Bizarro Stormy (or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Griselbrand)

[8bit9mm]

So feel free to go overboard on activations

So what I'm hearing is, "don't stop til you get enough."

Chm'on

[hovercraft]

Bizarro got a write up on goldfish:

https://www.mtggoldfish.com/articles...new-archetypes

Good job guys!

[Acclimation]

Short report, FNM tonight was a Win a Dual, and we played 4 rounds. I went 3-1 overall with a 61 card White list, as I wasn't sure if I wanted 4 Probe or 4 Ponder, and decided to just have both.


4 Marsh Flats
4 Polluted Delta
1 Swamp
1 Island
1 Scrubland
1 Tundra
2 Underground Sea

4 Brainstorm
4 Gitaxian Probe
4 Ponder

2 Cabal Ritual
4 Dark Ritual
3 Lion's Eye Diamond
4 Lotus Petal

3 Collective Brutality
3 Cabal Therapy

3 Griselbrand
1 Magus of the Mind

1 Past in Flames
4 Shallow Grave
4 Entomb
2 Corpse Dance
1 Mastermind's Acquisition

Sideboard:
2 Chain of Vapor
2 Massacre
3 Silence
1 Plains
2 Serenity
3 Silent Gravestone
1 Tendrils of Agony
1 Disenchant

Played against:

Painter (2-0) IN:2|Serenity|2|Plains|2|Chain of Vapor|1|Disenchant Out: 1|Polluted Delta|1|Griselbrand|3|Ponder|1|Cabal Therapy
UB Reanimator (1-2)In: 2|Chain of Vapor| 3|Silent Gravestone Out: 4|Ponder|1|Collective Brutality
Turbo Depths (2-0) In: 2|Chain of Vapor| 3|Silent Gravestone Out: 4|Ponder|1|Griselbrand
Doomsday (2-0) In: 3|Silence|1|Chain of Vapor Out: 3|Ponder|1|Collective Brutality

List played very well tonight, had some good hands, an insane g1 vs Reanimator that involved MA for Chain of Vapor through Chancellor of the Annex to bounce it with 1 life left, after Entombing Griselbrand in response to his t2 Exhume and trading with his t3 Show and Tell for Iona on black. It's probably correct to go down to 3 Ponder, as I'm finding that the information from Probe in a build like mine with 3 Cabal Therapy is very important. I think if you ran 2-3 Thoughtseize over Therapy, you could do 4 Ponder and 3 Probe, but that's going to be a personal decision.


As an aside, the dude who won the event (and a Scrubland) took his modern hatebears deck and added GSZ, Mom, and 1 Swords to Plowshares, and ran things like Loxodon Smiter. Would have loved to have played against that, but unfortunately I didn't get the chance. Other good news is that a lot of people recognized the deck and called it Bizarro before I told them I was one of the co-creators, so there was a lot of good conversation to be had.

[Zavec]

I'm liking the 4 ponders 4 probes. I think tomorrow I'll try cutting cabal ritual to fit those, I haven't been super impressed by that card.

How was 3 brutalities?

[Acclimation]

I'm liking the 4 ponders 4 probes. I think tomorrow I'll try cutting cabal ritual to fit those, I haven't been super impressed by that card.

How was 3 brutalities?

I've been a fan of 3 Brutalities, as there's almost always targets for the removal mode, about 70% of the things I want to strip are instants/sorceries, and sometimes the drain makes a difference- all of this on top of an uncounterable discard outlet. It's definitely slow, but it's really nice having a g1 method of dealing with random creatures (DRS, Delver, Yung Peezy, Thalia, Eidolon, Moon, etc). I like the swiss army knife aspect of the card.

I do think that running 2 copies for another 1 mana discard spell is probably pretty good, but I probably wouldn't drop to 1 copy.

As far as Cabal Ritual, I've been enjoying having it, as it helps to enable storm lines and having an extra couple of rituals can make t1-2 combos happen more often. It's definitely meh without Threshold, but sometimes all I need is BBB to get going, so it helps. Shaving 1 is probably fine, but going to 0 makes PiF a little bit worse, and makes it a bit harder to cast MA/DP/Tendrils at random points in the game.

[Zavec]

Dangit there's another guy that made it locally, so we had two copies in a nine person tournament today.

Guess I'll go back to ANT or people are going to start metagaming against bizarro super hard.

Didn't really miss cabal ritual, but the sample size was pretty low.

[JackaBo]

I love how new decks gets legacy players really excited. I guess this deck is also the perfect combo of hilarious and competitive enough to be worthwhile.
That our local Tin Fins player would pick it up was no brainer. But now me and another player are collecting the necessary cards and soon we'll be three bizarro players locally. Quite bizarre.
So i have these questions for you seasoned players:
1) How good is probe? I mean i know it's building storm count and it provides info if you can go off. But it's a pretty bad reveal to magus. The two life is also important when we want to draw 21 off Griselbrand. I could see going up on business and discard instead. Thoughts?
2) Have anyone tried intuition in the list. It could work as a tutor for tendrils (and pif and led) when we want to win. It can also be entomb #5 with the upside of binning two demons in opponents end step versus an active shaman.

