Jank combo brew featuring Hazoret's Undying Fury, aka the red Mind's Desire . You have a few routes to victory with this deck:
- early Blood Moon, made possible by the full 8 rituals, 4 SSGs and 4 Skirk Prospectors. Not a wincon by itself, but it can lock the opponent out of the game long enough to let this deck cobble together a win. Ritual > Moon costs you two cards, so if it buys you two draw steps it's already paid for itself (to say nothing of your opponent, who might still be under the lock).
- Goblin Charbelcher. If you hit 7 mana, you can cast and activate it immediately. Slightly more risky is spending 4 and 3 mana on consecutive turns to activate it - it's riskier because Belcher is open to removal. Whether Belcher reveals enough nonland cards to kill is a gamble. The more Mountains you find before Belching, the better your chances.
- Empty the Warrens. Play a bunch of rituals to get your mana and storm count up, then cast Empty for a big goblin army. Even 6 goblins on turn 2 can get there sometimes.
- Hazoret's Undying Fury. Mostly you're hoping to hit Empty, or Bloom/ritual + Belcher and activate Belcher immediately. Alternatively, you could hit a few rituals and play another wincon from your hand. Due to the low land count required for supporting Belcher, Fury almost always hits 3-4 spells.
The bulk of this deck is rituals and mana storage. Other than SSG, and Vessel if you have <2 mana floating, they all generate mana when revealed off Fury. Rituals give you mana and storm immediately, but they only provide +1 net mana. Mana storage (Prospector and Vessel) lets you store your mana and unleash it on a turn where it'll be most devastating. Vessel provides a net +2 mana when sacrificed, so you need fewer cards to hit 6/7 mana. In a pinch you can play and crack Prospector/Vessel just for +1 storm. Prospector can also sac goblin tokens to turn Empty the Warrens into a ritual. Lotus Bloom is sort of like both a ritual and mana storage; it provides a net +3 mana even off Fury, but there's a time lag before you can use it if you suspend it from your hand. SSG doesn't add to storm and is a 2/2 when flipped off Fury, but the mana it makes is uncounterable, and it's the only way to get T1 Blood Moon.
Red card draw sucks, so you have to make do with Mishra's Bauble and Manamorphose. Those also build storm count, and Manamorphose provides 2 mana off Fury.
Serum Powder is a goofy card. Basically, if it's in your hand, you get to mulligan for free. If it's game 1, you also get to show your opponent the pile that you're playing and watch his reaction . It's probably the best consistency tool for this deck. It can also be hardcasted as a terrible mana rock - terrible in that Mind Stone is way better - but in a deck like this, every little bit towards the magical 6/7 mana threshold counts.
The mana base is all basic Mountains. There are a few (admittedly obvious) reasons for this choice:
1) They generate red mana for your spells. Well, duh.
2) Belcher deals double damage if it ends on a Mountain. Having nothing but Mountains increase the consistency at which a Belcher activation kills your opponent. So that excludes anything that isn't a Mountain; stuff like Temples, Zhalfirin Void, Gemstone Caverns, etc.
3) Renegade Map lets you get away with a low land count and only gets basic lands.
Mulliganing
Mulligans are important, because the deck pretty much plays itself once you decide on your starting hand. So make it count.
You can keep 0-landers if they have two Lotus Blooms, or a Lotus Bloom and some rituals (although this kind of hand is very weak to disruption on Bloom). SSG+Renegade Map is also ok, but slow.
A hand with all mana is keepable, chances are good that you'll draw into a wincon naturally. A hand with no mana is not.
You don't have to use Serum Powder in every hand that you draw it in - if you would have kept that hand even if it didn't have Serum Powder in it, then keep it.
Controlling your draws with Map and Bauble
Renegade Map offers you a limited amount of card selection. You can reduce the probability of drawing lands for your draw phase slightly by using Map to take a land out of your library before drawing. You may already know this from playing fetchlands, but the effect is magnified in this deck because of its low land count.
You can crack Mishra's Bauble during your opponent's turn, look at the top card of your library, then use Map on your turn to shuffle it away before drawing if you don't like what you see.
Summarizing, here's a flowchart for using Bauble and Map optimally to fix your draws. If you don't have Bauble, start at step 3.
1) Crack Bauble during your opponent's turn and look at the top card of your library.
2) During your upkeep, before Bauble's trigger resolves, ask yourself "do I want to draw the card that I saw with Bauble last turn?"
