Song of Creation Storm

[FTW]

Looking more at the list Bryant tried, his video, a video from PunishingWaterfalls, and testing it myself, I don't like it. It mulligans so much more and has a higher chance of "do nothing" draw 7s (off Echo or Relay). There are several fizzles where you can't do anything after the Echo or Relay, passing many turns and trying to rebuild. Brain Freeze sometimes fails as a wincon. Access to colored mana is a bit unstable, leading to losses to mana denial & especially Null Rod/Ouphe. Mana stability improves a lot with the Brainstorm + fetch configuration. The build also has less protection, so it relies on things like all-in Narset + Echo hoping opponent has no interaction or misplays into Narset.

One design choice I don't like in many Song brews is playing too many 0s, at the cost of space for other things. At first glance that seems necessary to not fizzle with Song, but it also leads to worse mulligans, Echos and Relays. In all my brewing and testing with the deck since Song was printed, I think it needs a fine balance between action and "free" stuff. Going too far in either direction damages consistency.

The solution above is to have Saga & Narset as a fair backup plan when the "combo" side fails. But that's not necessary if the combo side is better tuned. Saga's a good fair backup plan but pretty bad in the combo lines as a colorless source and disappearing mana. Saga's also mana hungry, while the deck is mana-light. You're often forced to choose between making constructs or threatening storm lines, unable to do both at once due to the mana constraints. Overall I'm not impressed with Narset. It's strong if opponent misplays into it or if you have to rely on Echo + slow win. But it costs a lot of mana to dig, making it inefficient in the storm combo lines. With disappearing mana sources you really want 3 mana to draw 7 (Echo, Relay), not draw 2 over 2 turns.

After more testing I cut Narset and put Gamble back

//Lands: 12
3 Misty Rainforest
3 Scalding Tarn
2 Tropical Island
2 Volcanic Island
1 Taiga
1 Island

//Artifacts: 20
4 Lotus Petal
4 Lion's Eye Diamond
4 Chrome Mox
4 Mox Opal
1 Jeweled Amulet
3 Defense Grid

//Spells: 24
4 Brainstorm
4 Veil of Summer
4 Gamble
3 Repeal
3 Burning Wish
3 Galvanic Relay
3 Echo of Eons

//Enchantments: 4
4 Song of Creation

//Sideboard: 15
1 Echo of Eons
1 Galvanic Relay
1 Tendrils of Agony
1 Empty the Warrens
1 Reverent Silence
1 By Force
1 Pyroclasm
1 Consign // Oblivion
1 Brazen Borrower
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Tormod's Crypt
2 Surgical Extraction
2 Flusterstorm


Gamble has many uses:
- It sets up LED+Echo very reliably, letting you chain multiple Echos in a turn to storm off while Veil is still up.
- It finds SB answers when you need them (with ~80% success, which is better than digging with Ponder or Narset)
- It finds Burning Wish while you're going off, so you don't actually have to draw the whole deck with Song or Echo
- If you have a business card in exile with Relay, it can find mana (with 50-80% consistency, again better than digging with Ponder or Narset) and without risking discarding the business card

Most slots are self-explanatory.
Flusterstorm is there for combo mirrors (board out Grid & board in Fluster + Surgical to disrupt) or to help protect the combo against heavy spell hate (board out Repeal, Fluster on own turn doesn't conflict with Grid).
Borrower is for permanent bounce and backup fair wincon without wasting a slot.

[Vacrix]

Chain of Vapor bounces moxes which can then also add mana, and as a Gamble tutorable CoV could even make some deck space since you prefer lists that are playing as many 0's. Its less mana intensive than Repeal. I don't see the symmetry being too much of a liability. Also, it can have synergy w Gamble if you want to bounce a bunch of Moxes to hand + tutor, which sounds like bouncing all the moxes the turn after you Galvanic Relay, and before you Gamble.

