TES Drive - A New Storm Player's First Tournament
Main Deck:
1x Misty Rainforest
2x Scalding Tarn
2x Underground Sea
1x Volcanic Island
4x Gemstone Mine
2x City of Brass
4x Ponder
4x Brainstorm
4x Gitaxian Probe
4x Lion’s Eye Diamond
4x Lotus Petal
3x Chrome Mox
4x Dark Ritual
4x Rite of Flame
4x Burning Wish
4x Infernal Tutor
4x Silence
3x Cabal Therapy
1x Empty the Warrens
1x Ad Nauseum
Sideboard:
1x Past in Flames
1x Diminishing Returns
1x Tendrils of Agony
1x Cabal Therapy
1x Thoughtseize
1x Grapeshot
1x Tropical Island
3x Xantid Swarm
3x Abrupt Decay
2x Chain of Vapor
Before we dive in, I’d like to talk about the meta and my choices for my 75. Fair is the name of the game. Delver, Stoneblade, and decks that prey on them like Jund and Miracles are always out in force. I went with three Abrupt Decays in case of Counterbalance and hate bears, three Xantid Swarms because there’s always one or two Sneak and Show players and plenty of UWR/BUG Delver players. I forgot to pack a sideboard Empty the Warrens,
lol which will come back to haunt me later. Having two discard spells in the board was bad, and honestly, I just forgot to swap out a maindeck Silence for one before the tournament started.
Having 4 Silences often brick your hand without value. That's why we moved to 3 Silence and 4 Therapy. I come back to this later in this report I’m very interested in testing out the new list with the 4/4/4 mana base and discard instead of Silence, but my brother was in possession of our extra Volcanic Islands and Duress. I will definitely be making changes to this list later on.
I arrive at the shop over an hour early, so I sit down with a friendly guy named Elijah and play a few warm-up games against his Shardless BUG. I win slightly less than half of our games after misplaying around counter-magic, sequencing Therapies poorly, and just general bad decision-making. I take a break to talk to the store owner about his Dota 2 cap, and order a sandwich from next door. I’m not feeling too hot as the big screen spits out the pairings for round 1.
Round 1 – Richard on UR Delver
Game 1
My opponent is a very polite older gentleman. As we’re shuffling, he tells me he hasn’t played in over a decade and he’s on a borrowed deck. We chat for a bit and I win the die roll and draw my opening hand:
Silence
Silence
Infernal Tutor
Burning Wish
Ponder
Ponder
Chrome Mox
Would you keep this hand? no
No initial mana, no fast mana, and no reliable game plan. I briefly think about imprinting Ponder to cast Ponder off of Chrome Mox, but I can’t see myself going off soon even if I see the perfect 3 on top. I send it back and look at my new hand:
Gitaxian Probe
Silence
Volcanic Island
Rite of Flame
Infernal Tutor
Lion’s Eye Diamond
Would you keep this hand? you havo to keep this. Mull to 5 is not excuseable if you have an IMS
Not perfect, but definitely a hand with potential. I lead with Gitaxian Probe and see: Spell Pierce, Spell Pierce, Delver of Secrets, Volcanic Island, Lightning Bolt, Ponder, Goblin Guide. I draw another LED off the Probe, play a volcanic Island and pass turn, and it immediately hits me that against a more experienced player, I probably should not have played Probe to keep my opponent guessing what type of deck I was on.
indeed; unless you want to gamble for drawing into Petal
My thoughts are interrupted when he opens with a Gitaxian Probe of his own. He pauses to write down my cards and plays a Volcanic, Goblin Guide, and attacks me (revealing a Cabal Therapy off the trigger). I draw the Therapy and pass turn back to him, hoping for a black source soon to get rid of the Spell Pierces. He plays Ponder off the volcanic, then Scalding Tarn and cracks it for an island, plays Delver, and attacks me (revealing Brainstorm). My opponent ships the turn back, and I’m amazed he tapped out for the second turn in a row after seeing my hand, so I’m fairly certain he hasn’t identified my deck.
i agree On my turn I draw the Brainstorm and cast it off my Volcanic (Storm 1), drawing: Dark Ritual, Lotus Petal, Dark Ritual. Wow. I put back Rite of Flame and Silence, and go:
Lotus Petal (Storm 2)
Lion’s Eye Diamond (Storm 3)
Lion’s Eye Diamond (Storm 4)
Break Petal for Dark Ritual (Storm 5) BBB
Cast Cabal Therapy (Storm 6) BB
Dark Ritual (Storm 7) BBBB
Infernal Tutor (Storm 8), breaking both LED BBBBBRRR
Infernal Tutor (Storm 9) BBBRRR
Burning Wish (Storm 10) BBRR
Tendrils (Storm 11)
Searching for Ad Nauseum and casting it from 14 life (storm 8) BBRR
Revealing:
Chrome Mox (14)
Infernal Tutor (12)
Brainstorm (11)
Rite of Flame (10)
City of Brass (10)
Burning Wish (8)
Brainstorm (7)
City of Brass (7)
Silence (6)
Dark Ritual (5)
Play Gemstone Mine
Rite of Flame (Storm 9) BBRRR
Burning Wish (Storm 10) BBR for Tendrils of Agony
Use Gemstone Mine to cast Tendrils (Storm 11) for 22.
