[Deck] T.E.S - The EPIC Storm

Nice, I have a tournament report for you that's just hilarious. I did not do well. It was scary bad luck to the extreme.

1st round vs Merfolk. I don't remember the exact turn of events so don't disect it. It was hectic at best playing this one.

Ok, he goes first and drops Cursecatcher. : ( Frown already adding +1 mana in mind.
I Duress, it gets Forced, Pitching Daze no less? Ok. Cool, I open in with a Chant, Forced? Ok... Let's step back and go full force in a min.

He drops the 2 drop draw guy.
I open with Thoughtseize, Daze... Ok, this is getting silly. I go all in on third turn. I still have the nuts. (my hand was insanely perfect), then Forced mid way through. It's enough to stall me. Bah.

I build a little bit and get lucky enough to get two turns and draw into enough to go again. Forced... Really? I am slowly beat down from there.

5 Counters in a row + Cursecatcher. There was a wasteland in there somewhere to top it off. I guess it happens.


Next game

I punch through 3 Spell Pierces and a Force to manage to get an 18 point tendrils around turn 4. Not enough red mana to go int ETW or some such. I was feeling pretty proud of myself. He drops enough lords off vials to attack for 24 next turn. wtf. This is getting silly. I die before I get to grapshot being one mana off. Grrr


2nd Round vs Belcher.

Well, I have the double ritual, LED, Infernal start. I figure a black left over into AN on the first turn with myself on the play? Sure thing! No idea what he's playing, but no guts no glory. AN resolves Yay! I flip from 20 life. I flip 3 Burning Wishes, the other 3 Infernals, 2 Brainstorms, 1 Duress, Chrome Mox, some random land, and lastly an ETW to put me exactly at 1 if I stop. I think about it and realize I can't do crap with this. There's not a bit of mana in it besides that Mox. So I can make 2 mana at best since I already dropped a land. I decide that it's not worth trying for a lion's eye in more flips and stop. I use the Mox to Ponder. 2 Lands and a Ponder in the top 3. Shuffle. I draw Brainstorm. I Duress him since I'm not going any further. Realize he's playing belcher, Score!

His Hand has the perfect start, lots of mana and the belcher, easily enough to play it and activate. Of course, I take Belcher. I'm done and discard.

He draws ETW. Drops it for 18 gobbos. Well, that sucked. My next turn is far from enough especially drawing into yet another Ponder. Really?


Next game.

I keep a hand that's decent with one mana off of being a 1st turn win. It has a duress in it and a chant though I don't have a white for the chant. I figure one mana, I can get into that. I keep and Duress him. He has 2 petals, 2 LEDs, some other stuff and an ETW. I take the ETW.

He draws ETW of course and drops 10 goblins. Crap.

I draw Burning Wish. Damnit, need one manas.

I take a hit for 10 and fetch to 9.

I get another burning wish. Bah. I end up having to just ETW myself for 10 also. Least I have blockers.

He attacks, I block and we're reset. I have 1 Infernal.

He manages to dump 8 more gobbos on me next turn. Well...

I draw Mox. Well, that's no help.

He swings, I go to 1.

I draw a Rite of Flame. I am sitting on 2 lands, Mox, Infernal, and a Rite. I scoop.

I realize after this that I had an out. I didn't realize since I was a Doomsday pilot that Rite of flame counts all Rites in all graves. RTFC me. I don't play with the card much and missed it. I could have cast the rite getting 5 mana, tapping the other land for black to cast the infernal and dumping the mox to be hellbent, getting burning wish for Pyroclasm to reset again. I feel dumb. Yeah, I liked pyroclasm btw. I hate the bears and wanted a nice wish target for them.


Round 3 vs random weird discard thing.

He opens with Inquisition of Kosilek? Ok. He nabs my burning wish as it's the only thing aside from mana. Damn, it was an instant winner hand if I got to keep that.

I draw nothing relevant.

He drops Tidehollow Sculler? Ok... He takes a LED.

I draw something else irrelevant.

He drops another Sculler and Duresses me. Ok, this is getting nuts.

Thoughtseize, Inquisition, and more pile out. Yeah, that was bad.


2nd round.

I have the stuff and hit him 1st turn with 24 points of Tendrils goodness with no AN or loops involved. I love those kind.


