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

[phazonmutant]

Dunno, I'm the Margaret Thatcher of mulligans

What? What does a old PM have to do with mulligans?

[Megadeus]

I keep a lot of no-landers, usually with the thinking that they're pretty good if they draw a land so I can cantrip into another mana source to go off. That burns me reasonably often though, so I'm trying to find a better heuristic.

If the goal is to have to mulligan fewer no-landers, we probably should be playing more lands. But that doesn't seem right. Maybe I should just be more willing to go to 6?

Probably. I mean I think I'm pretty loose when it comes to keeping hands, but I think that with no IMS I am mulling unless a single IMS will just win me the game. Usually I think about it like: How many pieces do I need? If I just need a single piece then Ill almost always keep. Two or more and it depends on what they are. But then again I love keeping 3x Gitaxian Probe Hands because I love drawing cards for free (Protip: 6 life =/= free lol)

[Lemnear]

What? What does a old PM have to do with mulligans?

Being posterchild-conservative. I rather cantrip for 1-2 turns than mulligan in most cases

[Bryant Cook]

Played TES for the first time in awhile tonight. Beat UR Delver, Death and Taxes, UW Miracles and then ID against Stoneblade. Beat Sneak & Show and then split with Stoneblade again (Time). The list is still awesome.

[Megadeus]

Played TES for the first time in awhile tonight. Beat UR Delver, Death and Taxes, UW Miracles and then ID against Stoneblade. Beat Sneak & Show and then split with Stoneblade again (Time). The list is still awesome.

And I STILL suck with it. I was having trouble beating the new mono blue Show and Tell deck earlier tonight in testing. I cant tell if it is a bad MU or Im just bad.

[Lemnear]

And I STILL suck with it. I was having trouble beating the new mono blue Show and Tell deck earlier tonight in testing. I cant tell if it is a bad MU or Im just bad.

Nah, it's a strong deck. Just managed to beat it with multi Silence lately. Close games

[RaNDoMxGeSTuReS]

And I STILL suck with it. I was having trouble beating the new mono blue Show and Tell deck earlier tonight in testing. I cant tell if it is a bad MU or Im just bad.

Don't miss on your therapies.

[phazonmutant]

Played TES for the first time in awhile tonight. Beat UR Delver, Death and Taxes, UW Miracles and then ID against Stoneblade. Beat Sneak & Show and then split with Stoneblade again (Time). The list is still awesome.

Glad to see you back on the Source! I was wondering if you had sold your collection or something.

Edit: tournament report!
Won $35ish splitting Top4 of my weekly local on Wednesday. Turnout is still low with only 16ish people, but at least we had 4 rounds this time. Here's a quick summary:
Rd 1 - alphastryk with UWr RiP Miracles
Wonderful, we drive out an hour just to play against my roommate. I have a near-perfect tournament record against him though, so I can't say I'm displeased
G1 stalls out after a couple of discard spells. I'm trying to empty my hand and find fast mana to play Silence + IT -> AN, but at least I know he has garbage. I finally draw a Dark Ritual and Silence is enough to let me AN for the win.
-1 Silence, -1 Infernal Tutor, -1 Empty, -1 Chrome Mox, -1 Ponder, +3 Abrupt Decay, +1 Cabal Therapy, +1 Chain of Vapor (I know he has a hatebear sideboard)
G2 I keep a slower hand with lots of disruption. After Abrupt Decaying a Meddling Mage, I'm stuck with a Petal, Volcanic, and 2 Gemstone Mines with one counter each in play, and a clunky hand with a Chain, a Wish, a Silence, and I think a ritual or something. He drops Counterbalance and I draw Abrupt Decay, but can't kill the CB because I don't have the kill in hand and both Mines would die. Eventually he gets greedy and taps out to play and activate Helm of Obedience (RiP already in play). I Decay the Counterbalance, Chain the RiP, hit pretty good off Brainstorm, then manage to resolve Diminishing Returns (2 floating) and Force-Check him successfully to Wish for the Tendrils.
1-0

