MTG Salvation

Ideally don't go all in on Empty, just do a "value Empty" using manamorphose, cantrip and a ritual in the middle, that way you don't go all in and force them to use a board wipe anyways since they have no other good way of dealing with 6+ goblin tokens. 4 goblins to slowly wither down their life total is also often enough since you then only need to grapeshot for way less. Mind you this is against UW control, jeskai for example is different due to electrolyze/helix/snap.

Hey guys! Was wondering if anyone could provide some advice on the Humans matchup?
I am going to a tournament in January and expect that a small portion may be playing that or Spirits.. both of which seem difficult

Are there any suggestions on how to go into the first game? And/or sideboard strategies that work really well?

If I were to switch out any bounce spell for a blink then echoing truth would be the last one I'd choose, it has happened often enough that my opponent played 2 damping sphere/rip/leylineotv or sanctity and echoing truth was my easiest way out.

Just to add to the Humans/Spirits mu, when taking out bears against them do an even split so reflector mage doesn't strand multiples in hand, I normally take out a baral to 3/3 split. Also, on the draw cantrips can be a huge liability if they jam a turn 2 thalia so I normally board 1/2out additionally.

Awesome thank you both!I think thing in the ice is definitely the way to go! For a while I was trying Anger of the Gods but a lot of the times (especially in the spirits mu) the creatures would be higher then 3 toughness because of lord effects

Also, im surprised you don't run gigadrowse in the sideboard.. I thought it was like a Storm sideboard staple! I haven't played in a while but it always seemed to make the control and tron matchups even easier

It really depends on what follows the discard spells, if there is no clock to kill you quickly then you will eventually just make your land drops, draw past in flames/gifts ungiven, and then win the game. Discard is not that bad for us honestly, Storm is arguably the combo deck which least minds it because of PiF. If there is a clock which kills you quickly then it's a different story, playing a healthy amount of empty the warrens helps alot if we're talking about BGx decks for example and so do the Pieces of the Puzzle.


Imo Peek gets better when Dredge is a popular deck since Surgical/Ravenous Trap start seeing alot more play. It's fine against decks with counters to map out your turn but I wouldn't play it solely for that reason,

Hello, i was wondering why ppl are playing Shivan Reefs over Scalding tarn etc? Im not familiar with storm.

How do some of the more experienced Storm pilots feel about a 2-of Pyromancer Ascension mainboard or otherwise? I like the alternate route to storm off quickly with minimal resources & dodge removal; conversely I find it clunky half the time and board it out fairly often. Although my irl play time has been restricted due to higher education and university work, I have been pimping my signed Storm paper list & grinding online.

Could use some feedback. List for reference: https://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/ascension-storm-quest-to-7575-signed-cards/

The reason why we play reef over tarn is we are playing a fetchless game as part of the strategy. Most gifts decks usually have 12 cards MD that let you scry cards to the bottom. The cards you scry to the bottom are going to be all cards not furthering the line your current hand is working, so we don't want them this turn, and most likely dont want them in the following turns. So if our deck runs no fetches, once we scry them to the bottom, they are essentially gone for good. That is until you cast a gifts and reshuffle, but at that point, you should have a deterministic win on board. The slight mana thinning of the fetches doesnt out weigh the value of keeping all the sub par draws on bottom.

As for Pyromancer, it's a non starter right now. Last pro tour season, most of the people on storm were running this to help further the game plan against highly interactive decks. That isn't the meta right now. Right now there is so much dredge, amulet titan, KCI, Phoenix etc. All decks that G1 don't interact with you. When G1 they have little to no interaction you should be trying to jamb a T2 bear and T3 swing for the fences. Pyro is more of a long game storm play. Jund, Abzan, Azorious Control, Jeski type decks that pyro is good against are all trending down in the meta right now.

For anyone not following it, with out a doubt Caleb is the best storm player going with the most competitive build for the meta.
https://adventuringgear.wordpress.com

The only difference in my build from his is MD -1 opt +1 Noxious Revival, SB -2 Bolts +2 Thing in the ice

The format right now is really heavy on G1 lets race. Storm has the potential to be the fastest in that vein but if your on storm you better jamb hundreds of games with it before taking it anywhere major and you better be ready for a long day because although you are competetive in every game, you will work hard for it.

