Asthereal
03-04-2013, 06:24 AM
This report is a bit different from the others here.
Read only of you want to learn to play TES and need advice on how to NOT play the deck. :tongue:
I played a small tourney with TES yesterday (16 people). I failed miserably, because of mental tiredness and lack of routine in playing Storm in competition (last time was two years ago). But... the deck was brilliant. It was really just me being terrible.
1. Against Jund:
G1. On the play I open Sea>Ponder. He plays a Deathrite guy off a Badlands. I know he's on Jund so I make 10 Goblins on turn 2. It's enough.
Side: -4 Silence, +2 Chain, +2 Decay
G2. I had to mull, and he Inquisitioned an important card away. At some stage I have to go off. I calculate for 5 minutes and find the only possible win. I have to Infernal for an extra Rite of Flame, play Chrome mox not imprinting anything and then I have just enough storm for a lethal Tendrils. But mana colours are also difficult. I have to play Rite first, then Infernal from a red mana, copying the second Rite. But my body plays Rite, Rite... oh shit, I needed to copy that second Rite. I die because of two Deathrite dudes eating my spells.
Side: nothing - perhaps it would be better to side -2 Chain, +2 Thoughtseize, but I hadn't seen that much discard, so I decided to keep the Chains for the possible artifact bounce engine.
G3. I draw badly, cantrip a bit and we go into time. On turn 4 of the extra turns, I go off. The only option is Diminishing Returns, but at least I will have lots of mana floating. I play Wish, crack my two LEDs in response for Black and Red, I write down mana and storm count, and figure out that I needed UU to play Returns, but I forgot to crack a LED for blue. I fucking hate myself at this point and want to quit playing. He kills me on turn 5 of extra time.
That should have been 3-0 for me, but I manage to lose 1-2...
2. Against BUG Still:
G1. On the draw I cantrip a bit and find only protection. He has no clock, so I wait until I find a win. I find one, and go off. I forget about his Deed, and get my three LEDs destroyed. OMG here we go again. Still, since his Deed is gone I can now create 32 Goblin tokens from the EtW I already had in my hand. They go the distance.
Side: -1 Mox, -1 Infernal (for tutor chain option from Wish) +2 Thoughtseize
G2. I have to mull into a difficult 6. He has a million counterspells and a Clique. I die before I find enough protection. No chance here.
G3. He has a lot of counterspells again. I have to play carefully. I at some stage manage to trick him into believing it didn't really matter what I did, so he allowed me to play Petal, Petal, hardcast Probe, and then cannot properly stop Empty the Warrens from my hand. He counterspells one copy, but I get six tokens through. They look like they will go the distance, but in the first turn after time was called I try to do some extra damage with Grapeshot just to be sure. I Silence him. He lets it resolve. I forget to play Chrome mox before cracking my LED, which leaves me one storm short of directly killing him. He is on one life and draws for his turn: Pernicious Deed! His only out. He kills my tokens and we draw. At this point I really hate myself and consider dropping out, but I'm no coward, so I battle on, if only for the experience.
3. Against The Gate or whatever. Mono black with Smallpox, a million discard spells and some dudes.
G1. On the draw again. He discards important stuff. I still manage to Empty for four goblins (still, better than nothing). He draws a Gatekeeper of Malakir and casts it. It stops down my onslaught, but I'm still hoping for a small Tendrils to finish him off from the 12 life he is on. But he draws more discard and a Tombstalker kills me before I can find the kill (Brainstorm shows me only accell, and no way to shuffle).
Side: -4 Silence, +2 Thoughtseize, +2 Abrupt Decay
G2. On the play, I can go for a turn 1 Empty for six tokens. It's such a small number that I doubt they can get there. One Gatekeeper stops me already, and I know he will side in Engineered Plagues, probably even a full set. I decide against it and open with a Duress. I see Seize, Seize, Hymn, Swamp, Swamp, Wasteland, Extraction. Oh fuck. I take the Hymn, since one of his two Seizes will stop me from going off anyway. He Seizes my kill away and continues to draw another five 1 CMC discard spells. He extracts my Infernals, and Lili locks me out. Good news is: he has no clock. He destroys all my lands, and Lili ultimates like three times, destroying my artifact mana. My LEDs survive (because of my choices at the Lili ultimates), and at some stage I have almost no deck anymore, and finally get the opportunity to play Brainstorm, cracking four LEDs in response. I decide to try it, because I have almost no chance at winning anyway in this situation. So I crack the LEDs for UUU, BBB, BBB, RRR and pray I draw a decent 3. I get Rite, Chrome Mox, Brainstorm. Cast second Brainstorm, my extra card is a Gemstone Mine. Shit happens. Worth a try anyway. If I had gone for the turn 1 six tokens, I would have won. Should I have gone for it? I had no way of seeing his hand in the process, otherwise I would have been a mana short of casting EtW.
