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

[.dk]

Overview
Do you have a moment to talk about our Lord and Savior, Griselbrand?

We were on the edge of Urborg when the Serum Powder began to kick in...



We can't stop here, this is Deathrite country!
We can now stop here, at this deck. This is no longer Deathrite country!


This deck is the bastard child of Tin Fins - a storm & reanimator hybrid that leverages Griselbrand and hasty reanimation. However, the mechanics of playing this deck are quite different than that of its older cousin, as this deck abuses Yawgmoth’s Bargain, Yawgmoth's Will, as well as Mind’s Desire effects. Those cards proper were banned in Legacy for a good reason...

Ultimately, Bizarro Stormy aims to reanimate and activate a Magus of the Mind (potentially multiple times), generating large amounts of mana and storm, then killing your opponent with a lethal Tendrils of Agony. Bizarro Stormy has varied lines of attack as well as protection and disruption. This deck also truly abuses Entomb.

Bizzaro Stormy is much less linear than a deck like Tin Fins and thus less reliant on any particular card. In this diversity comes flexibility and resilience. The deck also affords us the ability to run more targeted protection in the sideboard.

The Name

(Griselbrand = Griselbees = TinFins = SeaLab 2021) + Storm = Bizarro Stormy
http://www.adultswim.com/videos/seal...izarro-stormy/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oWXIiNwXGJ4&
Confused still? Read the Tin Fins primer. Still confused? Consider a different deck.



Decklist and Card Choices

Through the extensive testing of a small group of people degenerates, we settled on this 60 card maindeck (with changes for which splash color you’re using). Don’t take this as gospel - there is likely a lot more tuning to be done.

4 B/x Fetchland
1 U/x Dual Land
1 B/x Dual Land

4 Polluted Delta
1 Swamp
3 Underground Sea

4 Brainstorm
4 Ponder

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

4 Shallow Grave
2 Corpse Dance
0-1 Unburial Rites

3 Griselbrand
1 Magus of the Mind

4 Entomb
0-2 Mastermind's Acquisition / 0-1 Dark Petition / 0-1 Tendrils of Agony
1-2 Past in Flames

1-3 Collective Brutality
4 Thoughtseize
1 Cabal Therapy


Wishboard:

1 Tendrils of Agony
14 Sideboard cards… keep reading

It’s a bizarre looking list (get it now?) but it plays rather smoothly. Let’s break this down by cards that are worth talking about:

Mastermind’s Acquisition - At first glance, Acquisition looks like trash. It might be in most cases, but it’s damn good in this deck. This card has 3 key features to it:

1. Tutoring from the maindeck - Diabolic Tutor. Not amazing, but serviceable.
2. Wish for anything from the sideboard - this is slightly interesting. You can grab any sideboard card in Game 1 for black mana. Similar to Burning Wish in TES - except we can grab any card, but for a greater cost. We can also move a win condition to the sideboard too. OK, seems cool.
3. Doesn’t exile itself - Incredibly important. This allows for redundancy in the maindeck by having a tutor which can then can be cast again off Past in Flames to get your kill condition.

The fact that it does all 3 of these within 1 card merits possible inclusion. Mastermind’s Acquisition is incredibly flexible and while it is mana intensive, we’re running 14 pieces of mana acceleration to help with mana production. Not to mention…

Magus of the Mind - Magus is really the card that sets this deck apart from Tin Fins. For those that haven’t cast Mind’s Desire before, this card is a draw spell and a ritual wrapped into one. Magus of the Mind DOES NOT exile itself after activation. Combine this with the possibility of flipping more haste-granting reanimation and we're chaining Mind's Desire effects for the cost of U. Drawing upon current Vintage deck building, this is akin to Paradoxical Outcome in that it is not restricted, draws cards, and generates mana. However, we get to run far more than 4 of these effects given that we are running 4+ reanimation spells as well as Past in Flames to flash them back.

Also... since there have been a fair number of questions about this, let's clearly explain one way Magus differs from Griselbrand. Magus DOES NOT draw cards - it exiles them from your library. This means that Leovold, Notion Thief, Chains of Mephistopheles, and Spirit of the Labyrinth have no effect on Magus activations. Furthermore, this also means that, according to rule 120.4, you do not lose the game by exiling your entire library with Magus of the Mind. So feel free to go overboard on activations - you simply run out of additional cards to exile.

