[Deck] T.E.S. - The EPIC Storm

[thefringthing]

Also, did he not have PiF or something, would have won right up with silence backup most likely.

Commentators confirmed after the match that he did not have Past in Flames in his 75.

[sconnell]

Regarding to this:
Dark Ritual, Dark Ritual, Lion's Eye Diamond, Brainstorm, Infernal Tutor, Silence, Rite of Flame
- I'll keep this hand, I mean, you only need Land or Mox or Petal (Independant Mana Sources), for the rest you have Protection , Threats and Dependant Mana Sources. and you can play LED so that you 're not discarded, so you have 2 turns.

Related to the one with mox and ponder and brainstorm- Brainstorm, Ponder, Chrome Mox, Dark Ritual, Lion's Eye Diamond, Infernal Tutor, Burning Wish:
-I'll keep this hand also.
I mean play mox, imprint brainstorm and play Ponder, thats simple.

Above all keep in mind that this deck is the best deck to demonstrate statistics in magic and the first hand has all you need except Independant Mana Sources.

Hand 1. 4 petal + 4 mox + 13 land = 21 cards you want to draw, leaving 53-21 = 32 cards you don't want to draw.

Over one turn, your chance of drawing no mana source is 32/53=~60%

Over two turns:
your chance of drawing 0 mana sources is ~36%,
your chance of drawing 1 mana source is ~49%, and
your chance of drawing 2 mana sources is ~15%.

36% chance of drawing nothing over 2 turns is pretty high. Although the hand appears to have protection, the chance of casting Silence before trying to go off is fairly low.

Hand 2. Chrome -> Ponder hands are a pain but not as bad as the first hand. My decision on value that hand would depend on the matchup and play/draw.

[RaNDoMxGeSTuReS]

Sounds like a typical SCG's feature match.

The kid made top eight.

Wesley Surber

Artifacts
3 Chrome Mox
4 Lion's Eye Diamond
4 Lotus Petal

Instants
2 Ad Nauseam
4 Brainstorm
4 Dark Ritual
2 Orim's Chant
2 Silence

Sorceries
4 Burning Wish
4 Duress
4 Infernal Tutor
4 Ponder
1 Preordain
4 Rite of Flame
1 Tendrils of Agony

Lands
1 Bloodstained Mire
2 City of Brass
4 Gemstone Mine
1 Misty Rainforest
1 Polluted Delta
1 Scalding Tarn
2 Underground Sea
1 Volcanic Island

Sideboard:
2 Pyroblast
3 Deathmark
1 Diminishing Returns
1 Empty the Warrens
1 Grapeshot
1 Ill-Gotten Gains
1 Pyroclasm
1 Shattering Spree
1 Silent Departure
1 Tendrils of Agony
1 Thoughtseize
1 Virtue's Ruin

[Dark Ritual]

He had IGG in his board and he wished for EtW? He just deserves to lose that match against hive mind then. Chant him, ritual into BW, into IGG loop, into the win. While empty the warrens is GODAWFUL in the combo mirror, the only time I ever go for EtW in the combo mirror is if I can make 12+ goblins turn one on the play and even then, I'll agonize over what my opponent might have. Most of the time I'll refuse to go for EtW in the combo mirror, as I'm basically saying "if you have the combo that instantly kills me, you win." Punts all around.

[RaNDoMxGeSTuReS]

He had IGG in his board and he wished for EtW? He just deserves to lose that match against hive mind then. Chant him, ritual into BW, into IGG loop, into the win. While empty the warrens is GODAWFUL in the combo mirror, the only time I ever go for EtW in the combo mirror is if I can make 12+ goblins turn one on the play and even then, I'll agonize over what my opponent might have. Most of the time I'll refuse to go for EtW in the combo mirror, as I'm basically saying "if you have the combo that instantly kills me, you win." Punts all around.

He seems overall weaker to Maverick and has no outs to Chalice decks other than Shattering Spree.

Must had some seriously lucky pairings.

