[Deck] T.E.S - The EPIC Storm

[lorddotm]

We can still run our own MMS. As much as it helps them counter our Tops, MMS can help us counter their vials or protect our tops.

Or you could use them to counter Vials and real threats instead of protecting your Tops. Then follow up with a Standstill. Trust me, it is a lot better than trying to make Counterbalance work.

[ns2973]

Yeah, even with all the hate i think bryant ended up in 100th or so.

[Bryant Cook]

First off, thank you for everyone rooting for me, ect. I made day 2, then shit the bed.

At GP:Providence I opted to cut Meltdown for a 3rd Pyroblast. It was a mistake, I never wanted to bring in 5 cards. In fact, I lost my first round day two because I didn't have it. I'm posting the new list here as well as on the opening post.

4 Gemstone Mine
2 City of Brass
2 Scalding Tarn
2 Underground Sea
1 Volcanic Island
1 Polluted Delta
1 Bloodstained Mire

4 Dark Ritual
4 Rite of Flame
4 Lion’s Eye Diamond
4 Lotus Petal
4 Chrome Mox
4 Burning Wish
4 Brainstorm
4 Ponder
4 Infernal Tutor
3 Orim’s Chant
3 Duress
2 Xantid Swarm
1 Ad Nauseam
1 Empty the Warrens
1 Tendrils of Agony

2 Xantid Swarm
2 Pyroblast
2 Echoing Truth
1 Wipeaway
1 Diminishing Returns
1 Ill-Gotten Gains
1 Tendrils of Agony
1 Empty the Warrens
1 Grapeshot
1 Duress
1 Shattering Spree
1 Meltdown

I opted for Xantid Swarms due to the amount of Merfolk in the metagame, it was solid both days. I don't plan on writing a losing tournament report, however, if people really want one I might.

[Shimi]

@Bryant: Could you share your thoughts about this Mental Misstep metagame, and the Merfolks MU pos-NPH now that you played at Providence?
Thx in advance.

[Andy_V]

List looks good. Nice job on the result.

*removed as saw posted above*

Have you played with/considered the max Empty the Warrens plans, and do you think they could be better than Chant/Swarm then Combo in the current counter-maxed metagame?

I have been having good results against CounterTop with the max-ETW but I think that's just me getting more comfortable with the deck and 8-12 goblins really just being too much for JTMS.

[ninja_attack]

I don't plan on writing a losing tournament report, however, if people really want one I might.

I wouldnt mind reading about what you faced, any interesting plays and what not. AKA a report....

[GexxX]

I don't plan on writing a losing tournament report, however, if people really want one I might.

I think a short overview on what happened might be enough for people. The point I'd like to hear your thoughts about is how the metagame has shifted and how did you do fighting through Mental Missteps? If you can remember, answering the question quite detailed will propably help many people around here. I'm not asking for a report on all matches, but maybe something like a "what went wrong, what went right" kind of thing.

regards

edit:

I wouldnt mind reading about what you faced, any interesting plays and what not. AKA a report....

Pretty much this... xD

[ComboMan]

I think, you could write , at least a Day One report, please.
You went 7-2, right?
And put some thoughts about the new MM meta game...

Thank in advance

[Dark Ritual]

Isn't it awkward to have xantid swarm game 1 against non merfolk decks? It still gets misstepped and on top of that against other decks they will likely smother/dismember/ghastly demise/swords it on the spot due to having their removal in.

Congratz on making day 2 though sorry you couldn't tear it up that would have been great to have misstep printed and then have you still crush the opposition.

[r3dd09]

I honestly think you should do a writeup, it'd help us followers learn the true meta, over our local meta who are mostly scrubs. * for me anyways*

[lorddotm]

Dude, Bryant, you right some of the sickest reports ever. Do it.

[Tammit67]

Not sure if Bryant is really agonizing about writing a losing report, or just wants everyone to beg for it :p

+1 to the report. I'm interested in the MD swarms if only because they look cute more than anything. Were they worth it?

