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I found my new favorite thing to do tonight, I did it twice. Ad Nauseam, play everything, Burning Wish -> Past in Flames, play everything, Tendrils them to 2, you for the rest, Flashback Ad Nauseam, play everything, flashback Past in flames, replay everything, Burning Wish for Empty the Warrens, Empty the Warrens, Burning Wish for Grapeshot, Grapeshot. This results in no library, a ton tokens, and a MASSIVE grapeshot.Quote:
Originally Posted by Bryant Cook
Went 4-1 tonight in a weekly tourney with frogboy's list from last year (-1 Thoughtseize for +1 Duress in the board since I only have three Thoughtseize), beating Reanimator 2-1, Show and Tell 2-0, losing to the mirror 0-2 (Bryant's list), and beating Nourishing Lich 2-0 and Team America 2-0. I made around three or four minor to decent-sized punts spanning the course of the tournament since it was my first ever tourney with a Storm deck, but it was an overall nice experience.
-Playing Trop/Xantid Swarm in the main was an overall net good.
-Diminishing Returns is the sickness (the good sickness). I would not cut it for PiF. It won me game three of round one since I couldn't EtW because of my opponent's access to Elesh Norn.
-My Team America opponent was tilting very hard since he'd had a Jace go missing in between rounds and made one severe punt in both games, so I wouldn't consider my 2-0 win a good indicator of the matchup.
-Nourishing Lich was actually a somewhat difficult matchup, what with several discard effects and Leyline of Sanctity postboard.
-My TES opponent had a DBZ playmat with the Ginyu Squad on it, and I remembered that the red guy in it was named Jeice. It would be cool to see someone alter their Jace, the Mind Sculptors with his likeness, since JtMS isn't very cool (or, at least not nearly as cool as Jeice from the Ginyu Squad).
-The list was superb. It might need a few very minor tweaks, but it's an excellent, excellent starting point. Thanks Max!
-Stifle was never a problem.
-Wasteland never got activated against me.
Must be nice...Quote:
Originally Posted by KevinTrudeau
Congrats!
Why would your opponents sit that out instead of simply scooping to lethal stormcount knowing you got enough mana for the tutor + Tendrils of Agony?Quote:
Originally Posted by Bryant Cook
TL;DR: Graveyard hate + fast clock is the only real argument against PIF > DR. Non-blue aggro decks don't have countermagic so go Ad Nauseam, blue aggro decks won't bring in graveyard hate.
I suppose I wouldn't want to lose to graveyard hate. I think I'll just rotate the 3..
1. I understand that, but if you have other options, why go DR? When blue's hand is full, and not countering Burning Wish, I'm not going to get DR and give them a chance to.. or should I? Maybe I'll draw discard in my 7.. what do you think?Quote:
Originally Posted by Bryant Cook
2. That's not really an argument against PIF over DR though, that's just an argument for PIF over IGG
3. True, but DR and passing turn usually means your opponent has a full 7 of disruption or beats again.. I don't know if I would like to do that..
4. Hmm.. I suppose merfolk with graveyard hate could be annoying..
5. Noted
6. Noted
7. This I'm not so sure about. I think I tend to keep slower hands expecting 60% chance of fighting blue decks. Those slow hands sometimes have to be shaped into IGG hands fast, and I think IGG is strong here in that case. Then again, I'm not playing 2x Ad Nauseam yet...
Yeah, but could you have won with PIF instead of DR, somehow I think so..Quote:
Originally Posted by KevinTrudeau
That's awesome,.. I'm tempted to call Grapeshot win-more now..Quote:
Originally Posted by Bryant Cook
I kid..
You're making a fallacious assumption that's reflecting your myopic stance concerning Diminishing Returns- my only business spell in hand was BW, I had a Ponder and some discard as the spells in my 'yard, and while I forget how much mana I had floating after DR, I know it was a minimum of two and that I had access to at least one of any single color of mana I'd want. I'm also pretty sure I hadn't played a land yet that turn. Seemed like the right play since I had nothing going on and could go off under Xantid Swarm. It was already turn five didn't want him to rip a Brainstorm, a discard effect, or a way to put Elesh Norn (which would kill Swarm) in play with me sitting with BW in hand.Quote:
Originally Posted by jin
While DR isn't the stone cold nuts and shouldn't ever be considered a bread-'n'-butter engine in this deck, it's an incredibly strong tool and fills a void that PiF doesn't; it might be correct to run PiF in addition to DR, but I don't think it should ever replace it in a card-for-card sense.
I'm thinking that the deck in its current state/philosophy wouldn't want a PiF in the board if it were to run one, it'd want one in the main.