[paeng4983]

http://www.mtgthesource.com/forums/s...883#post637883

I just used this deck for two legacy tournaments here in Manila.
The 1st landing at 3rd. And the other one, I simply scrub-out.

Wish into infest against those GW mavs, really great.

thanks for reading.
:-)

[Dark Ritual]

He seems overall weaker to Maverick and has no outs to Chalice decks other than Shattering Spree.

Must had some seriously lucky pairings.

Either that or incredible luck/running hot, as sometimes you just win the die roll and go turn 1/2 ad nauseam into the win every match against a nonblue deck or the blue player just lacks interaction. Running hot is a thing that happens to all of us occasionally (I hope) as luck is part of the game and when you're the luckiest person in the room, you don't have to be good. My favorite expression in magic is "better to be lucky than good" as I've seen some people play incredibly tight and still lose due to bricking on draws in a match or having their opponent rip the nuts. My guess is this guy was just running hot that day and top 8'ed because of it.

[thommoi]

Hey guys,
have been on a 131 person tournament on Saturday (report on demand)... Went 6-3, missing top 8. Lost to Show and Tell (once with Sneak Attack, once with Hive Mind) twice.
Any suggestions on SBing or general gameplay against those decks? Felt like I never had a shot...
Thanks.
P.S. @Bryant: Thanks a lot for keeping the primer/SB-plans up to date. Really, really appriciate it.
EDIT: Feels like this is one of the MUs where Pyroblast would have been better than IoK...

[Matt]

Show and Tell and Spiral Tide are both interesting match-ups (they're very similar in my opinion). They generally take on the control role while we hold true to combo. But, because both pilots are playing combo, games are often fast and one-sided. Which, can make the match-up appear much worse or better than it really is... It's about even. We're slightly stronger against Spiral Tide, IMO, as our chant effects become really relevant. Duress/IoK is awkward against these decks, as we generally have to choose between counters or combo pieces. I'd personally go -1 Ponder, -1 Chrome Mox, -1 Infernal Tutor for +3 IoK. The 4th IoK wouldn't hurt; I just feel like three is adequate enough without affecting speed. Ps. We were easily favorable against these match-ups before the addition of IoK. But, I'm very happy with the change.
-Matthew

[Sloshthedark]

Hey guys,
have been on a 131 person tournament on Saturday (report on demand)... Went 6-3, missing top 8. Lost to Show and Tell (once with Sneak Attack, once with Hive Mind) twice.
Any suggestions on SBing or general gameplay against those decks? Felt like I never had a shot...
Thanks.
P.S. @Bryant: Thanks a lot for keeping the primer/SB-plans up to date. Really, really appriciate it.
EDIT: Feels like this is one of the MUs where Pyroblast would have been better than IoK...

Is that so? I'm playing UBr storm and haven't lost to these deck in a tournament yet... your life actually matters in TES, but I think you still should be favored and faster.. I don't know how often you could go through alternative engines, still 0 permanents 5 life is and option, they haven't killed you yet
their combo is slow - when they show and tell, you should show and kill your turn... against hive mind - just lay down artifact mana and pay the pacts with LED and rituals if they dare
They often try to mulligan into leyline G2 disrupting themselves with bad hands and draws, you play Silence so your plan A is does not require bounce like mine...

it's unfortunate Extirpate does not fit in TES SB, its great in both match-ups, it blanks their combo parts as they are forced to play Intuition to compete

[thommoi]

Well, in those games (and I am totally lacking further experience in these MUs) situations like this one occured:
Play IoK, see: 2 FoW, Intuition, Hive Mind, Pact of whatever, Show and Tell...) - So whatever I take (Pact, Intuition or Show and Tell) - he either has the combo or gets the other part with Intuition and still has at least one FoW online...
I'll admit that I may have kept a very weak hand - or at least one without Chant/Silence (which is so great against Leyline of Sanctity). Going off through double FoW was impossible.
I'll try and get some testing games in against this kind of deck... Maybe I will understand what I did wrong.
Thanks for the advice!