Griselbrand - Flying Lifelinking Bargain with axes for hands is still amazing. Our Lord and Savior.

Entomb - Entomb is far more complex in this deck than it seems at first glance. A somewhat concise list of the most common modes to play it:

1. Obvious application: Entombing reanimation targets.
2. Functions as a pseudo-instant-speed Demonic Tutor when you’re playing with Past in Flames - that’s right, Entomb grabs any card from your library, not just creatures!
3. Grab Past in Flames itself - then it’s only 5 mana to flash back. Golly gee willikers, Batman, that’s a 6 mana line to a storm engine, just like ANT (IT -> PIF).
4. Tutor for more rituals if you’ve already got Past in Flames to increase mana and storm count.
5. Tutor for Mastermind’s Acquisition, Dark Petition, or Tendrils if you’ve already got all the mana you need and Past in Flames ready to cast.

This card does basically everything. Entomb is by far the best card in this deck - but it isn’t necessarily a choke point.

Cabal Ritual - Bizzaro is a bit mana hungry at times so having another way to generate BBB on turn 1/2 is important. Later in your combo or later in the game, you’re able to generate BBBBB, which is critical as well.

Lion’s Eye Diamond - I think we all know this card. But a some notes about it in this deck:

1. You can crack it in between Griselbrand draws to use it as an initial mana source to cast more spells.
2. Crack for UUU to get 3 Magus activations.
3. Casting Past in Flames.
4. Also a discard outlet for your reanimation targets: cast LED, cast Shallow Grave holding priority, crack LED discarding Griselbrand or Magus, then Shallow Grave resolves

Seems good.

Collective Brutality - This card was once an all star - but with the banning of Deathrite Shaman, it has now become merely "very good." It's discard for countermagic, it kills hatebears, and it's a discard outlet for your reanimation targets. Sometimes it's all 3! Given that we’re running 14 pieces of mana acceleration, it’s very possible to cast CoBru and reanimate in the same turn. The life drain mode has also been relevant multiple times in testing; just dealing 4-6 damage to an opponent and swinging with Griselbrand to get the last bit of damage in sometimes does the trick.

Past in Flames - This card does some amazing things in this deck. It’s got similar lines as a deck like ANT with flashing back rituals, but it also aSlows redundancy with your reanimation spells and Entomb as well. If they’ve gotten countered or discarded, Past in Flames provides additional resiliency by flashing them back.

Corpse Dance - For all intents and purposes, this is Shallow Grave that costs 1 more mana. It gets the nod over other possible reanimation spells for a couple of reasons. Firstly, Magus isn’t legendary, so Goryo’s Vengeance doesn’t work. Secondly, it doesn’t target, which gives it a lot more play with instant speed spells, LED’s, and possible sideboard inclusions. CMC 3 is a bit much sometimes, but remember that we do have free discard outlets in LED and also run Dark Ritual, Cabal Ritual, and Lotus Petal to generate more mana. Given the large amount of mana we generate, it’s also occasionally correct to pay the Buyback cost to ensure you have another reanimation to recur Magus.

Dark Petition This is a possibility in place of Mastermind’s Acquisition, usually along with 1 Tendrils of Agony in the main deck. This allows for some cheaper lines as it can function as a “2 mana” tutor, allowing you to continuing to combo the turn you cast it rather than having to pass the turn with Mastermind’s Acquisition. What you lose with this option is the flexibility that Acquisition offers.

Thoughtseize Now that Gitaxian Probe has been banned, this becomes our primary discard spell. We aren't as life total dependent as Tin Fins or traditional Storm, so we can afford the lifeloss incurred with running a play set. Collective Brutality can also help offset this a bit.

Everything Else

The rest of the cards should be obvious. We can argue about the number of Ponders that are correct if you want though.

Strategies and Typical Lines of Play

Bizzaro Stormy is worth goldfishing to see the different things you can do with it. The basic strategy involves getting to activate Magus of the Mind for 6 or greater, which will likely get you to a win. For example:

Entomb for Griselbrand
Shallow Grave
Play and crack LED for BBB
Draw 7 cards
Entomb for Magus of the Mind
Shallow Grave
Lotus Petal
Sacrifice Lotus Petal for U and Activate Magus for 6

After that, you’re looking to somehow cast Mastermind’s Acquisition or Dark Petition to fetch and cast Tendrils of Agony. Use all of the resources at your disposal - Entomb, Past in Flames, Rituals, Cantrips. Reanimate and activate Magus more times, draw more cards with Griselbrand, use the attack step. There are lots of avenues to keep going from here.