Thanks. Just to clarify, when I said that Stifle was never a problem, I meant that I ignored it en route to victory. I saw four copies of it in three games over the course of the ~35 person tourney, and was able to play around it with ease every time.Quote:
Originally Posted by Tammit67
We had Bush for 8 years. We are used to being abused.Quote:
Originally Posted by flrn
It was more the wasteland than anything else. When a storm pilot remembers to play around stifle, it is usually a non issueQuote:
Originally Posted by KevinTrudeau
4-0 at a local four-round tournament with Jason Golembiewski's list with the following changes: -1 City of Brass, +1 Badlands in the maindeck; and -1 Duress, +1 Innocent Blood in the sideboard. This puts me at 8-4 (66%) in matches over the last three weeks. I feel like I got pretty lucky; twice I cast early Diminishing Returns that didn't brick. (One needed to hit a tutor on a Ponder and got there.)
Dude, it's Bryant. You know he boozes (not confirmed) up and plays 100 goldfishes every night? So, no, his opponent likes to wait it out.Quote:
Originally Posted by flrn
Played in a 42 man toady, went 4-2 losing to Team America on a mull to 4 and Reanimator when I failed to hit a second land after 2 ponders. Past in flames wasn't so relevant and I almost lost the last round since I had to keep going on Ad naus from 4 life since it wasn't IGG. I still want PiF in the board however. I failed to top 8 due to tie breakers. F*&$
Does anyone know where to find the recordings from last week's SCG? I'd like to add the TES feature matches to the opening post.
EDIT:Found them.
Please, please start updating the sideboard guide and matchup analysis while you're at it.
I've already commented on this before.Quote:
Originally Posted by thefringthing
When I update the opening posts, I don't feel the need to update everything. If you can't figure out how to sideboard, it's your problem. It's very elementary. I had free time to update the sideboarding while watching the Tigers game tonight. Don't expect me to do things because you can't figure out the same cards that are boarded in and out in every round. I update everything about every two months, if you can't wait that long I recommend looking at different opening posts from different threads so you realize how much I spoil you people.
EDIT: Gamer4life - I'm serious, I understand that you're posting from your phone. But that doesn't excuse poor grammar, punctuation, and posting like you're a thirteen year old (O, i, u). If you have a problem with this, please read the forum rules.
I top 8d an event in Blue Bell PA today. Unfortunately the deck shit the bed in the quarter finals and I lost to an ANT player I beat in the swiss.
@Gamer4Life: Dude seriously read the damn forum rules. Reading your posts is a total eyesore :mad:
On sideboarding. If you can't figure out how the SB gets changed and why changes are made, don't play one of the hardest decks in the format. It's pretty easy to see that pyro's got changed over to swarm's and now with CB potentially coming back swarm's are going back to pyro's. Then there are the bounce slots, usually reserved for echoing truth and sometimes k grip and/or wipe away. Then there are wish targets. That's the crash course on SBing with TES for the record.
If you have 2 deathmark's in the SB board one in and leave one out as a wish target. There's absolutely zero reason to keep both in the board; what are you going to do, burning wish for 2 deathmark's? Usually you spend one turn wishing for deathmark. The next turn you cast deathmark. Follow that up with killing the opponent or sculpting with cantrips or simply passing the turn then killing them when you untap. Against decks with hatebears they usually don't run countermagic so once the board is clear you're completely fine to storm out and win sans builds of bant, but generally the only hatebear they pack is gaddock teeg since they can zenith for it. Deathmark solves teeg easily since they can only cast daze on deathmark to try to counter due to gaddock preventing them from FoWing.
Went 4-0-2 then into the finals in a GPT for Amsterdam yesterday with TES.
The list was as following:
5 Fetch
2 Sea
1 Volcanic Island
4 Gemstone Mine
2 City of Brass
3 Mox
4 Petal
4 Lion's Eye Diamond
4 DR
4 Rite of Flame
4 Duress
3 Chant
4 Brainstorm
4 Ponder
3 Gitaxian Probe
4 Infernal Tutor
3 Burning Wish
1 Ad Nauseam
1 Empty the Warrens
SB
3 Xantid Swarm
3 Chain of Vapor
2 Empty the Warrens
1 Tropical Island
1 Tendrils of Agony
1 Shattering Spree
1 D Returns
1 Ill-Gotten Gains
1 Grapeshot
1 Thoughtseize
The allstar of the day was easily the mainboard Empty the Warrens + the ability to get a second one mainboard game 2. It gives you incredible speed and amazing alternative plans if your afraid of your AdN, if you fail to make enough mana or your storm count just won't cut it. The Gitaxian Probes were also amazing. Knowing wether you had to play around Daze or Pierce or seeing a Force in an opposing hand telling you to go Empty the Warrens if possible.
Here's a small report of the day:
Round 1:
Dredge. 2-1
TES goldfishes much faster then Dredge, but I still almost got into trouble. I won game 1 easily, lost game two because I didn't manage to draw business. Won game 3, but only just. I had to go for an Empty the Warrens plan because I was lacking mana and I had no way to improve my hand anymore. Making 12 tokens, I beat him down to 8 before he stabilized. I kept my army back and Brainstormed seeing AdN, land, LED with a ritual on hand and 3 land in play. Still being on 20 life, I kept the AdN on top to protect it from CR and passed the turn. He then managed to DR an Iona. Luckily, he made the mistake of calling red and I proceeded to Ad Nauseam into a chain, bouncing Iona and going in for the win with Tendrils.