2a) If no, crack Map for a Mountain. Draw a card for Bauble, then another for your draw phase. Skip step 3 and go straight to your main phase.
2b) If yes, draw that card with Bauble. Don't go to your draw step yet; stay in upkeep, and go to step 3.
Note that you may want the top card because it's a Mountain, but if you only need 1 Mountain and no more, Map already gets it for you. So you should take path 2a in that case.
3) It's your upkeep now. Ignore the fact that you have Map or a draw step for the next question. Ask yourself, "if I were to draw two cards now, am I OK if both of them are lands?"
3a) If yes, draw a card for your draw phase, then crack Map for a Mountain.
3b) If no, crack Map for a Mountain, then draw a card for your draw phase.
If you cast Bauble during a combo turn, don't crack it until the last possible moment. You won't draw from it during your turn anyway. If you hit a Belcher, you can use Bauble to check if the top card is a Mountain before activating Belcher. If it is, wait until your opponent's upkeep to get the Mountain out of the way with Bauble's draw, then Belch.
When to use Bauble/Manamorphose
The free cantrips pose a dilemma: should you hold on to them to boost storm count on the combo turn, or should you burn them for the cantrip? In general, I would recommend consuming them ASAP for two reasons. One, Bauble's draw is delayed, and two, they might draw you into something that you can play now. e.g. if you have 2 lands, a bunch of rituals/wincons in hand and a Manamorphose, using Manamorphose might draw you into Blood Moon or Vessel of Volatility. I would only hold them if I had everything needed to combo with Empty the Warrens except one more CONFIRMED land drop. E.g. a starting hand of Mountain, Renegade Map, ritual, ritual, Empty the Warrens, Mishra's Bauble is 8 goblins on turn 2 if you hold on to Bauble until then. If I didn't have the Map I would use Bauble on turn 1 to try to draw into another Mountain or SSG on turn 2 instead.
Quick guide to mana production
Here is a mana production comparison for all cards in the deck, divided into 3 circumstances: when used immediately, when used to store mana for a future turn, and mana generated when cast off Fury. All numbers given are net (i.e. mana produced - mana consumed). Once you play the deck enough you'll know all of this by heart. Prior Storm experience in any format helps.
Lotus Bloom: can't be used immediately, stores 3, makes 3 off Fury
Desperate Ritual: +1 immediately (+2 if spliced), can't store mana, makes 3 off Fury
Pyretic Ritual: +1 immediately, can't store mana, makes 3 off Fury
Vessel of Volatility: 0 immediately, stores 2, makes 2 off Fury
Skirk Prospector: 0 immediately, stores 1, makes 1 (or a 1/1 creature) off Fury. +1 for each goblin token you already have, if any.
Simian Spirit Guide: +1 immediately (but no storm count), can't store, makes a 2/2 creature off Fury
Manamorphose: 0 immediately, can't store, makes 2 off Fury. You draw a card in all cases.
Serum Powder: -2 immediately, stores 1, makes 1 off Fury
Hardcasting Serum Powder
Ritualing into Serum Powder makes sense under some circumstances. Before you go burning rituals on Powder, you have to be sure that it won't get blown up and send your investment down the drain. (Or maybe that's the plan, to draw removal to it instead of your Belcher).
To decide if it's worth ritualing into Serum Powder, consider the alternative of NOT ritualing into it. If you hold on to the ritual, it gives you +1 mana and +1 storm count on a later turn. If you ritual into Powder, it gives you +1 mana on a later turn. So holding on to the ritual is better, except when:
1) the ritual is SSG, which doesn't add to storm count.
2) you can use the mana from Powder over multiple turns. If you get 2+ mana out of it, that's more than your initial 1-ritual investment. E.g. if you go ritual > Powder > Renegade Map, you've basically gotten Map for free, and the +1 mana effect from the ritual is now stored inside Powder. Another e.g: if you're on 2 lands and have 2 rituals, Powder, Belcher in hand; you can ritual > Powder this turn, ritual > Belcher next, and activate Belcher the turn after.
Serum Powder is free if you have Skirk Prospector and some goblins on the board, enough floating mana, AND Empty in hand. (Yes, there are a lot of 'if's and 'but's.) E.g. you have Prospector + 2 goblin tokens on the field, Powder + Empty in hand, 4 mana floating, X storm count. If you cast Empty now, it gives you 2X+2 goblins. However, if you sac 2 goblins (6 mana), cast Powder (3 mana, X+1 storm), tap it for mana (4 mana), then cast Empty, it gives you 2X+4 goblins since Powder added to the storm count. Minus the initial 2-goblin investment, you still gained a net 2X+2 goblins, only that this line gave you a Serum Powder on the field in addition.
