Other than a terrific reference to Taking Back Sunday's second album,
where you want to be as a Legacy storm pilot right now is playing The EPIC Storm. I know, I know...
"Look, Bryant is preaching about his deck again." Well, that's true - but for good reason. If you look over the last three events you'll find that a large portion of prison based strategies or other fast decks.
Eternal Extravaganza 5
- Miracles
- Grixis Delver
- Infect
- Miracles
- Death & Taxes
- Miracles
- Punishing Maverick
- Reanimator
See Decklists
SCG Classic - Milwaukee
- Aluren
- Stoneblade
- Death & Taxes
- Miracles
- Aluren
- Eldrazi
- Grixis Delver
- Reanimator (RB)
See Decklists
Eternal Weekend
- Eva Green Depths
- Miracles
- Death & Taxes
- Death & Taxes
- Grixis Delver
- Death & Taxes
- Eldrazi
- Reanimator (RB)
See Decklists
Miracles - 5
(18% of online Metagame according to mtggoldfish.com)
Death  & Taxes - 5
(5% of online Metagame according to mtggoldfish.com)
Reanimator - 3Â
(2.5% of online Metagame according to mtggoldfish.com)
Eldrazi - 2Â
(10.5% of online Metagame according to mtggoldfish.com)
In a hostile metagame like this
(as a storm pilot), you need fast hands to be able to go underneath
Chalice of the Void,
Thalia, Guardian of Thraben and to lesser extents
Counterbalance or
Griselbrand. TES gives you the best opportunity to do that compared to
Ad Nauseam Tendrils (ANT). If you want to combo off before these hate pieces come down, it makes the most sense to play the deck that is more prepared for this. ANT's fundamental turn 2.5 is just too slow when the entire format is playing hay-makers that cost two or close the game out before you.
Deck List
Small Changes
It's important to adjust to the metagame, after looking at the results of the last three large events it doesn't make much sense to me to be playing a card like
Xantid Swarm. It's narrow in its use
(only deck performing well that it's useful against is Miracles)Â and not extremely effective. Meanwhile you could be playing cards that are more useful against the wider metagame and more impactful.
It's no secret that
Massacre is a huge blow-out against Death & Taxes, it makes sense to add in a second copy. In the past this could've been
Dread of Night or
Chain of Vapor, but
Dread of Night doesn't kill
Sanctum Prelate or
Phyrexian Revoker and
Chain of Vapor is low impact most of the time. The only real downside of
Massacre is that it hurts when revealed off of
Ad Nauseam. I get that, but if you reveal
Massacre - there's a good chance you're not dying on your next turn.
Then there's
Past in Flames, which will help you in discard heavy match-ups or against Miracles redundant countermagic. The second copy allows for a lot more resiliency in slower games, making the deck more well-rounded.
Sideboard Plans
When you look at the sideboarding instructions for Death & Taxes you'll see that you want to be as lean as possible on the play, providing yourself the best opportunity for a second turn kill.
Ponder helps achieve this more than
Abrupt Decay, unless you're on the draw. There isn't a second turn combo a majority of the time due to the number of hate creatures played. You're better off being threat and answer dense to be able to defeat a hate bear or two. You'll notice I don't side in
Grapeshot on the draw in the guide, you can, but it's tough to find slots that you would prefer to be
Grapeshot. Speed is very key in this match-up and
Chrome Mox is not a reasonable option.
The recommended boarding for Miracles is fairly standard, slow the game down - which means taking out
Chrome Mox to become more stable. Which is weird because you want to be as fast as possible in game one, but that's only because you can't answer
Counterbalance.
Terminus is a real concern so it is safe to side out
Empty the Warrens and the second
Past in Flames provides resiliency. What isn't shown is that it's acceptable to bring in the
Tendrils of Agony, I would do this over the third copy of
Ponder or the fourth
Lotus Petal.
Against Eldrazi you face a similar problem that you do against Death & Taxes, the fundamental turn is simply too fast for
Ponder. Bring in everything you can for
Chalice of the Void and
Thorn of Amethyst.
Cabal Therapy still has some value for hitting
Warping Wail or even discarding their threats after an
Empty the Warrens, I wish there was room to keep the fourth. However, it's not great because you can just guess wrong - you named
Chalice of the Void? I have
Thought-Knot Seer.
There isn't much to be said for Reanimator, against the Red & Black variant they often go for Sire of Insanity which makes having access to a
Past in Flames critically important. If they're piloting the Blue & Black variant, maybe bring in the
Tendrils of Agony?
See you in Baltimore
I plan on taking the deck and this new strategy to Baltimore this weekend for the Star City Games open. I'll report back to everyone, hopefully to help some friends playing in Grand Prix: Chiba coming up soon. Either way, if you're a dedicated storm pilot right now - you should unsleeve your
Cabal Rituals and find your
Rite of Flames &
Chrome Mox. Right now,
faster is better.
Until next time, keep storming!