---Can't remember the name of the lands, and some of the Dragon Names may be off, but whatever.
---Also can't Decide whether Lotus Bloom or Gilded Lotus.
Lotus Bloom is much easier to cast, but Gilded Lotus stays on the field.
---I have both Dragon Arch and Belbe's Portal for a good T1 draw rate. Same goes for the 0-drop mana fixers.
The Object of the deck is to get out dragons in the first turns consistently. The next several turns should be about all I need to win, if I can manage it.
And I wanted to hear any suggestions that you might have on making this deck better.
If it would mean Wizards has access to the Golden Legal Army of Disney and could slay the Reserved List, I for one would welcome our new rodent overlords.
This card also has the distinction of being my least favorite art on a card in the set thus far,... he looks... Out of place to say the least. His face seems to say: "I'm only wearing this outfit because if I don't Niv will eat my family."
If it would mean Wizards has access to the Golden Legal Army of Disney and could slay the Reserved List, I for one would welcome our new rodent overlords.
This card also has the distinction of being my least favorite art on a card in the set thus far,... he looks... Out of place to say the least. His face seems to say: "I'm only wearing this outfit because if I don't Niv will eat my family."
If it would mean Wizards has access to the Golden Legal Army of Disney and could slay the Reserved List, I for one would welcome our new rodent overlords.
This card also has the distinction of being my least favorite art on a card in the set thus far,... he looks... Out of place to say the least. His face seems to say: "I'm only wearing this outfit because if I don't Niv will eat my family."
Burning Wish! Couldn't remember the name. I'll think about adding it later. As it is, I'm at about my budget Max for the time being, with the build as it is. But I'll definitely still take suggestions, so keep them coking.
Thanks!
If it would mean Wizards has access to the Golden Legal Army of Disney and could slay the Reserved List, I for one would welcome our new rodent overlords.
This card also has the distinction of being my least favorite art on a card in the set thus far,... he looks... Out of place to say the least. His face seems to say: "I'm only wearing this outfit because if I don't Niv will eat my family."
You're making the classic newbie mistake of trying to cast your dragons using your mana base in my opinion. This deck should have 20 basic lands or whatever and call it a day. Upwelling is horrible and completely unneeded since casting the dragons seems pointless. I would cut Green completely and get Blue in there for Preordain and Ponder. Even Brainstorm seems playable if only because it can put Kokos back in your deck and Ponder/Preordain can both get rid of unwanted cards. The list on really needs the Kokushos and the Bladewings because it should basically always win when it goes off.
So yeah, I would just make it Blue/Red, play a ton of draw, maybe get Peer Through Depths and Gitaxian Probe in there, and keep Red for rituals. Keep the Kokos and 2 Bladewings and cut the rest.
Yes, I know, what I'm suggesting is just a broken Storm deck. That seems to be what you want though. It's cheap and it's incredibly effective (i.e. consistent) after all. The deck is just draw, sift effects, rituals + broken mana, DStorms and like 6 Dragons. No clunky mana such as ETBT lands that could screw you over, no Green for bad cards like Upwelling, just incredible speed and consistency.
Oh, Mox Opal is garbage. Do not play them and for the love of God do not buy them. You are severely overestimating how consistent they are. I know this even though you haven't said a single word about them. Now, I can read your mind. "But Cz, I only need them to work 0.3% of the time." HA! I laugh at your ridiculous expectations. No, seriously though, the card is absolute garbage and will basically never tap for mana.
You're making the classic newbie mistake of trying to cast your dragons using your mana base in my opinion.
Yes, I know, what I'm suggesting is just a broken Storm deck. That seems to be what you want though.
Oh, Mox Opal is garbage. Do not play them and for the love of God do not buy them. You are severely overestimating how consistent they are. I know this even though you haven't said a single word about them.
On my n00bness: Yup. I see where you're coming from. At any rate. Totally accurate. Started playing a little under a year ago.
On Broken Storm deck: Yup. Pretty much what I'm looking for.
Mox Opal: I'll take your word for it. I think I see what you mean anyways.
Thanks again Cz.
So... Suggestions on what to take out for the ponder/preordain/peer through depths/brainstorm?
Please use the EDIT button rather than double post. Thanks!
-EC
If it would mean Wizards has access to the Golden Legal Army of Disney and could slay the Reserved List, I for one would welcome our new rodent overlords.
This card also has the distinction of being my least favorite art on a card in the set thus far,... he looks... Out of place to say the least. His face seems to say: "I'm only wearing this outfit because if I don't Niv will eat my family."
So... Suggestions on what to take out for the ponder/preordain/peer through depths/brainstorm?
