Unlocking the Vault #25: Storm Primer

Posted on May 22, 2012 by enderfall

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  1. Thx for the well-written article and the entertaining and interesting videos. I think i learned a lot and really wanna try out some kinda of cobra-gush deck soon.

    A little constructive criticism: Several times during your games, when you are about to go off with YawgWill, you leave a Lotus Petal on the table. Almost always, its best to crack the petal before YawgWilling. It gives you more mana and ups your storm count by 1 (for free).

    A question: Often I use my dark confidants a bit more aggressive than you. Im not sure it’s correct. Could you see situations where you’d want to go “turn 1: swamp, D-Ritual, Duress, Confidant” if you had an opening hand that allowed you to so?

    Sincerely,
    MOBZ

  2. Thanks for the comments Mobz. I’ll have to take note of the Petals, thanks for pointing that out.

    As for Bob, I tend to like to use him a little more conservatively. Not to say that that is the only way to use him, but I like to use Bob to help me get to the mid-game where I can best use his card advantage. As I pointed out in the article, even a Turn 1 Bob doesn’t net you card advantage until Turn 3. In the event that I happen to draw into a win condition on Turn 2, I’d wish I had that Ritual in hand. I tend to keep any discard effects in hand until the turn I think I want to go off. It’s a bit of a risk since the longer I wait, the more likely they are to draw into a second counter, but my opinion is to save all discard until I have the necessary tools to combo off.

  3. In M1G2 you hit Tinker and 2 Artifacts off of Mind’s Desire. I did notice that the Tinker was highlighted for some reason though, but you probably had the chance to Tinker into Blightsteel.

  4. The article was a definite good read.

    I’m only part-way into the first match of vids, but you seem to have very little respect / concern for your brainstorms.

    With two in hand I can understand throwing away the first one without a shuffle, but doing it again just seemed painful.
    Though not as painful as your attempt at going off where your entire plan is resting on resolving the infernal tutor. When you know for a fact he has drain + FoW in hand ;-)

    Though I will freely admit I haven’t played storm, so maybe they get valued in a different way to a ‘standard’ brainstorm where not skipping your next 2 draw steps is pretty important :-)

    Thoughtseizing when you still need a ritual in order to do anything also seemed loose – I could understand it if you’re scared he’ll do something big and pro-active, but if you’re just worried about him interacting with you, it seems right to hold the discard until you can act if the way is clear.

  5. @frogmaster

    The reason Tinker wasn’t highlighted was presumably because he couldn’t pay the cost of it.

    If he’d just played either the diamond or vault, it would have been playable and then possibly resolve, if the blue guy didn’t have anything.
    (I’d really hope the free duress came out first though and then it definitely would)
    That also takes the only remaining card with CMC >= 5 out of your library, guaranteeing you don’t die to bob next turn.

  6. …
    And then I re-read grafdigger’s cage.
    Nevermind then.

    What you could have done though, was to play key before tutoring, and then you could have tinkered for vault and … tried to outrace your own bob?

  8. @Pixie I forgot about the Cage too. Either way he would have needed another Chain of Vapor to use either Will or Tinker to win since he took out one of the Tendrils.

  10. Hey, in Match 3 game 2 you could have won by storming for exact lethal. you cast yawg will before crcking the petal. you could have floated 1black mana and re cast petal plus a discard spell for win. Otherwise thx for the vids- elvin7

  11. so as someone with a lot of CTC experience, you dont want to take out all the led’s.
    bring in 11 cards, the elesh should not come in vs everything, just the decks it neuters.

    ussally I take out
    3 painter
    3 grindstone
    4 lotv
    1 helm

    If you are up against dredge then you just side in 3 jailers and take out 3 cards.
    liked the article sir. too bad you played ME members all 4 rds.

  12. Thanks everyone for your comments! I’m going to try to respond to each of them.

    Pixie: RE: Brainstorms, M1G1, I needed the fetchland to find a blue source. There was no way I could shuffle before playing the second BS..besides, BS in this deck in more of a diffing tool than a shuffling tool. Often, if you don’t see your win condition in the top 3, you’re dead in the water anyway.

    RE: Thoughtseize, it was a little loose. I never said I was a pro player, ;). I should have held it, but in my haste to beat my opponent to their counter magic, I was trying to find an opening that wasn’t there. 20/20…

    RE: M1G2 Tinker, I could have played the Key first, but I was going for the Sotrm win…when I completely forgot about the Necro discard = exile drawback, it was too late to get my Key back, and thus the cage prevented me from playing Blightsteel. Of course, had I simply kept my second Tendrils in after sideboarding, neither situation would have been bad.

  14. Also, regarding the video quality, they were saved in 720p. AJ, could you confirm that they are 720p on your end after I sent them, or is the video player compressing them?

  15. They were in 720p. I’m watching them in 720p above, and they look fine to me. Maybe I’m silly for asking this, but if anyone is having trouble seeing the vids clearly, double check that you’ve selected the 720p option in the Youtube video window.

  16. It’s strange. Even after selecting 720p, they appear a little fuzzy…mostly the letters. When I click on the “view on youtube” link, the videos look much better. Not sure what it is causing the difference, but perhaps that’s what frogmaster is seeing as well.

  18. Thanks for the great written content, but your recording was just awful. You played so bad, every 5 seconds i screamed “Nooooo don’t do that, man” example: you cast duress leaving your opened with force+pitch, and then you trying to go off with LED+infernal. Serious?

    But anyway, thanks and i hope to see more combo gauntlets :)

  19. Video 1 around 24mins, you had the win in multiple ways, Tinker, Vault…why did you choose to stick with a dead card in your hand as your win?

  20. Hi Urban: Glad that you liked the article. Sorry that you did not enjoy the videos. Classic is an incredibly difficult format, with multiple decisions to make each second. I’m not quite as good recording and making those decisions as I am when I’m not recording, but I will continue to improve!

    Kainius: Please note the comments above with regards to why there was no way for me to win once I forgot about Necro’s exile drawback. TLDR version: I screwed up, he had a cage and my only out after that mistake was a Mind’s Desire which fizzled out.

  21. Who are all these Armchair Classic Players making comments and why aren’t they real Classic players? The league is free!

  22. Hi there, nice vids.
    It was easy to overlook, but you could have won M1G3 also.
    On minute 36, when you brainstorm, you should have put back the potence and the storm and try to go for the win.
    Then on the duress he brainstorms and only has one blue mana left. If you take out the Force he cant counter you that turn anymore.
    Then you play your land and after that the vault, cast led, crack it to cast tutor get key and play the key of your last mana. He needs an answer from the top to win, which is unlikely after his brainstorm.
    Anyway i love constructed vids and classic is something else. Keep it on.