Griselbrand vs Magus of the Mind: Which is better to reanimate and when?

This is one of the discussion points that is still up in the air. Drawing large swaths of cards and flipping cards to cast for free are both great options, but at what point is one better than the other?

The current ranking system is: Magus for 13+ > Draw 21 > Magus for 10-13 > Draw 14 > Magus for 6-9 > Draw 7 > Magus for 6 and less. However this is just a general rule of thumb. Just because you CAN draw more cards with Griselbrand, doesn’t mean you should.

The goal is to chain Magus activations. Flipping less than 6 random cards off the top, even though we can cast them for free, is likely less good than a draw 7 (which is usually a draw 14 unless you’re playing against burn). You can get lucky and flip an amazing 5, but it’s generally better to reanimate Griselbrand first. Given that our combo usually starts with Dark Ritual->Entomb->Shallow Grave, Magus is a bit anemic unless you have a hand full of artifacts and rituals to build storm.

As a reminder, Magus’ ability requires that you shuffle your deck first. That means you can’t sculpt the top of your deck to allow for better flips.

In short, aim to reanimate Griselbrand first. Drawing 7-14, attacking, and drawing another 7 in the second main phase is going give you a better chance at winning than flipping Magus for less than 6.

For those interested in more reading on this subject, ManaT wrote an article about this with a version of the deck here: https://medium.com/@a_manatee/4c14a5131b83
Great read, and turns out based on his analysis that activating Magus with lower storm count might be better than you think it is!


What to do when you fail to go off
Sometimes you draw 7, 14, or even 21 and still fail to finish the game. Don’t worry, it happens to everyone. Remember that you’re playing Past in Flames! Play out any permanent-based mana sources that you can and sculpt your hand and graveyard to setup a Past in Flames next turn. Given that you’ve just drawn a third of your deck, that should be well within the realm of possibility! Also, don’t forget the power of Entomb in these situations - it can bail you out frequently if you don’t flip or draw the obvious cards.

When to crack LED and on what colors

1. Usually you’ll want to crack LED for BBB before drawing with Griselbrand to be able to cast more rituals, entomb, and reanimation
2. If you want to activate Magus, even with 1-2 cards in hand, it’s usually correct to crack LED for UUU to fuel a few activations. You’ll be flipping more cards to cast for free, and you’ll likely be able to flash back whatever you pitched with Past in Flames anyway.
3. Cracking for RRR is common when needing to cast Past in Flames. Either as an engine itself, or to flash back other spells mid-combo with Griselbrand or Magus

Sideboards, Wishboards, and Sideboarding

This is tricky with a deck playing a “wish” in Mastermind’s Acquisition. Outside of specific protection and/or anti-hate you might want in game 1, IGNORE THE FACT THAT MASTERMIND’S ACQUISITION IS A WISH. Think of Acquisition as Diabolic Tutor with upside - board in the same cards you would if you were running 0 wishes. You’re more likely to draw them, and you can tutor for them with Acquisition.

That said, your sideboard needs to answer and/or hate. With Mastermind’s Acquisition, we are running a 14-card sideboard due to Tendrils of Agony in the sideboard. Dark Petition maindeck recaptures that slot. Beyond that, some possible card choices (many of which will be similar to other Storm variants), and then sample sideboards:

Silent Gravestone - Unreal good in this deck. None of your use of the graveyard targets any cards and most people don’t seem to realize that after game 1. This shuts off Deathrite, Surgical Extraction, Faerie Macabre, and Snapcaster Mage. It has applications against other reanimator decks, and even ANT with the activated ability (yes, it does have more text on it outside of the Ground Seal effect). Easily a must include in sideboards for this deck, it will eat a Force or cause opponents to burn cantrips or Surgicals to attempt to answer this card or gain value before it resolves.

Chain of Vapor - Cheap, all purpose bounce spells are ubiquitous both in Storm decks and Reanimator decks, hitting Leylines, Gaddock Teeg, Sphere effects, whatever. When in doubt, board these in if you are unsure what hate your opponents will bring in (because you killed them without seeing any of their deck).