[j_rb]

Hey guys,
have been on a 131 person tournament on Saturday (report on demand)... Went 6-3, missing top 8. Lost to Show and Tell (once with Sneak Attack, once with Hive Mind) twice.
Any suggestions on SBing or general gameplay against those decks?

In my experience playing this deck, Hive Mind is a really, REALLY easy MU once you learn how to properly play it because, for the most part, you can pay for any pact they throw at you. It only gets really scary when they t1 show and tell emrakrul into play.... Artifact mana + dark rits are good here.

For sneak attack I run a 3 silence 2 chant split because leyline is played more in my area. It seems if the sneaky show deck doesn't have the nuts you just roll over them with silence. Pyroblast was great in this MU but the MU is still easily winnable without it. Duress is always better than Iok against these type of decks.

Another piece of advice, always expect leyline of sanctity from decks running show and tell, but I'm sure you already know this.

[KevinTrudeau]

I tried out the 2 Chant, 2 Silence, 3 Duress, 1 Inquisition config tonight in a weekly and really liked it; it made sideboarding much easier, as it basically added an additional slot. I will likely be playing it from here on out, barring the bullshit ass new set drastically changing the metagame (it probably won't). Still undecided on an optimal sideboard config.

[Bryant Cook]

I tried out the 2 Chant, 2 Silence, 3 Duress, 1 Inquisition config tonight in a weekly and really liked it; it made sideboarding much easier, as it basically added an additional slot. I will likely be playing it from here on out, barring the bullshit ass new set drastically changing the metagame (it probably won't). Still undecided on an optimal sideboard config.

That's why I originally did it, the extra sideboard slot was huge.

[Machahiko]

How do you guys side against decks that:
1. Might play Leyline of Sanctity
2. Are known to play Leyline of Sanctity

Would be interesting to hear what you do. Played a few games against a friend of mine, who played Dream Halls combo with sideboard that has mindbreak traps and leyline of sanctitys. Maindeck has Spell Pierces and FoWs. At first I tried boarding in multiple Inqusition's, but they were really useless and they're not that good against Dream Halls anyways in my opinion. In the later games I kept Duress' in the board, but took only one Inqusition of Kozilek in. The plan was something like:

-1 Ponder
-1 Chrome Mox
-1 Infernal Tutor
+2 Echoing Truth
+1 Inqusition of Kozilek

I'm not sure are there any additional cards to bring in, on the other hand I thought about siding Orim's Chant out instead of Ponder, but it's just way too valuable in my opinion. The deck packs so much counter spells that I decided to leave them untouched.

The games were played using the latest decklist by Bryant.

[TBryant23]

Hey, I've been "lurking" on these forums for a while, but finally decided to post a small tournament report and a small introduction. My name is Taylor, I live in Tennessee, I have played magic since Onslaught block, but didn't start playing tournaments until Time Spiral block. My first competitive deck was G/B "Goyf Rack". I have never had any huge successes, unfortunately, due to an inability to play one deck in a format; I'm a deckaholic. I've got about one year left of undergraduate classes left before I go to law school. Hopefully before then I can get some kind of respectable finish under my belt, as I hear law school is kind of time consuming. Without further ado, here's the tournament report:

Deck: Storm Combo
4 Gemstone Mine
2 City of Brass
2 Underground Sea
2 Polluted Delta
2 Scalding Tarn
1 Volcanic Island

4 Lotus Petal
4 Lion's Eye Diamond
4 Chrome Mox

4 Dark Ritual
4 Brainstorm
3 Orim's Chant
2 Silence
2 Ad Nauseum

4 Rite of Flame
4 Burning Wish
4 Infernal Tutor
4 Ponder
3 Duress
1 Tendrils of Agony

SB
4 Inquisition of Kozilek
2 Echoing Truth
1 Chain of Vapor
1 Ill-Gotten Gains
1 Past in Flames
1 Diminishing Returns
1 Shattering Spree
1 Infest
1 Grapeshot
1 Empty the Warrens
1 Tendrils of Agony

Pretty standard list and SB. The tournament was a weekly event in Dalton, Georgia about 45 minutes from my house. I met up with my buddy and his wife and we drove. On the way we talked about the hilarity that is the SCG coverage and other random stuff. We get there and there is already eight or so players signed up. With the three of us and the couple of people that showed up, there ended up being around 15 people. Not bad for Thursday Night Legacy.

