[Podcast] The Brainstorm Show episode 7: GP Kyoto Results and meta

[Patrunkenphat7]

Check out episode 007 of The Brainstorm Show where we discuss the top 8 of Kyoto and how the meta might look moving forward! We will tackle some deck techs soon - they are long and daunting so we couldn't get to one this week, but we are planning on either Death and Taxes or Lands next.

http://www.thebrainstormshow.com/uncategorized/episode-007-legacy-in-the-land-of-the-rising-sun/

[nevilshute]

Nice episode guys, thanks for making this podcast.

Regarding Flusterstorms in the sideboard I think it's important to just forget looking at them as ways to protect you on your combo turn. Yes that can happen and will make for an excellent story, but I think they are there more to protect us against other combos. Least of all show and tell probably where they are often quite weak as the SnT player can often just play show and tell with 2 mana up having played no other spells that turn. Rather they are at their strongest against the mirror probably where, yes, they can just get discarded, but they can make the games play out rather lopsided, especially if you are also playing Top and can float a flusterstorm, it then becomes practically unloseable.

I remember Carsten Kotter writing about Flusterstorm in ANT against stifle decks as a way to protect our fetchlands. I've never felt comfortable that that is a durable approach but it might be worth considering. Personally I'm dilly-dallying a bit moving from 2x Flusterstorm to 2x Surgical Extraction and back again as my sideboard hedging against other combo decks.

I think SnT decks are generally fine matchups for storm and we already have swarms to bring in there to up our chances further. Against the mirror, and especially reanimator where we are pretty heavy underdogs, I like having something to bring in, though, and fluster or surgical can do well in a pinch.

I'd personally like a deck tech on D&T as I'm playing that these days :smile:

Keep the episodes coming guys!

[lordofthepit]

I'm very impressed with the regularity and the detail you guys manage to fit into every single episode. Keep up the great work!

[Patrunkenphat7]

Thanks for your thoughts on the Flusterstorms in Storm, nevilshute, and thanks to both of you for the positive feedback!

[twndomn]

Good job. I wish you guys would have covered the Omni-tell more. The Mirror in the quarterfinal blew my mind.

[lyracian]

I enjoyed that.

You slightly overestimated the OmniTell presence; Wizards listed it at 18% (39/222) of the Day 2 meta not 25% meta however they included "Sneak and Show" in the same bracket.
http://magic.wizards.com/en/events/coverage/gpkyo15/day-2-metagame-breakdown-2015-04-18

On Kai Thiele's storm list his report is here -
http://www.mtgthesource.com/forums/showthread.php?29442-The-man-with-the-gun-TOP-4-GRAND-PRIX-KYOTO


There are 2 things I would like to point out here. As many of you have already mentioned, I only play 3 Polluted Deltas. Yes, this is not a typing error. I was simply not able to find a 4th Onslaught Foil Polluted Delta before the GP
I have been really satisfied with my maindeck, although I think that Ad Nauseam in the maindeck is unnecessary since you almost always win game one with past in flames or tutor chain.
The special card in my sideboard is Flusterstorm. Remember that there is a game even before we combo off, so preventing our opponent from killing us before we do is crucial.Flusterstorm is a great tool to fight discard decks and dig through time decks as well.
Sometimes you can also defend your first rituals while comboing off.

[sawatarix]

Thank you guys for the Brainstorm Show, I really enjoy it mostly because of Wilson Hunter and his Storm experience (and his exotic list with 2 Grim Tutors).

Regarding Flusterstorms, Lyracian already pointed out the upsided of the best counterspell of all time.

(by the way, I've changed my Name since I live in Japan: Kai Sawatari.)

[LOLWut]

Thanks for making these. Don't feel any pressure to talk about it, but I'd like content about Grixis/Pyromancer Control. I'm guessing it's too new for any of you to be able to do an episode on it--also, its composition seems in flux--but it seems like a mystery deck in terms of chatter, compared to awareness of other recent emerging deck variations like OmniTell and RG Lands, even though it's approaching Decks to Beat status. It's new so it makes sense, and maybe I've just missed articles, threads, and podcasts, but throwing that out there.

[SirTylerGalt]

I've started listening to older episodes (1 and 6), and I already love your podcast! Very insightful!

