Back to the drawing board

[Asthereal]

Finally
After a pretty long time of almost no Legacy tournaments in my neighbourhood, finally some guys in Eindhoven decided to launch a monthly Legacy tourney. Last month I attended the first edition. Around 16 people showed up, and I failed miserably with TES. I lacked routine, made a million play errors, and ended 1-3-1, where I should have been 3-2. This month I decided to try to take some revenge. I had a bit more routine, changed my list to the exact 60 Bryant used to play (with 3 Duress, 12 cantrips, 12 land). The sideboard I kept as I used it last month, because I was pretty satisfied with it. I won't bother you with the exact 75. They should be good. Let's leave it at that. This month 26 people showed up (yay @ 10 more!) and we got ready for 5 rounds of swiss and top 8.

The tourney
Round 1: Jund.
Here we go. This is the exact reason I feel Storm combo is THE deck right now. If people think Bloodbraid Elf is good in Legacy, they deserve to be punished severely. Game 1 I draw mediocre cards and go for a turn 4 EtW for 12. Could have been 14 but that'd cost me 2 life from a Probe. I decided against that. Good call, because my opponent got me to 1 life before my Gobbo's killed him. Side: -4 Silence, +1 Thoughtseize, +3 Decay. Game 2 he disrupts a bit, but his clock is slow and EtW gets there with a bigger margin this time. Good for me he didn't draw his Engineered Plague though. 2-0, 1-0

Round 2: Tempo Threshold, a friend and teammate of mine.
Tom is our strongest player. He has played the Canadian Delver list for quite some time now and usually goes top-8. Not the best matchup, strong player. Oh well, let's see what fate has in store for me. Game 1 I am on the play, and have to mull a terrible seven. My six is a non-protected turn 1 kill with no cantrips. If I mull this, I have a pretty big chance of getting a bad hand. On the other hand, the hand I have now just dies to a FoW. He has also mulled to six, and since I'm on the play I decide to try it. He has the FoW, leaving me with one land and no cards in hand. He has a Goose, so not a very good clock, but soon he draws a Goyf and I die quickly. Side: -1 Infernal, -1 Ponder, +2 Thoughtseize. Game 2 he just draws lots of counterspells. I try to bait a few but I never find protection to be able to play through his permission. 0-2, 1-1

Round 3: Naya Zoo, new list.
Game 1 I have to mull to a mediocre six. He starts with a Wild Nacatl. That's fine by me. I find only an EtW for 10, which I have to use to defend. With two LEDs on the table all I need is a tutor, but seven turns no cantrip or tutor (drew all Moxen) and I just die. Side: -4 Silence, +2 Chain of Vapor, +2 Abrupt Decay. Game 2 I start with an ok hand. My cantrip is awsome and I get the turn 2 kill with Ad Nauseam after he Chain Lightnings me. He had no time to play his hate bear. Game 3 I have to mull to a hopeless four because I never found initial mana. He plays three hate bears in the first four turns while I cantrip into irrelevant stuff. I just lost one of my best matchups, because the deck just fails. But still I haven't made a play error in the tournament, as far as I can tell, so that must count for something. 1-2, 1-2

Round 4: Affinity with no sideboard and no hate.
This one I should always win. Yay for another excellent matchup! Game 1 I have to mull to a mediocre six. She starts fast with Memnite, Vault Skirge, and so on. My Ponder does find a win, but I need to be quick, because Probe shows me that she will put a Plating on Skirge turn 3. This also makes EtW not an option, because I just lose the race. I have to Ad Nauseam. AdN finds no mana and I kill myself even though I started from 16 life. Damnit. Oh well, still have a chance, and a good one since she has no hate. Side: -4 Silence, +1 Chain of Vapor, +3 Decay (just in case). Game 2 I mull to a cantrip heavy 6. My 9th mulligan in four rounds... My cantrips take a while to find me business, and the business I find is Ad Nauseam. At 7 life I have to go for it, or else I just die. Ad Nauseam would even have gotten there if the land it found me was a Mine instead of the second City, but again I die. Afterwards she askes me what I was trying to achieve. I show her what the deck is supposed to do. She gets it. 0-2, 1-3

Round 5: I get the bye. By now I am so frustrated that I wander around the store restlessly, dig into the huge box with random commons, looking for Sleight of Hands and Vision Charms. I find one Charm. Two teammates go top-8 and both lose the quarters. We have some MacDonalds and I drive us home afterward, still feeling frustrated.

Looking back
During the tournament, and also when I look back, I still don't think I made play errors. The deck just didn't give it to me. This left me so frustrated that I feel I shouldn't play TES anymore, even though I still think it should be one of the best decks in the meta. I felt like I had no influence on the outcome of my games. The deck would just give me the wrong cards and I couldn't do anything about it.

