[Deck] TES - The EPIC Storm

[Adan]

If you keep a hand with Lotus Petal or Land, Dark Ritual, LED and Infernal Tutor. You can tutor for Diminishing Returns and draw the kill. There are many ways to kill your opp this way.

Difficult since D.Returns is a incredibly random card. But with Lotus Petal it's possible since you then already have a good Stormcount and can still play a Landdrop. But you fizzle to FoW.

[matelml]

I have found that the deck mulligans extremly well. I mean it might seem rough to go down to 5/6 cards, but when you are playing so many broken cards you will still be fine. LED is just insane. This is probably the only combo deck that can mull to 4 and win turn one on the play.

Not true, Ichorid can do the same, even with 3 cards: LED, Deep Analysis, Golgari Grave-troll

[emidln]

I have found that the deck mulligans extremly well. I mean it might seem rough to go down to 5/6 cards, but when you are playing so many broken cards you will still be fine. LED is just insane. This is probably the only combo deck that can mull to 4 and win turn one on the play.

Well, SI can do it. Neither deck has a very good chance of it seeing as it requires a mana source, dark ritual, draw4, and another mana source/nutty draw4 into more of the same (or 2x LED, Infernal Tutor), but it is possible (I've done it).

[Adan]

Not true, Ichorid can do the same, even with 3 cards: LED, Deep Analysis, Golgari Grave-troll

Not true since that won't win. You would need to dredge 3 Moebas, 2 Bridges, 1 more GGT and Flamekin Zealot, Dread Return and blahstuff.

[MindTwiZt]

He just said that it CAN win with this hand, although the chances aren't very high.

[matelml]

Exactly, but the chances of winning the first turn on the play with dark Ritual, LED, Infernal Tutor and Lotus Petal aren't very high either.

Edit: Let's get on topic again.

[andrew77]

Not true, Ichorid can do the same, even with 3 cards: LED, Deep Analysis, Golgari Grave-troll

I guess I should have said competitive combo deck. We all know ichorid is a pile. Breakfast sure as hell doesnt mull as well as TES does and neither does belcher.

SI mulls fairly well, but it is too much of a glasscannon deck.

[yawg07]

I'm finally happy to be at a message board with people who share the same opinion.

Ichorid, in 1.5, is bad.

Ugh, lol.
I think I actually use Infernal Tutor much more often to just search for the 2nd LED to win.

[APriestOfGix]

Yeah, if i have Tutor and Wish/another Tutor, and a LED, i just grab another LED, and win!

TES is vastly better than Ichorid, stop debating that!

[esmandil]

I won a small local tournament (only 12 people) two days ago while piloting TES -- and it definitely was a lot of fun.

I played the following list:

4x City of Brass
4x Gemstone Mine
1x Forbidden Orchard
1x Undiscovered Paradise
4x Chrome Mox

4x Lion's Eye Diamond
4x Lotus Petal
4x Rite of Flame
2x Tinder Wall
4x Dark Ritual
1x Cabal Ritual

3x Brainstorm
1x Ponder
4x Infernal Tutor
4x Burning Wish
2x Plunge into Darkness

2x Orim's Chant
2x Xantid Swarm
1x Empty the Warrens
1x Tendrils of Agony
1x Ill-Gotten Gains
1x Diminishing Returns
1x Storm Entity

1x Infernal Contract
1x Night's Whisper
1x Mystical Tutor
1x Intuition

Sideboard:

Empty the Warrens
Tendrils of Agony
Ill-Gotten Gains
Diminishing Returns
Hull Breach
Pyroclasm
Orim's Chant
Xantid Swarm
Xantid Swarm
Pyroblast
Duress
Seething Song
Seething Song
Simian Spirit Guide
Shattering Spree

I kind of like Storm Entity, which has won me some games where I was short on mana, but I am not quite sure this is an objectively good card. Any thoughts?

