MTG Salvation

Quote from DXI-Edge

Thoughts on replacing Desperate Ravings with Peer Through Depths?

I realise Ravings having flashback is good in some cases, however in other cases, being able to splice Ritual onto Peer can actually be relevant at times....something to consider?

I didn't really like Ravings for a long time and played Peer and Faithless Looting at various times, but I eventually came around on Ravings, along with Thought Scour, and I have to say it has served me very well so far. Having a draw effect that costs only red mana is really important in case you can't find a Manamorphose but have plenty of other rituals.

Quote from DTrain

I didn't really like Ravings for a long time and played Peer and Faithless Looting at various times, but I eventually came around on Ravings, along with Thought Scour, and I have to say it has served me very well so far. Having a draw effect that costs only red mana is really important in case you can't find a Manamorphose but have plenty of other rituals.

I felt the same way about Ravings, although I haven't tried the others. But I noticed the strength of Ravings in some games and even some where I sided it out. Having something to flashback if you don't have PiF and you have an Electromancer in play comes up rarely, but it did happen to me.

Congratulations to MrPajitnov! Now I have to try to take down my FNM with Storm. So far, I've been 3-2 and 4-2. I punted 2 games in the 3-2 and the 4-2 just had pretty poor draws to amazing draws by opponents.

I played at a Modern FNM with 35 players; 6 rounds.

Round 1 vs. Goblins. Game 1, I Storm off on turn 4 after he only has 2 early Legion Loyalist and a Warren Instigator. Game 2, I keep a risky 4 land, 2 Gitaxian Probe, 1 Empty the Warrens hand. I had hoped to draw a Ritual, but drew only lands. I can do it on turn 4, but Legion Loyalist, Goblin Warchief, other Goblins, and a Shared Animosity spell my doom in keeping a poor hand. Game 3, I have Thought Scours, which draw 2 many lands. I am able on the final turn to get some Goblin Tokens, but he topdecks Legion Loyalist to swing for the win. Previously I had looked at his hand and saw that his turn 2 Lightning Bolt matched up well with my Goblin Electromancer, but played it to slow his quick hand down anyway. Embarrassing losing to this deck but I noticed this deck doesn't do well vs. Aggro when I stumble and they draw turn 4-5 kills. 1-2.

Round 2 vs. UB Mill. These games were not fair, although in his defense, his turn 1 Jace's Phantasm was turned on early enough to put me at lethal the turn after I went off. Unfortunately for him, I went off on turn 4. Game 2, he gets stuck on just 1 Black mana after a mull. I draw pretty poorly but at turn 7 with 7 lands in play, I go off comfortably. 2-0.

Round 3 vs. BG Obliterator. He does Abrupt Decay on 2 Electromancers in a row. I go off on turn 4 with an amazing hand. In game 2, he does a Grafdigger's Cage and some other artifact. I do Shattering Spree even though I had enough Goblins from Empty the Warrens to go off anyway. They kill him in 2 swings, despite Liliana of the Veil and Abrupt Decay killing a few. 2-0.

Round 4 vs. Mono Green Travis Woo. In game 1, I go off on turn 4 comfortably after his draw is too slow. In game 2, he does a quick turn 1 Arbor Elf, turn 2 Utopia Sprawl, Burning Tree Emissary, Nykthos, Garruk. He is set to kill me soon, but makes a mistake with his attacks on Primeval Titan, 2 Beast tokens, and a BTE with his Kessig Wolf Run. It hurts him as I do Echoing Truth on his tokens to stay at 3 life. I go off next turn, despite him doing a Nature's Claim mid combo on my Pyromancer Ascension. 2-0.

Round 5 vs. Faeries. Game 1 after a mull by him, he gets Stormed on turn 4. His Inquisition of Kozilek, BB, was not good enough. In game 2, I land a Blood Moon after he played Inquisition, BB again. He plays Sword of Feast and Famine next turn and this is what kills me. I draw nothing good enough until the turn before I lose, I draw Empty the Warrens. I go ahead and do it for a few (wondering where Past in Flames was with 40+ cards in my graveyard). Four Thoughtscour! The next game is very close, but I am Storming off when I hit too many lands in a row. I realize that I won't be able to do it, but make a mistake of shipping Echoing Truth to the bottom. I did an Echoing Truth on his Faerie tokens, but left Bitterblossom in play because I figured I had more turns to win. He drops Sword of Feast and Famine again and cuts it to 3 turns. On the final turn, I draw Empty the Warrens and also do Grapeshot with my Pyretic Ritual to kill a Faerie equipped with Sword. Unfortunately, I'm at 2 life and lose on the swing back anyway. I have 6 lands in play with no Past in Flames anywhere to be found again. He had 2 Islands and drew a Spellstutter Sprite on the final turn, but I could have had 2 more turns to draw something of consequence with only 2-3 lands left in my deck. 1-2.