My opponent has never seen the storm mechanic before, and spends a few minutes reading all of my spells, muttering something about “new cards” as he stares at my copy of Tendrils. I sympathize with him since I feel the exact same way at FNM draft.
Game 2
I sideboard as follows: +3 Xantid Swarm, +1 Tropical Island, +1 Cabal Therapy, -3 Silence, -1 Infernal Tutor, -1 Chrome Mox. As you can tell, I have no idea what I’m doing with my sideboard, just that Silence seems like awkward disruption in this matchup, and I want an extra discard spell from the board. My opponent looks at his sideboard for a long time, just as bewildered as me, decides on 4-5 cards, and we’re off to game 2.
Well, I disagree with this plan completely as UR delver usually runs at least 6 burn spells MB afaik and pressuring your mana (producing green) for a card which immediately gets lightning/fork-bolted is a waste. i'd keep Moxen def. in against a matchup which likely deals a lot of damage quick and helps to power out early AN/EtW I draw the following hand:
Xantid Swarm
Burning Wish
City of Brass
Infernal Tutor
Burning Wish
Rite of Flame
Lotus Petal
Would you keep this hand? no. You can't cantrip into stable mana and die to wasteland unless you draw massive mana and your opponent not having counters. 3 business-spells are a Brick
This hand seems pretty solid with a turn one insect, so I keep it. He opens with mountain into Goblin Guide and attacks (revealing a Dark Ritual). I draw the Ritual, playing City of Brass and Xantid Swarm, and he thinks for awhile before letting it resolve. He drops a Flooded Strand, attacks with Goblin Guide (revealing Gemstone Mine!), and passing back to me. I draw another Gemstone mine and play it,
DR, GSM for free, GSM ... insane draws, man and send in the insect so I can play my Burning Wish to get a Thoughtseize.
considered to infernal for mana? You had Xantid already and don't need to burn that Wish (lol) for a thoughtseize which pressures your life even more. Without doing the math, I suspect that it might would have been enough to create a PIF loop for lethal Tendrils instead of going for the goblins later. He cracks Flooded Strand for an Island, plays Scalding Tarn and attacks (revealing LED). At this point, I’m just dreading the removal spell for Xantid Swarm. I draw the LED, play a second Gemstone Mine, and go to combat. To my relief, there’s no response from him as my insect swarm stops him from casting spells. Since I’m at 12 life with a City of Brass in play, I don’t really want to roll the dice with Ad Nauseum. I go:
Rite of Flame (Storm 1) RR
Dark Ritual (Storm 2) RRBBB
Thoughtseize (Storm 3) RRBB, revealing: Force of Will, Delver of Secrets, Spell Pierce, Flusterstorm, Volcanic Island. I discard Force of Will.
Lotus Petal (Storm 4)
Lion’s Eye Diamond (Storm 5) RRBB
Burning Wish (Storm 6) for Past in Flames RB
Infernal Tutor (Storm 7), breaking LED for RRR
Searching for Empty the Warrens and playing it (Storm 8) with Lotus Petal.
Staring down a board full of goblins, my opponent draws, plays Delver, bolts Xantid Swarm, attacks with Goblin Guide (drawing me my third Gemstone Mine), which I block with a Goblin. It’s too little too late. On my turn, I draw Ad Nauseum and bash for 15, and he blocks with Delver, bringing him to 5. On his turn, he draws his card for the turn and begins picking up his cards, lamenting that he should have Forced my Xantid Swarm.
No Bolts, no FoW on the Xantid, no wasteland ... crazy
2-0 in games, 1-0 in matches.
After the match, I suddenly remembered Bryant Cook’s wisdom about how Xantid Swarm is bad against Lightning Bolt decks, and if I had to play this matchup again, I definitely won’t be boarding them in.
good The Empty the Warrens plan also might not have been a good idea against a more experience player who boarded in Pyroclasm.
if they board stuff for goblins, don't go for it or use Cabal Therapies flashback to strip cards like Pyroclasm after discarding their counters Even though I was rewarded for making bad decisions, it goes to show how great this deck is to study. Now that I know better, I won’t let anomalous games influence my future sideboard decisions, which is something I always struggled with while playing Miracles.
Round 2 – Erik on UW Stoneblade
Game 1
By all accounts, my opponent is a great player. A few weeks ago I watched him top 8 with UW Stoneblade at a win-a-Mox event by beating my friend, who was playing ANT. I was incredibly nervous going into this round, chatting about the band on his t-shirt to help take the edge off. I win the die roll, and draw this opening hand:
Silence
Lion’s Eye Diamond
Silence
Silence
Rite of Flame
City of Brass
Cabal Therapy
Would you keep this hand? the classic example why I hated Silence ofter BoM. I had a similar hand R3 G1 against Deathblade. I kept and lost that game (ended the round 1-1, duh!). This is a hand to Review with the idea of those Silences being Thoughtseize/Duress. Would you have kept it then?
