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

[Lemnear]

Yes, side-boarding should be natural, adaptive and most importantly based on understanding. You are correct that strict sheets of +/- often under perform and are not the way to go.

I believe you exaggerate "boarding on the fly" however. There is still a correct, optimum sideboard based on defaults for a given match-up that should be used as a baseline and known before entering an event. Yes, there will be changes based on the opposing player and I'm not saying it's "set in stone", as information you receive will change your plan.

Sure, if they board out Terminus, you can use Empty the Warrens. Yes, Xantid Swarm is appealing if they are boarding out 1/2 Flusterstorms for Lightning Bolt. You're right in both of these cases, but realistically, how often are you going to be able to gather such precise information? 15% of the time?

Of course, there will be random scenarios where you know the guy, or you overheard him talking to his friends before the game. But for most other occasions, even if we assume the pilot is some master of the mind who knows 50% of the time exactly what is going out and coming in, it's still worth taking the time to create and discuss an optimum default sideboard strategy for the match-up.

I would argue, that even at 50%, unless you have good & solid information, that side-boarding away from this optimum configuration based on your 'gut' is more likely to get you blown out. If your information is good & solid, then by all means, stray from the path and use that advantage. Otherwise, just like the main-deck, there is a correct default and following this will often yield more consistent results.

Yes, there is a default boarding plan for each matchup and that one is a) covered in the OP and b) nearly free from individual card choices but conceptional guidelines. Everything that goes beyond the default boarding plans (which start by removing the unneccessary Duress against creature decks or cutting some cantrips in fast matchups or boarding Moxen in slow, grindy matchups) described there is a result of additional information (knowing your opponents 75 during Top8 elimination; because you face the same people over and over at a local event; etc.).

Therefore, the sole answer to the question of how Bryant specificly boarded in his match against Jared should have minimal impact to your own boarding plans in the future, which is all I wanted to highlight

[Megadeus]

Played TES for the first time since like February. I haven't gotten to try the new lists with Cabal Ritual yet. I hate it. I also forgot it was supposed to have 2 Volcanic, so I had to play a Steam Vents. Lol. Went 3-1 though splitting the finals. Beat Merfolk, Lost to URW Delver, Beat Maverick, then beat URW Delver in the semi's (same guy).

Only really interesting game was my finals match. In game 1 he had a double force, spell pierce hand with a delver on T1 and 1 land. I cast cabal therapy on T2 and he forces pitching TNN. Next turn I cast LED and he spell pierces, I decline to pay, cast ponder. A couple of turns later I cast therapy, he dazes, so I know his hand is force, volcanic, STP, and a mystery card. I cast 2 LEDs, then infernal and crack them, he didnt have another blue card and I emptied. Game 2 he ponders. I keep a no lander, with 2x Probe, 2x Petal, Burning Wish, chrome mox, and LED. I Draw like a ponder. I Probe. He dazes. I probe. see he has no way to interact. Draw rite of flame. Cast Petal petal chrome mox, LED, Rite of Flame, Burning Wish. for Tendrils. GG. Felt good. Not sure how I would change the deck, but I think the 13th land seemed fine. I boarded in Trop every game. Also Since I told the URW delver guy in the swiss that I brought in Xantid Swarm, in the T8 I faked them and noticed he kept in 2 STP so that was cool.

[Bryant Cook]

Played TES for the first time since like February. I haven't gotten to try the new lists with Cabal Ritual yet. I hate it. I also forgot it was supposed to have 2 Volcanic, so I had to play a Steam Vents. Lol. Went 3-1 though splitting the finals. Beat Merfolk, Lost to URW Delver, Beat Maverick, then beat URW Delver in the semi's (same guy).

