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

[Pelikanudo]

6-3 at tales of adventure.
r6-RUG
g1-i jam a t3 bloodmoon through infernal+led shenanigans. He looks at his stifle and scoops them up a couple turns later.

just to be constructive, but this is one of the most absurd things related to magic I've never read. anyway lot of thanks as this was absolutly funny.
again, IMHO.!

[Lemnear]

6-3 at tales of adventure.

Report of losses
R1- Sneak+show
g1 he mulls to 6, t1 grissle. I win if he doesnt have force.
g2 he keeps garbage handle and i win on 5 cards w/ xantid
g3 i likely punted. opp's hand is 5 mystery cards and 4 lands in play. (3 untapped) There's about 5 cantrips he has cast this game.
He is at 16.
My board is 2 gold lands, fetch. Hand is 2x Dark rit, LED, Wish, Infernal, Pyroblast. Yard is brainstorm and xantid. Top card is ponder. My sequencing: Fetch, Dark rit, Infernal (get dark rit), dark rit, wish (get tendrils), rit->spell pierce. I pyroblast. He swan songs. I lose 2 turns later to combo. After discussing it, the proper sequence was likely rit->infernal (rit)->rit->rit (5 floating)-> Led->wish(access to 5 mana currently w/o led). If thats's his hand, he wins if he casts pierce then swan, any other outcome is gg.

you combo'd too early for my taste. With Ponder on top you could have wished for targeted discard (that's why we hace TS/Duress in the board instead of Therapy) and either provoke a counter here or gain information about your opponents hand. There are plenty of options available with those you don't have to throw your whole hand in the face of 5 unknown cards :/

r6-RUG
g1-i jam a t3 bloodmoon through infernal+led shenanigans. He looks at his stifle and scoops them up a couple turns later.

I mean ... WTF. Blow your hand for Bloodmoon in a 4-color deck without any Basics. Funny bad beat story for your opponent regardless

g2-I draw too many chrome mox and cantrip into oblivion. Goyf's eat me

Brainstorm them away, ignore your lifecount and work towards PIF. This should be possible if you casted plenty of cantrips.

g3-I make 6 gobs on t1. Opp is at 7 with a goyf and I have 4 gobs now. I decline to lava spike (this was wrong in hindsight). Fast forward 5 turns later, I have 3 wishes gone and my hand is IT/LED/Ad naus with 4 mana in play. My opponenet is at 3 after 2x forces(pitching stifles) and fetches and another goblin attack. Board is flipped delver+goyf vs 3 gobs and he has cast multiple cantrips (3 cards in hand). I go and get grapeshot and it meets the 3rd stifle. I'm out of win cons and can only put him to 1.

come on ... 6 goblins?

r8-Miracles
g1-pierce, jace, brainstorm, force and 3 lands on the play is his 7. He draws top on his first drawstep. I get close to winning.
g2-I win on t2 after he forces my silence and I decide to ad naus with 0 floating.
g3-I was never in this game. Blind name counterbalance shows me a clique, force, and brainstorm and a gone CB. He aggressively brainstorms and locks himself. the 2nd brainstorm pulls him into double UU. He gets a 2nd CB and proceeds to blind flip countering my next 4 spells. I get clique locked.

why you casted 4 spells right into counterbalance instead of sandbagging spells here?

My wins were RUG, BUG, Blue elves, RB entomb/painter, oops all spells, and another blue deck.

List for shame:

4 Gemstone Mine
1 Volcanic Island
2 Underground Sea
3 Chrome Mox
4 Lotus Petal
4 Lion's Eye Diamond
4 Burning Wish
4 Infernal Tutor
4 Gitaxian Probe
4 Ponder
4 Brainstorm
4 Dark Ritual
4 Rite of Flame
3 Cabal Therapy
1 Ad Nauseam
1 Empty the Warrens
2 Misty Rainforest
1 Scalding Tarn
2 Silence
1 Thoughtseize
1 Blood Moon
2 Mana Confluence
SB: 1 Past in Flames
SB: 1 Diminishing Returns
SB: 2 Xantid Swarm
SB: 1 Empty the Warrens
SB: 2 Abrupt Decay
SB: 1 Grapeshot
SB: 1 Tendrils of Agony
SB: 1 Tropical Island
SB: 1 Chain of Vapor
SB: 1 Cabal Therapy
SB: 2 Pyroblast
SB: 1 Blood Moon

playing the full 5c manabase for 2 Silences? Bloodmoon is crap.