Keep 4 Kokos and 2 Bladewings and cut the rest of the dragons. If you don't believe me you'll just have to playtest the deck to understand why you can get away with it. Cut the Arches and and Portals as well. Go with Lotus Bloom over Gilded Lotus. 8 Moxen is way overkill. Cut at least 2. That should open up the necessary slots. For what it's worth, Peer Through Depths is a huge game and I highly recommend it. Yes, it costs 2 mana, but it digs so freaking deep and if nothing else it will virtually always find a Ponder or whatever. I highly recommend playtesting the deck a bit first to get a bit of a feel for it. Storm decks take a bit of getting used to and so you don't want to go to your games cold. 4 DStorms is pretty much required in my mind though. You need one to win. Carthage was bang about Burning Wish being an all-star too, so if that ever becomes an option I highly recommend it.
The main thing to practice is your spell sequencing. You want to use Preordains to hide bad cards that your Ponders and Brainstorms trap on the top of your deck. Sometimes they leave 1 good card that you really want but then like 2 bad ones. That's where Preordain or even the shuffle effect on Ponder becomes invaluable. Peer too becomes a good way to chuck 'em straight to the bottom.
Brainstorm is easily the worst of the cards. YES, IT IS. Everyone is going to say "blah blah Brainstorm is broken blah blah" but the reality is that BStorm is marginal at best in decks without many shuffle effects (i.e. fetchlands). Ponder/Preordain/Peer can all dig for specific cards but if you look at complete garbage then you can pitch it all to the bottom. If you BStorm and hit crappy cards then you're stuck drawing them over your next few turns. BStorm is the easiest card to misplay by a significant margin as well, which isn't good for a newer player. I didn't bother to do some basic math to see how many of the draw spells that you can cram in here, so maybe this isn't even an issue, but all I'm saying is that BStorm should be the last draw spell that you should include. Some pros who've been playing the game for years will be appalled to hear that, but eh, a lot of them just don't appreciate how bad the card is when you're not the most experienced player. Nothing personal or anything, I was SIGNIFICANTLY worse than you were during my first year, but like BStorm takes some getting used to if you want to play it properly.
Keep 4 Kokos and 2 Bladewings and cut the rest of the dragons. If you don't believe me you'll just have to playtest the deck to understand why you can get away with it.
I highly recommend playtesting the deck a bit first to get a bit of a feel for it. Storm decks take a bit of getting used to and so you don't want to go to your games cold. 4 DStorms is pretty much required in my mind though. You need one to win.
Carthage was bang about Burning Wish being an all-star too, so if that ever becomes an option I highly recommend it.
Brainstorm is easily the worst of the cards.
Some pros who've been playing the game for years will be appalled to hear that, but eh, a lot of them just don't appreciate how bad the card is when you're not the most experienced player. Nothing personal or anything, I was SIGNIFICANTLY worse than you were during my first year, but like BStorm takes some getting used to if you want to play it properly.
Glad to know that I'm not too far behind the learning curve.
I think i see where you're taking the build. I like it.
I understand what you mean about brainstorm. The cards were placed in relation to the value I saw in them.
If it would mean Wizards has access to the Golden Legal Army of Disney and could slay the Reserved List, I for one would welcome our new rodent overlords.
This card also has the distinction of being my least favorite art on a card in the set thus far,... he looks... Out of place to say the least. His face seems to say: "I'm only wearing this outfit because if I don't Niv will eat my family."
Glad to know that I'm not too far behind the learning curve.
We regenerated by returning creatures from our graveyards to play. Grave Defiler was broken needless to say. The best card in anyone's deck was Steel Leaf Paladin and none of us could realistically beat it. Well, that is until I traded an Oh Henry bar for a Devouring Strossus. We thought that you could forget to untap your lands and that you would take mana burn for it (wtf lol?). No Really, ask Carthage. There was a famous game where I was drawing stone dead but my opponent drew a card before untapping thus "killing him" from mana burn. I screamed "YOU DREW!" at the top of my lungs and boasted triumphantly about my victory. It's still by far and away the most memorable MTG moment that any of us have. Did I mention that I really like winning?
Needless to say you're doing fine. Everyone, even the best players, had trouble understanding the game initially. It's incredibly difficult to play and very few players have actually mastered it. I'm legitimately not trying to insult you or anything, even though that's probably how it comes across. Just keep in mind that it's all relative and that newer generations of players catch on much faster than us old schoolers ever did. There's nothing to be ashamed of or anything.
I think i see where you're taking the build. I like it.
There's no bells or whistles or anything special about it. It's pretty stock and it works. All you do is dig for DStorm or, failing that, more dig. You'll draw enough rituals and broken mana to go off along the way.
If it would mean Wizards has access to the Golden Legal Army of Disney and could slay the Reserved List, I for one would welcome our new rodent overlords.
This card also has the distinction of being my least favorite art on a card in the set thus far,... he looks... Out of place to say the least. His face seems to say: "I'm only wearing this outfit because if I don't Niv will eat my family."
