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

[paeng4983]

Iona didn't name Red or Black? Do you play against awful people a lot?

Pyroclasm just isn't worth it, I never want it. We have Grapeshot.

Spree's uses are just too narrow.

I forgot to mention, another candidate for the open slot: Ill Gotten Gain.

Personally, I won't cut the ADs for I am expecting a ton of countertop decks this coming weekend's event.

[Bryant Cook]

As useless as Decay has been, I've decided it's utility (Counterbalance, Chalice, Gaddock Teeg & Thalia) is too important to cut. But I am moving it's number back down to two, meaning I currently have one open slot and possibly a second to work with if I move down to one sideboard protection slot. I'm just unsure of what to put there.

[redhamjack]

What about goblin war strike? I've used it a couple of times post ETW with extra burning wishes.

[Lemnear]

What's going on here? Goblin War Strike? This is counterintuitive on so many Levels (early EtW =/= follow up Wish, EtW + Cabal Therapy interaction much better, etc.) that I won't count all. Deathmark? GS or Pyroclasm are plain better for that purpose.

Depending on what matchups you want to improve, there are a lot more and better options available

[Lemnear]

Peeps asked and here it is: the list for the Bazaar of Moxen 2013 Trials


4 Gemstone Mine
2 City of Brass
2 Underground Sea
1 Volcanic Island
1 Polluted Delta
1 Scalding Tarn
1 Misty Rainforest
1 Flooded Strand

2 Chrome Mox
4 Lotus Petal
4 Lion’s Eye Diamond
4 Dark Ritual
4 Rite of Flame
4 Burning Wish
4 Infernal Tutor
4 Brainstorm
4 Ponder
4 Gitaxian Probe
4 Silence
3 Cabal Therapy
1 Empty the Warrens
1 Ad Nauseam

3 Xantid Swarm
3 Abrupt Decay
2 Chain of Vapor
1 Cabal Therapy
1 Telemin Performance
1 Grapeshot
1 Empty the Warrens
1 Tendrils of Agony
1 Past in Flames
1 Diminishing Returns


Happy storming! Try spotting guys in shiny shoes, vests, blazers, suits at the BoM ;D

[Asthereal]

As useless as Decay has been, I've decided it's utility (Counterbalance, Chalice, Gaddock Teeg & Thalia) is too important to cut. But I am moving it's number back down to two, meaning I currently have one open slot and possibly a second to work with if I move down to one sideboard protection slot. I'm just unsure of what to put there.

You could always add the Tropical Island again.

Btw, just one sideboard protection slot seems bad. You always want one as a Wish target, but you also want to board one in vs. Tempo or other counter heavy strategies. Or do you feel you would be fine siding one Swarm in against those?

Or (it) can even be Shattering Spree.

In that case I'd vote for Revoke Existence or Hull Breach, depending on whether you run the sideboard Tropical or not.
It's nice to have a catch-all like that, but on the other hand I haven't actually used that slot in years. It just sits there giving me a false sense of security.

[Lemnear]

Btw, just one sideboard protection slot seems bad. You always want one as a Wish target, but you also want to board one in vs. Tempo or other counter heavy strategies. Or do you feel you would be fine siding one Swarm in against those?

I've done this in the recent past. Don't miss that Xantid reads "G - Flashback Cabal Therapy in your graveyard" in my build



Edit: a pal suggested the return of Karakas...

[Asthereal]

True, but it also has a Lightning Bolt target on its head.
Not many RUG/Patriot players board those out. (To the surprise of the SCG commentators, I might add. )

Karakas seems too narrow. I do like the fact that it also taps for mana though.

[Summerrain]

Attended to GP Antwerpen Legacy Events with following list after only playing smaller LGS-Events since GP Strassbourg:

Sorcery (24)

4x Burning Wish
2x Duress
1x Empty the Warrens
4x Gitaxian Probe
4x Infernal Tutor
4x Ponder
4x Rite of Flame
1x Thoughtseize

Artifact (11)

3x Chrome Mox
4x Lion's Eye Diamond
4x Lotus Petal

Land (12)

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

Instant (13)

1x Ad Nauseam
4x Brainstorm
4x Dark Ritual
4x Silence

Sideboard (15)

3x Abrupt Decay
2x Cabal Therapy
1x Chain Lightning
2x Chain of Vapor
1x Diminishing Returns
1x Empty the Warrens
1x Past in Flames
1x Tendrils of Agony
3x Xantid Swarm

Dropped after going 4:3 and fading out due to not playing in such an environment for quite a time. Deck felt very well, losses were due to one misplay, some "I prepared for 90 % of the cases and the other 10 % occured" and only against non-countermagic decks. There was a lot of Painter, Elves and D&T. Blue match-ups were fine. Xantid Swarm was not boarded once, but I still saw many High Tide and some S&T players. Played against Tom T., I think we had a really great match.

I'll now say how I interpreted my results from testing a lot before and a bit after the event. Testing after the event was mostly because of not expecting so many painter decks.

