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

[Bahamuth]

Apart, Bahamut, please could you share your last TES list, thanks

I never test anymore, but I can tell you what I would run now.
13 land with 2 Sea 2 Volcanic 9 Fetch (I tried basics a long time ago and didn't like them at all)
7 discard (probably 4 Duress 3 Therapy)
4 Wish (used to run 3 but with Dark Petition I think I'd go up to 4)

SB:
1 Tropical
3 Decay
3 Swarm
1 ToA
1 EtW
1 PiF
1 DP
1 Void Snare
1 Massacre
1 Thoughtsize
1 Chain of Vapor

Again, I don't test at all. I just play the occasional tournament. My experience from playing Legacy for years in the Netherlands (and sometimes elsewhere) is that you can meet basically anything in any given tournament. I don't like doing things like adding a 14th land because of a theoretical shift in the meta knowing I might very well be paired against Dredge or Belcher more than against tempo decks.

[Dr_D]

@Bryant Are you still testing with the same land base you streamed the other day (basic island, badlands etc)? I'm curious to hear your opinions, as seeing that configuration made me want to pick up TES again.

[Bryant Cook]

@Bryant Are you still testing with the same land base you streamed the other day (basic island, badlands etc)? I'm curious to hear your opinions, as seeing that configuration made me want to pick up TES again.

I am not. I'm using the list on the homepage of the site. The island causes awkward hands with this deck since you need BR on turn 2 and Island doesn't help achieve this, not to mention it's pretty bad in post-board games considering how often this deck sides out Ponder. That manabase was something someone recommended to me, I think it's important to try things out to figure out proper configurations even if you dislike the idea.

[d0nkey]

My experience from playing Legacy for years in the Netherlands (and sometimes elsewhere) is that you can meet basically anything in any given tournament.

This is why my sideboard will always have maximum silver bullets.

BUT, I'm not going to come on here and try and tell any of you that it is the better idea... because it isn't. It's just better for me.

[Jaytron]

I used to play Modern Storm, so I have some experience with playing storm. I've been playing legacy for a few months now (RIP Grixis Delver).

Looking over the differences between ANT and TES (and reading the TES article), the only conclusion I've found is that TES is the more difficult of the two to pilot properly. Is that really the case, or is TES manageable without having my head explode?

[Bryant Cook]

I used to play Modern Storm, so I have some experience with playing storm. I've been playing legacy for a few months now (RIP Grixis Delver).

Looking over the differences between ANT and TES (and reading the TES article), the only conclusion I've found is that TES is the more difficult of the two to pilot properly. Is that really the case, or is TES manageable without having my head explode?

You should've taken away a lot more than that.

[Jaytron]

You should've taken away a lot more than that.

Yes, I did. I read your article.

Yes, they play differently, have different fundamental turns, etc. The real question I posed was; is TES that much harder to pilot than ANT?

[Bryant Cook]

Yes, I did. I read your article.

Yes, they play differently, have different fundamental turns, etc. The real question I posed was; is TES that much harder to pilot than ANT?

It can be, depends on your skill level. Just try them on cockatrice.

[Lemnear]

Yes, I did. I read your article.

Yes, they play differently, have different fundamental turns, etc. The real question I posed was; is TES that much harder to pilot than ANT?

I would put it in a different way: TES has a lot more angles to win/combo than ANT (which is basically natural spellchains and PIF loop only) and that is causing problems and losses for many TES pilots, as its often far from obvious towards which trait you have to work with a certain starting hand against a certain deck. Misjudging the situation and "forcing" certain playlines (like AN against tempo; T1 cantripping; EtW vs. SFM; etc.) will lead to eviable defeats pretty often (which a lot of players do not recognize because they didn't see alternatives in the first place), as the deck with its shaky manabase and low powered acceleration, is less forgiving than ANT

Your starting hand, draws and your opponents moves dictate when/how to combo/win, not you. It takes a long time to immediately see the difference between having to go for the burst combo or better grind it out; between using an engine or spellchain; between going for AN or EtW.

[Lormador]

I think a less-experienced view of the difference between these two decks will be more illustrative. I have a more simple-minded view, purely from a tester's standpoint.

TES uses Empty the Warrens, and you can get this turn 1 when you want it most of the time. You have options to play a slower game if you want, but if you feel like "Belcher plus options" is a reasonable plan, this can work well.

ANT plans to use discard spells into Past In Flames, fetching basic lands and using cantrip spells along the way.

There is also huge overlap between the decks, which is a strength of each of them.

[Bryant Cook]

Caleb Scherer​'s first article for theepicstorm.com:

http://www.theepicstorm.com/from-ant-to-tes/

[Bryant Cook]

TES made top 8 today: http://sales.starcitygames.com//deck...p?DeckID=92665

Weirdish list.

[thefringthing]

TES made top 8 today: http://sales.starcitygames.com//deck...p?DeckID=92665

Weirdish list.

