TESing my way to Day 2: 149th at Indy

[Clown of Tresserhorn]

After hearing Wizards announce a Legacy GP in INDY, where I had fond memories of an almost T8 in Vintage worlds, I knew I had to go. I called my boy Scotty Limoges, and of course, he was down. Having a real job is a bummer for competitive play, but I knew I could always rely on good ol’ storm. Up until a week before the tourney, I was set on a UBr tendrils list that absolutely crushes blue based decks. Alex Smith sent me the list, Scotty and I refined it. Basically, when Past in Flames makes cabal rit +2 storm and +6 mana, shit gets silly. I played the deck at a local tourney the week before and got crushed by 2 storm decks that were faster than me. Between that and the fact that Ari Lax basically advocated TES, I knew I had to switch. I wasn't concerned beating up on unprepared control decks. But racing dredge/burn/combo is a real concern. I played Bryant’s 60 with a SB of:

2 Chain of Vapor
1 Echoing Truth
3 Pyroblast
1 Past in Flames
1 Ill Gotten Gains
1 Tendrils of Agony
1 Empty the Warrens
1 Grapeshot
1 Duress
1 Silent Departure
1 Diminishing Returns
1 Shattering spree

Here are my matches:
R1: BYE. Sa-weet!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
1-0

R2: Mason, ANT 2-0
Game 1 he plays a preordain into ponder. I put him on ANT, and when I duress, I get the confirmation. He has all rits and no gas. I combo out easily on turn 3.
Game 2 I keep a loose 6, but ponder into land, rit, Ad Naus. I play two chrome mox. He plays a dark confidant. I EOT Ad Naus for a short tonne and win easily.
2-0

R3: Ryan, W/B: 2-1
Game 1 He has no gas other than a stonforge. I duress, see 2 StP and go off easily
Game 2 I miss count like a complete N00B and fizzle on turn 1. His 6 cards to my 1 land and Empty in hand wins him the game easily
Game 3 He almost gets me good, but my superior play skillz (aka, top decking genius) get me out of it. I Ad Naus at 9 life and hit tutor, rit, petal, LED. NICE LIFE!!!!
3-0

R4: Brad, Burn: 2-0
Game 1 I combo him turn 1 on the play.
Game 2 I put him on some sort of non blue. I board in my chains and echoing truth. He mulls to 5 and plays turn 1 figure of destiny. I bounce him on his turn 2 and easily win on my turn 3
4-0

R5: Craig Wescoe, Maverick: 2-0
For the record, I hate Wescoe for what he did to that poor kid at that GP way back.
Game 1 he plays a plains. I giggle like Quagmire and explode on his face.
Game 2 he mulls to 3. I giggle like Quagmire and explode on his face.
5-0

R6: Tim, RUG: 2-0
Game 1 he plays turn 1 delver. After a FoW he has no gas whatsoever, so I burning wish for a Past in Flames and get there
Game 2 he has Goyf, Mongoose, and Counterbalance. I bait twice with chant, and he whiffs on balance (revealing zeros), and I have just enough to rite, rite, ritual, tutor, ad naus for the winsies!
6-0

R7: Tony, Elves: 0-2
Game 1 on the play he has turn 2 concordant crossroads attack for 10. I kept a slow hand. Whoops.
Game 2 is much of the same. I had a chance to win, but drew a land on my critical turn so I couldn’t hellbent with infernal tutor.
6-1

R8: Jeff, High Tide: 2-1
Game 1 he mulls to 4. I get greedy and Empty for 14 dorks. He has double Wish to survive and kills me 7+ turns later
Game 2 he tries to go off. I Pyroblast a tide, he flusterstorms. I pyroblast it after flusterstorm resolves. He Forces. He turnabouts and casts Spiral with no cards in hand. Like a BAWSS, I sandbag the chant. I win easily off the funky fresh 7. “AIN’T NOBODY DOPE AS ME I’M JUST SO FRESH SO CLEAN.”
Game 3 I’m on the draw, but see City, Gemstone, duress, pyroblast, chantx2, LED. I slowroll for the W.
7-1

R9: Kurtis, UB tempo: 1-2
Game 1 I get THOROUGHLY trounced. Turn 1 inquisition. Turn 2 hymn, turn 3 clique, turn 4 snap hymn.
Game 2 I go all in on a turn 1 Ad Naus, and ofcourse it gets there
Game 3 He’s on the play and has discard, discard, confidant, clique
7-2

I’m pretty happy to Day 2. We stop at Walgreens, since Scotty is complaining that I snore too loud and he needs earplugs. Obviously, I get fried chicken and beer. Needless to say, the 2 hour jet lag + daylight savings beat my ass. In the morning, I almost miss day 2, as the non-english speaking taxi driver shows up to the wrong Comfort Inn. I get to the convention just in the nic (pun intended? Seriously, WHAT THE FUCK IS A “NIC FIT”?!?!) of time.

