Hot Coffee - 1 Land Frenzy Storm

[ntropy]

Happy Thanksgiving to my US friends!

So there I was, trying to make Experimental Frenzy work in Belcher and I thought, "this would be better without 4-cost cards to interrupt the flow of my Frenzy turn..." I did some thinking and a little bit of goldfishing and I have a prototypical list that is a total blast to goof around with. I have not really got as far as pitting it against actual opponents, I'm mostly just trying to smooth out it's inconsistencies right now.

4 Experimental Frenzy
4 Act on Impulse
2 Commune with Lava
1 Past in Flames
4 Grapeshot
4 Helm of Awakening
4 Ruby Medallion
4 Lion's Eye Diamond
4 Lotus Petal
4 Chrome Mox
4 Land Grant
1 Taiga
4 Rite of Flame
4 Manamorphose
4 Pyretic Ritual
4 Desperate Ritual
4 Seething Song

I haven't bothered with a sideboard, but cards like Shattering Spree vs Chalice, Pyroblast and Defense Grid vs Counters, and Empty the Warrens vs everything is where I'd start.

This clearly borrows heavily from Ruby Storm, Charbelcher, and Modern Gifts Storm, so credit to the designers and communities around those decks for proving their power and technology.

The goal is to resolve a Frenzy. Once you can play off the top, you can usually cast the rest of your deck. Lion's Eye Diamond is essentially Black Lotus, since you can't cast cards in your hand. Act on Impulse is often Ancestral Recall when your reducers are in play. Most of your Rituals are instants, so you can hold priority before resolving an Act on Impulse, Land Grant, Commune with Lava, or Manamorphose and cast rituals off the top before drawing, shuffling or exiling. as you churn through the deck you will cast Grapeshots incidentally or set up a Past in Flames for a win. You will frequently be able to cast every card in the deck, though your opponent will be long dead.

The inconsistencies I want to address are Finding a Frenzy and Initial Mana Sources.

Currently the Commune with Lava and Act on Impulses are my ways to dig, along with Manamorphose. I've been mulliganing for Frenzy until I'm at 5, then keeping anything with an Act or Commune. Taking a couple of draw steps to build mana, then firing off a draw 3 or X is often enough, and a resolved frenzy is frequently game over even with 0 mana floating (Petals, LED, Moxen, and Land Grant is a re"draw".) I've tried Hazoret's Undying Fury and Bonus Round, but both were lackluster (HUF can clog up your deck, Bonus Round is really only great with Act.) Does anyone have any ideas for drawing into Frenzy? I am avoiding cards that draw, since I can't cast those spells from my hand during a frenzy. It's possible that Faithless Looting Dangerous Wager etc are worth it since I can crack the Frenzy and unload my hand or just discard and Past in Flames. There might be an argument for a version that relies more heavily on PiF.

Mana wise, I've kept it mono red to avoid awkward Frenzy reveals. I tried with Tinder Wall to bridge the gap to 2 mana, but it gets stuck on top or forces a LED crack on green. I have a list with Wild Cantor, Tinder Wall, Skirk Prospector, Empty the Warrens, Goblin Bushwhacker, Impact Tremors and fewer reducers. The cantors help smooth the color requirements, but it feels clunkier than the above list. I'm also working on a version with Black Rituals (Black Coffee!) but I'm not very convinced. It's possible that Mox Opal is viable as an initial mana source, I don't own any and haven't brewed with them, anyone have a grasp on the proper numbers of artifacts required? Adding Opals makes me want to board into a Kuldotha Red style thing with Shrapnel Blast, etc. That's probably going too deep.

If you like to goldfish intricate combo decks, try this out. I think that I will bring this to my local tournament next week just as a trial run. I'll report back my results, findings.

Have Fun!

[FTW]

Frenzy looks fun to break.

As a Belcher lover (I helped with feline's primer section for the Recross the Paths variant), here's my 2 cents.