Sideboarding
Sideboarding with this deck is pretty easy. You don't have a lot of SB options, because you're mono-color and have only 6 lands (so SB options that cost 2+ mana are auto-excludes). You cut Mishra's Bauble, and Blood Moon if it doesn't do much against the opposing deck. You bring in countermeasures for whatever you lose to - Leyline of Sanctity for discard, Lightning Bolt for hatebears (Thalia, Guardian of Thraben, Eidolon of the Great Revel), Guttural Response for counterspells, and Shattering Spree for artifacts (Damping Sphere, Chalice of the Void).
Don't sideboard too many cards in, or you'll end up losing to your own deck.
Thanks. Unfortunately I've written off this deck, it just isn't consistent enough. You need to play a low land count for Belcher, but that is very hard to do without Chrome Mox and Mox Opal. The last idea I had was 4 Stomping Ground and 4 Safewright Quest, but that leaves a blank as to the other land slots: basic Forest increases Belcher fizzle rate, basic Mountain can't cast Quest, and the BFZ duals/cycling lands ETB tapped and can't be grabbed with Renegade Map.
If I had room for a card to give Goblin tokens haste it would be Goblin Bushwhacker. The way I build these decks is, I want to be able to combo off normally if I don't draw Fury. I mentioned this in the first post; if you hit 7 mana you can Belch immediately instead of going through Fury -> ritual + Belcher. Bushwhacker is the best thing to pair with Empty the Warrens (casting both cards costs 6 mana), compared to something like Empty + Ashling's Prerogative (still 6 mana, but less power) or Empty + Flame-Kin Zealot (8 mana), even if you'd rather hit FKZ off a Fury.
Storm beats discard with Pieces of the Puzzle. This deck can't play it, which is another reason not to try.
Do not play Nissa in Storm. There are like 10 cards I can think of playing before her. She's not an instant or sorcery (i.e. doesn't get boosted by Baral or Past), and does not boost your instants or sorceries in any way.
If you click on my username there should be an option to "follow user". I haven't used it personally, but it should alert you to new posts made by me.
Jeff Hoogland played the pre-Skirk Prospector version of this deck last week, going 3-2. https://youtu.be/FIC2TDQVkuc
Open the spoiler below if you want a summary, but seriously, words don't do those games justice. Ridiculous things happened.
R1 vs RW Prison
G1, winning on a mull to 4 through Aura of Silence
G3, winning on a mull to 5 through triple Stony Silence and double Runed Halo. Don't play bad prison decks with no clock, kids.
R2 vs Bogles
G1, Powdering a serviceable 7 and going down to 5, failed to topdeck a land/ritual in a do-or-die last turn
G2, winning on a no-land mull to 6 with double Lotus Bloom
G3, losing to last-turn Daybreak Coronet
R3 vs UW Control
G1, casting Blood Moon through Mana Leak
G3, getting Vendilion Cliqued on the combo turn (which just made 2 more Goblins), followed by Guttural Response on Cryptic Command for the win next turn
R4 vs UR Wizards
G1 winning with 10 Goblins on turn 2
G2 comboing off on a no-land mull to 6 with 1 Lotus Bloom through Dispel (countered by Guttural Response), but fizzling off the Fury
G3 winning with 8 Goblins on turn 2
R5 vs Bridgevine
G1 keeping a no-land 7 with 1 Lotus Bloom, getting killed on turn 3 (next draw was a land which would've let him combo)
G2 keeping a no-land mull to 6 with SSG + Map, Belched on turn 4 but failed to reveal enough nonlands for lethal
The Traveler's Amulets should be Skirk Prospectors now. Also, Blood Moon is no longer a free-win card in the current meta, so trim those.
First League, 3-2
R1 vs UR Phoenix
G1, T4 Belcher win off a no-land, 1 Lotus mull to 5 (topdecked land T1...)
