Hey there! Last time, I wrote how I was planning to play Storm at our Legacy Championships, and that is what I did. I did not quite manage to win the whole thing, as I lost in the quarterfinals, but I did learn a fair bit during the tournament. This week, I will be going through how the actual tournament played out and what I think of Storm as a deck.

The Champs

The list I included in my last article ended up being the exact list I played in the tournament. For reference, here it is.

"ANT"

• Spells (45)
• 1 Ad Nauseam
• 4 Brainstorm
• 4 Cabal Ritual
• 4 Dark Ritual
• 1 Past in Flames
• 1 Tendrils of Agony
• 2 Preordain
• 3 Duress
• 4 Cabal Therapy
• 4 Gitaxian Probe
• 4 Infernal Tutor
• 4 Ponder
• 1 Sensei's Divining Top
• 4 Lion's Eye Diamond
• 4 Lotus Petal

• Lands (15)
• 1 Island
• 1 Swamp
• 1 Bayou
• 1 Tropical Island
• 1 Volcanic Island
• 2 Underground Sea
• 4 Misty Rainforest
• 4 Polluted Delta

• Sideboard (15)
• 3 Carpet of Flowers
• 3 Abrupt Decay
• 3 Dread of Night
• 2 Dark Confidant
• 2 Xantid Swarm
• 1 Ad Nauseam
• 1 Chain of Vapor

Buy This Deck

As I wrote last time, the list was based on the one Timo Schuenemann took to a Top 8 finish at the previous Bazaar of Moxen. I normally prefer to prepare for events like these on Magic Online, but as Lion's Eye Diamond is extremely expensive online, that was not an option this time around. I have played a fair bit of Storm during my Magic career, so a bunch of games during a previous Legacy tournament as well as some testing games were enough to bring me up to speed again.

A bit over a hundred players had shown up for the event, so even though it is not as big as the Bazaar of Moxen main event, the yearly Legacy Championships in Finland is still a very important tournament for local Legacy aficionados as well as competitive players who do not play the format all that regularly. A fair contingent of Russian players from St. Petersburg had shown up as well, giving the tournament an international feel.

Round 1 – Tuomas Vanhanen playing Elves

This was quite a typical match of Storm vs. Elves, as it just came down to me killing him slightly before he killed me. There was one situation in the first game when he could have given himself a better chance to win trying to draw Natural Order or Green Sun's Zenith with Elvish Visionary, but instead, he chose to attack for more damage. I think giving himself some more outs to win would have been the right choice since I would most likely have had the kill the next turn. The second game was a similar fare—he did not draw much disruption, and my Cabal Therapy on some crucial turns was enough to buy me the time I needed even though it meant only killing on turn four, which is quite slow for this matchup.

Round 2 – Matti Braeysy playing Elves

I was very surprised to face yet another Elves player, as it is not typically a popular deck in Finland. I won the first game quickly, but then, in the second game, I made a terrible mistake. I thought I had all the pieces I needed, as I had Lion's Eye Diamond, Dark Ritual, and Infernal Tutor, but what I didn’t realize was that I was missing 1 mana to go off via Past in Flames. I noticed this too late and was forced to try to find additional mana sources via some cantrips in my graveyard. I made the embarrassing mistake of miscounting again while resolving a Ponder, as I knew I needed mana and saw two Lotus Petals, so I chose to keep. I had neglected to take into consideration the fact that I had just used one Lotus Petal, and hence, I was basically where I was when I started the failed combo attempt. Had I just played Gitaxian Probe instead of Ponder, I think I would have won, but the correct play would, of course, have been to shuffle the two Petals away and look for a Lion's Eye Diamond or Cabal Ritual. I did deserve to lose that one, but luckily, I managed to win the following game to take the match.

Round 3 – Mikael Niemelae playing R/W/U Delver

I saw a Geist of Saint Traft in the first game and cursed my opponent for not getting with the times and playing True-Name Nemesis. However, his disruption consisted of only two Dazes, and I managed to kill him via Ad Nauseam. In the second game, I was prepared to face a full set of Meddling Mages, as popularized by Owen Turtenwald, but my opponent was playing some sort of Enlightened Tutor package with Ethersworn Canonist, which made things much easier for me. Tutoring for Canonist is much worse than Meddling Mage both because you lose a card in the process and because you only have one real hate card even if you draw multiple Tutors. This means the Storm player only has to draw one Abrupt Decay to deal with all the hate. That is what I did, and as he had mulliganed, he didn’t have enough disruption to stop my combo.

Round 4 – Mika Mulari playing R/W/U Delver

I had the opportunity to kill my opponent on the first turn, so sideboarding was a bit of a challenge. I only sideboarded in one Chain of Vapor, as it is the most versatile answer to various hate cards. My opponent played an early Meddling Mage on Infernal Tutor, which meant I needed to find that one Chain of Vapor. I started resolving Ad Nauseam and went all the way down to 2 life without finding Tendrils of Agony or the Chain of Vapor, but I did have enough blue mana to play a few cantrips and was lucky enough to find the Tendrils and kill him. I think sideboarding without knowledge of your opponent’s deck can be very challenging, especially when piloting a combo deck, and in hindsight, I should have probably sided in at least one Abrupt Decay just to be on the safe side.