3rd game is repeat of 1st almost identically. Duress, Hymns, Inquisitions, Thoughtseize, Scullers. I kept waiting for a Rack or some other dumbness. I did decide to dump all my petals and such on the board to evade all the discard and built up 5 mana not counting an LED. I ended up making a bunch of tokens somewhere in there and I guess he had kept Damnation in. well, guess it's far from my day. My last turn before dying to Scullers was getting a much wanted Ponder. I look at the top 3 and it's mana and a Brainstorm. I shuffle and draw land. Sad face... : (

I call it good after that. I had enough of being beat on. I have to admit it was pretty funny though how I ran into the oddest situations where things worked so well against me.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Bryant Cook

I went 5-2 today in vestal taking 9th place with my current list. I did some INSANE plays.

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really looking forward to your report

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Originally Posted by dahcmai

I call it good after that. I had enough of being beat on. I have to admit it was pretty funny though how I ran into the oddest situations where things worked so well against me.

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Not the best day for you... These odddest situations keeps getting me too. I guess no one belives that combo is dying because I'm facing so much hate that it's almost an oddity (like Canonist, Chalice, Pyro, MB Trap in Aggro Loam or 6 bears, Chalice, Hydro, Extirpate in Jace-Still).

I like 4 BW + 4 IT main so I have higher chance to hit one of 7 after BW->DReturns which I see from notes from testing I use a lot. When I moved 1 IT to SB to test "3+1 version" and I replaced missind IT from main with 1 CRitual I managed to win many tight situations. Keeping in mind that this CR was IT I have found that this random 1 CR in tight situations won me ~52% of them, remaining ~48% of situation would be won with IT. Damn, I'm on a crossroad. Winning more frequently with BW->DReturns or more frequently without it. Any suggestions?

Won a 131 player tournament yesterday with Bryants list. Report will probably follow tomorrow.
Awesome deck!

Hello all, well Ive been developing the deck ANT with the new bannings this is my concluded list and this was the list that carried to the final of the first tournament with the bannings:

4 Chrome Mox
4 Lotus Petal
4 Lion's Eye Diamond

4 Ponder
4 Preordian
4 Brainstorm

4 Burning Wish
3 Infernal Tutor

1 Tendrils of Agony
1 Ad Nauseam

3 Thoughtseize
4 Duress

4 Rite of Flame
4 Dark Ritual

4 City of Brass
4 Gemstone Mine
2 Volcanic Island
2 Underground Sea

Sideboard
1 Empty the Warrens
1 Infernal Tutor
1 Grapeshot
1 Tendrils of Agony
1 Ill-Gotten Gains
1 Shattering Spree
1 Meltdown
1 Thouthseize
1 Deathmark
1 Hull Breach
1 Diminishing Returns
4 D .Confidant


Well the list is not a list did day after for the tournament, I also wanted to focus how the A.N decks will going to develop in this new era, just to say that the 2 boys me and the other who reached the final were a TES -AN and a reanimator with Limduls vault..., well I'll start:
the first thing was: well we have now only I. Tutor and B-> I.Tutor, well the first thing was to get bigger the number of A.Nauseam--> this resulted in an error the A.N spell MUST be played in 1 number.
Well I opted by the DoomsDay approach but this approach didnt optimized so well the so-powerfull spell A.N,
I found that preordian was the perfect card to play in a deck wich doesn't suffles, I mean the original idea is 10 non fetch lands, this is ok, and this fact , makes Preordian sligthly better than ponder in an non fetch environment. I didn't want to choose, I wrote the numbers on the paper and was perfect: 12 lans 12 cantrips. I also noticed that you want to draw EXACTLY the cards you have in the deck, and they re in the the deck in that proportion:
12 cantrips 12 lands 8 threats 12 0Cost mana producers 8 1 Cost mana producers 7 proactive defense, etc.
I haven't even space for 4th I.Tutor, but alsos neither needed...