Only really interesting game was my finals match. In game 1 he had a double force, spell pierce hand with a delver on T1 and 1 land. I cast cabal therapy on T2 and he forces pitching TNN. Next turn I cast LED and he spell pierces, I decline to pay, cast ponder. A couple of turns later I cast therapy, he dazes, so I know his hand is force, volcanic, STP, and a mystery card. I cast 2 LEDs, then infernal and crack them, he didnt have another blue card and I emptied. Game 2 he ponders. I keep a no lander, with 2x Probe, 2x Petal, Burning Wish, chrome mox, and LED. I Draw like a ponder. I Probe. He dazes. I probe. see he has no way to interact. Draw rite of flame. Cast Petal petal chrome mox, LED, Rite of Flame, Burning Wish. for Tendrils. GG. Felt good. Not sure how I would change the deck, but I think the 13th land seemed fine. I boarded in Trop every game. Also Since I told the URW delver guy in the swiss that I brought in Xantid Swarm, in the T8 I faked them and noticed he kept in 2 STP so that was cool.

Fo what it's worth, I'm not playing Cabal Ritual at the moment. My most up to date list is in the opening post.

[mario91234]

Played 5 matches yesterday. Beat burn, elves, bant, and jund. Lost to miracles in t8. Did not play stock list. Diminishing returns was needed vs jund. Only t1'd elves. Mulled to 6 a lot.
Props to pizza, diminishing, rite of flame, and chill opponents.
Slops, no play-draw rule, losing and getting zilch

In the miracles matchup, i was at 3 therapy, 2 decay, 2 problast, 2 swarm, 2 silence after board w both thoughtseize and therapy and IT in side. Is this excessive or just what ya gotta do? Game 1 i lost to casting 4x brainstorms and bricking on a protection spell to race his top-cb/force draw. G2 i jammed goblins since he had a clique hand and ended up e-tutoring(didnt know about) for the GG. Things seemed to come together pretty well for my opp that match.

Overall, feel very prepared for tales tournament. Any advice on the miracles games and sideboarding would be helpful.

[Lemnear]

Played 5 matches yesterday. Beat burn, elves, bant, and jund. Lost to miracles in t8. Did not play stock list. Diminishing returns was needed vs jund. Only t1'd elves. Mulled to 6 a lot.
Props to pizza, diminishing, rite of flame, and chill opponents.
Slops, no play-draw rule, losing and getting zilch

In the miracles matchup, i was at 3 therapy, 2 decay, 2 problast, 2 swarm, 2 silence after board w both thoughtseize and therapy and IT in side. Is this excessive or just what ya gotta do? Game 1 i lost to casting 4x brainstorms and bricking on a protection spell to race his top-cb/force draw. G2 i jammed goblins since he had a clique hand and ended up e-tutoring(didnt know about) for the GG. Things seemed to come together pretty well for my opp that match.

Overall, feel very prepared for tales tournament. Any advice on the miracles games and sideboarding would be helpful.

Cut Silences, adjust manabase and don't run 11 protection spells to complain later that you are bricking. SB advice for Miracles is in the OP (if your list is totally different, further SB advice is impossible to give without knowing your list)

[Megadeus]

Okay, I now see the differences between your current list and what I played last night. I'm not sure if I'm a fan of the third chrome mox, but I honestly can't think of what else I would want it to be. So glad this deck is on 4 Therapy now as well, since that card was the absolute nut. Are Pithing Needles for like the tempo match up to name wasteland or miracles for top?

[Lemnear]

Okay, I now see the differences between your current list and what I played last night. I'm not sure if I'm a fan of the third chrome mox, but I honestly can't think of what else I would want it to be. So glad this deck is on 4 Therapy now as well, since that card was the absolute nut. Are Pithing Needles for like the tempo match up to name wasteland or miracles for top?

I doubt you can find space in your MB to add the needles for Wasteland only (without removing overall better cards). Other than that I primary added Needles as splash hate against SDT and Griselbrand/SneakAttack but it has more use like against:

DRS
Symbiote/Quiron
Cephalid Coliseum
Candelabra
Eye of Ugin
Aether Vial
Engineered Explosives
Equipment cards
Planeswalker cards
Charbelcher/Undercity Informer
Dark Depths/Thespian's Stage
Seige-Gang Commander
Cursecatcher
Forgemaster
Rishadan Port
Goblin Welder
Grindstone
Scavenging Ooze
Relic of Progenitus/Tormod's Crypt/Nihil Spellbomb
Queasy Pridemage
Knight of the Reliquary
Man-land Cards
Grim Lavamancer
Vampire Hexmage
Sterling Grove
Academy Ruins

That's some relevant and less-than-relevant targets to keep you interested

[Bryant Cook]

Okay, I now see the differences between your current list and what I played last night. I'm not sure if I'm a fan of the third chrome mox, but I honestly can't think of what else I would want it to be. So glad this deck is on 4 Therapy now as well, since that card was the absolute nut. Are Pithing Needles for like the tempo match up to name wasteland or miracles for top?