I am still testing Intuition, which is why I only play one... It is very expensive for a tutor (the U in its cost can be hard to get in this deck), but the synergy with Ill-Gotten Gains is simply crazy. What do you people think? Is it worth it?

One thing I definitely need to do is to put Ponder or Night's Whisper in Sideboard -- from time to time I have a Burning Wish and no suitable target for it: not enough mana for Infernal Contract and too low storm count to win immediately... What do you think? Which one would be better?

I do not think Mystical Tutor is all that good, I will probably remove it.

I am not sure about the right number of Brainstorms and Ponders... I only play 4 in total, but that's because I really hate seeing them in multiples.

I did not have any really hard matchups this time, but here is what I faced:

Round 1 -- Zoo

This, actually, is not as easy as one could think. This Zoo deck (played, actually, by my wife) kills turn 4 very easily, surprisingly often turn 3, and is perfectly capable of dealing ~10 damage turn 2 (so draw 4s are always risky and winning via EtW is only an option turn 1).

I won first game turn 2, faced a Lightning Helix in response to Tendrils for 20 in second game, and won game three with 14 goblins on the first turn.

Round 2 -- Goblins

This turned out pretty easy. First game I drew a rather crazy hand, with 2xLED, 2xPetal, Ritual, Tutor and something else. I comboed turn two, since there is no reason to hurry against Goblins. Game two was a bit slower, but still far from difficult.

Round 3 -- Faerie Stompy (?)

I am not entirely sure what did he play, since I have never really seen how is he supposed to win the game... But it surely looked like some kind of Faerie Stompy. Is there anything else that plays Chalice, Tinker Mage and FoW?

Anyway, game one he began with Land, Chrome Mox, Chalice@1, turn 2 Tinker Mage, turn 3 Chalice@2 and Chalice@1... It didn't look all that well for me, but fortunately he did not have anything left in his hand to put pressure on me after that. Five or six turns later I played LED, Petal, Brainstorm and Ritual, followed by Empty the Warrens. He Force of Willed one copy, but 8 goblins turned out to be enough to kill him.

Game two started with Chalice@1, I Burning Wished for Shattering Spree, then he played Tinker Mage and Chalice@2. One turn before he would kill me with Sulfur Elemental I tried to go off, casting Infernal Contract, but he tapped one of my lands Pestermite and I run out of mana.

Game three I managed to get off using Igg and Tendrils, but I do not remember the details.

[No_One411]

I won a small local tournament (only 12 people) two days ago while piloting TES -- and it definitely was a lot of fun.

I played the following list:

4x City of Brass
4x Gemstone Mine
1x Forbidden Orchard
1x Undiscovered Paradise
4x Chrome Mox

4x Lion's Eye Diamond
4x Lotus Petal
4x Rite of Flame
2x Tinder Wall
4x Dark Ritual
1x Cabal Ritual

3x Brainstorm
1x Ponder
4x Infernal Tutor
4x Burning Wish
2x Plunge into Darkness

2x Orim's Chant
2x Xantid Swarm
1x Empty the Warrens
1x Tendrils of Agony
1x Ill-Gotten Gains
1x Diminishing Returns
1x Storm Entity

1x Infernal Contract
1x Night's Whisper
1x Mystical Tutor
1x Intuition

Sideboard:

Empty the Warrens
Tendrils of Agony
Ill-Gotten Gains
Diminishing Returns
Hull Breach
Pyroclasm
Orim's Chant
Xantid Swarm
Xantid Swarm
Pyroblast
Duress
Seething Song
Seething Song
Simian Spirit Guide
Shattering Spree

I kind of like Storm Entity, which has won me some games where I was short on mana, but I am not quite sure this is an objectively good card. Any thoughts?

I am still testing Intuition, which is why I only play one... It is very expensive for a tutor (the U in its cost can be hard to get in this deck), but the synergy with Ill-Gotten Gains is simply crazy. What do you people think? Is it worth it?

