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

[phazonmutant]

My bad, it seems I just missed the show & tell part!
Thanks for the reminder :p
I see that you guys are often siding out a infernal tutor, what the reason of this?
Good job for the rest, primers and discussion are really deep :)

Also on the primer is a discussion of the percentage differences for having 7 tutors vs. 8 to draw to. The difference is not especially relevant, it gives some room for board cards, and does open up some plays. It's maybe once every 10 or 20 games that being able to Wish for Tutor comes up for me, but it is a thing to watch out for.

[NQN]

Just got back from GP Straßbourg! I finished 6-3 after loosing the first two rounds. In round 9 I would have pretty much won the game at the third extra turn but then got a gameloss because of a brainfart, so no Day 2 for me... so close Turns out 10 hours of magic takes a toll on me afterall, not used to playing GPs without Byes anymore!

It was an awesome tournament overall with some very fun matches and interesting decisions. I will write a small report talking about some of my decisions I´m not sure about and some others I´m sure were wrong.

[akmalik]

In round 9 I would have pretty much won the game at the third extra turn but then got a gameloss because of a brainfart, so no Day 2 for me... so close

The whole match was very impressive. Stupid Ponder/Brainstorm ~.~


I played the first Trial on friday just for fun and somehow the weekend went better than expected with a lucky top64 finish:

Trial 1
R1 2-0 Goblins
R2 2-0 Grixis Control (top64)
R3 2-0 Merfolk
R4 2-1 Sneak Show
R5 2-0 UWR Aggrocontrol

GP day 1
R1, 2, 3 bye
R4 2-0 Esperblade
R5 0-2 Esperblade
R6 2-1 NicFit
R7 2-0 UW Blade
R8 2-0 Elfen
R9 0-2 Jund (top64)
GP day 2
R10 2-0 Canadian
R11 2-1 Painter mono r
R12 2-0 UB(rg) ANT (JamieW89)
R13 2-0 UB(rg) ANT
R14 0-2 GWr Maverick (Görzgen)
R15 0-2 UW Miracle (Levy)
R16 0-2 Canadian (Estratti)

As usual it was very funny to play TES. Maybe playing more Cabal Therapys next time.

[jandax]

Went X-X at the GP with TES, and my problem matchups this weekend were the UWx decks. Esper, Miracles, etc. It seemed that I just didn't have enough disruption to plow through and Storm to win. I did beat Esper once because I didn't make any mistakes, literally one of the few matches in the weekend that I couldn't recall any bad plays. Basically, Meddling Mage beat me down in all the control matches I lost. Day one there was lots of Jund and BUG/RUG, followed by UW control decks and tribal. Amongst them all were combo decks like Sneaky Show, Storm and Elves. Sort of a hostile environment for Storming it up.

[katakis]

Went 12-3-1 at GP Strasbourg. Being 10th in the last round ... but losing the the final round to Team America (the match was on the live stream), dropping to 21st place.

My matchups were the following:

Trial on friday:

Merfolk 2-0
Goblins 2-0
Canadian 2-0
Merfolk 0-2

Main event:

Tin Fins 2-0
Canadian 2-0
ANT 2-0
BUG Delver 2-1
Canadian 2-0
TES 1-1-1 (should have been 2-0 but I punted big time!)
Stax 0-2 (Thats what you get for dropping to the draw bracket )
Esperblade with CB 2-1
SneakShow 2-1
Junk 2-0
Shardless BUG 1-2
SneakShow 2-1
EsperBlade 2-0
Canadian 2-1
Shardless BUG 2-1
Team America 0-2

I played a homebrew list. I'm going to write a full report soon.

[Holly]

Hey,

I went to GP Strasbourg aswell and brought TES to it,
it was my first GP I played and the first tournament I played the deck in (out of 1 18-man tournament a few weeks ago) so I wasn't expecting too much.
Still I made a checklist of some goals:

[ ] Reach Day 2.
[ ] Get in coverage so my friends at home could cheer at me ;p.

I didn't made a whole lot of notes since that would've distracted me from actual playing but I'll try a short summary.

Starting with 2 trials on friday to get my last minutes byes.

Trial 1
M1 vs URw Tempo,
I kept a rather slow hand g1, make 14 goblins t3 which don't get there (he's on 1).
G2 I kill him with 12 goblins t1.
G3 he kept a hand of Daze, 2 FOW, 2 Waste, Spell Pierce, Island and draws a Delver before I could fight through all of this (needed to find a 3rd tutor/wish)
Great start.. but oh well..

