TES Drive - A New Storm Player's First Tournament
Having recently graduated college and landing a new job, I spent the first part of 2014 immersing myself in Legacy. My first order of business was upgrading the budget version of Mighty Quinn I've been playing for four years into a proper UWr Miracles deck, which was always a dream of mine. I had been playing Miracles for a couple of months when one day at a local tournament, it suddenly hit me that I was completely burnt out. In five rounds, I had cast dozens of cantrips, spun my Top over a hundred times, and played Counterbalance mind-games every round when the truth finally sunk in. Each game has an astronomical amount of decision points. Whether I won or lost often hinged on the subtle decision of when to crack a fetchland and it was getting harder and harder to pinpoint and correct my play mistakes. On the way home after a disappointing 2-3 finish, I came to accept that my improvement had hit a plateau with Miracles.
Later that week, after reading Lemnear's Heart of the Storm series, I was inspired to sleeve up TES and try it out. I goldfished a few times to get a feel for it, and then grinded 50 or so games against my brother on High Tide. To put it simply, TES blew me away. It was just as convoluted and difficult to play as Miracles, it had multiple lines of attack that required careful setup, and it was hard for most decks to interact with. The only difference is, a game with TES is very short and hinges on a few key decision points. Because my mistakes would be so obvious, this was a deck I could dissect, study, and improve at very rapidly.
Fast forward to last weekend. My brother is visiting and he wants to take all of our Legacy staples back to school in order to play test for SCG, leaving me only with TES to satisfy that familiar craving for shuffling up and slinging cardboard. Well on Wednesday night, that craving struck. Our LGS has Legacy events on Thursday, and since I’ve only played this deck against High Tide, I felt incredibly nervous about playing such a complex deck at a tournament with some very good players. Oh well, there’s a first time for everything, right? I pull up at my LGS after work with the following list:
Main Deck:
1x Misty Rainforest
2x Scalding Tarn
2x Underground Sea
1x Volcanic Island
4x Gemstone Mine
2x City of Brass
4x Ponder
4x Brainstorm
4x Gitaxian Probe
4x Lion’s Eye Diamond
4x Lotus Petal
3x Chrome Mox
4x Dark Ritual
4x Rite of Flame
4x Burning Wish
4x Infernal Tutor
4x Silence
3x Cabal Therapy
1x Empty the Warrens
1x Ad Nauseum
Sideboard:
1x Past in Flames
1x Diminishing Returns
1x Tendrils of Agony
1x Cabal Therapy
1x Thoughtseize
1x Grapeshot
1x Tropical Island
3x Xantid Swarm
3x Abrupt Decay
2x Chain of Vapor
Before we dive in, I’d like to talk about the meta and my choices for my 75. Fair is the name of the game. Delver, Stoneblade, and decks that prey on them like Jund and Miracles are always out in force. I went with three Abrupt Decays in case of Counterbalance and hate bears, three Xantid Swarms because there’s always one or two Sneak and Show players and plenty of UWR/BUG Delver players. I forgot to pack a sideboard Empty the Warrens, which will come back to haunt me later. Having two discard spells in the board was bad, and honestly, I just forgot to swap out a maindeck Silence for one before the tournament started. I’m very interested in testing out the new list with the 4/4/4 mana base and discard instead of Silence, but my brother was in possession of our extra Volcanic Islands and Duress. I will definitely be making changes to this list later on.
I arrive at the shop over an hour early, so I sit down with a friendly guy named Elijah and play a few warm-up games against his Shardless BUG. I win slightly less than half of our games after misplaying around counter-magic, sequencing Therapies poorly, and just general bad decision-making. I take a break to talk to the store owner about his Dota 2 cap, and order a sandwich from next door. I’m not feeling too hot as the big screen spits out the pairings for round 1.
Round 1 – Richard on UR Delver
Game 1
My opponent is a very polite older gentleman. As we’re shuffling, he tells me he hasn’t played in over a decade and he’s on a borrowed deck. We chat for a bit and I win the die roll and draw my opening hand:
Silence
Silence
Infernal Tutor
Burning Wish
Ponder
Ponder
Chrome Mox
Would you keep this hand?
No initial mana, no fast mana, and no reliable game plan. I briefly think about imprinting Ponder to cast Ponder off of Chrome Mox, but I can’t see myself going off soon even if I see the perfect 3 on top. I send it back and look at my new hand:
Gitaxian Probe
Silence
Volcanic Island
Rite of Flame
Infernal Tutor
Lion’s Eye Diamond
Would you keep this hand?
Not perfect, but definitely a hand with potential. I lead with Gitaxian Probe and see: Spell Pierce, Spell Pierce, Delver of Secrets, Volcanic Island, Lightning Bolt, Ponder, Goblin Guide. I draw another LED off the Probe, play a volcanic Island and pass turn, and it immediately hits me that against a more experienced player, I probably should not have played Probe to keep my opponent guessing what type of deck I was on.
My thoughts are interrupted when he opens with a Gitaxian Probe of his own. He pauses to write down my cards and plays a Volcanic, Goblin Guide, and attacks me (revealing a Cabal Therapy off the trigger). I draw the Therapy and pass turn back to him, hoping for a black source soon to get rid of the Spell Pierces. He plays Ponder off the volcanic, then Scalding Tarn and cracks it for an island, plays Delver, and attacks me (revealing Brainstorm). My opponent ships the turn back, and I’m amazed he tapped out for the second turn in a row after seeing my hand, so I’m fairly certain he hasn’t identified my deck. On my turn I draw the Brainstorm and cast it off my Volcanic (Storm 1), drawing: Dark Ritual, Lotus Petal, Dark Ritual. Wow. I put back Rite of Flame and Silence, and go:
Lotus Petal (Storm 2)
Lion’s Eye Diamond (Storm 3)
Lion’s Eye Diamond (Storm 4)
Break Petal for Dark Ritual (Storm 5) BBB
Dark Ritual (Storm 6) BBBBB
Infernal Tutor (Storm 7), breaking both LED BBBBBBRRR
Searching for Ad Nauseum and casting it from 14 life (storm 8) BBRR
Revealing:
Chrome Mox (14)
Infernal Tutor (12)
Brainstorm (11)
Rite of Flame (10)
City of Brass (10)
Burning Wish (8)
Brainstorm (7)
City of Brass (7)
Silence (6)
Dark Ritual (5)
Play Gemstone Mine
Rite of Flame (Storm 9) BBRRR
Burning Wish (Storm 10) BBR for Tendrils of Agony
Use Gemstone Mine to cast Tendrils (Storm 11) for 22.