Round 1-Mark with LED Dredge
Mark is a nice guy just starting to get into Legacy. He usually plays burn or merfolk. I put him on burn, and kept a hand of Gemstone Mine, Brainstorm, LED, Dark Ritual, Lotus Petal, 2 other cards on the play. He plays Gemstone Mine, Breakthrough for 0, flashes back Faithless Looting hitting 3 dredgers. Luckily 0 Narcomoebas to flashback the 4 cabal therapies that resided in his yard. He ends and I Brainstorm into Infernal Tutor, LED, something, putting back two cards that don't contribute to the turn 2 kill. My turn I Ad Nauseum from 20. I win with Tendrils of Agony for 15 copies.

SB: -2 Silence, -1 Infernal Tutor for+2 Echoing Truth, +1 Chain of Vapor

I open up with another solid turn 2 kill hand. He starts the same as game 1, but this time doesn't hit Cabal Therapy to go along with his Narcomoebas. He passes. I play out my LED and Lotus Petal and hold up Brainstorm off a City of Brass and pass. He dredges and only hits 1 Cabal Therapy and an Iona, but no more Narcomoebas. He Cabal Therapies me, I brainstorm in response and put Dark Ritual and Infernal Tutor on top (Ritual under the Tutor). He names Dark Ritual and sees my hand of 3 Rite of Flame(He didn't see these game 1 which is why I didn't put them back), Land, other. He passes. I play out my second City of Brass, do some ritualing and Ad Nauseum from 17. First two cards were the second Ad Nauseum and Tendrils. I win at 1 life. We laugh about how our entire match took 5 turns total and everyone else is still in game 1. He asks me for some help with his build of dredge. He had the right cards, but in wrong numbers i.e. 3 Putrid Imps, 2 Breakthrough, 3 LED, 4 Dread Return. I show him Adam Prosak's winning list from Phoenix (?) and he agrees he messed up the numbers. Like I said, nice guy, but new to Legacy.
1-0,2-0

Round 2 Mark with Punishing Maverick

Game 1 was horrible. I mulligan to 5 on the play with a Gemstone Mine, 3 cantrips, and Infernal Tutor. 4 turns later I have 0 land, a hand full of rituals needing only a non-LED mana source to combo. He plays Thalia and another Wasteland. Sadness. Next turn he plays Jitte and Green Sun's for Gaddock Teeg. More Sadness. I draw a Burning Wish. We go to game 2.

SB: -3 Duress, -2 Silence, -1 Orim's Chant, -1 Chrome Mox for +4 Inquisition of Kozilek, +2 Echoing Truth, +1 Chain of Vapor

Games 2 and 3 went much better. Game 2 I kept a turn 2 Kill. I play my Underground Sea and pass. He plays Savannah and Noble Hierarch off a mulligan to 5. I Brainstorm EoT and see Dark Ritual x2 and LED. Happiness. I play Ritual, Ritual, Inquisition. His first card was Thalia, the other 4 were 2 lands, Ooze, and Scryb Ranger. Thalia goes, and I Ad Nauseum from 20 flipping Ad Nauseum and Tendrils right off the bat.

Game 3 was similar to game 2 except I Inquisitioned his Thalia on my turn 1 and killed him turn 2 with a pretty spiffy chain of vapor bouncing 3 of my artifacts.
2-0,4-1

Round 3 Joel G/W Maverick with Fauna Shaman w/o Loyal Retainers.
We drew Intentionally as 1st and 2nd place into Top 4. We played a few pre-board games, and I crushed him.