[mario91234]

@Lem, I didn't "just jam" into CB. i had options over the course of 4 turns in the face of his blind counterbalance. Every time I started on a line, it was nullified. My hand vs rug was land, petal, empty, dark rit, wish, wish, infernal. Are you telling me you'd mull? Against sneak, I definitely think going to it that turn is correct. He could just have sneak attack and creature w/ petal. Gold lands are great and silence is great.

For people actually interested in blood moon, it's in there to give additional lines. Sometimes, you just want a 5 mana combo that's imune to stifle, or 6 mana combo thats immune to daze...you get the point. Obviously it's complete trash if your opponent plays a threat before then. only cast it if you're opponent loses to it. It won me 3 separate games. If you're skeptical, try it out on a not so major event. It was good enough that I wanted a 2nd in my board.

[Megadeus]

It's interesting since you still have petal and chrome moxen to make the colors you need. I'm not sure if I like it though

[Lemnear]

Game 3 on the draw vs. daze.dec with 3 dead card in your hand with a best case of 6 Goblins? Very likely a mulligan for me

[laserstone]

How much worse is (2 Usea, 1 Volc, 1 Blands) than (2 Usea, 2 Volc)?
Are there any advantages to playing the 3 Dual, 3 Fetch, 6 Rainbow manabase over the 4-4-4 split?

[Kidbails]

How much worse is (2 Usea, 1 Volc, 1 Blands) than (2 Usea, 2 Volc)?
Are there any advantages to playing the 3 Dual, 3 Fetch, 6 Rainbow manabase over the 4-4-4 split?

The first question is addressed in the OP, but basically badlands can't cast a cantrip, and therefore you must mulligan more. I've never had a problem with the manabase as it is now.

I would only play the 3 dual, 3 fetch, 6 rainbow configuration if I decided to go back to playing silence. If you play the OP's list, I'd definitely stick to the 4-4-4 split because it makes your brainstorms better and you are slightly more resilient to wasteland.

[laserstone]

I've never had a problem with the manabase as it is now.

Yeah, the reason I was asking is because I don't have the 2nd Volcanic, only the Badlands, and getting the Volcanic may be tough (poor student, been saving for this deck for a long time, but could only nab one Volc before the prices doubled ).

Playing Bloodstained Mires as fetches, which can't fetch Trop from the board, do you still recommend the 4-4-4, and if so, should the Trop in the board be a Bayou?

[Kidbails]

Yeah, the reason I was asking is because I don't have the 2nd Volcanic, only the Badlands, and getting the Volcanic may be tough (poor student, been saving for this deck for a long time, but could only nab one Volc before the prices doubled ).

Playing Bloodstained Mires as fetches, which can't fetch Trop from the board, do you still recommend the 4-4-4, and if so, should the Trop in the board be a Bayou?

Badlands is a fine replacement for the time being, it just means you'll end up having to mulligan more often.

The bloodstained mire thing is a bigger problem because it can't get tropical island. In that case, you could play a bayou, but this is definitely not a good replacement. This could be a situation where I play extra rainbow lands and cut the tropical island in the board, but this is also not ideal (obviously).

[Megadeus]

I think at that point I may want to play the old 6 rainbow land configuration honestly. Storm decks are the one style deck in the format where you lose too many percentage points when playing with sub optimal choices to even be good.

[jake556]

Yeah, the reason I was asking is because I don't have the 2nd Volcanic, only the Badlands, and getting the Volcanic may be tough (poor student, been saving for this deck for a long time, but could only nab one Volc before the prices doubled ).

Playing Bloodstained Mires as fetches, which can't fetch Trop from the board, do you still recommend the 4-4-4, and if so, should the Trop in the board be a Bayou?

Compliments of my buddy Jack http://mtgtop8.com/event?e=7562&d=243382&f=LE

[laserstone]

Compliments of my buddy Jack http://mtgtop8.com/event?e=7562&d=243382&f=LE

This is one of the decklists I based my own list off of. I'm not a fan of Silence though.