Trial 2
M1 vs ANT
G1 He starts with discarding my Tutor and ruining my t1 kill. I play out my LED's (3), and try to cantrip into another tutor/wish but I fail to do so. Anyway he goes for Ill-Gotten-Gains, in response I crack 1 LED for white (I had a Silence in hand he knew about..), getting back Tutor, LED, Silence, cast silence and kill him on my turn.
G2 I make t1 12 Goblins (not the greates against combo, but I thought it may be enough), he wishes for Infect and kills all of them we play draw go for a while and he kills me.
G3 I think I had a t1 kill.

M2 vs Dredge by Saito, Tomoharu
G1 He put me on 11 with lethal next turn and after missing with a Therapy on Tutor (which I kept on top after a Ponder) I kill him on my turn.
G2 he get's me to 6 and I go for Diminishing Returns, drawing some mana and Ad Nauseam, go for it from 6, stop on 2 without tutor/wish, cast ponder, shuffle, draw Brainstorm, cast it and find the wish to kill him with Tendrils.

M3 vs UWr Miracles
G1 I can't fight through his counterspells and get beaten down by a Snapcaster while getting fatesealed.
G2 he lands T2 Counterbalance, I'll try to go for it but he reveals another Counterbalance on top of his library.
He plays it, I try again and a top is on top of it.. don't need to say that I lost this game aswell..

After blowing 30€ for trials I thought it's enough and went to have fun with some friends in Strasbourg, driving into some bar in which the waiters worn suspenders and were dancing on the tables..


Saturday:
After sleeping only a few hours I'm a little bit tired but the excitement overwhelms.
M1 Zoo (with 3 Thalia, 2 Teeg main)
G1 he plays's Critter go, I kill him. (Kept a hand which needed just another Mana for the kill, had no land and no cantrip but a probe, my out's were: Ritual, Rite, Land, Mox, Petal) drew another LED and probed into a ponder which got me another ritual).
G2 he starts with an ape, I therapy for Gaddock Teeg hitting 1 and seeing a Mind Break Trap. He draws and plays Teeg, next turn Thalia and I get beaten down.
G3 I start with probe, therapy and getting 2 Teeg's. Making 12 or 14 Goblins t2/3 while he plays some critters, he plays a Thalia later on while my board is some Goblins, 2 Lands and a Chrome Mox, I whish for Grapeshot. I attack him to 1 and lose all my goblins, I'm dead if he draws a fireblast.. he draws bolt, gets me to 1 aswell and I kill him on my turn with Grapeshot for 1 ! (Some seconds later I realised he could've killed me if he chosed to block 1 Goblin with his Lavamancer and shooting me instead of not blocking and shooting a Goblin).
1-0 (2-1)
Nearly lost in the first round against a rather good matchup.. oh crap!

M2 Burn
G1 He get's me to 12, I go for Iggy, miscount, cast Ad Nauseam and kill him.
G2 I have a t2 hand, go for discard t1, see nothing. He topdecks Pirostastic Pillar and kills me.
G3 T2 Ad Nauseam kills him.
2-0 (4-2)

M3 Nic Fit
G1 I want to make some Goblins t1, but with my Probe I see Therapy, Pulse and irrelevant stuff. I draw well with probe and go for Ad Nauseam t1 from 17 and fizzle, but sculpt a hand which wins next turn.
G2 We both mull to 6, he starts with top, I probe him, his hand was Extirpate, Recuring Nightmare, Forest, Kitchen Finks. Again I go for Ad Nauseam t1 with 17 life, again I fizzle hand have to kill him 2 turns later with Past in Flames.
3-0
(6-2)

M4 vs Saito with Canadian
Written Coverage here:
http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazin...gpstr13/day1#5
[X] Get in coverage so my friends at home could cheer at me ;p. (Well not live but hey.. at least)
Haven't read the coverage yet but will after finishing this report.

Edit: Just readig the coverage..under picture of mine he said I didn't win against Saito on friday which is false, what a misscredit ! :P

G1 I mull to 5 and I'm totally psyched and forget to draw after my probe which sees he only had Waste, Pierce and Force to interact with me.. oh crap I'm a fool..
Anyway somewhere in the game I make a mistake (can't remember what it was).. I think some Ponder decision.. anyway I die.
G2 I keep a rather slow hand with 4 Lands so he coulnd't screw me (to keep was a mistake I think) still I get him with a bunch of Goblins since he didn't boarded in his Rough/Tumble.
G3 I'm stuck on a Chrome Mox on blue after he blowed up my only land, all I need is to find another land so I could fight through his double Force, Tumble hand.. I don't.
3-1 (7-4)

M5 BUG-Agent
G1 I make 12 Goblins on t2, getting there.
G2 t1 Discard, t2 Goyf, t3 Clique get him there (I must have kept a rather poor hand for that to happen).
G3 I kill him t1.
4-1 (9-5)

M6 Esperblade
G1 I start with Duress discarding a Spell Pierce and go for it t2, his Brainstorm finds the Force and I die soon to a Batterskull.
G2 We both mull to oblivion, he has something like 3 Lands, Brainstorm. I still fail to win this game, can't remember why but getting beaten down by a Clique.
4-2 (9-7)

At that point I had to win everything..would be pretty hard and didn't even had play against my worst Matchups..urghs.

