Happy New Year, Legacy Storm players! We are back with the first [[Infernal Tutor]]ing article of the year! Since our last article, the new version of The EPIC Storm has been continuing to crush it on both Magic Online and in paper. While the list has stayed mostly the same, there have been some experimenting in the sideboard. Some players are playing [[Abrupt Decay]], some players are still on all bounce spells and another portion of players are experimenting with four copies of [[Empty the Warrens]] or four copies of [[Infernal Tutor]] in the sideboard, which really helps out against [[Delver of Secrets]] decks.
Special Guest
A FEW WORDS ON ETHAN FORMICHELLA (MONKEYSCANTCRY):
Ethan started playing Magic with the release of Apocalypse, and fell in love with Storm strategies starting with the [[Heartbeat of Spring]] + [[Mind’s Desire]] deck in the old Extended format. He started playing Legacy casually with TES around 2010, and in the past few years has been playing a lot of MTGO Legacy Storm, primarily ANT.
Deck List
Main Deck
- 4 [[Burning Wish]]
- 4 [[Wishclaw Talisman]]
- 4 [[Brainstorm]]
- 4 [[Ponder]]
- 4 [[Veil of Summer]]
- 2 [[Defense Grid]]
- 1 [[Chain of Vapor]]
- 1 [[Ad Nauseam]]
- 1 [[Echo of Eons]]
- 3 [[Rite of Flame]]
- 4 [[Dark Ritual]]
- 4 [[Lion’s Eye Diamond]]
- 4 [[Lotus Petal]]
- 4 [[Mox Opal]]
- 3 [[Chrome Mox]]
- 4 [[Polluted Delta]]
- 4 [[Bloodstained Mire]]
- 1 [[Underground Sea]]
- 1 [[Volcanic Island]]
- 1 [[Badlands]]
- 1 [[Bayou]]
- 1 [[Swamp]]
Sideboard
- 3 [[Hope of Ghirapur]]
- 2 [[Crash]]
- 1 [[Abrupt Decay]]
- 1 [[Echoing Truth]]
- 1 [[Chain of Vapor]]
- 1 [[Rite of Flame]]
- 1 [[Infernal Tutor]]
- 1 [[Grapeshot]]
- 1 [[Empty the Warrens]]
- 1 [[Tendrils of Agony]]
- 1 [[Echo of Eons]]
- 1 [[Pulverize]]
SITUATION No. 1 – Burn
Burn’s ultimate goal is to play very efficient creatures like [[Monastery Swiftspear]] or [[Goblin Guide]] while slinging spells at our face. Burn also has a very efficient turn two anti-Storm creature in their main deck that we need to play around in [[Eidolon of the Great Revel]]. The key here is keeping an explosive hand that can go off very quickly. If all of that wasn’t stressful enough, you also need to be very careful not to go too low on your [[Ad Nauseam]]. Each untapped [[Mountain]] represents a potential three damage, and two [[Mountain]]s can be sacrificed to [[Fireblast]] to deal four damage. That is a potential 10 damage on turn two if they have two untapped lands.
HOW I SIDEBOARDED:
-4 [[Veil of Summer]], -2 [[Defense Grid]]
+3 [[Empty the Warrens]], +1 [[Echoing Truth]], +1 [[Chain of Vapor]], +1 [[Rite of Flame]]
We are in game three on the draw. Our opponent cast [[Lava Spike]] on their turn one and then passed to us, On our turn one, we drew a [[Brainstorm]] for the turn and decided to cast that over our [[Ponder]]. Our [[Brainstorm]] definitely was packed with action spells: [[Wishclaw Talisman]], [[Empty the Warrens]], and [[Ad Nauseam]]. There is a pretty high chance that the opponent has a hate piece that they can play on turn two. With that in mind, how would you resolve this [[Brainstorm]], and then play out the rest of your turn?
SITUATION No. 2 – U/R Delver
U/R Delver is the [[Delver of Secrets]] deck that has the fastest clock along with a very consistent two-color mana base. Playing against U/R Delver can be challenging for The EPIC Storm because they can kill us very quickly, and they are also known for playing lot of disruption and counter magic. While U/R Delver often struggles to beat an early [[Empty the Warrens]], many lists are now playing answers in the sideboard.
HOW I SIDEBOARDED:
-4 [[Wishclaw Talisman]], -1 [[Ad Nauseam]]
+3 [[Empty the Warrens]], +1 [[Rite of Flame]], +1 [[Chain of Vapor]]
We are currently in game two on the play. Our opponent played a turn one [[Ponder]] and then played a turn two [[Delver of Secrets]]. We know that our opponent bricked on finding an instant or sorcery card last turn. Hopefully that means that they have six lands in hand, right?! While there isn’t a ton of pressure on us to act, U/R Delver decks are capable of putting a ton of pressure on us very quickly. How would you play out this turn?
SITUATION No. 3 – U/B Thopter Ninjas
U/B Thopter Ninjas is a strange tempo deck, that feels similar to traditional [[Delver of Secrets]] decks, just with more spice. U/B Thopter Ninjas plays cards like [[Retrofitter Foundry]] and [[Ornithopter]] to quickly create 4/4 creatures. This deck also plays a general array of countermagic, discard, and mana denial ([[Wasteland]]). There are also some Ninjas like [[Yuriko, the Tiger’s Shadow]] in the deck which can also play into the tempo game-plan.
We are currently in game one. Our opponent tapped out to cast two copies of [[Retrofitter Foundry]] and was able to make a 4/4, chipping away at our life total. On our turn, we were able to lead with two copies of [[Dark Ritual]], [[Lion’s Eye Diamond]], and [[Burning Wish]]. The [[Burning Wish]] instantly resolved, so we didn’t have to use our [[Veil of Summer]] yet. How would you play out this turn to either win, or put yourself in a winning situation?
As you can hopefully see by now, [[Echo of Eons]] is giving The EPIC Storm the ability to grind out games in ways that the deck could never do before. I would encourage everyone to give it a try! Until next time, keep storming on!