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

[TimHarding]

The problem with Silence vs Duress is that it's not as mana efficient, besides only having 6 lands to cast Silence compared to 11 lands to cast Duress you rarely City of Brass, go over any other land in your hand. What I find happening is that I would've rather dropped Underground Sea and cast a Duress in the place of the 4th Silence as opposed to having dropped Underground Sea and holding Silence to where I'm now a mana down over the course of the game. As much as I like Silence, for me the dilemna is Silence, and for that matter Cabal Therapy, is awkward compared to Duress in IRL situations because you tend to hold back City of Brass for Underground Sea to play around Wasteland blind so you just end up getting Thought Seized etc.

I've also liked the SBed Infernal Tutor and 4th Fetch Land quite a bit, 13 land feels like a sweet spot.

Agreed. The 4th fetch/13th land has been bomb for me. I don't know if it is the hands I keep, or if people are just aware of how vulnerable this list can be to wasteland, but 12 was often leaving me stranded. Since the switch it has been great [going down to 2 chrome mox]. Added shuffle is a welcome bonus too. Silence is definitely worth a 4 slot, but I'll test an additional duress over the 4th one often. Still can't decide, but the edge goes to Silence.

[TimHarding]

Tournament Report

Great read. Some really excellent lines. Congrats!

My IGG usage has also plummeted, and the local meta called for a massacre/pyroclasm. It helped though I am not sold on it.

[Bryant Cook]

Great read. Some really excellent lines. Congrats!

My IGG usage has also plummeted, and the local meta called for a massacre/pyroclasm. It helped though I am not sold on it.

Thanks.

Less than four Silence is just wrong, I'm also not a fan of less than three mox. There were a few times where I really regretted siding out the third like my match against Ben where I had to stop at seven life. I have absolutely zero interest in playing a Pyroclasm or a Massacre.

[phazonmutant]

Thanks.

Less than four Silence is just wrong, I'm also not a fan of less than three mox. There were a few times where I really regretted siding out the third like my match against Ben where I had to stop at seven life. I have absolutely zero interest in playing a Pyroclasm or a Massacre.

Congrats on the top 8! I enjoyed the report.

Interesting to see that the majority of people have agreed that the sideboard needs to change a little. The current stock is definitely still fine for some metas, but Lemnear and I both seem to be less and less thrilled with Abrupt Decay against hatebear decks. If Miracles continues to be absent (and only if - seems like the Euros are still lousy with Counterbalance), then your suggestion to cut an Abrupt Decay and an IGG seem solid. How about going back to 1 Karakas and 1 Reverent Silence? I still like the 2 Chain of Vapor as answers to things like Revoker and Leyline of Sanctity.

[Lemnear]

So you noticed me ignoring A.Decays for hatebear-matchups and rather Silence-Walk the sorcery-speed hate? Keen reader ;D

I switched the 3rd Decay for one more Chain, which is an Allstar in most SB-games, 2 weeks ago. Since my durdling with Bribery back then, I haven't thought about cutting IGG again ... maybe because I see myself using it more since then, dunno.

I'm not averse from cutting a Mox for one more Fetchland due to recent Meta shifts and serious hate I expect for Bazaar of Moxen.

[lemariont]

I think that we suffer more the discard than counters. Any way to combat that with the sb??? Im thinking on a pair of dark confidants in the slots of Ill-Gotten Gains and Abrupt Decay (or maybe two Ignorant Bliss).

I have also found several situations where against miracles, they sideboard out the counterbalance to make useless our abrupt decays. So I think it is good to remove a decay.

[Lemnear]

I think that we suffer more the discard than counters. Any way to combat that with the sb??? Im thinking on a pair of dark confidants in the slots of Ill-Gotten Gains and Abrupt Decay (or maybe two Ignorant Bliss).

I have also found several situations where against miracles, they sideboard out the counterbalance to make useless our abrupt decays. So I think it is good to remove a decay.

Why should Miracles side out their greatest threat against storm combo? Ignorant Bliss is total crap and Dark Confidant are too slow to really help the deck because it takes 2 turns before they begin to create advantage after you invested 2 mana first on a fragile Body.

If you play correctly with the decks cantrips and Artifact-mana, discard isn't that backbreaking.



