The Perfect Storm

[No_Limitz]

The deck always had the same strong and resilient core: Force and Duress have always been "the perfect cards" to protect the bombs of the deck, the powerful draw engines that are often game ending by themselves. A large variety of tutors and the best mana producers in the game help the players to resolve those "bombs".

The first deck was a 5cc-version called Trix because of the combo used to win. Coupling the life-gaining of a resolved Illusion of Grandeur with the life loss of the major engine of the deck (Necropotence and Yawgmoth's Bargain) let the player draw a huge number of cards; usually plenty of tutors and fast mana acceleration to set up last piece of combo: the well-protected Donate. Donating the Illusion of Grandeur to the opponent and letting the upkeep run out was enough to win the game, but breaking it with some maindeck tools (Red Elemental Blast, Seal of Cleansing or simply some bounce) gave the Trix player an “instant" win. Players dropped the green really fast and some tried to cut the White, but White had cards such as Balance, Abeyance, Enlightened Tutor and Seal of Cleansing, so most players stuck with the 4C-Version until Scourge was released. When Tendrils of Agony was printed it immediately replaces the Illusion-Donate slots as primary winning condition, freeing a lot of space in the maindeck. The storm mechanic turned an hard task (winning with Illusion-Donate without having four Necropotence) into an easy one (play 9 spells and then the Tendrils). The Illusion-Donate slots became one or two Tendrils, Draw7s and utility spells. The improvements were clear: the win condition was ReB-Proof and Force-Proof, so the deck became much stronger than it was in the past. The deck maintained approximately that same structure until WotC released Chalice of the Void, Trinisphere, AND Crucible of the Worlds in the three sets of Mirrodin Block. If we took those cards singly, a good combo player could easily work around one or two of them. If an opponent plays ALL of them, however, the combo player usually scoops. The 3Spheres and the Crucibles obliged the combo player to drop Red and White to have a better mana base (fetch lands and basic lands) and to avoid auto-losing to the old shaky mana base. The Chalices forced small changes in the maindeck utility cards, while the manabase changes forced the addition of Misdirection and bounce to the sideboard instead of ReBs and Abeyances.

Protection

4 Duress
4 Force of Will
1 Chain of Vapor
1 Rebuild


Tutors

1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Cunning Wish
1 Tinker
1 Crop Rotation


Bombs

1 Yawgmoth's Will
1 Yawgmoths' Bargain
1 Necropotence
1 Mind's Desire
1 Timetwister
1 Time Spiral
1 Windfall
1 Memory Jar
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk
4 Brainstorm
1 Frantic Search


Win

1 Tendril of Agony


Mana Base
4 Polluted Delta
1 Flooded Strand
4 Underground Sea
1 Swamp
1 Tropical Island
2 Island
1 Tolarian Academy
4 Dark Ritual
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mana Crypt
1 Lotus Petal
1 Mana Vault
1 Sol Ring
1 Black Lotus


Sideboard

1 Brain Freeze
1 Rushing River
1 Echoing Truth
1 Rebuild
2 Hurkyl's Recall
4 Hydroblast
1 Misdirection
1 Ebony Charm
1 Stifle
1 Meditate
1 Darksteel Collossus

Meta:
Random Welder Decks
Various Slavers
U/W Fish....
Hulk
Zombie infestation thingy(dont know the name)
R/G Budget Beats
Foodchains