I've wanted the Mox back, I really noticed weaker Ad Nauseams with Cabal Rituals.

[Megadeus]

I definitely wouldn't want it main board. I do like it as an option though. The only slot I'm not a fan of is the third chrome mox anyway. I'm Just not sure what else to actually play outside of maybe like a random spirit guide, but that seems pretty bad.

[Megadeus]

I've wanted the Mox back, I really noticed weaker Ad Nauseams with Cabal Rituals.

I'll admit that there was a time last night that because of Cabal not being a mox, I wasn't able to go of after an ad nauseam. Dunno. Third mox may be alright, I just keep remembering all of the times that I draw a double Mox opener or something

[vercadium]

Yeah, I really like the 3rd Chrome Mox and I think the deck is better with it, but it is incredibly frustrating when multiples are drawn naturally. Brainstorm alleviates this significantly though. I don't think there's a perfect solution to that flaw at the moment.

[mario91234]

Cut Silences, adjust manabase and don't run 11 protection spells to complain later that you are bricking. SB advice for Miracles is in the OP (if your list is totally different, further SB advice is impossible to give without knowing your list)

I wasn't bricking. My opp's hands were top/brainstorm/force/cb/plow/entreat/fetch and he drew tundra for turn g1.
G2, i look at pierce/brainstorm/force/clique/lands.

How many interaction spells are optimal to play post board? My deck post side was 13 lands, rits, 1 mox, 10 cantrips, 7 tutors, and the 11 interaction.

[Lemnear]

I wasn't bricking. My opp's hands were top/brainstorm/force/cb/plow/entreat/fetch and he drew tundra for turn g1.
G2, i look at pierce/brainstorm/force/clique/lands.

How many interaction spells are optimal to play post board? My deck post side was 13 lands, rits, 1 mox, 10 cantrips, 7 tutors, and the 11 interaction.

When I have to ask how you plan on beating SDT + CB or Clique with Silence or Xantid? Both are crap if your opponent responds with Clique, even worse if they block your swarm. Both also do nothing against the SDT actions.

Does this mean that you shove 2 Moxen, 1 Therapy, 2 Ponder + 1 EtW into your SB in exchange for the Xantids, Decays and Pyroblasts? Asuming you ran 3 Silences (like the latest list we had with 3 Silences, 4 Therapies), I would have cutted those, the EtW and the 3rd Mox for 2 Decays, 2 Blasts, 1 ToA

I still don't get what you want to express with "Game 1 i lost to casting 4x brainstorms and bricking on a protection spell".

[Asthereal]

I still don't get what you want to express with "Game 1l i lost to casting 4x brainstorms and bricking on a protection spel".

Lem, your comment was that if you play 11 interaction, you shouldn't be surprised to brick.
He only played 11 interaction game 2, not game 1. That would be cheating.

What I would want to play postboard:
4 Brainstorm, 4 Probe, 3 Ponder (11)
4 LED, 4 Petal, 4 Rite, 4 Ritual, 2 Mox (18)
13 Land (13)
7 Tutor, 1 Ad Nauseam (8)
That leaves room for 10x interaction tops.

2x Decay, 2x Peedle, 6x Discard seems best.

Am I wrong here?

[mario91234]

2 silence, 2 pyro, 2 xantid, 3 therapy, 2 decay post board. Am i understanding correctly that xantid and silence are bad vs miracles? In the first game i needed any protection spell on my brainstorms to win.

[Lemnear]

Lem, your comment was that if you play 11 interaction, you shouldn't be surprised to brick.
He only played 11 interaction game 2, not game 1. That would be cheating.