My opponent has never seen the storm mechanic before, and spends a few minutes reading all of my spells, muttering something about “new cards” as he stares at my copy of Tendrils. I sympathize with him since I feel the exact same way at FNM draft.
Game 2
I sideboard as follows: +3 Xantid Swarm, +1 Tropical Island, +1 Cabal Therapy, -3 Silence, -1 Infernal Tutor, -1 Chrome Mox. As you can tell, I have no idea what I’m doing with my sideboard, just that Silence seems like awkward disruption in this matchup, and I want an extra discard spell from the board. My opponent looks at his sideboard for a long time, just as bewildered as me, decides on 4-5 cards, and we’re off to game 2. I draw the following hand:
Xantid Swarm
Burning Wish
City of Brass
Infernal Tutor
Burning Wish
Rite of Flame
Lotus Petal
Would you keep this hand?
This hand seems pretty solid with a turn one insect, so I keep it. He opens with mountain into Goblin Guide and attacks (revealing a Dark Ritual). I draw the Ritual, playing City of Brass and Xantid Swarm, and he thinks for awhile before letting it resolve. He drops a Flooded Strand, attacks with Goblin Guide (revealing Gemstone Mine!), and passing back to me. I draw another Gemstone mine and play it, and send in the insect so I can play my Burning Wish to get a Thoughtseize. He cracks Flooded Strand for an Island, plays Scalding Tarn and attacks (revealing LED). At this point, I’m just dreading the removal spell for Xantid Swarm. I draw the LED, play a second Gemstone Mine, and go to combat. To my relief, there’s no response from him as my insect swarm stops him from casting spells. Since I’m at 12 life with a City of Brass in play, I don’t really want to roll the dice with Ad Nauseum. I go:
Rite of Flame (Storm 1) RR
Dark Ritual (Storm 2) RRBBB
Thoughtseize (Storm 3) RRBB, revealing: Force of Will, Delver of Secrets, Spell Pierce, Flusterstorm, Volcanic Island. I discard Force of Will.
Lotus Petal (Storm 4)
Lion’s Eye Diamond (Storm 5) RRBB
Burning Wish (Storm 6) for Past in Flames RB
Infernal Tutor (Storm 7), breaking LED for RRR
Searching for Empty the Warrens and playing it (Storm 8) with Lotus Petal.
Staring down a board full of goblins, my opponent draws, plays Delver, bolts Xantid Swarm, attacks with Goblin Guide (drawing me my third Gemstone Mine), which I block with a Goblin. It’s too little too late. On my turn, I draw Ad Nauseum and bash for 15, and he blocks with Delver, bringing him to 5. On his turn, he draws his card for the turn and begins picking up his cards, lamenting that he should have Forced my Xantid Swarm.
2-0 in games, 1-0 in matches.
After the match, I suddenly remembered Bryant Cook’s wisdom about how Xantid Swarm is bad against Lightning Bolt decks, and if I had to play this matchup again, I definitely won’t be boarding them in. The Empty the Warrens plan also might not have been a good idea against a more experience player who boarded in Pyroclasm. Even though I was rewarded for making bad decisions, it goes to show how great this deck is to study. Now that I know better, I won’t let anomalous games influence my future sideboard decisions, which is something I always struggled with while playing Miracles.
Round 2 – Erik on UW Stoneblade
Game 1
By all accounts, my opponent is a great player. A few weeks ago I watched him top 8 with UW Stoneblade at a win-a-Mox event by beating my friend, who was playing ANT. I was incredibly nervous going into this round, chatting about the band on his t-shirt to help take the edge off. I win the die roll, and draw this opening hand:
Silence
Lion’s Eye Diamond
Silence
Silence
Rite of Flame
City of Brass
Cabal Therapy
Would you keep this hand?
It has all the protection you could ask for, but I feel that I want a much faster hand for game 1 on the play. I mulligan and see these six:
Underground Sea
Infernal Tutor
Chrome Mox
Rite of Flame
Lion’s Eye Diamond
Lotus Petal
Would you keep this hand?
Turn one combo? Yes please. However, I suspect that my opponent knows that I’m on storm, since he was hanging out near my practice games before the tournament. With that in mind, I don’t feel comfortable playing into Force of Will, so I play Underground Sea and pass the turn. He plays island and passes it back. I draw a Gitaxian Probe and play it to see what he’s up to, revealing: Sword of Fire and Ice, Island, Spell Pierce, Polluted Delta, Brainstorm, Ponder, Windswept Heath. In hindsight, I should have gone for it. Oh well. I draw a second Rite of Flame off of the Probe and ship it back to him. He plays another Island to Ponder and pass the turn. I draw my own Ponder and play it to see: Silence, Dark Ritual, Dark Ritual. I draw Ritual and leave Silence on top. My opponent plays Windswept Heath, cracks it for a Plains (it’s interesting that he might have me pegged for a Wasteland deck by grabbing plains instead of Tundra, I should have noticed this during the round), and plays Stoneforge Mystic, finding a Batterskull with an Island untapped.