I try to keep the land count low (14), i try to keep the mana as balanced as possible to get a strong first turn move eg. land duress or land ritual brokeness. 8 of the lands are wasteland proof(fetchlands and basic lands) which is a problem in my meta. There are more blue mana sources since its key to use alot of draw spells and their are more blue spells then black ones.
The splash of green is for crop rotation which is really good for getting out the tolarian for massive mana advantage. This land configuration is strong, especially against the “inevitability” produced by a resolved first turn Trinisphere. The combo player can bounce the 3sphere(s) the exact turn he would be able to go off, thanks to all the basic lands. That mana base is really good against ALL the major decks that have a tempo/denial-oriented strategy, such as 4cC and Fish. Having a lot of nearly untouchable lands lets the combo player pass through the defenses of a 4cC deck or through the tempo tricks of a Fish deck. The deck use a huge amount of 0cc and 1cc mana accelerators. Excluding Black Lotus, Lotus Petal and Dark Rituals they are all permanent and solid mana producers. All the ones that are “one shot” are excellent to speed-up the resolution of all your game ending spells such as Necro, Bargain and Y. Will. The deck runs other cards that can be considered mana accelerators or “storm generators” in some situations and with proper usage (Chain of Vapor, Rebuild, and Cunning Wish and/or Frantic Search; the latter two especially when Academy is in play). We also tested, but decided not to use, other “one shot” mana accelerators that didn’t fit the colors or the philosophy of the deck, despite their use in other fast combo decks such as Elvish Spirit Guide in NeoLong.dec and Tinder Walls or other minor artifact accelerators in Belcher.With less accelerations and a better mana base we tried to achieve the best equilibrium between speed and stability. The fast mana acceleration chosen summarizes this goal extremely well.

The protection is pretty straight forward, they're cheap and playable. Duress gives a strong first turn play to get rid of any counters and anything else that can screw the storm over, and FoW is cheap easy counter providing you have pitchable blue cards which is often because of the Draw7s and Cunning Wish is a big threat if played at the right time in the right situation.



More talk later

[apoc7k]

I'll just say this right now, before you get the huge flow of flaming... WRITE SOMETHING BESIDES JUST THE DECKLIST!!!

What people want to hear is why you run X number of certain cards, any interesting choices of cards, or just simply some information about the deck. Sure, this is the learning center, but if you just post a decklist and the meta that you play in, how do we know you didn't just net-deck this? Sorry if I'm flaming a little, but it really is a wasted effort if thats all you are going to post.

What I am going to personally ask you to do for us is the following...
1) Explain how this deck plays differently from other Storm decks
2) Explain a few matchups
3) Talk about the deck in whatever you can think of.

Thanks a lot! I'm not a moderator, but it still frustrates me to see posts of just a decklist or something of the sort.... Adios...

[2-Xtreme]

Thanks Apok, it makes my job much easier.

[No_Limitz]

Here you go my prissy audience.
I'll get more content when i have time

[Ajora]

This thread should be locked and the other tps thread in the competitive t1 area should be unlocked. TPS is a relatively difficult deck to use, definately not for noobs.

[2-Xtreme]

Since Mr. No_Limitz put a bit of time in his post, I won't lock it on him. Feel free to start a respectable thread on TPS in the Tournament Forum.

[Engine_number_9]

the list is pretty solid. But there are some things with it that arent to my liking:
I don't think running green is worth the impact on the manabase. If you want to run another splash colour run red for wheel and rebs.
Windfall i think is less than optimal in TPS. It's not an autowin and it replenishes your opponents hand aswell as your.

Changes that i would make:
- 1 tropical island + 1 swamp
- 1 crop rotaion + 1 tendrils
- 1 windfall + 1 DSC ( with fish running rampart, this is a wise choice i think)

[suffocation]

in stead of running the windfall you SHOULD be playing gifts ungiven. this has been discused before on all sites and if you look back to the previous TPS form you will see my argument for it. this card wins you the game like 80% of the time after you cast it. a gifts ungiven for
vamp.
demonic
mystical
ancestral
=B|2o|<en!!1

then if you want to splash another colour i would agree that red is the better splash. as it also gives you recoup to make gifts even more broken.

