Wow, it doesn’t seem like five years (to the day) has passed since theepicstorm.com was launched. Actually, five years ago was the last time the New York Mets were good — so… this seems about right. What a journey it has been!I’d like to start off by thanking everyone who’s visited the site, watched our videos, read our articles, participated in the community, made a site purchase, experienced a tutoring session, and especially those of you who sleeved up [[Rite of Flame]]. From the bottom of my cold [[Dark Ritual]]-heart — thank you. I truly appreciate the support and interest in what we do here. Notice how I said, “we?” The EPIC Storm isn’t just myself — Bryant Cook.Since our inception, we’ve been extremely privileged to host a variety of very talented and skilled magicians on our staff:
Special shout-out to our editor Mitch Blankespoor who does tons of work behind the scenes to make sure the quality of what we do is at it’s highest level.
This website is a community operation, kept afloat by a revolving cast of volunteers that drive the soul of the site. From one-off articles to articles series and play-by-play videos — a family of authors and content creators cultivate and share their best ideas about Legacy and the deck we love. I am extremely grateful for their support, time, and all the hard work they put into building our encyclopedia of Storm knowledge.To put it in perspective of how far we’ve come, I’ve included a few screenshots of the site’s history:
Homepage Layouts
2015
2017
2020
You can click on any of the previews to open a PDF of the full homepage of theepicstorm.com from each respective year.
2015
2017
2020
You can click on any of the previews to open a PDF of the full homepage of theepicstorm.com from each respective year.
It’s pretty amazing how far the website has come. But, it’s not only the layout that’s been upgraded, but we’ve also added a veritable storm of features/add-ons which are beyond anything I ever dreamed we’d accomplish. Let’s take a look at some of my favorite bells and whistles.
- Custom Card Hovers — These are particularly impressive and while I built the foundation, Alex McKinley has really made it his own. The goal was always to use them for affiliate links, but they’ve become so much more. Now they not only show the card art, but they also link to our own shop, Amazon, and TCGplayer while giving the viewer the choice.
- The EPIC Storm Shop — This was an idea I had since the beginning but was too afraid of Woocommerce for such a long time that I waited. In 2017, I dove in and made it happen. I invested a lot of money into merchandise that I wasn’t sure would sell (it did eventually!), and then down the road added card singles.
- Hand Generator — While this has been around for a while, it was way over my head coding wise. I had to bring in a few people to help me get it up and running, but it’s one of the most popular features on the website. We regularly get submissions with great explanations, I love reading each and every one of them.
- Interactive Homepage Decklist — It became apparent in 2017 that just having the decklist section and then a card choices page wasn’t enough, we were often asked, “why did you add card X.” This was an attempt to help solve that by having an explanation next to each card choice right there for the viewer.
- Modern Storm Subpage — For a long time I contemplated having non-TES decks on the site and eventually did it with Modern Storm. Recently, I’ve been more invested in Vintage and am considering adding that format next. After all, can you even call yourself a stormbro(gal) if you don’t have an unhealthy love for [[Yawgmoth’s Will]]?
- YouTube Channel — Video content and streaming was another area where I dragged my feet before taking the plunge. In my opinion, this is also the section of the website that could use the most improvement. I keep a “to-do’s” list in my Apple Notes and face a daily existential crisis over improving the video features. I’ll get there one day, perhaps before the sites’ 10th anniversary!