M7 vs Sneak Show
G1 I sculpt a pretty good hand which could cast Diminishing Returns (while whishing for it he was like.. a 4 mana sorcery which nets me 7 new cards? Sweet for me but what does it do for you?!) with 3 floating next turn, so I silence walk him since he could've played and activated Sneak Attack in his turn.
My turn: Cast Returns, crack LED, get a hand with mana, wish and Ad Nauseam. I want to have a little bit of fun with him so I cast the wish, he responses with Brainstorm, Intuition for Force of Will to counter it, I cast Ad Nauseam and kill him.
G2 I make 18 Goblins on t1 and kill him.
5-2 (11-7)

M8 vs Dredge
G1 T2 Ad Nauseam -> fizzle, t3 kill with Past in Flames.
G2 T1 Ad Nauseam -> fizzle (go to 2 life), I silence walk him, he goes all in on t3 but dredges poorly, just 1 Therapy, 1 Narcamoeba, no Bridges and some Ichorids. T3 I go for Diminishing Returns, fizzle, silence walk him and kill him next turn.
6-2 (13-7)

Wel.. 1 round left.. go to day 2 or punt again and lose?

M9 vs 12-Post
G1 I win the die roll, make 10 Goblins, he draws and scoops.
I sidebord nothing since I didn't see a single card of him.
G2 he starts with Leyline, I make 12 Goblins t2. He gets a Primeval Titan online which gets Glimmerposts to get him back to 19. I Attack again and go all in, cast Ill-Gotten Gains, cast Past in Flames and make another 34 Goblins. He has 1 draw left, he draws the Emrakul he could've hardcast, attacks with Titan to fetch Karakas and loop extra turns.. shit !
G3 I have the option to make 18 Goblins t2 or go t3 for Ad Nauseam.. I punt and did not think of Tabernacle and go for the goblins..
Thanksfully he didn't own a Tabernacle and my little green friends get me there.. (well if he would've played Tabernacle he'd fetched for it g2 so I guess I did not punt entirely).
7-2 (15-8)

[X] Reach Day 2 !
Yeah !
After a long day of Magic, we decided to don't stop there, buying a Display Innistrad and draft a round, I got a sweet Burning Vengeance deck (2 of them, 13 cards with flashback, 2 Unburial Rites and 1 Olivia) but lost 1 Match to GW-Aggro, still was a fun deck to play.
Going to sleep at 3am and stand up at 7 to play for the next day since hey..who needs sleep to play well with storm he?

M10 Elves
G1 He plays some elves, I kill him t2.
G2 I get a warning, since I cast a Chain of Vapor (brought in for Thorn of Amethyst) and noobish said Dryad Arbor instead of another elf which I actually wanted to bounce anyway.. However he kills me t3.
G3 I therapy for MBT t1 and manage to kill him still in this turn, Grapeshot.
8-2 (17-9)

M11 MUD
G1 He wins the die roll, t1 Chalice on 1. Go.
My hand was 2 lands, and 5 Spells with cc1.. t2 Port, Metalworker, t3 Wurmcoil, scoop by me.
G2 he mulls aggresiv to a 6 consisting off Gloem, Trinisphere, Chalice, Revoker, Metalworker, Buried Ruin. I Make 12 Goblins and kill him.
G3 I mull aggresiv trying to get fast hand or at least Abrupt Decay, so I go down to 5 off 2 Lands, 2 Rite of Flame, Chrome Mox.. I thought I'm dead.
He mulls even more aggresiv down to 3 (Monolith, Trinisphere, Chalice) and says go. I draw the Empty the Warrens, make 8 Goblins and ride the to victory !
9-2 (19-10)

M12 BUG-Control
G1 I see a hand of Decay, Jace, 2 Goyfs, Pulse, Usea and Force, bait him to use his Force on wish and kill him next turn with a safely Ad Nauseam from 12 (was aroung t4 I think)
G2 He has 2 Force, Spell Pierce, and I get beaten down by 2 Goyfs before I can fight through.
G3 I see his hand and he has nothing relevant. So I go for it t2, but he drew the force..
9-3 (20-12)

M13 Canadian
G1 I therapy away his Spell Pierce, go for it and get beaten by Brainstorm which finds the Force.
G2 I Therapy away a force and a stifle, make some Goblins and get beaten by Brainstorm which finds the Pyroclasm 1 turn before he dies.
9-4 (20-14)

I have to win everything to get some money.. can I do it?