• Ill-Gotten Gains improved the Elves and the D&T Match-Up. The Elves-MU was improved significantly (5-10%). In the pre-event tests the D&T-MU could not be proven to be improved significantly, however in post-event testing it could be (~5 %). There's more testing needed there. I expect the influence of IGG on Maverick and other hatebear decks to be similar to the influence on the D&T-MU. No testing here though.
• 1 Thoughtseize main did not hurt my Ad Nauseams in all the testings and in the events played at GP. Was not comfortable with having 2 Thoughtseizes main though, that configuration led to some losses. Would need more time and testing to see exactly how often you get hands with multiple lifeloss cards and how certain match-ups are affected by that.
• Telemin Performance was tested against Omni-Tell, Sneak Show, Spiral Tide and TES. Improvements in all MUs but only one significant improvement in the Spiral Tide MU (~5%).
• Tested Karakas again as I really saw tons of D&T decks. Heavily improved that MU postboard (~10%). Bad against Ethersworn Canonist though. Did no testing against maverick but I expect similar results.
• In pre-event testing I was not happy with any Cabal Therapies maindeck. The quality of those cards might vary with pilot-skill though.
• Silence-Walk plan against Painter proved miserable. These decks really have no problem putting a Thorn of Amethyst on the board on their first turn. Revoker on LED can also hurt a lot.

This led to the following conclusions for me:

1. IGG is a card that definitely pulls its weight in certain Match-Ups. I did the cut one day before the event and really missed it a lot. I will re-include it.
2. TP was not good enough for me to deserve a spot in the Sideboard.
3. 2 spots in the sideboard should be Chain of Vapor but in really hatebear-heavy metas one could try to cut either the Chains or Abrupt Decays for Karakas. Not being able to answer Mother of Runes + Thalia led to some suboptimal Turn 2 Goblin-Line-of-plays that are easy prey for Stoneforge Mystic.
4. Cutting Duress mainboard for Thoughtseize or Cabal Therapy is a viable option (and maybe the only way) to open up slots in the sideboard. The perfect configuration requires a lot of testing though and right now I'm not sure how my "new" 75 cards look like.
5. For Europe players: Do SOME testing and practicing on the Painter MU. Was really surprised how many Painter-players attended GP Antwerpen.

Ultimately I want to thank Tom T again for the great match we shared. I'm still not 100 % sure how good TP is, but it certainly is funny.

[Lemnear]

SFM gives you a free target for Therapy. EtW isn' dead against the SFM package therefore

[Bryant Cook]

I'm going to try Telemin Performance, one thing that concerns me is that it's a sideboard slot that's somewhat narrow thats also vulnerable to Leyline of Sanctity. It could easily go back to being Tropical Island, I've also considered Surgical Extraction for Reanimator, Dredge and the Storm Mirror (There would be two copies).

[emidln]

I'm going to try Telemin Performance, one thing that concerns me is that it's a sideboard slot that's somewhat narrow thats also vulnerable to Leyline of Sanctity. It could easily go back to being Tropical Island, I've also considered Surgical Extraction for Reanimator, Dredge and the Storm Mirror (There would be two copies).

I remember playing Meddling Mage in my TES sideboard a few years back to beat ANT more reliably. I'd name Tendrils and then win with Grapeshot. Also has uses vs SnT, Dredge (realistically you don't lose games that they don't Dread Return), and when you need to next level control players. Not saying it's the most obvious include, but in a deck with probe and discard, the first copy is super powerful.

IMO play 2 Meddling Mage then deck reg as 5c Aggro Combo Control.

[Jaycounet]

I guess for the bom we can consider more patriot and merfolk on the field with the out come of the new nemesis
I like the idea of extraction makes our discard more efficient

[Lemnear]

If your opponent has more than one copy of a single card in hand, Therapy does the same as Duress/Thoughtseize + Surgical but saves cards & life.

Removing cards against other combo decks puts you into the control-Seat which is a losing Position in most cases. I'd rather be the faster deck in the combo-mirror and therefore running TP.

@Patriot: EtW + Cabal Therapy neuters any attempt to get Jitte/Batterskull going

[Jaycounet]

Means you have cabal in your hand and he has fow daze pierce before you even think of etw + cabal

[Lemnear]

Means you have cabal in your hand and he has fow daze pierce before you even think of etw + cabal

Mean he tapps out for SFM, you Therapy for FoW, have one extra mana to pay for Daze, drop EtW and flashback for skull.

If he untaps with SFM and has a million counters already, every deck might lose against such a draw or at least negated EtW as an option

[oSeabass]

TP seems really nice in the mirror and in the Show and Tell matches. I like having the Tropical Island in board to have extra mana help for Swarm and Decay.

I don't know if I miss IGG yet. I used to run a 2/1 split on Abrupt Decay/Hull Breach. Having a game 1 Wishable removal spell in the board for decks like Painter, Tezzeretor, etc. main deck Chalice decks, seems useful. If more decks start showing up with main deck hate like this, or Painter starts really ramping back up, a main deck tutor answer seems like it could be useful to pull us out of some hate bear lock in game 1.