It has all the protection you could ask for, but I feel that I want a much faster hand for game 1 on the play. I mulligan and see these six:
Underground Sea
Infernal Tutor
Chrome Mox
Rite of Flame
Lion’s Eye Diamond
Lotus Petal
Would you keep this hand? yeah
Turn one combo? Yes please. However, I suspect that my opponent knows that I’m on storm, since he was hanging out near my practice games before the tournament. With that in mind, I don’t feel comfortable playing into Force of Will, so I play Underground Sea and pass the turn.
mulligan to 6 on the play: if you pass, your opponent has 2(!!) more cards than you. Have that in mind. If you try to turn your derogatory position into value in game 1 against an opponent who might not know you are on combo, I advice to throw that hand right into his face for the 60/40 against FoW as otherwise, Discard/Daze/Pierce will tear you appart He plays island and passes it back. I draw a Gitaxian Probe and play it to see what he’s up to, revealing: Sword of Fire and Ice, Island, Spell Pierce, Polluted Delta, Brainstorm, Ponder, Windswept Heath. In hindsight, I should have gone for it. Oh well. I draw a second Rite of Flame off of the Probe and ship it back to him. He plays another Island to Ponder and pass the turn. I draw my own Ponder and play it to see: Silence, Dark Ritual, Dark Ritual. I draw Ritual and leave Silence on top. My opponent plays Windswept Heath, cracks it for a Plains (it’s interesting that he might have me pegged for a Wasteland deck by grabbing plains instead of Tundra, I should have noticed this during the round), and plays Stoneforge Mystic, finding a Batterskull with an Island untapped.
With just one land in play, I draw the Silence I left on top, play Lotus Petal (Storm 1) and break it to cast Silence (Storm 2). He responds with Spell Pierce (Storm 3) as I pause to count if I can afford to pay for Pierce with Dark Ritual. After awhile, I decide it’s not going to work, so my Silence gets countered. I look back at my notes and see that he has had two draws and a Ponder to search for a Force of Will, but it’s also likely that he played Ponder to find a creature (looking back, he was playing around Wasteland after he had already cast Ponder, so Force of Will was very unlikely). My instinct trained on control decks screams at me to pass the turn, but for some reason I continue anyway:
Dark Ritual (Storm 4) BBB
Chrome Mox (Storm 5), imprinting Rite of Flame BBB
Lion’s Eye Diamond (Storm 6)
Rite of Flame (storm 7) BBBRR
Infernal Tutor (storm 8) BBR, breaking LED BBRRRR
Search for Ad Nauseum and cast it from 18 life (Storm 9) R
Reveal:
Dark Ritual (17)
Ponder (16)
Dark Ritual (15)
Lion’s Eye Diamond (15)
Brainstorm (14)
Brainstorm (13)
Cabal Therapy (12)
Lotus Petal (12)
City of Brass (12)
Lotus Petal (12)
Burning Wish (10)
I stop the Ad Nauseum and my opponent concedes without having me play it out. Whew. I learned to play with a very paranoid mindset while practicing with this deck and it feels liberating to just go for it in the face of the unknown.
Game 2
We sit in silence as we contemplate sideboards, my opponent deep in thought about how he’s going to approach the next game. Anticipating the hate bears and Flusterstorms, I board in +2x Abrupt Decay, +2x Xantid Swarm, +1x Tropical Island, +1x Thoughtseize and out -4x Silence, -1x Infernal Tutor, -1x Chrome Mox.
This is a matchup where Pyroblast shine. Removing Meddling Mages and blowing out his Delver/TNN. Pyroblast > Xantid, not only because of the color. As game 2 starts, I draw the following hand:
Xantid Swarm
Volcanic Island
Lotus Petal
Gitaxian Probe
Ad Nauseum
Underground Sea
Dark Ritual
Would you keep this hand? yes
This looks really good at punishing a hand that relies on Flusterstorm and Spell Pierce, so I keep it. He plays a Tundra and passes, which makes me very happy since it’s likely he’s holding up one or the other. I draw a Ponder and play the Gitaxian Probe, revealing: Force of Will, Brainstorm, Brainstorm, Tundra, Stoneforge Mystic, Polluted Delta. Huh. Guess my read was totally off. There’s no reason to play the insect just yet, since I don’t have the combo anytime soon. I play the Underground Sea and Ponder which reveals: Ponder, Cabal Therapy, Abrupt Decay. I draw Cabal Therapy and float Ponder on top, passing the turn. He drops a Tundra and plays Stoneforge, grabbing Batterskull, allowing me to go again. I play Lotus Petal and break it for Xantid Swarm, fully expecting it to get Forced.
First Therapy which he'll FoW at 100% (skull!), then Xantid as Pierce/Fluster are dead for adressing Xantid He allows it to resolve, so I go Volcanic Island into Ponder, revealing: Abrupt Decay, Infernal Tutor, Thoughtseize. I shuffle and play a Cabal Therapy, which finally eats his Force of Will, pitching Brainstorm. I suppose he wanted to protect his Batterskull for Empty the Warrens? On his turn, my opponent plays a Polluted Delta and Brainstorms, passing it back to me. I draw Gitaxian Probe and attack with Xantid Swarm. With my bugs on the loose, I play Gitaxian Probe (Storm 1), revealing: Windswept Heath, Force of Will, Plains, and Batterskull. I draw a Scalding Tarn off the Probe. It looks like I’m in the clear!
