[Deck] TES - The EPIC Storm

[cwt1220]

Hey Bryant, can you post the list that you ran in Hadley??

Thanks
-Chris-

[Bryant Cook]

Everyone in the thread as gone over it, I'll do the summary.

-Opponent doesn't draw. You don't want to give them Force of Will.
-Don't lose half of your life.
-Casting Cost. Easier to cast, not BBB or UU.
-Doesn't remove Tendrils.
-Get's around Grave yard hate.
-Amazing against control, mainly Landstill. Draw 8-10? Will do.

The EPIC Storm as of 8/16/08
By Bryant Cook

Lands
4 Gemstone Mine
4 City of Brass
1 Undiscovered Paradise
1 Forbidden Orchard

Creatures
4 Simian Spirit Guide

Spells
4 Orim’s Chant
4 Dark Ritual
4 Rite of Flame
4 Lion’s Eye Diamond
4 Lotus Petal
4 Infernal Tutor
4 Burning Wish
4 Brainstorm
3 Ponder
3 Chrome Mox
3 Thoughtseize
1 Slithermuse
1 Diminishing Returns
1 Ill-Gotten Gains
1 Tendrils of Agony
1 Empty the Warrens

SB:1 Diminishing Returns
SB:1 Ill-Gotten Gains
SB:1 Tranquility
SB:1 Tendrils of Agony
SB:1 Empty the Warrens
SB:1 Grapeshot
SB:3 Pyroblast
SB:3 Shattering Spree
SB:3 Vexing Shusher

It's solid. The loss to burn was me being a storm short. Oh well.

[BreathWeapon]

Just curious, are you getting more use out of Orim's Chant or more use out of Thought Seize right now? With Counterbalance, I've been really tempted to just run discard, and your Orim's Chant and Thought Seize split looks as if its recognizing that look pieces are more problematic than counter walls.

I don't want to revive the "why Duress sucks" arguments, but havind MD outs against counterbalance just seems like the way to go ATM.

[Bryant Cook]

Just curious, are you getting more use out of Orim's Chant or more use out of Thought Seize right now? With Counterbalance, I've been really tempted to just run discard, and your Orim's Chant and Thought Seize split looks as if its recognizing that look pieces are more problematic than counter walls.

I don't want to revive the "why Duress sucks" arguments, but havind MD outs against counterbalance just seems like the way to go ATM.

In my metagame, there's a lot of blue, Chant takes care of Stifle and Spell Snares while, thoughtsieze doesn't. This is a huge contributing factor for the 4/3 split.

[Citrus-God]

In my metagame, there's a lot of blue, Chant takes care of Stifle and Spell Snares while, thoughtsieze doesn't. This is a huge contributing factor for the 4/3 split.

Thoughtseize also protects Chant, which is awesome. Post-board against Thresh, it can grab stuff like Gaddock Teeg.

[Aj-capra]

Why you play Slithermuse ??

It's CC is more expensive!!!

I play Skeletal Scrying now.

In my SB I play 2 x Wispmare who they are good versus balance.

@edit : Vs black decks (ex pikula) in sb what I can play???

Compost or ancestral vision or Wheel of Fate ??

Ancestral vision is good because it's CC is lost and our-selves drawing
Whell of fate is good because to draw seven cards, but suspending with 1R
Compost...mmm

PS : I'm sorry for my english -.-""

[Sanguine Voyeur]

Why you play Slithermuse ??

It's CC is more expensive!!!

I play Skeletal Scrying now.

In order for Skeletal Scrying to be better then a draw four, you have to spend at least five mana. Slithermuse is more efficient then that.

[Aj-capra]

Whit Skeletal I can draw in eot and I can draw more cards then Slithermuse.
To draw with skeletal is good because you remove cards that brainstorm or ponder or others cards and to play diminishing returns is better because you can draw power cards for storming.

[Jaiminho]

I think you missed the part that shows a X in the cost of Skeletal Scrying. To draw X cards, you pay XB mana and have X cards in graveyard. Can't be good to do that at the end of the turn, unless you play some bizarre Turbo TES with 2-mana lands.

