yea i'm definitley cutting xantid swarm. the merfolk decks with red splashes in my metagame make it bad anyway.
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yea i'm definitley cutting xantid swarm. the merfolk decks with red splashes in my metagame make it bad anyway.
This is a true statement for me as well. It gives you the highest chances of getting a 2 next to your name in the shortest amount of time. If TES was in it for the long haul, we wouldn't be playing 4 Fetches and 3 lands to fetch. Simply as that.Quote:
Originally Posted by Bryant Cook
I swear I've seen a picture of a Japanese Foil Chain of Vapour in one of your decks...Quote:
Originally Posted by Bryant Cook
I was thinking of doing that as well, adding in Oust as the other card.
Given that it's not at all uncommon for your Brainstorm to enable you to kill your opponent on the spot, you need a pretty good reason to set up an end step Brainstorm. Good reasons might be to test a Counterbalance or bait a Spell Pierce. Bad reasons would be 'to see what he does on his turn.' You can always cast Brainstorm, then decide what you least want him to take with Thoughtseize and put it on top of your deck. This way you don't feel like a huge idiot for Brainstorming into something like double Diamond plus a Tutor.Quote:
Originally Posted by Rico Suave
When playing against Merfolk, and with mana to play around Daze or Pierce or Cursecatcher being very important, I will frequently Brainstorm at EOT a lot more than this 10% of the time - particularly with a relevant clock on the battlefield taking chunks out of my life. Having a spare mana on my 3rd turn will often make the difference between failure and defeat so if casting Brainstorm at EOT makes that difference then I will gladly go along with it.
Is this always the case? No. But I can show you dozens of other examples where casting Brainstorm at EOT is correct too.
The point remains that we should not determine when to cast Brainstorm judging by what phase it is. I know the EOT Brainstorm is a huge stumbling block for newer players to overcome, but the "never Brainstorm EOT" is a stumbling block for people who think they have the card mastered too.
A rule of 'always main phase Brainstorm' is going to have a lot fewer exceptions than 'always end step Brainstorm.'
You can Brainstorm on two, decide you need another land to kill them, and then kill them on three. I do that a lot. You can also decide that you don't want to trade Brainstorm for Daze on turn one so you're going to cast it on turn two, but that wasn't the question that was asked, and I'd trade Brainstorm for Daze in most games where he doesn't have Vial anyway.
this comment is actually not constructive, fyi. Incidentally, the original question concerned the timing of Brainstorm and how it interacted with your strategy in a given matchup. Bryant's post should cause people to think 'gee, why AM I end stepping this Brainstorm? there's no good reason to do so! maybe I should stop!'Quote:
Hey dude how's your epeen doing? I know who you are and how long you played the deck, the link was not for you it was for the guy who asked the question about brainstorm...see I was trying to be constructive, isn't that how forums work?
(I would also just point out that most of the reason people like Bryant keep posting on forums long after the forum has added value for Bryant or emidln or Ari or whatever is because they're either helpful, nice guys in which case maybe trolling them is a bad idea, or they're insanely egotistical and get a kick out of people asking them for the expertise, in which case whining about the way they post is probably just going to make them make even shorter and more cryptic posts)
Having 3 Brainstorms in your hand is also a reason to blow one off turn one.
There are just too many variables... and the article on BS applies very little to our strategy. The article shows how to use Brainstorm at its maximum to find answers, we use Brainstorms (mainly) to find "threats".
Sometimes you just want to mainphase BS to find a second land. This is unsual, as most players don't counter cantrips. But against a trigger happy MUC deck I could see this happening.
The only sensible thing written in this discussion.Quote:
Originally Posted by alderon666
If there is a relevant clock on the table, that usually means you just go for mana because FOW is probably not there. There really isn't any point in doing an EOT BS just to conserve mana. In this scenario I think you want to go deep, not concerve initial mana sources, so main phase BS makes more sense here...Quote:
Originally Posted by Rico Suave
I was going to respond to this, but it seems as if Frogboy has taken care of it.Quote:
Originally Posted by chags
I couldn’t justify playing it anymore over Echoing Truth, so I sold it at the GP to help get a Japanese Foil Dark Ritual and an Echoing Truth back.Quote:
Originally Posted by lorddotm
I’m glad someone else has a grasp on the deck. As for why I post, it’s a little bit of column A, little bit from column B. I would post more often if I had the time, but answering the same question every two pages does get awfully old.Quote:
Originally Posted by frogboy
I think the main problem with people who play combo is that they are not used to trying to reduce the time in the match.
I do have a question though, personally, on turn 1 if i Have both a Brainstorm and Ponder in my hand, I will lead with the Ponder. I feel this allows me to see the most cards and gives me the highest chances of giving me the kill on turn 2 or 3.
What do you guys lead with and why?'
Also, Bryant, I was soucring ebay for some Foils and stumbled across this
It's all hand based. If my hand can win with two different cards, I'll brainstorm. If I feel like my hand is a 2-3 turn hand, I'll ponder since as you said allows for more cards.Quote:
Originally Posted by lorddotm
As for the Thoughtseize, would you like to buy it for me for Christmas? I'm a broke college kid, I don't spend money on Magic cards. I just win them.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bryant Cook
Go win some tournaments then. I broke college kid 2.
I feel like even when my hand can win with two different cards, I feel like seeing more cards increases my chances of finding that win. But that is just me I guess.
I think that the last card, after Xantids go out, is going to be Thoughtseize. I really hate Pyroblast against tempo decks, and more Duresses is always nice.
I appreciate the feedback on my questions, and I'm also sorry if this has come up more than once, I just want to become a better pilotQuote:
Originally Posted by Bryant Cook
I think Pyroblast is just more versatile because it can be played against CBT and Tempo U. I'm aware that Thoughtseize can be played against CBT but against a resolved CB, it can't really do anything where as a Pyroblast can still be useful.Quote:
Originally Posted by lorddotm
It seems like Cook's sideboard is very much geared towards flexibility over power since it has to be shared with a heavy wishboard, evident in his heavy choice of bounce cards over removal cards.
I don't think you understand what I was saying.Quote:
Originally Posted by jin
-3 Xantid Swarm
+1 Pyroblast
+1 Krosan Grip
+1 Thoughtseize.
That would probably be better against a field with more counterbalance/midrange tempo than merfolk, but that grip is going to be dead in a lot of matches (mind you the xantids already were). The major downside is that you loose a lot of the advantage you would have gained in the merfolk match with swarm.
I would rather go with,
- 3 xantid swarm
+ 3 pyroblast
The reasoning being, If I have a pyroblast that gets countered in a blind flip to counterbalance I can still win with LEDs and tutors. While I still like pyroblast in most of the situations I like thoughtseize.
In the end though I guess it comes down to how much merfolk you expect.
What.Quote:
Originally Posted by median
I'm not allowed to run 5 Pyroblast. I'm using Bryant's sideboard, with a little bit changed, but nothing significant.
Also, multiple Pyroblasts are not amazing, but Thoughtseize+Pyroblast is nice.
Right now your second Thoughtsieze is Deathmark for me.
Deathmark seems a lot worse than Oust because it can hit Iona, which might not be extremely relevant, but it's not like the 3 life ever matters.Quote:
Originally Posted by Bryant Cook
I'm still kind of confused. Could you post your whole sideboard?Quote:
Originally Posted by lorddotm