Dark Ritual (Storm 2) BBB
Crack Scalding Tarn for Underground Sea and tap out for Ad Nauseum from 15 life (Storm 3)
Let’s pause right here, because I’ve already punted the game HARD without knowing it. As my opponent kindly pointed out after the match, I forgot to draw a card from my first Probe and my Ponder.
If he noticed that during the game, which is pretty much guaranteed here, he plain cheated on you. Probe-/Ponder-draws are NOT OPTIONAL. You HAVE to draw. There is no trigger you are allowed to miss. He took advantage of an illegal game action. Period. My stupidity deserves to be immortalized on the internet so here goes:
Rite of Flame (14)
Tropical Island (14)
Ponder (13)
Gitaxian Probe (12)
Misty Rainforest (12)
Lotus Petal (12)
Gemstone Mine (12)
Burning Wish (10)
Cabal Therapy (9)
Dark Ritual (8)
Scalding Tarn (8)
Burning Wish (6)
Cabal Therapy (5)
City of Brass (5)
Empty the Warrens (1)
Having already played my land this turn, I don’t have enough free mana to go off, so I have to keep going.
stopping at a save life count and combo the next turn is a possible play too. Not that it was the way to go here ... just wanted it to mention for anyone who reads this lines
Thoughtseize (0)
Whoops. There you have it. My first punt in a tournament with TES. At this point, I still haven’t realized my mistake, so I chalk it up to variance and go into game 3 with razor focus.
Game 3
Since I showed Xantid Swarm last game, I decide to shuffle in three Silences and pick them back out just in case he was considered putting Swords to Plowshares back into his deck. Every little advantage counts, right? My opponent retreats into his contemplative look as we shuffle up and I draw:
Gitaxian Probe
Rite of Flame
Gitaxian Probe
Lion’s Eye Diamond
Abrupt Decay
Gemstone Mine
Underground Sea
Would you keep this hand? yes
Not a whole lot going on, but it has the potential to be explosive. I would not have kept this hand against discard, since it relies heavily on LED to have any potential. I decide to keep and lead with Gitaxian Probe, revealing: Force of Will, Stoneforge Mystic, Jace the Mind Sculptor, Island, Brainstorm, Ponder, Mishra’s Factory. I draw Empty the Warrens off of Probe, and all of a sudden my hand looks incredible. I play a Gemstone Mine and pass the turn. He plays an Island into Ponder, passes, and it’s off to the races. I play Underground Sea and go:
Dark Ritual (Storm 1) BBB
Gitaxian Probe (Storm 2) BBB, seeing that he drew a Brainstorm
Rite of Flame (Storm 3) off of Gemstone Mine BBBRR
Lion’s Eye Diamond (Storm 4) BBBRR
Empty the Warrens (Storm 5) B
Seeing the goblins, my opponent looks visibly frustrated that he didn’t counter the rituals. He Forces one copy of Empty the Warrens, leaving me with 8 goblins when I pass the turn back to him. He plays a Flooded Strand and fetches a Tundra to drop Stoneforge Mystic, grabbing Batterskull. On my turn, I draw a Scalding Tarn and Abrupt Decay his Kor Artificer (“For the blowout!” he exclaims). I swing in for 8, bringing his life to 11 and pass the turn. He plays a Factory and a Brainstorm, signaling for me to go. I draw an Ad Nauseum and attack, losing one goblin to an active Factory, sending him to 4. He draws, plays an Island, Brainstorms, and scoops, giving me the match.
4-1 in games, 2-0 in matches.
I have mad respect for most of the players at this store. They’re always willing to talk strategy and help each other improve matchups. My opponent was no exception as we talk for a little bit about sideboards, and I feel pretty happy with the way I boarded. As he’s standing up to leave, he points out my missed draws off cantrips. What. I frantically go through my game 2 notes and realize that he’s right. Again, I made an easily avoidable mistake but still came out ahead in the match. I count myself very lucky so far. After this match I finally have time to eat the sandwich I ordered, an unfortunately messy meatball sub on a day I’m wearing a white dress shirt and a tie. Unlike my Storm games, I play perfectly and avoid any sauce stains. With a tentative hopefulness after my 2-0 start, I grab my backpack as round 3 pairings are announced.
