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

[Jay_Gatz]

There are discussions about all of these cards and more throughout the thread. The primer in the opening post still has details on a lot of cards decisions although some of it is out of date

[Lemnear]

I've many doubts xD:
- Do you prefer playing with 4 Silence/2 Duress/1 Cabal Therapy to playing with 4 Cabal Therapy/3 Silence?
- What do you think about to include Carpet of Flowers and Tropical Island in sideboard? It seems an interesting idea.
- I've seen some player running Massacre, Infest, Deathmark, Hull Breach, etc. Has anyone played with them?

Thanks so much. Regards.

That is part of the discussion during the last 8 pages my friend. I repeat some of the stuff regarding your questions:

- 4 Therapy, 3 Silence is the better configuration. It puts less pressure on your manabase (white mana) while pushing the Goblins plan via the flashback to a maximum. You'll understand the moment you assemble G.Probe, Cabal Therapy and (infernal or Wish for) EtW for the first time, mindtwisting your opponent out of the game.

- We had Tropical and Carpets in the SB 2 weeks ago. Carpet didn't pull its weight against Tempo decks that opperate on 1 mana or so. It was a manastone for G in a deck with 40% mana total, ergo pointless. Got cut for Pyroblast to battle Delver, Clique, Counterbalance, Show&Tell, etc.

- Bryant and I sure have tested all those possible SB cards, but like IGG those were considered too narrow to fill the wishboard. Limiting the wishboard makes more space available for real sideboard cards. I even left Telemin at home for the last tourney (which barely bite my ass though!)

[cronos]

Thanks for your help, I'll read those pages. Regards.

[Lemnear]

Thanks for your help, I'll read those pages. Regards.

De nada :)

[HerrGevatter]

When I Ad Nauseam, I find I often do it with one mana floating off LED. I've typically chosen black (sometimes red), but I've been thinking: does it make more sense to float blue to give you more outs (Brainstorm/Ponder) if you brick?

Thoughts?

[Togores]

Bryant you could just reedo a sideboarding guide from the in and outs like u did in the jupiter site a fee months ago.
Would be great!

Thanks

[Lemnear]

Bryant you could just reedo a sideboarding guide from the in and outs like u did in the jupiter site a fee months ago.
Would be great!

Thanks

Bryant did update the SB guide in the OP. Should be good enough for now.

When I Ad Nauseam, I find I often do it with one mana floating off LED. I've typically chosen black (sometimes red), but I've been thinking: does it make more sense to float blue to give you more outs (Brainstorm/Ponder) if you brick?

Thoughts?

No, it does not. Your goal is to generate 6+ mana aka needing Red and Black mana to cast rituals/rites post AN either via playable initial mana sources (landdrops!) or previous flooded mana. Floating a blue mana into AN needs you to find 2 more IMS in your Ad Nauseam/cantrip. I could give you a very detailed analysis of various simulated flip scenarios to prove, that floating blue into AN is often a dead end, but for the sake of this thread (and myself), I will not spam several pages of examples rather than just asking you for believing me in regards to that. ;)

The color I float depends on the Rites/rituals/tutors/wishes already cast, but I would prefer to float RED. Why? Because casting a flipped wish is not only the cheapest (aka most likely) but also the option, which does not require you to flip a LED in addition, unlike IT (which you already burned one of to fetch AN in most cases). Food for thought guys :D

[NoizeMe]

Hey folks,
I've been following this thread for quit some time now, but I decided it is finally time to contribute to the discussion now :).

I recently builded the deck and did several hours of testing against my arsenal of test-decks and wondered why there is no dedicated hate against D'n'T as this can be a horrible matchup if they land a Mother with Thalia or Revoker + Thalia or Canonist + Mother, etc...
Wouldn't it be good to play Dread of Night or Massacre in the SB? What are the arguments against it?

@Lemnear: Btw, I'm a German Storm and Elf player, too. If you really wish to meet more of our kind in person maybe we meet each other in Paris?

[Jay_Gatz]

There isn't enough space to put in hate against a deck whose hate you can just race. It can be rough sometimes sure but you can win turn 1/2 they can't play hate until their turn two, play you have silence and therapy.

[Lemnear]

Hey folks,
I've been following this thread for quit some time now, but I decided it is finally time to contribute to the discussion now :).

I recently builded the deck and did several hours of testing against my arsenal of test-decks and wondered why there is no dedicated hate against D'n'T as this can be a horrible matchup if they land a Mother with Thalia or Revoker + Thalia or Canonist + Mother, etc...
Wouldn't it be good to play Dread of Night or Massacre in the SB? What are the arguments against it?

@Lemnear: Btw, I'm a German Storm and Elf player, too. If you really wish to meet more of our kind in person maybe we meet each other in Paris?