Round 6 vs. UWR Control. Game 1, I Storm off turn 4 despite him killing an Electromancer. Pyromancer Ascension into another mid-combo was great. In game 2, he does Relic of Progenitus. I draw 2 Pyromancer Ascension in a row with another in hand already. Still I go off for several Goblin tokens from Empty the Warrens. Still, he burns me out with Lightning Helix, Electrolyze, Lightning Bolt, Lightning Helix, SCM, SCM, SCM. Six lands were good to him. In the final game, I fail to find a Ritual. I play turn 3 Blood Moon to get a Counter out of his hand. He does Mana Leak. I draw pretty horribly while he is burning me. I fetched 3 times and I end up losing because I can't find a land with my Fetch and don't have Blood Moon in play. At 6 mana, I have 2 Scalding Tarn. I had previously done Manamorphose X 3 + Empty the Warrens. These tokens had him next turn, but he finds Vendilion Clique to take my Ritual and then Electrolyzes the Goblin Electromancer. On the final turn I have 6 lands, but 2 Tarn and am at 3 life. I have 1 Island and 1 Steam Vents in my deck left. I need to be able to play 1 of 2 Past in Flames in my hand to do Ritual from graveyard with the other 2 mana, then Rituals + 4 Manamorphose, Grapeshot, which was milled earlier by me, to win while he is at 5 life. I fall just short and he is happy. 1-2.

I finish 3-3. I am pretty upset that I punted that Round 5, but honestly the way I was drawing, I felt like the next 2 draws were probably the last 2 lands in my deck (believe me, I checked many times). I have a feeling that poor shuffling and poor plays are preventing me from placing with a deck that is very good. I'm wondering if I should put some stuff in the side for Aggro (other than just my 2 Bolts). Whenever I play against Aggro and stumble, they draw amazingly well and beat me. I am starting to get disillusioned by the deck because in my playtesting, I never draw so many land or Pyromancer Ascension (when I need draw spells or a Ritual) in a row. I just want to play 1 FNM where I played optimally. I should probably have sided in my Shattering Spree vs. the Sword of Feast and Famine Faeries since that card beat me twice. Even in the graveyard, it has utility. I just thought the chances of 3 Past in Flames in the graveyard was higher...

Again, like i keep saying, the current UR Storm list is too inconsistent. It's high risk, high reward, and it seems like most of these FnM reports are proving it more and more. Sure the deck crushes when you draw your Pyromancer Ascension with a stacked hand, but too many times the deck sits around twiddling it's thumbs. When you're relying solely on (pretty terrible)cantrips to find a fairly specific set of cards, it just doesn't always work out in your favor.

The reason why it looks like aggro is getting awesome draws while you get bunk is simply because those decks are waay more consistent. They aren't drawing hands with nothing but Rituals or Cantrips, because they don't have half a deck of cards that don't really do anything by themselves.

UR Storms strategy is to just race everything, but the deck is too inconsistent to achieve that on a regular bases. If you consider that you need to be pretty on point for that t3-4 win, then consider the aggro decks can beat you t4, and you have no way to interact with control.. how is this looking like a good option?

Also, reading about people Thought Scouring their outs is great. Let's take a deck that already relies on a ton of luck, and make it rely even more on luck. Again, the games where you Scour into a ballin ass t3 win with your Ascension probably feels amazing, but is it worth those games you spend turns cantipping into cantrips, or milling your Ascension/ Electromancer/ Sideboard hate to Scour?

Either way 3/2s, 4/2s aren't bad, and one way or another it's cool to see people playing storm. I still think you're all playing a sub par Storm list though. But i never have been one to play decks that rely on me crossing my fingers every second. I want to feel like my skill plays a factor in me winning, not just luck sacking a wicked opening 7, or getting lucky and drawing/ resolving that early Ascension(Which undeniably probably wins you the game) To me, no matter how you look at it, the deck absolutely relies on a tremendous amount of good luck to do well, and the more rounds you play, the more luck you need to keep the wins coming.