Round 3 – Simon on RUG Delver
Game 1
I recognize my opponent as a fairly skilled Canadian Thresh player, but I’m pretty sure that he thinks I’m playing Miracles. Unfortunately, I lose the very important die roll and we chat a little as I draw my opening hand:
Brainstorm
Silence
Rite of Flame
Brainstorm
Underground Sea
Infernal Tutor
Lotus Petal
Would you keep this hand? yes
This hand is very weak to Wasteland, but I at least have the option of firing off a Brainstorm to find a second land if it comes down to it. I decide to keep. He plays a Volcanic Island and passes. I draw a Burning Wish, feeling pretty sure that my opponent is holding up Stifle. My opponent drops a Wooded Foothills and Ponders, while I Brainstorm to draw: Dark Ritual, Gemstone Mine, and LED (putting back LED first then Gemstone). On my turn, I draw the Gemstone Mine, play Lotus Petal and Gemstone Mine in case of a Daze, and I cast my Burning Wish for a Thoughtseize. My opponent fetches a Tropical Island at the end of my turn and then proceeds to go Tarmogoyf, Wooded Foothills and crack it for a Volcanic into Delver. On my turn, I draw my LED and cast Thoughtseize (Storm 1). I see two Stifles (a-hah!) and a Daze, choosing to discard the Daze since my opponent is tapped out. Here comes the storm:
Rite of Flame (Storm 2) RR
Dark Ritual (Storm 3) RRBBB
Lion’s Eye Diamond (Storm 4) RRBBB
Infernal Tutor (Storm 5), breaking LED RBBBBB
Search for Ad Nauseum and play it from 18 life (Storm 6) R
floating red? good boy!
Reveal:
Infernal Tutor (16)
Lotus Petal (16)
Lion’s Eye Diamond (16)
Silence (15)
Volcanic Island (15)
Gemstone Mine (15)
Chrome Mox (15)
Lotus Petal (15)
Rite of Flame (13)
Gitaxian Probe (12)
Burning Wish (10)
Lotus Petal (10)
I stop drawing here since this is more than enough to go off. I continue:
Lotus Petal (Storm 7)
Lotus Petal (Storm 8)
Lotus Petal (Storm 9)
Lion’s Eye Diamond (Storm 10)
Gemstone Mine, tapping for Rite of Flame (Storm 11) RRR
Burning Wish (Storm 12), breaking LED RBBB
Tendrils (Storm 13) for lethal
One of the more entertaining aspects of playing this deck is the mixed look of boredom and frustration on your opponent’s face as you’re going off. I noticed it first while watching my brother’s High Tide matches, and I notice the same look every time I fish for Tendrils from my sideboard. This game was no exception. It brings me great satisfaction because I don’t like it when my opponent gets to play cards.
counterbalance + storm ... i see that pattern lol
Game 2
Once again, I have no idea how to sideboard in this matchup. I remember that Xantid Swarm is bad against Lightning Bolt, so I keep the process very minimal. I go +1 Thoughtseize, -1 Silence although I couldn’t tell you why.
i couldn't either. Why don't you board in the additional land against mana-denial strategies? Silence can screw over a single flusterstorm and SEVERAL stifle as well as REB's. Thoughtseize against Delver is more than questionable from the start. Got tired at that point? ;) In retrospect, Silence seems better in this matchup because there’s no life loss. I draw this hand:
Dark Ritual
Ponder
Brainstorm
Thoughtseize
Lion’s Eye Diamond
Lotus Petal
Rite of Flame
Would you keep this hand? hurts, but no
No tutor or initial mana source makes me wary about keeping this hand against Daze. I mulligan and see:
Gitaxian Probe
Dark Ritual
Burning Wish
Underground Sea
Ponder
Ad Nauseum
Would you keep this hand?
y
Well, this hand has a land and a cantrip, so I decide to keep. My opponent leads with a Tropical Island and a Delver, not very promising for me. I draw a second Burning Wish, play the Underground Sea to avoid Daze, and Probe him to reveal: Volcanic Island, Force of Will, Flusterstorm, Ponder, and Brainstorm. The probe draws me a Chrome Mox. Seeing no Daze, I cast my Ponder to see: Rite of Flame, Silence, Infernal Tutor. I really need either a way to protect the combo or another land to stop the inevitable Wasteland, and Silence won’t cut it without a white source, so I shuffle and draw a Rite of Flame. My opponent brainstorms on his upkeep to reveal a Ponder and flip Delver, and proceeds to Wasteland my Underground Sea. I don’t draw another mana source over the next four turns (Cabal Therapy, Burning Wish, Brainstorm, Cabal Therapy) and I lose to the flipped Delver and Mongoose.
Game 3
Losing to mana denial is never a good feeling, and after losing to Wasteland once, I resolved to not play into it again. Unlike games against hate bears, where I want to combo off quickly, I realize that I need to play a longer game against RUG. Keeping hands with up to four lands may even be a great idea. Our third game begins with these cards:
Gemstone Mine
Rite of Flame
Ponder
Lion’s Eye Diamond
Burning Wish
Gitaxian Probe
Brainstorm
Would you keep this hand? yes
On the play with three cantrips, fast mana, land, and a business spell? I’d keep this any day. I lead with Gitaxian Probe to see: Wasteland, Wasteland, Force of Will, Flusterstorm, Ponder, Misty Rainforest, Delver of Secrets. Ugh. Basically a nightmare hand against me. I lead with Ponder and reveal: Rite of Flame, Gemstone Mine, Underground Sea. I take a little time to think about my next few turns. This is a really sweet Ponder against double Wasteland, but unfortunately, my Burning Wish doesn’t get me any business because a) I forgot to side out an Infernal Tutor and b) I’m not packing a sideboard Empty the Warrens.
hahahahahaha ... sorry, coul not resist ;P Feeling really silly at this point, I draw the Gemstone Mine and put the other two back, leaving Underground Sea on top. As expected, my opponent Wastelands my Gemstone Mine and on my turn, I draw Underground Sea, play another Gemstone Mine and pass the turn. The second Wasteland comes down on my opponent’s turn, targeting my second Gemstone Mine.
why not dropping U.Sea and keeping your RoF alice?? I remove a depletion counter to cast Brainstorm, but it meets Force of Will (pitching Brainstorm) and my land bites the dust.