With just one land in play, I draw the Silence I left on top, play Lotus Petal (Storm 1) and break it to cast Silence (Storm 2). He responds with Spell Pierce (Storm 3) as I pause to count if I can afford to pay for Pierce with Dark Ritual. After awhile, I decide it’s not going to work, so my Silence gets countered. I look back at my notes and see that he has had two draws and a Ponder to search for a Force of Will, but it’s also likely that he played Ponder to find a creature (looking back, he was playing around Wasteland after he had already cast Ponder, so Force of Will was very unlikely). My instinct trained on control decks screams at me to pass the turn, but for some reason I continue anyway:
Dark Ritual (Storm 4) BBB
Chrome Mox (Storm 5), imprinting Rite of Flame BBB
Lion’s Eye Diamond (Storm 6)
Rite of Flame (storm 7) BBBRR
Infernal Tutor (storm 8) BBR, breaking LED BBRRRR
Search for Ad Nauseum and cast it from 18 life (Storm 9) R
Reveal:
Dark Ritual (17)
Ponder (16)
Dark Ritual (15)
Lion’s Eye Diamond (15)
Brainstorm (14)
Brainstorm (13)
Cabal Therapy (12)
Lotus Petal (12)
City of Brass (12)
Lotus Petal (12)
Burning Wish (10)
I stop the Ad Nauseum and my opponent concedes without having me play it out. Whew. I learned to play with a very paranoid mindset while practicing with this deck and it feels liberating to just go for it in the face of the unknown.
Game 2
We sit in silence as we contemplate sideboards, my opponent deep in thought about how he’s going to approach the next game. Anticipating the hate bears and Flusterstorms, I board in +2x Abrupt Decay, +2x Xantid Swarm, +1x Tropical Island, +1x Thoughtseize and out -4x Silence, -1x Infernal Tutor, -1x Chrome Mox. As game 2 starts, I draw the following hand:
Xantid Swarm
Volcanic Island
Lotus Petal
Gitaxian Probe
Ad Nauseum
Underground Sea
Dark Ritual
Would you keep this hand?
This looks really good at punishing a hand that relies on Flusterstorm and Spell Pierce, so I keep it. He plays a Tundra and passes, which makes me very happy since it’s likely he’s holding up one or the other. I draw a Ponder and play the Gitaxian Probe, revealing: Force of Will, Brainstorm, Brainstorm, Tundra, Stoneforge Mystic, Polluted Delta. Huh. Guess my read was totally off. There’s no reason to play the insect just yet, since I don’t have the combo anytime soon. I play the Underground Sea and Ponder which reveals: Ponder, Cabal Therapy, Abrupt Decay. I draw Cabal Therapy and float Ponder on top, passing the turn. He drops a Tundra and plays Stoneforge, grabbing Batterskull, allowing me to go again. I play Lotus Petal and break it for Xantid Swarm, fully expecting it to get Forced. He allows it to resolve, so I go Volcanic Island into Ponder, revealing: Abrupt Decay, Infernal Tutor, Thoughtseize. I shuffle and play a Cabal Therapy, which finally eats his Force of Will, pitching Brainstorm. I suppose he wanted to protect his Batterskull for Empty the Warrens? On his turn, my opponent plays a Polluted Delta and Brainstorms, passing it back to me. I draw Gitaxian Probe and attack with Xantid Swarm. With my bugs on the loose, I play Gitaxian Probe (Storm 1), revealing: Windswept Heath, Force of Will, Plains, and Batterskull. I draw a Scalding Tarn off the Probe. It looks like I’m in the clear!
Dark Ritual (Storm 2) BBB
Crack Scalding Tarn for Underground Sea and tap out for Ad Nauseum from 15 life (Storm 3)
Let’s pause right here, because I’ve already punted the game HARD without knowing it. As my opponent kindly pointed out after the match, I forgot to draw a card from my first Probe and my Ponder. My stupidity deserves to be immortalized on the internet so here goes:
Rite of Flame (14)
Tropical Island (14)
Ponder (13)
Gitaxian Probe (12)
Misty Rainforest (12)
Lotus Petal (12)
Gemstone Mine (12)
Burning Wish (10)
Cabal Therapy (9)
Dark Ritual (8)
Scalding Tarn (8)
Burning Wish (6)
Cabal Therapy (5)
City of Brass (5)
Empty the Warrens (1)
Having already played my land this turn, I don’t have enough free mana to go off, so I have to keep going.
Thoughtseize (0)
Whoops. There you have it. My first punt in a tournament with TES. At this point, I still haven’t realized my mistake, so I chalk it up to variance and go into game 3 with razor focus.
Game 3
Since I showed Xantid Swarm last game, I decide to shuffle in three Silences and pick them back out just in case he was considered putting Swords to Plowshares back into his deck. Every little advantage counts, right? My opponent retreats into his contemplative look as we shuffle up and I draw:
Gitaxian Probe
Rite of Flame
Gitaxian Probe
Lion’s Eye Diamond
Abrupt Decay
Gemstone Mine
Underground Sea
Would you keep this hand?