This deck is like the equivalent of Belcher in modern or something. What i mean is.. Yeah it's fast, and it can top, but you need to be drawing hot fire to pull it off. Not to mention your giving up the ability to interact with your opponent for an extra 1/2 turn to a 1 turn of speed. To me, that just doesn't seem worth it. . . Not in a field full of highly tuned, powerful, and far more consistent decks.

I could be horribly wrong here, but I don't see it like that in the slightest. I honestly don't see the 2 best players of all time playing a severely inconsistent deck at the Pro Tour of all places. Remember, the deck is made up of mostly 4 ofs and 2 Grapeshot that are effective from one's hand or the graveyard.

In my report, I alluded to the fact that in many of the games, I ended up on 6-7 lands in play. There are 16 lands in the deck with 8 fetches, so if you think (even with all of the card draw and selection) that 6-7 lands on turn 7 is commonplace, I will definitely disagree with you here. Also I made a punt in Round 5 by shipping my 2nd Echoing Truth to the bottom with Serum Visions. I would have had a different opponent in the final round and still could have ended 5-1, despite losing in the 1st round to "the ever consistent" Goblins.

I just think that the main aberration for me is that during my playtesting vs. myself at home, I am getting different draws than at FNM. I think I remember 1 game in the last 60 playtesting matches where I ended up on 6 lands: it happened to me at least 4 times at FNM in 6 rounds. Also, my Goblin Electromancers and Pyromancer's Ascension are clumping together in packs more during FNM. I currently playtest at home vs. Bogles, Twin, Pod, Tron, Blue Moon, and Living End.

Anyway, I feel like I will do better next week because I am going to play a 6 card hand in testing vs. a 7 card hand from Storm's opponent. This should prepare me more for FNM situations that have arisen. I would love to do a report where I played optimally. There were multiple games where I had to mull to 5 or 6 and nearly won, losing to several hate pieces with pressure.

Those great players chose the perfect time to play Storm at that Pro tour. Has there been an event since where storm has dominated? It did well at that one event because 2 whole teams of Pros were playing the deck, and played it at the perfect time, right after the Deathrite ban.

And while yes, the entire deck is 4 ofs, all of those 4 of don't actually do much of anything on there own. There are plenty of times all you do is cantrip into cantrips or build up hands with 5 Rituals and nothing to do with them.

6 lands on any turn with this deck stinks on ice, i can't say anything about that..

All i'm saying, is you testing at home is no different than you playing at FNM. I mean, do you realize how ridiculous it sounds when you say "When i play against myself i win all the time, but when i play against other people i lose, It must be bad luck"

The deck is just inconsistent. Absurdly powerful, yes, but still inconsistent.

You don't have to take my word for it though. Keep jamming the deck, and doing your thing. My opinion is just an opinion. I'm sure you'll put up some great results if you stick with it; it's definitely not a bad deck by any stretch of the imagination. I'm just personally not convinced this is the optimal storm build.

Quote from Alleyway Jack

All i'm saying, is you testing at home is no different than you playing at FNM. I mean, do you realize how ridiculous it sounds when you say "When i play against myself i win all the time, but when i play against other people i lose, It must be bad luck."

I didn't say that. You said that or took what I said and construed it as that.

What I was saying is that when I playtest vs. myself, I don't "set up" the hands. I simply shuffle, cut, resolve mulligans, and play. Storm doesn't win "every time" (your words; not mine). In fact, it has a tough matchup vs. my Tron. It has a very good matchup vs. Boggles. I have a feeling for the matchups. When an opposing deck nut draws vs. Storm and Storm draws suboptimally, the other deck wins. I think it is like that with any most decks. Some matchups allow for less than optimal draws to still win because the nature of the matchup.

I simply need to play optimally (which I believe will come with time) and shuffle my opponents' decks better. I have noticed that when I have shuffled an opponent's deck, they were less likely to have the draws where I can guess their every turn play (without Git. Probe), ie. Faeries doing turn 1 discard, turn 2 Bitterblossom, and drawing a singleton Sword of Feast and Famine by turn 3-4 all 3 games. BTW, I'm not saying that any of those plays are particularly amazing vs. Storm (although the F&F is tough when I have a slow hand). There's more and more cards that "get very good" vs. a Storm player when he has a slow hand.