On a much more useful note, I'm having second thoughts about BStorm. Everything that I said remains true but I'm SLIGHTLY worried about worst-case scenarios where you draw too many dragons. Now, these wouldn't be incredibly likely to occur or anything, especially with all of your library manipulation, but it's not impossible to just rip the worst possible card every turn. Even though BStorm is probably going to be sub-optimal, it can save you from potential no-win scenarios by putting Kokos and/or Bladewings back in your lib. There are some nightmare draws where you would just plain have to scoop up your cards and wait for the next game (if there even was one) and I know that most people don't like that.
So yeah, I still think that BStorm does its job worse than the other cards on average, but maybe its ability to recover from HORRIBLE draws pushes it back over the top. I'm just a little paranoid because I see far too many people playing Brainstorm in decks that just plain shouldn't have it. Like, when you BStorm and draw the 2 cards that you put on top of your deck, you've basically just paid a mana to draw a card. That's not worth a deck slot. I think I might have slammed it a bit too harshly because it has a fairly legitimate supplemental use in this particular deck.
I've only ever played the Standard version of this deck, never the one that gets 4 Kokos out. I know that Bladewing is the best way to go since the Kokos will be in the GY by the time their ETBT triggers resolves, so killing instantly is still easy, but that's still a bit flawed.
And yes, BStorm is better than more dragons in this instance... but maybe a 3rd Bladewing might be needed. I mean I hope it's clear that if anything you would run more Bladewings, but then if you draw say 3 Kokos you just lose. Not likely to occur, but not 100% impossible either. Your best way to win is to have 4 Kokos die. Playing 4, playing 2 and reviving them with 2 Bladewings, etc. are all good ways to go about it. So yeah, I guess that you might just want to have BStorm around in case you ever draw 3 (or more) Kokos or 2 (or more) Kokos and one (or more) Bladewing. That way you can put 2 back and that should always be enough. The 3rd Bladewing helps in case you draw 1, but probably isn't needed. This is why you want to test the deck a bit. I mean, maybe 4 BStorms and 3 Bladewings is just plain safer, even if it's slightly less consistent. That might be your best option from a "I feel better knowing that I won't just auto lose to really bad draws" point of view.
Talking about the good 'ol days and how dumb me and my playgroup was. Remember interrupts? I remember when the rules said something about the effect being permanent or something like that. Well Dark Ritual was broken. We kept it on the board and used it like a Sol Ring. Needless to say my black decks were awesome!
For multiplayer, you could consider Mana Geyser for the rituals.
Not sure what you meant about fetchlands. Can you explain?
All of those cards are nice, but I want to keep in mind the ban lists.
@Cz: I trust completely that you know what you are talking about, but this seems a bit fragile... Can you explain how this will work? So I can be completely comfortable about spending this much money?
If it would mean Wizards has access to the Golden Legal Army of Disney and could slay the Reserved List, I for one would welcome our new rodent overlords.
This card also has the distinction of being my least favorite art on a card in the set thus far,... he looks... Out of place to say the least. His face seems to say: "I'm only wearing this outfit because if I don't Niv will eat my family."
Not sure what you meant about fetchlands. Can you explain?
@Cz: I trust completely that you know what you are talking about, but this seems a bit fragile... Can you explain how this will work? So I can be completely comfortable about spending this much money?
Brainstorm can be the best or worst card in your deck depending on how well you wield it. Your goal should typically be to play it when you have multiple dead cards in your hand that you just plain don't want. You can BStorm, hide them, and then use a fetchland like Misty Rainforest to shuffle away the bad cards that you don't want. Dragons, excess lands, excess Moxen, etc. are all examples of "dead" cards that you wouldn't want at all times. That's a basic example of why you want to pair it with fetches. There's much more to learn with respect to playing BStorm perfectly, but eh, we're not exactly trying to win tournies or anything here. The gist of it is that BStorm often acts like Ancestral Recall since you take 2 cards that you didn't want and traded them for new and hopefully better ones. That is, since the 2 cards that you shuffled away were useless anyways, it sometimes feels like you drew 3 cards for 1 mana.
If you don't fully appreciate the nuances of what I'm explaining, don't worry about it. The TLDR summary is that you can put 2 useless cards back on top and shuffle them away with fetches for the low, low cost of 1 life.
Back to the deck itself, not sure what it is that you're looking to hear. I was under the impression that you owned these cards for the most part. DStorm is a pretty uninteractive and thus unfun deck and there's a non-0 chance that it could get outright banned in your meta. The cards that I was suggesting are just simple cantrips that are relatively cheap to buy, add a ton of consistency, are all legal in Legacy, etc. You literally just sit there and cast them until you find a DStorm at which point you should just win outright. Your version of the deck had a clunky mana base, weird do-nothings like Upwelling, some poor 5 mana artifacts, etc. None of those cards helped your DStorm plan at all. The list that I'm proposing, which is basically just cantrips and rituals, is 100% focused on speed and consistency. Would I buy this entire deck? No, probably not. If it's good then it'll be too good and people will ban it. If it's bad then it'll be terrible and you'll lose every game.