G2, yielded and failed to block a lethal Awoken Horror
G3, T4 Belcher win facing lethal next turn
R2 vs UW
G1, baited Cryptic Command with a Belcher, then slammed Blood Moon turning all lands into Mountains, won a few turns later
G2, baited Cryptic with Moon, then slammed Belcher and won
R3 vs U Tron
G1, T1 Blood Moon into T3 6 Goblins. Unfortunately the opponent ramped into Wurmcoil Engine, then Chalice of the Void on 2 and won
G2, mulliganed to death
R4 vs 8Rack
G1, burned a ritual on Blood Moon (against basic Swamp.dec) and died
G2, made 4 Goblins on T3, then drew a useless Blood Moon and died
R5 vs 8Rack again
G1, made 6 Goblins on T4, lost the only land to Smallpox...but made it all the way LOLOLOL
G2, made 6 Goblins on T1(!), faded Illness in the Ranks, blew up Ensnaring Bridge and won
Second League, 4-1
R1 vs Dredge
G1, kept a no-land 2 Bloom 7, making 30 Goblins on turn 4...but crumbled under 1 Narcomoeba, 3 Bloodghast, 4 Prized Amalgam and 4 Creeping Chill
G2, T4 Belcher (with unnecessary Tormod's Crypt)
G3, kept an all-mana 7, drew into T2 Crypt (unused for the entire game, opp was hardcasting creatures the entire time), made 12 Goblins on T5. Opp timed out
R2 vs UR Kiki
G1, landed T1 Moon. Made 8 Goblins T5, got Angered, Belched T8 for lethal
G2, kept a no-land 1 Bloom 6, durdled till T7 making 14 Goblins, got Angered, died to beats
G3, made 4 Goblins T4 and Blood Moon T5, got Staticastered, durdled a bit more into T9 Fury > rituals > Belcher from hand with Guttural Response backup > T10 Belch
R3 vs RG Ponza
G1, T4 Belcher
G2, got smashed by artifact removal
G3, opp blew Engineered Explosives on Vessel of Volatility. Instant regret when 10 Goblins came down T4. (Nonlethal) Belcher followed on T6, Goblins finished the job.
R4 vs Burn
G1, T2 Belcher into T3 activation for the kill (sneaking past T2 Eidolon of the Great Revel)
G2, lost to T2 Eidolon
G3, kept a risky 1-land 7, drew SSG T3 into 8 Goblins. Beat opp's 0-creature draw.
R5 vs Bant Spirits
G1, kept a 0-land 1 Bloom 6, SSGed into Map T2 and made 12 Goblins T4, but fell short
G2, Gut Shot opp's T1 Mausoleum Wanderer, landed T3 Moon, catching opp without Noble Hierarch or Aether Vial. T5 Fury > Empty sealed the game.
G3, mulled a 0-land 2 Bloom 7 into 0-land 1 Bloom SSG+Map 6. Landed T3 Moon, but opp had 2 Hierarchs and some attackers by then. Spell Queller secured the win for opp.
A few thoughts on the deck, having seen the above videos:
If I had to compare this deck to a more well-known one, it would be Titanshift, not Storm. That's quite a shocker - are you seriously saying a 6 land deck is close to a 27 land one? Well, you need to hit 6 (Fury/Primeval Titan) or 7 (Belcher/Scapeshift) mana for your wincons. Summoner's Pact even has the Fury-like effect of tying up your mana for the next turn. Neither this deck nor Titanshift have much in the way of card selection. Mulligans are also tough to recover from since you need that critical mass of mana (but as we have seen, sometimes luck just smiles on you and hands you wins off mulls to 5). Don't put Faithless Looting in this deck; casting it is basically mulliganing, and there are no graveyard synergies.
While Titanshift relies on ramp spells to get there, this deck uses rituals and mana storage instead. The rituals can power out faster wins, since you get to use the mana immediately, unlike Titanshift's ramp spells which put lands onto the battlefield tapped. On the other hand, lands provide mana every turn, while rituals and mana storage are one-time resources.
Turn 4 is about the average win turn for this deck. But really, any Lotus Bloom deck can expect that. Sometimes you win a little faster (virtually or otherwise) with ritualed Moons, Empties or Belchers.
I think the old 2 Traveler's Amulet/Wanderer's Twig is correct. They are slow, but sometimes you need that to win the race, not a Skirk Prospector that makes mana once and dies. I would probably play 2 Amulet/3 Moon/1 Prospector now.
I thought the blue decks would be bad matchups, but they're surprisingly winnable. The deck won every single match against UR and UW opponents. Dispel can't counter your mana storage or wincons. Soft counters can be paid for, they basically trade 1-for-1 with mana storage. You have enough wincons to continually present threats that they have to answer or die to: 3 mana Moons, 4 mana Empties, 4 mana Belchers. Blood Moon is another card that exceeded expectations - I thought it would suck against the basic-heavy UW or partially-red UR, but it effectively trades for Cryptic Command since they either have to counter it, or let it resolve and be locked out of UUU.
