I suppose the main reason is to be able to use Burning Wish and then Doomsday on the following turn.
There may be a way to further optimize the deck space that I'm unaware of. So far, I am only playing what has worked for me. By all means, if we can arrive at something better we should at least try.
Except...our lives aren't being destroyed or our rights trampled. Men -still- get hired more easily than women, -despite- affirmative action legislation. Men -still- dominate in almost every profession. And almost the entire -media- is directed to a sexist male audience.
I don't have the background to debate media interaction, but I can bring some behavioral economics information to the table.
The short version of the income disparity is that a lot of opportunity is foregone by having and raising children. Leaving the professional field or working fewer hours makes the average female employee less of a specialized asset to her company than her male peers, in the long term. Due to our human physiology, this trend is unlikely to be reversed, all else equal.
An increase in the amount of BG Deathrite Shaman decks has reduced the amount of tempo decks in this area (including me, I usually play Team America). This has allowed me to run Thoughtseize over Duress without any real negative effects. Rather than discarding the opponent's discard, it seems better to include more ways to draw into a way to win the game through it. Burning Wish has good utility anyway so it keeps marginal value against a blind field without the discard, so that's where the -1 discard and +1 Burning Wish came from. I've always played 3 Lotus Petal to enable earlier wins with Dark Ritual or to increase earlier interaction with Ponder/discard.
The sideboard Preordain allows me to turn an extra Wish into a way to access the top of a DD pile, but it also turns an extra Wish into a way to see more cards for slow hands and allows me to make my deck more linear for sideboard games if I need to. I tried it on a whim and I've been quite happy with it.
For me at least, the Badlands is slightly more necessary because I play the 4th Burning Wish. I also had 2 Bloodstained Mire prior to adding green to the sideboard. In general, storm decks only really lose to hand disruption, the stack, and troublesome permanents. Adding discard for the stack interactions is standardized, and finding ways to play though hand disruption can vary across decks. Abrupt Decay is an excellent compliment to Chain of Vapor and Karakas for removing troublesome permanents. I also actually had 4 Force of Will to board in with the Shelldock Isle package. It was fun while it lasted.
I haven't seen or played against Chalice of the Void. If I do, I may make some alterations to account for it better, although I'm not sure what those changes would be.
Due to the Wish board, any actual sideboard cards have to function with increased marginal utility over the deck's refined engine. It's very easy to have poor sideboard composition because the Wish board quickly uses any sideboard space left over. I agree that Ill-Gotten Gains is unnecessary for storm count because it's marginal utility is low and in many cases an alternative combo option is still available. Ideas Unbound is less obvious I think because it's just one of many ways to turn Burning Wish into a win on the following turn, as IU in-hand conditions become available.
Just to keep relevant with card choices, here is the version I am currently playing. I would describe my list as relatively stock, with the extra Burning Wish as an adjustment to playing against heavy discard strategies.
I play a build that is very similar to yours (-1 Duress, +1 Lotus Petal, minor land base alterations).
Since our lists are so similar, you may appreciate an altered list of the storm conditions that I made for myself over February. I took the classic Excel document that has the full list and eliminated combo options that do not apply to this main deck configuration.
Big thanks to everyone for your input and suggestions! I have a better idea on where to go from here on out! I don't really have a deck that I want to stick with as I am the type of person who likes to mix things up.
Since you guys mentioned fetchlands are essential, I will start by getting a playset of the blue Zendikar fetchlands. After that I guess I will work on getting blue duals, followed by wastelands/FOW, and lastly LEDs.
For the blue duals, which one is a good investment for the time being?
Regardless of whether you play Force of Will or Lion's Eye Diamond, there's a respectable chance that you'll end up playing Volcanic Island. The tiered decks it is played in (Canadian Threshold, Show and Tell variants, Storm variants) have only improved as cards like Lightning Bolt, Burning Wish, and Red Elemental Blast have retained utility.