If you're just worried about the deck working, don't. Blue dig spells are pretty busted and any deck that can run 12 of them or whatever is in pretty good shape. You either find an action spell or another dig spell so it's pretty tough to ever get skunked, especially if you use Peer Through Depths to really dig deep. You'll find that DStorm very consistently. Again, if nothing else, proxy the list or whatever and shuffle it up before you buy it. I'm sure there's legal programs that you could test on as well.
Well, I owned most of the dragons and the 5 drop artifacts. I have 2 kokusho that I cant remember getting and the bladewings. I owned a couple of the chrome Mox. And 3 rite in flame and dragonstorm. I put aside a bit of cash this month for new cards, and wanted to build a deck worth taking to FNM.
As of now, I just need the diamonds and one of the chrome Mox. And id need to check on the blue dig spells. That still is coming close to the edge, but I can always use the Moxen in another deck, so I don't mind getting them.
If it would mean Wizards has access to the Golden Legal Army of Disney and could slay the Reserved List, I for one would welcome our new rodent overlords.
This card also has the distinction of being my least favorite art on a card in the set thus far,... he looks... Out of place to say the least. His face seems to say: "I'm only wearing this outfit because if I don't Niv will eat my family."
Err FNM? As in to compete or just to play casual games? None of these cards are Standard legal so it's not like this is a traditional FNM deck or anything. If you're just looking to play around in casual games, DStorm might not be the best way to go about it. I mean if your deck is just putting 4 Kokos into play and winning on the spot it might frustrate the other players and they might even refuse to let you play. I don't know what your meta is like, but eh, I know that most people take multiplayer games pretty casually.
I'm not really looking to compete. But the meta at my local shop is fairly competitive. Ive been there a few times. A lot of aggro. Quite a bit of combo shenannigans. Even in multiplayer. Comepletely different than the kitchen table games I usually play.
If it would mean Wizards has access to the Golden Legal Army of Disney and could slay the Reserved List, I for one would welcome our new rodent overlords.
This card also has the distinction of being my least favorite art on a card in the set thus far,... he looks... Out of place to say the least. His face seems to say: "I'm only wearing this outfit because if I don't Niv will eat my family."
Fair enough. If combo is the norm and people are fine with it then by all means. Still, like I said, your best bet by far is to just test the deck before you buy it. Storm decks won't appeal to everyone and so you should know what you're getting yourself into. You might also need slightly more Rituals or w/e but that will only become apparent with testing.
Well, Ive used a storm deck before. After seeing how outclassed I was one of the more experienced players let me use one of his. I enjoyed it. Didn't use it as well as I could have, but I didn't get blown away. But I will definitely proxy this before i buy anything.
If it would mean Wizards has access to the Golden Legal Army of Disney and could slay the Reserved List, I for one would welcome our new rodent overlords.
This card also has the distinction of being my least favorite art on a card in the set thus far,... he looks... Out of place to say the least. His face seems to say: "I'm only wearing this outfit because if I don't Niv will eat my family."
Just as a remark, pretty sure this doesn't work as the triggers go on the stack (and target) before the Kokos are in the yard. Then statebased actions are checked (the Kokos die) and then the Bladewing trigegrs resolve, but as they didn't target the Kokos they'll fizzle. So you'd have to do it in two goes, 1st get 4 Kokos, then get the Bladewings with another Dragonstorm. So a 20 point lifedrain is the max you can get out in one go I'd say.
Hmmm. Good point. I've only ever seen the deck played by someone else so I probably missed that bit >.>. He definitely used Bladewings to recur Kokos but it might have simply been because they were looted away. He may have also been inadvertently cheating or something too, that's a definite possibility, since none of us are rules gurus or anything.
On a much more useful note, I'm having second thoughts about BStorm. Everything that I said remains true but I'm SLIGHTLY worried about worst-case scenarios where you draw too many dragons. Now, these wouldn't be incredibly likely to occur or anything, especially with all of your library manipulation, but it's not impossible to just rip the worst possible card every turn. Even though BStorm is probably going to be sub-optimal, it can save you from potential no-win scenarios by putting Kokos and/or Bladewings back in your lib. There are some nightmare draws where you would just plain have to scoop up your cards and wait for the next game (if there even was one) and I know that most people don't like that.