Well the games I afced were
1 Aff
1 Agro-Sligh
1 Control Deck
1 Reanimator

I probably change the 4 Confidant in the next torunament , I also noticed the deck works AWFULL vs Reanimator, I'd like to stablish a side like 4 Truths, something like that...
points about the matach ups:
I was surprised by the number of times I take out Tendrils,
I did not sided out any mox chrome in the games, as the seconds and 3rd games I wanted to include A.N in the win plan and C.Mox simply get biggern the cahnces of winning post A.N.
D.Confidant was not too good...

Ideas, Thinkings, Onions, are all well come?

Hello all, well Ive been developing the deck ANT with the new bannings this is my concluded list and this was the list that carried to the final of the first tournament with the bannings:

4 Chrome Mox
4 Lotus Petal
4 Lion's Eye Diamond

4 Ponder
4 Preordian
4 Brainstorm

4 Burning Wish
3 Infernal Tutor

1 Tendrils of Agony
1 Ad Nauseam

3 Thoughtseize
4 Duress

4 Rite of Flame
4 Dark Ritual

4 City of Brass
4 Gemstone Mine
2 Volcanic Island
2 Underground Sea

Sideboard
1 Empty the Warrens
1 Infernal Tutor
1 Grapeshot
1 Tendrils of Agony
1 Ill-Gotten Gains
1 Shattering Spree
1 Meltdown
1 Thouthseize
1 Deathmark
1 Hull Breach
1 Diminishing Returns
4 D .Confidant


Well the list is not a list did day after for the tournament, I also wanted to focus how the A.N decks will going to develop in this new era, just to say that the 2 boys me and the other who reached the final were a TES -AN and a reanimator with Limduls vault..., well I'll start:
the first thing was: well we have now only I. Tutor and B-> I.Tutor, well the first thing was to get bigger the number of A.Nauseam--> this resulted in an error the A.N spell MUST be played in 1 number.
Well I opted by the DoomsDay approach but this approach didnt optimized so well the so-powerfull spell A.N,
I found that preordian was the perfect card to play in a deck wich doesn't suffles, I mean the original idea is 10 non fetch lands, this is ok, and this fact , makes Preordian sligthly better than ponder in an non fetch environment. I didn't want to choose, I wrote the numbers on the paper and was perfect: 12 lans 12 cantrips. I also noticed that you want to draw EXACTLY the cards you have in the deck, and they re in the the deck in that proportion:
12 cantrips 12 lands 8 threats 12 0Cost mana producers 8 1 Cost mana producers 7 proactive defense, etc.
I haven't even space for 4th I.Tutor, but alsos neither needed...

Well the games I afced were
1 Aff
1 Agro-Sligh
1 Control Deck
1 Reanimator

I probably change the 4 Confidant in the next torunament , I also noticed the deck works AWFULL vs Reanimator, I'd like to stablish a side like 4 Truths, something like that...
points about the matach ups:
I was surprised by the number of times I take out Tendrils,
I did not sided out any mox chrome in the games, as the seconds and 3rd games I wanted to include A.N in the win plan and C.Mox simply get biggern the cahnces of winning post A.N.
D.Confidant was not too good...

Ideas, Thinkings, Onions, are all well come?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by tgDC$

really looking forward to your report

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Eh, I don't think a 9th place finish is worth a report. I will share that I managed to impress myself throughout the day.

The first time was game three of the feature match .

The second and third time were round seven games two and three. I returns both times and win with a losing position and manage to win the game.

Game three after returns I have... BBU in pool. Literally 0 cards in play, he drew 4 wasteland, 2 daze, 2 force, and a stifle before this... Brainstorm, Tendrils, Chrome Mox, Duress, Duress, Lotus Petal, Lions eye Diamond.Cast brainstorm, underground sea, Ponder, Mox. Put Tendrils and Mox on top. Duress, Duress, LED, Petal, Ponder (crack Led) Tendrils.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Bryant Cook

Eh, I don't think a 9th place finish is worth a report. I will share that I managed to impress myself throughout the day.

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oh my bad, Im dumb and cant read. I read that 9th place finish as an 8th place finish. But I am interested in those crazy plays you pulled off

Did you board out a Tendrils against Pro Bant, Bryant? I saw it in the feature match.

Also, "I want to impress my fans on TheSource", lolz..

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Originally Posted by Piceli89

Did you board out a Tendrils against Pro Bant, Bryant? I saw it in the feature match.

Also, "I want to impress my fans on TheSource", lolz..

