The “old” [[Brainstorm]] plus [[Mishra’s Bauble]] trick! We’re going to use [[Lion’s Eye Diamond]] to help cast our [[Ad Nauseam]] by abusing the stack.
The first step is to use [[Bloodstained Mire]] to search out [[Underground Sea]]. From there, cast [[Brainstorm]] and then put [[Ad Nauseam]] as our top card. Now, we will play our [[Mishra’s Bauble]] as well as [[Lion’s Eye Diamond]].
The next part depends on how good our [[Brainstorm]] was to us. If [[Brainstorm]] found another artifact, we can use the [[Mishra’s Bauble]] immediately to draw a card on our opponent’s turn. If it didn’t, we need to wait and then use the [[Mishra’s Bauble]] on their turn. You see, we need Metalcraft to cast this [[Dark Ritual]] on our opponent’s turn, and if we don’t have, it we need to then combo off in our upkeep.
With the draw trigger from [[Mishra’s Bauble]] on the stack, we will cast [[Dark Ritual]], we will hold priority and then sacrifice our hand to [[Lion’s Eye Diamond]] to create mana. At this point, we let everything resolve — including the [[Mishra’s Bauble]] draw trigger, draw the [[Ad Nauseam]], and then cast it.
8-Cast isn’t an particularly fast deck, but it is a deck with both [[Force of Will]] and [[Chalice of the Void]], which creates a stranglehold on the matchup. With the hand above, we have access to [[Pulverize]] via [[Burning Wish]] to answer [[Chalice of the Void]]. We essentially can beat a [[Force of Will]] by over-powering it with [[Galvanic Relay]] and possibly even [[Wishclaw Talisman]]. While this hand may seem like a bit of a “clunker”, it’s secretly just fine!
This hand is pretty interesting! On the play, it’s a simple, “our opponent is only 40 percent to stop us with only [[Force of Will]] in their main deck” when when on the draw they could have more looks for [[Force of Will]] through either [[Mishra’s Bauble]] or [[Urza’s Bauble]] triggers. That said, I believe we’re rooting for the hand where they play [[Chalice of the Void]] on one.
8-Cast is a deck that can’t really afford to play [[Chalice of the Void]] for zero since it hurts our opponent more than it hurts us. This means that if they do play [[Chalice of the Void]] for one, we can play out all of our artifacts, [[Burning Wish]], and then [[Empty the Warrens]] for at least 10 [[Goblin Token]]s (depending on our draw step). 8-Cast is not a deck that is truly prepared to beat decks that aim to go wide, their best counter-measure would be [[Sai, Master Thopterist]] and it’s difficult to create enough blockers in time for them to recover.
Hand No. 3: (on the play)
[[Veil of Summer|]] [[Mox Opal|]] [[Lotus Petal|]] [[Verdant Catacombs|]] [[Underground Sea|]] [[Echo of Eons|]] [[Mishra’s Bauble|]]
Mulligan
At first, this hand seems pretty good. I almost wanted to keep it. After all, we did keep Hand No. 1 which was a slower hand. We have [[Force of Will]] covered with [[Veil of Summer]] and [[Chalice of the Void]] isn’t as relevant with only [[Veil of Summer]] in hand, right? (Some flawed logic to talk yourself into keeping a sketchy hand!)
The real issue here is that our hand doesn’t actually do anything! We’re two mana away from hardcasting [[Echo of Eons]] and that’s without the [[Veil of Summer]] backup. One could argue that we could always find [[Lion’s Eye Diamond]], but we’re on the play with a single [[Mishra’s Bauble]] as a re-draw. The lesson here is to not be afraid to leverage the London Mulligan, it’s a powerful tool when used correctly.
“Isn’t this the same as Hand No. 1?”WRONG! That first hand had a way to beat [[Chalice of the Void]] and a guaranteed second land to assist us in casting our expensive spells. With this hand, we’re really leaning on [[Galvanic Relay]] to do some heavy lifting, while asking for mana in our draw steps, AND needing our opponent to have kept a hand without [[Chalice of the Void]]. That’s a lot of “what ifs” for me, just mulligan.