I draw Rite of Flame on my turn and suddenly realize I just threw this game by not running out Underground Sea into his second Wasteland, since now I don’t have red mana for Rite of Flame.
Ah, there it is :(( Combine this with my sideboard mistake, I lost the chance to go: Gemstone, Rite x2, Lion’s Eye Diamond, Burning Wish, Empty the Warrens for 10 goblins against his empty board. The rest of the game plays out predictably. Delver comes down next turn, and he has Flusterstorm backup for the rest of the game as he kills me with a Goose and a Delver. I end up drawing Chrome Mox, Gemstone Mine, Gitaxian Probe, and Misty Rainforest, with no way to beat the Flusterstorm in my opponent’s hand.
5-3 in games, 2-1 in matches
This match stung especially because I had my opponent dead to rights due to his greedy Force of Will, but I messed it up on multiple levels. TES veterans especially are admonishing me at this point for not following the primer (according to someone at the shop, “Cook wrote the Bible, d00d, you just gotta read it”). No use dwelling on this match for now, especially when I’m still in contention for top 8. I take this time to finish my sandwich and talk to some of the local storm players before the next round is posted.
Round 4 – Elijah on Shardless BUG
Game 1
There hasn’t been a single Legacy event where I’ve managed to avoid playing against someone I playtested with. Sure enough, the guy I jammed games with before the tournament sat down across from me, and since we went through each other’s decks and sideboards in great detail just a few hours ago, there weren’t going to be any surprises. I lose the die roll, and draw my opening grip:
Infernal Tutor
Rite of Flame
Lotus Petal
City of Brass
Burning Wish
Lion’s Eye Diamond
Misty Rainforest
Would you keep this hand? yes
This hand seems really slow that needs either protection or another ritual to be good, but it’s solid enough that I don’t want to send it back. My opponent drops a Tropical Island and suspends Ancetral Vision. Confirmed, he’s still playing Shardless. I draw a Brainstorm for the turn and at this point I play a Lotus Petal, thinking to play around Daze, but I immediately regret my decision when I remember that it would interfere with his cascade. Definite misplay, but it’s not the end of the world. He notices my indecisiveness and boldly plays a Polluted Delta and passes the turn. End of turn, I break Misty for Underground Sea and Brainstorm, drawing Burning Wish, Silence, and Ponder.
I would have considered to use the petal for the BS to have a shuffle effect. Without any protection in my hand, I realize that I need to play a slower game at the mercy of my cantrips and pray he doesn’t have Liliana or Hymn to Tourach since there’s no way he kept a hand without counter-magic. I put Silence back first and then Ponder.
I draw the Ponder again, play City of Brass, and Burning Wish for a Thoughtseize. On his turn, he uses a Verdant Catacombs to get an Underground Sea of his own to Abrupt Decay my Lotus Petal. Definitely a bad play on my part. My turn sees the Silence enter my hand and I Ponder, revealing: Scalding Tarn, Chrome Mox, Infernal Tutor. I draw the Scalding Tarn and put the Mox on top, play the Tarn, and Thoughtseize my opponent. He responds with a sneaky Brainstorm and shows me a hand with: 3x Force of Will and Liliana of the Veil. I discard Liliana, hoping my next few draws will allow me to power through his counter-magic. On his turn, he Wastelands my Underground Sea leaving me with a City of Brass and a Scalding Tarn in play. I do not understand this play at all. First, he hid a Wasteland instead of Liliana, when Thoughtseize can’t discard lands. Second, it’s a bad move not wasting City of Brass, since it’s my only source of red AND white. Third, Wasteland shows me the card he drew for his turn, so I know he only has three Forces left in his hand. His Ancestral Visions also going to pop on his next upkeep, so I need to go off this next turn. I draw the Chrome Mox I left on top and suddenly it’s business time:
Silence (Storm 1)
Chrome Mox (Storm 2) imprinting Burning Wish
Sacrifice Scalding Tarn for Underground Sea
Rite of Flame (Storm 3) RR
Lion’s Eye Diamond (Storm 4) RR
Infernal Tutor (Storm 5), breaking LED RRRR
Empty the Warrens (Storm 6) for 12 goblins
I know my opponent plays one copy of Toxic Deluge in the main, so I wait anxiously as he draws four cards on his turn. He goes Brainstorm, Underground Sea, Deathrite Shaman, and Baleful Strix, passing the turn back to me. I draw a dark Ritual and swing with army, which gets blocked by Strix and Shaman, sending my opponent down to 8 life. My nerves get another workout as he plays Polluted Delta and drops Shardless Agent, cascading into another Ancestral Vision. I count his mana and notice he only has two lands untapped, so I will definitely get one more turn, even if he’s holding the board sweeper. I can’t believe my luck as I topdeck an Ad Nauseum! I run my goblin army into his two creatures, and my opponent taps out to cast Abrupt Decay, leaving him at 1 life. Without Force of Will or Toxic Deluge to worry about, I cast Dark Ritual (Storm 1) and tap out for Ad Nauseum (Storm 2) from 14 life:
Reveal:
Volcanic Island (14)
Ponder (13)
Scalding Tarn (13)
Gitaxian Probe (12)
Gemstone Mine (12)
Lion’s Eye Diamond (12)
Infernal Tutal (10)
Rite of Flame (9)
Gitaxian Probe (8)
Silence (7)
Burning Wish (5)
Infernal Tutor (3)
Cabal Therapy (1)
My opponent slumps his shoulders, obviously a little hopeful that I might die to my own spell, but I press on:
Lion’s Eye Diamond (Storm 3)
Gemstone Mine
Rite of Flame (Storm 4)
Burning Wish (Storm 5), finding Grapeshot
Grapeshot (Storm 6)
Newbie moment: my hand was trembling at the prospect of landing my first Grapeshot kill that I flipped through my sideboard three times, growing increasingly panicked each time trying to find the copy that I knew I had. Eventually, I fished it out. Turns out I completely forgot what the card looks like.