Deck Lists
2015
Main Deck
- 4 [[Infernal Tutor]]
- 4 [[Burning Wish]]
- 1 [[Empty the Warrens]]
- 1 [[Ad Nauseam]]
- 4 [[Brainstorm]]
- 4 [[Ponder]]
- 4 [[Gitaxian Probe]]
- 4 [[Cabal Therapy]]
- 3 [[Duress]]
- 4 [[Rite of Flame]]
- 4 [[Dark Ritual]]
- 4 [[Lion’s Eye Diamond]]
- 4 [[Lotus Petal]]
- 2 [[Chrome Mox]]
- 4 [[Polluted Delta]]
- 4 [[Bloodstained Mire]]
- 2 [[Underground Sea]]
- 2 [[Volcanic Island]]
- 1 [[Swamp]]
Sideboard
- 3 [[Abrupt Decay]]
- 3 [[Xantid Swarm]]
- 2 [[Chain of Vapor]]
- 1 [[Bayou]]
- 1 [[Void Snare]]
- 1 [[Past in Flames]]
- 1 [[Empty the Warrens]]
- 1 [[Tendrils of Agony]]
- 1 [[Dark Petition]]
2017
Main Deck
- 4 [[Infernal Tutor]]
- 3 [[Burning Wish]]
- 1 [[Empty the Warrens]]
- 1 [[Ad Nauseam]]
- 4 [[Brainstorm]]
- 4 [[Ponder]]
- 4 [[Gitaxian Probe]]
- 4 [[Duress]]
- 3 [[Cabal Therapy]]
- 4 [[Rite of Flame]]
- 4 [[Dark Ritual]]
- 4 [[Lion’s Eye Diamond]]
- 4 [[Lotus Petal]]
- 3 [[Chrome Mox]]
- 4 [[Polluted Delta]]
- 2 [[Bloodstained Mire]]
- 2 [[Scalding Tarn]]
- 1 [[Underground Sea]]
- 1 [[Volcanic Island]]
- 1 [[Badlands]]
- 1 [[Swamp]]
- 1 [[Island]]
Sideboard
- 2 [[Echoing Truth]]
- 2 [[Perilous Voyage]]
- 2 [[Rending Volley]]
- 3 [[Empty the Warrens]]
- 1 [[Past in Flames]]
- 1 [[Grapeshot]]
- 1 [[Cabal Therapy]]
- 1 [[Tendrils of Agony]]
- 1 [[Dark Petition]]
- 1 [[Telemin Performance]]
2020
Main Deck
- 4 [[Burning Wish]]
- 4 [[Wishclaw Talisman]]
- 4 [[Brainstorm]]
- 4 [[Ponder]]
- 1 [[Tendrils of Agony]]
- 1 [[Ad Nauseam]]
- 1 [[Echo of Eons]]
- 4 [[Veil of Summer]]
- 2 [[Defense Grid]]
- 4 [[Rite of Flame]]
- 4 [[Dark Ritual]]
- 4 [[Lion’s Eye Diamond]]
- 4 [[Lotus Petal]]
- 3 [[Mox Opal]]
- 2 [[Chrome Mox]]
- 4 [[Polluted Delta]]
- 2 [[Bloodstained Mire]]
- 2 [[Verdant Catacombs]]
- 1 [[Underground Sea]]
- 1 [[Tropical Island]]
- 1 [[Volcanic Island]]
- 1 [[Taiga]]
- 1 [[Badlands]]
- 1 [[Swamp]]
Sideboard
- 1 [[Lurrus of the Dream-Den]]
- 2 [[Abrupt Decay]]
- 2 [[Pyroblast]]
- 2 [[Hope of Ghirapur]]
- 2 [[Chain of Vapor]]
- 1 [[Infernal Tutor]]
- 1 [[Grapeshot]]
- 1 [[Empty the Warrens]]
- 1 [[Tendrils of Agony]]
- 1 [[Echo of Eons]]
- 1 [[Pulverize]]
2015
Main Deck
- 4 [[Infernal Tutor]]
- 4 [[Burning Wish]]
- 1 [[Empty the Warrens]]
- 1 [[Ad Nauseam]]
- 4 [[Brainstorm]]
- 4 [[Ponder]]
- 4 [[Gitaxian Probe]]
- 4 [[Cabal Therapy]]
- 3 [[Duress]]
- 4 [[Rite of Flame]]
- 4 [[Dark Ritual]]
- 4 [[Lion’s Eye Diamond]]
- 4 [[Lotus Petal]]
- 2 [[Chrome Mox]]
- 4 [[Polluted Delta]]
- 4 [[Bloodstained Mire]]
- 2 [[Underground Sea]]
- 2 [[Volcanic Island]]