Not a whole lot going on, but it has the potential to be explosive. I would not have kept this hand against discard, since it relies heavily on LED to have any potential. I decide to keep and lead with Gitaxian Probe, revealing: Force of Will, Stoneforge Mystic, Jace the Mind Sculptor, Island, Brainstorm, Ponder, Mishra’s Factory. I draw Empty the Warrens off of Probe, and all of a sudden my hand looks incredible. I play a Gemstone Mine and pass the turn. He plays an Island into Ponder, passes, and it’s off to the races. I play Underground Sea and go:
Dark Ritual (Storm 1) BBB
Gitaxian Probe (Storm 2) BBB, seeing that he drew a Brainstorm
Rite of Flame (Storm 3) off of Gemstone Mine BBBRR
Lion’s Eye Diamond (Storm 4) BBBRR
Empty the Warrens (Storm 5) B
Seeing the goblins, my opponent looks visibly frustrated that he didn’t counter the rituals. He Forces one copy of Empty the Warrens, leaving me with 8 goblins when I pass the turn back to him. He plays a Flooded Strand and fetches a Tundra to drop Stoneforge Mystic, grabbing Batterskull. On my turn, I draw a Scalding Tarn and Abrupt Decay his Kor Artificer (“For the blowout!” he exclaims). I swing in for 8, bringing his life to 11 and pass the turn. He plays a Factory and a Brainstorm, signaling for me to go. I draw an Ad Nauseum and attack, losing one goblin to an active Factory, sending him to 4. He draws, plays an Island, Brainstorms, and scoops, giving me the match.
4-1 in games, 2-0 in matches.
I have mad respect for most of the players at this store. They’re always willing to talk strategy and help each other improve matchups. My opponent was no exception as we talk for a little bit about sideboards, and I feel pretty happy with the way I boarded. As he’s standing up to leave, he points out my missed draws off cantrips. What. I frantically go through my game 2 notes and realize that he’s right. Again, I made an easily avoidable mistake but still came out ahead in the match. I count myself very lucky so far. After this match I finally have time to eat the sandwich I ordered, an unfortunately messy meatball sub on a day I’m wearing a white dress shirt and a tie. Unlike my Storm games, I play perfectly and avoid any sauce stains. With a tentative hopefulness after my 2-0 start, I grab my backpack as round 3 pairings are announced.
Round 3 – Simon on RUG Delver
Game 1
I recognize my opponent as a fairly skilled Canadian Thresh player, but I’m pretty sure that he thinks I’m playing Miracles. Unfortunately, I lose the very important die roll and we chat a little as I draw my opening hand:
Brainstorm
Silence
Rite of Flame
Brainstorm
Underground Sea
Infernal Tutor
Lotus Petal
Would you keep this hand?
This hand is very weak to Wasteland, but I at least have the option of firing off a Brainstorm to find a second land if it comes down to it. I decide to keep. He plays a Volcanic Island and passes. I draw a Burning Wish, feeling pretty sure that my opponent is holding up Stifle. My opponent drops a Wooded Foothills and Ponders, while I Brainstorm to draw: Dark Ritual, Gemstone Mine, and LED (putting back LED first then Gemstone). On my turn, I draw the Gemstone Mine, play Lotus Petal and Gemstone Mine in case of a Daze, and I cast my Burning Wish for a Thoughtseize. My opponent fetches a Tropical Island at the end of my turn and then proceeds to go Tarmogoyf, Wooded Foothills and crack it for a Volcanic into Delver. On my turn, I draw my LED and cast Thoughtseize (Storm 1). I see two Stifles (a-hah!) and a Daze, choosing to discard the Daze since my opponent is tapped out. Here comes the storm:
Rite of Flame (Storm 2) RR
Dark Ritual (Storm 3) RRBBB
Lion’s Eye Diamond (Storm 4) RRBBB
Infernal Tutor (Storm 5), breaking LED RBBBBB
Search for Ad Nauseum and play it from 18 life (Storm 6) R
Reveal:
Infernal Tutor (16)
Lotus Petal (16)
Lion’s Eye Diamond (16)
Silence (15)
Volcanic Island (15)
Gemstone Mine (15)
Chrome Mox (15)
Lotus Petal (15)
Rite of Flame (13)
Gitaxian Probe (12)
Burning Wish (10)
Lotus Petal (10)
I stop drawing here since this is more than enough to go off. I continue:
Lotus Petal (Storm 7)
Lotus Petal (Storm 8)
Lotus Petal (Storm 9)
Lion’s Eye Diamond (Storm 10)
Gemstone Mine, tapping for Rite of Flame (Storm 11) RRR
Burning Wish (Storm 12), breaking LED RBBB
Tendrils (Storm 13) for lethal
One of the more entertaining aspects of playing this deck is the mixed look of boredom and frustration on your opponent’s face as you’re going off. I noticed it first while watching my brother’s High Tide matches, and I notice the same look every time I fish for Tendrils from my sideboard. This game was no exception. It brings me great satisfaction because I don’t like it when my opponent gets to play cards.
Game 2
Once again, I have no idea how to sideboard in this matchup. I remember that Xantid Swarm is bad against Lightning Bolt, so I keep the process very minimal. I go +1 Thoughtseize, -1 Silence although I couldn’t tell you why. In retrospect, Silence seems better in this matchup because there’s no life loss. I draw this hand:
Dark Ritual
Ponder
Brainstorm
Thoughtseize
Lion’s Eye Diamond
Lotus Petal
Rite of Flame
Would you keep this hand?
No tutor or initial mana source makes me wary about keeping this hand against Daze. I mulligan and see:
Gitaxian Probe
Dark Ritual
Burning Wish
Underground Sea
Ponder
Ad Nauseum
Would you keep this hand?
Well, this hand has a land and a cantrip, so I decide to keep. My opponent leads with a Tropical Island and a Delver, not very promising for me. I draw a second Burning Wish, play the Underground Sea to avoid Daze, and Probe him to reveal: Volcanic Island, Force of Will, Flusterstorm, Ponder, and Brainstorm. The probe draws me a Chrome Mox. Seeing no Daze, I cast my Ponder to see: Rite of Flame, Silence, Infernal Tutor. I really need either a way to protect the combo or another land to stop the inevitable Wasteland, and Silence won’t cut it without a white source, so I shuffle and draw a Rite of Flame. My opponent brainstorms on his upkeep to reveal a Ponder and flip Delver, and proceeds to Wasteland my Underground Sea. I don’t draw another mana source over the next four turns (Cabal Therapy, Burning Wish, Brainstorm, Cabal Therapy) and I lose to the flipped Delver and Mongoose.