Game 2
Happy to be done with such a grindy game, I contemplated my sideboard, deciding to add a Thoughtseize and wondering what to take out. Silence does serious work against sorcery speed discard, so I decide to board out an Empty the Warrens instead (kids, don’t try this at home, it’s a bad idea) when it really should have been an Infernal Tutor. After the well-practiced shuffle dance, I draw:
Silence
Brainstorm
Infernal Tutor
Burning Wish
Gemstone Mine
Gemstone Mine
Lotus Petal
Would you keep this hand?
I know that my opponent boarded in zero counterspells and a lot of discard as well as some board sweepers to deal with goblins, so I want a hand with Brainstorm and some resilience to Wasteland. This hand fits the bill. My opponent sacrifices Polluted Delta for an Underground Sea and fires off a predictable turn one Thoughtseize, deciding to take my Brainstorm (more experienced players, would you have played Brainstorm here?).
no wayThe fact that he didn’t take my Wish or Tutor makes me suspect that he has more discard in his hand. I draw a Cabal Therapy for the turn and play a Gemstone Mine. I Silence on my opponent’s upkeep and he Brainstorms in response. He misses his land drop and passes the turn. I draw City of Brass and think about what to do.
Here’s where I have a lot of questions about the optimal play. I know my opponent won’t have a land in his next two draws. He likely kept a hand because of Thoughtseize and Force of Will, and due to his first Thoughtseize choice, he might have backup discard. However, my hand doesn’t have enough mana to go off, being two rituals short. I make a gut decision to play a more defensive game, so I drop a second Gemstone Mine and play Cabal Therapy naming Hymn to Tourach. My opponent shows: Force of Will, Ancestral Vision, Shardless Agent, Tarmogoyf, and Hymn to Tourach (yay!). After binning the Hymn, he draws for the turn and plays Deathrite Shaman.
if you know that your opponent is unable to cast Hymn fir the next 2 turns why don't you wait a turn and then name FoW and have him defenseless for potentiall 2 full turns? On my turn, I draw a Lotus Petal and play a Burning Wish that meets a Force of Will (pitching Ancestral Vision). My opponent plays ANOTHER Deathrite Shaman on his turn and passes. I draw a third Gemstone Mine and play it, seriously hoping for some mana acceleration soon. My opponent plays a Tarmogoyf by eating a Delta with DRS, and attacks me with his other Shaman. At this point, my opponent is holding two cards. One he drew for the turn and another being the Shardless Agent I saw from Cabal Therapy. I draw a LED for the turn, cross my fingers, and decide to go for it with three lands in play.
Lotus Petal (Storm 1)
Lion’s Eye Diamond (Storm 2)
City of Brass
Infernal Tutor (Storm 3), breaking LED for BBB
To my dismay, Infernal Tutor meets a second Force of Will (pitching Shardless Agent), leaving both of us hellbent. I lose the game in two turns, my next draws showing me Gitaxian Probe, Cabal Therapy, and LED. I spend some time wondering what went wrong this game, and whether I could have won it at all. I’m still not entirely sure. I try not to dwell on it as I prepare for game three.
Game 3
I double-check my sideboard and realize that I probably want a maindeck Empty the Warrens after all. I end up putting it back and taking out a copy of Chrome Mox instead. This is a much better plan. I shuffle up and draw:
Thoughtseize
Brainstorm
Rite of Flame
Cabal Therapy
Infernal Tutor
Misty Rainforest
Lion’s Eye Diamond
A tutor, fast mana, land, and protection? What’s not to love about this hand? I break Misty to grab Underground Sea and play Thoughtseize.
i think it is a mistake to not keep mana open to brainstorm and dropping LED right now. If he casts discard, you can hide the Infernal with LED in play and 2 discard spells to remove his potential FoW. It's insane He reveals: Force of Will, Wasteland, Misty Rainforest, Polluted Delta, Underground Sea, Vendilion Clique, Deathrite Shaman. I choose to discard Force of Will over Vendilion Clique because Wasteland will destroy my only land, giving me two turns to cantrip into another land drop before I get locked out of the game. Force of Will on my Brainstorm could lose me the game here.