Rd 2 - Justin with UWr Hawk Miracles
I love Squadron Hawk so much. Awesome to see someone still rocking them.
G1 I cantriped and Duressed him a couple of times. He got Batterskull online and swung in, then I found the mana for an Ad Nauseam from 15. Flipped Empty and a bunch of not-mana. Died.
Same boarding as before.
G2 I had an opportunity to IGG-loop for the kill with no protection on my turn 2 after he passed with only a fetch up, but didn't see it and didn't take it. He dropped Canonist into Meddlng Mage before I could Grapeshot the Canonist and locked me out. After the game we talked about it and it definitely would have been correct to just go for it on my turn 2. Miracles tends to have trouble with fast starts.
1-1

Rd 3 - Eric with 4c Seismic Loam
G1 was over quickly with a natural Tendrils kill on my turn 2.
Boarding -1 Empty, -2 Silence, -1 Infernal Tutor, +3 Abrupt Decay, +1 Cabal Therapy
G2 I expected Chalice of the Void, but kept a strong no-land hand that could win turn 1 if undisrupted. He used Mox Diamond to power out Raven's Crime then Inquisition, and finally played a Chalice on 0. Ouch. The game dragged out painfully long with him retracing Raven's Crime at every opportunity, but despite several mistakes with colors count, manacount, and Wish choices, I was able to Wish for a Past in Flames and an Infernal Tutor over subsequent turns and then Tutor for a third Rite of Flame and Wish up an Empty for over 20. I had therapied his Dreams earlier, and he didn't draw another in the one turn.
2-1

Rd 4 - Steven with Junk Depths
We drew, but decided to play out the match for fun.
G1 I won through a Thoughtseize on turn 2.
Don't remember exact boarding, but likely -1 Empty the Warrens, -1 Silence, -1 Infernal Tutor, +2 Chain of Vapor, +1 Cabal Therapy, maybe an Abrupt Decay or 2.
G2 He mulliganed to 5 and had nothing but a couple of Knights in hand the turn before I went for it. Unfortunately I went for a Diminishing Returns instead of an Empty for 16, he Extirpated my LEDs and I bricked and he drew well. Definitely a mistake.
G3 was over quickly as well. He mulliganed into a hand with a Living Wish and a GSZ and an Extirpate, but I killed him before he could deploy either.
2-1-1

Quarters - Morgan with Pox
G1 Morgan had an awkward draw with no black sources but a Wasteland and a Mishra's Factory. He didn't draw a black source in the 2 turns or so I gave him and killed with Empty.
No boarding. Or possibly -1 Silence, +1 Cabal Therapy.
G2 He disrupted me heavily with some discard spells, but only had 1 swamp in play. I Emptied for a measly 6 tokens, but I thought that would be enough given his light threat-density and lack of removal postboard. I knew he had a Engineered Plague in hand, but I had the Therapy for it next turn. Unfortunately, he drew Dark Ritual and then a couple of lands and Liliana to seal the game.
G3 Was a brutal turn 1 Ad Nauseam. Easily won.
3-1-1 overall

Split the prize money and went to get delicious Pho. Mmm.

I'm feeling good about playing this list at SCG Nashville this weekend. Keep an eye out for me!

[SaberTooth]

i top4'ed yesterday in a 99 men tournament with the same 75 on the op -1 duress +1 cabal therapy maindeck. the list is a blast, and ill gotten gains won me 2 games, i won a candelabra of tawnos, so im happy, but i missplayed on top 4, so i lost

[phazonmutant]

SaberTooth - congrats! The deck is very rewarding - keep practicing!

Wrote a little tournament report for SCG Nashville: http://www.mtgthesource.com/forums/s...h-TES&p=725734
I didn't do great in the event, but hopefully you guys can get something from it.

[Pelikanudo]

Played TES for the first time in awhile tonight. Beat UR Delver, Death and Taxes, UW Miracles and then ID against Stoneblade. Beat Sneak & Show and then split with Stoneblade again (Time). The list is still awesome.

Did you play the 1 Therapy - 2 Duress Main List or the 3 Duress Main List?