Round 2:
Doomsday 2-1
Same thing as Dredge. TES has an edge here because of the speed. Game 1 I killed turn 2 with a chant through Ad Nauseam, to which he scooped not giving me information. Because I saw Flooded Strands, Tundra and Top I put him on some sort of StoneBlade list. Game 2 I probed him, saw no disruption and went in for the kill, but lost from the Chant he had hidden on top with his Sensei's Divining Top.
Game 3 was the same thing as g1, TES is much faster and definately has the edge there.
Round 3:
B/W Confidant 2-1
Game 1 I won easily through Ad Nauseam. Game 2 I lost from Hymns, Canonist & Tidehollow Sculler. Game 3 I managed to go turn 2 Empty the Warrens for 12 tokens, from which he lost cause he had no possibility to get Batterskull and I doubt he would have made it even if he had.
Round 4:
Blue Zoo 2-1
A teammate of mine. Game 1 was protected through Ad Nauseam without too much trouble. Game 2 I had to resort to Empty the Warrens, because I didn't manage to generate enough mana for Ad Nauseam and he had me down to 10 or so, not sure. He then had enough reach (lavamancer activations + bolts) to finish me off. I knew it was gonna be tricky, but I felt like I had no choice but to try since I would probably get beat down to 4 invalidating Ad Nauseam on the spot, so I figured tokens would probably be better.
Game 3 I managed to win off an Ad Nauseam again, through a Daze.
Round 5 & 6:
ID, going 4-0 in the swiss enabled me to chill out for an hour or two and calm down abit before having to play T8.
Top 8:
Round 7:
Spiral Tide 2-1
Game 1 TES was too fast, I managed to get a chant resolved and went for a clean kill with AdN.
Game 2 he had enough counters to stall me, before managing to combo out on turn 5 himself.
Game 3 Was similar to game 1. I probed him and saw only 1 brainstorm with mana open. I decided to take the risk and go for it, so he brainstormed twice but did not manage to pick up a counter. I went AdN on his face and duressed before casting BW just to be sure, but he had no protection.
Round 8:
Dark Tempo 2-1
Game 1 I lost. This matchup was by far the hardest I've had all day and the one where EtW was the best card ever printed. I lost to various counterspells and stilfes, while he had a fast clock with double Goyfs in play.
Game 2 I managed to trick out an EtW, playing Ritual, which he didn't counter, followed up by RoF and a LED and empty Chrome Mox before casting EtW out of the hand. He scooped to the tokens.
Game 3 He mulliganed. I was able to probe him, seeing no protection but lacking the mana to go off myself because I was low on land and he drew 3 Wasteland + 2 Stifle to keep me off mana. He kept drawing land tho, so he wasn't able to field enough threats or cantrip into too much counters. The turn after he kicked me to 1 with a singleton Mongoose I was able to EtW again for 12 tokens, winning me the match.
Round 9:
Dark Tempo
Would have been the same list as the player before me (we were 4 people from the same Team in T8) but we decided to split because there were 2 sets of Byes to be distributed and there was no real reason to play on.
All in all I'm very happy with the deck. I managed to take it through what is probably the hardest T8 I've seen for combo in a long time. The deck is incredibly aggressive and I can't stress enough how important the mainboard EtW has been, and I think it would have been even better if I had seen more blue decks in the swiss, because the decks I saw are in general favorable matchups. So that's my experience with TES so far.
For reference, the top 8 looked like this:
1/2 Dark Tempo
1/2 TES
3/4 Dark Tempo
3/4 Blue Zoo
4/8 Spiral Tide
4/8 Dark Tempo
4/8 Countertop
4/8 Reanimate.
congratsQuote:
Originally Posted by MVC
did not having a maindeck Tendrils hurt?
The assumption was intentional, but I would hardly call it a fallacy. If you didn't have any acceleratio, then maybe it was just a hand you shouldn't have kept.Quote:
Originally Posted by KevinTrudeau
I'm not an advocate of PiF as I've never tried the card, but the general public seems to like it, so I'm just offering an alternative to replacing IGG.
I think DR was the bread-n-butter of the deck back in the day....
You should read Byrant's article about PIF. He's pretty against having it in the main, and I can see why...
-jin
Not having a maindeck tendrils never made a significant difference, if anything it was better because it improves your AdN's.Quote:
Originally Posted by jin
turn 3 it was ;)Quote:
Originally Posted by MVC
However, congratulations on your finish. It was a good match and you definitely deserved the win. G3 I should have mulled more aggressive to get a chant. Bad play there... nice to see more combo players with byes for GP: Amsterdam.