Game 3
Losing to mana denial is never a good feeling, and after losing to Wasteland once, I resolved to not play into it again. Unlike games against hate bears, where I want to combo off quickly, I realize that I need to play a longer game against RUG. Keeping hands with up to four lands may even be a great idea. Our third game begins with these cards:
Gemstone Mine
Rite of Flame
Ponder
Lion’s Eye Diamond
Burning Wish
Gitaxian Probe
Brainstorm
Would you keep this hand?
On the play with three cantrips, fast mana, land, and a business spell? I’d keep this any day. I lead with Gitaxian Probe to see: Wasteland, Wasteland, Force of Will, Flusterstorm, Ponder, Misty Rainforest, Delver of Secrets. Ugh. Basically a nightmare hand against me. I lead with Ponder and reveal: Rite of Flame, Gemstone Mine, Underground Sea. I take a little time to think about my next few turns. This is a really sweet Ponder against double Wasteland, but unfortunately, my Burning Wish doesn’t get me any business because a) I forgot to side out an Infernal Tutor and b) I’m not packing a sideboard Empty the Warrens. Feeling really silly at this point, I draw the Gemstone Mine and put the other two back, leaving Underground Sea on top. As expected, my opponent Wastelands my Gemstone Mine and on my turn, I draw Underground Sea, play another Gemstone Mine and pass the turn. The second Wasteland comes down on my opponent’s turn, targeting my second Gemstone Mine. I remove a depletion counter to cast Brainstorm, but it meets Force of Will (pitching Brainstorm) and my land bites the dust.
I draw Rite of Flame on my turn and suddenly realize I just threw this game by not running out Underground Sea into his second Wasteland, since now I don’t have red mana for Rite of Flame. Combine this with my sideboard mistake, I lost the chance to go: Gemstone, Rite x2, Lion’s Eye Diamond, Burning Wish, Empty the Warrens for 10 goblins against his empty board. The rest of the game plays out predictably. Delver comes down next turn, and he has Flusterstorm backup for the rest of the game as he kills me with a Goose and a Delver. I end up drawing Chrome Mox, Gemstone Mine, Gitaxian Probe, and Misty Rainforest, with no way to beat the Flusterstorm in my opponent’s hand.
5-3 in games, 2-1 in matches
This match stung especially because I had my opponent dead to rights due to his greedy Force of Will, but I messed it up on multiple levels. TES veterans especially are admonishing me at this point for not following the primer (according to someone at the shop, “Cook wrote the Bible, d00d, you just gotta read it”). No use dwelling on this match for now, especially when I’m still in contention for top 8. I take this time to finish my sandwich and talk to some of the local storm players before the next round is posted.
Round 4 – Elijah on Shardless BUG
Game 1
There hasn’t been a single Legacy event where I’ve managed to avoid playing against someone I playtested with. Sure enough, the guy I jammed games with before the tournament sat down across from me, and since we went through each other’s decks and sideboards in great detail just a few hours ago, there weren’t going to be any surprises. I lose the die roll, and draw my opening grip:
Infernal Tutor
Rite of Flame
Lotus Petal
City of Brass
Burning Wish
Lion’s Eye Diamond
Misty Rainforest
Would you keep this hand?
This hand seems really slow that needs either protection or another ritual to be good, but it’s solid enough that I don’t want to send it back. My opponent drops a Tropical Island and suspends Ancetral Vision. Confirmed, he’s still playing Shardless. I draw a Brainstorm for the turn and at this point I play a Lotus Petal, thinking to play around Daze, but I immediately regret my decision when I remember that it would interfere with his cascade. Definite misplay, but it’s not the end of the world. He notices my indecisiveness and boldly plays a Polluted Delta and passes the turn. End of turn, I break Misty for Underground Sea and Brainstorm, drawing Burning Wish, Silence, and Ponder. Without any protection in my hand, I realize that I need to play a slower game at the mercy of my cantrips and pray he doesn’t have Liliana or Hymn to Tourach since there’s no way he kept a hand without counter-magic. I put Silence back first and then Ponder.
