Recent Changes with TES

Over the last few weeks there have been some changes to The EPIC Storm (TES). In talking to Kai Sawatari (Sawatarix on mtgthesource) and Peter Raab (Lemnear on mtgthesource), I was convinced to cut a discard spell in order to shove the fourth Infernal Tutor from the sideboard into the main deck. This was due to the success that Kai had at the grand prix in japan with only six discard spells, this brought our current configuration to eight tutor effects and three Chrome Mox. TES hasn’t had this set-up in quite some time. Some thoughts on six discard spells:

• Do I run 4 Cabal Therapy and 2 Duress or 3 and 3?
• Should I run a sideboard discard spell to Burning Wish for? If so, which one?

I think in order to gain maximum effectiveness from our discard spells we need to run all four Cabal Therapy in the main deck, especially with the higher Infernal Tutor and Chrome Mox count. The reason being is that we’re going to have a lot more turn one Empty the Warrens with our current deck list. If this is the case, we want our discard spells to have the highest synergy with Empty the Warrens. I will say that I was tempted to run a 3 and 3 split between Cabal Therapy and Duress with the fourth Cabal Therapy in the sideboard over Thoughtseize. This is because Duress typically a guaranteed hit where Therapy isn’t, the downside is Duress isn’t as effective in a variety of match-ups.

As far as running a discard spell as a Burning Wish target goes, I think it’s necessary when cutting down on discard spells in the main deck. It could really be a boon in longer games against Miracles, Stoneblade or even combo mirrors to not have something there. I prefer Thoughtseize here over Cabal Therapy for the reasons mentioned above, and Thoughtsieze over Duress as it can be sided in for creature based match-ups like Death & Taxes or Maverick.

Dread of Night Testing

I tested against Death & Taxes with a list suggested a few weeks ago with a pair of Dread of Night in the sideboard over a Chain of Vapor and Grapeshot. The reason being was that Dread of Night is very high impact and would make losing that match-up, which is very popular, very difficult. Well, the fact of the matter was that with the current configuration of four Infernal Tutor and three Chrome Mox in the main deck, we’re simply too fast for the hate spells to be relevant. The Dread of Nights rarely mattered unless I mulliganed, even then, in some situations it didn’t save me from Wasteland, Rishadan Port and Phyrexian Revokers.

I’m now back to running two Chain of Vapor and Grapeshot. You can find my updated list here.