TES Matchup Battles: UR Delver III

Matchup Battles

UR Delver is made up of cantrips, burn spells, aggressive creatures, and counterspells. Its game plan is to try to and play an early aggressive creature and then use counterspells and burn spells to disrupt the opponent enough to end the game quickly. [[Dragon's Rage Channeler]], [[Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer]], [[Murktide Regent]], and [[Expressive Iteration]] are Read More »

TES Matchup Battles: GW Depths

Matchup Battles

GW Depths focuses on trying to assemble [[Thespian's Stage]] with [[Dark Depths]] to create an instant-speed [[Marit Lage Token]]. GW Depths uses cards like [[Crop Rotation]], [[Elvish Reclaimer]], and [[Knight of the Reliquary]] to assemble the combo and to find other disruptive lands like [[Wasteland]] and [[Bojuka Bog]]. There are many different variations of [[Dark Read More »

Metalcrafting the Perfect Bauble

Mishra's Bauble

For the past six months, The EPIC Storm (TES) team has been experimenting with many lists cutting [[Rite of Flame]]. extra lands, main deck copies of [[Carpet of Flowers]], and more moxen were all underwhelming and [[Rite of Flame]] was slotted back in. Recently, however, [[Mishra's Bauble]] has taken those [[Rite of Flame]] slots and Read More »

Matchup Mulligan: GW Depths

Matchup Mulligan

Final BR Reanimator Hand Answer Hand No. 10: (on the draw) [[Lotus Petal|]] [[Chrome Mox|]] [[Lotus Petal|]] [[Lion's Eye Diamond|]] [[Lion's Eye Diamond|]] [[Badlands|]] [[Dark Ritual|]] » Keep or Mulligan? Keep This is sort of questionable, but hear me out. This hand can beat a [[Chancellor of the Annex]] on the first turn (assuming that Read More »

TES Matchup Battles: BR Reanimator

Matchup Battles

BR Reanimator is an accurate name to describe this deck. It's a red and black deck that's trying to put a [[Griselbrand]] and other expensive creatures into play from the graveyard. It does this by using cards like [[Faithless Looting]], [[Entomb]], [[Reanimate]], and [[Exhume]]. By using cheap spells and rituals it can do this as Read More »

Matchup Mulligan: BR Reanimator II

Matchup Mulligan

Final Death & Taxes Hand Answer Hand No. 10: (on the play) [[Echo of Eons|]] [[Lion's Eye Diamond|]] [[Burning Wish|]] [[Chain of Vapor|]] [[Abrupt Decay|]] [[Mox Opal|]] [[Wishclaw Talisman|]] » Keep or Mulligan? Keep I've found that it's fairly unlikely that your Death & Taxes opponent will have [[Leyline of the Void]]. This means you Read More »

TES Matchup Battles: Death & Taxes III

Matchup Battles

Death & Taxes looks like a white weenie deck to the casual observer. In reality, Death & Taxes is a creature-based control deck that focuses on disrupting the opposing deck. Their goal is to play creature spells that delay the opponent just long enough to try and win the game by attacking before the opponent Read More »

Matchup Mulligan: Death & Taxes II

Matchup Mulligan

Final Rainbow Depths Hand Answer Hand No. 10: (on the draw) [[Dark Ritual|]] [[Wishclaw Talisman|]] [[Lion's Eye Diamond|]] [[Bloodstained Mire|]] [[Mox Opal|]] [[Mox Opal|]] [[Mox Opal|]] » Keep or Mulligan? Keep This hand is risky, it loses to discard, [[Stifle]], and [[Flusterstorm]]. Are you really supposed to give up a turn-one kill though? I don't Read More »

TES Matchup Battles: Rainbow Depths

Matchup Battles

Rainbow Depths is among the fastest and most straightforward versions of a [[Dark Depths]] deck by dedicating most of the deck to assembling the combo and protecting it. This makes executing the combo brutally effective, but there is no alternative game plan. The Rainbow part of Rainbow Depths is because the mana base is cards Read More »

Beyond Rite of Flame

Carpet of Flowers Hero Image

Over time, it is common for decks to evolve and cut cards that were once essential to their strategy. The EPIC Storm cut [[Infernal Tutor]] for [[Wishclaw Talisman]] to great success in 2019. Identifying cards that can seem to be linchpins, but can be upgraded is essential to evolving and continuing to improve in new Read More »