I reiterate that it is best to pick a deck first and to go from there, but in a vacuum I would suggest Volcanic Island. For the most part, "3 is a set" for the decks it is common to. Don't be afraid to do research before making any purchases.
If no one plays FoW, combo decks win.
Then the decks that play FoW start winning because they beat combo decks, then it's safe again to play without FoW...
Rince and repeat.
Combo decks will generally win regardless if the disruption is not backed by the pressure of a substantial clock.
Biefall: The dichotomy of tier 1 decks for legacy tends to heavy favor Brainstorm decks over non-Brainstorm decks, and then for the Brainstorm decks another split occurs between Force of Will decks versus Lion's Eye Diamond decks. As Wizards of the Coast continues to print cards that make Force of Will a worse card, it becomes increasingly acceptable to search for more efficient alternatives to Force of Will such as Spell Pierce, to move to Lion's Eye Diamond decks, or to move away from Brainstorm decks completely. Again, just be conscious and mindful of your decisions, and more importantly why you are making those changes.
I agree with the sentiment that Force of Will is a necessity for the format so long as you're interested in maximizing your win rate. Spell Pierce is very often better than Force of Will but it's still not a proper substitution. Your opponent will still have to play around your cards and Spell Pierce is still a very powerful spell, but understand when you play it that you are forfeiting win ratio on the margin to do it.
If you do not mind forfeiting some number of wins unnecessarily, that is fine but be mindful of it and consider what other people tell you in earnest when making that comparison.
Oh God how I wish this card had never been printed.
Deathrite Shaman gets my vote as well.
There's no mana-efficient method to answer it, since every removal spell that affects it is only parity at best. Spells that would gain mana-advantage on it (Force of Will, Daze, and Snuff Out being the most common) are either generally not worth their drawback to answer it or are just completely invalid. It also forces you to answer it immediately since untapping with it is automatic value whether it is answered or not, so even a card with mana parity such as Lightning Bolt or Disfigure it is slightly disadvantageous.
There is also no opportunity cost to not play it. Typically, when a deck plays a card like Birds of Paradise, there is some risk involved because the decks that want the extra mana have to achieve a balance between mana and more expensive spells and risk drawing too much of one or the other. Deathrite Shaman stabilizes the curve at no loss because it retains utility when the extra mana is no longer needed. The only drawback to playing Deathrite Shaman is that a deck with it requires either green or black.
In addition, it is effective against every generalized type of deck: aggro, control, combo, and hybrid forms of those archetypes. Casting Deathrite Shaman on the field makes every match better whether it is answered or not as long as the game is still reasonably close.
I think the difficulty of the deck is overstated. When starting off, it's probably best to keep an excel spreadsheet open with the lines of play available to your variant of the deck, and then to memorize those over the span of a couple weeks as you play. Once you are comfortable with the non-linear aspect of the storm engine, you can focus your skill set back to the traditional aspects of combo; maximizing cantrips, clearing the opponent's hand of relevant cards, playing around discard, and so forth.
My main problem with this deck is that it does not ignore fair cards like Deathrite Shaman as much as I would like a non-graveyard based combo deck to do. It's disappointing when you Doomsday from 14 to 7 and die to 2 DRS activations and a Lightning Bolt from Jund, but sometimes you have to because that damage is consistent regardless and you're under a respectable clock or facing a disruption engine like Jace/Liliana and it's your last good turn to combo out.
Like other combo decks, playing Doomsday is a metagame decision. I do not think that picking a storm deck without Ad Nauseam is a good choice in the current format because it has a lot of Hymn to Tourach and Doomsday very much cares about cards in-hand. That said, it still plays through discard fairly well unless the discard is aided by something like Liliana or Tarmogoyf. If the metagame shifts away from those decks, it will be a fine choice.
Tombstalker and Dark Confidant are almost total opposites of sorts. Tombstalker is a card that kills your opponent. Dark Confidant plays completely different in that it pulls you ahead from a neutral position that you have brought about.