Anyone who hasn't read it, Ross Miriam article on cantrip game is relevant
http://www.starcitygames.com/articles/38048_Your-Cantrip-Play-Is-Losing-Games-Heres-How-To-Do-It-Right.html

Quote from VickVega »

The reason why we play reef over tarn is we are playing a fetchless game as part of the strategy. Most gifts decks usually have 12 cards MD that let you scry cards to the bottom. The cards you scry to the bottom are going to be all cards not furthering the line your current hand is working, so we don't want them this turn, and most likely dont want them in the following turns. So if our deck runs no fetches, once we scry them to the bottom, they are essentially gone for good. That is until you cast a gifts and reshuffle, but at that point, you should have a deterministic win on board. The slight mana thinning of the fetches doesnt out weigh the value of keeping all the sub par draws on bottom.

Thanks VickVega for this. I´ve been playing mostly Humans and Burn for now, but now im intrested of combo decks. Storm would be the number one to go with or TitanShift

NP

I think both storm and titan are really good choices in the meta right now. I would like try titan myself but don't have the time to devout to it. You may have some level of initial discouragement with the deck as the decks you have been playing are probably the hardest matches for storm so things might seem sub par but really it is a very good deck and super cheap to build.

The thing i would caution new players to storm about is the reps. If you run it at your LGS, be mentally ready to get hosed for a while. It takes a lot of reps with the deck to be really proficient. Part of the issue is the mistakes you might make aren't always glaring. When you brick a game on a really obvious play with most decks, you learn from it easily and make the correct play in the future. With storm the mistakes you make might be as innocuious as I took a ritual and not a Manamorphos off my T1 slieght of hand or something else innocuous like that. It's a mistake that doesn't jump out at you as costing the game. Then after you've had a 100 reps with the deck you see it and can say oh well that cost me the 2 spells and 1 extra blue mana I needed to get to lethal. Ive been on storm for 3 or 4 months now and trying to jamb at least 10+ tournament games a week and I'm now to the point i feel like any match can be won with it. And the matches I do lose, I'm usually so very close to the win its painful.

I definetly had a point of critical discouragement and moved off the deck for a week, then went back to it and felt much much better about it. Ive got 1 more run with it this week to prep for SCG Open Worcester.

Quote from VickVega »

NP

I think both storm and titan are really good choices in the meta right now. I would like try titan myself but don't have the time to devout to it. You may have some level of initial discouragement with the deck as the decks you have been playing are probably the hardest matches for storm so things might seem sub par but really it is a very good deck and super cheap to build.

The thing i would caution new players to storm about is the reps. If you run it at your LGS, be mentally ready to get hosed for a while. It takes a lot of reps with the deck to be really proficient. Part of the issue is the mistakes you might make aren't always glaring. When you brick a game on a really obvious play with most decks, you learn from it easily and make the correct play in the future. With storm the mistakes you make might be as innocuious as I took a ritual and not a Manamorphos off my T1 slieght of hand or something else innocuous like that. It's a mistake that doesn't jump out at you as costing the game. Then after you've had a 100 reps with the deck you see it and can say oh well that cost me the 2 spells and 1 extra blue mana I needed to get to lethal. Ive been on storm for 3 or 4 months now and trying to jamb at least 10+ tournament games a week and I'm now to the point i feel like any match can be won with it. And the matches I do lose, I'm usually so very close to the win its painful.

I definetly had a point of critical discouragement and moved off the deck for a week, then went back to it and felt much much better about it. Ive got 1 more run with it this week to prep for SCG Open Worcester.

Yeah im aware that Storm is punishing to new players (someone needs to be the ez-bait at LGS), but thats what im looking for, a bit of challenge. I might spend some money to MTGO as well so i can get that going in MTGO as well, might help a bit so i can get my games and experience.

EDIT: Not sure tho about the build which i should go with.

That's what ive been running lately. Over the last few months ive been tinkering with numbers and experimenting with different cards. This has proven to be my most optimal build. Im still toying with the idea of trimming a Empty for an ignite memories and possibly cutting a dismember for en engineered explosives or anger of the gods. But this list represents the best results ive yielded can did make T4 at a 1k.

what's the concensus on Electrodominance? will it impact storm with the free suspend spells like ancestral vision and wheel of fate?

Quote from armanski »

what's the concensus on Electrodominance? will it impact storm with the free suspend spells like ancestral vision and wheel of fate?

Its going to make an impact in storm not because you can run AV in it. Its going to make an impact because now you have a playable spell that lets you storm kill on your opponent's turn, because you can grapeshot at instant speed off of this, for 2 additional mana, and it even gives u 1 more storm count plus 2 damage to the face.