Hey guys, after PT BNG I started keeping track of my results with the deck. Here are my notes so far:

• For the most part my testing has been pretty consistent with what others have claimed about the archetype except for the Melira Pod matchup. I'm 3-5 in matches and unless I have a nut draw the MU feels abysmal, especially against proficient Pod players.
• Other poor matchups thus far seem to be BGx and UR Twin decks, with some control decks being more problematic than others.
• Tempo decks aren't as bad as you'd expect. Just run them out of counters and keep Young Pyromancer off of the board and you should be fine.
• Interestingly, hatebear decks aren't really that bad for us. They lack library manipulation or card draw, and they can only board in so much targeted hate before they water down their own game plan. Even if they do draw their hate, their 3/1's and 2/2's give you plenty of time to draw into an answer or a kill. Just be mindful of Leonin Arbiter, that guy hoses us harder than almost any other creature they can present.
• Aggro decks can be a coin toss, but are generally in our favor. The Affinity matchup is hilariously good.
• Apart from Infect (another coin toss), other pure combo decks lack the speed and resilience of Storm. Blood Moon is usually all you need, but I don't even board that in unless I'm on the play for most combo matchups.
• Except All-in Twin, which is just all-around bad for us.
• Many of the more savvy players know that Leyline of Sanctity doesn't do much post-board since we're most likely boarding into the Warrens plan. Pay attention to their mull/keep decisions game 2 and see if they are leaving themselves vulnerable to a turn 3/4 grapeshot kill in game 3.
• Torpor Orb is straight up better than Defense Grid in a lot of matchups. Classic control decks are pretty rare in the format, but nearly every 'fair' deck in the format relies of some sort of ETB effect, which we can easily exploit.
• Never, ever keep 1-Mountain hands. I don't care how good the rest of the hand looks.
• Blood Moon is easily the best card in our deck after board. It handles all of our worst matchups outside of mono-white and Izzet strategies, and it is actually pretty backbreaking against RUG Twin (AKA TarmoTwin, the worst named deck in Modern)

I made it out to a Tuesday Night Modern! We had 14 players for 4 rounds.

Round 1 vs. BW Tokens. In game 1, he mulled to 5. I had a few rough draws and ended up on turn 7 with 7 lands. I went off on 7 land with Past in Flames, etc. In game 2, he made me discard some stuff on turns 1-3. Tidehollow Sculler holding Lightning Bolt ended up winning it because on the final turn, I could Empty the Warrens for a 2 turn clock, but he had Sword of Fire and Ice out and I was at 4 life. Once again, I had 6 mana out by turn 6. In game 3, I flood out again after looking through my deck a bunch. Maybe I shouldn't fetch so easily, which I do, but I don't want to get in a situation where I have nothing left to fetch or even worse, have to take 2 life with Steam Vents. He gets me with a good curve of Gather the Inquisition of Kozilek, Gather the Townsfolk, Lingering Souls, Intangible Virtue and flashback. I lure him into blocking with 3 creatures on my Goblin Electromancer and then cast another in main phase 2, but it doesn't matter. He goes for the Zealous Persecution kill, but I Lightning Bolt a creature to stay at 3. I have nothing the next turn. 1-2.

Round 2 vs. Ajundi. Yes, I know it's not quite as good anymore. This player usually does pretty well at our FNM though. In game 1, I go off, but make a really stupid mistake of not casting a Goblin Electromancer mid combo because I think I have it anyway. I end up 1 Storm short with my Grapeshot, as I fail to draw 1 Ritual effect (although 3 were exiled already). In game 2, he mulls to 4. He only has 1 Temple Garden. I have Ritual into Blood Moon and a few draw steps later after Empty the Warrens, he loses. In game 3, he Extirpates and Thoughtseize + Inquisition of Kozilek almost everything I do. Grapeshot is left in the deck and when he stumbles turn after turn, I go off for my final Grapeshot in the deck. He had 1 Treetop Village vs. my 2 Goblin Electromancer. I actually went off the turn after he finally drew Red; a Fire-Lit Thicket to Pillar of Flame X 2 on my 2 Electromancer. This win was good for me after my HUGE punt in game 1. 2-1.