So yeah, I still think that BStorm does its job worse than the other cards on average, but maybe its ability to recover from HORRIBLE draws pushes it back over the top. I'm just a little paranoid because I see far too many people playing Brainstorm in decks that just plain shouldn't have it. Like, when you BStorm and draw the 2 cards that you put on top of your deck, you've basically just paid a mana to draw a card. That's not worth a deck slot. I think I might have slammed it a bit too harshly because it has a fairly legitimate supplemental use in this particular deck.
Brainstorm shine in this type of deck if you know how to play it. It's not the best one but he need a place. Like you said, he was pretty nice to get out of your hand your dragon you draw and he was nice to protect you from DISCARD. Imagine the turn before you combo out I Duress you Dragon Storm... With Brainstorm you can save it. Combo deck need protection even more in multiplayer. When everyone will know what's your deck they will focus you with spell that scrap you entire game. Without Dragon Storm you cannot win so keep in mind you need to protect them otherwise you will have to take your deck shuffle it and wait until the next game.
Personnaly, I'm not a fan of this type of deck because it's become easy to control you. Spell like Lobotomy, Cranial Extraction will just end your game one after a other. And the game where you will be lucky you will combo out turn 1 so everyone will shuffle and play again like nothing happen.
The idea of the deck was nice but in pratique it isn't the same thing.
About card you didn't need Pyroclasm if your main goal was combo out. You just need to stay alive until you combo out. If you deck was fast enough with enough protection you can combo out turn 3 and earlier with a good frequencies.
Manamorph can be good to give you colors you want if you didn't have enough a good manabase. Try to not include land that come into play tap because it's will slow you down a lot.
Some Counterspell can be good to protect your deck and your combo from other counterspell or any spell that can disrupt your plan easilly.
11x Mountain
10x Island
Artifact (10):
4x Gilded Lotus/Lotus Bloom
4x Mox Diamond
2x Chrome Mox
3x Bladewing the Risen
4x Kokusho, Evening Star
Other Spells (32):
4x Rite In Flame
4x Seething Song
4x Pyroclasm
4x Dragon Storm
4x Ponder
4x Preordain
4x Peer Through the Depths
4x Brainstorm
---Can't remember the name of the lands, and some of the Dragon Names may be off, but whatever.
---Also can't Decide whether Lotus Bloom or Gilded Lotus.
Lotus Bloom is much easier to cast, but Gilded Lotus stays on the field.
---I have both Dragon Arch and Belbe's Portal for a good T1 draw rate. Same goes for the 0-drop mana fixers.
The Object of the deck is to get out dragons in the first turns consistently. The next several turns should be about all I need to win, if I can manage it.
And I wanted to hear any suggestions that you might have on making this deck better.
Thanks in advance!
On Mercurial Chemister:
You can use Chrome Mox or Mox Diamond.
Crumbling Necropolis and Jungle Shrine are your shard lands.
Why not just run 4x Kokusho, the Evening Star. Drop four at once and you might just kill all your opponents.
Servien
Chaos' Realm
Escalation of Chaos
Tales of Cahdaria
Enigmatic Distrubance
Celestial Unveiling
Oh. Yeah forgot about restrictions. Thanks.
4x kokusho is a grand idea. Don't know why I didn't think of that earlier.
And thanks for the names.
Lotus Bloom or Gilded Lotus?
On Mercurial Chemister:
Also, Bloom for me. Easier to count in for storm, It's basically freecast. Not to mention I'd dobt you'd be able to play a turn one win.
Sasky for the Sig.
I am in your [PACK]. Watching you... do... something.
Well, actually. There's a tiny chance of a T1 win. XD. But I completely agree. Thanks.
On Mercurial Chemister:
Thanks!
On Mercurial Chemister:
So yeah, I would just make it Blue/Red, play a ton of draw, maybe get Peer Through Depths and Gitaxian Probe in there, and keep Red for rituals. Keep the Kokos and 2 Bladewings and cut the rest.
Yes, I know, what I'm suggesting is just a broken Storm deck. That seems to be what you want though. It's cheap and it's incredibly effective (i.e. consistent) after all. The deck is just draw, sift effects, rituals + broken mana, DStorms and like 6 Dragons. No clunky mana such as ETBT lands that could screw you over, no Green for bad cards like Upwelling, just incredible speed and consistency.
Oh, Mox Opal is garbage. Do not play them and for the love of God do not buy them. You are severely overestimating how consistent they are. I know this even though you haven't said a single word about them. Now, I can read your mind. "But Cz, I only need them to work 0.3% of the time." HA! I laugh at your ridiculous expectations. No, seriously though, the card is absolute garbage and will basically never tap for mana.
Guilds of Ravnica - Commander 2018 - Core 2019 - Battlebond - Dominaria - Rivals of Ixalan - Ixalan - Commander 2017 - Hour of Devastation - Amonket - Aether Revolt - Commander 2016 - Kaladesh - Conspiracy 2 - Eldritch Moon - Shadows Over Innistrad - Oath of the Gatewatch - Commander 2015 - Battle for Zendikar - Magic Origins - Dragons of Tarkir
Green - Blue - Red - White - Gold
On my n00bness: Yup. I see where you're coming from. At any rate. Totally accurate. Started playing a little under a year ago.