[Stelthjet]

in stead of running the windfall you SHOULD be playing gifts ungiven. this has been discused before on all sites and if you look back to the previous TPS form you will see my argument for it. this card wins you the game like 80% of the time after you cast it. a gifts ungiven for
vamp.
demonic
mystical
ancestral
=B|2o|<en!!1

then if you want to splash another colour i would agree that red is the better splash. as it also gives you recoup to make gifts even more broken.
I was really feelin' you till you said recoup. I wouldnt splash green or red itno this deck, for the simple reason that mana base consistancey is too vital with all thsoe fish running around (of course, thats teh reason i wouldnt run this deck at all). At least green compensates for mana base troubles by effectively doubling your number of tolarian academies, which is one of the best ways possible to just win a game. Again, not worth it IMO, but an extra academy has never been a bad thing.

Gifts is incredible, but Recoup is slow, expensive, and way too much of an investment to be good in a deck that needs to cast 9 spells in a turn. Countering the card you gave flashback will set you back at least a turn (unless you were going to win anyway) and eats so much mana that you end up waiting another turn to use whatever else the gifts may have given you. Gifts for recoup/will/broken/broken sounds good, but teh tutor plan ups your storm count for less mana and if they counter one you can use another: at which piont your a brainstorm or other cantrip away from the will that turn, at worst, and with likely some mana to use it.

Recoup is good in decks built neatly around it, like the gifts tinker and belcher decks. In TPS its too slow and too dead when drawn without gifts, on top of costing more mana to abuse then the standard tutor plan.

[Engine_number_9]

I for one don't think that gifts belongs in TPS. TPS does'nt want to play a 4 cc card that does'nt win the game out right. TPS wants to resolve a bomb (like bargain, necro, spiral, will or time twister).
Further more gifts makes the deck more vulnerable to graveyard hate. TPS's strength is that it is'nt vulnerable to the hate that hates other decks. Graveyard hate makes gifts a lot worse. TPS is not a yawgmoth's will. dec. It should'nt be atleast.

[Stelthjet]

If you dont think gifts belongs in TPS, you are wrong. Period.

Do not think that I am saying TPS is or should be "a gifts deck". But gifts, even as a 1 of (which is probably the right number, maybe 2 but most likely 1), it usually DOES outright win the game. When your goal is to resolve a bomb, then a card that says "search your library for 4 bombs, put two of them into your hand and 2 into the graveyard" is obviously good, if only b/c it creates two threats for your opponent to counter. Even better, the tutor plan discussed above has been game every one of the three or four dozen times i've seen it resolve, b/c it cheaply adds to your storm count and finds bombs at teh same time (the stuff you gifted for at EOT, not the gifts itself obviously).

As far as graveyard hate goes, thats a weak story. If gifts is so weak to GY hate, why is GIfts Tinker muscling its way into the tier 1 and fighting hardcore to take away control slavers title as 'control' deck to beat (with only 1 or 2 win conditions all of which will end up vulnerable and in the yard)? If you are so afraid of graveyard hate, try gifts for twister, necro, bargain, and spiral. If you are so afraid of graveyard hate, why is Yawgmoth's Will still known as YawgWin?

Look, graveyard paranoia aside, if you cant think of a pile of gifts targets that says "I win next turn" in a deck like TPS in EVERY situation that you can resolve it, then iether there is no card in teh game of magic that will win, or you shouldn't be playing TPS.

[Engine_number_9]

I would have agreed with you if you'd ask me a month ago. All my lists until that had atleast one gifts maindeck (I even tried a list with three).
The thing that made me believe that Gifts does not belong in Gifts was a primer on Themanadrain. Here it is:
http://www.themanadrain.com/forums/index.php?topic=23692.0
Negator13 (Justin Bramfield) has taken 2 nd and 3 rd with TPS at Waterbury. So I guess he knows the deck quite well.
This is what he said about the Gifts issue.

Incidentally, this is the reason why I, unlike the general consensus, do not like Gifts Ungiven in TPS. Gifts Ungiven is closer to an "Optimizer" than a Bomb in this deck. However, it lies within the mana range of a bomb. This means you'll probably have to burn a Ritual or Vault activation to play it, and most likely need to protect it with a FoW since by the time you can cast it your opponent will most likely have Drain mana up. If you do resolve it, however, it will only give you 2 cards back. If you spent a Ritual to play it, and a FoW to force it through, you have used four cards to gain two. Since this deck is not built around Gifts Ungiven, that is pretty poor. You should only be burning Rituals and FoWs and Duresses on cards that will fully replenish your resources or flat out win the game- cards like Yawgmoth's Bargain or Timetwister.