[Aj-capra]

I think you missed the part that shows a X in the cost of Skeletal Scrying. To draw X cards, you pay XB mana and have X cards in graveyard. Can't be good to do that at the end of the turn, unless you play some bizarre Turbo TES with 2-mana lands.

ops -_-". You've reason. I haven't think to CC.

But I think who infernal contract/cruel bargain is better than sliter.

[Sun_Ra]

Slithermuse > Infernal Contract in control matchups for sure.

There's a fair bit of Goblins and plenty of random suiblack and janky aggro here, so I'm thinking about Beseech the Queen rather than Contract.

[Bryant Cook]

Slithermuse > Infernal Contract in control matchups for sure.

There's a fair bit of Goblins and plenty of random suiblack and janky aggro here, so I'm thinking about Beseech the Queen rather than Contract.

You need land for BTQ. That makes it terrible.

[Distortion]

If one were inclined to play BTQ, why not use Grim Tutor instead? Triple black is just nasty, since the deck no longer runs Cabal Ritual. Anyway, I agree that it is not useful.

I am curious about whether some of the anti-control sideboard slots might not be better suited to additional copies of ETW. I have never been a huge fan of shusher, and in my experience, control players rarely counter the acceleration that leads into the ETW. My metagame is undoubtedly skewed (lots of FOW/CB with very few Stifles), so my experiences may not be quite indicative of a general trend.

[jegger]

Come on Beseech the Queen is horrible in a deck that can skip the land drop and that don't want to close in the fourth turn.

Skeletal Scrying is again horrible. It's a nail that you can't play in the first/second turn instead of contract because you haven't enough cards into grave. Skeletal is a card for control decks, not for a Combo that want to win in the first three turns.

Slithermuse was discussed sometimes ago and the result was a failure, because the only situations where Slithermuse is better than Diminishing Returns is when it's the first turn and we can't win via IGG, but we have in hand an IT and enough mana to play Slithermuse for 7. Too much situational.

Again Slithermuse give its best when there is a great difference between cards in our and opponent's hand. So we are induced to play all spells in hand with the objective to draw more cards but with an opponent's counter we scoop. In the midgame often my opponents haven't 7 cards in hand, but 2-3. So Slithermuse is a cantrip for 4 mana. Is it really better than Contract?

Again Slithermuse goes under stifle.

But now that Wastedlife plays this card, the card is good for many people.
Think with your head.

[Nemcon]

Seeing slithermuse, I seem to like it a bit more than contract, it sort of allows us to get a new hand for just a few mana, without worrying about opponents drawing something new. I think it is better with Bryant's Thoughtseizes in the main, especially against blue decks, where we can pick out a counter from their hand and not worry about what they draw through diminishing returns. Also allows us to LED in response to Slithermuse, something that you don't really get to do with Contract.

[Kanti]

@ Bryant:

For the latest list you posted, can you give a thorough guide to boarding, please? ; D

[Bryant Cook]

-2 Simian Spirit Guide, -1 Mox, -2/-3 Ponder, -0/-1 Slithermuse/Empty the Warrens.

[Kuma]

This is probably a dumb question, but why run Grapeshot at all? It seems like an inefficient use of your storm and kills next to nothing on its own.

[Di]

This is probably a dumb question, but why run Grapeshot at all? It seems like an inefficient use of your storm and kills next to nothing on its own.

It replaced Pyroclasm as the sideboard removal slot. Pyroclasm very rarely was used to wipe the board, and was used more as a direct removal spell for Gaddock Teeg and Meddling Mage. Grapeshot is an option that can deal with both of them, but also have the potential to act as a win condition, as well as be uncounterable outside of Stifle. In that light, it's much better than Pyroclasm. The fact it can go to the dome for the last few points of damage in a pinch outweighs the possible wiping of Goblin or Ichorid's board, which is a poor point against it as you can basically goldfish both decks already.

[Kanti]

I meant what out in what games and such. Im new to this deck in Legacy, and don't know the format that well to begin with to say that, lets say, leaving SSG in against Thresh is better than leaving a Ponder, or both, or whatever.