The UR decks are generally tougher than UW since they have cheaper board wipes.
3 Guttural Response should be enough for the SB against blue decks, leaving you more slots for other matchups.
Street Wraith is a bad SB card. SB cards should let you beat opposing hate, not just draw more of your deck, leaving its composition unchanged. Seriously, just play Bolts over it, those kill hatebears and beaters, and you can aim those at your opponent if nothing else.
I still don't see why you would play Ingot Chewer over Shattering Spree. Spree can wipe out multiple artifacts and beat Welding Jar. That's worth more than getting an extra 3/3 if you reveal your artifact removal off Fury.
Stony Silence is quite a beating, shutting off half your mana and half your wincons. There's no way to deal with it in mono-red, so just hope to avoid it.
You're probably wondering if there's any Guilds card that could make the list. Unfortunately I don't see any.
Arclight Phoenix requires you to play Looting, and if you draw one without the other, you've basically mulliganed. Not to mention, this deck isn't as heavy on instants/sorceries. Experimental Frenzy is more of a grindy CA engine than a combo engine, contrary to its predecessor (Future Sight). Your topdecks basically have to be perfect (rituals into rituals into wincons) since you can't play cards from your hand. You also can't exile SSG from the library for mana, nor suspend Lotus Bloom (which, even if you wouldn't last 3 more turns, would dig you one card deeper). Legion Warboss is an alternate wincon, but this deck had no business playing Goblin Rabblemaster before and I doubt a slightly different Rabblemaster changes that. Though you can try SBing into red Moon prison with 4 Rabblemaster+4 Warboss if you think it'll work. Runaway Steam-Kin doesn't trigger off artifacts. Some of your wins involve very low starting storm counts, such as Bloom/Vessel into Fury/Belcher, meaning Steam-Kin is liable to contributing nothing at all.
One final thing I'd like to say: thanks, to all the streamers (well, two) who've played this deck. It's been very entertaining to watch. SPBKASO, if you're reading this, it has Blood Moon in it, so you're contractually obligated to play it .
4 Renegade Map
4 Lotus Bloom
4 Skirk Prospector
4 Vessel of Volatility
4 Desperate Ritual
4 Pyretic Ritual
4 Simian Spirit Guide
4 Mishra's Bauble
4 Manamorphose
2 Blood Moon
4 Empty the Warrens
4 Goblin Charbelcher
4 Hazoret's Undying Fury
4 Leyline of Sanctity
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Guttural Response
3 Shattering Spree
- early Blood Moon, made possible by the full 8 rituals, 4 SSGs and 4 Skirk Prospectors. Not a wincon by itself, but it can lock the opponent out of the game long enough to let this deck cobble together a win. Ritual > Moon costs you two cards, so if it buys you two draw steps it's already paid for itself (to say nothing of your opponent, who might still be under the lock).
- Goblin Charbelcher. If you hit 7 mana, you can cast and activate it immediately. Slightly more risky is spending 4 and 3 mana on consecutive turns to activate it - it's riskier because Belcher is open to removal. Whether Belcher reveals enough nonland cards to kill is a gamble. The more Mountains you find before Belching, the better your chances.
- Empty the Warrens. Play a bunch of rituals to get your mana and storm count up, then cast Empty for a big goblin army. Even 6 goblins on turn 2 can get there sometimes.
- Hazoret's Undying Fury. Mostly you're hoping to hit Empty, or Bloom/ritual + Belcher and activate Belcher immediately. Alternatively, you could hit a few rituals and play another wincon from your hand. Due to the low land count required for supporting Belcher, Fury almost always hits 3-4 spells.
Red card draw sucks, so you have to make do with Mishra's Bauble and Manamorphose. Those also build storm count, and Manamorphose provides 2 mana off Fury.
Serum Powder is a goofy card. Basically, if it's in your hand, you get to mulligan for free. If it's game 1, you also get to show your opponent the pile that you're playing and watch his reaction . It's probably the best consistency tool for this deck. It can also be hardcasted as a terrible mana rock - terrible in that Mind Stone is way better - but in a deck like this, every little bit towards the magical 6/7 mana threshold counts.
The mana base is all basic Mountains. There are a few (admittedly obvious) reasons for this choice:
1) They generate red mana for your spells. Well, duh.