Hand No. 5: (on the play)
[[Brainstorm|]] [[Dark Ritual|]] [[Rite of Flame|]] [[Rite of Flame|]] [[Verdant Catacombs|]] [[Bloodstained Mire|]] [[Wishclaw Talisman|]]
Mulligan
I have spent the first four hands of this article emphasizing [[Force of Will]] and [[Chalice of the Void]] on one — this hand loses to both! This sort of hand wants time to utilize [[Brainstorm]] + [[Bloodstained Mire]] and then on the third turn make a win attempt. 8-Cast is named appropriately after their powerful draw spells. This means between their eight “bauble effects” and then [[Thoughtcast]] as well as [[Thought Monitor]] that the opponent is likely to have seen a lot of cards by the time that it’s their third turn. They would have at least one [[Force of Will]] if not two or at least [[Chalice of the Void]].
This is a hand that, “plays Magic” in almost every other matchup but it just doesn’t make enough sense here.
Post-board
Recommended sideboarding:
IN
[[Abrupt Decay|]] [[Abrupt Decay|]] [[Boseiju, Who Endures|]] [[Boseiju, Who Endures|]] [[Aeve, Progenitor Ooze|]]
OUT
[[Brainstorm|]] [[Brainstorm|]] [[Brainstorm|]] [[Brainstorm|]] [[Echo of Eons|]]
In post-board games, the direction shifts a bit. While they do have four copies of [[Chalice of the Void]], they also have four [[Force of Negation]] now in addition to their copies of [[Force of Will]]. While this hand can beat a [[Chalice of the Void]], it doesn’t do a whole lot else.
This hand is so good! What we would really like to happen is if [[Urza’s Bauble]] could find [[Dark Ritual]], [[Lotus Petal]], or [[Mox Opal]] to allow us to go for a turn-two win attempt. One thing to note, 8-Cast now does have access to 8 “Force effects” in post-board games. If they allow the [[Wishclaw Talisman]] to resolve and then counterspell the [[Veil of Summer]]; I would hit them with [[Aeve, Progenitor Ooze]] and then teach 8-Cast about SLIME TIME!
Admittedly, this is a sketchy hand. But I really value being able to beat the 8 “Force effects” in the post-board games while playing through [[Chalice of the Void]] on one. Ideally, we would draw another [[Lotus Petal]] or [[Mox Opal]] + fourth artifact and then just [[Aeve, Progenitor Ooze]]. As I mentioned in Hand No. 1, 8-Cast isn’t a very fast deck — we have a couple draw steps to make this work!
I’m really not very interested in the [[Ad Nauseam]] in this hand outside of it being a back-up plan if the board-state stalls out between [[Aeve, Progenitor Ooze]] and [[Construct Token]]s.
ALL DAY! We have [[Galvanic Relay]] to grind through free countermagic such as [[Force of Negation]] or [[Boseiju, Who Endures]] for [[Chalice of the Void]]. Not to mention, [[Burning Wish]] to threaten [[Pulverize]]! This is fairly close to your ideal hand in post-board games.
I would recommend exercising patience with the “bauble effects” and not to spew them, we need to hold them to get the most out of our [[Galvanic Relay]]. We would like to draw another land as well, if we need to, we can play [[Boseiju, Who Endures]] as a mana source, but we would prefer to hold onto it.
I’ll provide my answer in the next article. For now, make sure to leave a comment with your thoughts!
Bryant Cook
Bryant Cook has one Grand Prix Top 8 as well as nine Star City Games Top 8s (two wins). You can find Bryant's daily sweet Storm videos for every format on our YouTube Channel, including some recent videos featuring The EPIC Storm.
Bryant is also a host of The Eternal Glory Podcast, as well as a Web Designer, New York Mets fan, and all-around nerd.
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