So... back to the drawing board. If I ever play Storm again, I need to make sure it's a list with more consistency. Being too slow is better than just having no chance at all. I could play an ANT list, but I don't own any Grim Tutors, and Burning Wish has a number of disadvantages. I could also play the second Ad Nauseam, but that's a tad awkward. Doomsday I think is still a step above my play skills. Maybe I could try to find more time to practice, but right now it's really busy at work, so I guess that's not an option just yet. Most sensible option seems to just downtune the TES list a bit. Decays seem unnecessary right now (I never see Miracles anyway). Silences are nice against RUG, but I side them out very often. Maybe I should take out some of the more doubtful cards and go for a more consistent mana base. Rough idea so far:

4 Gitaxian Probe
4 Brainstorm
4 Ponder
4 Infernal Tutor
3 Burning Wish
1 Empty the Warrens
1 Ad Nauseam /21

4 Lion's Eye Diamond
4 Lotus Petal
2 Chrome Mox
4 Dark Ritual
4 Cabal Ritual/Rite of Flame /18

4 Duress
3 Cabal Therapy /7

2 Underground Sea
2 Volcanic Island
1 Island
1 Swamp
4 Polluted Delta
2 Scalding Tarn
2 Bloodstained Mire /14

Side: the usual stuff.

This looks like TES, but -1 Chrome Mox, -1 Burning Wish, +2 lands, and with more fetch to improve cantrip quality.
And of course the Silences are gone. This new mana base can't handle a fourth colour.
This list looks a lot more solid. I will have to test it to see how its flow goes, whether I draw well enough, and so on.
I'll post my findings soon. In the meantime, I'd welcome any advice on the new list! :)

[alderon666]

Going 1-3 in a tournament and claim to have made little to no mistakes is naive at best. TES is not a simple deck, especially if you think you didn't have little to no influence in the outcome of your games.

It's going to take a lot of time and practice (and some luck) to achieve results with TES. If you're not up to the task maybe you should play some deck that your actions actually don't matter (that would be Belcher basically, and even then...).

Also, it's rather pointless making a report for going 1-3 where you mull into oblivion every game and don't remember the exact details of any games for discussion. Nobody can't take anything from this thread, we can't discuss your plays because they're not detailed enough. You didn't even post/link your actual list to make reading easier, I ain't going to research Bryant's latest list for a 1-3 report...

[TraxDaMax]

You don't top 8 without lucksacking at least once in the tournament either though.
I agree though that it's pretty hard to tell what went wrong. I do know from reports that Bryant keeps very shady hands and the deck will often just do what it does anyway. Personally, I will gamble on no land hands before going to 4. Atleast if there is a cantrip in there. A game with chrome mox as only mana for instance. It sucks 2 for 1'ing yourself, but mulligan basicly does the same thing. Having to draw buisness often is the same thing as having to draw a mana source, especially if your opponent may start. For instance a hand with 2 ponders, a brainstorm other randomness and no land/mana can be better against a turn 1 Thoughtseize then a hand with lands and only one cantrip. It's pretty situational.

[Asthereal]

@Alderon666: I stand by my claim. It's not my fault if I draw Chrome Moxes only, is it?
And I'm definitely not new to the deck. I play Storm a lot and I did practice before the tourney.
Especially since last month I made so many errors, I was very much aware I needed to step up my game.
Didn't help though.

@TraxDaMax: Keeping a hand with no land or Mox but with cantrips on the draw against Zoo seems shaky.
If I don't draw mana I'm pretty much done with anyway. I need to be extremely luck to survive stuff like that.
Considering the fact the he actually had three hate bears it didn't make a difference anyway, but still.
Still feel bad about game 1 though. I had Goblins for defence, two LEDs on the table.
All I needed was a petty cantrip or tutor smewhere in the six or seven turns the Goblins bought me and he was dead meat.
Instead Santa gave me Chrome Moxes for X-mas.

So I decided I wanted a list that was slightly more consistent, slightly less likely to need mulligans.
I came up with the list above. What do you think about that list? Sort of an in between TES and ANT thing.
Seems fast enough to beat quick aggro, but resilient enough to not lose to itself all the time...

[Lemnear]

Hope the problems don't ground on shuffling ;D

[Asthereal]

LOL yeah I don't know. I usually shuffle pretty carefully, I always pile at least once. I think I shuffle pretty well. Perhaps I should have an expert look at my shuffling.

[alderon666]

The list you posted is a deck we call TNT. Nothing new there, it was good when Thalia was around.
You should play a Badland there, definetely play Cabal Ritual and switch the Empty for Past in Flames.

[Megadeus]

If you wanna play ANT but dont have the Grim Tutor for it, then just play the 16 can trip version. Everyone on here may hate it, but it puts up results and thanks to the cantrips it is consistent.