Round 3 vs. Mono Black Infect. This is the 2nd player in a row who I always seem to do well against. In game 1, he does a Thoughtseize, targeting Past in Flames. That seemed odd, but then he paid 2 life for Surgical Extraction. I end up finding Goblin Electromancer and Pyromancer Ascension early off Serum Visions. I go off pretty easily for a bunch with an amazing 4 Manamorphose draw! In game 2, it is nearly the same, but I go off on turn 3 for 22 Goblin tokens + a Grapeshot for 12 life. He fails to draw the mainboarded Ratchet Bomb. My plan was to wait for 2 more mana if he got Bomb and then flashback Past in Flames. 2-0.

Round 4 vs. Merfolk. I keep a stupid on the draw hand of triple Gitaxian Probe. I do not draw a single land in 5 turns (8 total draws) and lose. The hand really just needed a single Island to start filtering, but I knew it was stupid to keep. In game 2, I do a mid combo of Echoing Truth + copy on Grafdigger's Cage and a Merrow Reejery with Electromancer and Pyromancer Ascension out. Then I flash back Past in Flames and he concedes after a few more plays by me. In the final game, I keep a NUT hand of Manamorphose X 2, Empty the Warrens, Pyretic Ritual, Thoughtscour, Fetch, Shivan Reef. I draw another land and go off on turn 3 for I believe 18 tokens. It takes one attack after he fails to find anything. This was all after turn 1 Aether Vial, turn 2 Relic of Progenitus. I love it when they have the wrong answer to the right question. 2-1.

I finish 3-1, which is my best finish so far. I still made many mistakes, but I think I'm going to move on to Pod or RUG Twin for Friday. People are starting to realize that I play Storm and despite me not finishing well so far, I am feeling the hate way more than week 1.

At Mr. Pajitnov -

I'm surprised you don't do well vs. Pod. Even with another Scavenging Ooze, a Harmonic Sliver, 4 Thoughtseize, and a Sin Collector after board, it seems like a good matchup. At least in my testing, it was. Also, Scapeshift almost seemed like a free win for me the 2 times I played against it. We are just quicker than them and really only Cryptic Command, tapping Goblin tokens long enough to Scapeshift, scares me.

Aggro decks seem to be in our favor, but if we draw slow, they can overrun us. These decks have caused the toughest problems for me.

I agree that most other Combo decks are just not as quick, resilient, or consistent due to Serum Visions and Sleight of Hand, as us.

I agree with you on Torpor Orb. I think I have only sided in 2 Defense Grid once in 4 tournaments. Counters just aren't quite as prevalent in Modern. I actually made a change to the sideboard that I am proud of - I took out the 3rd Empty the Warrens for 1 Anger of the Gods since I never sided more than 2 EtW in any game. I am also playing 2 Shattering Spree in the place of 2 Shatterstorm. I feel the card is more versatile and for R, it takes out turn 1 Relic, Cage, Aether Vial, or later equipment.

I kept a 1 Mountain + 2 Gitaxian Probe hand once on the draw. After I lost to Affinity with no other lands in play, 3 Ritual effects, Shatterstorm in hand with other cards, I learned. I actually thought that I was going to draw a land on the turn before lethal and still win since his hand was emptied.

Blood Moon is awesome! Sometimes it gets sided out on the draw because I feel like it's too slow against some decks. I play Blood Moon in Legacy Painter, so I have come to learn how to punish greedy manabases. I feel like Ritual into Blood Moon on turn 2 beats many decks in this format and have even gotten 2 players to scoop on the spot.

In the end, I trust your testing much more than mine. I have only played in 4 tournaments at 13-8. But I have done probably 100 matches in play testing.

Quote from Alleyway Jack

Those great players chose the perfect time to play Storm at that Pro tour. Has there been an event since where storm has dominated? It did well at that one event because 2 whole teams of Pros were playing the deck, and played it at the perfect time, right after the Deathrite ban.

And while yes, the entire deck is 4 ofs, all of those 4 of don't actually do much of anything on there own. There are plenty of times all you do is cantrip into cantrips or build up hands with 5 Rituals and nothing to do with them.

6 lands on any turn with this deck stinks on ice, i can't say anything about that..