A Premier IQ is a 5K, right? -1 Burning Wish +1 Preordain is kind of interesting. I wonder what the reasoning for playing two Swamps was, though.

[DarkJester]

A Premier IQ is a 5K, right? -1 Burning Wish +1 Preordain is kind of interesting. I wonder what the reasoning for playing two Swamps was, though.

I think it's a typo. 61 card-list seems like there went something wrong.

[Lemnear]

A Premier IQ is a 5K, right? -1 Burning Wish +1 Preordain is kind of interesting. I wonder what the reasoning for playing two Swamps was, though.

Its the typo which made the deck 61 cards. It should be 1 swamp only. Preordain in place of Wish isn't reasonable as you want business asap and hitting wish off AN every fucking time, so playing only 3 is nonsense, especially if you Wish->Petition->AN

[Jordon-mtg]

TES made top 8 today: http://sales.starcitygames.com//deck...p?DeckID=92665

Weirdish list.

Hey guys,

I'm the guy who played tes to this top 8. I was only running one swamp, not two. The reason for the preordained was because I don't have a 4th judge foil burning wish. Couldn't bring myself to play not matching wishes! Though I have since ordered the 4th. It's 100% correct to play all 4.

[Lemnear]

Hey guys,

I'm the guy who played tes to this top 8. I was only running one swamp, not two. The reason for the preordained was because I don't have a 4th judge foil burning wish. Couldn't bring myself to play not matching wishes! Though I have since ordered the 4th. It's 100% correct to play all 4.

Thanks for dropping in Jordon! Congratulations!

[Alix444]

Hey guys,

I'm the guy who played tes to this top 8. I was only running one swamp, not two. The reason for the preordained was because I don't have a 4th judge foil burning wish. Couldn't bring myself to play not matching wishes! Though I have since ordered the 4th. It's 100% correct to play all 4.

Storm players make me want to face-palm and smile at the same time hahahaha.

[SeoHyun]

Hey everyone,

Going to be revisiting TES because SCGNJ is coming up and I need something fun to play :) I'm going to be playing a lot more to learn the matchups (had 0 test matches last time and only managed a 5-4 finish), but I had some questions about a few in particular:

My losses that tournament were to Merfolk, 2 Grixis Pyromancer, and Imperial Painter.

How do we feel about Imperial Painter? I have a tough time going off against them if they land a quick Blood Moon. All of the cantrips and void snare turn off and if they land a Painter we have to worry about countermagic. Should I be aggressively mulliganing to get a hand with a lot of natural combo pieces? Is a small Empty on turn 1 or 2 enough to kill them, or can they stabilize? Sideboarding advice?

For Merfolk, it seems pretty tough to beat a clock plus chalice of the void, free countermagic, and arcane laboratory out of the board. I'm guessing this deck is just a pretty poor matchup.

The two grixis games were extremely close, both going to 3 games and I made a few sequencing errors due to inexperience. I can see myself winning those, the other two not so much.

Thanks again for your help guys, I'll try to keep in touch and post my progress here.

[Lemnear]

Hey everyone,

Going to be revisiting TES because SCGNJ is coming up and I need something fun to play :) I'm going to be playing a lot more to learn the matchups (had 0 test matches last time and only managed a 5-4 finish), but I had some questions about a few in particular:

My losses that tournament were to Merfolk, 2 Grixis Pyromancer, and Imperial Painter.

How do we feel about Imperial Painter? I have a tough time going off against them if they land a quick Blood Moon. All of the cantrips and void snare turn off and if they land a Painter we have to worry about countermagic. Should I be aggressively mulliganing to get a hand with a lot of natural combo pieces? Is a small Empty on turn 1 or 2 enough to kill them, or can they stabilize? Sideboarding advice?

For Merfolk, it seems pretty tough to beat a clock plus chalice of the void, free countermagic, and arcane laboratory out of the board. I'm guessing this deck is just a pretty poor matchup.

The two grixis games were extremely close, both going to 3 games and I made a few sequencing errors due to inexperience. I can see myself winning those, the other two not so much.

Thanks again for your help guys, I'll try to keep in touch and post my progress here.

Its quite late to practice this deck so close to SCGNJ, so I wouldn't get my hopes high. Bloodmoon isn't your problem at all as you need red mana anyways and you can secure black mana with Swamp, Petals and Moxen. Losing against Bloodmoon is a matter of bad hands/keeps/decisions and Painter is a classic deck for the belcher.dec mode of TES.

Fish isn't much of an issue either. Decay removes all permanents and Xantids block all counterspells without them having a method to remove the bug.

This is my current SB:

4 Abrupt Decay
2 Xantid Swarm
2 Chain of Vapor
1 Past in Flames
3 Empty the Warrens
1 Tendrils of Agony
1 Massacre
1 Dark Petition