[Lemnear]

How much worse is (2 Usea, 1 Volc, 1 Blands) than (2 Usea, 2 Volc)?
Are there any advantages to playing the 3 Dual, 3 Fetch, 6 Rainbow manabase over the 4-4-4 split?

The bloodstained mire thing is a bigger problem because it can't get tropical island. In that case, you could play a bayou, but this is definitely not a good replacement. This could be a situation where I play extra rainbow lands and cut the tropical island in the board, but this is also not ideal (obviously).

Yeah, the reason I was asking is because I don't have the 2nd Volcanic, only the Badlands, and getting the Volcanic may be tough (poor student, been saving for this deck for a long time, but could only nab one Volc before the prices doubled ).

Playing Bloodstained Mires as fetches, which can't fetch Trop from the board, do you still recommend the 4-4-4, and if so, should the Trop in the board be a Bayou?

Man, it's nice being able to just quote myself on most repeating topics with this gem:

Fetchlands deserve a special mention. A lot of people have the opinion, that the kind of fetchlands does not matter much as long as they can target all dual lands in the deck, which is wrong from a strategic point of view. Using a Polluted Delta to put an Underground Sea into play sends a completely different message to your opponent than putting a Volcanic Island onto the battlefield with the help of an Misty Rainforest or Flooded Strand. The later options likely lead your opponent to believe that you are playing some kind of RUG Delver or Patriot Delver and will cause him/her to make some miserable plays in the face of combo like tapping out for a Tarmogoyf. TES uses it's fetchlands to disguise itself in game one's early turns. This is especially true if you are required to cast a turn one cantrip like Ponder, a situation in which it is usually advised to begin the game with a Volcanic Island rather than an Underground Sea. No Legacy player would necessarily expect storm combo by opening with Flooded Strand → Volcanic Island → Ponder. The fetchlands in the list I presented earlier disguise you as RUG Delver and it's free to you to change those to mimic a deck like Patriot Delver with Scalding Tarn + Flooded Strand for example, but I advice you to run a mix of Fetchlands in any case: Surgical Extraction and Pithing Needle are common sideboard cards.

...

During the unveiling of the beforementioned list, there was a lot of confusion about running 2 Underground Sea and 2 Volcanic Island instead of a further emphasis towards shuffle-effects by running only a single Volcanic, but 5 Fetchlands. Even more radical suggestions like 1 Underground Sea, 1 Volcanic and 6 Fetchlands popped up for discussion, but those suggestions missed a few points. While I love shuffle-effects in a deck which contains full sets of Ponder and Brainstorm like the next guys does, running Volcanic Island or Underground Sea only as singletons can cause several serious problems at times.

...

The first and obvious flaw in the plan to reduce the actual number of mana-producing lands is the existence of Wasteland. Hands down, this colorless Sinkhole is a cornerstone of the Legacy metagame and not being prepared to fight it equals losing games. Seeing your singleton Dual destroyed and your remaining 4+ Fetchlands (see: beforementioned land-configuation) unable to put either a red- or black-producing land into play, can be the backbreaker for your attempt to go into the combo. To prevent running out of quality targets (in terms of color), or running out of targets altogether (in case you drew/fetched every one of your duals, which turns further drawn Fetchlands into blanks), the list settled on an equal amount of Fetchlands and Duals. Furthermore, several possible scenarios underline the importance of running 2 of each Dual, like drawing an opening hand containing Underground Sea, a Fetchland, Ponder, Cabal Therapy and Thoughtseize. There is no way to squeeze out the maximum of value without a second Underground Sea in your 60, as it would be impossible to cast Ponder prior to fetching a second land and still being able to cast a discard-spell. Throwback: Now imagine Wasteland hitting your Underground Sea with that hand! Suddenly your discard-spells are turned off, as the Fetchland has no Underground Sea left to dig up!

;D

[Tengo_Hambre]

So i ended up 21st at scg dallas this weekend after losing my win and in match and then drawing the final round to guarantee top 32. Here is a tournament report with details i can remember.