Hurkyl’s Recall - Another standard piece of hate-bounce, this time specific to artifacts. Remember that Ethersworn Canonist is an artifact- this spell has value vs D&T (Canonist, Revoker, Vial, equipment) if you aren’t running Massacre.

Echoing Truth - That’s right, more bounce. It’s good to diversify your bounce spells and sometimes the extra clause will be relevant.

Massacre - Bizzaro can have a problem with hatebears (D&T and Maverick), as sometimes we don’t have the kill before T3. Massacre answers almost all of them at little (and usually) no cost (in the face of Thalia), save for Teeg, so it’s worth the inclusion if these decks are common in your meta.

Rending Volley - Uncounterable answer to Canonist, Meddling Mage, Leovold, Thalia, Gaddock Teeg. Most of the creatures we hate (beyond DRS) are blue or white, so consider this if your expected meta has more blue based creature hate to fight through.

Grapeshot - Could be used as a sweeper or an alternate win condition if Gaddock Teeg is everywhere in your meta. We play a lot of artifact mana so storm counts can be high enough to kill a few things. Given that we frequently can get in one swing with Griselbrand, we only need a storm of 13 to finish the job, which is easy to do in this deck.

Flusterstorm - Fantastic protection spell. You usually don’t need to crack your LED’s until after your key spells have resolved, so that makes countermagic better protection in this deck than it would be in traditional storm decks.

Empty the Warrens - Possible alternative win condition that isn’t graveyard reliant. However, we don’t have cheap 6 mana lines to get to it like TES and ANT do, so this likely wants some number of Infernal Tutors to go along with it.

Monastery Mentor/Young Pyromancer - Sidesteps graveyard hate, and outside of Swords to Plowshares, most creature kill spells should be boarded out in sideboard games against you. Either of these can quickly overwhelm your opponent.

Dark Confidant - Sometimes you might flip a Griselbrand. Greatness, at any cost. It’s very good in Bizzaro though, as the deck can win with natural storm. Also can draw fodder for Mentor or Pyromancer if you’re running those. Just don’t forget to board out some Griselbrands if you’re bringing this in.

Cavern of Souls - If you’re running any of the creatures above and want to make them uncounterable, consider this for a slot, as all 3 of the suggested creatures are Human (Magus too - That 4 power is nothing to sneer at!).

Past in Flames – There have been a lot of discussion about the addition of a second PiF, as the first one has a lot of value, and there are lines where a second would be very useful (involving an early Entomb for Past in Flames). If the creature beatdown plan isn’t your cup of tea, consider running a second PiF in the SB alongside another Storm wincon as some sort of grind plan. This route would be better in red splash lists over white splash lists, but don’t let things like not owning lands stop you from pursuing this route.

Carpet of Flowers: If you're running a Green splash, this card is well worth the slot as a 2-of. The extra mana it provides allows us to power through opposing soft counters as well as the ability to have more mana on the combo turn to speed up the clock and decrease the fizzle rate. Furthermore, the extra mana makes casting Griselbrand more viable as well (a line that comes up more often than I originally thought it would). This and Abrupt Decay are strong reasons for the Green splash.

Abrupt Decay - Chalice, Leovold, Blood Moon, Counterbalance - we all know how good this card is by now. Almost mandatory in some amount if you're running a green splash.

Hull Breach: given the rise of Leyline of the Void in Chalice decks, this card is another example of a compact, but high impact sideboard card. RG mana requirements make this difficult to cast and pretty much lock this into Green splashes that run a Badlands or Volcanic main deck, but in lieu of other options to hit multiple hate cards across different permanent types, it's hard to pass this efficient option up.

Abrade: compact card for dealing with artifacts and creatures. Has lots of targets versus Stompy decks, and allows you to skimp on spot removal to run other anti-hate options. Great option for Red splash lists.

Wear // Tear: Similar to Hull Breach, this is an option that hits both an Enchantment and an Artifact on one card, or one of either type for a discount. Benefits over Serenity: gets rid of its targets on resolution of the spell. Benefits over Disenchant: can hit 2 targets (has to be different type for each target) for one extra mana. Downside of Wear // Tear: 3 mana split across 2 splash colors, overlaps with Serenity in the same match-ups.

Ancient Grudge: Artifact hate you can tutor for with Entomb, or get 2 artifacts if you draw it naturally. Downside is needing Red mana and Green for Flashback, but still a valid option. Consider this if you run into an artifact heavy meta where you want a spell you can Entomb for.