2) Belcher deals double damage if it ends on a Mountain. Having nothing but Mountains increase the consistency at which a Belcher activation kills your opponent. So that excludes anything that isn't a Mountain; stuff like Temples, Zhalfirin Void, Gemstone Caverns, etc.
3) Renegade Map lets you get away with a low land count and only gets basic lands.
Mulligans are important, because the deck pretty much plays itself once you decide on your starting hand. So make it count.
You can keep 0-landers if they have two Lotus Blooms, or a Lotus Bloom and some rituals (although this kind of hand is very weak to disruption on Bloom). SSG+Renegade Map is also ok, but slow.
A hand with all mana is keepable, chances are good that you'll draw into a wincon naturally. A hand with no mana is not.
You don't have to use Serum Powder in every hand that you draw it in - if you would have kept that hand even if it didn't have Serum Powder in it, then keep it.
Controlling your draws with Map and Bauble
Renegade Map offers you a limited amount of card selection. You can reduce the probability of drawing lands for your draw phase slightly by using Map to take a land out of your library before drawing. You may already know this from playing fetchlands, but the effect is magnified in this deck because of its low land count.
You can crack Mishra's Bauble during your opponent's turn, look at the top card of your library, then use Map on your turn to shuffle it away before drawing if you don't like what you see.
Summarizing, here's a flowchart for using Bauble and Map optimally to fix your draws. If you don't have Bauble, start at step 3.
1) Crack Bauble during your opponent's turn and look at the top card of your library.
2) During your upkeep, before Bauble's trigger resolves, ask yourself "do I want to draw the card that I saw with Bauble last turn?"
2a) If no, crack Map for a Mountain. Draw a card for Bauble, then another for your draw phase. Skip step 3 and go straight to your main phase.
2b) If yes, draw that card with Bauble. Don't go to your draw step yet; stay in upkeep, and go to step 3.
Note that you may want the top card because it's a Mountain, but if you only need 1 Mountain and no more, Map already gets it for you. So you should take path 2a in that case.
3) It's your upkeep now. Ignore the fact that you have Map or a draw step for the next question. Ask yourself, "if I were to draw two cards now, am I OK if both of them are lands?"
3a) If yes, draw a card for your draw phase, then crack Map for a Mountain.
3b) If no, crack Map for a Mountain, then draw a card for your draw phase.
If you cast Bauble during a combo turn, don't crack it until the last possible moment. You won't draw from it during your turn anyway. If you hit a Belcher, you can use Bauble to check if the top card is a Mountain before activating Belcher. If it is, wait until your opponent's upkeep to get the Mountain out of the way with Bauble's draw, then Belch.
When to use Bauble/Manamorphose
The free cantrips pose a dilemma: should you hold on to them to boost storm count on the combo turn, or should you burn them for the cantrip? In general, I would recommend consuming them ASAP for two reasons. One, Bauble's draw is delayed, and two, they might draw you into something that you can play now. e.g. if you have 2 lands, a bunch of rituals/wincons in hand and a Manamorphose, using Manamorphose might draw you into Blood Moon or Vessel of Volatility. I would only hold them if I had everything needed to combo with Empty the Warrens except one more CONFIRMED land drop. E.g. a starting hand of Mountain, Renegade Map, ritual, ritual, Empty the Warrens, Mishra's Bauble is 8 goblins on turn 2 if you hold on to Bauble until then. If I didn't have the Map I would use Bauble on turn 1 to try to draw into another Mountain or SSG on turn 2 instead.
Quick guide to mana production
Here is a mana production comparison for all cards in the deck, divided into 3 circumstances: when used immediately, when used to store mana for a future turn, and mana generated when cast off Fury. All numbers given are net (i.e. mana produced - mana consumed). Once you play the deck enough you'll know all of this by heart. Prior Storm experience in any format helps.
Lotus Bloom: can't be used immediately, stores 3, makes 3 off Fury
Desperate Ritual: +1 immediately (+2 if spliced), can't store mana, makes 3 off Fury
Pyretic Ritual: +1 immediately, can't store mana, makes 3 off Fury
Vessel of Volatility: 0 immediately, stores 2, makes 2 off Fury
Skirk Prospector: 0 immediately, stores 1, makes 1 (or a 1/1 creature) off Fury. +1 for each goblin token you already have, if any.
Simian Spirit Guide: +1 immediately (but no storm count), can't store, makes a 2/2 creature off Fury
Manamorphose: 0 immediately, can't store, makes 2 off Fury. You draw a card in all cases.