[8bit9mm]

1) How good is probe? I mean i know it's building storm count and it provides info if you can go off. But it's a pretty bad reveal to magus. The two life is also important when we want to draw 21 off Griselbrand. I could see going up on business and discard instead. Thoughts?

The two life almost never matters when you're going off. You have to go down to 14 for it to make a difference for the most part.
I've been running 3 Therapy, 2 Collective Brutality, 1 Thoughseize for quite a while now and it still feels correct. Just the perfect mix.
3 Therapy is also a big proponent for playing the full set of Probes. Also, information is key when you're playing a combo deck.

2) Have anyone tried intuition in the list. It could work as a tutor for tendrils (and pif and led) when we want to win. It can also be entomb #5 with the upside of binning two demons in opponents end step versus an active shaman.

I can't say that I've tried it, but I've found the maindeck to be very tight. I feel like Intuition would be better served as a Dark Petition. I will say that I'm only playing the Mastermind's main with Tendrils in the board, which has been just fine. I also feel like Intuition almost prices you into playing Unburial Rites.

[Acclimation]

I love how new decks gets legacy players really excited. I guess this deck is also the perfect combo of hilarious and competitive enough to be worthwhile.
That our local Tin Fins player would pick it up was no brainer. But now me and another player are collecting the necessary cards and soon we'll be three bizarro players locally. Quite bizarre.

YEH

So i have these questions for you seasoned players:
1) How good is probe? I mean i know it's building storm count and it provides info if you can go off. But it's a pretty bad reveal to magus. The two life is also important when we want to draw 21 off Griselbrand. I could see going up on business and discard instead. Thoughts?

Overall I think it's crazy to board out Probe, I think it's one of the best cards in the deck. A few years ago the TES thread had a discussion about boarding out Probe vs. Ponder and everyone pretty much came to the same conclusion - Probe is nuts. It helps build threshold, go off faster by effectively reducing deck size, build storm, strengthen PiF, and most importantly, inform how to play around and through answers.

The information game has been incredibly important for this deck, as it can inform you which line is correct to take. I'd shave Ponder if I wanted to add business before cutting Probe.

2) Have anyone tried intuition in the list. It could work as a tutor for tendrils (and pif and led) when we want to win. It can also be entomb #5 with the upside of binning two demons in opponents end step versus an active shaman.

We did some testing with it before we released the primer, and it wasn't as good as some of the other options for that slot (things like MA). There might be a version of the deck that wants to run 2-3 Intuition and grind out more PiF lines, but I'm not certain as to what cuts I would want to make, in addition to adding an extra couple of lands so we can consistently cast a 3 mana spell. It's a strong spell, but for 1 copy I feel like we get more bang for our buck with MA, and with multiple copies we need to rebuild the deck, and I'm not certain that's the direction we want to go in a DRS+blue shell world.

[.dk]

Maybe if Gitaxian Probe were to get banned sometime, Intuition might make more sense? In builds similar to our early ones, prior to running Probe.

[8bit9mm]

Maybe if Gitaxian Probe were to get banned sometime, Intuition might make more sense? In builds similar to our early ones, prior to running Probe.

If Probe were to get banned, it'd really piss on having Therapy in the deck.
I've had some good blind-therapies in the past, but I'm no clairvoyant.

Although, that's just some hypothetical B.S. anyways.

Edit: I'd probably do something like:

-3 Therapy, -4 Probe
+1 Ponder (4), +1 Collective Brutality (3), +2 Thoughtseize (3), +1 Griselbrand (4), +2 Unmask (2)

[phazonmutant]

I top 8'd the CardKingdom 1K last Saturday, losing in the quarters for a 5-2 record. Variance caught up to me, I didn't draw Probe (best card in the deck). VOD is here: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/268604395?t=05h56m

Also 3-1'd today, totally punting the combo in the last round and losing to myself. Graveyard order matters, messed up sequencing with LED.

Still running my same list, so far 35-10 even including the 2 weeks of 2-2s with a bad build. So that's not bad. Deck feels super strong. I still don't know any obvious changes I would make. Maybe -1 LED for something? It seems the most cuttable.

[hovercraft]

I top 8'd the CardKingdom 1K last Saturday, losing in the quarters for a 5-2 record. Variance caught up to me, I didn't draw Probe (best card in the deck). VOD is here: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/268604395?t=05h56m

Also 3-1'd today, totally punting the combo in the last round and losing to myself. Graveyard order matters, messed up sequencing with LED.

Still running my same list, so far 35-10 even including the 2 weeks of 2-2s with a bad build. So that's not bad. Deck feels super strong. I still don't know any obvious changes I would make. Maybe -1 LED for something? It seems the most cuttable.

Nice results! I'm going to watch the VOD today, thanks for the link.
What is your current build and sb?

[phazonmutant]

Nice results! I'm going to watch the VOD today, thanks for the link.
What is your current build and sb?

