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

[Bryant Cook]

"I decided to try and take out the second Ad Nauseam for the sideboard Ill-Gotten Gains, I never saw it, but in theory it’s just as good if not better against burn."

This is all I could find about that decision. I tried looking at your other reports too but the only recent one I could find against burn, round one NELCQ – 12/3/11, you did not sideboard, which has only left me more puzzled.

I wanted to try something new out. It's how people come to conclusions on their own about cards.

I'm a dick, my opponent was pretty bad and I felt I didn't need to sideboard in order to win.

[jin]

Thanks for the replies!

In my experience, High Tide can just never beat Orim's Chant effects.

Chant is about as good as a counterspell against High Tide decks, i.e., fine but not amazing.

Ditto.

As a High Tide I player I'd like to leave some comments. Your discard + chant suite is as much as the counters we have. But you can go faster. You also have PiF. Be aggressive and go for those counters. When a storm player Duress/Thoughtseize me if I'm keeping a combo piece and a counterspell it is a tough choice because if I counter it Storm can go off next turn. If I let the Storm player take a look at my hand he can either take the counter and go off next turn or take the combo piece and can assemble a better hand faster than me. Also Spiral Tide goes off at sorcery speed so a chant effect during my upkeep (even if I counter it) puts me back 1 island (assuming Flusterstorm or Pierce) for everything to work out. So the way see it is that High Tide is the obvious control deck in the matchup but have the same amount of disruption as TES has protection but with a slower clock. So I think High Tide should be an easy matchup for Storm but maybe I'm just playing it wrong :)

My opponent isn't playing Time Spiral. So in the end it just sounds like it comes down to speed. I think the problem that I'm having is often 2 or 3 pieces of protection is not enough to stop High Tide decks because everything they play is technically a Counterspell. I do something, they do it in response. Then there is just this huge stack of stuff that's unresolved. Finally, with the cantrips and enough mana, they would dig up a spell pierce or flutter storm to counter that original Orim's Chant, leaving me with an empty hand and them with a lot of storm to work with.

The only thing I see that TES has is a faster clock. If you say that High Tide is the control deck, that means that they will have a better match up in the long run. That doesn't sound good to me since they play a shit ton of Remands/Spellpierce/FOW/Disrupt and Twin Cast. (Or) maybe the player is metagaming against me, I'm not sure. I'm not familiar with High Tide.

How much protection is needed to defuse a High Tide player?

Report


Continuing my recent hot streak! Read more about it!

"Sometimes the triple hatebears get you." -Bryant Cook

I hear you, bro.

[tride]

Jin:
I've won one game in two matches against Solidarity. If I recall right I had 5 protection cards. Then I lost a game with 3 because it wasn't enough and the opponent could storm me out when my chants were on the stack. The mu is pretty bad if your opponent knows how to play the deck.

Tes really has to play the aggro role against it and going all-in before they hit remand mana is probably the best strategy. Getting your duress remanded three times is something you don't want to let happen. I think the 60% chance of them not having a fow is bigger than the chance of trying to squeeze the win after turn 3. Unfortunately you don't always get a t1 or t2 Ad Nauseam.

The case of Spiral Tide is almost the opposite though. It's normally an easy win. Fast Ad Nauseam with one protection or finding two protections (one chant or pyroblast required) wins the game. It's really funny to play against it because we can play the control role and use tutors and wishes to get more protection and they really cant combo out. I've won every time I've played against it.

[RaNDoMxGeSTuReS]

So is Pyroclasm not considered shit anymore?

[Bryant Cook]

So is Pyroclasm not considered shit anymore?

I don't even know if it's good or not. I'm just trying it over Silent Departure.

I've done zero testing with it. My testing is going to be grinders at the GP.

[Jonathan Alexander]

I didn't read your report yet, but a) triple hatebears doesn't happen too often and b) Pyroclasm doesn't play through Mother of Runes. I'm currently considering Infest, but I think it's too slow. Likely not going to play anything for multiple bears except for Grapeshot.

Also, Bryant. Did you never have problems with Past in Flames through Burning Wish? In my experience that only works if you either have shitloads of mana and cantrips in the yard or shitloads of mana plus business. How good is the Past in Flames in the wishboard for you?

[RaNDoMxGeSTuReS]

I don't even know if it's good or not. I'm just trying it over Silent Departure.

I've done zero testing with it. My testing is going to be grinders at the GP.

I've played it a couple times, but when I did I was never too happy with it. I remember we talked earlier in this thread about sometimes the mana investment is better put into Burning Wish >> Grapeshot.

Something like that. I'm not sure if it's that necessary against Maverick. Maybe against the versions playing Thalia, but I doubt those will be that popular this weekend.

Medina has been drawing some attention to it. That would be my only worry.

[Bryant Cook]

I didn't read your report yet, but a) triple hatebears doesn't happen too often and b) Pyroclasm doesn't play through Mother of Runes. I'm currently considering Infest, but I think it's too slow. Likely not going to play anything for multiple bears except for Grapeshot.

I've covered this already within the last page.

Also, Bryant. Did you never have problems with Past in Flames through Burning Wish? In my experience that only works if you either have shitloads of mana and cantrips in the yard or shitloads of mana plus business. How good is the Past in Flames in the wishboard for you?