All i'm saying, is you testing at home is no different than you playing at FNM. I mean, do you realize how ridiculous it sounds when you say "When i play against myself i win all the time, but when i play against other people i lose, It must be bad luck"

The deck is just inconsistent. Absurdly powerful, yes, but still inconsistent.

You don't have to take my word for it though. Keep jamming the deck, and doing your thing. My opinion is just an opinion. I'm sure you'll put up some great results if you stick with it; it's definitely not a bad deck by any stretch of the imagination. I'm just personally not convinced this is the optimal storm build.

I disagree. The deck is actually amazingly consistent. Granted I've been running a slightly different configuration with 3x Looting and 4x Ravings instead of 3x Ravings and 4x Scour. Wasn't very pleased with Scour as many times it was just draw 1 for U when I needed more. Not to mention SB games when I'm digging for my Echoing Truth to win from under a Rule of Law and Scour manages to bin my one out and basically end the game. The deck is explosive vs. decks without disruption and vs. decks with heavy disruption you often have inevitability and just overrun them with card advantage and superior filter late game.

The deck also lets you outplay opponents. It is certainly not the Belcher of Modern that would be Ad Nauseum, or better yet All-in Breach/Vengence. Belcher and other glass canons are all-in decks for maniacs, Modern storm gives you lots of room to maneuver around opponents. If you are playing every match like you are goldfishing at home be prepared to be disappointed with the deck.

I've won many games without comboing out on turn 3-4, especially after board when you have access to Bolts. Many creature decks will SB heavily diluting their threats which allows you to sideboard into Bolts, Angers, Shatterstorms, and maybe even Empties (I don't bring them in vs. Pod or Affinity but most other creature decks I think it's right) and just draw out the game forever and win through inevitability.

The worst matchup by far is Faeries which has a fastish clock and infinite disruption. Luckily this deck is not very popular and likely a poor meta call at most events. Every other matchup feels to be about 40-45% at worst (possible exception Hatebears and maybe Jund, need more testing and lists seem to very greatly). Meanwhile the deck has many matchups that are often virtual byes and due to its explosive nature and scary SB options (and the fact it makes up only roughly 5-6% of the overall metagame) has a lot of game vs. most of the top tier.

I've been to 4 events in the past month and only failed to hit prize support once (and I was 5th on breakers there). I've lost more matches to misplays then to the deck having any issues. Not counting Byes or IDs my match record with the deck is a respectable 12-4-1 two of those loses and the draw I chalk up to play errors on my part.

When playing Storm you really need to know how to play to your outs. When to go for it and when to wait one more turn to make sure you have it. How to play into and around your opponents hate when appropriate. How to Git Probe your opponent and set them up to use their resources in a certain way so you can turn around and punish them once they no longer have those resources. When to setup a non-lethal Grapeshot or Empty to stall the board so you can rebuild. Storm has a huge decision tree, I think a lot of people who lose with the deck blame it on consistency when in reality it's possible they made a mistake perhaps early in the game which caught up with them later and in reality they could be winning games with skill they are instead losing and blaming luck.

I'm curious what people would recommend for a budgeted manabase (no fetchlands). I think 4 Steam Vents and 4 Shivan Reefs make sense, so how would you distribute the last 8 lands between Mountain and Island if you were playing the 2 Grapeshot, 3 Ravings, 4 Thought Scour configuration?

Nah. Eidolon is easier to kill than Rule of Law (Pyromancer Ascension + Bolt). You have (slightly) less to worry from a player who plays 3 Eidolon than 3 Rule of Law.

I've been trying to figure out the best way to play around the hate turtle, since counting on the exact combination of cards at the right moment is a little risky. I'm hesitant to go the down the Wear//Tear route since the extra color is really bad with Blood Moon, but then that leaves 3+ Echoing Truth in the board. I'm hoping (mostly in vain) that JOU will give us an interesting cantrip to play with.

So here's a question. I remember how having a transformational sideboard to change into Splinter Twin used to be a fairly common trick, but no one seems to do it anymore. Is there any particular reason why that fell out of favor?

Quote from _tvoid

Eidolon prevents you from playing 2 spells...

Rather than Tear//Wear, Nature's Claim looks better and the green splash also gives access to Ancient Grudge.