What I would want to play postboard:
4 Brainstorm, 4 Probe, 3 Ponder (11)
4 LED, 4 Petal, 4 Rite, 4 Ritual, 2 Mox (18)
13 Land (13)
7 Tutor, 1 Ad Nauseam (8)
That leaves room for 10x interaction tops.

2x Decay, 2x Peedle, 6x Discard seems best.

Am I wrong here?

Yeah, my bad. I still a) consider 11 protections spells postboard overkill and b) do not understand the sentence I bolded.


Edit:

2 silence, 2 pyro, 2 xantid, 3 therapy, 2 decay post board. Am i understanding correctly that xantid and silence are bad vs miracles? In the first game i needed any protection spell on my brainstorms to win.

They are. If I understand you correctly, you fired 4 Brainstorms and still did not find a protection spell, despire all options to shuffle, to Ponder or to wish for TS?

[mario91234]

I kept: petal, led, rit, mine, brainstorm, probe, IT. I saw more led, another 2 brainstorms and an additional IT plus lands before dieing to cb lock. I infernal'd for the 4th.

[Lemnear]

I kept: petal, led, rit, mine, brainstorm, probe, IT. I saw more led, another 2 brainstorms and an additional IT plus lands before dieing to cb lock. I infernal'd for the 4th.

Ah, you did not draw into protection and used the term "bricking" for that. The correct sequence T1 here would have been to put back Brainstorm and LED on top, draw LED turn 2 and Infernal for LED #2 via Petal. This way you would have seen more fresh cards while having 2 LEDs & 1 Infernal & 1 Brainstorm in hand with a land in play. In the end it might not have changed much ... dunno

[Asthereal]

2 silence, 2 pyro, 2 xantid, 3 therapy, 2 decay post board. Am i understanding correctly that xantid and silence are bad vs miracles? In the first game i needed any protection spell on my brainstorms to win.

I'm not the expert on this matchup, but let's look at what will kill us:
- CounterTop lock
- Permission spells (4x FoW, 2-4 Spell Pierce, 0-2 Counterspell, 0-2 Flusterstorm and 0-2x Envelop post board)
- Hate bears (usually Meddling Mage, though some play Canonist, which I would prefer in my Miracles list)

They usually keep in Terminus, in case we dump the Warrens on the board on turn one.
They usually cut 4x StP, 1x Karakas, 1x Entreat for 3x Meddling Mage and 3x extra Permission spell.
At least, that's what I would probably do.

We need stuff that is useful against all that. Swarm only works against permission spells, and it dies to Terminus. Silence also only works against permission spells. Decay kills Meddling Mage and Counterbalance. Pithing Needle stops Top, which also prevents them from floating a permission spell on top of their deck, outside the reach of our discard. Our discard can hit any of the important spells.

So yeah, Swarm and Silence are meh in this matchup. If you would post your entire list with 60 + 15, I could suggest a boarding plan for you.

[Lemnear]

I'm not the expert on this matchup, but let's look at what will kill us:
- CounterTop lock
- Permission spells (4x FoW, 2-4 Spell Pierce, 0-2 Counterspell, 0-2 Flusterstorm and 0-2x Envelop post board)
- Hate bears (usually Meddling Mage, though some play Canonist, which I would prefer in my Miracles list)

They usually keep in Terminus, in case we dump the Warrens on the board on turn one.
They usually cut 4x StP, 1x Karakas, 1x Entreat for 3x Meddling Mage and 3x extra Permission spell.
At least, that's what I would probably do.

We need stuff that is useful against all that. Swarm only works against permission spells, and it dies to Terminus and Clique. Silence also only works against permission spells but is pointless if your opponent has Clique in his hand. Decay kills Meddling Mage and Counterbalance. Pithing Needle stops Top, which also prevents them from floating a permission spell on top of their deck, outside the reach of our discard. Our discard can hit any of the important spells.

So yeah, Swarm and Silence are meh in this matchup. If you would post your entire list with 60 + 15, I could suggest a boarding plan for you.

This is correct. Thanks for hinting at Meddling Mages which are also common cards Xantid and Silence cannot adress