Bizarro Stormy (or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Griselbrand)

[Acclimation]

Played a short, 3 round FNM last night and went 1-2 vs Bant Knightfall (0-2) UR Delver(2-0) and Maverick Depths (1-2) with a Spellseeker list. Small sample size, especially since my Bant opponent drew every piece of countermagic and hate and even with a t2 combo drawing 21 I still fizzled, my Delver opponent drew nothing to stop me, and the Maverick opponent was able to t2 Teeg into Kambal both games. Sometimes you run roughshod on people, sometimes you get runover. That being said, I do have some thoughts on Spellseeker, as well as a sick line that unfortunately didn't get there.

List (adapted from above):
4 Marsh Flats
4 Polluted Delta
1 Swamp
1 Island
1 Scrubland
1 Tundra
2 Underground Sea

4 Brainstorm
4 Ponder

2 Cabal Ritual
4 Dark Ritual
3 Lion's Eye Diamond
4 Lotus Petal

4 Thoughtseize
2 Collective Brutality
1 Cabal Therapy

3 Griselbrand
1 Magus of the Mind

1 Past in Flames
4 Shallow Grave
4 Entomb
2 Corpse Dance
1 Mastermind's Acquisition

2 Flex Slots (SpellSeeker and Unburial Rites)

Sideboard:
1 Chain of Vapor
2 Massacre
2 Silence
1 Hurkyl's Recall
2 Serenity
3 Silent Gravestone
1 Tendrils of Agony
1 Disenchant
1 Swords to Plowshares

SB changes: I realized that with Spellseeker, it might not be a bad idea to diversify up some SB cards to include a few niche spells that could be tutored by it, so I swapped a Silence for a StP, and a Chain for a Hurkyl's.

G2 Against my Bant opponent, I had both Griselbrand exiled due to surgical, 3 Entomb, 3 Shallow in the GY, 1 Cabal Ritual, a handful of lands, an LED, and some Brainstorm. 3 Lands in play, with LED, Brainstorm, Thoughtseize, Past in Flames, Cabal Therapy, Mastermind's Acquisition and something else. I fire off thoughtseize (at 4 life down to 2), snag his Force (Kotor, Retreat, Land in hand). Brainstorm, draw Dark Ritual, SpellSeeker, and Disenchant. I tank for a bit, then put back Disenchant and the other random card. Play LED, Ritual, crack LED for Red, Flashback PiF, FB Rit+Cabal. Shallow Grave Spellseeker, grab other cabal ritual. Cast Ritual. Sac seeker to Therapy, reanimate with Shallow Grave, grab Dark Ritual. Realize I'm 1 mana short of getting MA+Tendrils. Lose in 3 turns. EDIT- I didn't have Petal, that's why I had to crack LED for R and have BBBRRR floating with PiF in yard.

Might be worth having another Cabal Ritual in a Spellseeker build.

Random other thoughts: it's really awkward to stare down Kambal, since it has 3 Toughness and doesn't get answered by Massacre. I don't think it's worth running a Virtue's Ruin, but it's always worth considering if your meta is infested with swarms of white creatures that all don't get cleanly answered by Massacre. I did run into a scenario where I was at 1 life vs Maverick that I wanted to fire off discard to name Swords, but only had Thoughtseize. Dude had Crop Rotation for Bog (I had entomb afterward to reanimate) but he did have the StP, since he drew himself down to 5 with Sylvan Library. It's probably still correct to run mostly Thoughtseize, but it definitely felt bad in that one situation.