M14 BUG-Control.
To give it away, I made some huge mistakes.. really..
G1 I have the choice of cast Diminishing Returns t2 with 2 floating or go for 12 Goblins.. I'm afraid of Deed/Pulse cast the DR and fizzle because I'm 1 mana short (I removed all my Useas and the 2 lands I did draw with DR were fetchlands) to cast Ad Nauseam and die.
G2 I make 10 goblins t1 and discard his pulse t2.
G3 He starts with double Wasteland, double Hymn.
I still manage to wish for Past in Flames in case I draw some rituals, which gets discarded by the second Hymn, I wish for Diminishing Returns and sculpt following board:
I have 3 lands and Chrome Mox in Play (2 lands tapped) and put the Returns on top of my library to protect it from discard. I have 1 card in hand, LED. His hand is Daze, Maelstrom Pulse and he has a Goyf in play which beats me.
I cast the LED to protect it from topdecked discard since I need it to play around the Daze.. yep.. I really was that stupid. He destroys it with Pulse (I thought he wouldn't do it since it was his only out against Goblins as he told me). So I was 1 mana short and on a 4 turn clock. My draws: Mox, Mox, Mox.. finally I drew in my very last round a Ritual..but he allready drew a Force.
Bam ! 1 Match, 2 punts so I couldn't place in money anymore..
9-5 (21-16)

M15 Shardless BUG
G1 I make t2 14 Goblins which get there.
G2 He discards my Tutor and extracted it, I pondered into a wish and kill him.
10-5 (23-16)

M16 vs RIP-Helm
G1 I wish for Diminishing Returns to cast it next turn. He has RIP in play. My turn, I silence him, cast DR with 0 floating but a Petal in Play. The first 7 cards are: Tutor, 3 LED, Mox, Petal, Land.. crap ! So I draw into something but am 1 mana to short.. while he drew the helm and kills me next turn.
G2 I kill him t1.
G3 I have a sweet hand without protection, went for 14 Goblins t1 but he has a Force for it, I still have 2 LED's in play which I didn't even had to crack.
Later I whished for Past in Flames but am 1 mana short to kill him on the spot so I do need to wait another turn. He casts Rest in Peace..
I didn't drew into another Wish/Tutor while he lands Clique & Jace. Oh well.
10-6 (24-18)

Which was enough for place 123.

I had some really good matchups day 1 and still didn't did as well as I should, but I'm still trying to learn this deck and think I some good amount of experience after these 2 days. I punted several times to often which sucks, since this way I can't blame bad luck on my loses (ok M13 vs Canadian I can). Still had a ton of fun playing these 2 days and reached both of my goals.. next time I aim for money :p

[Lemnear]

@ GP folks

16 rounds! For god's sake, I'm too ol' for that.

[Megadeus]

I could go 16 rounds. Being good enough to day 2 a GP is another issue for me though :/

[TraxDaMax]

Went 12-3-1 at GP Strasbourg. Being 10th in the last round ... but losing the the final round to Team America (the match was on the live stream), dropping to 21st place.

My matchups were the following:

Trial on friday:

Merfolk 2-0
Goblins 2-0
Canadian 2-0
Merfolk 0-2

Main event:

Tin Fins 2-0
Canadian 2-0
ANT 2-0
BUG Delver 2-1
Canadian 2-0
TES 1-1-1 (should have been 2-0 but I punted big time!)
Stax 0-2 (Thats what you get for dropping to the draw bracket )
Esperblade with CB 2-1
SneakShow 2-1
Junk 2-0
Shardless BUG 1-2
SneakShow 2-1
EsperBlade 2-0
Canadian 2-1
Shardless BUG 2-1
Team America 0-2

I played a homebrew list. I'm going to write a full report soon.

Think you might have been my first opponent. Well played, the set up in game 1 hid info and mislead me easily.

[phazonmutant]

It seems like there were a bunch of strange TES / ANT hybrids at Strasbourg. To the people that went - were the successful storm lists mostly ANT, mostly stock TES, or strange amalgamations?