[Bryant Cook]

Did you play the 1 Therapy - 2 Duress Main List or the 3 Duress Main List?

The list on the opening post was outdated. I've been on the single Therapy for months.

[mike1987]

Do you guys usually brainstorm eot or main phase with this deck? I know brainstorming main phase allows you to dig one card deeper but it also sets you back by one mana. What is the correct play here?

[Lemnear]

Do you guys usually brainstorm eot or main phase with this deck? I know brainstorming main phase allows you to dig one card deeper but it also sets you back by one mana. What is the correct play here?

Free yourself from the concept of "usually" with this deck. It's impossible to answer such a question without further knowledge of the gamestate/cards/turn/opponent. The only thing I can tell for sure is that's "ok" to Brainstorm end-if-turn if you have 2 brainstorms in hand and an untapped U.Sea/Volcanic. For Gemstone/City of Brass you have to evalute the damage/counters

[mike1987]

Free yourself from the concept of "usually" with this deck. It's impossible to answer such a question without further knowledge of the gamestate/cards/turn/opponent. The only thing I can tell for sure is that's "ok" to Brainstorm end-if-turn if you have 2 brainstorms in hand and an untapped U.Sea/Volcanic. For Gemstone/City of Brass you have to evalute the damage/counters

Thanks. Been trying more of TES than ANT recently. Find that TES is harder to play than ANT as there are much more decision trees to make but helluva more fun as well cause ANT is just trying to go PIF PIF PIF

[Lemnear]

Thanks. Been trying more of TES than ANT recently. Find that TES is harder to play than ANT as there are much more decision trees to make but helluva more fun as well cause ANT is just trying to go PIF PIF PIF

ANT isn't bad by any means but much more limited in it's options and angles which makes it less of a blast to play than TES. TES provides more miraculous comebacks and insanity but is less forgiving which makes ANT the superior choice for most players.

I doubt there are more than 100 players worldwide which can pilot TES to it's full potential

[Sockosensei]

I built T.E.S. in December and have studied the thread and storm hands and goldfished over and over, but last night marked my first games with T.E.S. vs live opponents.


Rd 1: vs Sneak & Show.
I lose game one to Emrakul so quickly I can hardly remember.
In game 2 I Brainstorm and Ponder assembling a hand to go off, but don't pay enough attention to protection. I get the cards to go off, but it'd be on an all-in IT popping LED and I'm pretty sure he's holding Force of Will. A Probe drawn next turn reveals he has Force, Force, a soft counter, and Griselbrand. He soon drops G, draws approximately 28 cards, and kills me before I can find a way through.

Moment of the match: one of my Ponders revealed Silence, Chrome Mox, and Petal. I shuffled and drew since I still had a Brainstorm in hand. I think it was the call, but not finding any more protection or a Wish for Therapy really stung.

0-2 loss


Round 2: vs UWr Stoneblade

Moment of the match: I remember finding myself with 3 lands in play and a hand of LED x3, Dark Ritual x2, and IT x2. I'm getting hit by Batterskull, and my Probe has seen Force, Snapcaster, Brainstorm, and a Sword. He may have been tapped out. Is there some way to push this through that I'm missing, or is it just sit and wait to draw protection?

0-2 loss


Round 3: vs Esper Stoneblade
G1 he discards my LED and I rip EtW off the top and have Rites and such to pop out 12 goblins with Silence still in hand for future aid. They get there so quickly that I'm still not sure what deck he's on.
G2 no memory, except that he won.
G3 comes down to extra turns with me making him tap out to counter one spell of my chain, and then gambling that the 4 cards he's still holding don't include Force (and blue card) for my Tutor. He isn't, and I find Wish into Tendrils.

2-1 win



The bad:

• I made so many misplays that, had he been watching, Bryant would have needed surgery to separate his palm from his forehead. I came away feeling that this was the worst Magic I'd played in years.
• Only won 2 of 7 games.
• I need to play more patiently. I lost one game by starting to combo off a turn earlier than I should have.

