What? Just because you twist it, it doesn't mean that whoever is using Stormtrooper as a general term to refer Storm pilots intend to send an antisemitic undercover message. And no, I'm not Jewish and I couldn't care less about any religion for that matter.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Common sense is the most fairly distributed thing in the world, for each one thinks he is so well-endowed with it that even those who are hardest to satisfy in all other matters are not in the habit of desiring more of it than they already have. - René Descartes
Keep the discussions on the cards and the game please. If you have a problem with a post then use the report function and don't try to take it into your own hands.
This may be a dumb question but I always hear the term deterministic thrown around a lot in the Storm community. I know in math it's about the lack of randomness in the sense that in a model you will get the same result depending on the given starting condition. Does it mean the same thing for our deck when we talk about "deterministic" kills / lines?
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Modern URGifts StormUR URBlue MoonUR URKiln FiendUR
Please do not refer to us, or any people as “stormtroopers” The term is derived from a Nazi regiment and is very hurtful to me and is an anti Semitic thing to say. Thank you.
I meant like in Star Wars. Sorry if it offends you. Lot of people use this term for Storm players though (in reference to Star Wars, always). Have a good day, and again, sorry. I'm Canadian, I don't mind to say sorry lol.
Common sense is the most fairly distributed thing in the world, for each one thinks he is so well-endowed with it that even those who are hardest to satisfy in all other matters are not in the habit of desiring more of it than they already have. - René Descartes
No, the card sucks. The only time I can see this being better than a remand is if you have 4 mana open counter a spell on their turn and then gifts at end step. Literally, any other time remand is better.
I ended up casting 3 Serum Visions, 3 Sleight of Hand, 2 Opt, and 2 Manamorphose and all I found were rituals. I'm not mathematician, but the odds of that happening must be really low.
Anyways, even though I lost the game, I had fun with my opponent who was as astonished as me that I drew nothing.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Common sense is the most fairly distributed thing in the world, for each one thinks he is so well-endowed with it that even those who are hardest to satisfy in all other matters are not in the habit of desiring more of it than they already have. - René Descartes
I dug 36 cards against ad naus the other day and didn’t hit a gifts or pif fam, sometimes it happens, that’s the pleasure of playing a combo deck sometimes
Been seeing alot of posts over the past few months about why Noxious Revival should/should not be in the deck. Here's a quick rundown of why you absolutely SHOULD have it in the deck:
1. Our most common kill condition is to have a bear in play and the ability to make 6 mana before casting Gifts. If you have Noxious in your deck, you can kill with the ability to make only 5 mana if your hand contains either a Manamorphose or a PiF
2. Noxious makes the deck less reliant on bears to kill. A common line you run with a Noxious is casting Grapeshot, cast Noxious to put the shot back on top, draw it again with either a morphose or a cantrip, and then grapeshot again. Realize that that is a double grapeshot for potentially only 4 mana with only a single copy of shot without a bear. Compare that to the other common line to double shot in the deck, going Grapeshot-Remand-Grapeshot; without a bear, that line costs 6 mana, which is considerably more challenging.
3. You can Gifts for a guaranteed bear by going Baral, Goblin, Noxious, other card (usually PiF or Grapeshot). Very valuable if your hand is poised to go off but needs the bear to beat counterspells for example.
4. You can get a guaranteed ritual with Rit, Rit, Noxious, other. Similarly, you can get bounce with Repeal, Wipe, Noxious, other. Basically any effect in your deck that you have two of (rituals, cantrips, etc) you can guarantee having one of by making gifts piles with Noxious
5. On a turn where you are land light and need to go off with a bear, and the opp has removal, Noxious makes the kill almost trivial. For example, if you have a hand full of rituals and already have a pretty stocked GY (meaning it would be easy to win if you can stick a bear), but you only have 3 lands which makes beating removal harder. In this situation, if you have access to Noxious either through your hand or in the GY after a PiF, you can play through the single removal spell, PiF, and then use Noxious plus a morphose or cantrip to get your bear back and finish the combo from there. That kill would be challenging without access to a second bear, which Noxious gives you
6. Having Noxious makes it alot easier to beat Surgical Extraction--this is not just a corner case. By prioritizing getting a Noxious online (either in your hand or active from a PiF in the GY) before you grab a Grapeshot with a Gifts pile gives the opp no window to ever hit your storm card with a Surgical. This requires some maneuvering, because you need to be careful about allowing a Grapeshot or Empty to go to the GY before you have the ability to cast a Noxious, but once you get it online their surgical is useless.
Those are the major points, there are a ton of small plays that come up every once in a while, but these stated reasons should convince you to keep Noxious in your decks. The card disadvantage argument is not valid to discredit the level of flexibility that Noxious gives your deck; just look at all the top finishing storm decks from the past few months and you'll see that they've reached the same conclusion.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Modern UR Storm URB Grixis Delver W Death and Taxes
Basically anything with Scalding Tarn
It's more a Scry 1 effect than anything else. Its activation cost is quite too high to be flipped effectively. Of course, that doesn't mean that you should never activate it.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Common sense is the most fairly distributed thing in the world, for each one thinks he is so well-endowed with it that even those who are hardest to satisfy in all other matters are not in the habit of desiring more of it than they already have. - René Descartes
He and Paul were also testing Treasue Map in the 2 flex sideboard slots. Caleb also plans to give Chandra, ToD a go. Really, people are looking at those last 2 flex slots in the sideboard and trying to find the best thing for the grindy matchups.