Edit: Bliss is nonsense because it can't stop the usual turn 1 discard ... If you are on the play, you can lay down your Artifact mana and float biz instead

[oSeabass]

So you noticed me ignoring A.Decays for hatebear-matchups and rather Silence-Walk the sorcery-speed hate? Keen reader ;D

I switched the 3rd Decay for one more Chain, which is an Allstar in most SB-games, 2 weeks ago. Since my durdling with Bribery back then, I haven't thought about cutting IGG again ... maybe because I see myself using it more since then, dunno.

I'm not averse from cutting a Mox for one more Fetchland due to recent Meta shifts and serious hate I expect for Bazaar of Moxen.

I still like the IGG in the board, against some decks with a Silence for the turn, IGG gives that nice little push to be able to get a little more bang for your buck. IGG also seems pretty good against discard when you can just grab back cards from the bin after they got discarded. I don't use the IGG much, but I do think it still belongs in the board as a wish target against decks that run a lot of discard (BUG) but not a lot of counters. The sorcery speed of their "hate" in the discard, is not castable on our combo turn once we IGG back stuff into their hand. That being said, game 2/3 they are probably bringing in Flusterstorms and more counters, so IGG is weaker. But in Game 1 against a counter light opponent (some BUG decks run 0 maindeck FoW), it is nice having the IGG target.

Sideboard Thoughts
I know the old lists used to run a Tropical Island in the board to bring in with X. Swarm. With my tweaks (Cook's list -1Mox (2), +1 fetch (4)), having a fetch-able green source for Swarm and Abrupt Decay seems decent. Having the 4th fetch works with it, since you then are = on the number of targets and fetches. Wasteland is really good against us and having a 14th land (4 fetch, 3 MB duals, 4 Gemstone, 2 CoB, 1 Trop Board) seems to make it a little more resilient. I hate having to crack a Lotus Petal for a Swarm if my 5 color land got Wastelanded, which makes me think in games 2/3 against Wasteland with Swarm in the deck, I need to be a little more cautious slamming lands down onto the field without using them right away.

-1 Mox, +1 Fetch
This has been working out nicely, having the extra shuffle is really nice sometimes. Having the extra land vs. Wasteland is helpful, when you get 1 mana for 1 card, instead of 2. I like having a non counterable (ignoring Stifle) mana source and it not being a spell in games 2/3 vs. hate like Thalia, Chalice of the Void, and Trinisphere. The only time it sucks is when you are playing a slower game to fight hate, and you have all 3 duals already in play and you draw a fetch. Had a fun one last night where I had a USea in play and put down the 2nd Delta, then had to spin the Diminishing Returns wheel with BBBUU floating against a crowded board (no way anything less then a metric ton Goblins would have got there). After the Return, I milled out the second USea, and drew the Volcanic which made me a proud owner of the saddest fetch land ever.

[Bryant Cook]

The problem with taking away a Chrome Mox is that now the deck's Ad Nauseam's are worse. We only play Ad Nauseam as our storm engine, TES is a deck that is fairly comfortable casting Ad Nauseam from ten or eleven. Making that option worse will only result in more death's from Ad Nauseam, it'll also make Diminishing Returns significantly worse. I've been pretty happy with twelve lands, this isn't a deck that should be making it's third and fourth land drop consistently guys. Keep that in mind.

I've chosen a card for the two available slots in my sideboard, I want to do some testing over the weekend and then I'll share the results.

[oSeabass]

I've been pretty happy with twelve lands, this isn't a deck that should be making it's third and fourth land drop consistently guys. Keep that in mind.

I am still learning what to keep and when to keep against certain decks. I am guessing once I learn that, sideboard games against hate will become "easier"? I feel like I need to be way more aggressive with my Silence-walking opponents in games 2/3 when I know they have Sorcery speed hate. Lately I've been holding the Silence after Probing and seeing a FoW, waiting to cast it on the combo turn.

I'll go through and read the report from the Storm Trooper himself and see if I can learn any thing :)

[oSeabass]

On the topic of Silence-walking an opponent with Sorcery speed hate (discard, hate-bears, etc), how prudent is it to waste something like a Lotus Petal to be able to get that extra turn? I feel like when I have Silence, I don't have a land to cast it, I end up having Lotus Petal. With that, I don't know how aggressive I need to be with it so I can slow them down a turn. Any advice/tips/insight?

[Lemnear]

Advice: don't 2-for-1 yourself

[Tammit67]

If Miracles continues to be absent (and only if - seems like the Euros are still lousy with Counterbalance)

Unfortunately for me, the 30-50 man events we get each month in Philly have 3-6 miracle players, 2 of whom are expected to be X-1 or better on a given day. I don't mind trying to dodge them, but it has been a while since I haven't had to face a UWx miracles deck at a local event

[lemariont]

What are you thinking for that slot Bryant??? Maybe can help you with some tests....