The good:

• When I went for it in g3 of the final round, I had the awareness to read my opponent's body language as he Spell Pierced an earlier spell, and was 99% sure he wasn't also holding Force of Will. (I would have gone for it anyway because I like to make them have the answer, but it meant less stress to my heart!)
• T.E.S. is almost unknown in my area and some people think I'm on ANT.
• Lots of room for improvement! :-)

Note to self: Rite before Ritual.

[Lemnear]

A few notes:

- write down your starting hands; I can't comment decisions without knowing your hand.
- game 2, I have no idea why you wait past turn 3 with this hand. You have 16 (!) mana here for no reason.
- Don't durdle around with cantrips vs S&T decks. If you have to waste time doing so, prevent S&T/SneakAttack/DreamHalls with Duress, Wish->Therapy or Silence

[sconnell]

I built T.E.S. in December and have studied the thread and storm hands and goldfished over and over, but last night marked my first games with T.E.S. vs live opponents.

Goldfishing only goes so far in terms of getting you ready to play live opponents. I'm guessing that maybe you don't have many opportunities outside live opponents to test? If you want to keep practising solo, you might want to test against different scenarios. For example, you can try the following hypotheticals:
Test against an opponent who will deal 1 damage to you on turn 1, 2 on turn 2 and so on, (you can vary the damage if think some other pattern is more realistic.) This can be helpful in terms of getting used to Ad Nauseum at lower life totals.
Test against an opponent who will always cast Hymn to Tourach on turn 2. This can help you think about using brainstorms/ponders to work around discard.
Test against an opponent who will always go turn 2 Stoneforge (for Batterskull), activate it turn 3 and always has FoW and a blue card (you can duress/therapy those cards.) This can help against permission with a clock.
These are really really crude approximations and this is no substitute for actual opponents. However, if you can only practise solo then I'd suggest mixing things up a bit.

Your "moments of the match" are rather puzzling. They both seem to follow from key decisions that have already been made in previous turns, rather than being key moments. The first is impossible to evaluate without knowing what other cards are in your hand. The second, there may have been an opportunity to go off earlier on, but we can't tell. If you probed turn 1 and saw FoW + blue card, and only ever drew mana + 2/IT, then I'm not sure if there's any way out of that. It might have made sense to cast a non-hellbent IT to bait FoW. Otherwise, there was quite possible a point where you should have just gone for it and hoped the opponent didn't have FoW.

You say that you need to play more patiently, and in one game you started comboing off one turn too early. If you mean that you didn't have enough mana then yeah, that's a problem. But, if you are talking about trying to play around permission, then you need to be really careful. Waiting longer isn't necessarily the right call. Combo decks with FoW are quite capable of drawing into their win conditions and just killing you if you wait too long.

[Sockosensei]

Thanks for the replies.

I don't have friends nearby who play legacy so my only chance to 'test' is by actually bringing the deck to my local shop for legacy night, which is what I did. I'd rather fail hard and learn than leave the deck on my shelf.
Anyway, I'll test the hypotheticals you posted, sconnell.

I apologize for my vague write-up. We play 40-minute rounds and I'm still not as comfortable with the deck as the rest of you so my 'notes' were really sparse. Lemnear, I don't think I'll get to your level of thoroughness in my match reports, but I'll work harder at it.

Rd2, g2: If you probed turn 1 and saw FoW + blue card, and only ever drew mana + 2/IT, then I'm not sure if there's any way out of that. It might have made sense to cast a non-hellbent IT to bait FoW. Otherwise, there was quite possible a point where you should have just gone for it and hoped the opponent didn't have FoW.

My opener was something like Dark Rit x2, LED, IT, Gemstone, Gemstone, Ponder on the play. Keep.
Opponent snap keeps looking smug. I figure there's no way he keeps like that on the draw unless he's holding Force, so I don't risk the T1 all-in play. Perhaps he was tricking me, but I don't think he's the type to risk it.
I ended up drawing more mana and Tutors, and a probe around t3 or 4.

Once I drew the second IT, I actually did try baiting a counter with a non-hellbent IT. He thought about it but didn't bite. In retrospect, I probably needed to do it more confidently, so I'll add that to my list of points to work on.