R1: burn (W)
Game 1 i get 12 goblins in on the play before eidolon hits. Glad i won the dice roll.
Game 2 therapy nabs eidolon turn 1 and i ad nauseam for the win turn 2

R2: fish (L)
Game 1 i have the opportunity to make 12 goblins using brainstorm-probe-LED trick but fail to put empty back on top of my library...punt (note: i did hit a point where past in flames in my board would still have gotten me the game but i wasnt running it today)
Game 2 double force and no discard ensures my doom

R3: fish (W)
Game 1 turn 2 empty for 10 goblins gets there just barely before he could build up enough blockers with vial and lands
Game 2 he mulls to four and keeps a force-less hand. Unfortunate loss for him here.

R4: burn (W)
Game 1 i mull to 5 and he hits turn 2 eidolon on the play. Manage to kill it with wish for pyroclasm but burn too many resources to kill him in time.
Game 2 turn two empty for 16 gets it done
Game 3 i look to make 18 goblins turn 3, cast wish and look through my board to find it empty-less...oops. Left it in my mainboard after wishing for it the previous round. I settle for tendrils for 18 (leaving him at 1 after a fetch) and hope to hit one of the two emptys or a wish for grapeshot. A few turns of draw-go finds him another land and an eidolon. I empty for 6 the next turn and attack for the win. Got lucky not to be punished for sloppiness here.

R5 UR delver (W)
Game 1 his only action is delver plus snapcaster bolt. I go to make a bunch of goblins from a low teens life total and he decides to snap-bolt me mid sequence (i think he was afraid of me ad-nauseam-ing into some sort of counter. He admitted to being out of the game for a while.) anyway, the 2 bonus storm allow me to tendrils for lethal.
Game 2 he flips an early delver and hits me into the single digits. The time comes to go and i can tendrils for the exact 18 lethal. Probe reveals an irrelevant daze which he wound up donating to the storm count. Would have been lethal anyway though he was annoyed with himself after the game.

R6 fish (W)
Game 1 probe revealed a counterless hand of fish and ad nauseam from a high 19 life ended it the next turn.
Game 2 double cursecatcher plus a known daze delayed me a few turns, when i finally had the mana to play through them he had found a force.
Game 3 turn 1 probe reveals two true names, 2 lords and a daze with and island and another irrelevant card. He hits a wasteland for my only land but i have a second chrome mox a turn later after missing a land drop. I lay one into the daze and then the second with an imprint, followed with a couple of rituals, led, wish, empty for 16 which gets the job done. Probably a bad keep on his part and some mis-sideboarding when we talked after the game; TNN is way too slow to matter and his hand had no clock and no real action outside of wasteland+daze.

R7 BUG delver (L)
Game 1 mull to a 6 of probe, brainstorm, petal, therapy, mine and misty. He lays a turn 1 delver, i draw duress and then probe him to reveal land, goyf, hymnx2, force. Follow up with therapy on hymn. He flips delver with a daze and lays goyf. I lay a fetch and brainstom, which he dazes, so i fetch but lose out on the shuffle. I draw into fetch fetch ritual and die a few turns later.
Game 2 i keep a turn two kill with a probe (it was something like chrome mox, led, petal, dark rit, gemstone mine, tutor, probe) probe reveals force, daze, brainstorm, double wasteland and some more lands. I pass the turn without laying a land hoping to draw discard or a swarm. I hit the swarm on my turn 3, play a land and the swarm, he brainstorms and then forces pitching force. I have enough mana still to empty through a daze so i go for it but he managed to brainstorm into a spell pierce. My gemstone mine eats a wasteland the next turn. He hits a dark confidant a few turns later after ive built enough steam to try again, i go for it with only artifact mana and end up eating another counter. I lose shortly thereafter.

R8: BUG delver (ID)

Here was my list- i went back to 4 chrome moxes-i hate drawing them in multiples but love a few things about them, 1) they're a non waselandable, repeatable source of mana even though they're card disadvantage. 2)even when you have nothing to imprint they're a free storm count. 3) they make it much more difficult to brick off of ad nauseam even with no land drop left and 0 mana floating. This is my biggest reason for running the full playset...i really hate resolving ad nauseam and not winning, which happened a few times in a side event the day prior with a duress in the place of the last mox (more for lack of a mana source than the damage taken from duress)

4 lions eye diamond
4 lotus petal
4 chrome mox
4 dark ritual
4 rite of flame

4 gitaxian probe
4 brainstorm
4 ponder

3 infernal tutor
4 burning wish

4 cabal therapy
2 duress

1 ad nauseam
1 empty the warrens

2 scalding tarn
2 misty rainforest
2 volcanic island
2 underground sea
1 tropical island
4 gemstone mine