4. Against LED-Madness-Vengevine or something. Cool deck, but not very good in my opinion.
G1. On the play. I Silence and then make 14 Goblins. He dumps his hand too, but he has Goblin Guide, Basking Rootwalla and a Vengevine. My 14 Goblins are better.
Side: -4 Silence, +2 Chain of Vapor, +2 Abrupt Decay (guessing he would side some permanent based hate - turned out he didn't have much)
G2. On the draw. He again drops his hand, this time with a Guide, a Memnite and an Arrogant Wurm. I turn 1 Ad Nauseam and kill him. Why be lucky against this deck? I needed the luck last round! :(
5. Against UWr StoneBlade
G1. On the play I keep a loose seven, but I correctly estimate he is on a slow blue deck, so my keep is ok (two lands, two protection spells, probe, rite and petal). I open with Duress. I take his FoW. Then I draw and Probe into fine stuff. Turn 4 I go off with silence into a tutor chain. He has no chance.
Side: -1 Mox, -1 Infernal (for tutor chain option from Wish), +2 Thoughtseize
G2. I cannot find protection with my one Ponder, but on turn 2 my hand is one accelleration short of being able to go off twice. He is tapped out (he cast SFM), so I decide to go land-rit-rit-Ad Nauseam to bait a FoW, and then go off again later, hopefully protected. He indeed FoWs my Ad Nauseam. I proceed to never find protection, and actually I draw so badly I cannot even go off again, despite needing only one accellerator. He counters my every play and kills me with SFM carrying SoFaF and a Batterskull.
G3. I have to mull to five. I cantrip a bit and see he has many counterspells. I manage to bait a few, discard some, and I am one mana short of Silence into like 14 goblin tokens. I don't draw that one mana for three turns, allowing him to set up what he needs to stop me. When I finally draw my mana it is too late. Unlucky.
Concluding:
- The deck is brilliant
- I am not so brilliant
- I am only lucky when I don't need it, and never when I do need it (but then again, being so terrible I kind of deserved that)
My list for reference:
Main deck: Bryants latest list -1 Ponder +1 Chrome Mox (I expected aggro and Jund-like stuff and wanted to be a bit faster. Never regretted this choice.)
Sideboard was different though:
1 Tendrils of Agony
1 Empty the Warrens
1 Diminishing Returns
1 Ill-Gotten Gains
1 Past in Flames
1 Grapeshot
1 Hull Breach
3 Thoughtseize (this is personal taste, I don't like Therapies very much)
3 Abrupt Decay
2 Chain of Vapor
This sideboard appeared to be fine. During the tourney I never wanted something else in there.
Read only of you want to learn to play TES and need advice on how to NOT play the deck. :tongue:
I played a small tourney with TES yesterday (16 people). I failed miserably, because of mental tiredness and lack of routine in playing Storm in competition (last time was two years ago). But... the deck was brilliant. It was really just me being terrible.
1. Against Jund:
G1. On the play I open Sea>Ponder. He plays a Deathrite guy off a Badlands. I know he's on Jund so I make 10 Goblins on turn 2. It's enough.
Side: -4 Silence, +2 Chain, +2 Decay
G2. I had to mull, and he Inquisitioned an important card away. At some stage I have to go off. I calculate for 5 minutes and find the only possible win. I have to Infernal for an extra Rite of Flame, play Chrome mox not imprinting anything and then I have just enough storm for a lethal Tendrils. But mana colours are also difficult. I have to play Rite first, then Infernal from a red mana, copying the second Rite. But my body plays Rite, Rite... oh shit, I needed to copy that second Rite. I die because of two Deathrite dudes eating my spells.
Side: nothing - perhaps it would be better to side -2 Chain, +2 Thoughtseize, but I hadn't seen that much discard, so I decided to keep the Chains for the possible artifact bounce engine.
G3. I draw badly, cantrip a bit and we go into time. On turn 4 of the extra turns, I go off. The only option is Diminishing Returns, but at least I will have lots of mana floating. I play Wish, crack my two LEDs in response for Black and Red, I write down mana and storm count, and figure out that I needed UU to play Returns, but I forgot to crack a LED for blue. I fucking hate myself at this point and want to quit playing. He kills me on turn 5 of extra time.
That should have been 3-0 for me, but I manage to lose 1-2...
2. Against BUG Still:
G1. On the draw I cantrip a bit and find only protection. He has no clock, so I wait until I find a win. I find one, and go off. I forget about his Deed, and get my three LEDs destroyed. OMG here we go again. Still, since his Deed is gone I can now create 32 Goblin tokens from the EtW I already had in my hand. They go the distance.
Side: -1 Mox, -1 Infernal (for tutor chain option from Wish) +2 Thoughtseize
G2. I have to mull into a difficult 6. He has a million counterspells and a Clique. I die before I find enough protection. No chance here.