[Pulp_Fiction]

I know this will mean next 2 nothing so I will keep this short. I made it 2 a top 8 split tonight at my local tournament playing this list:

4x Petal
4x Brainstorm
4x Burning Wish
3x Infernal Tutor
3x Chrome Mox
2x Preordain
4x LED
4x Dark Ritual
4x Ponder
4x Rite of Flame
4x Duress
2x Swarm
1x Thoughtseize
1x Tendrils
1x EtW
1x Ad Nauseam

4x Gemstone Mine
4x City of Brass
2x Sea
1x Volcanic
1x Mire
1x Tarn
1x Strand

SB

1x Echoing Truth
1x Shattering Spree
1x Chain of Vapor
2x Swarm
1x Meltdown
1x Thoughtseize
1x Deathmark
1x D Returns
1x IGG
3x EtW
1x Infernal Tutor
1x Tendrils

Round 1 Dredge (2-0)

g1 - Win on turn 2 w AdN.
g2 - He Therapies DR drom my hand and I win on turn 3 .... TES is simply better than Dredge.

Round 2 - Stifle Nought w Other Weird Shit

g1 - He mulls to 5 and I mull to 6 and keep a shitty hand. Turn 1 Duress gets Misstepped and I drop turn 2 Swarm. Both of our decks drop dildo-sized fists in our asses and I finally win on turn 6-8 after I BS into Ponder and another LED that lets me EtW for 16 tokens and get there. It was really sad. I spent 3 turns trying a mana source and drew Mox, Artifact, Artifact .... its truly sad.

g2 - Its pretty similar except my turn 1 spell gets MMstped and turn 2 Swarm resolves. I eventually cast AdN at 10 life on like turn 6 and get there. He plays Null Rod on turn 2. I BW into Spree and win in the same turn with a ridiculous AdN draw. In fairness, the only card I could flip at this point was Tendrils. A pretty positive match and Swarm gets there.

Round 3 - The Gate (2-1)

g1 - Turn 1 Duress Turn 2 Empty for 12 gets there.

g2 - I get Duressed and Hymned and am forced to DReturns on turn 5 with 0 floating. I EtW the following turn and tell him word for word "you are going to win this game, I will Empty for 6 and u will draw both a creature and an equipment ..... 2 turns later he has Nighthawk + Jitte + Bob and I have Adn in the yard .... gg, I scoop shortly after. Just like poker, another hand I played card for fucking card.

g3 - Turn 1 Duress takes his only discard spell. Turn 2 I cast, LED, LED, Rite, IT with 2 lands in play and AdN for like 1/2 the deck gets there.

Round 4 - ID

Round 5 - ID

Round 6 Top 8 split.

Overall the list was solid as hell. I totally like the Etw plan but I will not waste my time commenting when everyone wants to read what BC has 2 say on the deck.

[lorddotm]

Pulp, I know that you are a huge fan of adding land to this deck, but why drop Chants? They are always sick.

[JJ_JKidd]

First off, thank you for everyone rooting for me, ect. I made day 2, then shit the bed.

At GP:Providence I opted to cut Meltdown for a 3rd Pyroblast. It was a mistake, I never wanted to bring in 5 cards. In fact, I lost my first round day two because I didn't have it. I'm posting the new list here as well as on the opening post.

4 Gemstone Mine
2 City of Brass
2 Scalding Tarn
2 Underground Sea
1 Volcanic Island
1 Polluted Delta
1 Bloodstained Mire

4 Dark Ritual
4 Rite of Flame
4 Lion’s Eye Diamond
4 Lotus Petal
4 Chrome Mox
4 Burning Wish
4 Brainstorm
4 Ponder
4 Infernal Tutor
3 Orim’s Chant
3 Duress
2 Xantid Swarm
1 Ad Nauseam
1 Empty the Warrens
1 Tendrils of Agony

2 Xantid Swarm
2 Pyroblast
2 Echoing Truth
1 Wipeaway
1 Diminishing Returns
1 Ill-Gotten Gains
1 Tendrils of Agony
1 Empty the Warrens
1 Grapeshot
1 Duress
1 Shattering Spree
1 Meltdown

I opted for Xantid Swarms due to the amount of Merfolk in the metagame, it was solid both days. I don't plan on writing a losing tournament report, however, if people really want one I might.

+1

[Diprivan]

report

Overall the list was solid as hell. I totally like the Etw plan but I will not waste my time commenting when everyone wants to read what BC has 2 say on the deck.

