[Article] How to beat Storm

[Jonathan Alexander]

I write about Storm a lot, but usually I write about how to win with Storm. This time, I take a look at the other perspective and give some insight into beating Storm:

https://theweeklywars.wordpress.com/2016/05/16/how-to-beat-storm/

This article is more about concepts than hard guidelines, so let me know if you're interested in more specific examples.

[square_two]

I really enjoyed the article. Great point about how necessary having both disruption + clock is to beating Storm.

I've had both Teeg and Chalice out against Storm, and seen them Hurky's Recall end of my turn, then bounce Teeg start of their turn and proceed to go off. Fortunately I had been sandbagging an Abeyance in my hand for their Infernal Tutor :laugh:

But still, between Abrupt Decay, that U mana bounce, Recall, you can't be safe simply lying around without a clock. They will sculpt a hand to beat you. I've been playing a lot of Stompy decks and can't let myself get lazy or feel secure...for instance, can be correct to get down one form of hate, then give up a turn so that Library can come down and allow me to better find more hate.

[Echelon]

This was a much needed read for me. Thank you so much for your insights!

Edit: Any thoughts on cards like Silence, Orim's Chant and Abeyance? Or any other unconventional ways to mess with Storm you can think of? It would be much appreciated.

[Jonathan Alexander]

Thanks for the feedback, both of you!

I think Chant effects are very similar to countermagic, but there's not much bluffing with them. They're fairly good with Sensei's Divining Top because it's hard for Storm to interact with that, but Sensei's Divining Top is very slow. Chant effects can fill some holes in your defenses though and might be worth splitting with discard spells or permanents.

[Barook]

Fast clock + disruption is definitely the best way to beat Storm.

That's why Eldrazi is so good against them - between Chalice, TKS (which doubles as threat), Warping Wail, Thorn and Leyline of the Void in the 75, they're in for a world of hurt while getting relentlessly beaten down by eldritch abominations.

[Lormador]

While I almost didn't even give this article a read with Storm not occupying the DTB section currently, I'm glad that I did so anyway. The examination of the three pillars of disruption is thorough without being tiresome, and not a bad read even for those who know most of this stuff already.

The real prize for reading the article, however, is the lovely theoretical claim between the countermagic section and the rules of thumb: that the level of detail offered by the habitual "pre-board, post-board" matchup mindset is insufficient to deal with the complexity of this particular situation (playing against Storm). I like this principle due to its applicability even beyond combo matchups: I might look at Miracles/Eldrazi Chalice@1, Delver with/without Daze, and so on similarly.

[Arsenal]

How did you settle on the number "7" for ways to interact turn 1 vs Storm? Where'd that number come from?

[Jonathan Alexander]

How did you settle on the number "7" for ways to interact turn 1 vs Storm? Where'd that number come from?

7 is a magical number in the context of having cards in your opening hand; it puts you at 60%. Some of my testing partners determined it as the baseline in the context of mana creatures in our Modern Domri Naya deck (you always wanted 3 mana on turn two) a couple years back. If I remember correctly, 8 is when you start being more likely to draw multiple copies, which is something to keep in mind for cards with diminishing returns, like discard spells or ramp cards like Mox Diamond.

In practice, things are slightly more complicated because blue decks have cantrips and need cards to pitch to Force and decks with ramp cards need to draw them alongside their hate if they're supposed to count.