G3. He has a lot of counterspells again. I have to play carefully. I at some stage manage to trick him into believing it didn't really matter what I did, so he allowed me to play Petal, Petal, hardcast Probe, and then cannot properly stop Empty the Warrens from my hand. He counterspells one copy, but I get six tokens through. They look like they will go the distance, but in the first turn after time was called I try to do some extra damage with Grapeshot just to be sure. I Silence him. He lets it resolve. I forget to play Chrome mox before cracking my LED, which leaves me one storm short of directly killing him. He is on one life and draws for his turn: Pernicious Deed! His only out. He kills my tokens and we draw. At this point I really hate myself and consider dropping out, but I'm no coward, so I battle on, if only for the experience.
3. Against The Gate or whatever. Mono black with Smallpox, a million discard spells and some dudes.
G1. On the draw again. He discards important stuff. I still manage to Empty for four goblins (still, better than nothing). He draws a Gatekeeper of Malakir and casts it. It stops down my onslaught, but I'm still hoping for a small Tendrils to finish him off from the 12 life he is on. But he draws more discard and a Tombstalker kills me before I can find the kill (Brainstorm shows me only accell, and no way to shuffle).
Side: -4 Silence, +2 Thoughtseize, +2 Abrupt Decay
G2. On the play, I can go for a turn 1 Empty for six tokens. It's such a small number that I doubt they can get there. One Gatekeeper stops me already, and I know he will side in Engineered Plagues, probably even a full set. I decide against it and open with a Duress. I see Seize, Seize, Hymn, Swamp, Swamp, Wasteland, Extraction. Oh fuck. I take the Hymn, since one of his two Seizes will stop me from going off anyway. He Seizes my kill away and continues to draw another five 1 CMC discard spells. He extracts my Infernals, and Lili locks me out. Good news is: he has no clock. He destroys all my lands, and Lili ultimates like three times, destroying my artifact mana. My LEDs survive (because of my choices at the Lili ultimates), and at some stage I have almost no deck anymore, and finally get the opportunity to play Brainstorm, cracking four LEDs in response. I decide to try it, because I have almost no chance at winning anyway in this situation. So I crack the LEDs for UUU, BBB, BBB, RRR and pray I draw a decent 3. I get Rite, Chrome Mox, Brainstorm. Cast second Brainstorm, my extra card is a Gemstone Mine. Shit happens. Worth a try anyway. If I had gone for the turn 1 six tokens, I would have won. Should I have gone for it? I had no way of seeing his hand in the process, otherwise I would have been a mana short of casting EtW.
4. Against LED-Madness-Vengevine or something. Cool deck, but not very good in my opinion.
G1. On the play. I Silence and then make 14 Goblins. He dumps his hand too, but he has Goblin Guide, Basking Rootwalla and a Vengevine. My 14 Goblins are better.
Side: -4 Silence, +2 Chain of Vapor, +2 Abrupt Decay (guessing he would side some permanent based hate - turned out he didn't have much)
G2. On the draw. He again drops his hand, this time with a Guide, a Memnite and an Arrogant Wurm. I turn 1 Ad Nauseam and kill him. Why be lucky against this deck? I needed the luck last round! :(
5. Against UWr StoneBlade
G1. On the play I keep a loose seven, but I correctly estimate he is on a slow blue deck, so my keep is ok (two lands, two protection spells, probe, rite and petal). I open with Duress. I take his FoW. Then I draw and Probe into fine stuff. Turn 4 I go off with silence into a tutor chain. He has no chance.
Side: -1 Mox, -1 Infernal (for tutor chain option from Wish), +2 Thoughtseize
G2. I cannot find protection with my one Ponder, but on turn 2 my hand is one accelleration short of being able to go off twice. He is tapped out (he cast SFM), so I decide to go land-rit-rit-Ad Nauseam to bait a FoW, and then go off again later, hopefully protected. He indeed FoWs my Ad Nauseam. I proceed to never find protection, and actually I draw so badly I cannot even go off again, despite needing only one accellerator. He counters my every play and kills me with SFM carrying SoFaF and a Batterskull.
G3. I have to mull to five. I cantrip a bit and see he has many counterspells. I manage to bait a few, discard some, and I am one mana short of Silence into like 14 goblin tokens. I don't draw that one mana for three turns, allowing him to set up what he needs to stop me. When I finally draw my mana it is too late. Unlucky.
Concluding:
- The deck is brilliant
- I am not so brilliant
- I am only lucky when I don't need it, and never when I do need it (but then again, being so terrible I kind of deserved that)
My list for reference:
Main deck: Bryants latest list -1 Ponder +1 Chrome Mox (I expected aggro and Jund-like stuff and wanted to be a bit faster. Never regretted this choice.)
Sideboard was different though:
1 Tendrils of Agony
1 Empty the Warrens
1 Diminishing Returns
1 Ill-Gotten Gains
1 Past in Flames
1 Grapeshot
1 Hull Breach
3 Thoughtseize (this is personal taste, I don't like Therapies very much)
3 Abrupt Decay
2 Chain of Vapor
This sideboard appeared to be fine. During the tourney I never wanted something else in there.