I approached Bryant to tutor me in preparation to the most important tournament of the year, Pro Tour 25th Anniversary. The lessons were fantastic and I couldn’t recommend them any higher to people interested in the deck. Bryant quickly identified holes in my play and helped me fix them. In the process, I found myself with a better understanding of all combo decks in general. The attention to details, deep matchup knowledge & strategic vision to the deck come to him as second nature, and he has to teaching tools to pass them forward. As a Pro, I am used to constantly switching between decks and having to learn new formats. I can only wish there was someone like Bryant to coach me for every deck like he did with TES.
– Lucas Esper Berthoud (LegacyMaster) | Platinum Pro
(You can read about Lucas’s Pro Tour experience here as well as a more in depth breakdown of our tutoring sessions.)
My prior experiences with TES were very poor.
In MTGO leagues, I had a single 4-1, a few 3-2’s and A LOT more x-3’s. In paper tournaments I often ended up dropping after 3-4 rounds. I felt like I just had to be missing something with the deck. Then I found theepicstorm.com and started reading all of the resources available.
That then led me to watching Bryant stream a couple times. From the 1-2 hours I was able to catch, it was clear that his knowledge of the deck was unmatched. I know that sounds silly since he created the deck, but it was a bit of an eye opening experience for me. To see what can actually be accomplished with TES compared to how I was playing it, was very enlightening.
From there, I contacted Bryant about tutoring so that I could hopefully gain some insight directly from him. To say it was worth it is an understatement. As I said previously, I only had one 4-1 and a couple 3-2’s prior to this session. During the first tutoring session, I had my very first 5-0 in a league! Since then, I have had multiple 4-1’s and a lot of 3-2’s. I essentially went from losing non-stop to almost always breaking even. Considering where I was beforehand, that’s quite an accomplishment.
Along with getting more familiar with the deck in general, I have picked up on a lot of more nuanced things as well. One example being: putting a card on top of the library via Brainstorm, casting a cantrip, holding priority, and cracking your Lion’s Eye Diamonds for mana to give you the mana required to pay for the card you put back on top with Brainstorm. Before, little things like that would have never crossed my mind. So, not only have I gotten better with TES, I have also become a better magic player in general because I now know to look for alternate angles rather than the obvious ones.
I cannot recommend Bryant’s tutoring enough. Along with being a genuinely awesome individual, he has helped me improve my ability with not only TES, but magic as a whole.
– Joey Nichols (MEALSOLUTIONS)
As a long time Death and Taxes player who has recently branched out to TES, I was struggling to learn my role in each matchup. I was getting very frustrated with the deck because I was not winning nearly as much as I thought I would, and I felt that most of that was due to lack of experience. If you are serious about going to the next level in the shortest amount of time like I am, there is no better way than to get coaching! Bryant is one of the best TES players, and he puts the same attention to detail into each lesson that he puts into his website.
When I first saw that Bryant offered lessons, I was nervous to move forward because I didn’t have the deck built on MTGO, but he was able to accommodate me. On top of offering great lessons, Bryant was also extremely prompt and professional in his communications; it has been an all-around amazing process!
– Joshua Keith Hughes (whiskeyhughes)
I decided to get a TES Tutoring Session from Bryant shortly after I started playing the deck, I played around 10 leagues on my own with TES and was making a lot of mistakes. Bryant explained some lines and common thought processes that I should keep in mind while playing. It helped me a lot with the basics of the deck, when you should stick to your plan and when to just go for it! Immediately after the session, I played in the Sunday Legacy Challenge (on MTGO) and made it to the Top 8! Sure, you need some luck for that even if you are the best – but without the knowledge I received I don’t think I would’ve made it.
Overall, I would definitely recommend getting a session for people who want to get serious or to people who need a little push in the early phases of learning the deck.
– Johannes Meintrup (yay__)
I felt the lesson was a great experience. It allowed me to really get a handle on the things that I was doing right, the things I was doing wrong, and what can improve on. Bryant was easy to talk to, helpful, and detailed in explaining his thought process. I feel like it was beneficial to my game, and worth the money. I’d like to eventually do it again, and would recommend it to others.
– Dylan Parker (communism)
I’ve played a good amount of TES and have a pretty decent understanding of the deck (in my opinion). Bryant really helped me by pushing my weaknesses and giving me definite areas to focus on. Decisions that I commonly was 50/50 on, Bryant had a strong answer for and that helped a lot. I’ve been struggling on MTGO the past few weeks, but during the session I went 4-1 with Bryant’s help. Bryant is very easy to talk to and provide great advice where he needs to and makes you figure things out on your own when you need to. Overall, I would say it was worth every penny.
– Brian Gallagher (Chhaam)
I have been jumping around with deck choices over the years but Storm have always remained a favorite of mine. 3 months ago I decided to really dedicate myself to master the storm archetype and TES in particular. In my search for good material to read I found theepicstorm.com and started to read the material posted there. It was apparent that Bryant hand an intimate knowledge of the deck and had mastered it to a very high degree of the articles/videos I viewed. I strive to be the best I can be, so this meant that a TES Tutoring Session from Bryant seemed like an obvious investment.
The session was excellent! Bryant started with the basics and worked from the ground up. We discussed proper patterns of play with the deck and against it, matchup strategy for the individual games, and sideboarding for matchups depending being on the play and/or draw. Most of the session was spent on formulating a plan with your starting hand and how the game will play out with it. It’s one of my weak areas that he identified. One of the things I enjoyed about the session was that Bryant was very friendly and made me feel less nervous. Bryant has an ability to break down complex situations in the game and explaining the reasoning for his line after you have made your assessment and purposed a line of play that is very clear and logical. This approach helped me a lot and is one of the reasons he is a great teacher in my opinion.
In the weeks since my TES Tutoring Session, I have seen a huge improvement in my play. I have gone from a 50% win-rate to about 60% win-rate over all. I would recommend anyone that’s considering a 1-on-1 with Bryant to do it! I am certainly going to do more!
– Lennart Nevanoja (Thranuil)
I received a free TES Tutoring Session from Bryant for doing some intern work on the website. I am not a MTGO player, and Bryant was happy to work with me with a Skype screen share. After the session, I feel that I am a much better pilot of the deck and would recommend a TES Tutoring Session to anyone that is serious about getting better with TES.
– Gregory Sperry
I cannot say enough good things about my tutoring sessions with Bryant. Not only were his gameplay points invaluable, but I also received some help with tuning my decklist prior to our first league. Bryant was patient, while also being constructive and thoughtful with his comments. After my sessions, I have noticed that my understanding of my deck has significantly improved. I would wholeheartedly recommend to new and experienced storm players alike!
– Tyler Carden