Serum Powder: -2 immediately, stores 1, makes 1 off Fury
Hardcasting Serum Powder
Ritualing into Serum Powder makes sense under some circumstances. Before you go burning rituals on Powder, you have to be sure that it won't get blown up and send your investment down the drain. (Or maybe that's the plan, to draw removal to it instead of your Belcher).
To decide if it's worth ritualing into Serum Powder, consider the alternative of NOT ritualing into it. If you hold on to the ritual, it gives you +1 mana and +1 storm count on a later turn. If you ritual into Powder, it gives you +1 mana on a later turn. So holding on to the ritual is better, except when:
1) the ritual is SSG, which doesn't add to storm count.
2) you can use the mana from Powder over multiple turns. If you get 2+ mana out of it, that's more than your initial 1-ritual investment. E.g. if you go ritual > Powder > Renegade Map, you've basically gotten Map for free, and the +1 mana effect from the ritual is now stored inside Powder. Another e.g: if you're on 2 lands and have 2 rituals, Powder, Belcher in hand; you can ritual > Powder this turn, ritual > Belcher next, and activate Belcher the turn after.
Serum Powder is free if you have Skirk Prospector and some goblins on the board, enough floating mana, AND Empty in hand. (Yes, there are a lot of 'if's and 'but's.) E.g. you have Prospector + 2 goblin tokens on the field, Powder + Empty in hand, 4 mana floating, X storm count. If you cast Empty now, it gives you 2X+2 goblins. However, if you sac 2 goblins (6 mana), cast Powder (3 mana, X+1 storm), tap it for mana (4 mana), then cast Empty, it gives you 2X+4 goblins since Powder added to the storm count. Minus the initial 2-goblin investment, you still gained a net 2X+2 goblins, only that this line gave you a Serum Powder on the field in addition.
Sideboarding
Sideboarding with this deck is pretty easy. You don't have a lot of SB options, because you're mono-color and have only 6 lands (so SB options that cost 2+ mana are auto-excludes). You cut Mishra's Bauble, and Blood Moon if it doesn't do much against the opposing deck. You bring in countermeasures for whatever you lose to - Leyline of Sanctity for discard, Lightning Bolt for hatebears (Thalia, Guardian of Thraben, Eidolon of the Great Revel), Guttural Response for counterspells, and Shattering Spree for artifacts (Damping Sphere, Chalice of the Void).
Don't sideboard too many cards in, or you'll end up losing to your own deck.
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Big Johnny.
If I had room for a card to give Goblin tokens haste it would be Goblin Bushwhacker. The way I build these decks is, I want to be able to combo off normally if I don't draw Fury. I mentioned this in the first post; if you hit 7 mana you can Belch immediately instead of going through Fury -> ritual + Belcher. Bushwhacker is the best thing to pair with Empty the Warrens (casting both cards costs 6 mana), compared to something like Empty + Ashling's Prerogative (still 6 mana, but less power) or Empty + Flame-Kin Zealot (8 mana), even if you'd rather hit FKZ off a Fury.
Storm beats discard with Pieces of the Puzzle. This deck can't play it, which is another reason not to try.
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Big Johnny.
If you click on my username there should be an option to "follow user". I haven't used it personally, but it should alert you to new posts made by me.
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Big Johnny.
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Big Johnny.
https://youtu.be/FIC2TDQVkuc
Open the spoiler below if you want a summary, but seriously, words don't do those games justice. Ridiculous things happened.
G1, winning on a mull to 4 through Aura of Silence
G3, winning on a mull to 5 through triple Stony Silence and double Runed Halo. Don't play bad prison decks with no clock, kids.
R2 vs Bogles
G1, Powdering a serviceable 7 and going down to 5, failed to topdeck a land/ritual in a do-or-die last turn
G2, winning on a no-land mull to 6 with double Lotus Bloom
G3, losing to last-turn Daybreak Coronet
R3 vs UW Control
G1, casting Blood Moon through Mana Leak
G3, getting Vendilion Cliqued on the combo turn (which just made 2 more Goblins), followed by Guttural Response on Cryptic Command for the win next turn
R4 vs UR Wizards
G1 winning with 10 Goblins on turn 2
G2 comboing off on a no-land mull to 6 with 1 Lotus Bloom through Dispel (countered by Guttural Response), but fizzling off the Fury
G3 winning with 8 Goblins on turn 2
R5 vs Bridgevine
G1 keeping a no-land 7 with 1 Lotus Bloom, getting killed on turn 3 (next draw was a land which would've let him combo)
G2 keeping a no-land mull to 6 with SSG + Map, Belched on turn 4 but failed to reveal enough nonlands for lethal
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Big Johnny.
https://youtu.be/3BvPuQlcUj8
https://youtu.be/OLt3q6pROkg
Comedy level in these videos remains high.