I understand that many players are hesitant to play Dark Confidant with Force of Will, Jace, Tombstalker, and so forth. I don't suggest playing Tombstalker with Dark Confidant because it offers a different game plan than Dark Confidant and I see them as conflicting. The decision not to play both has very little to do with the damage from the Confidant trigger.
I'm a student and i had to work 3 months to afford the Rest of my Team America Deck (~1500 $).
This was hard work and i would be very angry if the reserved list would be abolished.
I play Team America and I would gladly see every card in my deck reprinted. A bottleneck in supply only acts as a barrier of entry for possible new players. Fewer players means that you don't get to play the game as much, or you miss out on improving your technical game, or you don't win as much of a prize when you enter events, and so forth for every good aspect about this game. Every fourth Tarmogoyf printed gives the opportunity for you to be a better player. The fun derived from this game is worth way more than the cardboard it is printed on.
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There may be a way to further optimize the deck space that I'm unaware of. So far, I am only playing what has worked for me. By all means, if we can arrive at something better we should at least try.
I don't have the background to debate media interaction, but I can bring some behavioral economics information to the table.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303592404577361883019414296.html
http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/story/2013/02/27/business-warren-farrell-women-men.html
The short version of the income disparity is that a lot of opportunity is foregone by having and raising children. Leaving the professional field or working fewer hours makes the average female employee less of a specialized asset to her company than her male peers, in the long term. Due to our human physiology, this trend is unlikely to be reversed, all else equal.
The sideboard Preordain allows me to turn an extra Wish into a way to access the top of a DD pile, but it also turns an extra Wish into a way to see more cards for slow hands and allows me to make my deck more linear for sideboard games if I need to. I tried it on a whim and I've been quite happy with it.
For me at least, the Badlands is slightly more necessary because I play the 4th Burning Wish. I also had 2 Bloodstained Mire prior to adding green to the sideboard. In general, storm decks only really lose to hand disruption, the stack, and troublesome permanents. Adding discard for the stack interactions is standardized, and finding ways to play though hand disruption can vary across decks. Abrupt Decay is an excellent compliment to Chain of Vapor and Karakas for removing troublesome permanents. I also actually had 4 Force of Will to board in with the Shelldock Isle package. It was fun while it lasted.
I haven't seen or played against Chalice of the Void. If I do, I may make some alterations to account for it better, although I'm not sure what those changes would be.
Just to keep relevant with card choices, here is the version I am currently playing. I would describe my list as relatively stock, with the extra Burning Wish as an adjustment to playing against heavy discard strategies.
4 Burning Wish
4 Ponder
4 Gitaxian Probe
4 Brainstorm
4 Dark Ritual
4 Sensei's Divining Top
4 Lion's Eye Diamond
3 Doomsday
3 Cabal Therapy
3 Thoughtseize
3 Lotus Petal
1 Ideas Unbound
1 Chain of Vapor
1 Rain of Filth
4 Polluted Delta
4 Scalding Tarn
2 Underground Sea
2 Volcanic Island
1 Tropical Island
1 Badlands
2 Island
1 Swamp
15
3 Abrupt Decay
1 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
1 Time Spiral
1 Infernal Contract
1 Doomsday
1 Massacre
1 Tendrils of Agony
1 Cabal Therapy
1 Thoughtseize
1 Preordain
1 Tropical Island
1 Shelldock Isle
1 Karakas
Since our lists are so similar, you may appreciate an altered list of the storm conditions that I made for myself over February. I took the classic Excel document that has the full list and eliminated combo options that do not apply to this main deck configuration.
http://i.imgur.com/ZkXbzIz.png
It is pretty self-explanatory. However, if you would like to discuss this further, let me know.