Jay pretty much nailed in in regards to D&T. I dare to add that this is a matchup where the decision to keep a mediocre 7 or rather mulling to 6 is essential. Lost not even a single game to D&T this year ... Belcher-Style ;)


Yeah, Storm and Elves are my Bread & Butter (with Miracles at 3rd Position). I doubt I'll participate at the GP in Paris next month. It's dated at Valentines Weekend and Daddy needs fresh, desperate girls ;) Where you are from btw?

[NoizeMe]

There isn't enough space to put in hate against a deck whose hate you can just race. It can be rough sometimes sure but you can win turn 1/2 they can't play hate until their turn two, play you have silence and therapy.

Jay pretty much nailed in in regards to D&T. I dare to add that this is a matchup where the decision to keep a mediocre 7 or rather mulling to 6 is essential. Lost not even a single game to D&T this year ... Belcher-Style ;)

Sounds all valid :).
So this match-up comes down to a race in terms of you are winning turn 1-2 or hope they have no serious hate up from turn 3-n?

Yeah, Storm and Elves are my Bread & Butter (with Miracles at 3rd Position). I doubt I'll participate at the GP in Paris next month. It's dated at Valentines Weekend and Daddy needs fresh, desperate girls ;) Where you are from btw?

I'm from Aachen. To bad, I always like to meet new people at tournaments ;).

[Lemnear]

You can delay hate a bit with Silence and, to a lesser extend, Therapy, in case you can't go off before turn 3. D&T has serious trouble to race T1 Goblins or such even after sideboarding

[Final Fortune]

Another option is replacing Silence with Thoughtseize, between UWR Delver and UW Miracles Vendillion Cliques and Meddling Mages have become much more common than Leyline of Sanctity to worry about having all 7 of your protection cards post-board be immune. I'd rather just Thoughtseize and discard the Counterbalance, Meddling Mage or Vendillion Clique and not have to worry about playing a golden land second or sacrificing a Lotus Petal to cast my disruption. You can make up ground with the full 4 Xantid Swarms and a Tropical Island in the SB vs Show&Tell, you get virtual space in your SB back when you don't have to SB in removal like Abrupt Decay because you're no longer letting them resolve their Counterbalances/Meddling Mages while you hold onto Silence.

I'm running -3 Silence +3 Thoughtseize, -1 Land +1 Chrome Mox and a manabase of 4 City of Brass, 4 Fetchlands, 2 Underground Sea, 1 Volcanic Island and not having serious issues with life loss. I basically came to the conclusion after playing Pyroblast that our protection/removal has to be as general and pro-active as possible, I haven't really needed to board in Pyroblast after MDing Thoughtseize because ideally the bears never resolve.

[Einherjer]

As all my decks were unavailable for yesterdays tournament I just took my Brothers TES (Bryants list from about 6 months ago) and played my very first stormtournament and my very first games with Storm at all. I did end 3-3 but that's not what I am here for. There was one situation where I was under the assumption I did right, but my opponent playing Esper (but normally ANT) meant I misplayed. Ok, here it is:

I start with Duress, take his FoW, see his Hand of Brainstorm, and irrelevant stuff. I pass, he goes Land go, I draw, and pass. He brainstorms, plays Fetchland, gets Underground Sea and passes. Sorry for not knowing my exact hand but here is what I know. I had the pierceproof kill, which would leave me with casting IT, cracking LED and discarding one card - Brainstorm. I went for the kill and he had the FoW. He said I should have cast Brainstorm and waited one more turn, I knew that the top card was a blank and my lands were: Gemstone (2 Counter) and City of Brass.... Should I have cast Brainstorm here or just go for it?

I know the situation isn't very well described, but I'd love to hear your opinions about it.

Greetings

[Lemnear]

Another option is replacing Silence with Thoughtseize, between UWR Delver and UW Miracles Vendillion Cliques and Meddling Mages have become much more common than Leyline of Sanctity to worry about having all 7 of your protection cards post-board be immune. I'd rather just Thoughtseize and discard the Counterbalance, Meddling Mage or Vendillion Clique and not have to worry about playing a golden land second or sacrificing a Lotus Petal to cast my disruption. You can make up ground with the full 4 Xantid Swarms and a Tropical Island in the SB vs Show&Tell, you get virtual space in your SB back when you don't have to SB in removal like Abrupt Decay because you're no longer letting them resolve their Counterbalances/Meddling Mages while you hold onto Silence.

I'm running -3 Silence +3 Thoughtseize, -1 Land +1 Chrome Mox and a manabase of 4 City of Brass, 4 Fetchlands, 2 Underground Sea, 1 Volcanic Island and not having serious issues with life loss. I basically came to the conclusion after playing Pyroblast that our protection/removal has to be as general and pro-active as possible, I haven't really needed to board in Pyroblast after MDing Thoughtseize because ideally the bears never resolve.