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Yes. I decided it's nessesary when boarding in 5 cards. If I had won game one I wouldve left it in (instead of Silence), but I figured I needed the extra protection after I lost game one.

Bryant, whats your opinion on getting rid of the chants? The meta (especially columbus) is much more aggro heavy, and the chants are sub par in those matchups. Why not cut them and replace them with thoughtsiezes and maybe some more cantrips? Going down to three colors might also be enough to go with just fetches and duals for a more sturdy mana base. Fetches also open up the idea of cabal ritual which is one of the best post-ad naus rituals.

I play 4 Duress, 2 Thoughtseize, 2 Orim's Chant, and 1 Silence (plus a wishable Thoughtseize). It might seem like a lot, but so far it has been pretty much perfect for tearing hate out of anyone's hand with duress and thoughtseize, and yet also enables better IGGs and Returns against blue with the chants. (I only play 3 Infernal Tutors main, Thoughtseize is in its slot)

Hi people , played Bryant list this sunday with -1 tarn +1 city and went 3-2 in a 42 people tournament.I would like some comment about my decisions and SB.
I did not sleep more than 2 hours so I made EPIC mistakes at first round.

Round 1: I get D&T so game 1 is a easy game, T3 Adn -> Tendrils.I SB -3 chant +1 WipeAway +1 Deathmark(still have grapeshot in SB) +1 EchoingTruth.So I go off turn 3 and he silences me when I cast the last accel for IT, then i draw mox , mox , petal , rite and die.Game 3 I miss count and imprint BW in my mox and can't combo out, then he have Mother of runes + 2/2 ivory mask guy at EOT.Then I try to tutor a Adn with infernal and he Angel's Grace, I don't know why but i think it is silence and i did not cast Adn to fill my hand an kill him next turn.

Round 2:Dream Halls
I trained this Mu so i think thre is no problem and 2-0(game1 Adn , game2 Empty + silence), my SB was -1 BS -1 chrome mox -1 Ponder +3 pyroblast.

Round 3:Blecher, I know he is at belcher so I keep silence + duress hand with some accel and cantrip.
I win the die roll and that's it, Iggy Loop T3.
Game 2 he mulls to 5 and i duress his Empty that he would cast at T2.I Adn and win next turn.

Round 4:A friend with Zoo.
Game 1I keep a hand with IT , Accels but only one city and cantrips.He play landfall cat go.I was one mana short of Iggy loop and could not IT for Adn , so i BS and saw Duress , duress , silence.SHIT.He loses his landdrop and pass(LOL).I draw and duress him , he bolts me and saw goyf , goyf , chain lightning, helix , blast.I take chain and pray so he did not draw the second land.He plays grim lavamancer and pass.
I draw silence and pass. he draws forest , play forest and atack with 2/3 cat, i silence him and he activates lavamancer.i draw ponder and find a land + accel , pass , he draw qasali, play goyf , him for 1 and I combo him with Adn.
Game 2 he plays land landfall cat and in my turn i play land , rit , rit , adn , mox , led and kill him with 16 life.

Round 5: Mimo( team mate finished 2nd with BGW rock)
Game 1: I did what i did with Zoo at game 2 and he shows me a hand with 4 land , duress , hymn , hymn.
I board out -1 chant +1 death mark, I did not know how to board against it..
Game 2:I ponder , play top go, I duress him and take Hymn.He uses top and wastes me.I play land ponder , shuffle , draw land , play and pass.He duress my LED and play bob.I ponder and saw IT + rit + rit, draw rit, play EtW for 8, He plays goyf , goyf , I hit him and he goes to 4, he founds Plague with Top and play.I draw IT and just need to draw rit.He plays nighthawk.I draw petal and pass.He plays tombstalker and hit me ,so he goes to 6. I draw land an i have to kill him , so I can produce 8 mana and go for tendrils for 10.He StP his Tombstalker and go to 1.I should have IT->BW->Tendrils for 12 but I was just exausted and made the wrong play.I give up and did not saw if he could draw a land with Bob activating the Top(another mistake).
Game 3:He disrupts me and put some Goyf + bob + top clock.I have 3 lands , 1 dark rit, BW , petal and shitness like chant(draw very bad), so i cannot IGGY for the win, I think , think and wish for tendrils , leaving him at 3.I should went for Diminish Returns.