One thing I definitely need to do is to put Ponder or Night's Whisper in Sideboard -- from time to time I have a Burning Wish and no suitable target for it: not enough mana for Infernal Contract and too low storm count to win immediately... What do you think? Which one would be better?

I do not think Mystical Tutor is all that good, I will probably remove it.

I am not sure about the right number of Brainstorms and Ponders... I only play 4 in total, but that's because I really hate seeing them in multiples.

I did not have any really hard matchups this time, but here is what I faced:

Round 1 -- Zoo

This, actually, is not as easy as one could think. This Zoo deck (played, actually, by my wife) kills turn 4 very easily, surprisingly often turn 3, and is perfectly capable of dealing ~10 damage turn 2 (so draw 4s are always risky and winning via EtW is only an option turn 1).

I won first game turn 2, faced a Lightning Helix in response to Tendrils for 20 in second game, and won game three with 14 goblins on the first turn.

Round 2 -- Goblins

This turned out pretty easy. First game I drew a rather crazy hand, with 2xLED, 2xPetal, Ritual, Tutor and something else. I comboed turn two, since there is no reason to hurry against Goblins. Game two was a bit slower, but still far from difficult.

Round 3 -- Faerie Stompy (?)

I am not entirely sure what did he play, since I have never really seen how is he supposed to win the game... But it surely looked like some kind of Faerie Stompy. Is there anything else that plays Chalice, Tinker Mage and FoW?

Anyway, game one he began with Land, Chrome Mox, Chalice@1, turn 2 Tinker Mage, turn 3 Chalice@2 and Chalice@1... It didn't look all that well for me, but fortunately he did not have anything left in his hand to put pressure on me after that. Five or six turns later I played LED, Petal, Brainstorm and Ritual, followed by Empty the Warrens. He Force of Willed one copy, but 8 goblins turned out to be enough to kill him.

Game two started with Chalice@1, I Burning Wished for Shattering Spree, then he played Tinker Mage and Chalice@2. One turn before he would kill me with Sulfur Elemental I tried to go off, casting Infernal Contract, but he tapped one of my lands Pestermite and I run out of mana.

Game three I managed to get off using Igg and Tendrils, but I do not remember the details.

Against the Faerie Stompy, in game one, how did you play the cmc 1 and 2's? you stated that he played chalices at 1 and 2, seeing as it was the first game, i doubt you brought in shattering sprees, and you couldn't burning wish. -> chalice set on 2. Also, why did he set chalice at 1 twice?

Am I missing something?

Also, storm entity is an interesting include, just be mindful of swords. TES is good because swords has little to no effect on us, don't open that possibility.

I played with intuition, nights whisper, mystical tutor before. They arn't that great honestly. The demonic tutor and burning wish are good enough for tutors. The mystical tutor requires one turn setup most of the time, nights whispers arn't synergistic with the Draw4's. Intuition costs too much, the other tutors are better.

How has tinder wall been? I haven't tried it yet, it does look interesting though. Plunge into Darkness isn't that good. It comboes with Empty the Warren tokens, but the life loss from Draw4's isn't worth it.

[Meekrab]

Against the Faerie Stompy, in game one, how did you play the cmc 1 and 2's? you stated that he played chalices at 1 and 2, seeing as it was the first game, i doubt you brought in shattering sprees, and you couldn't burning wish. -> chalice set on 2. Also, why did he set chalice at 1 twice?

Am I missing something?

Yes. Read the card. Chalice counters spells of cmc X, it doesn't prevent you from playing them. It's like Nether Void, but lots of people forget that.

[No_One411]

okay, nvm. my bad, I didn't read carefully. You just played the spells to up your storm count. Sorry!

[matelml]

I made top 8 at the Belgian Championship (129 players) with TES yesterday with 5-1-2. Only lost in T8 from Dragonstompy (main Chalice+3sphere can hurt). The draws were ID's against UWb Landstill and some mono R aggresive Control when I was 5-0-1 anyway. The metagame was really good for me, the most played decks was Loam I think, after that Thresh hybrids and then pretty much anything, including a fair amount of Aggro, much Board Control, and some Landstill.
There was another TES deck with 5-2, and there was one that was 4-0-1 the last time I checked it, but probably lost the rounds after that.