I found it interesting and tried it out proxying up the whole deck and started playing against a friend of mine. My conclusion is that Gifts does'nt really speed the deck up. Furthermore it's not good seeing a gifts whilst going off since your resources will often be low.

or you shouldn't be playing TPS.
Maybe you are right.

If you dont think gifts belongs in TPS, you are wrong. Period.
I don't think that a list that takes 2 nd and 3 rd is "wrong"

[Stelthjet]

The most broken card in Magic is of course the most broken card in TPS. You will find yourself winning the majority of your games off the back of this card, and therefore you will base the majority of your gameplan around this card. With Rituals, Lotus, Academy, and multiple Tutors, Yawgmoth's Will is game over every time you cast it.

That is the reason i'm convinced gifts belongs in TPS: if you resolve it, you can almost always follow it up with will the next turn, and just win. His argument is that it requires too much of an investment, but 2 land 2 mox or 3 land and a mox still let it set up a turn 3 or 4 kill on your opponents EOT, without "wasting" a ritual and/or force, not to mention that it bates counterspells and can still be protected by duress.

His best argument is that its a big drain target by the time you can cast it, so you HAVE to protect it with FoW or duress as well as whatever you invested in casting it. My problem with that contention is that successfully protecting it sets up for the Will, and failing to protect it indicates that you would not have been able to resolve whatever bomb you would have tried to force through in its place. So, it seem that your worst case scenario here is iether casting it on their 1st main to minimize drain abuse while drawing out a counter, or having one more way to find a will and an additional bomb.

I don't think that a list that takes 2 nd and 3 rd is "wrong"
We are talking about a 1 or 2 card difference here, maybe as many as 4 if you think recoup and burning wish become attractive options. 99% of the time, raw playskill and good ole fashion luck will mean more over the course of a tournament then 1-4 slots, even with all those tutors. Who knows, maybe if his Minds Desire (several ppl on the thread you quoted him from express many reasons why this card is suboptimal, especially considering how few things you actually want to see it flip up) had been a gifts he could have won one of those matches.

I do want to apologize for using such absurd language as "wrong" when discussing magic deck construction (especially combo decks like TPS), since there are no "wrong" cards, only "poor decisions with regard to metagame considerations" (even if your metagame consideration should have been building a deck that can win in ANY metagame at all, there is theoritically some House of Scrubs where it could have been brilliant).

Personally, i just feel very strongly about gifts b/c i've seen it used in TPS locally and in online testing, and i've yet to see a competent TPS player loose after resolving a gifts, which is more then i can say about any other card in the deck (except for YawgWin). I've lost more games where i resolved a gifts in Gifts Tinker then i've seen lost by TPS players who resolved it, and that means something (possibly that i'm a bad player, but we'll glaze over that scenario and assume it means that Gifts is Just Fing Broken in TPS).

[Engine_number_9]

Enough of the Gifts discussion for now. I think that TPS is a very potent deck but in order to make it better i think that we need to address the "real" problems that TPS faces.
TPS really does'nt have to dedicate more space to keep Shop.dec, Oath, Slaver or Combo in check. It does fairly well against most of them.
I think that TPS has to address a kind of problem that it has'nt really faced before:
Good fish decks.
The U/W version really poses a lot of problems for TPS. Meddling Mages, maindeck Thieves, FoWs, Wastelands, and Rods/Chalices are the issues that really gives TPS big problems. The traditional Tinker -> DSC is'nt that potent anymore. Fish simply has too many answer to tinker: Meddling Mage, StP and chalices are a few. U/W fish can take enough tempo out of TPS in the early game to attack with Thief 3 times or cast multiple Mages. TPS has to win fast in order to stand achance against Fish. Either trough early tinker or early combo. But TPS is'nt really any good at doing either. Post board it does'nt become much easier. Sideboarded Labs makes it really defficult to go off.
The other kind of fish I think that needs to be discussed is the WTF version. This list is'nt as scary for the TPS player but it poses a big problem that U/W fish does not: it has a fast clock. TPS is forced to play fast against this deck or lose.
What can be done against these decks?
Is The Abyss worth a SB slot?
Should one SB taking out Duress and replace it with for example cabal ritual to make TPS have a faster clock?