R1 vs UR Phoenix
G1, T4 Belcher win off a no-land, 1 Lotus mull to 5 (topdecked land T1...)
G2, yielded and failed to block a lethal Awoken Horror
G3, T4 Belcher win facing lethal next turn
R2 vs UW
G1, baited Cryptic Command with a Belcher, then slammed Blood Moon turning all lands into Mountains, won a few turns later
G2, baited Cryptic with Moon, then slammed Belcher and won
R3 vs U Tron
G1, T1 Blood Moon into T3 6 Goblins. Unfortunately the opponent ramped into Wurmcoil Engine, then Chalice of the Void on 2 and won
G2, mulliganed to death
R4 vs 8Rack
G1, burned a ritual on Blood Moon (against basic Swamp.dec) and died
G2, made 4 Goblins on T3, then drew a useless Blood Moon and died
R5 vs 8Rack again
G1, made 6 Goblins on T4, lost the only land to Smallpox...but made it all the way LOLOLOL
G2, made 6 Goblins on T1(!), faded Illness in the Ranks, blew up Ensnaring Bridge and won
Second League, 4-1
R1 vs Dredge
G1, kept a no-land 2 Bloom 7, making 30 Goblins on turn 4...but crumbled under 1 Narcomoeba, 3 Bloodghast, 4 Prized Amalgam and 4 Creeping Chill
G2, T4 Belcher (with unnecessary Tormod's Crypt)
G3, kept an all-mana 7, drew into T2 Crypt (unused for the entire game, opp was hardcasting creatures the entire time), made 12 Goblins on T5. Opp timed out
R2 vs UR Kiki
G1, landed T1 Moon. Made 8 Goblins T5, got Angered, Belched T8 for lethal
G2, kept a no-land 1 Bloom 6, durdled till T7 making 14 Goblins, got Angered, died to beats
G3, made 4 Goblins T4 and Blood Moon T5, got Staticastered, durdled a bit more into T9 Fury > rituals > Belcher from hand with Guttural Response backup > T10 Belch
R3 vs RG Ponza
G1, T4 Belcher
G2, got smashed by artifact removal
G3, opp blew Engineered Explosives on Vessel of Volatility. Instant regret when 10 Goblins came down T4. (Nonlethal) Belcher followed on T6, Goblins finished the job.
R4 vs Burn
G1, T2 Belcher into T3 activation for the kill (sneaking past T2 Eidolon of the Great Revel)
G2, lost to T2 Eidolon
G3, kept a risky 1-land 7, drew SSG T3 into 8 Goblins. Beat opp's 0-creature draw.
R5 vs Bant Spirits
G1, kept a 0-land 1 Bloom 6, SSGed into Map T2 and made 12 Goblins T4, but fell short
G2, Gut Shot opp's T1 Mausoleum Wanderer, landed T3 Moon, catching opp without Noble Hierarch or Aether Vial. T5 Fury > Empty sealed the game.
G3, mulled a 0-land 2 Bloom 7 into 0-land 1 Bloom SSG+Map 6. Landed T3 Moon, but opp had 2 Hierarchs and some attackers by then. Spell Queller secured the win for opp.
3 Guttural Response should be enough for the SB against blue decks, leaving you more slots for other matchups.
Experimental Frenzy is more of a grindy CA engine than a combo engine, contrary to its predecessor (Future Sight). Your topdecks basically have to be perfect (rituals into rituals into wincons) since you can't play cards from your hand. You also can't exile SSG from the library for mana, nor suspend Lotus Bloom (which, even if you wouldn't last 3 more turns, would dig you one card deeper).
Legion Warboss is an alternate wincon, but this deck had no business playing Goblin Rabblemaster before and I doubt a slightly different Rabblemaster changes that. Though you can try SBing into red Moon prison with 4 Rabblemaster+4 Warboss if you think it'll work.
Runaway Steam-Kin doesn't trigger off artifacts. Some of your wins involve very low starting storm counts, such as Bloom/Vessel into Fury/Belcher, meaning Steam-Kin is liable to contributing nothing at all.
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Big Johnny.