My list was a little different from the one I was 2nd with at the Dutch Championship. The changes were: -1 Tomb of Urami, -2 EtW, -1 Chrome Mox, -Sb Rough//Tumble, +1 Tarnished Citadel, +2 Ponder, +1 Simian Spirit Guide, +1 Sb Ponder.

The whole decklist:

4 Orim's chant

1 Tendrils of Agony
1 Ill-gotten Gains
1 Diminishing Returns
1 Empty the Warrens

4 Infernal Tutor
4 Burning Wish
4 Brainstorm
2 Plunge into Darkness
3 Ponder

4 Lion's Eye Diamond
4 Dark Ritual
4 Lotus Petal
4 Cabal Ritual
4 Rite of Flame
3 Chrome Mox
1 Simian Spirit Guide

4 City of Brass
4 Gemstone Mine
2 Undiscovered Paradise
1 Tarnished Citadel

Sideboard:

1 Empty the Warrens
1 Tendrils of Agony
1 Ill-gotten Gains
1 Diminishing Returns
1 Grapeshot
1 Shattering Spree
1 Ponder
4 Duress
4 Xantid Swarm

I was happy with the changes and the whole decklist except for the Ponder Sb. I knew it wouldn't be very good, but I thought Rough//Tumble was worse. But it's probably a little better, I am still searching for a good wishable card or something that matters when you board it in once.
The reasoning for the SSG was that having double Mox always sucks.
I added the Ponders because it gives you more options and doesn't force you to go for tokens and I found the EtW would often be a dead card.
Because I have 4 Brainstorm, 3 Ponder and 4 Chant I decided to take out Tomb for something that can cast those spells. It was good and I never had a problem with the life, I even Ponderd off it turn 1 against Goyf sligh and it didn't matter at all. Remember you can use for free colorless mana.

Matteus

[esmandil]

Against the Faerie Stompy, in game one, how did you play the cmc 1 and 2's? you stated that he played chalices at 1 and 2, seeing as it was the first game, i doubt you brought in shattering sprees, and you couldn't burning wish. -> chalice set on 2. Also, why did he set chalice at 1 twice?

Am I missing something?

Sorry, a typo on my part, the last chalice was on 3. And yes, I just played the spells to get sufficient storm count.

Also, storm entity is an interesting include, just be mindful of swords. TES is good because swords has little to no effect on us, don't open that possibility.

Yes, I know Entity is vulnerable to Swords, but game 1 I only intend to use it if I cannot win any other way, and games 2&3 opponents are likely to board Swords out anyway. I am not sure, however, if Entity shouldn't simply be in the sideboard...

I played with intuition, nights whisper, mystical tutor before. They arn't that great honestly. The demonic tutor and burning wish are good enough for tutors. The mystical tutor requires one turn setup most of the time, nights whispers arn't synergistic with the Draw4's. Intuition costs too much, the other tutors are better.

I must say I like Night's Whisper most of the time -- in some situations it works better than Draw 4, so I like to have both in the deck. I agree that Intuition is expensive, but it sets one up for Ill-Gotten Gains win like nothing else, so I am still undecided about it. I agree that Burning Wish and Infernal Tutor are better, but for me 8 tutors is not quite enough.

How has tinder wall been? I haven't tried it yet, it does look interesting though.

I like it. It is great as a setup card, netting you two mana, and it is not too bad on combo turn (getting green can be a problem, but it often seems to work).

Plunge into Darkness isn't that good. It comboes with Empty the Warren tokens, but the life loss from Draw4's isn't worth it.

Well, Plunges are reasonably good tutors 8&9, in my opinion. I actually believe that there is a good balance of Intuition, Plunge, Night's Whisper and Draw4 which I have not yet been able to find... but I am working on it :)

[Di]

New thread here.