I'm rather new to storm, and I am trying to build my sideboard. I don't run fetchlands in favor of consistent cantrip filtering, and as such opted for the puzzlemaster package. In what matchups would you run pyromancer ascension in? I keep seeing the card pop up in sideboards but don't know how to use it properly. Important to note I have one repeal and lightning bolt main. My current sideboard is:
2 Empty the Warrens
2 Lightning Bolt
1 Dismember
4 Pieces of the puzzle
1 Gigadrowse
1 Shattering spree
1 Wipe away
1 Anger of the gods
2 Pyromancer Ascension
You can check Caleb's blog for info about his sideboarding plan.
His notes about PA:
The more interesting change though is the reintroduction of Pyromancer Ascension. The cards removed to make way for these were the 2nd Gigadrowse and 2nd Shattering Spree. First I will talk about what was removed as we have been quite happy with two of both for a while now. As for Shattering Spree we have a good mathup against affinity already and Engineered Explosives helps fill the gap of having a second piece of artifact hate. The second Gigadrowse though is still quite great for the plan that we were using for control with waiting until we can tap them out and go off. But with the addition of Pyromancer Ascension we now have another axis to attack control so we can shave down on cards for the matchup. Plus we only really like to board in a single copy of Gigadrowse in non control matchups anyway.
Now to address the reason that Pyromncer Ascension was selected for the board is that it is effectively another enabler, like the bears, but can only be hit by a couple pieces of interaction that they have instead of just anything that can handle a creature. Now since our main deck is not perfectly configured for turning the Ascension on with almost all cards being maxed out on copies, we will really only want it when we are in a slower grindy matchup. One thing to also note is that pieces basically requires one to board in the 4 pieces to create a more consistent engine so they can in general be looked at as a package. This is due to the above mentioned non optimized main deck so we can put lots of things in the graveyard to turn it on mid game reliably.
In many grindy matchups we will see a fair amount of graveyard hate, which is why we usually bring in pieces anyway, so it may seem a bit counter intuitive to want Ascension but it is still quite good in the face of all graveyard hate besides ones that eliminate the concept of us having a graveyard, such as Rest in Piece or Leyline of the Void. This is mainly due to Ascension not having an intervening if clause (like Valakut) so even if the card in graveyard is removed Ascension still gets a counter. Another thing to note is that in all situations where Ascension is boarded in it will serve a similar role to the medallion bears but can be jammed with basic impunity with the upside of creating a subgame similar to how Empty does. Also treat the Ascension as similar to bears in that its importance to sculpting our game plan is very situational and should just be set out to achieve, like we did with gigadrowse before in control matchups.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Common sense is the most fairly distributed thing in the world, for each one thinks he is so well-endowed with it that even those who are hardest to satisfy in all other matters are not in the habit of desiring more of it than they already have. - René Descartes
Hey guys I've been playing Storm for a few months now (I switched from Affinity) and I figured I would sign up and start contributing. I heard Treasure Map mentioned a few days ago as a possible sideboard card. Anyone ever actually used it?
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Modern GBRJundGBR GBWAbzan TraverseGBW GBRockGB GBRUJund ShadowGBRU
What's up guys! Has anyone yet seen Tolarian Community College's Top 5 Dominaria Cards for Modern? I expected to see Karn and Damping Sphere in there, but I was quite shocked to see The Professor's #1 pick. Skirk Prospector! He mentioned that it would be good for Storm and as a Storm player myself, I have to admit I was pretty surprised. Never even considered the card for Modern outside of Goblin Tribal. Skirk pairs really well with an Empty the Warrens, being able to generate a mana for each token which could make storming off with Empty a lot easier. No idea how that would actually work and if we can even afford sideboard space for it, especially considering Damping Sphere might shake us up a little bit. And the idea of switching both Empty andSkirk Prospector to the main? I don't even know anymore. I'm by no means an expect Storm player but I've played my fair share of tournaments with the deck. Any experts that can evaluate Skirk Prospector?
That would be the issue I would take with it as well. Not sure if it really has a home in Storm. With that said, most times I cast Empty the Warrens, I do it as early as possible and it is small. Skirk Prospector can act as a sort of ritual, creating an engine if you ever want to try and go off again. Of course, it takes up a slot and there are likely better options, and also the fact that if you have enough cards to go off twice then your opponent was probably not going to win anyway. Not really sure what the Professor was thinking there; maybe he was talking about a different kind of Storm? A new kind of storm? I have no idea.
Skirk Prospector is for a very different deck than gifts Storm. I think someone will find a way to use it, but it won't be this deck.
