Common Denominators: Storm

Posted on January 18, 2010 by Ranth

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  1. I suspect you kept going in the first game because of the soul warden and a lack of red mana. You can only half go off as you only have 3 available red mana (including the petal).

    Storm count is 6 by my count = 7×2=14 goblins, + 1 Bushwhacker = 15 2/1 attackers.
    he goes to 39 and can block one of them, gets to untap with the palace guard pro red combo, and it’s sad times for the home team as he can use the shade to push through damage as well :(

    (you obviously noticed this in the game.. which is mostly where it matters ;D)

    Side Note: Hmm.. interesting that standard bearer doesn’t have it’s oracle text. Though I assume it works like it’s oracle text wants it too (changing when things go on the stack, and not when they are cast)

    I think you went a little overboard in the second game you showed. He’s at 20, Every goblin you play (including bushwhacker) does an effective 1 damage (due to warden). With a storm count of 9, you make 20 goblins + bushwhacker is an effective 21 damage. (ie, you get 21 2 power guys, he goes to 20+21 = 41).

    Since I always have the fear of getting blown out by a healing salve (it would be so embarrassing, I just can’t even imagine), I’d add 3 to his life. You need an effective 23 damage = 22 non bushwhacker goblins, which means storm count of 10.

    Which is at 11:22 on your clock. To be fair.. there’s something to be said for swinging for 100 with only commons ;D

    An easy storm count when gold fishing is to add your graveyard size and permanents together and write it down. Then at any point (assuming your opponent doesn’t mess with you obviously) your storm count is the current total of your graveyard + permanents – the number you wrote down.

    Also note it’s almost 7 am, so if I’m off my rocker with these numbers I apologize.

    I know I’d like to see something about side-boarding plans with storm (maybe not in video, I dunno), as that’s the main reason I’m still playing my old splice/fertile ground deck instead of the faster ritual storm deck.

    Anyways, Thanks for the videos. I think I’ll stop typing now as I’ve written a book here…

  2. Thanks for the comments and further insight to the deck! As for the second game ya i went a lil overboard but i tend to do that when out of personal habit when playing storm and know i do. Call it a character flaw i suppose. *shrugs and give impish grin* So what everyone like to see in the video comming out next week?

  3. You don’t have to play around Standard Bearer with Grapeshot because it only works on the first copy (i.e. the one they cast). Storm is a triggered ability that copies the spells onto the stack so they’re technically not casting it, or activating an ability which means it does not have to target the Bearer.

    I was confused on this for quite a while too until someone used Grapeshot on me in the PE. I’m quite positive I have won games against Storm because of him though, so I still tend to board him in. You don’t lose anything by doing so, but he acts as a pretty awesome Jedi Mind Trick. Most people just read the card and assume Grapeshot is dead so they try to combo into Warrens instead.

  4. Nice video – amusing kills. Storm decks always make for interesting disections, if not interesting games.

    It seems that the tools for fighting storm in pauper are fairly limited. Goblins and Affinity can force storm to go off prematurely, and control can occasionally counter a key disruption spell but what else do your recommend?

  5. There is actually a huge amount of storm hate available in pauper.

    Black decks beat pauper storm via discard:
    Duress and Distress for targeted discard, then Ravenous rats, Chittering Rats, Okiba Gang Shinobi, Hymn to Tourach (paper), Augur of Skulls;
    White you saw — villain should have won the first game shown… he attacked with Palace Guard for no good reason. It’s a little misleading that you even included that game without dwelling on his senseless attack there;
    Blue can obviously counter some early draw spells;
    Red primarily wins through bum rushing, forcing Storm to go off early — land destruction is also very punishing for pauper Storm decks as everything comes into play tapped;
    Green facially has the least tools, but Elves can T4 kill undisrupted, can Essence Warden life gain ala White, can run the land destruction route, etc.

    Regarding your deck, I haven’t played storm since Zen (Goblin Bushwhacker), but when I did, I tended to prefer a version with fewer kill conditions. 4 Empty the Warrens, 4 Grapeshot, (plus 3 Goblin Bushwhackers? — your commentary makes it sound like you were running all three of these cards in the final game shown) is a huge portion of the deck dedicated to actually winning. Your deck has cut great cards like Compulsive Research and Seething Song, and there’s even an argument for upping the land count by two. It’s a delicate balance between the draw engine and the kill conditions. I find playing with a high amount of draw is optimal though because it helps you find your critical sideboard cards (e.g., Echoing Truth versus Benevolent Unicorn).

    How are you finding Disfigure? Much easier on the mana than Echoing Truth, but it also just seems much less powerful.

    Overall, excellent commentary. Only tips I would add would be a) that one should keep a notepad and tick off his/her storm count while playing — It is tedious and potentially dangerous to have to count it up mid-game. b) solitaire the deck a *lot* before playing, as there are numerous small mistakes one can make (learning what mana to consume when is something I’m particularly poor at). c) think about not just what should be in your sideboard, but what should come out for each card and when.

  6. @ jory according to the wording i think you might be technically right however i believe for quite a while it would force every copy of Grapeshot to target the bearer, i’ll hafta see if that’s changed. Either way thanks for the info on that one.

    @ Roninx Inneutral pretty much hits the hate on the heads with his comment.

    @ Inneutral as is seen at the start the deck really isnt mine i only changed ONE card in the sideboard and that was Mulldrifter to be Deep Analysis. My goal was to help shed some light on this underplayed and mis-understood deck. I’ll admit i’m guilty in that its not the deck that i normally will play however i do have a general understanding storm and how to run them so i took what i knew and ran with it :) (also to mention i think i took 17th in that tournament with the deck so i guess im not completely incompetent with it lol.) And so u know when i pull the bushwackers in i would take out the grapeshots. (the idea here was that usually if i showed game 1 grapreshot kill i could suprize them game2 with hasted goblins while they sided in the hate for the grapeshot.

  7. Re: Standard bearer.

    as I mentioned in my book, the oracle text of standard bearer isn’t printed on the card. What is printed is the original card text. I do not know how it is programmed.

    Card text: If an opponent plays a spell or ability that could target a Flagbearer in play, that player chooses at least one Flagbearer as a target.

    Oracle text: Whenever a spell or ability an opponent controls is put onto the stack, if that spell or ability could target a Flagbearer on the battlefield but doesn’t, that opponent changes one of its targets to a Flagbearer.

    If it is programmed as the oracle text states (as it should be) then the standard bearer does in fact hose storm.

  8. Regarding storm hate. I wouldn’t call that a “huge” amount of storm hate. Discard only goes so far in hosing storm but is probably the most reliable solution. Counterspells are rather ticklish, since you often do not know if mana or card draw is the storm player’s bottle neck and you have to choose correctly of fail. We just saw a demonstration of the problems of relying on soul/essence wardens (and Palace Guard, and Standard Bearer[maybe?]) especially when many storm decks can win with either goblin or grapeshot kills.

    Yes, yes, I know, all of the above is why storm is so resilient and powerful…

  9. okay just tested it in game and bearer does in fact only stop the first copy of grapeshot….ouch

  10. In the first game you review, his decision to attack with Palace Guard is just awful because he has you dead on board next turn even without attacking. On the other hand, kudos to you for not resigning and for predicting that he would make exactly that mistake.

  12. During your first on-screen game (your second actual game), you cast empty the warrens prior to casting your 2 bushwackers. if you had cast the bushwackers 1st, that would have been 2 more spells netting you 4 more warrens goblins, correct? we’re building this deck for a tourney in Ct in a few weeks. still trying to figure it all out ;P