Ray of Revelation: Enchantment version of Ancient Grudge, but costs White on the front end instead of Red. Similar to Ancient Grudge, consider running this because you can Entomb it, and if you are in an Enchantress heavy meta.

Bad Sideboard cards

Show and Tell - Stay away. If you’re planning on running 1 as a wishable target, don’t. It’s garbage. I’ve got a $20 bill to prove it.

Sample Sideboards

Sideboarding for this deck is tricky. It’s easy to overboard, so look to swap 3-5 cards so you don’t dilute the game plan of the deck. We’re executing a plan that is likely more powerful than anything your opponent is doing, so look to board in high impact cards.
Let’s start with the most important cards:

3 Silent Gravestone (Easily the best protection spell for the GY, don’t leave home without it)
2 Chain of Vapor (General answer for damn near every permanent hate, and random storm generator and Marit Lage answer)
These 2 cards (5 slots total) will deal with 80% of the sb hate currently played.

For the next 10 slots, pick some number of the following based on personal preference, splash color, and meta considerations:
0-1 Tendrils of Agony (if Mastermind’s Acquisition is in your list)
0-2 Massacre(Death and Taxes is incredibly popular, and you don’t lose to 1 hate bear, you lose to a swarm of them)
2-3 Carpet of Flowers/Silence/Defense Grid (Anti counter magic and/or reactive spell hate. Carpet is best in a vacuum since it gives us more mana to combo and fight through soft counters, Silence has utility vs storm decks, and Grid splits the difference)
2-3 Serenity/Abrupt Decay* (Hate for chalice and other artifacts/enchantments, *with cmc restriction)
0-2 Hurkyl's Recall (When Chalice is prevalent)
0-1 Echoing Truth (Extra bounce never hurt anyone)
0-1 Splash land (Trop/Scrubland/Basic land/Bayou)
0-2 Fatal Push/Swords to Plowshares/Rending Volley/Sudden Shock (spot removal has its place in the deck. Volley is good vs Meddling Mage/Leovold heavy metas, Sudden Shock is great vs Mother of Runes and Infect)
0-2 Flusterstorm (some people like it as an additional counter magic and anti-combo protection spell)
0-1 Disenchant (Random chalice/Leyline/3ball value)
0-2 Abrade (Spot removal+Artifact hate in one card, great example of a high impact and compact sb card)
0-2 Phyrexian Arena (Good against discard decks, but Leovold just turns this into a Curse of the Pierced Heart, so beware)
0-3 Night's Whisper (similar to Arena, use against discard decks to dig out of topdeck mode faster)
0-2 Surgical Extraction (If you have a Reanimator heavy meta that doesn't get hosed by Silent Gravestone, it's worth running. Also, don’t be dumb and bring this in if you bring in Gravestone)

There are other SB options to consider, but this section should give a decent roadmap to start thinking about how to construct a sideboard for your local meta. Look to start with Gravestone+Chain of Vapor, then add niche sideboard options that the general answers can’t solve. Don’t forget, we do run 5-6 main deck discard spells, which can go a long way in stripping hate from your opponents. Figure out what you need to beat, or alternatively, what you are fine losing to.
To put it all together, here are some sample sideboards, assuming base UB with only one splash color:

For white splash lists:
3 Silent Gravestone
2 Chain of Vapor
2 Massacre
2 Serenity
1 Plains
1 Disenchant
3 Silence
1 Tendrils of Agony (or 1 flex pending md config)

Green Splash:
2 Abrupt Decay
2 Carpet of Flowers
1 Chain of Vapor
1 Echoing Truth
2 Flusterstorm
1 Hurkyl's Recall
1 Massacre
3 Silent Gravestone
1 Tropical Island
1 Tendrils of Agony (or 1 flex, pending md config)

Red splash:
3 Silent Gravestone
2 Chain of Vapor
2 Massacre
2 Abrade
2 Defense Grid
1 Hurkyl’s Recall
2 Echoing Truth
1 Tendrils of Agony (or 1 flex)

Other Possible Card Choices

This deck concept started pre-Rivals of Ixalan. Based on that, there has been some, but minimal testing done with these and probably a few more…

Burning Wish - It may be good enough, but Burning Wish warps your deck construction. It makes Past in Flames worse as it exiles itself. And it probably wants you to be playing more red sources, possibly including Rite of Flame instead of Cabal Ritual. This reduces your net mana production, but also reduces net mana costs. A more red-based deck may be feasible but we haven’t been able to come up with it as of yet. As a place to start, here is a shell of a Burning Wish list that could be viable:


4 Brainstorm
3 Cabal Ritual
1 Cabal Therapy
2 Collective Brutality
2 Corpse Dance
4 Entomb
3 Griselbrand
3 Lion's Eye Diamond
4 Lotus Petal
1 Magus of the Mind
1 Past in Flames
4 Ponder
4 Shallow Grave
4 Thoughtseize
4 Dark Ritual
3 Burning Wish
4 Polluted Delta
4 Bloodstained Mire
2 Underground Sea
1 Badlands
1 Volcanic Island
1 Swamp
1 Island
1 Flex slot (Extra discard, Preordain, 4th Wish, etc)

SB:
1 Tendrils of Agony
1 Past in Flames
1 Infernal Tutor
1 Exhume
1 Empty the Warrens
2 Abrade
2 Silent Gravestone
2 Chain of vapor
2 Flex


Infernal Tutor - we haven’t found this card to be needed maindeck. Entomb is also a tutor with Past in Flames, costs less, is an instant, and doesn’t require you to be hellbent, meaning you can save your LEDs. There may be merit to playing Infernal Tutor in the sideboard for a pseudo-transformation, though.

Lim-Dul’s Vault - Another TinFins favorite, but probably not necessary with the versatility of Entomb. Also a very sad card to flip with Magus.

Unburial Rites - Super interesting card. It’s a great entomb target for additional reanimation, providing more flexibility for the deck. However, this does have dis-synergy with Silent Gravestone out of the sideboard, essentially forcing you to board this card out whenever Gravestone comes in. Due to this, if Rites is included, it likely needs to be in addition to the standard Shallow Grave and Corpse Dance reanimation slots rather than replacing one of those cards.

Chrome Mox - Could be another initial mana source, but likely not necessary with the addition of LEDs.

Children of Korlis - It pains me to not have this in the deck, but Magus invalidates the need. I’d rather flip cards off of Magus than draw them with Griselbrand, and the fringe uses of Children aren’t worth the slot.

I will have to find another way to satisfy my Children-sacrificing urges.

Emrakul, the Aeons Torn - Similar to Children of Korlis, Magus of the Mind generally makes this unnecessary. Some insane people have been known to play one as a Mastermind’s Acquisition target for spiciness though (Gotta send a message! -Acclimation).

Pithing Needle - If you fear Wasteland, I certainly wouldn’t blame you for including it. Karakas is even less of an issue for Bizzaro than it is for Tin Fins due to Magus being non-Legendary. In reactive sideboards, it’s a great card to consider if you’re scrambling to fill a slot with a general purpose card. You can name Faerie Macabre as well in a pinch.

Magus of the Will - Hey, we’re playing Yawgmoth’s Bargain and Mind’s Desire, why not reanimate Yawgmoth’s Will too? 4 reasons why this card isn’t worth running:

1. Magus of the Will exiles itself and every card that would go to the Graveyard after activating its ability. This prevents us from chaining Magus of the Minds, which is one of the key strategies of the deck.
2. 2B to activate is a lot of mana, although 2B to cast does make it easy to play the turn before we combo off. That would require you untap with it - difficult in a meta with common removal such as Swords to Plowshares, Fatal Push, and Lightning Bolt.
3. Magus of the Will is a much worse draw for future reanimation.
4. Past in Flames does everything we want and isn’t reliant on reanimation to be used. Sure, we can’t cast artifact mana (8) and Griselbrand (4) from the yard with Past in Flames, but that’s not nearly as much of a deal breaker as the previous 3 points.

That being said, if you want to run it because a couple of decks from the infamous “Small Japanese Tournament” ran it, have fun, we can’t stop you.

(Note: If you play multiple Magus of the Will and multiple Magus of the Mind, I insist that you register your deck as Magus: The Gathering. - Sam Craven)

UB list with no splash- Outside of the Past in Flames, the main deck is completely UB, so we use a splash color in the SB to gain access to sideboard options. It’s very possible that you might not want to run a splash color. In this case, a potential sideboard is listed in the SB section (Past in Flames doesn’t count as a splash since we have 8 sources of mana to cast it with LED and Petal), and you could possibly run an extra Swamp, Island, and whatever black fetch you want in the land slots in the maindeck.