1) Helm of Awakening is a bad magic card. Even Ruby Storm has tried to cut it, with some versions only running Ruby Medallion. Helping your opponent is bad. Helm doesn't even do much in this build, and it's terrible in a 1-land shell. No Ancient Tomb lands to cheat it out. 21 cards can't have their cost reduced (cost 0 or R). Another 16 cards cost 1R, which means only 1 reducer effect is relevant (the 2nd and 3rd copies do nothing). Having 2 Medallion effects only helps with Seething Song, Act on Impulse, PiF, Frenzy, Commune, and other medallions. Then the 3rd medallion is a brick on almost everything. Aside from Helm of Awakening being a bad card, this deck doesn't even want 8 Ruby Medallions because of the low mana costs. Even 4 might be too many.

-4 Helm of Awakening
-1 Ruby Medallion (maybe cut more)


2) Burning Wish. Both Belcher and Ruby Storm run 4 copies. This is the key piece that both makes red storm more consistent at goldfishing and helps you answer hate cards. Without Burning Wish, red storm is playing Yahtzee. It's a bad flip off Frenzy but the value it adds to your opening hand seems too good not to run it.

+4 Burning Wish
Maybe move 1 Act on Impulse, though you can't fetch it with Frenzy out, so maybe it's better main.

Strong Wishboard choices:
Empty the Warrens
Past in Flames
Tendrils of Agony
Pyroclasm
Reverent Silence
Shattering Spree
Diminishing Returns
Personal Tutor
Reforge the Soul



3) Grapeshot sucks. You can rarely do anything relevant with it. Empty the Warrens is a staple and will win games on its own. Many Legacy decks just cannot handle 12 goblins on turn 1. Yes 4 cmc cards suck with Frenzy, but if you hit EtW that might already be GG. You don't need to keep drawing more cards.

-4 Grapeshot (maybe put 1 in wishboard)
+3 Empty the Warrens


4) Initial Mana Sources (IMS). Most storm decks use lands as their initial mana sources (i.e. to start casting the first rituals or anti-hate). 1 land decks can't rely on lands for mana, so they need other initial mana sources to even start playing magic. Cards like Daze and Thalia, Guardian of Thraben and Chancellor of the Annex wreck your day if you're too light on IMS. 2 IMS in the opener is safer than 1 when playing around disruption.

1-land Belcher runs 19-21 IMS! (some builds shave 1-2 copies of Chrome Mox)
1 Taiga
4 Land Grant
4 Chrome Mox
4 Lotus Petal
4 Simian Spirit Guide
4 Elvish Spirit Guide

Your list only has 13 IMS. That makes it hard. The spirit guides are bad with Frenzy, so I don't know if there's an easy fix. Mox Opal and Mox Amber won't generate the first mana for you. Chancellor of the Tangle is even worse than Spirit Guides. Something else? But if you don't have enough IMS, you won't even be able to play Magic.


5) 1 cmc rituals. Belcher is a well-oiled machine with the numbers. Not only do they run a critical number of IMS, but they also have 8 1 mana rituals (4 Rite of Flame + 4 Tinder Wall). Between the initial mana sources and 1 cmc rituals, they have a lot of tools to hit 2 mana. Once at 2 mana, then other rituals (Desperate Ritual, Pyretic Ritual, Manamorphose) come live. If you don't have a way to get to 2 mana, you can't cast any of the bigger rituals or Burning Wish.

Your build has 13 IMS + 4 1cmc rituals (compared to 19-21 IMS + 8 1cmc rituals in Belcher). Then you have 20 cards at 2cmc. Well, you won't be able to cast any of those 2 cmc cards if you never even get to 2 mana. You need more low-end mana sources to make up for running only 1 land. I get Tinder Wall is harder to cast without ESG and an awkward flip off Frenzy, but you're going to need something. Wild Cantor?? I can't think of any good options.


6) You might want ways to "refresh" your topdeck in case you hit a brick. Otherwise you fizzle. Some of my suggestions (Burning Wish, Empty the Warrens) are bricks. While they should help your overall win rate, they also increase the chance you brick on Frenzy, so you need a way to manage your top card. Too bad SDT is banned. You could try self-milling or cantripping (Faithless Looting, Chromatic Sphere, Tormenting Voice) or topdeck tutoring (Personal Tutor??). They all seem pretty bad. Looting might be best?