I draw the Ponder again, play City of Brass, and Burning Wish for a Thoughtseize. On his turn, he uses a Verdant Catacombs to get an Underground Sea of his own to Abrupt Decay my Lotus Petal. Definitely a bad play on my part. My turn sees the Silence enter my hand and I Ponder, revealing: Scalding Tarn, Chrome Mox, Infernal Tutor. I draw the Scalding Tarn and put the Mox on top, play the Tarn, and Thoughtseize my opponent. He responds with a sneaky Brainstorm and shows me a hand with: 3x Force of Will and Liliana of the Veil. I discard Liliana, hoping my next few draws will allow me to power through his counter-magic. On his turn, he Wastelands my Underground Sea leaving me with a City of Brass and a Scalding Tarn in play. I do not understand this play at all. First, he hid a Wasteland instead of Liliana, when Thoughtseize can’t discard lands. Second, it’s a bad move not wasting City of Brass, since it’s my only source of red AND white. Third, Wasteland shows me the card he drew for his turn, so I know he only has three Forces left in his hand. His Ancestral Visions also going to pop on his next upkeep, so I need to go off this next turn. I draw the Chrome Mox I left on top and suddenly it’s business time:
Silence (Storm 1)
Chrome Mox (Storm 2) imprinting Burning Wish
Sacrifice Scalding Tarn for Underground Sea
Rite of Flame (Storm 3) RR
Lion’s Eye Diamond (Storm 4) RR
Infernal Tutor (Storm 5), breaking LED RRRR
Empty the Warrens (Storm 6) for 12 goblins
I know my opponent plays one copy of Toxic Deluge in the main, so I wait anxiously as he draws four cards on his turn. He goes Brainstorm, Underground Sea, Deathrite Shaman, and Baleful Strix, passing the turn back to me. I draw a dark Ritual and swing with army, which gets blocked by Strix and Shaman, sending my opponent down to 8 life. My nerves get another workout as he plays Polluted Delta and drops Shardless Agent, cascading into another Ancestral Vision. I count his mana and notice he only has two lands untapped, so I will definitely get one more turn, even if he’s holding the board sweeper. I can’t believe my luck as I topdeck an Ad Nauseum! I run my goblin army into his two creatures, and my opponent taps out to cast Abrupt Decay, leaving him at 1 life. Without Force of Will or Toxic Deluge to worry about, I cast Dark Ritual (Storm 1) and tap out for Ad Nauseum (Storm 2) from 14 life:
Reveal:
Volcanic Island (14)
Ponder (13)
Scalding Tarn (13)
Gitaxian Probe (12)
Gemstone Mine (12)
Lion’s Eye Diamond (12)
Infernal Tutal (10)
Rite of Flame (9)
Gitaxian Probe (8)
Silence (7)
Burning Wish (5)
Infernal Tutor (3)
Cabal Therapy (1)
My opponent slumps his shoulders, obviously a little hopeful that I might die to my own spell, but I press on:
Lion’s Eye Diamond (Storm 3)
Gemstone Mine
Rite of Flame (Storm 4)
Burning Wish (Storm 5), finding Grapeshot
Grapeshot (Storm 6)
Newbie moment: my hand was trembling at the prospect of landing my first Grapeshot kill that I flipped through my sideboard three times, growing increasingly panicked each time trying to find the copy that I knew I had. Eventually, I fished it out. Turns out I completely forgot what the card looks like.
Game 2
Happy to be done with such a grindy game, I contemplated my sideboard, deciding to add a Thoughtseize and wondering what to take out. Silence does serious work against sorcery speed discard, so I decide to board out an Empty the Warrens instead (kids, don’t try this at home, it’s a bad idea) when it really should have been an Infernal Tutor. After the well-practiced shuffle dance, I draw:
Silence
Brainstorm
Infernal Tutor
Burning Wish
Gemstone Mine
Gemstone Mine
Lotus Petal
Would you keep this hand?
I know that my opponent boarded in zero counterspells and a lot of discard as well as some board sweepers to deal with goblins, so I want a hand with Brainstorm and some resilience to Wasteland. This hand fits the bill. My opponent sacrifices Polluted Delta for an Underground Sea and fires off a predictable turn one Thoughtseize, deciding to take my Brainstorm (more experienced players, would you have played Brainstorm here?). The fact that he didn’t take my Wish or Tutor makes me suspect that he has more discard in his hand. I draw a Cabal Therapy for the turn and play a Gemstone Mine. I Silence on my opponent’s upkeep and he Brainstorms in response. He misses his land drop and passes the turn. I draw City of Brass and think about what to do.
Here’s where I have a lot of questions about the optimal play. I know my opponent won’t have a land in his next two draws. He likely kept a hand because of Thoughtseize and Force of Will, and due to his first Thoughtseize choice, he might have backup discard. However, my hand doesn’t have enough mana to go off, being two rituals short. I make a gut decision to play a more defensive game, so I drop a second Gemstone Mine and play Cabal Therapy naming Hymn to Tourach. My opponent shows: Force of Will, Ancestral Vision, Shardless Agent, Tarmogoyf, and Hymn to Tourach (yay!). After binning the Hymn, he draws for the turn and plays Deathrite Shaman. On my turn, I draw a Lotus Petal and play a Burning Wish that meets a Force of Will (pitching Ancestral Vision). My opponent plays ANOTHER Deathrite Shaman on his turn and passes. I draw a third Gemstone Mine and play it, seriously hoping for some mana acceleration soon. My opponent plays a Tarmogoyf by eating a Delta with DRS, and attacks me with his other Shaman. At this point, my opponent is holding two cards. One he drew for the turn and another being the Shardless Agent I saw from Cabal Therapy. I draw a LED for the turn, cross my fingers, and decide to go for it with three lands in play.
Lotus Petal (Storm 1)
Lion’s Eye Diamond (Storm 2)
City of Brass
Infernal Tutor (Storm 3), breaking LED for BBB
To my dismay, Infernal Tutor meets a second Force of Will (pitching Shardless Agent), leaving both of us hellbent. I lose the game in two turns, my next draws showing me Gitaxian Probe, Cabal Therapy, and LED. I spend some time wondering what went wrong this game, and whether I could have won it at all. I’m still not entirely sure. I try not to dwell on it as I prepare for game three.
Game 3
I double-check my sideboard and realize that I probably want a maindeck Empty the Warrens after all. I end up putting it back and taking out a copy of Chrome Mox instead. This is a much better plan. I shuffle up and draw:
Thoughtseize
Brainstorm
Rite of Flame
Cabal Therapy
Infernal Tutor
Misty Rainforest
Lion’s Eye Diamond
A tutor, fast mana, land, and protection? What’s not to love about this hand? I break Misty to grab Underground Sea and play Thoughtseize. He reveals: Force of Will, Wasteland, Misty Rainforest, Polluted Delta, Underground Sea, Vendilion Clique, Deathrite Shaman. I choose to discard Force of Will over Vendilion Clique because Wasteland will destroy my only land, giving me two turns to cantrip into another land drop before I get locked out of the game. Force of Will on my Brainstorm could lose me the game here.