Looking for some advice, since I'm a CB player i don't have problems with Blue matchups but I'm losing games that i should not to BGW and BG aggros+ disrupt.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by JonBarber

Bryant, whats your opinion on getting rid of the chants? The meta (especially columbus) is much more aggro heavy, and the chants are sub par in those matchups. Why not cut them and replace them with thoughtsiezes and maybe some more cantrips? Going down to three colors might also be enough to go with just fetches and duals for a more sturdy mana base. Fetches also open up the idea of cabal ritual which is one of the best post-ad naus rituals.

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I disagree with the metagame being aggro heavy, I'm expecting a lot of tempo decks like Merfolk and New Horizons. Going down to three colors seems nice and does give a better mana base, but as of right now I think 4 colors is better.

My mana base right now is 4 Gemstone, 5 fetch, 2 U Sea, 2 Volc and 1 Badlands, to accomodate a protection suite of 4 Duress, 2 TS (+one side) and 2 REB. My list is closer to emidln's list (2 Ad Nauseam and 1 Tendrils as only cards with CMC>2), but I really feel I need at least 8 protection spells and I've been liking having 8, though I might add one white dual or two City of Brass to go back to 5-6 discard and 3 chant effects.
If anybody knows of better UBR protection than Inquisition of Kozilek (doesn't hit Force) or REB/Spell Pierce/Pyroblast (awesome LED synergy), be sure to let me know. Got my fingers crossed for Scars.

I don't see any reason to drop Gemstone in TES, even while running duals. It doesn't hurt and there are very few cases where I need more than three uses from any one land. Plus, by the time I do need more, odds of only having a Gemstone out are minimal.

By the way, how does anybody see Cabal ritual as the "best" post-AN ritual. It costs two, if you hadn't noticed. I'll take Rite of Flame and Dark Ritual any day, and four of both is usually enough to me. Getting +3 mana isn't so much better after AN that it's worth an additional life over +2 mana (that's also unconditional, I hate making people that side in grave hate right). I'd sign up for a functional Dark Ritual reprint any day, but that's not gonna happen, so...

The one reason I like Chant and Silence is that it makes my opponent go away (with the added bonus of stopping aggro attacks.)

I don't have to worry about double duressing my opponent or having to combo with +1 mana all the time for Pyroblast, except maybe post board. Plus, at least sometimes with this deck, you play on a limb. So If you go chant your opponent, they either must counter...or possibly die. Hell I have chanted my opponent just to waste a counter in their hand, and then won because of the chances they don't have another counter.

Especially against decks such as merfolk, where they only have 4 Forces as hard counters pre-board. So if you chant them with a mana or two floats, then...daze and Cursecatchers are turned off. And again, it forces them to use their counterspells on your protection, or risk dying.

Plus I <3 Chant-walking people. Upkeep, chant, then take my turn. It is great against non-blue decks where they don't have much in terms of instant speed answers, and even stops things like Cannonist hitting play, or getting duressed, etc. which could be devestating.

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Originally Posted by magicplaya10

Especially against decks such as merfolk, where they only have 4 Forces as hard counters pre-board. So if you chant them with a mana or two floats, then...daze and Cursecatchers are turned off. And again, it forces them to use their counterspells on your protection, or risk dying.

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Very few situations where this doesn't work with discard, though.

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Originally Posted by JeroenC

Very few situations where this doesn't work with discard, though.

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Yea I guess I can see both sides of the arguement. For now, i do like the Chants in the deck as well. In one game, against Stifle+Naught online, I chanted him and won. He showed me two stifles in his hand, so it was kind of relevent then...I guess.

I went t8 with the 3c TES list

Playing vs

Merfolk (stifle) 0-2 (ad at 19 life hitting nothing)
scepter chant 2-0
Merfolk 2-0
Bant survival 2-0
UGr tempo faeries 2-0
mono R painter ID

@Waikiki - did you feel people had less combo hate than before the banning?

I haven't played a tournament since MT got banned (I was planning on going to the same one you went to (Mol, right?) with TES but something came up) and I'm wondering if people actually still prepare as much for combo as they used to.