Speaking of Dominaria: what do people think will happen with Damping Sphere? Should we go up to 2 Shattering Sprees to help combat this card? Or is one Spree + mainboard Repeal and possibly another mainboard bounce effect good enough?
Speaking of Dominaria: what do people think will happen with Damping Sphere? Should we go up to 2 Shattering Sprees to help combat this card? Or is one Spree + mainboard Repeal and possibly another mainboard bounce effect good enough?
I think more bounce is better. More flexible. Specifically, Repeals. Bounces Sphere, Eidolon, Thalia, etc.
MTGO/MTGA: Tyclone
My Primers ~ GWx Vizier Company ~ Knightfall ~ RG Eldrazi ~ Green's Sun's Zenith
More Brews ~ Modern Four Horsemen ~ Gitrog Dredge
URGifts StormUR
URBlue MoonUR
URKiln FiendUR
BURStormBUR
I meant like in Star Wars. Sorry if it offends you. Lot of people use this term for Storm players though (in reference to Star Wars, always). Have a good day, and again, sorry. I'm Canadian, I don't mind to say sorry lol.
I ended up casting 3 Serum Visions, 3 Sleight of Hand, 2 Opt, and 2 Manamorphose and all I found were rituals. I'm not mathematician, but the odds of that happening must be really low.
Anyways, even though I lost the game, I had fun with my opponent who was as astonished as me that I drew nothing.
1. Our most common kill condition is to have a bear in play and the ability to make 6 mana before casting Gifts. If you have Noxious in your deck, you can kill with the ability to make only 5 mana if your hand contains either a Manamorphose or a PiF
2. Noxious makes the deck less reliant on bears to kill. A common line you run with a Noxious is casting Grapeshot, cast Noxious to put the shot back on top, draw it again with either a morphose or a cantrip, and then grapeshot again. Realize that that is a double grapeshot for potentially only 4 mana with only a single copy of shot without a bear. Compare that to the other common line to double shot in the deck, going Grapeshot-Remand-Grapeshot; without a bear, that line costs 6 mana, which is considerably more challenging.
3. You can Gifts for a guaranteed bear by going Baral, Goblin, Noxious, other card (usually PiF or Grapeshot). Very valuable if your hand is poised to go off but needs the bear to beat counterspells for example.
4. You can get a guaranteed ritual with Rit, Rit, Noxious, other. Similarly, you can get bounce with Repeal, Wipe, Noxious, other. Basically any effect in your deck that you have two of (rituals, cantrips, etc) you can guarantee having one of by making gifts piles with Noxious
5. On a turn where you are land light and need to go off with a bear, and the opp has removal, Noxious makes the kill almost trivial. For example, if you have a hand full of rituals and already have a pretty stocked GY (meaning it would be easy to win if you can stick a bear), but you only have 3 lands which makes beating removal harder. In this situation, if you have access to Noxious either through your hand or in the GY after a PiF, you can play through the single removal spell, PiF, and then use Noxious plus a morphose or cantrip to get your bear back and finish the combo from there. That kill would be challenging without access to a second bear, which Noxious gives you
6. Having Noxious makes it alot easier to beat Surgical Extraction--this is not just a corner case. By prioritizing getting a Noxious online (either in your hand or active from a PiF in the GY) before you grab a Grapeshot with a Gifts pile gives the opp no window to ever hit your storm card with a Surgical. This requires some maneuvering, because you need to be careful about allowing a Grapeshot or Empty to go to the GY before you have the ability to cast a Noxious, but once you get it online their surgical is useless.
Those are the major points, there are a ton of small plays that come up every once in a while, but these stated reasons should convince you to keep Noxious in your decks. The card disadvantage argument is not valid to discredit the level of flexibility that Noxious gives your deck; just look at all the top finishing storm decks from the past few months and you'll see that they've reached the same conclusion.
UR Storm
URB Grixis Delver
W Death and Taxes
Basically anything with Scalding Tarn
Modern: Storm
Legacy: ANT
I'm rather new to storm, and I am trying to build my sideboard. I don't run fetchlands in favor of consistent cantrip filtering, and as such opted for the puzzlemaster package. In what matchups would you run pyromancer ascension in? I keep seeing the card pop up in sideboards but don't know how to use it properly. Important to note I have one repeal and lightning bolt main. My current sideboard is:
2 Empty the Warrens
2 Lightning Bolt
1 Dismember
4 Pieces of the puzzle
1 Gigadrowse
1 Shattering spree
1 Wipe away
1 Anger of the gods
2 Pyromancer Ascension
His notes about PA:
Modern
GBRJundGBR
GBWAbzan TraverseGBW
GBRockGB
GBRUJund ShadowGBRU
Thanks, everyone! Dominaria is looking sweet!
Thanks for the reply!
Speaking of Dominaria: what do people think will happen with Damping Sphere? Should we go up to 2 Shattering Sprees to help combat this card? Or is one Spree + mainboard Repeal and possibly another mainboard bounce effect good enough?
Affinity
GR Eggs GR
UR Storm UR
BR Hollow One BR
WUR Cheerios WUR
G Mono-Green Control G