Sideboard
3 abrupt decay
3 xantid swarm
1 massacre
1 pyroclasm
1 void snare
1 empty the warrens
1 tendrils of agony
1 duress
1 thoughtseize
1 grapeshot
1 infernal tutor

Note: i cut past in flames from the board because i almost never want it...you have to have multiple of your 2 rituals, burning wish AND infernal tutor for it to ever be useful which has happened to me twice in my admittedly minimal experience with the deck. How often do you guys find yourselves wishing for the past in flames? And am i using it wrong (i usually look to be grabbing it the turn i go off)? Should i be grabbing it a turn prior and then using it in conjunction with led mana or something?

Also, i will say i was pleased with the extra mox and maindeck tropical island all day and took mental note of several times where i was saved by having mana from one or the other over the 3rd duress. That said, i would like to have a 7th protection spell in the main and am not sure what to replace if i continue ignoring the 3 mox conventional wisdom. Currently considering shaving a ponder or just going up to (gasp!) 61 cards. Thoughts?

[vercadium]

Personally, I can't see myself ever going back to the old mana-base or Silence in the foreseeable future. I'm sure there are exceptions were I would, like scenarios where everyone starts playing Spell Snare and Stifle, but none of these seem likely. The current list just feels so tight; I feel like we've reached something of a milestone with the decks development.

As a semi-related aside, I finally confessed that I'll never get to use my Planeshift Foil Orim's Chants again. They're being sold. :'( </3.

[Lemnear]

Here was my list- i went back to 4 chrome moxes-i hate drawing them in multiples but love a few things about them, 1) they're a non waselandable, repeatable source of mana even though they're card disadvantage. 2)even when you have nothing to imprint they're a free storm count. 3) they make it much more difficult to brick off of ad nauseam even with no land drop left and 0 mana floating. This is my biggest reason for running the full playset...i really hate resolving ad nauseam and not winning, which happened a few times in a side event the day prior with a duress in the place of the last mox (more for lack of a mana source than the damage taken from duress)

4 lions eye diamond
4 lotus petal
4 chrome mox
4 dark ritual
4 rite of flame

4 gitaxian probe
4 brainstorm
4 ponder

3 infernal tutor
4 burning wish

4 cabal therapy
2 duress

1 ad nauseam
1 empty the warrens

2 scalding tarn
2 misty rainforest
2 volcanic island
2 underground sea
1 tropical island
4 gemstone mine

Sideboard
3 abrupt decay
3 xantid swarm
1 massacre
1 pyroclasm
1 void snare
1 empty the warrens
1 tendrils of agony
1 duress
1 thoughtseize
1 grapeshot
1 infernal tutor

Note: i cut past in flames from the board because i almost never want it...you have to have multiple of your 2 rituals, burning wish AND infernal tutor for it to ever be useful which has happened to me twice in my admittedly minimal experience with the deck. How often do you guys find yourselves wishing for the past in flames? And am i using it wrong (i usually look to be grabbing it the turn i go off)? Should i be grabbing it a turn prior and then using it in conjunction with led mana or something?

Also, i will say i was pleased with the extra mox and maindeck tropical island all day and took mental note of several times where i was saved by having mana from one or the other over the 3rd duress. That said, i would like to have a 7th protection spell in the main and am not sure what to replace if i continue ignoring the 3 mox conventional wisdom. Currently considering shaving a ponder or just going up to (gasp!) 61 cards. Thoughts?

I have no problem with passing the turn after Ad Nauseam as long as you calculate the possible damage output from your opponent. This usually happens if I start my flips with a bunch of cantrips and Tutors/Wishes but no mana in sight and proceed to work towards PIF in these cases.

PIF is an MVP against grindy discard-matchups and decks dealing lots of damage in short time. There is no issue in getting several Rituals if you double those in your hand with Infernal or use cantrips accordingly, as usually 3 rituals are enough for a PIF loop. You neither need Infernal AND Wish as you can chain those into each other to place an Infernal in your graveyard and a wish in your hand. I find myself working towards the PIF loop pretty often.