In terms of 0's, Gustha's Scepter is a really neat piece I've been playing lately in cEDH. Its like a pseudo Wishclaw from hand to exile and back to hand. It could be used to save something in exile like Song of Creation so that you don't lose it to Gamble. I also have liked playing it with Burning Inquiry + Containment Construct, tho thats likely slightly too dangerous to play here due to Dredge.

I've been brewing a new list of Pact SI with some neat tech that could have crossover here. Land Grant and Summoner's Pact can each find Dryad Arbor, often used for Culling the Weak in SI, but each also supports Mox Diamond as an IMS which supports Mox Opal. Its been excellent on draw chain lines and I could see it being about as useful here. Anyway, I would think that supporting Mox Diamond is ideal for a Song list because it also supports Mox Opal. You can get more mana under stax layers right away with more moxes.

EDIT:
I forgot to mention, Final Fortune is Gamble tutorable for an untap step, a land drop, and a cantrip for RR. Even if Song fails, you can untap all your mana sources, draw, and then Song confers an additional land drop. Its garbage against Chant would be my qualm with it.

[FTW]

Interesting suggestions.

Chain of Vapor has some severe drawbacks, so I excluded it earlier in development. The biggest one is that they can bounce your Song. Bouncing Chrome Mox is also a pain. Chain doesn't answer Chalice @ 1. The mode of multi-bouncing your own artifacts is not that easy to pull off, since you generally need your lands (unless you're going off with Song, and then it's usually win-more).

Maindeck Repeal is more useful than it looks. I was skeptical until I tested it. The card draw is very relevant. Bouncing opponent's early threat while cantripping is good tempo, basically a Time Walk. Things it answers for U while drawing a card: Chalice @ 0, Marit Lage, Kaldra germ, Saga construct. Repeal bouncing Mox (without Song) still cantrips for 0 and adds 2 storm, useful during setup or for a Galvanic Relay or desperation Empty the Warrens. Answering Chalice at any number is also big. Repeal is bad at answering Narset & Karn, and Chain would be better there, but the SB cards help. Maybe one of the Repeals could be a Chain, depending on what hate shows up.

Game 1 Chalice @ 1 is significant threat. (Chalice @ 0 seems like the bigger problem, but an otherwise-dead Veil of Summer turns that off). I wanted my Chalice answers to not be 0 cmc or 1 cmc. That means Chain needs to occupy a different slot, on top of other bounce slots that can answer Chalice (e.g. Borrower, Echoing Truth, Repeal, Consign // Oblivion). There just wasn't room in the 75. One card I did consider for the SB was Hurkyl's Recall. It satisfies both modes: 2 cmc Chalice answer & multi-bounce your 0s. I ended up cutting it because it's too narrow an answer. The other bounce spells can also answer Marit Lage, Deafening Silence, Collector Ouphe, Narset, Parter of Veils, Karn, the Great Creator and other cards that just have you dead if not removed. Hurkyl was too cute.

Final Fortune would be better in a different storm deck that doesn't have so many pass-the-turn lines with Galvanic Relay or Empty the Warrens. Seems dangerous here.

Scepter could protect cards from LED. For example you could EOT hide a card, then untap and crack LED, then return the card to hand and cast it with LED mana. Or you can LED+Echo and hide 1 card under Scepter for next turn. It could also protect a card from Song discard if you fizzle and have to pass the turn. I think those modes are even more useful than with Gamble (because you usually want the card you tutor the most, and hiding some other card reduces the odds of keeping the tutor target). Is there room for Scepter though? Jeweled Amulet is better for helping fix RUG. Maybe it could replace Bauble in the lists with more 0s. Scepter seems like a card that's just not good enough to make the cut in 60-card Constructed but could shine in EDH.