My opponent plays Underground Sea and Deathrite, shipping the turn back to me. I draw a second Rite of Flame, but have no red source to cast it. I decide to Brainstorm on my turn to find an answer to the inevitable Wasteland, and I draw: Ponder, Dark Ritual, Lotus Petal. I put back Ponder first and Rite of Flame on top. I figure I can play Ponder off of Lotus Petal, but without a threat on the board, I’d rather wait a turn to make sure I see a fresh 3 off of Ponder. Sure enough, the next turn sees a Wasteland on my Underground Sea as my opponent plops down a Tarmogoyf with the help of Deathrite. I draw the Rite of Flame and pass. The opponent cracks Delta to find Bayou, and, using the Shaman again, plays Liliana of the Veil. A Liliana activation has me discard Cabal Therapy, and Tarmogoyf comes at me, hitting for three.
I draw the Ponder on my turn and play it using the Lotus Petal in my hand to find: Gemstone Mine, City of Brass, Burning Wish. Quick recap: I’m holding two Rite of Flame, Tutor, LED, Dark Ritual, and I’m facing down a Vendilion Clique still in my opponent’s hand and a Liliana activation next turn. I think hard about my game plan as I put back Burning Wish first, followed by City of Brass on top, and I draw Gemstone Mine. I play the Mine and pass turn, and my opponent activates the planeswalker again (I discared Rite of Flame), and he attacks me down to 10 life. My draw step sees the City of Brass I put on top followed by a Vendilion Clique from my opponent. At this point the organizer calls time as I fan my hand of City of Brass, Rite of Flame, Dark Ritual, LED, Infernal Tutor, and he instructs me to bottom my Tutor. Perfect. I draw Burning Wish to replace Infernal Tutor and go:
City of Brass
Rite of Flame (Storm 2) RRR
Dark Ritual (Storm 3) RRRBBB
Lion’s Eye Diamond (Storm 4) RRRBBB
Burning Wish (Storm 5), breaking LED to float RRBBUUU
Searching for Diminishing Returns and playing it (Storm 6) RBB
I draw the following sweet, sweet hand:
Lotus Petal
Lotus Petal
Lion’s Eye Diamond
Lion’s Eye Diamond
Volcanic Island
Ponder
Brainstorm
Would you keep this hand? KIDDING!
This hand gives me all the storm and mana I need and seven opportunities to find a business spell. I lead with Lotus Petal (Storm 7) into Ponder (Storm 8) to find: Chrome Mox, Infernal Tutor, Ponder. I draw the Tutor and proceed:
Lotus Petal (Storm 9) RBB
Lotus Petal (Storm 10) RBB
Lion’s Eye Diamond (Storm 11) RBB
Lion’s Eye Diamond (Storm 12) RBB
Infernal Tutor (Storm 13), breaking both LED to float BBBBRRR
Search for Burning Wish and play it (Storm 14) BBBRR
Search for Tendrils of Agony (Storm 15) B
Relieved, I look around as I start picking up my cards. Apparently we had gathered a small crowd to watch my last turn. Everyone exchanged jokes about a storm deck going to time, and it suddenly hit me that I made my first top 8 ever. Feels good to be in the winner circle!
7-4 in games, 3-1 in matches.
I talked to my opponent and the organizer, and we decided to ID into top 8. Since it was nearly midnight on Thursday, everyone decided to split the prize in order to go home earlier. I had work the next day so I was more than okay with that.
Thanks for reading the entire thing! If you have any feedback on my play, I would love to hear it. Lemnear does these posts way better, but if I do another one in the future, I will start to develop my own voice and not just steal his format. I’m incredibly grateful to Lemnear, whose writing inspired me to play this deck, to the Bryant Cook for making this incredibly sweet deck what it is, and to my brother who had the patience to grind dozens of matches over the weekend with me.
Pros:
-Won some store credit and first time having a winning record at a Legacy event.
-Got to know some awesome players at my LGS. Everyone was either very nice or left me alone.
-Learned tons about the wonderfulness of Storm.
-Remembered to remove sideboard cards after every game, never once flipping Past in Flames off of Ad Nauseum.
Cons:
-Scrubbed up my sideboard. Seriously needed the extra Empty the Warrens several times.
-The name “Liver of the Storm” for my report was already taken.
Last edited by saur; 04-16-2014 at 08:03 PM.
I read all of this, I don't have time to break it down round by round. But in your second round you shoud've definitely cast Cabal Therapy before the Xantid Swarm. I also don't bring in Xantid Swarm very often, mainly just against decks that can't answer it or versus opponents who side out removal. In that event with those match-ups I wouldn't have sided it at all.
Keep practicing, it takes some time.
Thanks for the input, Bryant. Quick followup:
Not even against UW Stoneblade? I'd be surprised if my opponent didn't side out Swords for Meddling Mage/Flusterstorm. What would be your concern here?Originally Posted by Bryant Cook
Typically any deck that has access to removal, Xantid Swarm doesn't come in. This includes Umezawa's Jitte which will probably stay in if they are experienced players because Jitte with counters has a very high chance of shutting down Empty the Warren as a possible win-con.
It is likely that Plow gets sided out, but cards like Jitte, Sword of Fire and Ice, Venser, etc. are played.
Good work man, nice and very detailed report. I just thought I would point out the fact that your round 2 opponent admitted to you that he cheated. If he noticed that you forgot to draw off Probe and Ponder and didn't remind you to draw, that's cheating. It falls under failure to maintain gamestate I believe, so don't be the guy that does that to others.
Congrats on your first Legacy top 8 and keep at it.
Team Hammafist-We don't take kindly to those who don't take kindly."Got any trade boogas?"
Just to be clear, when you open on 3 pieces of acceleration the hand typically isn't considered slow. Namely this hand:
Petal
LED
Rite of Flame
Infernal
Wish
Misty
City of Brass
That hand goldfishes a turn 2 kill/Ad Nauseam. Hardly what I consider to be slow. I'd snap keep.