1 Bayou
1 Bloodstained Mire
1 Island
2 Misty Rainforest
4 Polluted Delta
1 Swamp
2 Underground Sea
1 Verdant Catacombs
1 Volcanic Island
4 Brainstorm
2 Cabal Ritual
3 Cabal Therapy
2 Collective Brutality
2 Corpse Dance
4 Dark Ritual
4 Entomb
4 Gitaxian Probe
3 Griselbrand
3 Lion's Eye Diamond
4 Lotus Petal
1 Magus of the Mind
1 Mastermind's Acquisition
1 Past in Flames
3 Ponder
4 Shallow Grave
1 Thoughtseize
Sideboard:

2 Abrupt Decay
2 Carpet of Flowers
1 Chain of Vapor
1 Echoing Truth
2 Flusterstorm
1 Ground Seal
1 Hurkyl's Recall
1 Massacre
2 Silent Gravestone
1 Tendrils of Agony
1 Tropical Island

As mentioned above, I think in the maindeck the most cuttable cards are the 3rd LED, 3rd Griselbrand, 2nd Cabal Ritual in that order. Sideboard, 1st Massacre, 2nd Fluster. I haven't brought Massacre in very much, and it seems like it doesn't map well in sideboard slots.

[Zavec]

How often do you go for a storm line without a magus? I get the feeling maybe I'm undervaluing cabal ritual because that sort of line isn't one I think I've ever used. Outside of that specific case I'd just rather have the option of blue mana from LED I think.

Also, congrats on the top 8!

[WarpWorld]

As mentioned above, I think in the maindeck the most cuttable cards are the 3rd LED, 3rd Griselbrand, 2nd Cabal Ritual in that order. Sideboard, 1st Massacre, 2nd Fluster. I haven't brought Massacre in very much, and it seems like it doesn't map well in sideboard slots.

Definitely interested in the deck and will be playing some games. Maybe the 4th ponder over the 3rd led.

[.dk]

How often do you go for a storm line without a magus? I get the feeling maybe I'm undervaluing cabal ritual because that sort of line isn't one I think I've ever used. Outside of that specific case I'd just rather have the option of blue mana from LED I think.

Also, congrats on the top 8!

At least for me, while it hasn’t come up frequently (but it has come up), it does play a big part in other lines too. Using it to hardcast Griselbrand is quite good. As well as carting with threshold to start your combo and have mana floating afterwards. And lastly, it casts Mastermind’s Acquistion quite well.

[phazonmutant]

How often do you go for a storm line without a magus? I get the feeling maybe I'm undervaluing cabal ritual because that sort of line isn't one I think I've ever used. Outside of that specific case I'd just rather have the option of blue mana from LED I think.

Also, congrats on the top 8!

Thanks!

At least for me, while it hasn’t come up frequently (but it has come up), it does play a big part in other lines too. Using it to hardcast Griselbrand is quite good. As well as carting with threshold to start your combo and have mana floating afterwards. And lastly, it casts Mastermind’s Acquistion quite well.

Exactly this.

[8bit9mm]

At least for me, while it hasn’t come up frequently (but it has come up), it does play a big part in other lines too. Using it to hardcast Griselbrand is quite good. As well as carting with threshold to start your combo and have mana floating afterwards. And lastly, it casts Mastermind’s Acquistion quite well.

The number of times I've ritual'd out or Brainstorm'd (holding priority) cracking LEDs to just cast G-dizzle in this deck is a little ridiculous. I need to start keeping a running tally.
Also, casting Griselbrand for free off Magus always feels good, especially when it's just for +1 storm

[Acclimation]

Time for a quick stats update since it's been a bit over a month since we've started collecting data.

So far we have 67 matches reported in the spreadsheet, with events between paper and MTGO, with all decks containing a similar core of 55/60 main and 5/15 sb cards (as color splashes want different slots).

Match Win %: 61.5%
G1 win %: 70.1%
G2 win %: 56.9% (65 games, with 1 draw and 1 due to deck list registration and winning g1)
G3 win %: 44.4% (27 game 3s)

Pretty good stuff overall! 67 matches isn't a lot, but it's a good start.

Now for a breakdown of relevant match ups:

Miracles: 66.7% win rate, 6 matches
Grixis Delver: 60% win rate, 5 matches
Czech Pile: 25% win rate, 4 matches
Maverick: 66.7% win rate, 3 Matches
BUG variants (Control, Delver): 66.7% win rate, 3 matches
Death & Taxes: 33.3% win rate, 3 matches
Stompy variants (Moon, Eldrazi, MUD): 50% win rate, 4 matches
Lands: 100%, 2 matches
Burn: 0%, 1 Match
Solidarity: 0%, 1 Match

Okay, Solidarity is not a real match-up and it's not completely correct to lump the stompy variants together, but there's been match ups between 36 archetypes, with a lot of them having only 1-2 matches.

For a much better stat breakdown and to contribute your own matches, please go to the shared drive here


Once again, this is a very limited pool of data, so don't take these numbers as gospel, as I'm certain there's a fair number of people who opt to not report their events if they did poorly. But it's still a good start and bodes well for the development of the deck.