deck then implement a similar SB (instead of its fallback 'man-plan')? Just wondering which direction to go in with LGSI. I appreciate you're not testing that list per se, but figure you might have an insight.

[Vacrix]

I doubt you could do the same thing. ESG is too strong. It allows you to cast both Carpet of Flowers and Xantid Swarm, and acts as Daze protection. I'd still advocate a man plan for LGSI.. unless you want to play protection in the MD and then SB ESG's in. Otherwise it really is hard to cast the stuff from the board. You just don't have enough green sources.

[pandaman]

Just wanted to share something amazing. This just happened, while I was testing PSI on the draw (where you can mulligan more aggressively because you get an extra card).
Mulligan no initial mana 7 into, no business 6 into, no business 5, into no initial mana 4, into:
Dark Ritual, Dark Ritual, Infernal Contract
Draw: Land Grant
Land Grant--> Bayou, Dark Ritual x2, Infernal Contract
Draw 4: Summoner's Pact, Culling the Weak, Infernal Tutor, Infernal Contract
Summoner's Pact-->Odious Trow, Culling the Weak, Infernal Contract
Draw 4: Cabal Ritual, Slithermuse, Summoner's Pact, Infernal Contract
Summoner's Pact--> ESG, Cabal Ritual, Infernal Contract
Draw 4: Eternal Witness, Tendrils of Agony, Land Grant, Cabal Ritual
Cabal Ritual, Land Grant, Tendrils of Agony for 28

I don't think I've ever done something that profoundly amazing with SI. Mull to 3, win turn 1 on the draw.



In other news, I'm also testing this board ATM:
x4 Xantid Swarm/Autumn's Veil
x3 Duress
x4 Carpet of Flowers
x2 Tomb of Urami
x2 Goblin Charbelcher

You realise that you now have to amend your opening post, because you got the mull to 3 turn 1 kill that's been eluding you That is indeed ridiculous!

[Vacrix]

Finally updated the PSI list, and yes the mull to 3 section as well.


Also, this synth intrigues me immensely:
Summoner's Pact + Cabal Therapy

Together, they can make 5 storm if you enable Summoner's Pact-->Uktabi Drake
Drake counts for 2 storm (discussed a few pages back) because it counts as a spell and can swing for 2. Pact counts as 1, and Cabal Therapy counts as 2 if you sacrifice Drake after playing it. All for the cost of BG and those 2 cards. This would allow PSI to play significantly smaller spell chains on occasion, much in the same way LED and IT make goldfishing easier. x4 Pacts are already maindeck, but I'm going to try to explore different ways to add Pacts into the MD, possibly to increase the avg. goldfish rate or improve consistency while providing protection.

[Iranon]

That's quite a sweet interaction... but all in all, I see Therapy working better in old-fashioned robot builds because you consistenty have free flashback targets.

*

Regarding random roadblocks: I hate making my deck less consitent by running narrow answers I may not need, especially since 'just race them' is an acceptable strategy against many problems. However, I also hate losing outright to random junk.
One reason I love Glimpse (and have gone to 3-4) is that it doesn't slow me down while giving me the ability to draw my entire deck... this in turn means even a single Wish will be available when opponents try to inhibit our ability to win (some form of shroud, Meddling Mage on a win condition etc).

*

Even without a 'draw-everything' tech: I really, really, really don't think we can just ignore Leyline of Sanctity. We can deal with other cards that we can't race (like Force of Will and Mindbreak Trap) because if an opponent mulligans aggressively for these, we have an excellent chance of winning the ensuing battle of attrition.
Not so if the 0-mana card shuts us down for good: A rational opponent who lost game 1 could gamble on our inability to deal with Leyline and mulligan down to 1 if they don't get it earlier. I don't play the most consistent turn-1 deck to give my opponent a 87% chance for turn-0 wins, on the back of 4 cards (which translates into at least a 75% chance of losing both post-board games after we won game 1. If the rest of our opponents' deck is relevant at all, expect match percentages less than 10% in our favour.)

Leyline of Sanctity isn't that narrow that I'd expect it to be entirely unplayed. We'd be gambling on our opponent's inability to make the game degenerate into statistics vastly in their favour... which stirkes me as both risky and arrogant.

[Silent Requiem]

I'm a Solidarity player, not an SI player, but I follow this thread because SI is just such an interesting deck - somebody brought one into the meta recently and I knew at once that I had (for the first time) just encountered a deck almost as awesome as Solidarity.

Anyway, Leyline of Sanctity is being played. I had a Rock opponent mull into 3 of them in a recent tournament. That shut me down hard (I only have two bounce spells in the maindeck). I've also given some serious thought to sideboarding it against fast combo (such as SI and Belcher) because Swarm shuts out my counter magic.

I'm not saying that it will become ubiquitous, but I do agree that it is something you should expect to see from time to time.

-Silent Requiem

[ktkenshinx]

Leyline of Sanctity isn't that narrow that I'd expect it to be entirely unplayed. We'd be gambling on our opponent's inability to make the game degenerate into statistics vastly in their favour... which stirkes me as both risky and arrogant.

I have been testing this deck since MT's banning in July, and I agree that Leyline will see play. I do not believe it will be as widespread as some people fear, especially because decks like Zoo and CounterTop are more likely to use Gaddock Teeg and Ethersworn Canonist as their storm stoppers. That said, it is a great inclusion in the GB sorts of decks, like that which silent requiem faced. What's the solution? Add more goblins (Empty the Warrens). There are a number of reasons to use this win condition as an alternative to Tendrils, even if we ignore Leyline's presence. Here are the big ones.

1. Spell chain length
Tendrils requires what I like to call an "extended" spell chain, one that must necessarily be longer than the number of cards in your opening hand. Empty the Warrens does not. While Warrens benefits from extended spell chains, it does not require them. That means even subpar draws off of your Draw4s can give you the win, as long as you can cast Warrens.

2. Rite of Flame: Ritual redundancy
It always surprises me how much non-black mana I can use without having any left over. Those little colorless manas here and there really add up:
Eternal Witness
Cabal Ritual
Infernal Tutor
Slithermuse
Tendrils of Agony
Belcher/Empty the Warrens
The Rites become lethal accelerants with Empty the Warrens, as they actually power out your kill card directly. This gives you double the reason to include them.

3. Force of Will remains
An assumption of this deck is that it does not do great against the midrange aggro-control hybrids packing both a clock and FoW. In the wake of GP Columbus, it seems that those decks are going to be around for a bit. Empty the Warrens gives you an alternative option in this matchup. How does EtW improve a FoW matchup? Your spell chain can be shorter. That means you can pause a spell chain to disrupt or prepare for disruption, if need be. Imagine that you are running Duress or Autumn's Veil as your maindeck or SB answer. Let's say that you resolve a D4 with only 1 mana left in the pool. Your opponent intends on countering your next ritual or mana source to stop your progress. If you are running an ETW win, you can stop right there, pass the turn, disrupt your opponent next turn, and you can still Empty a pretty damn big warren on their face. If you had Tendrils, however, you may not have enough resources to be lethal AND play around disruption.

-ktkenshinx-