[Tom T]

Attended to GP Antwerpen Legacy Events with following list after only playing smaller LGS-Events since GP Strassbourg:

Sorcery (24)

4x Burning Wish
2x Duress
1x Empty the Warrens
4x Gitaxian Probe
4x Infernal Tutor
4x Ponder
4x Rite of Flame
1x Thoughtseize

Artifact (11)

3x Chrome Mox
4x Lion's Eye Diamond
4x Lotus Petal

Land (12)

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

Instant (13)

1x Ad Nauseam
4x Brainstorm
4x Dark Ritual
4x Silence

Sideboard (15)

3x Abrupt Decay
2x Cabal Therapy
1x Chain Lightning
2x Chain of Vapor
1x Diminishing Returns
1x Empty the Warrens
1x Past in Flames
1x Tendrils of Agony
3x Xantid Swarm

Dropped after going 4:3 and fading out due to not playing in such an environment for quite a time. Deck felt very well, losses were due to one misplay, some "I prepared for 90 % of the cases and the other 10 % occured" and only against non-countermagic decks. There was a lot of Painter, Elves and D&T. Blue match-ups were fine. Xantid Swarm was not boarded once, but I still saw many High Tide and some S&T players. Played against Tom T., I think we had a really great match.

I'll now say how I interpreted my results from testing a lot before and a bit after the event. Testing after the event was mostly because of not expecting so many painter decks.

• Ill-Gotten Gains improved the Elves and the D&T Match-Up. The Elves-MU was improved significantly (5-10%). In the pre-event tests the D&T-MU could not be proven to be improved significantly, however in post-event testing it could be (~5 %). There's more testing needed there. I expect the influence of IGG on Maverick and other hatebear decks to be similar to the influence on the D&T-MU. No testing here though.
• 1 Thoughtseize main did not hurt my Ad Nauseams in all the testings and in the events played at GP. Was not comfortable with having 2 Thoughtseizes main though, that configuration led to some losses. Would need more time and testing to see exactly how often you get hands with multiple lifeloss cards and how certain match-ups are affected by that.
• Telemin Performance was tested against Omni-Tell, Sneak Show, Spiral Tide and TES. Improvements in all MUs but only one significant improvement in the Spiral Tide MU (~5%).
• Tested Karakas again as I really saw tons of D&T decks. Heavily improved that MU postboard (~10%). Bad against Ethersworn Canonist though. Did no testing against maverick but I expect similar results.
• In pre-event testing I was not happy with any Cabal Therapies maindeck. The quality of those cards might vary with pilot-skill though.
• Silence-Walk plan against Painter proved miserable. These decks really have no problem putting a Thorn of Amethyst on the board on their first turn. Revoker on LED can also hurt a lot.

This led to the following conclusions for me:

1. IGG is a card that definitely pulls its weight in certain Match-Ups. I did the cut one day before the event and really missed it a lot. I will re-include it.
2. TP was not good enough for me to deserve a spot in the Sideboard.
3. 2 spots in the sideboard should be Chain of Vapor but in really hatebear-heavy metas one could try to cut either the Chains or Abrupt Decays for Karakas. Not being able to answer Mother of Runes + Thalia led to some suboptimal Turn 2 Goblin-Line-of-plays that are easy prey for Stoneforge Mystic.
4. Cutting Duress mainboard for Thoughtseize or Cabal Therapy is a viable option (and maybe the only way) to open up slots in the sideboard. The perfect configuration requires a lot of testing though and right now I'm not sure how my "new" 75 cards look like.
5. For Europe players: Do SOME testing and practicing on the Painter MU. Was really surprised how many Painter-players attended GP Antwerpen.

Ultimately I want to thank Tom T again for the great match we shared. I'm still not 100 % sure how good TP is, but it certainly is funny.

You're welcome! That match was one of the most awesome matches I played the entire weekend.

1. I did miss IGG in one hand: Fetch + 2 RoF + 2 Burning Wish + LED + X.
2. Telemin Performance wasn't awesome enough to run it again, Reanimator is playing Young Pyromancer sometimes anyways. However I will test it against the Show and Tell decks.
3. I'm testing Karakas now in addition to the Pyroclasm against Thalia/Teeg decks. Karakas is also pretty awesome in the Reanimator and Sneak&Show matchup.
4. Thoughtseize was awesome against all kinds of decks, but I think I'll try Therapies instead (like Lemnear) to have a better matchup against tempo.
5. There was indeed a respectable amount of Imperial Painter. The Painter decks would get beat up by Serenity I guess, which I am testing at the moment :)

[Lemnear]

Left my suit at home ... just shiny shoes, vest and blazer. Will give updates over the weekend. Feel like I catched a cold :/

[P-E]

so your team doesn't look like that ?

good luck for BoM