BR list with no splash - You need U to activate Magus, Brainstorm is busted, bounce is great for general answers to hate, and being reliant on Petal/LED to activate Magus is a bit too risky. If you want to go this route for budget reasons, feel free to play shocklands as the life total requirements aren’t as steep as they are in Tin Fins. Red cantrips aren’t as good as their blue counterparts, so we don’t recommend it.

Why Play Bizzaro Stormy over Tin Fins (or any other deck)??

Bizzaro Stormy is much more resilient than Tin Fins. It plays protection against common graveyard hate in Silent Gravestone, and gets redundancy in the form of Past in Flames. It is more diverse in strategy, allowing you to tailor your game plan in the face of what your opponent is doing. It makes more mana than Tin Fins, allowing you to more easily play through soft countermagic.

Furthermore, this deck is much less life dependent, as your Magus of the Mind will “draw” you cards as well. This leads to less random blowouts against unexpected burn spells.

More specific to the current metagame, a large part of the graveyard hate currently being played is targeted (DRS, Surgical, Snap, Faerie Macabre). This means Silent Gravestone is far and away the best protection spell we can play. However, Since Gravestone turns off everything targeting any graveyard, this disrupts the usage of Goryo’s Vengeance, so that card needs to be replaced with Corpse Dance to retain reanimation density. Given that Corpse Dance requires more mana, we want to run more mana acceleration to be able to consistently combo on turns 1-3. If we are generating more mana, then Magus is likely better than Emrakul because Magus plays better with a higher ritual density. Higher ritual density means storm lines and higher cost cards are more possible to play, so cards like Past in Flames and Mastermind’s Acquisition gain a lot of value.

Yawgmoth’s Bargain and Mind’s Desire are banned in Legacy, and this deck lets us abuse versions of them for cheaper, and that’s dope.

Why would you play it over other decks? Seriously? Why WOULDN’T you!?

But really, comparing to other combo decks:

• ANT - The initial mana requirements to start your combo are lower than ANT, meaning you need a lower ritual density to start your combo. A decent portion of the time, ANT will also need to go all in on their combo turn by cracking an LED in response to an Infernal Tutor. This leaves ANT more vulnerable to countermagic. Bizzaro Stormy, on the other hand, generally doesn’t use LED in this manner, allowing you to keep the rest of your hand if disrupted by countermagic. Bizarro Stormy is likely a faster goldfish than ANT, allowing it to play out before our opponent gets their lock pieces out (this is based on anecdotal evidence - needs more data to confirm this).
• TES - Similar to ANT with the usage of LED along with Infernal Tutor and Burning Wish. Bizarro Stormy has a more stable manabase as well. These two decks are likely similar in speed, however (again, anecdotal evidence for the time being).
• Belcher - Belcher is slightly faster, but less resilient. Bizarro Stormy gets cantrips to dig for discard spells or combo pieces after being disrupted.
• Sneak and Show - We’re faster and more diverse in our threat capabilities. Whether you choose Bizzaro or SnS will depend on whether you think countermagic and lack of graveyard reliance are better ways to protect your combo. This deck is way more fun to play though!
• BR Reanimator - Bizarro Stormy is far more resilient than BR. We almost always win the turn we combo off, while BR allows opponents to continue to draw for answers. BR has Turn 0 disruption in the form of Chancellor of the Annex but the blue cantrip suite and diversity of strategies more than makes up for this, allowing us to shape our gameplan in the face of our opponent’s disruption.
• Spanish Inquisition - If you’re asking this question, then you should just play SI.

Matchups

Strictly positive vs. the field. Always.

(More content here as more testing, tuning, and data are gathered)

Videos/Articles/Tournament Reports

Andrea Mengucci recording with 5C Bizzaro Stormy: https://youtu.be/pY40zl9oMKI
Caleb Scherer streaming with Burning Wish Bizzaro Stormy: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/281515571

Myself, Acclimation, and thecrav are going to try to record matches vs. decks and publish periodically. Stay tuned...

Thanks

Thanks to all who have contributed to this deck’s (and Tin Fins) development but specifically: Acclimation, KaiSchafroth, Sam Craven, Richard Cheese, Koby, Wanderlust, movadomk5, and Chris C.

And thanks Richard Cheese for our amazing banner. :)

Help us gather and track data here!

Join the SeaLab Discord server here!