Meandeck Gifts
This really is a menace. It plays 11 counterspells. It has a VERY fast clock (faster than TPS). It can win from nowhere. It can play control a lot better than TPS pre board.
I'm really lost in how to beat this deck with TPS. Which way should one go? Misdirections and Crypts really seem like the only way to go. Or is coffin purge better than crypt?

[Stelthjet]

I have been playing meandeck gifts since Menendian posted it on [that other website], and while i havent tested many SB games, i would think that Crypt is better. First, it hits for 0 mana, which means it can be protected with duress on the first turn, and then sit there until usefull instead of cloggin up your hand. Its also a cheap easy +1 to the storm count. Coffin purge can add two, but requires colored mana in a deck where colored mana is at a premium. The best reason to run the purge would be as a wish target, and i dont honestly see TPS wanting to rely on a wish to find its hate: better the just try to race game one and board in the crypts to help with games 2 and if necessary 3. And i wouldnt say that Meandeck Gifts (Merchant GIfts sounds so much better...) is faster then TPS, since it has a slightly slower goldfish (although mana drain makes it seem much faster since it has the power to render real matches FASTER then the goldfish, and MS gives it the redundancy to survive an early duress much better then other gifts builds).

From what i have played, timing is absolutely the key to this matchup. On the Gifts side of it, there typically IS a window of opportunity for the TPS player to blow up in my face, especially if we have exchanged counterspells/duress of an early threat on iether side. They key for TPS is finding that window and forcing itself through it, even if it would normally like another turn to set up. I've also lost games to TPS b/c thier turn 2 attempt to go off cost me so much in terms of winning the counter warr over a bomb that they bought enough time to try again: its just problematic for TPS b/c merchant scroll gives meandeck gifts (Merchant Gifts?) incredible power off the top to find Drains, FoW, or Recall to take control back.

I would test the SB plan from the article you quoted earlier: 2 crypt 2 misD seems like a solid start for fighting even the 4 MS 11 counter gifts build. If it proves insufficient in testing, up the MisD count, or splash in red for Blasts. If you catch a FoW or MisD with a blast its a pretty rough hit to the Gifts player, forcing them to make a very heavy investment in protecting or stoping whatever is being fought over and probably creating that window you need to force through a bomb. The bad thing about this idea is it WILL weaken your fish matchup, since it makes wasteland all that much more important, the only question is whether the ability to tag Mages and Merfolk will prove to offset this increased mana base instability.

You can also take some solace in the fact that the more popular Fish is the more U/G fish you will see, since it has a better Fish matchup. The red splash could also get you access to pyroclasm, which is one of the best ways to fry Fish (massacre is cute against U/W, but Da Suk against U/G).

I would not take out duress b/c it can protect your DSC (from StP), which is an essential part of beating U/W fish despite thier hate, and is still relevant with the amount of countermagic they play. I would goldfish a few games to make sure, but it looks to me (again from a purely thoeretical standpoint) that cabal ritual would not increase the goldfish by more then a turn at max, which isnt enough to outrace mages.

Now that i think about it, Chain of Vapor may be among your best weapons again U/W fish, since it can not only stall thier offense (and punish anyone still using curiosity) but also is good against all of thier hate (null rod and meddling mage in particualr, chalice at 0 as well) and is cheap enough to cast without access to you artifact acceleration.

The abyss is to expensive, too slow, doenst stop manlands, and ameks thier otherwise fiarly dead MD seal of cleansing alot less dead.