jandax
08-18-2013, 12:34 PM
Don't get thrown off by the title, it's a work in progress just like the premise behind the deck. It all started not long ago inspired by a Travis Woo video from CFB, found here. (http://www.channelfireball.com/videos/channel-twoo-modern-storm-cloud/) tl;dr it started off as a MMA draft deck with a couple Lotus Blooms, ETW and Deathcloud as kills with mana and disruption and burn to fill the deck out. It apparently worked well enough or gave him the spark of interest to see if it wouldn't do well in a constructed format. Watch the video if you haven't, it's pretty sweet.
On to the premise; the deck has two win-cons that are highly varied. A swarm of 1/1's or a massive Deathcloud followed up by a bigger board presence in either left over tokens or a Greater Gargadon. Opponents can deal with one but not the other, and especially in Legacy, it's as good as a guess for the opponent which route you'd take. The Modern list is easy to port over to Legacy, Dual/fetchland mana base and Thoughtseize and Dark Rituals etc.
Deathcloud and Empty the Warrens; the two build-around kill cards.
These require lots of mana (read spells) and end the game when given support by the next two build-around cards: Young Pyromancer and Greater Gargadon.
Pyromancer gets synergy from all the spells you're casing, and Greater Gargadon eats up permanents and comes down to close a game after a big spell is cast. This is how the deck wins, call it bi-linear?
Here's my initial list that to this point can gold-fish wins and puts up enough of a fight to get around most decks in the format.
4 Deathcloud
3 Empty the Warrens
4 Dark Ritual
4 Manamorphose
3 Pyretic Ritual
4 Lotus Bloom
4 Thoughtseize
2 Lightning Bolt
4 Faithless Looting
4 Greater Gargadon
4 Young Pyromancer
4 Molten Slagheap
4 Badlands
4 Blackcleave Cliffs
1 Dragonskull Summit
3 Mountain
4 Bloodstained Mire
The card choices:
3 ETW, 4 Deathcloud: Only three Etw because one is enough. As with any storm deck, multiples isn't exactly ideal. Same can be said with Deathcloud, but Deathcloud is counterable by both hard and soft counters so having an extra is worth it. Both extra copies are fodder to Faithless Looting.
11 rituals I used pyretic because it provides more mana. Four Lotus Bloom power out the combo turn, I realize three turns is a lot in Legacy. This doesn't use Infernal Tutor/LED as an engine.
6 disruption spells 4 TS and 2 Bolts. Sticking with Travis' numbers on this, through the videos it seemed to be close too if not the right numbers. Spot discard showed up the right amount of time and so did Bolts for a timely removal on an annoying critter.
8 Support creatures Young Pyromancer spits out 1/1's almost as well as EtW does, and Gargadon has awesome synergy with Deathcloud. They both mingle to be win-cons in their own right.
4 Faithless Looting Not sure if Top would be better. But it's a spell, draws cards, flashes back and makes 1/1's with Pyroman.
20 lands Molten Slagheap is pretty sweet. It's a mana sink/bank that's better than nothing in the early game when you're trying to build a hand to go off. The Slagheaps and lone Summit don't produce colored mana turn one, which more often than not can be annoying.
It's like this is Spanish Inquisition meets Pox, and it was at least a blast to watch in the videos. There's probably a shot at making this a real deck, at least a pile that can win off of rogue factor surprise alone. Comments and pointers are most welcome!
On to the premise; the deck has two win-cons that are highly varied. A swarm of 1/1's or a massive Deathcloud followed up by a bigger board presence in either left over tokens or a Greater Gargadon. Opponents can deal with one but not the other, and especially in Legacy, it's as good as a guess for the opponent which route you'd take. The Modern list is easy to port over to Legacy, Dual/fetchland mana base and Thoughtseize and Dark Rituals etc.
Deathcloud and Empty the Warrens; the two build-around kill cards.
These require lots of mana (read spells) and end the game when given support by the next two build-around cards: Young Pyromancer and Greater Gargadon.
Pyromancer gets synergy from all the spells you're casing, and Greater Gargadon eats up permanents and comes down to close a game after a big spell is cast. This is how the deck wins, call it bi-linear?
Here's my initial list that to this point can gold-fish wins and puts up enough of a fight to get around most decks in the format.
4 Deathcloud
3 Empty the Warrens
4 Dark Ritual
4 Manamorphose
3 Pyretic Ritual
4 Lotus Bloom
4 Thoughtseize
2 Lightning Bolt
4 Faithless Looting
4 Greater Gargadon
4 Young Pyromancer
4 Molten Slagheap
4 Badlands
4 Blackcleave Cliffs
1 Dragonskull Summit
3 Mountain
4 Bloodstained Mire
The card choices:
3 ETW, 4 Deathcloud: Only three Etw because one is enough. As with any storm deck, multiples isn't exactly ideal. Same can be said with Deathcloud, but Deathcloud is counterable by both hard and soft counters so having an extra is worth it. Both extra copies are fodder to Faithless Looting.
11 rituals I used pyretic because it provides more mana. Four Lotus Bloom power out the combo turn, I realize three turns is a lot in Legacy. This doesn't use Infernal Tutor/LED as an engine.
6 disruption spells 4 TS and 2 Bolts. Sticking with Travis' numbers on this, through the videos it seemed to be close too if not the right numbers. Spot discard showed up the right amount of time and so did Bolts for a timely removal on an annoying critter.
8 Support creatures Young Pyromancer spits out 1/1's almost as well as EtW does, and Gargadon has awesome synergy with Deathcloud. They both mingle to be win-cons in their own right.
4 Faithless Looting Not sure if Top would be better. But it's a spell, draws cards, flashes back and makes 1/1's with Pyroman.
20 lands Molten Slagheap is pretty sweet. It's a mana sink/bank that's better than nothing in the early game when you're trying to build a hand to go off. The Slagheaps and lone Summit don't produce colored mana turn one, which more often than not can be annoying.
It's like this is Spanish Inquisition meets Pox, and it was at least a blast to watch in the videos. There's probably a shot at making this a real deck, at least a pile that can win off of rogue factor surprise alone. Comments and pointers are most welcome!