I doubt you need more protection spells as you can wish for your SB discard anytime you need it without drawing them in matches you want gas instead. I mean, you have basically 10 discard spells in your mainboard to break through defense and 12 cantrips to find them, on top of 4 Infernals to double the discard in hand. That's nearly half your deck, so I usually rise an eyebrow evertime I read that peoples are unable to find at least 1 protection spell over several turns ;)

Why do you run 2 sweepers and 2 discard spells in your SB which are redundant but can't find space for PIF?

[Megadeus]

I wouldn't cut PiF. Like Lem said, it is one of your best options versus the discard decks. Being able to just sit and infernal for redundant rituals and such as they tear up your hand only to simply wish for pif and kill them is just a very nice option to have

[Tengo_Hambre]

I have no problem with passing the turn after Ad Nauseam as long as you calculate the possible damage output from your opponent. This usually happens if I start my flips with a bunch of cantrips and Tutors/Wishes but no mana in sight and proceed to work towards PIF in these cases.

PIF is an MVP against grindy discard-matchups and decks dealing lots of damage in short time. There is no issue in getting several Rituals if you double those in your hand with Infernal or use cantrips accordingly, as usually 3 rituals are enough for a PIF loop. You neither need Infernal AND Wish as you can chain those into each other to place an Infernal in your graveyard and a wish in your hand. I find myself working towards the PIF loop pretty often.

I doubt you need more protection spells as you can wish for your SB discard anytime you need it without drawing them in matches you want gas instead. I mean, you have basically 10 discard spells in your mainboard to break through defense and 12 cantrips to find them, on top of 4 Infernals to double the discard in hand. That's nearly half your deck, so I usually rise an eyebrow evertime I read that peoples are unable to find at least 1 protection spell over several turns ;)

Why do you run 2 sweepers and 2 discard spells in your SB which are redundant but can't find space for PIF?

The redundant sweepers are a product of wanting one to be viable against plainsless decks. I never went for massacre but also never played vs a plains. I did go for pyroclasm a few times and was fairly pleased with the card. The redundant discard was so i could board one in and still have a wish target, though i never ended up taking this line of play. I can definitely find space for past in flames, i just found myself rarely wanting it so i played other cards instead.

For grindy discard matchups, are we talking jund, shardless bug, bug delver, or other decks I'm not thinking of? Im also curious how this line of play usually goes. If youre tutoring for burning wish you need to be hellbent or have the wish there to reveal, which means you are probably not tutoring for it anyway. If youre hellbent, you need 9 mana to chain tutor-wish-pif-begin flashback, and if you have that much mana, why not just chain a tutor once and empty, or go get ad nauseam? Otherwise, the pif route sounds like a multi turn one that is still very situational ( if you have red rituals you'll need access to RB after you pif to get the black for tutor-a minimum of 6 mana before casting it, for example). When you guys go the pif route do you often wind up emptying or do more often work into a lethal tendrils? Anyway, I'm not trying to say you guys are wrong or that the card is bad, but i would like some more description of some specific lines of play you've taken with it to better understand how and when to use it. My logic isn't figuring it out. Also, What rough percentage of games do you find yourself in a situation to use past in flames? Ive wanted it occasionally but not very often, perhaps 1 in 30 games.

I have never passed the turn after an ad nauseam; i tend to keep going until i can kill them that turn or kill myself (only done that once so far). This is a play pattern i can definitely work on (though at least i know myself well enough to tune the deck toward this tendency ;p). Anyway, i will definitely add this to my bag of tricks for the future :)

[wonderPreaux]

Hi again everyone, I'm on a bit of a cold streak with this deck lately, and I'm hoping I can snap out of it soon. The past 3 dailies in a row, I've ran into Miracles and lost to it, very frustratingly. The Miracles deck seems to be everywhere online, and I've run into some aggravating techs postboard like Ethersworn Canonist or Leyline of Sanctity. I'm wondering if anyone has had similar experience lately, or has any suggestions on flex slots I could tinker with, or other suggestions for a very Miracle-heavy meta.

It just gets to be annoying facing that deck because I feel like I have to draw significantly better than them in 2 games to win, which just isn't a consistent plan. There are games where I even get a good hate piece, like Needle on Top, and it just doesn't matter because they have a hand full of counters and hatebears. Obfuscating things more is that they can just open absurdly too, like a postboard game I lost where the opponent opened 2 Leylines of Sanctities, and then still have Force of Will + Blue card for my t1 Ad Nauseam, it's hard to train myself to play around counters when the opponent just has absurd hands like that.