In a nutshell, this looks too inconsistent due to too few low-end mana sources to get up to all those 2cmc cards and get the chain going. This probably goldfishes much worse than Belcher. Playing against real opponents must be even worse, due to mana vulnerabilities. You probably need less Solitaire fun stuff (Helm of Awakening) and more low-cmc enablers to help with consistency.


Here's a thought. What about the slowtrips Mishra's Bauble and Urza's Bauble? You could run all 8. Off Frenzy they're just a free cycle. You cast them for 0 and see the next card. In the opening hand, they let you cycle for free (albeit waiting a turn), setting you up to go off next turn. Those new cards are also hidden from discard, which makes it harder for opponents to disrupt you. They also give you enough 0cmc artifacts to make Mox Opal viable. The major drawback is it becomes harder for you to make mulligan decisions (the same reason Belcher doesn't like them or Street Wraiths), and any new Baubles drawn are bad if you don't have Frenzy out. Might be worth testing.

[kombatkiwi]

I agree that the lack of initial mana with no spirit guides looks like it's going to be a problem.
If you do end up playing Burning Wish then maybe you can put 1 Edge of Autumn in the SB because it's a sorcery that you can at least cycle for free to clear your top card if you have Frenzy in play and can't cast anything.
Can recross the paths be combined with Frenzy? Future sight seems like a good payoff for stacking your deck.

[FTW]

Can recross the paths be combined with Frenzy? Future sight seems like a good payoff for stacking your deck.

The two cards are cute together, but it might be too many hoops to jump through to win real games. If you could generate 7 mana over 1-2 turns (4 for Frenzy + 3 for Recross) and have no lands left in library, Goblin Charbelcher is a thing... If you just resolve Recross first on its own, instead of setting up Frenzy you could just set up a normal winning pile more easily (Belcher or Tendrils).

It works really well if you're comboing with Frenzy and happen to stumble into Recross the Paths, but not so great the other way around.

There's also a clash with the IMS. Recross lists usually run 0 lands. With the 1 land + 4 Land Grants set-up, there are a lot of hands where you don't find the Taiga and Recross can't stack your deck. But 0 lands makes the IMS basically impossible without Spirit Guides...

Maybe the Frenzy build could use Recross the Paths as a Wish target or some other tutor target. Under the right circumstances, it guarantees a win and prevents fizzles. I just wouldn't make Recross a main focus.

Here's a potential list with the 8 slowtrips. No idea if it's any good. I might goldfish it later if I have some time.


//Initial Mana Sources: 17
4 Land Grant
4 Lotus Petal
4 Chrome Mox
4 Mox Opal
1 Taiga

//0 cmc: 12
4 Lion's Eye Diamond
4 Mishra's Bauble
4 Urza's Bauble

//1 cmc: 4
4 Rite of Flame

//2 cmc: 16
4 Manamorphose
4 Desperate Ritual
4 Pyretic Ritual
4 Burning Wish

//3 cmc: 4
4 Act on Impulse

//4 cmc: 7
4 Experimental Frenzy
2 Empty the Warrens
1 Past in Flames

//Wishboard: 15
1 Empty the Warrens
1 Tendrils of Agony
1 Grapeshot
1 Edge of Autumn
1 Past in Flames
1 Diminishing Returns
1 Reforge the Soul
1 Pyroclasm
1 Forked Bolt
1 Shattering Spree
1 Meltdown
1 Reverent Silence
1 Personal Tutor
1 Recross the Paths
1 Goblin War Strike

[mistercakes]

This is the last version I had goldfished with. It can get turn 1 but is mostly a turn 2 or turn 3.


// 60 Maindeck
// 31 Artifact
4 Ghoulcaller's Bell
4 Codex Shredder
4 Helm of Awakening
4 Mox Opal
4 Lotus Petal
4 Lion's Eye Diamond
4 Chrome Mox
1 Paradox Engine
2 Lantern of Insight

// 4 Enchantment
4 Experimental Frenzy

// 12 Instant
4 Seething Song
4 Desperate Ritual
4 Enlightened Tutor

// 3 Land
2 Taiga
1 Savannah

// 10 Sorcery
4 Land Grant
4 Rite of Flame
1 Past in Flames
1 Grapeshot