On coverage, I saw Cifka playing a list with 6 discard spells, a bunch of fetches/duals, and Rite of Flame/Burning Wish. It looked awful. I saw a person playing Cabal Ritual, Chrome Mox, and Burning Wish, and that looked awful too.

[Megadeus]

Isnt the ANT version with BWish called TnT or something like that? Im not sure why or anything...

[Lemnear]

Isnt the ANT version with BWish called TnT or something like that? Im not sure why or anything...

This is correct. The Burning Wish ANT is sometimes called TNT. Most of the lists and reports I saw were either stock ANT's which fell under the pressure of Thoughtseize/Hymn or these undecided hybrids which use Wish as a toolbox or to fight surgical extraction. The possibility that the name-issue among storm-decks may is another point :/


Spoiler: My upcoming report will feature a match vs. 16-cantrip-ANT containing an incredible hulk-up after a game-shattering Wish for Therapy and being dismembered by discard from the start.

[Awaclus]

I saw a person playing Cabal Ritual, Chrome Mox, and Burning Wish, and that looked awful too.

Actually I think that's pretty good. I haven't been running Cabal Ritual and Chrome Mox at the same time, but I've tried them both and they both work incredibly well in TES and I could see a split between them in the Mox slot.

[Lemnear]

Actually I think that's pretty good. I haven't been running Cabal Ritual and Chrome Mox at the same time, but I've tried them both and they both work incredibly well in TES and I could see a split between them in the Mox slot.

TES isn't build to reach threshold in any of it's gameplans. We don't fetch excessive nor chain cantrips to fill the graveyard and Mox/Wish remove cards instead of dumping. In addition Cabal Ritual does more damage off Ad Nauseam, don't act as initial manasource unlike mox and doesn't give you the Double red mana for Wish -> EtW/Grapeshot/PIF.

Cabal Ritual is nothing you want in a deck that focuses on Ad Nauseam and Burning Wish

[katakis]

It seems like there were a bunch of strange TES / ANT hybrids at Strasbourg. To the people that went - were the successful storm lists mostly ANT, mostly stock TES, or strange amalgamations?

On coverage, I saw Cifka playing a list with 6 discard spells, a bunch of fetches/duals, and Rite of Flame/Burning Wish. It looked awful. I saw a person playing Cabal Ritual, Chrome Mox, and Burning Wish, and that looked awful too.

One of these hybrids was played by me.

I played this list:

4 Dark Ritual
4 Rite of Flame
4 Lion’s Eye Diamond
4 Lotus Petal
2 Chrome Mox
4 Brainstorm
4 Ponder
4 Gitaxian Probe
4 Cabal Therapy
3 Duress
4 Infernal Tutor
3 Burning Wish
2 Empty the Warrens
1 Ad Nauseam
4 Polluted Delta
3 Bloodstained Mire
2 Underground Sea
2 Volcanic Island
1 Badlands
1 Bayou

SB:

2 Tendrils of Agony
1 Empty the Warrens
1 Past in Flames
1 Grapeshot
1 Diminishing Returns
3 Abrupt Decay
3 Dread of Night
2 Thoughtseize
1 Chain of Vapor

However, if you ignore the dual/fetchland manabase this list is quite close to a typical TES build.
Two EtW main? Yes, they are just that good in the current meta with all those blue aggrocontroldecks. Paired with maindeck cabal therapy they are also very good versus most non-blue decks.
Why no Chant/Silence? I expected a lot of SneakShow decks... and in this matchup additional discard is just better then chants, which are mostly useless vs an opponent with 14+ cards.

[Kayradis]

Okay.

That's enough.

I'm putting that deck together. TES looks simply too fun not to play it.

[Lemnear]

That's why you can board out the 4 silences for 2 Xantid Swarms and 2 Therapies if you feel that way. Silence in response to Griselbrand (TinFins)/Enter the Infinite is still a thing

[Kayradis]

That's why you can board out the 4 silences for 2 Xantid Swarms and 2 Therapies if you feel that way. Silence in response to Griselbrand (TinFins)/Enter the Infinite is still a thing

I really like that line of play.

[jin]

How can having too many cards in hand be an argument against Chant effects? That's the first I've heard of that. Usually, we consider Chant effects a catch all to blank out more targetted countermagic like Spell Snare, Mindbreak Trap, and Envelop. Usually Discard is the problem because it only removes one counter spell.

Any how, I guess everyone has their playing style.

[Lemnear]

I think discussing any situation after your opponent draws 14+ cards is rather pointless anyway.

It's like discussing the strength of Stifle post-Ad Nauseam vs. Storm