[Lemnear]

The redundant sweepers are a product of wanting one to be viable against plainsless decks. I never went for massacre but also never played vs a plains. I did go for pyroclasm a few times and was fairly pleased with the card. The redundant discard was so i could board one in and still have a wish target, though i never ended up taking this line of play. I can definitely find space for past in flames, i just found myself rarely wanting it so i played other cards instead.

this is imo a topic of the philosphy you have of piloting the deck. I for myself, don't see me wasting resources to sweep creatures other than hatebears (which are all white except Eidolon).

For grindy discard matchups, are we talking jund, shardless bug, bug delver, or other decks I'm not thinking of?

You can add BUG Control with Deeds and Lilianas or Deadguy to that category as well

Im also curious how this line of play usually goes. If youre tutoring for burning wish you need to be hellbent or have the wish there to reveal, which means you are probably not tutoring for it anyway. If youre hellbent, you need 9 mana to chain tutor-wish-pif-begin flashback, and if you have that much mana, why not just chain a tutor once and empty, or go get ad nauseam? Otherwise, the pif route sounds like a multi turn one that is still very situational ( if you have red rituals you'll need access to RB after you pif to get the black for tutor-a minimum of 6 mana before casting it, for example).

for a lot of those matchups you can simply drop mana and float business with your cantrips or chain your tutors/wishes turn 4 turn and slowroll in the face of Lilana or a slow clock of Shardless Agent untill you have enough rituals/cantrips in your hand/graveyard to blow your opponent out with a flashbacked PIF via permanent manasources including Petals or LEDs. Key is to gather as much permanent mana as possible.

When you guys go the pif route do you often wind up emptying or do more often work into a lethal tendrils?

obviously this depends completely on your available mana, the turn and your opponents options. I can't give a general advice for such questions

Anyway, I'm not trying to say you guys are wrong or that the card is bad, but i would like some more description of some specific lines of play you've taken with it to better understand how and when to use it. My logic isn't figuring it out.

oh my ... I dunno if specific situations really help for a deck which is best piloted on intuition. Some lines overlap with the natural-10-count-blueprint to create more stormcount to battle Batterskulls lifegain or to replay Discard (like against FoW + Stifle in opponents hand) or as the mentioned comback-move against discard as mentioned above.

Also, What rough percentage of games do you find yourself in a situation to use past in flames? Ive wanted it occasionally but not very often, perhaps 1 in 30 games.

1/6 if I shoulf guess

I have never passed the turn after an ad nauseam; i tend to keep going until i can kill them that turn or kill myself (only done that once so far). This is a play pattern i can definitely work on (though at least i know myself well enough to tune the deck toward this tendency ;p). Anyway, i will definitely add this to my bag of tricks for the future :)

Edit:

Hi again everyone, I'm on a bit of a cold streak with this deck lately, and I'm hoping I can snap out of it soon. The past 3 dailies in a row, I've ran into Miracles and lost to it, very frustratingly. The Miracles deck seems to be everywhere online, and I've run into some aggravating techs postboard like Ethersworn Canonist or Leyline of Sanctity. I'm wondering if anyone has had similar experience lately, or has any suggestions on flex slots I could tinker with, or other suggestions for a very Miracle-heavy meta.

It just gets to be annoying facing that deck because I feel like I have to draw significantly better than them in 2 games to win, which just isn't a consistent plan. There are games where I even get a good hate piece, like Needle on Top, and it just doesn't matter because they have a hand full of counters and hatebears. Obfuscating things more is that they can just open absurdly too, like a postboard game I lost where the opponent opened 2 Leylines of Sanctities, and then still have Force of Will + Blue card for my t1 Ad Nauseam, it's hard to train myself to play around counters when the opponent just has absurd hands like that.

Playing against miracles again and again is crap for any storm deck. Period. There are however quite some sneaky techs to try if you have some self loathing and want to keep storming in an field full of Miracles. A tech you can try are Young Pyromancers which Kai championed in Prague in an ANT shell while TES can even drop them T1 on a more reliable base unlike its storm twin and care less for Leylines, Canonists, Meddling Mages or spells getting stuck in the Counterbalance