What makes this playable over quicken is that its maindeck removal. In the worst case scenario you'll only use it to kill something bad, like meddling mage. In a medium case scenario you drop a baral and kill their creature on their end step and go off. In a dream scenario you go off on their end step, make it to 14-18 storm depending on their fetch/shock behavior, then electrodominance for 2 and grapeshot off of it.

I strongly doubt you can Grapeshot kill your opponent on their turn with Electrodominance unless they've shocked themselves really low. Past in Flames is a sorcery, and if you're going the Remand/Unsubstantiate route you need to cast Grapeshot again.

If you're not using Electrodominance to play one of the costless Time Spiral suspend spells, all it really does is deal X damage for RR. Electrodominance for X=2 costs 4 mana, deals 2 damage to something, and you get a 2-drop out of it. Bolt followed by hardcasting a 2-drop costs 3 mana, deals 3 damage to something, and you get the same 2-drop out of it.

Quote from izzetmage »

I strongly doubt you can Grapeshot kill your opponent on their turn with Electrodominance unless they've shocked themselves really low. Past in Flames is a sorcery, and if you're going the Remand/Unsubstantiate route you need to cast Grapeshot again.

If you're not using Electrodominance to play one of the costless Time Spiral suspend spells, all it really does is deal X damage for RR. Electrodominance for X=2 costs 4 mana, deals 2 damage to something, and you get a 2-drop out of it. Bolt followed by hardcasting a 2-drop costs 3 mana, deals 3 damage to something, and you get the same 2-drop out of it.

Or, as already pointed out, it can be used to play a sorcery on your opponent's turn. No doubt, skipping on the GY and remand means you need to "honest storm", but eh, its the opponents turn meaning:

All the stuff they've done on your turn counts towards storm. Now if they're UW and not Izzet Phoenix then sure, its unexciting, this means you probably want to use your electrodominance to drop baral on their end step and drop their health 10%, which is still pretty attractive. Now if they're phoenix and chain 3 or more spells, you could do a significant amount of damage on their turn and finish the job on yours, or wipe their board plus a little extra to the face and PIF on yours. Note also that with a baral out, electrodominance for 2 costs 1RR, freecasts your grapeshot and counts as 1 storm.

The way I see it, this instant speed removal spell is discounted by our bears, can be used to end-step our bears, can be used in the lead up a lethal grapeshot with a meddling mage in play by simply aiming the electrodominance at it, can use an opponent's storm count to win.

The manaless spells like AV are not attractive to me, because they're bad without dominance. They're a dead card when storming off without dominance.

For Storm at least, I think electrodominance is going to be one of those cards that looks a lot better on paper than it will be in practice, and like 'quicken' will be too cute to have a real impact.

Quote from izzetmage »

I strongly doubt you can Grapeshot kill your opponent on their turn with Electrodominance unless they've shocked themselves really low. Past in Flames is a sorcery, and if you're going the Remand/Unsubstantiate route you need to cast Grapeshot again.

If you're not using Electrodominance to play one of the costless Time Spiral suspend spells, all it really does is deal X damage for RR. Electrodominance for X=2 costs 4 mana, deals 2 damage to something, and you get a 2-drop out of it. Bolt followed by hardcasting a 2-drop costs 3 mana, deals 3 damage to something, and you get the same 2-drop out of it.

Why not? With a Baral/Electromancer in play, cast some rituals on your opponents turn, cast Electrodominance for x=4 revealing Past in Flames, start playing your stuff from the graveyard to get the storm count up, flashback Electrodominance casting Grapeshot from your hand You could even do this endstep to cast an Empty the Warrens giving your Goblins pseudo haste, awesome stuff . Obviously just because you could doesn`t mean you should, it`s definitely unplayable in this version of Storm.

I need some help! How do you approach the izzet Phoenix mu post board? I would just go for a grapeshot kill, taking out empty and trimming creatures and cantrips, and bringing in some bounce spells to gain tempo, or gigadrow see to dodge dispel and negates...I saw very different approaches, would like to hear different points of view!

Quote from Arkhos92 »

I need some help! How do you approach the izzet Phoenix mu post board? I would just go for a grapeshot kill, taking out empty and trimming creatures and cantrips, and bringing in some bounce spells to gain tempo, or gigadrow see to dodge dispel and negates...I saw very different approaches, would like to hear different points of view!

Bounce, Negate, Spell Pierce, 2x Thing in the Ice. Empty is weak when they have a thing, and you need to be very, very careful of Surgical.