R10: Ando, Dredge: 0-2
Game 1 I’m on the play.i duress and see: 3 dredgers, city of ass, faithless looting, breakthrough. I take the looting. He naturally draws LED and ass fucks me. Boo-urns.
Game 2 He has the nuts, but I counter with a diminishing returns. I draw no action, while he draws LED + looting + dredgers. I lose to a fucking FLAYER OF THE HATEBOUND.
In all seriousness, Ando was a cool cat, and playing against New World Dredge just opened my eyes to how powerful that deck has become with the addition of looting.
7-3

R11: Connor, Boros/Zoo: 1-2
Game 1 he gets me so good with double Kird Ape and Nacatl.
Game 2 I get him so good with Diminishing returns
Game 3 I set up for a ridiculous Returns (since I was at 10 life). Unfortunately, he has price, bolt and fireblast. Dems da breaks. And so it ends. At he hands of a Canadian! j/k.
7-4

So with a record of 7-4, I throw in the towel and get some trading in. I grab lunch with Scotty at Steak and Shake and reaffirm my decision to come out to this glorious city.

Highlights include:
Meeting Ari Lax, KevinTrudeau, and longtime friends Doug Linn, Mike Bommholt, and the Soly-ist of Mossy's
Getting my full art ponders signed LAST minute by Argyle
STEAK AND SHAKE
Kickin’ it with the Colorado Crew: Scotty 2 Hotties, Silas, Josh, Travis, and Dan

All of my opponents were extremely nice, and it was my pleasure playing against all of ya’ll.

A couple of thoughts on storm:
1) I played TES because I didn’t want to deal with the random affinity/burn/dredge matchups. This mostly was the case. I didn’t see too much dedicated control. As such, I do think TES is better suited than ANT in the current metagame.
2) Ari was right, 3 chain is the nuts in the SB. I never wanted echoing truth, not even vs. dredge.
3) Meltdown is probably better than shattering spree in the board.
4) If the format becomes infested with UW trash, UBr ANT could potentially be savage.

Storm is very much alive in the format, and as always, I can't recommend playing the deck enough.

[Koby]

R5: Craig Wescoe Maverick: 2-0
For the record, I hate Wescoe for what he did to that poor kid at that GP way back.
Game 1 he plays a plains. I giggle like Quagmire and explode on his face.
Game 2 he mulls to 3. I giggle like Quagmire and explode on his face.
5-0

Winnar!

[Bryant Cook]

Congratulations. I added this to the T.E.S. opening post.

[KevinTrudeau]

Was dope meeting you. I definitely should have been playing the Chains over the Echoing Truths for that specific tournament.

[.dk]

great showing - colorado represent! glad at least one of us made day 2...

[jin]

Congrats! Sounds like a fun day. Could you elaborate on why you would play Chain of Vapors over Echoing TRuth? Thanks!

[Clown of Tresserhorn]

Congrats! Sounds like a fun day. Could you elaborate on why you would play Chain of Vapors over Echoing TRuth? Thanks!

I see no need to play echoing truth. If you are bouncing dredge tokens, your either losing bad, or the dredge player horribly whiffs on a therapy.

Your matchup vs. stax is already so abysmal, that I don't think it will matter. You either win quick, or die. Chain lets you bounce a turn 1 chalice on the draw. Ditto for random shit like hate bears.

Twice my opponents tapped out on 2 to play something (piller in one game, and thalia in another). I simply chained it eot and went off.

The fact that it costs 1 more is also revelvant when you Ad Naus and board in 3 bounce spells.

[jin]

I see no need to play echoing truth. If you are bouncing dredge tokens, your either losing bad, or the dredge player horribly whiffs on a therapy.

Your matchup vs. stax is already so abysmal, that I don't think it will matter. You either win quick, or die. Chain lets you bounce a turn 1 chalice on the draw. Ditto for random shit like hate bears.

Twice my opponents tapped out on 2 to play something (piller in one game, and thalia in another). I simply chained it eot and went off.

The fact that it costs 1 more is also revelvant when you Ad Naus and board in 3 bounce spells.

Thanks a lot. I just didn't understand why so many people were talking about. Thanks for confirming my suspicions.

[Bryant Cook]

I see no need to play echoing truth. If you are bouncing dredge tokens, your either losing bad, or the dredge player horribly whiffs on a therapy.

Your matchup vs. stax is already so abysmal, that I don't think it will matter. You either win quick, or die. Chain lets you bounce a turn 1 chalice on the draw. Ditto for random shit like hate bears.

Twice my opponents tapped out on 2 to play something (piller in one game, and thalia in another). I simply chained it eot and went off.

The fact that it costs 1 more is also revelvant when you Ad Naus and board in 3 bounce spells.

You've clearly never played against a competent Stax player. Chain doesn't bounce Chalice on one.

[RaNDoMxGeSTuReS]

You've clearly never played against a competent Stax player. Chain doesn't bounce Chalice on one.

Echoing Truth bounces Chalices at 0 and 1. That's the best part. Value.

[Clown of Tresserhorn]

You've clearly never played against a competent Stax player. Chain doesn't bounce Chalice on one.

I do realize this. I've played against stax all of once in the past 3 years. Like I said, stax is a horrible matchup, and I'd rather just not weaken my matchups elsewhere to address the issue. You always have the ability to win before they do anything relevant.

Chain bounces everything I care about in non-stax decks. Chain allows me to bounce a hatebear on my turn 1 (on the draw) and go off turn 2. Until a significant portion of the metagame starts to play chalice, I'll stick with the Chains

[sdematt]

What did Wescoe do?

-Matt

[paeng4983]

I just read this report.

giggle like Quagmire

This made me laugh. Long live TES.