Round 5 – Sebastian Hirvonen playing W/U/r Miracles

Ahh, one of my favorite Legacy decks: Miracles. However, this is not a favorite deck to play against, as Counterbalance is just so insanely hard to beat in the first game. Unfortunately for me, this was exactly what I had to deal with. A Brainstorm protected his Counterbalance from discard, and he was able to play it on the second turn, leaving a Sensei's Divining Top on the top of his library to stop me from going off before he had the chance to play said Top. It took a few turns before he killed me with a Vendilion Clique, but I was never really in the game thanks to the Counterbalance and Sensei's Divining Top combination.

The second game was very interesting, as he was stuck on mana for a bit, but this meant he was drawing plenty of business spells. He had no Counterbalance, so we were just trading one for one, which is not that great for Storm, as you really don’t have an infinite source of business spells. We played draw-go for a long while, and I was looking for a way to have a look at this hand or resolve a Xantid Swarm. At the same time, I had a lot of mana sources but absolutely nothing to do with that mana. At some point, I drew a Ponder that found me Past in Flames and Ad Nauseam, so I started to formulate some sort of plan. I was able to see his hand with Gitaxian Probe, and it revealed two Counterspells, one Force of Will, and one Flusterstorm. At this point, I felt quite disheartened, but the fact that he only had three blue sources and a Karakas meant I had some form of out. I started my next turn with a Brainstorm, which he Pyroblasted. At this point, I knew I could force something through, as he only had the opportunity to play two counters this turn. I had a ton of mana thanks to three Cabal Rituals and a LED, so I was able to play Ad Nauseam and Past in Flames and then flash back Past in Flames during the same turn to play around the two counters.

The third game was very weird, as he had a lot of disruption but was stuck on lands for a very long time, missing the second blue mana for Counterbalance. I ran my discard and business spells into his disruption until I finally managed to resolve an Ad Nauseam. During resolution, I made a mistake, as I had one black mana in my pool along with a Lotus Petal and Lion's Eye Diamond from the Ad Nauseam. I had also hit a Tendrils of Agony and had 3 life while I was thinking about whether to continue. I thought I needed more mana to cast the Tendrils, when in reality, all I needed to do was cast Brainstorm off the Petal, put Tendrils on top, cast Gitaxian Probe, going to 1 life, and crack Lion's Eye Diamond in response. This would have given me exactly 4 mana to cast the Tendrils of Agony, but I realized this a second too late, just as I had flipped another card to Ad Nauseam and gone to 2 life, which meant I could no longer set up the kill via Gitaxian Probe. I chose to stop at this point, and instead of risking a win, I would try to go for one later. As he had no clock on board, I could safely play Xantid Swarm and go for the kill at a later point. The following turn, I was able to attack with the Swarm, Abrupt Decay his freshly-played Counterbalance, and easily kill him with all the resources I had accumulated.

As I was 5–0, I could safely take two draws into the Top 8, putting me in fourth place. Being fourth and not fifth was a huge deal since it would mean I was able to play in at least the quarterfinals.

Top 8 – Roman Nicolayev playing B/U/G (Team America)

This was among the worst matchups imaginable, as I was facing a deck with both a lot of disruption and a fairly fast clock. I had to mulligan in the first game, which is not what you want to do against a deck packing Hymn to Tourach. I was quickly facing down Hymn into Liliana of the Veil and was never even close to winning. In the second game, I felt that I was losing the whole time, but a timely Gitaxian Probe revealed a hand with only a few Wastelands and a Golgari Charm, and I was able to resolve Ad Nauseam and win the game. In the third game, I played an early Gitaxian Probe and saw that my opponent had no relevant disruption, after which he immediately drew and played Hymn. I was quite close to executing the plans that I had tried to set up for several turns, which consisted of sacrificing two Lion's Eye Diamonds and flashing back Past in Flames to go off via cards previously discarded to the two Hymns. Then, with his last mana and last card in hand, he played Ponder and hit Surgical Extraction to remove my Past in Flames and any hope of me winning. He showed me that he had sideboarded around ten cards for this matchup, so I think this was one matchup I was not supposed to win.

Storm, I’m in Love

I’ve only recently rediscovered Storm, and it has quickly become my new favorite deck. I used to think that the best choices for larger Legacy events were stable decks that did not lose to themselves, with Miracles being a typical deck that exemplifies those qualities. Recently, however, I have discovered that I want to be as proactive as possible and try to do unfair things. Playing a deck like Miracles feels very draw-dependent, as if you draw the wrong cards for the matchup in your opening hand, you are just dead. That’s one of the main reasons I enjoy Storm, as there really are no wrong cards—you are always just trying to make your own Plan A happen. I also think Storm in this form is consistent enough that you don’t have to worry about losing to your own deck too much. Of course, there will be games in which your Ad Nauseam kills you or you draw no business spells, but those are not very common.

That’s all for this week. As always, if you have any questions, comments, ideas, or suggestions, be sure to contact me either directly via Twitter or through the comments section below.

Thanks for reading,

Max

@thebloom_ on Twitter

Maxx on Magic Online

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