My opponent plays Underground Sea and Deathrite, shipping the turn back to me. I draw a second Rite of Flame, but have no red source to cast it. I decide to Brainstorm on my turn to find an answer to the inevitable Wasteland, and I draw: Ponder, Dark Ritual, Lotus Petal. I put back Ponder first and Rite of Flame on top. I figure I can play Ponder off of Lotus Petal, but without a threat on the board, I’d rather wait a turn to make sure I see a fresh 3 off of Ponder. Sure enough, the next turn sees a Wasteland on my Underground Sea as my opponent plops down a Tarmogoyf with the help of Deathrite. I draw the Rite of Flame and pass. The opponent cracks Delta to find Bayou, and, using the Shaman again, plays Liliana of the Veil. A Liliana activation has me discard Cabal Therapy, and Tarmogoyf comes at me, hitting for three.
I draw the Ponder on my turn and play it using the Lotus Petal in my hand to find: Gemstone Mine, City of Brass, Burning Wish. Quick recap: I’m holding two Rite of Flame, Tutor, LED, Dark Ritual, and I’m facing down a Vendilion Clique still in my opponent’s hand and a Liliana activation next turn. I think hard about my game plan as I put back Burning Wish first, followed by City of Brass on top, and I draw Gemstone Mine. I play the Mine and pass turn, and my opponent activates the planeswalker again (I discared Rite of Flame), and he attacks me down to 10 life. My draw step sees the City of Brass I put on top followed by a Vendilion Clique from my opponent. At this point the organizer calls time as I fan my hand of City of Brass, Rite of Flame, Dark Ritual, LED, Infernal Tutor, and he instructs me to bottom my Tutor. Perfect. I draw Burning Wish to replace Infernal Tutor and go:
City of Brass
Rite of Flame (Storm 2) RRR
Dark Ritual (Storm 3) RRRBBB
Lion’s Eye Diamond (Storm 4) RRRBBB
Burning Wish (Storm 5), breaking LED to float RRBBUUU
Searching for Diminishing Returns and playing it (Storm 6) RBB
casting Dim.Ret. and gambling against FoW? Dunno, man. I might have been satisfied with EtW at this point. PIF was not an option if I see it correctly. Lightning-Edit: remembered you had no SB EtW
I draw the following sweet, sweet hand:
Lotus Petal
Lotus Petal
Lion’s Eye Diamond
Lion’s Eye Diamond
Volcanic Island
Ponder
Brainstorm
Would you keep this hand? KIDDING!
This hand gives me all the storm and mana I need and seven opportunities to find a business spell. I lead with Lotus Petal (Storm 7) into Ponder (Storm 8) to find: Chrome Mox, Infernal Tutor, Ponder. I draw the Tutor and proceed:
Lotus Petal (Storm 9) RBB
Lotus Petal (Storm 10) RBB
Lion’s Eye Diamond (Storm 11) RBB
Lion’s Eye Diamond (Storm 12) RBB
Infernal Tutor (Storm 13), breaking both LED to float BBBBRRR
Search for Burning Wish and play it (Storm 14) BBBRR
Search for Tendrils of Agony (Storm 15) B
Relieved, I look around as I start picking up my cards. Apparently we had gathered a small crowd to watch my last turn. Everyone exchanged jokes about a storm deck going to time, and it suddenly hit me that I made my first top 8 ever. Feels good to be in the winner circle!
7-4 in games, 3-1 in matches.
I talked to my opponent and the organizer, and we decided to ID into top 8. Since it was nearly midnight on Thursday, everyone decided to split the prize in order to go home earlier. I had work the next day so I was more than okay with that.
Thanks for reading the entire thing! If you have any feedback on my play, I would love to hear it. Lemnear does these posts way better, but if I do another one in the future, I will start to develop my own voice and not just steal his format.
I really don't care, dood I’m incredibly grateful to Lemnear, whose writing inspired me to play this deck,
you're welcome, pal to the Bryant Cook for making this incredibly sweet deck what it is, and to my brother who had the patience to grind dozens of matches over the weekend with me.
Buy him a few beer with the price Money
Pros:
-Won some store credit and first time having a winning record at a Legacy event.
-Got to know some awesome players at my LGS. Everyone was either very nice or left me alone.
-Learned tons about the wonderfulness of Storm.
-Remembered to remove sideboard cards after every game, never once flipping Past in Flames off of Ad Nauseum.
Cons:
-Scrubbed up my sideboard. Seriously needed the extra Empty the Warrens several times.
best SB card in the deck for T1 bursts
-The name “Liver of the Storm” for my report was already taken.
Kidney of the Storm is available ... just saying