Regardless of whether you play Force of Will or Lion's Eye Diamond, there's a respectable chance that you'll end up playing Volcanic Island. The tiered decks it is played in (Canadian Threshold, Show and Tell variants, Storm variants) have only improved as cards like Lightning Bolt, Burning Wish, and Red Elemental Blast have retained utility.
I reiterate that it is best to pick a deck first and to go from there, but in a vacuum I would suggest Volcanic Island. For the most part, "3 is a set" for the decks it is common to. Don't be afraid to do research before making any purchases.
Edit: This older post of mine may help as well.
Combo decks will generally win regardless if the disruption is not backed by the pressure of a substantial clock.
Biefall: The dichotomy of tier 1 decks for legacy tends to heavy favor Brainstorm decks over non-Brainstorm decks, and then for the Brainstorm decks another split occurs between Force of Will decks versus Lion's Eye Diamond decks. As Wizards of the Coast continues to print cards that make Force of Will a worse card, it becomes increasingly acceptable to search for more efficient alternatives to Force of Will such as Spell Pierce, to move to Lion's Eye Diamond decks, or to move away from Brainstorm decks completely. Again, just be conscious and mindful of your decisions, and more importantly why you are making those changes.
If you do not mind forfeiting some number of wins unnecessarily, that is fine but be mindful of it and consider what other people tell you in earnest when making that comparison.
I believe that you forgot Tarmogoyf. One could also make a reasonable case for Flusterstorm and Stifle.
Deathrite Shaman gets my vote as well.
There's no mana-efficient method to answer it, since every removal spell that affects it is only parity at best. Spells that would gain mana-advantage on it (Force of Will, Daze, and Snuff Out being the most common) are either generally not worth their drawback to answer it or are just completely invalid. It also forces you to answer it immediately since untapping with it is automatic value whether it is answered or not, so even a card with mana parity such as Lightning Bolt or Disfigure it is slightly disadvantageous.
There is also no opportunity cost to not play it. Typically, when a deck plays a card like Birds of Paradise, there is some risk involved because the decks that want the extra mana have to achieve a balance between mana and more expensive spells and risk drawing too much of one or the other. Deathrite Shaman stabilizes the curve at no loss because it retains utility when the extra mana is no longer needed. The only drawback to playing Deathrite Shaman is that a deck with it requires either green or black.
In addition, it is effective against every generalized type of deck: aggro, control, combo, and hybrid forms of those archetypes. Casting Deathrite Shaman on the field makes every match better whether it is answered or not as long as the game is still reasonably close.
My main problem with this deck is that it does not ignore fair cards like Deathrite Shaman as much as I would like a non-graveyard based combo deck to do. It's disappointing when you Doomsday from 14 to 7 and die to 2 DRS activations and a Lightning Bolt from Jund, but sometimes you have to because that damage is consistent regardless and you're under a respectable clock or facing a disruption engine like Jace/Liliana and it's your last good turn to combo out.
Like other combo decks, playing Doomsday is a metagame decision. I do not think that picking a storm deck without Ad Nauseam is a good choice in the current format because it has a lot of Hymn to Tourach and Doomsday very much cares about cards in-hand. That said, it still plays through discard fairly well unless the discard is aided by something like Liliana or Tarmogoyf. If the metagame shifts away from those decks, it will be a fine choice.
I understand that many players are hesitant to play Dark Confidant with Force of Will, Jace, Tombstalker, and so forth. I don't suggest playing Tombstalker with Dark Confidant because it offers a different game plan than Dark Confidant and I see them as conflicting. The decision not to play both has very little to do with the damage from the Confidant trigger.
I play Team America and I would gladly see every card in my deck reprinted. A bottleneck in supply only acts as a barrier of entry for possible new players. Fewer players means that you don't get to play the game as much, or you miss out on improving your technical game, or you don't win as much of a prize when you enter events, and so forth for every good aspect about this game. Every fourth Tarmogoyf printed gives the opportunity for you to be a better player. The fun derived from this game is worth way more than the cardboard it is printed on.