- 1 [[Swamp]]
Sideboard
- 3 [[Abrupt Decay]]
- 3 [[Xantid Swarm]]
- 2 [[Chain of Vapor]]
- 1 [[Bayou]]
- 1 [[Void Snare]]
- 1 [[Past in Flames]]
- 1 [[Empty the Warrens]]
- 1 [[Tendrils of Agony]]
- 1 [[Dark Petition]]
2017
Main Deck
- 4 [[Infernal Tutor]]
- 3 [[Burning Wish]]
- 1 [[Empty the Warrens]]
- 1 [[Ad Nauseam]]
- 4 [[Brainstorm]]
- 4 [[Ponder]]
- 4 [[Gitaxian Probe]]
- 4 [[Duress]]
- 3 [[Cabal Therapy]]
- 4 [[Rite of Flame]]
- 4 [[Dark Ritual]]
- 4 [[Lion’s Eye Diamond]]
- 4 [[Lotus Petal]]
- 3 [[Chrome Mox]]
- 4 [[Polluted Delta]]
- 2 [[Bloodstained Mire]]
- 2 [[Scalding Tarn]]
- 1 [[Underground Sea]]
- 1 [[Volcanic Island]]
- 1 [[Badlands]]
- 1 [[Swamp]]
- 1 [[Island]]
Sideboard
- 2 [[Echoing Truth]]
- 2 [[Perilous Voyage]]
- 2 [[Rending Volley]]
- 3 [[Empty the Warrens]]
- 1 [[Past in Flames]]
- 1 [[Grapeshot]]
- 1 [[Cabal Therapy]]
- 1 [[Tendrils of Agony]]
- 1 [[Dark Petition]]
- 1 [[Telemin Performance]]
2020
Main Deck
- 4 [[Burning Wish]]
- 4 [[Wishclaw Talisman]]
- 4 [[Brainstorm]]
- 4 [[Ponder]]
- 1 [[Tendrils of Agony]]
- 1 [[Ad Nauseam]]
- 1 [[Echo of Eons]]
- 4 [[Veil of Summer]]
- 2 [[Defense Grid]]
- 4 [[Rite of Flame]]
- 4 [[Dark Ritual]]
- 4 [[Lion’s Eye Diamond]]
- 4 [[Lotus Petal]]
- 3 [[Mox Opal]]
- 2 [[Chrome Mox]]
- 4 [[Polluted Delta]]
- 2 [[Bloodstained Mire]]
- 2 [[Verdant Catacombs]]
- 1 [[Underground Sea]]
- 1 [[Tropical Island]]
- 1 [[Volcanic Island]]
- 1 [[Taiga]]
- 1 [[Badlands]]
- 1 [[Swamp]]
Sideboard
- 1 [[Lurrus of the Dream-Den]]
- 2 [[Abrupt Decay]]
- 2 [[Pyroblast]]
- 2 [[Hope of Ghirapur]]
- 2 [[Chain of Vapor]]
- 1 [[Infernal Tutor]]
- 1 [[Grapeshot]]
- 1 [[Empty the Warrens]]
- 1 [[Tendrils of Agony]]
- 1 [[Echo of Eons]]
- 1 [[Pulverize]]
The website has come quite a ways in the past five years, but that’s nothing compared to how the deck has evolved. Rather than a long-winded explanation of how we got from 2015 to 2020 TES, check out these three articles. I think they accurately sum up the transition.
The New EPIC Storm
Using The EPIC Storm Data
TES vs. ANT — 2020
Wrap-Up
At the end of the day, it is the community that makes theepicstorm.com a truly special place. Together, we’ve agonized over mulligans, we’ve reveled together in turn one kills, and we’ve winced at a top-decked Flusterstorm. That community includes you. So, have a look around, learn a little, and let us know about your experience with the deck. We can’t wait to hear from you, to say hi at the next Grand Prix, and to hopefully read about your ideas, right here on theepicstorm.com.