One misplay I noticed (or typo?) is when you diminishing returned you floated RBB. The correct play there is to float UBR as you very unlikely to need BB floating as you aren't drawing tendrils itself and an example of a hand where you'll need BB floating with a land drop remaining is quite a cornercase generally as it requires that you draw no black sources (petal, LED, dark ritual, black producing land, chrome mox + black card to imprint) and instead draw a land that doesn't produce black and a lot of rite of flames/chrome moxen that can't imprint a black card for mana. Floating a blue mana means you get to see more cards as you're quite likely to draw a cantrip off d. returns and the more cards you see it storm the better as it improves your odds of combo'ing drastically.
On xantid swarm, if I know they don't have an answer to it or their only answer is FoW and I can drop it you snap drop it every time generally as it means you have a permanent silence the rest of the game/you're heavily favored to win. Concur with Bryant on when you board it in, if you think they're leaving in answers for it I wouldn't board it in. If you know they don't have an answer to it like sneak and show it's a snap board in and one of the best cards in your deck typically. Blanking pierce, flusterstorm, and all the soft countermagic in the opposing deck is king.
Either way nice report and welcome to the dark side.
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Excellent report, lots of detail that will help you improve.
And I must say you play very well for a first timer!
Small first remark: game 1 round 1 was a correct mulligan, of course.
When you did go off that game, you could have gone for a lovely 11 storm natural Tendrils (safer than Ad Nauseam):
Brainstorm (storm 1)
Petal (storm 2)
Ritual (storm 3, BBB)
Therapy, naming FoW, in case he drew it (storm 4, BB)
Ritual (storm 5, BBBB)
LED (storm 6)
LED (storm 7)
Infernal, respond by saccing both LEDS, one for R and one for B (storm 8, BBBBB RRR), find Infernal
Infernal (for RB) (storm 9, BBBB RR), find Wish
Wish (for RR) (storm 10, BBBB), find Tendrils
Tendrils (storm 10 plus Tendrils itself makes a lethal 22 life gone)
If you want to go off, always check what options you have. Calculate all mana you can make, and all casting costs, and look for a natural Tendrils, or a Past in Flames kill (if they have no grave hate). Ad Nauseam, Empty the Warrens and Diminishing Returns all have their risks, while especially the natural spell chain is a sure win (usually - they could Swords to Plowshares their own guy maybe, but that won't happen often).
Coffee-break Critique:
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Hmpf
It's not optional, if he truly noticed and didn't say anything he's a cheater. He should have gotten a loss.As my opponent kindly pointed out after the match, I forgot to draw a card from my first Probe and my Ponder.
Unsporting Conduct — Cheating
Definition
A person breaks a rule defined by the tournament documents, lies to a tournament official, or notices an offense
committed in his or her (or a teammate's) match and does not call attention to it.
^ This is excellent advice. It can be exhausting to try and think through all of the possible lines every time you go to combo off during a long tournament, but with a lot of goldfishing/practice it becomes almost second nature. With that in mind I noticed you also had the Tendrils win during game two of round one.
Start with one City of Brass and one Gemstone Mine in play after attacking with Xantid Swarm
Play second Gemstone Mine
Tap Gemstone Mine for Rite of Flame (storm 1) RR
Tap Gemstone Mine for Dark Ritual (storm 2) RRBBB
Play Lotus Petal (storm 3) RRBBB
Sacrifice Lotus Petal and tap City of Brass (11 life) to play Infernal Tutor finding Lion's Eye Diamond (storm 5) RRBBB
Play Lion's Eye Diamond (storm 6) RRBBB
Play Lion's Eye Diamond (storm 7) RRBBB
Play Burning Wish for Past in Flames, hold priority, then sacrifice your Lion's Eye Diamonds in response (storm 8) RRRRBBBBB
Play Past in Flames (storm 9) RRBBB
Flashback Rite of Flame (storm 10) RRRBBB
Flashback Dark Ritual (storm 11) RRRBBBBB
Flashback Infernal Tutor finding Burning Wish. (storm 12) RRBBBB
Play Burning Wish for Tendrils of Agony (storm 13) RBBB
Play Tendrils of Agony (win)
Anyway, great report and congrats on your finish
Works also with:
Play second Gemstone Mine
Tap Gemstone Mine for Dark Ritual (storm 1) BBB
Play Lotus Petal (storm 2) BBB
Play Infernal for RoF#2 B (storm 3)
Sacrifice Lotus Petal and tap City of Brass (11 life) to play RoF (storm 4) RRBB
Play RoF (storm 5) RRRRBB
Play Lion's Eye Diamond (storm 6) RRRRBB
Play Burning Wish for Past in Flames, hold priority, then sacrifice your Lion's Eye Diamonds in response (storm 7) RRRBBBB
Play Past in Flames (storm 8) RBB
Flashback Rite of Flame (storm 9) RRRBB
Flashback Rite of Flame (storm 10) RRRRBB
Flashback Dark Ritual (storm 11) RRRRBBBB
Flashback Infernal Tutor finding Burning Wish. (storm 12) RRRBBB
Play Burning Wish for Tendrils of Agony (storm 13) RBBB
Play Tendrils of Agony (win)
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Sure. You could also go for Dark Ritual instead. All of the different possible lines is exactly why it's so important for somebody who's learning the deck to always be on the lookout for the most immediate and lowest risk way of winning. Thanks for pointing out that there were other lines though
Did you read the "Liver of the Storm" report? It sure looks like you have copied the style but it is of course ok.
Great report although you have to gain some more experience in order to achieve even better results.
I would have put back a Ponder and Rite of Flame, then cast Petal, Dark Rit, LED, Infernal Tutor into Empty the Warrens for 12 guys. You could even flashback Cabal Therapy to take Clique.
Between mostly knowing your opponents hand(one unknown card) and with Wasteland coming to screw up your day you probably should have gone for it.
I can really get behind that :)
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