Thanks for the report. Like Lorddotm, I'm surprised too you dropped the chants. I never leave house without them.
I wasn't trolling, etw is bonkers right now.

@Bryant:
Check report thread, 2 people already posted, together they both met ZERO (!!!) combodecks for 14 rounds. You HAVE to make a statement combo isn't gone.

PS: Due to exams, I won't be able to play/post during the next month, but I'll keep reading and developing my crazy new TESlist.

[kilukru]

So I have been doing some testing since we saw what the new meta might look like, and i came up with this list, it's not really a TES more of a TES/ANT hybrid with some new twist, since I have been a TES player for a while now I will post it here (BTW we nicknamed it Canadian TES for now):

Canadian TES
4 Gemstone Mine
2 City of Brass
5 Fetch
2 Underground Sea
1 Volcanic Island
1 Tundra


4 Dark Ritual
4 Cabal Ritual
4 Lion’s Eye Diamond
4 Lotus Petal
4 Burning Wish
4 Brainstorm
4 Ponder
1 Preordain
4 Infernal Tutor
3 Abeyance
3 Duress
2 Daze
1 Ad Nauseam
1 Empty the Warrens
1 Ill-Gotten Gain
1 Tendrils of Agony


2 Daze
1 Abeyance
2 Echoing Truth
1 Diminishing Returns
1 Ill-Gotten Gains
1 Tendrils of Agony
1 Empty the Warrens
1 Grapeshot
1 Duress
1 Shattering Spree
3 Open slots


Some explanation, the list mostly play like TES with 4 color and a wide variety of possibility with IT,BW,ETW,IGG and Adnauseam like ANT since the deck want to make more mana before going off instead of relying on 0 mana artefact afterward (Cabal ritual VS Chrome mox).
In testing i ended up comboing more via IIG loop and ETW than Adn, but even if the average mana cost is higher than i would like, the deck Adn pretty well since it can poduce more mana pre Adn than standard TES list. but going Adn without mana in the pool should be avoided.

Since the meta is geared at shutting down the early game, this list is geared more to perform in the middle game, but can still win fast against deck packing no dedicated hate.

The hate package is pretty unusual, Duress dosnt need to be explained but Abeyance and Daze yes.
With abeyance you accept that you will be slower, wich is bad, but dodge MM and is a cantrip, wich are good. Im still not enterely convinced about it but so far it has been good.
Now Daze, this is the card that have impressed me the most in the list so far and not for the reason I was expecting. The ability to Daze your opponent key spell during there turn is way better than I had ever imagined. Cutting Merfolk clock or dazing that T2 Teeg can really allow you to win in unexpected way. It's also pretty good when you go off since people rarely keep enought mana open when playing against us. But it suffer from 2 important flaw, it dosnt play well with LED(even worst than holding a pyroblast and cracking) and it just cant really protect an IT when you want to go off.

I would really have liked to put some basic in there, but playing 4color make it really difficult, so i went with a TES like manabase adding a fetch and a Tundra, mainly for Daze and a fetchable white source, so far the Tundra only screwed me 1 time, so i think it will stay even if i believe a Basic island would be better.

Give it a test, and tell me what you think.
Also, should I start a new thread for this since this deck is neither a TES or an ANT list? Or is it not different enought?

[Sturtzilla]

Greetings All!

I have always been a bit of a combo player. I have played many different combo decks in the past but none are as explosive and powerful as this deck. I have been in the process of assembling TES and because of that been following this tread. I would love to hear a tournament report from someone who has been playing this deck for a bit and is well experienced. So I guess you could chalk me up as yet another +1, Bryant. I would also just like to say that going 7-2 is really impressive. I have played at a few GP in the past and usually miss day two by one match loss or a draw. Playing 9 (or more) rounds of swiss just makes for a long day. Again Congrats!

[Admiral_Arzar]

Not sure if Bryant is really agonizing about writing a losing report, or just wants everyone to beg for it :p

+1 to the report. I'm interested in the MD swarms if only because they look cute more than anything. Were they worth it?

Lol. Consider this begging. +1 to report :).

[That nice guy]

+1
He knows we want it.