Top 4!!!
Mark with Punishing Maverick
Game 1 he wins the roll plays Karakas and passes. I play land ritual, ritual, ritual, LED, Lotus Petal, Burning Wish for Diminishing Returns. I don't whiff and Ad Nauseum from 20. I flip Ad Nauseum and Tendrils off the bat again. He starts to complain about a turn 1 kill, but I threaten to Grapeshot him, and he shuts his mouth. I finish it with a Tendrils for 18 copies.
SB same as before

Game 2 he starts off with Savannah and says go. I Ponder and see a turn 2 kill so I set it up. EoT he Enlightened Tutors for Stony Silence. Sadness. Turn 2 he casts it. I dig for a bounce spell for a couple turns. but eventually just play enough rituals to just be able to play out my LEDs and Lotus Petal and Burning Wish for Ill-Gotten Gains and get back 2 Dark Rituals and an Infernal and Tendrils him for 12 copies. Just enough for him not to have been able to Swords his Qasali Pridemage to live through.
3-0, 6-1

During this game my buddy's wife was watching me play. She had never seen the deck played in person and didn't really know how it worked. I explained it to her as it went off. Normally when her husband wins, he gets a victory kiss. He was 0-3 and had not gotten a victory kiss. I try my luck, I get no-sir'ed. He laughs at me. She hugs me. I laugh at him. We all laugh. Good times.

At this point it is 12 am and people have to be at work by 8-9 am. I split with Joel for 30$ in store credit each and we all head home. Not a bad day. Finished my last final at school, had victory Taco Bell Beefy 5-Layer burritos on the way home from that, got to play some fun Magic with some great people, and don't have to go home and get up for school the next day. Can't beat that at all. Feel free to comment, make suggestions, etc. This is the first time I have played the deck in a tournament setting. Only thing I might change is adding a couple Deathmarks to the SB.

Props:
Bryant Cook for building this beast
Dark Ritual
Taco Bell Beefy 5-Layer Burritos
Packard's Games in Dalton, Georgia

Slops:
Troll Ad Nauseum and Tendrils of Agony
Mulls to 5
Thalia, Guardian of Thraben(seriously, eff this card)
Getting an Orim's Chant Misdirected back at me in some fun games.

[KevinTrudeau]

Welcome aboard, nice first report. I have yet to try the five layer burrito, nor the Dorito shell tacos. Well played in playing around Stony Silence/StP as you did, as well as utilizing CoV for storm and mana. Just to offer some friendly advice, you made three plays that I see that I disagree with:


1. Given the information you provided, casting Ad Nauseam over Ill-Gotten Gains in M1G1.
2. Boarding out Chant effects against Dredge.
3. Casting Dim Returns over making fourteen Goblins in M4G2; opp. isn't likely playing Batterskull, and Batterskull alone on turn three after one swing wouldn't even trump you.

You also probably didn't need to cast IoK there in M2G2, but meh. But yeah, don't take this the wrong way, I'm not trying to criticize you or anything, just looking out and offering advice.

Do you happen to live near the hamlet of Cookeville, TN? One of my buddies lives there.

[TBryant23]

@KevinTrudeau thank you for the welcome. Both of those Taco Bell items are worth the few cents you pay for them.

as for the 3 disagreeable points:
1: M1G1 I did not see a Burning Wish before Ad Nauseum and I can't remember if I had the mana floating or not to Infernal Tutor > Burning Wish > IGG etc.

2: Looking back those would have been good; probably better than the bounce spells?

3: I almost did go for the goblin route, but I knew he did have batterskull in his deck and was pretty sure a SFM in his hand.

No sir, I live in Cleveland, Tn. about 1/2 way between Chattanooga or Knoxville.

[RaNDoMxGeSTuReS]

Hunting Pack.

[Tammit67]

Hunting Pack.

Is bad for what this deck wants to do.