On Broken Storm deck: Yup. Pretty much what I'm looking for.
Mox Opal: I'll take your word for it. I think I see what you mean anyways.
Thanks again Cz.
So... Suggestions on what to take out for the ponder/preordain/peer through depths/brainstorm?
Please use the EDIT button rather than double post. Thanks!
-EC
On Mercurial Chemister:
Keep 4 Kokos and 2 Bladewings and cut the rest of the dragons. If you don't believe me you'll just have to playtest the deck to understand why you can get away with it. Cut the Arches and and Portals as well. Go with Lotus Bloom over Gilded Lotus. 8 Moxen is way overkill. Cut at least 2. That should open up the necessary slots. For what it's worth, Peer Through Depths is a huge game and I highly recommend it. Yes, it costs 2 mana, but it digs so freaking deep and if nothing else it will virtually always find a Ponder or whatever. I highly recommend playtesting the deck a bit first to get a bit of a feel for it. Storm decks take a bit of getting used to and so you don't want to go to your games cold. 4 DStorms is pretty much required in my mind though. You need one to win. Carthage was bang about Burning Wish being an all-star too, so if that ever becomes an option I highly recommend it.
The main thing to practice is your spell sequencing. You want to use Preordains to hide bad cards that your Ponders and Brainstorms trap on the top of your deck. Sometimes they leave 1 good card that you really want but then like 2 bad ones. That's where Preordain or even the shuffle effect on Ponder becomes invaluable. Peer too becomes a good way to chuck 'em straight to the bottom.
Brainstorm is easily the worst of the cards. YES, IT IS. Everyone is going to say "blah blah Brainstorm is broken blah blah" but the reality is that BStorm is marginal at best in decks without many shuffle effects (i.e. fetchlands). Ponder/Preordain/Peer can all dig for specific cards but if you look at complete garbage then you can pitch it all to the bottom. If you BStorm and hit crappy cards then you're stuck drawing them over your next few turns. BStorm is the easiest card to misplay by a significant margin as well, which isn't good for a newer player. I didn't bother to do some basic math to see how many of the draw spells that you can cram in here, so maybe this isn't even an issue, but all I'm saying is that BStorm should be the last draw spell that you should include. Some pros who've been playing the game for years will be appalled to hear that, but eh, a lot of them just don't appreciate how bad the card is when you're not the most experienced player. Nothing personal or anything, I was SIGNIFICANTLY worse than you were during my first year, but like BStorm takes some getting used to if you want to play it properly.
Guilds of Ravnica - Commander 2018 - Core 2019 - Battlebond - Dominaria - Rivals of Ixalan - Ixalan - Commander 2017 - Hour of Devastation - Amonket - Aether Revolt - Commander 2016 - Kaladesh - Conspiracy 2 - Eldritch Moon - Shadows Over Innistrad - Oath of the Gatewatch - Commander 2015 - Battle for Zendikar - Magic Origins - Dragons of Tarkir
Green - Blue - Red - White - Gold
Glad to know that I'm not too far behind the learning curve.
I think i see where you're taking the build. I like it.
I understand what you mean about brainstorm. The cards were placed in relation to the value I saw in them.
On Mercurial Chemister:
We regenerated by returning creatures from our graveyards to play. Grave Defiler was broken needless to say. The best card in anyone's deck was Steel Leaf Paladin and none of us could realistically beat it. Well, that is until I traded an Oh Henry bar for a Devouring Strossus. We thought that you could forget to untap your lands and that you would take mana burn for it (wtf lol?). No Really, ask Carthage. There was a famous game where I was drawing stone dead but my opponent drew a card before untapping thus "killing him" from mana burn. I screamed "YOU DREW!" at the top of my lungs and boasted triumphantly about my victory. It's still by far and away the most memorable MTG moment that any of us have. Did I mention that I really like winning?
Needless to say you're doing fine. Everyone, even the best players, had trouble understanding the game initially. It's incredibly difficult to play and very few players have actually mastered it. I'm legitimately not trying to insult you or anything, even though that's probably how it comes across. Just keep in mind that it's all relative and that newer generations of players catch on much faster than us old schoolers ever did. There's nothing to be ashamed of or anything.
There's no bells or whistles or anything special about it. It's pretty stock and it works. All you do is dig for DStorm or, failing that, more dig. You'll draw enough rituals and broken mana to go off along the way.
Sounds like a plan.