I don't rely on it so... no? Past in Flames is best against decks like RUG where things get countered while they're providing a clock. It's not an early game card.

[Awaclus]

So is Pyroclasm not considered shit anymore?

I've been running it for quite a while just in case, and I've wished for it twice - once because I actually needed it, and another time because I had to cast Burning Wish for enough storm count and it didn't matter what I wished for. It's not shit, but definitely not the best alternative either.

[Matt]

Thanks for the input. Well, if not Xantid Swarm, perhaps multiple EtW would be more accurate? EtW seems really advantageous against tempo-decks.. I'm thinking two or three at the most. Any thoughts?

-Matthew

[OurSerratedDust]

Thanks for the input. Well, if not Xantid Swarm, perhaps multiple EtW would be more accurate? EtW seems really advantageous against tempo-decks.. I'm thinking two or three at the most. Any thoughts?

-Matthew

I've heard of storm players doing this. I think Ari Lax ran 3 EtW over Pyroblast in the board.

[AriLax]

You don't want 3x Empty here. Both Ad Naus and it require extra life to go off and basically the same amount of mana, but EtW is easier to beat. In ANT, Empty was good because your Ad Naus is worse and you gain from adding that effect. In TES, you already have it.

[jace247]

I have been playing this deck for awhile i have had it together but hadn't played in awhile at tournaments because i was playing sneak attack. I have played three tournaments with the deck and have only lost one match and it was to another sneak attack deck which i thought i was the only one in our town who had it lol but i couldn't stop a turn one emrakul :( but i did get second so not to bad the other tourney's i got first. And i know what your thinking what have i played against and here it is, we have 3 burn players in our area, counter top, tons of stone-blade, solidarity, re-animator, dredge, rug delver, affinity, ascension that match is tough damn life game. So here is my list of my deck.

4 Silence
4 brainstorm
4 Ponder
4 Duress
2 Thoughtseize
1 Ad Nasium
1 Tendrils of Agony
4 Burning Wish
4 Infernal Tutor
4 Dark Ritual
4 Rite of Flame
2 Chrome mox
4 Lotus Petal
4 Lions eye diamond

Lands:
4 Polluted delta
2 Scalding Tarn
1 Bloodstained mire
4 Gemstone mine
3 Underground sea
2 Volcanic Islands
1 Tundra


So the funny thing is I just realized that this list is 63 cards i really had know idea that i had that many cards in it.

Sideboard:
1 Empty the Warrens
1 Thoughtseize
1 Tendrils of Agony
1 Diminishing Returns
1 Ill gotten gains
1 Shattering Spree
1 Innocent Blood
2 Pact of Negation
3 Hurkyl's Recall
3Chain of vapor

[Oiolosse]

@jace247

-1 Underground Sea
-1 Tundra
-1 Volcanic Island

And City of Brass is a must imo, is there a reason why you have it omitted?

[Matt]

Hope to see some of you guys at Indy! Best of luck.

-Matthew

[Basaka]

Looking forwards to playing legacy at my LGS for the first in 3 months, personally. While watching streams of people crushing with storm at Indy, hopefully :p

[jace247]

@jace247

-1 Underground Sea
-1 Tundra
-1 Volcanic Island

And City of Brass is a must imo, is there a reason why you have it omitted?

i just didnt have them and also with as much burn that is in my area i really dont like them.

[thefringthing]

Died in game three of a semifinals match in a five-round grinder at GP Indy today. Opponent was Maverick and had Karakas, Dryad Arbor, another land, Canonist, and Thalia. I managed to wish for Pyroclasm and cast it over two turns (got lucky and ripped a land I needed). After Pyroclasm, I went Petal, Petal, LED, Dark Ritual, Infernal Tutor, Ad Nauseam with 9 life, no mana floating, and no land drop. I managed to rip Tendrils, a Chrome Mox, two Ponders, and two LEDs a long with a bit of garbage. I have to Ponder and break LEDs in response. I needed to hit one of three Burning Wishes left in my deck in the four cards from Ponder, but didn't make it. There was an Infernal Tutor, so if the Tendrils wasn't stuck in the yard I would have had him. :(

[OurSerratedDust]

Died in game three of a semifinals match in a five-round grinder at GP Indy today. Opponent was Maverick and had Karakas, Dryad Arbor, another land, Canonist, and Thalia. I managed to wish for Pyroclasm and cast it over two turns (got lucky and ripped a land I needed). After Pyroclasm, I went Petal, Petal, LED, Dark Ritual, Infernal Tutor, Ad Nauseam with 9 life, no mana floating, and no land drop. I managed to rip Tendrils, a Chrome Mox, two Ponders, and two LEDs a long with a bit of garbage. I have to Ponder and break LEDs in response. I needed to hit one of three Burning Wishes left in my deck in the four cards from Ponder, but didn't make it. There was an Infernal Tutor, so if the Tendrils wasn't stuck in the yard I would have had him. :(

Bummer man. Did you end up Grapeshotting his creatures and him to buy a couple of turns?

[ScatmanX]

Massacre seems like it would be better than Infest and Pyroclasm against Mavrick/Bant.

Gaddock Tegg disagrees with you.