Regarding the deck techs, since you were asking for suggestions in episode 6... I'd love to hear about your opinion on the evolution of the Delver decks now that Dig Through Time is in the format. Before DTT / Treasure Cruise, we used to see mainly RUG Delver, Team America, UWR Delver, and some rare appearances of Grixis Delver / bUrg. Then Treasure Cruise got printed, and we started seeing lots of U/R Delver and some Grixis Delver. Now that it has been banned, tempo decks have kept evolving, and some of them have gone more midrange to incorporate DTT:

- Grixis Delver ( http://mtgtop8.com/event?e=9439&d=254115&f=LE http://www.tcdecks.net/deck.php?id=16756&iddeck=125531 http://sales.starcitygames.com//deckdatabase/displaydeck.php?DeckID=85150 http://www.reddit.com/r/MTGLegacy/comments/31nrne/tuning_burg_4c_delver/ )
- bUrg (e.g. http://mtgtop8.com/event?e=9415&d=253998&f=LE or http://www.tcdecks.net/deck.php?id=15862&iddeck=118126 )
- RUG DelveR, a version of RUG Delver that's a little more midrange, with 19-20 lands and DTT, that had some good results in France (recent version: http://mtgtop8.com/event?e=9767&d=256219&f=LE - older version that took 1st and 2nd places of a 70-player tournament: http://mtgtop8.com/event?e=9446&d=254156&f=LE )
- Eli Kassis' recent U/R Delver version ( http://www.tcdecks.net/deck.php?id=17114&iddeck=128444 ) --> the choice of playing Monastery Swiftspear instead of Young Pyromancer is interesting)
- Team America
- "Classic" RUG Delver ( http://www.tcdecks.net/deck.php?id=16473&iddeck=123150 http://www.tcdecks.net/deck.php?id=16756&iddeck=125535 )
- UWR Delver
- UWR Delver with Myth Realized

- I've always been a fan of Next Level Threshold. With DTT, is it the right time to play a NLT-like tempo shell with 19-20 lands, 3-4 Waste, 3-4 Stifle, using DTT for card advantage?
- Regarding Next Level Threshold: playing Stifle in a more midrange version of RUG Delver seems counter-intuitive, since Stifle usually goes with aggro-tempo decks that try to win while their opponent's manabase is disrupted. It doesn't make sense to stifle a fetch in a more controlling deck, since your opponent has more time to draw out of his mana screw. Yet it seemed to work well for NLT players. Thoughts?
- Is it ok to play Young Pyromancer and Stifle in the same deck, or should we focus on proactive spells like Probe / Therapy when playing Young Pyromancer?
- What do you think of Thought Scour in a Grixis Tempo shell? Seems to go well with Delver (mill bad cards seen with Delver) / Pyromancer (more cantrips = more tokens) / Cabal Therapy (Therapy opponent, then mill the two best cards he hide with Brainstorm) / DTT..
- I *hate* counterbalance. bUrg gives us access to Abrupt Decay (as well as tons of other great tools), but does that justify the fragile manabase? Is it feasible to play Grixis with 1 Tropical Island for DRS and Abrupt Decay out of the board? Or should I just bite the bullet and play Grixis, hoping I have the Daze / FoW / REB when Counterbalance comes down, or the Needle / Null Rod to stop them from reordering the top of their deck?
- How does UWR Delver with Myth Realized compare to those other tempo decks?

Anyway, I think there is a lot to talk about on the subjects of aggro-tempo and midrange-tempo decks :)

----------

On another subject, I'm also really interested in your opinion of Landstill with Myth Realized. As Piceli89 explained (http://www.mtgthesource.com/forums/showthread.php?9280-Deck-UW(x)-Landstill&p=873304&viewfull=1#post873304), Myth Realized and Dig Through Time may be a fresh freeze of air for that archetype. What do you think? How would you build such an archetype?

[Patrunkenphat7]

@SirTylerGalt: Thanks so much for your interest and support of our show, and thanks for your detailed questions! Since you obviously put so much time into your thoughts and questions, we would like to answer them and give our opinions in episode 10. We already recorded episode 9 where we briefly discuss Dig Through Time in Delver decks, but we definitely want to spend more time discussing that topic as well as other questions you have listed.

@LOLWut: Grixis Pyromancer variants are high on our list right now because of their increasing popularity, so stay tuned, and hopefully we will cover a Grixis variant soon!

[SirTylerGalt]

@SirTylerGalt: Thanks so much for your interest and support of our show, and thanks for your detailed questions! Since you obviously put so much time into your thoughts and questions, we would like to answer them and give our opinions in episode 10. We already recorded episode 9 where we briefly discuss Dig Through Time in Delver decks, but we definitely want to spend more time discussing that topic as well as other questions you have listed.

Awesome, can't wait!

Coincidentally, I started listening to "Episode 7: GP Kyoto Results and meta", and you touched upon some of these aggro-tempo decks while discussing the top 8:
- Dig Through Time in the 6th place Grixis Pyromancer deck
- DRS vs Monastery Swiftspear in Grixis Pyromancer
- Stifle in a non-tempo deck when talking about the 5th place Patriot Blade deck

Good job. You are my new favorite podcast :)