Guilds of Ravnica - Commander 2018 - Core 2019 - Battlebond - Dominaria - Rivals of Ixalan - Ixalan - Commander 2017 - Hour of Devastation - Amonket - Aether Revolt - Commander 2016 - Kaladesh - Conspiracy 2 - Eldritch Moon - Shadows Over Innistrad - Oath of the Gatewatch - Commander 2015 - Battle for Zendikar - Magic Origins - Dragons of Tarkir
Green - Blue - Red - White - Gold
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Not joking on that one either.
On a much more useful note, I'm having second thoughts about BStorm. Everything that I said remains true but I'm SLIGHTLY worried about worst-case scenarios where you draw too many dragons. Now, these wouldn't be incredibly likely to occur or anything, especially with all of your library manipulation, but it's not impossible to just rip the worst possible card every turn. Even though BStorm is probably going to be sub-optimal, it can save you from potential no-win scenarios by putting Kokos and/or Bladewings back in your lib. There are some nightmare draws where you would just plain have to scoop up your cards and wait for the next game (if there even was one) and I know that most people don't like that.
So yeah, I still think that BStorm does its job worse than the other cards on average, but maybe its ability to recover from HORRIBLE draws pushes it back over the top. I'm just a little paranoid because I see far too many people playing Brainstorm in decks that just plain shouldn't have it. Like, when you BStorm and draw the 2 cards that you put on top of your deck, you've basically just paid a mana to draw a card. That's not worth a deck slot. I think I might have slammed it a bit too harshly because it has a fairly legitimate supplemental use in this particular deck.
I've only ever played the Standard version of this deck, never the one that gets 4 Kokos out. I know that Bladewing is the best way to go since the Kokos will be in the GY by the time their ETBT triggers resolves, so killing instantly is still easy, but that's still a bit flawed.
And yes, BStorm is better than more dragons in this instance... but maybe a 3rd Bladewing might be needed. I mean I hope it's clear that if anything you would run more Bladewings, but then if you draw say 3 Kokos you just lose. Not likely to occur, but not 100% impossible either. Your best way to win is to have 4 Kokos die. Playing 4, playing 2 and reviving them with 2 Bladewings, etc. are all good ways to go about it. So yeah, I guess that you might just want to have BStorm around in case you ever draw 3 (or more) Kokos or 2 (or more) Kokos and one (or more) Bladewing. That way you can put 2 back and that should always be enough. The 3rd Bladewing helps in case you draw 1, but probably isn't needed. This is why you want to test the deck a bit. I mean, maybe 4 BStorms and 3 Bladewings is just plain safer, even if it's slightly less consistent. That might be your best option from a "I feel better knowing that I won't just auto lose to really bad draws" point of view.
Guilds of Ravnica - Commander 2018 - Core 2019 - Battlebond - Dominaria - Rivals of Ixalan - Ixalan - Commander 2017 - Hour of Devastation - Amonket - Aether Revolt - Commander 2016 - Kaladesh - Conspiracy 2 - Eldritch Moon - Shadows Over Innistrad - Oath of the Gatewatch - Commander 2015 - Battle for Zendikar - Magic Origins - Dragons of Tarkir
Green - Blue - Red - White - Gold
GWBKarador, Necrotic Ooze SubthemeBWG
Not sure what you meant about fetchlands. Can you explain?
All of those cards are nice, but I want to keep in mind the ban lists.
@Cz: I trust completely that you know what you are talking about, but this seems a bit fragile... Can you explain how this will work? So I can be completely comfortable about spending this much money?
On Mercurial Chemister:
Brainstorm can be the best or worst card in your deck depending on how well you wield it. Your goal should typically be to play it when you have multiple dead cards in your hand that you just plain don't want. You can BStorm, hide them, and then use a fetchland like Misty Rainforest to shuffle away the bad cards that you don't want. Dragons, excess lands, excess Moxen, etc. are all examples of "dead" cards that you wouldn't want at all times. That's a basic example of why you want to pair it with fetches. There's much more to learn with respect to playing BStorm perfectly, but eh, we're not exactly trying to win tournies or anything here. The gist of it is that BStorm often acts like Ancestral Recall since you take 2 cards that you didn't want and traded them for new and hopefully better ones. That is, since the 2 cards that you shuffled away were useless anyways, it sometimes feels like you drew 3 cards for 1 mana.
If you don't fully appreciate the nuances of what I'm explaining, don't worry about it. The TLDR summary is that you can put 2 useless cards back on top and shuffle them away with fetches for the low, low cost of 1 life.
Back to the deck itself, not sure what it is that you're looking to hear. I was under the impression that you owned these cards for the most part. DStorm is a pretty uninteractive and thus unfun deck and there's a non-0 chance that it could get outright banned in your meta. The cards that I was suggesting are just simple cantrips that are relatively cheap to buy, add a ton of consistency, are all legal in Legacy, etc. You literally just sit there and cast them until you find a DStorm at which point you should just win outright. Your version of the deck had a clunky mana base, weird do-nothings like Upwelling, some poor 5 mana artifacts, etc. None of those cards helped your DStorm plan at all. The list that I'm proposing, which is basically just cantrips and rituals, is 100% focused on speed and consistency. Would I buy this entire deck? No, probably not. If it's good then it'll be too good and people will ban it. If it's bad then it'll be terrible and you'll lose every game.