Pyromancer Ascension copies, it doesn't cast.
Whenever you cast an instant or sorcery spell while Pyromancer Ascension has two or more quest counters on it, you may copy that spell. You may choose new targets for the copy.
706.10. To copy a spell or activated ability means to put a copy of it onto the stack; a copy of a spell isn’t cast and a copy of an activated ability isn’t activated.

Quote from Lord Seth

So here's a question. I remember how having a transformational sideboard to change into Splinter Twin used to be a fairly common trick, but no one seems to do it anymore. Is there any particular reason why that fell out of favor?

PV article, skip down to "Sideboarding with a Combo Deck"
Your deck will never be as good as it was before (or you’d be playing that deck to begin with) - if you're playing Storm boarding into Twin, you might as well play Twin with a normal sideboard.
The one thing you must avoid is transforming into something that loses to whatever it is they were boarding anyway - people will board in counters, discard and enchantment hate (Nature's Claim, Qasali Pridemage) against you. The Twin combo still loses to all those.

Quote from FoodChainGoblins

I played against Affinity last FNM in Round 1 and lost . . . after doing Thought Scour on myself putting Shatterstorm in the graveyard. My opponent even breathed a sigh of relief on that one..

This made me laugh.

Quote from nahholmes

I disagree. The deck is actually amazingly consistent. The deck is explosive vs. decks without disruption and vs. decks with heavy disruption you often have inevitability and just overrun them with card advantage and superior filter late game.

The deck is explosive if you draw, resolve, and activate an early Ascension, or if you resolve an Electromancer with a stocked hand full of Rituals, Draw, and PIF.. Just because the deck has 16+ cantrips doesn't mean your always going to draw your engine with the right hand to back it up. As i've said before Moderns cantrips suck and i know we have all experienced games of cantriping into cantrips or sitting there for turns with 6 Rituals in our hand..

Quote from nahholmes

The deck also lets you outplay opponents. It is certainly not the Belcher of Modern that would be Ad Nauseum, or better yet All-in Breach/Vengence. Belcher and other glass canons are all-in decks for maniacs, Modern storm gives you lots of room to maneuver around opponents. If you are playing every match like you are goldfishing at home be prepared to be disappointed with the deck.

While i fully admit the deck presents a few opportunities to outplay your opponent, some that may not be apparent to newer players, the fact is- your ability to interact with the opponent is extremely limited.

Quote from nahholmes

When playing Storm you really need to know how to play to your outs. When to go for it and when to wait one more turn to make sure you have it. How to play into and around your opponents hate when appropriate. . . Storm has a huge decision tree, I think a lot of people who lose with the deck blame it on consistency when in reality it's possible they made a mistake perhaps early in the game which caught up with them later and in reality they could be winning games with skill they are instead losing and blaming luck.

I am a dedicated Legacy player and i pretty much only play storm; ANT, and DDFT. Everything you said there is true, but i wouldn't be so quick to imply a lack of experience with the deck on my part. Playing around your opponent has nothing to do with the absolute necessity to draw an engine, have a good enough hand/ graveyard to start comboing, and draw well enough while comboing to seal the deal.

Eidolon of Rhetoric looks like a nightmare. The fact that Pod can tutor it out and it's not in Bolt range really stinks on ice.. This doesn't seem funfor anyone playing Storm.

Eidolon of the Great Revel doesn't look sweet either. A Modern Legal Pyrostatic Pillar is no fun.. At least this one can be Bolted and Swept.

Is it really necessary for Storm hate to get printed in every set. . .

Play testing on cockatrice, or any other website like that is far far different than playing in tourneyments.
Believe it or not there are players that spend all day at cards shops, playing over and over.
Cockatrice is people play testing budget crap, or playing dream decks they don't really have a lot of hands on with.

It's like 14 year old kid who can't drive stick, playing forza Motorsport.
You throw him in an scam autoxmevent and he can't even get the car started...

Also, everyone who says it's lack of skill making players lose, even finkel doesn't place too 8 with the current iteration...the last 2 ban list updates hit this deck hard, it's no secret wotc hates it's existence in modern, finkel even stated this deck is dead next ban list....on his cf primer

Has anyone hear tested the UGr variant with enchant lands and Twiddle effects to generate tons of mana? I have been finding it to be more consistent, but reaching critical mass is more difficult than with an active Ascension.

http://magic.tcgplayer.com/db/article.asp?ID=11739