[Megadeus]

We should just transform into Tin Fins post SB. That would be lulzy.

[Bryant Cook]

What are you thinking for that slot Bryant??? Maybe can help you with some tests....

The card(s) I'm testing aren't revolutionary or game changing. Just looking back on some cards that have been used/suggested in the past and giving them another chance. I'd rather keep it confidential until I'm done testing. I plan to play them in a smaller 30-40 person event tomorrow.

[davelin]

Dropped a game while testing against Shardless BUG. Overall my record is favorable but wondering if I could've played this one differently. This is game 1 and I'm on the draw

Opening hand - EtW, RoF, City, Chrome Mox, Silence, RoF, Wish

BUG T1 - Mulls to 6, Polluted Delta for Underground Sea, casts Ancestral Visions
TES T1 - Draw Gitaxian Probe, cast Probe (18 life) see Flusterstorm, FoW, Wasteland and Shardless Agent. Draw and play Gemstone

BUG T2 - Draws and plays Verdant Catacombs,
TES T2 - Draws and plays Underground Sea. Cast Silence (my thinking here is to draw out a counter), BUG casts Flusterstorm in resp.

BUG T3 - Breaks Catacombs for Trop Island, plays Wasteland, casts Shardless Agent, cascades into Brainstorm
TES T3 - Draw Duress, cast Duress, take FoW, see Shardless Agent and Misty Rainforest. Drop City of Brass, cast Chrome Mox (no imprint), RoF x2, EtW for 10 Goblins (still have Wish in hand)

BUG T4 - Drop Misty, cast Shardless, cascade into Abrupt Decay (targets goblin)
TES T4 - Draws Duress, attacks with goblins, two blocked by Agents, BUG goes to 11

BUG T5 - Cracks Ancestral, draws 3. Drops Wasteland, cracks Misty into Bayou, casts 2x Tarmgoyf, wastes City of Brass
TES T5 - Draws Dark Rit

BUG T6 - Casts Deathrite Shaman, attacks with 1 Tarm (TES at 13 life), drops Wasteland targeting Underground Sea
TES T6 - Sees two Agents, two Tarmgoyfs, one Deathrite with 7 goblins and concedes


Anything obvious I could've done differently or just one of those games?

[Bryant Cook]

Went 5-0 through the swiss today in a 30 person event. Lost in top 8 game three. Mulliganed against Maverick and kind of kept a weak six. I tested two copies of Carpet of Flowers in the sideboard today over an Abrupt Decay and the Ill-Gotten Gains. I sided them in twice and never drew them. It's difficult to say how they were based on one event. However, not once did I want either of the other two cards in my sideboard. I'll continue to test them and let others know my thoughts and I encourage others to do the same. I'm aware this isn't revolutionary technology and I'm not claiming it is, but as of right now there is nothing that warrants severe metagaming as there has been in the past.

[davelin]

Went 5-0 through the swiss today in a 30 person event. Lost in top 8 game three. Mulliganed against Maverick and kind of kept a weak six. I tested two copies of Carpet of Flowers in the sideboard today over an Abrupt Decay and the Ill-Gotten Gains. I sided them in twice and never drew them. It's difficult to say how they were based on one event. However, not once did I want either of the other two cards in my sideboard. I'll continue to test them and let others know my thoughts and I encourage others to do the same. I'm aware this isn't revolutionary technology and I'm not claiming it is, but as of right now there is nothing that warrants severe metagaming as there has been in the past.

Bryant, what matchups are you siding these in and what are you taking out?

[Lemnear]

I'm sceptical about Capet for the current meta. It's not helpful if I face discard-heavy decks near every round (sans RUG Delver and OmniTell) which is an effect of DRS/A.Decay being a central part of the Metagame.

For the matchups I would side in CoF (Tempo and to consider: S&T) I fixed the problem of being blocked by Daze, Pierce, etc. a while ago for doing calculations about adding the 4th Fetchlad and ending up with it in place of the 3rd Mox and I'm full aware of natural T1/2 EtW/AN suffering from that.

It's a metagame decision, because I was very successful battling Heavy discard with stable mana and in Germany the Dark Mavericks and German T.hold(BURG with DRS + Delver + Nimble Mongoose + Probe + Thoughtseize + Daze) take over.