The list Bryant Cook tested used Land Grant to fuel Mox Diamond, although not with Dryad Arbor or Pact too. I tried another build with Land Grant earlier. It's probably a few pages back. There are a lot of perks. You get more "0s" and lower land count, which improves Song and Relay. It's a "0" that imprints on Chrome Mox or gets a land for Mox Diamond (the other 0s can't support either). In practice I didn't like revealing information. It lets opponent know how to disrupt you better. Normally I gain some edge being able to pivot different ways with opponent not knowing how to disrupt or what protection to play around. The Land Grant build also cut so low on lands that I couldn't run Brainstorm + fetch. Maybe there's a way to have both. I'm not ready to give up Brainstorm. It's too strong when you're not just goldfishing and have to sculpt your hand to adapt. Anyone not running Brainstorm + fetch should be on Land Grant though.

All these minor tweaks don't address the main problem though. The engine already works. But as long as Pyroblast and Hydroblast are rampant, it's suboptimal to play Song of Creation over similar Echo combo decks.

[FTW]

Some recent builds of Beseech Storm have come full circle back to the general strategy here in 2020-2021
https://mtgtop8.com/event?e=88651&d=872900&f=LE
https://mtgtop8.com/event?e=88064&d=868124&f=LE

Top 4 list - 213 players

//Lands: 12
3 Scalding Tarn
2 Polluted Delta
2 Bloodstained Mire
2 Badlands
1 Underground Sea
1 Raucous Theater
1 Undercity Sewers

//Fast Mana: 22
4 Lotus Petal
4 Lion's Eye Diamond
4 Chrome Mox
4 Mox Opal
4 Dark Ritual
2 Cabal Ritual

//Protection: 4
4 Hexing Squelcher

//Engine: 17
4 Gamble
4 Burning Wish
3 Echo of Eons
3 Beseech the Mirror
1 Gaea's Will
1 Song of Creation
1 Runehorn Hellkite

//Wincons: 5
4 The Fantasticar
1 Tendrils of Agony

//Wishboard: 5
1 Tendrils of Agony
1 Echo of Eons
1 Beseech the Mirror
1 Peer into the Abyss
1 Approach of the Second Sun
//Other SB: 10
4 Thoughtseize
4 Boomerang Basics
2 Mindbreak Trap



Similarities
//Storm Engine:
4 Gamble
4 Burning Wish
3 Echo
3 Beseech the Mirror + 1 Song (vs 4 Song of Creation)

//Mana:
4 Lotus Petal
4 LED
4 Chrome Mox
4 Mox Opal
4 Dark Ritual (vs 4 Rite of Flame)
6-7 fetch
5-6 dual

//2cmc Permanent-based Protection:
4 Hexing Squelcher (vs 3 Defense Grid)

//Alt payoff on low storm & 3 mana:
4 Fantasticar (vs 3 Galvanic Relay/Empty)

Key differences are of course the Beseech enablers (Cabal Ritual, Gaea's Will, MD Tendrils) vs Brainstorm & Veil.

It's interesting how functionally similar the rest of the shell is though. The deck's many nonlinear combo lines play out very similarly. It's an explosive version of storm that plays well with Car. Most Beseech builds are closer to black storm with Thoughtseizes, but I've seen some lists like this also playing Veil. Discard is easier to cast with the black-based mana. I'm a big fan of Veil over discard when you're playing the Gamble+Echo package, but it also depends on the meta, manabase, and hate you need to beat.

Generating 1RUG was always a bottleneck. The printing of Beseech the Mirror made it a lot easier to put Song in play. Once the first Beseech builds started doing it as a back-up to Gaea's Will, others pretty quickly caught on how good a Storm engine Song is even if you don't bend over backwards for it with extra 0s.

Before the Beseech storm decks took off, I think the Legacy community criminally underestimated Song. The card really doesn't take that much to win. You don't need chaff like Baubles, Jeweled Amulet, or Land Grant like many early brews had. I suspect people didn't realize that until they started playing more reps with it in Beseech Storm or watching videos. It honestly took me a while at first too, I just grinded hundreds of games in early testing. 1RUG and beating hate were much bigger obstacles than actually winning with a resolved Song. Even without Beseech, Song-Car might be playable in a RUG TEG shell. There's just little incentive to consider it since Gaea's Will is so busted. Maybe to play Veils & Brainstorm again?

