Hey everyone, long time lurker of these boards and I figured it was time I finally made an account and started adding my own thoughts to some of the discussions here. I played TES for about a year before finally switching to the better deck at the beginning of this past year. It has performed great for me in events and this past weekend I played in a 90 person Buncha Duals tournament and went undefeated in the swiss before losing in the first round of the top 8.

The 75 that I registered was:

4 Brainstorm
4 Gitaxian Probe
4 Ponder
2 Preordain

1 Ad Nauseam
4 Cabal Ritual
4 Cabal Therapy
4 Dark Ritual
3 Duress
4 Infernal Tutor
1 Tendrils of Agony

1 Past in Flames

4 Lion’s Eye Diamond
4 Lotus Petal
1 Sensei’s Divining Top

1 Badlands
1 Island
4 Polluted Delta
3 Scalding Tarn
1 Swamp
1 Tropical Island
2 Underground Sea
1 Verdant Catacombs
1 Volcanic Island

Sideboard:
3 Abrupt Decay
2 Chain of Vapor
3 Dread of Night
1 Karakas
3 Xantid Swarm
3 Young Pyromancer

Round 1 - Enchantress:
First round I sat down across from a local player who I know I have played against in the past. We start chatting and he hints about how this is a terrible matchup for him, but I feel bad because I can't remember for the life of me what he is playing. Well game 1 starts and he leads off with the typical "forest, utopia sprawl" and I then proceed to do my thing and kill him on turn 3 or 4 (aka the exact way that game 1 of that matchup is supposed to go). Game 2 he opens with double leyline and so I start to sculpt a PiF hand that can CoV one EoT, then go off and flash it back on the second one, but on his last turn he rips a RIP (lol) and shuts off that plan entirely. He follows it up the next turn with a Helm and we are on to game 3. Game 3 he starts with another leyline but I am able to bounce it back to his hand, decay his gaddock teeg, and then AN relatively quickly.
2-1 (1-0)

Round 2 - Show and Tell
Sit down across from my next opponent, chat a bit, round starts and we both draw our 7. These notes are all from memory, but I believe he aggressively countered a discard spell with his flusterstorm to try and protect his SnT+SA+Emrakul hand, then I just killed him. Game 2 I dropped a turn 1 xantid swarm, tore apart his hand a bit while sculpting my own, then finally AN'd from 15 after he had dropped a blood moon (I had a petal though to crack for the black mana I needed). I ended up flipping my PiF while at 5 and put myself to 1, but I just played out all my discard spells to put him in topdeck mode, then passed the turn. We both played draw go for a couple of turns (I was only missing the LED/empty hand to loop my tutor that was in the yard after I drew my swamp), but I eventually drew into a petal for blue mana, played the PiF, flashed back all my rituals and the CoV that was in the yard to bounce the blood moon, then was able to flash back cantrips until I found the LED to win.
2-0 (2-0)

Round 3 - Reanimator
This was by far the hardest matchup of the day, but I didn't know what he was on at first after I won the roll, chose to play, played a ponder then passed. He drew his card then immediately went to discard and I start thinking he is on dredge, but then he discards a griselbrand. I get nervous about what is about to happen (I believe my hand was discard lite that game), and next turn probe him to have my fears solidified. His hand was Brainstorm, Ponder, Force, U Sea, Griselbrand x2, Reanimate. Oh boy. He cheats in the griseldaddy and a couple hits later I scoop to game 2. Game 2 I lead with a xantid swarm and do my best to discard and cantrip as fast as I can. Eventually I find a karakas which I play, and shortly after he scoops (I am still a long ways off from comboing at that point, but after asking him later he tells me he sided out the tidespout and had no answer to karakas in his deck). Game 3 is a crazy one that had me leading off with a xantid swarm once again and him reanimating an Iona pretty early on. I fell to 8 life quickly before I brainstormed into a karakas on my last possible turn. That let me bounce his Iona and earn myself an extra turn, however he thoughtseized my tutor and then drew a bunch off of a animate dead'd griselbrand. He passed the turn back and I had a hand that was DR, AN, Petal, LED and I knew I had duress and ToA on top of my library from the brainstorm. With 3 lands (1 of which being a fetch), and the xantid, I attacked (to which he blocked and brought himself from 4 up to 10), then was able to DR, Petal, LED, AN leaving the fetchland uncracked and using the LED in response, flip the ToA on top, go to 4, then crack the fetch to cast the tendrils for exact lethal. Not the cleanest game but against reanimator I'll take whatever I can get.
2-1 (3-0)

Round 4 - BUG Delver
I really wish I had more to say about this matchup, with this deck being as big of a problem in the meta as it is, but this was probably the most uneventful game. I had a couple of really nice brainstorms, but other than that he just didn't have the tools to beat me. Didn't see a non-summoning sick DRS in either game, and in both games I stripped one counterspell on turns 3/4, then went off. Pretty easy win.
2-0 (4-0)

Round 5 - BUG Nic Fit
Was afraid I was going to play against a local who I knew was on miracles this round, but instead got paired up against a friend of a friend who I knew was on nic fit. This made me pretty happy because I knew this would be an easy matchup and I could hopefully double draw into top 8 if I won. Game 1 I probed him early on and saw a bunch of irrelevant cards, although a cabal therapy off the top set me back. I actually got some pretty lucky top decks in this game if I remember and it was definitely closer than I prefer when playing against a deck with no md counterspells. Game 2 I drew out an early force, and with 2 cards in hand and a SDT on the field, I put him on not having another force + blue card between those 3 cards and was able to storm him out. After asking what his blue count for force was after the game I was surprised to hear that it was a lot higher than I expected at the time, but either way the gamble paid off. At 5-0 I was able to double draw and earn the number 2 seed going out of the swiss.
2-0 (5-0)

End of Swiss - 5-0-2

Top 8 - Miracles
Finally got paired against miracles and it was against another local player who I have played with in weekly events a couple of times in the past. We obviously both know what each other is on and neither of us were looking forward to playing against each other (the last time we played I had beaten him quite handily, however drawing literal perfect hands does help quite a bit ;) ). Game 1 I mulliganed to 6 and kept a cantrip heavy hand that also had turn 1 probe and discard. I looked at what he kept and saw double force, top, and four lands. I duressed the top away and just needed to find a therapy to strip the forces before I could go off, but I never saw one and he quickly drew into another top, more counters, and a relatively quick entreat for 3. By the end of the match he had triple force, blue card in hand with another blue card floating on top of his deck. Game 2 I kept a mediocre hand with some action and cantrips and a decay, but no discard. After decaying his turn 2 counterbalance, I hoped to cantrip into what I needed, but despite 2 ponders and a brainstorm or 2, I couldn't find a way to interact with his hand while he tore mine apart with an early clique and beat me down. Sadly the rampage ended here, but I was happy to at least lose to a local.
0-2


Overall I love how the deck is functioning right now. Thank you Sawatarix and everyone else who pioneered the young pyromancer tech, it has been nothing but amazing for me. As of right now I am completely behind the 1 of SDT over the grim tutor (I played with the tutor for a while and it hurts because that card is so bad). I liked where the sideboard is otherwise, although I am sure some people will disagree with the 3 Dread of Nights (I just don't like the idea of multiple 4 cmc massacres in the deck, but it is the next thing I need to test). I am super hyped for GP NJ and I hope to see plenty of storm there.