I found CoB + Thoughtseize pretty gross against fast damage and Tempo. I had better results with Thoughtseize and an increased number of fetches instead of the CoBs. However, the increased number of Divert, Spell Snare and Flusterstorms in my meta convinced me to stick with Silence for now even with our S&T crowd leaving Leyline at home


Edit:

As all my decks were unavailable for yesterdays tournament I just took my Brothers TES (Bryants list from about 6 months ago) and played my very first stormtournament with my very first games with Storm at all. I did end 3-3 but that's not what I am here for. There was one situation where I was under the assumption I did right, but my opponent playing Esper (but normally ANT) meant I misplayed. Ok, here it is:

I start with Duress, take his FoW, see his Hand of Brainstorm, and irrelevant stuff. I pass, he goes Land go, I draw, and pass. He brainstorms, plays Fetchland, gets Underground Sea and passes. Sorry for not knowing my exact hand but here is what I know. I had the pierceproof kill, which would leave me with casting IT, cracking LED and discarding one card - Brainstorm. I went for the kill and he had the FoW. He said I should have cast Brainstorm and waited one more turn, I knew that the top card was a blank and my lands were: Gemstone (2 Counter) and City of Brass.... Should I have cast Brainstorm here or just go for it?

I know the situation isn't very well described, but I'd love to hear your opinions about it.

Greetings

He did at least saw 5 fresh cards without applying any pressure in the meantime. It's not "wrong" to play Brainstorm here to find protection for your kill. Asuming it was game 1 you gamble against 3 remaining FoW's and I think going for the kill is valid too. Postboard, I'd Brainstorm without a doubt as cards like Flusterstorm will stop you in addition to FoW

[davelin]

As all my decks were unavailable for yesterdays tournament I just took my Brothers TES (Bryants list from about 6 months ago) and played my very first stormtournament and my very first games with Storm at all. I did end 3-3 but that's not what I am here for. There was one situation where I was under the assumption I did right, but my opponent playing Esper (but normally ANT) meant I misplayed. Ok, here it is:

I start with Duress, take his FoW, see his Hand of Brainstorm, and irrelevant stuff. I pass, he goes Land go, I draw, and pass. He brainstorms, plays Fetchland, gets Underground Sea and passes. Sorry for not knowing my exact hand but here is what I know. I had the pierceproof kill, which would leave me with casting IT, cracking LED and discarding one card - Brainstorm. I went for the kill and he had the FoW. He said I should have cast Brainstorm and waited one more turn, I knew that the top card was a blank and my lands were: Gemstone (2 Counter) and City of Brass.... Should I have cast Brainstorm here or just go for it?

I know the situation isn't very well described, but I'd love to hear your opinions about it.

Greetings

He is looking at five chances to find a 3-outer while you are looking at two chances to find one of your 6 other protection spells. I think going for it here isn't unreasonable. Was there another blue card when you originally Duressed him (besides Brainstorm)? If not, I would've gone for it since getting both a FoW and blue card isn't very high.

[Einherjer]

He is looking at five chances to find a 3-outer while you are looking at two chances to find one of your 6 other protection spells. I think going for it here isn't unreasonable. Was there another blue card when you originally Duressed him (besides Brainstorm)? If not, I would've gone for it since getting both a FoW and blue card isn't very high.

I don't think there was - it's just that he insisted on the fact that it was clearly wrong, while I was trying to make a point that there are valid reasons for doing so - which proved not that easy - taking into consideration this was during my third game of Storm or something :D

Thanks

Greetings

[Final Fortune]

Not certain how Flusterstorm is an argument against discard when it counters Silence, but I can't argue against Spell Snare and Divert being cards you'd otherwise blank with Silence. I guess it really comes down to which cards you expect to see more than the other, for me Spell Snare in MDs is a rarity and Divert is obviously a SB card. I just expect to see more hate bears and Counterbalance than I do fringe counters at the moment.

If you have problems with life loss you can always play with a set of Gemstone Mines instead, I think the 4th Chrome Mox does a fairly good job at off setting the life loss tho'.

[davelin]

I don't think there was - it's just that he insisted on the fact that it was clearly wrong, while I was trying to make a point that there are valid reasons for doing so - which proved not that easy - taking into consideration this was during my third game of Storm or something :D

Thanks

Greetings

Your opponent seems very results-oriented.

[Sloshthedark]

I know the situation isn't very well described, but I'd love to hear your opinions about it.

Greetings

G1 - I'd do that every one time with TES, probably with AnT too