If you're just worried about the deck working, don't. Blue dig spells are pretty busted and any deck that can run 12 of them or whatever is in pretty good shape. You either find an action spell or another dig spell so it's pretty tough to ever get skunked, especially if you use Peer Through Depths to really dig deep. You'll find that DStorm very consistently. Again, if nothing else, proxy the list or whatever and shuffle it up before you buy it. I'm sure there's legal programs that you could test on as well.
Guilds of Ravnica - Commander 2018 - Core 2019 - Battlebond - Dominaria - Rivals of Ixalan - Ixalan - Commander 2017 - Hour of Devastation - Amonket - Aether Revolt - Commander 2016 - Kaladesh - Conspiracy 2 - Eldritch Moon - Shadows Over Innistrad - Oath of the Gatewatch - Commander 2015 - Battle for Zendikar - Magic Origins - Dragons of Tarkir
Green - Blue - Red - White - Gold
As of now, I just need the diamonds and one of the chrome Mox. And id need to check on the blue dig spells. That still is coming close to the edge, but I can always use the Moxen in another deck, so I don't mind getting them.
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Guilds of Ravnica - Commander 2018 - Core 2019 - Battlebond - Dominaria - Rivals of Ixalan - Ixalan - Commander 2017 - Hour of Devastation - Amonket - Aether Revolt - Commander 2016 - Kaladesh - Conspiracy 2 - Eldritch Moon - Shadows Over Innistrad - Oath of the Gatewatch - Commander 2015 - Battle for Zendikar - Magic Origins - Dragons of Tarkir
Green - Blue - Red - White - Gold
On Mercurial Chemister:
Guilds of Ravnica - Commander 2018 - Core 2019 - Battlebond - Dominaria - Rivals of Ixalan - Ixalan - Commander 2017 - Hour of Devastation - Amonket - Aether Revolt - Commander 2016 - Kaladesh - Conspiracy 2 - Eldritch Moon - Shadows Over Innistrad - Oath of the Gatewatch - Commander 2015 - Battle for Zendikar - Magic Origins - Dragons of Tarkir
Green - Blue - Red - White - Gold
On Mercurial Chemister:
Hmmm. Good point. I've only ever seen the deck played by someone else so I probably missed that bit >.>. He definitely used Bladewings to recur Kokos but it might have simply been because they were looted away. He may have also been inadvertently cheating or something too, that's a definite possibility, since none of us are rules gurus or anything.
Guilds of Ravnica - Commander 2018 - Core 2019 - Battlebond - Dominaria - Rivals of Ixalan - Ixalan - Commander 2017 - Hour of Devastation - Amonket - Aether Revolt - Commander 2016 - Kaladesh - Conspiracy 2 - Eldritch Moon - Shadows Over Innistrad - Oath of the Gatewatch - Commander 2015 - Battle for Zendikar - Magic Origins - Dragons of Tarkir
Green - Blue - Red - White - Gold
Brainstorm shine in this type of deck if you know how to play it. It's not the best one but he need a place. Like you said, he was pretty nice to get out of your hand your dragon you draw and he was nice to protect you from DISCARD. Imagine the turn before you combo out I Duress you Dragon Storm... With Brainstorm you can save it. Combo deck need protection even more in multiplayer. When everyone will know what's your deck they will focus you with spell that scrap you entire game. Without Dragon Storm you cannot win so keep in mind you need to protect them otherwise you will have to take your deck shuffle it and wait until the next game.
Personnaly, I'm not a fan of this type of deck because it's become easy to control you. Spell like Lobotomy, Cranial Extraction will just end your game one after a other. And the game where you will be lucky you will combo out turn 1 so everyone will shuffle and play again like nothing happen.
The idea of the deck was nice but in pratique it isn't the same thing.
About card you didn't need Pyroclasm if your main goal was combo out. You just need to stay alive until you combo out. If you deck was fast enough with enough protection you can combo out turn 3 and earlier with a good frequencies.
Manamorph can be good to give you colors you want if you didn't have enough a good manabase. Try to not include land that come into play tap because it's will slow you down a lot.
Some Counterspell can be good to protect your deck and your combo from other counterspell or any spell that can disrupt your plan easilly.
WBGhost Council of OrzhovaBW
GUBThe MimeoplasmBUG
RGWort, the RaidmotherGR
UGRRiku of Two ReflectionsRGU
Casual
WGBJunkStone DeckBGW
BMonoBlack VampireB