[FTW]

Giant Creation

Giant's Boulder fills so many roles. Fixes RUG. Protects against Wasteland. Cheap spell. Library selection. Adds to metalcraft.


//Fast mana: 23
4 Lotus Petal
4 Lion's Eye Diamond
4 Chrome Mox
4 Mox Opal
4 Rite of Flame
3 Giant's Boulder

//Protection: 7
4 Hexing Squelcher
3 Veil of Summer

//Gas: 18
3 Brainstorm
4 Gamble
4 Burning Wish
4 Song of Creation
3 Echo of Eons

//Lands: 12
4 Scalding Tarn
1 Wooded Foothills
1 Misty Rainforest
2 Volcanic Island
1 Taiga
1 Commercial District
1 Mountain
1 Island

//Sideboard: 15
1 Tendrils of Agony
1 Empty the Warrens
1 Echo of Eons
1 Peer into the Abyss
1 Pulverize
1 Reverent Silence
1 Cave-In
4 Boomerang Basics
2 Carpet of Flowers
2 Orim's Chant


Edit: After more games, 4x Giant's Boulder was less necessary than I thought. Added back some Brainstorms.

[PirateKing]

What's the speed like? Par kill turn?

[FTW]

What's the speed like? Par kill turn?

Still turn 2 ish. Some turn 1s. Turn 2-3 with protection consistently.

It's basically the same deck I ran in 2020-2021, with Brainstorm replaced by Giant's Boulder. Roughly the same speed and play patterns. The same deck composition (mana, curve, business) means it has about the same consistency working with Song in play and drawing playable hands from Echo.

It's also very similar to recent builds of TES. Which is encouraging. This is clearly an effective shell to play Gamble-Echo-Wish storm and use Song of Creation.

Between new & old list:
- Giant's Boulder makes the mana smoother and 1RUG much easier. 1RUG was the weakest part of the deck before.
- Giant's Boulder makes it viable to SB Orim's Chant/Silence on 0 white lands, to protect Song from REB & Disenchant effects (Veil doesn't). That was another past weakness.
- Giant's Boulder is still decent card selection pre-combo and filters draws in Song chains. TES also made the switch from Brainstorm to Boulder, as it turns on Mox Opal and lets you get greedier with the manabase.
- Hexing Squelcher replaced Defense Grid
- Boomerang Basics is a major upgrade to Chain of Vapor (which gets sent back at your Song/Grid)

Can this win enough through interaction to be worth playing? Yes.

Why play this instead of TES? That's tougher.

Between this and TES:
- TES has the Beseech package (3 Beseech + 1 Gaea's Will, only 1 Song). So it still has 4 ways to put Song in play for 4 mana. But it also has Will and Beseech chains. Gaea's Will is busted so this misses out on many easy combo lines. Using Song more often takes more time & decisions, more room for player error, and there are positions harder to win from.
- Rite of Flame is slower than Dark Ritual, but better at casting many key cards (Squelcher, Wish, Gamble, red SB cards).
- RUG vs RUB means better access to green tools (Veil, Carpet, Rev Silence). I don't think black discard is as good in Echo storm.
- Higher red count allows Pulverize/Shattering Spree and Cave-In, which let you come back from a lot of positions that just Boomerang Basics can't
- Overall more options vs hate. 7 MD anti-counterspell. 4 bounce spells + 3 wishable sweepers vs permanent hate. Chant vs disenchants or combo mirrors. Boulder ultimate is slightly easier with more stable lands.
- More stable mana with basics. Between basics + more untapped colored lands + Carpet, mana is smoother vs mana denial opponents.
- TES recently went the other way with less stable mana but Sagas to spam LEDs or Constructs

Imho the biggest con to this deck is that TES is very strong. TES is better, but this should be capable of a respectable win rate.