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By: MarcosPMA, nn
Mar 26 2015 12:00pm
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I love Storm.  I've been playing it for a good bit now in real life and love the gameplay it offers me, although I'm sure my opponents do not feel the same.  I like puzzles and questions and Storm always asks the same question: How will you win the game?  The answer is never straightforward, and how you go about answering that question is always different from game to game.  

This is my first attempt a deck primer, and as such I do apologize if my explanations are not up to par and/or I forget to include pieces of vital information.  If you have any questions or comments, feel free to leave them in the comments section below and I'll do my best to address them.

Why should you play Storm?  Storm is a deck that I would play if I expected the metagame to be light on anti-Storm hate cards.  The less Rule of Law and Leyline of the Void there are in decks, the overall likelihood that Storm will excel is quite high.  Your Game 1 percentage is already relatively high compared to most decks (Affinity is at least on par with Storm, if not better) and if the format is light on hate, your Game 2 percentage should be about the same.  Within that viewpoint, it's a Spikey call to run Storm in Modern.  It is the same reasoning you would play a deck like Dredge, if the hate isn't there, you just win.  

The best reason though for playing Storm (outside of loving it) is that most people don't know how to play against Storm.

People play scared.  If they know you're a combo deck that can win on any given turn, they're more likely to hold back and play too cautiously so that they don't just die if they tap out.  They might bring in marginal cards against you and dilute their main strategy in the hopes of disrupting you long enough to stop you from winning.  They might keep speculative hands that contain a key hate card against you only for them to give you more turns than needed to find a winning line.  You could find yourself in a position where a discard spell is played against you and the wrong card is taken, or it just helps you win via Past in Flames.

"The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown." - H.P. Lovecraft

Outside of that, I would play Storm if you want to play a truly skill intensive deck.  Every time I draw my opening seven, I have no idea how I'm going to win and when I'm going to win.  Hands that contain Pyromancer Ascension and/or Past in Flames give me a path to victory, but hands without leave me wondering how I'm going to get there.  The early turns are critical since you don't have a lot of staying power in the mid/late game, so a wrong scry or an incorrect sequence of spells can cost you a win.  The hardest part to the deck is the turn you go off.  Even if the end result is the same (Grapeshot for lethal and/or big Empty), the exact manner in which you go about it is never the same.  There are games where you go off with an Ascension in play or Past in Flames in hand, and then there are the games that you have to hit one of those 2 cards as you go off in order to generate enough of a critical mass in order to win that turn.  

What is Storm?

 

Let's talk about the basics first.  What is Storm trying to accomplish?  Storm reads:

When you cast this spell, copy it for each spell cast before it this turn

So you get free copies of the original spell with storm for each spell you played before it.  This means that on one single turn, we'd like to cast as many spells as possible before we cast the spell with the storm mechanic.  The most efficient way to do this is to play spells that are cheap and in large quantities.  The more land you have in your deck, the more you're likely to not have enough spells to generate enough storm to win the game.  So our storm deck wants to be as land light as possible, while having enough spells 

How does Storm win?

One way is to win via Pyromancer Ascension.  What does Pyromancer Ascension do for you in this deck?  It gives you one of the most broken things you can do in the game of Magic - free spells.  Even though the copies from Ascension don't add to Storm, you're more likely to dig through your deck and find everything you need if you have double the spells for half the cost.  This makes it so you don't have to hold as many spells in your hand when you want to go off, and allows you to sculpt your hand with card draw in the early turns, giving you more information leading up to the turn you go off.  If you're going for an Ascension win, how you sequence your spells is extremely important.  Without an active Ascension, you have less incentive to casting 2 of the same spell, even if the effect is the same.  A turn of Sleight of Hand, Sleight of Hand without an Ascension in play might get you to see a lot of cards, but it lowers the chances that you'll be able turn on your Ascension once you do find it.  

Because of how Ascension works, you almost always want to play the first copy of any spell you have (save for rituals), but hold onto the second copy until you have an Ascension in play.  The only exception is if you need to see more cards to find either Ascension and/or Past in Flames, in which case burning through the second copy is a necessary evil you'll have to take.  Once you have an active Ascension, you can go off whenever you'd like, although there are some hands that won't allow this.  Generally speaking, if you have at least 2 card draw spells, you'll be able to fork both, drawing you between 4-8 cards, and that should be enough of a starting point to allow you to dig through your entire deck and win.

The other way to win is via Past in Flames.  It requires a similar setup as Pyromancer Ascension, but here you're less hurt by casting a second copy of a spell before you Past in Flames.  The idea here is to fill up your graveyard with rituals and card draw, then cast a Past in Flames to give it all flashback, recast everything, dig through your deck, cast the cards you've drawn, flashback Past in Flames, then repeat the process until you have the win.  This way of winning is more likely to want spells in hand before casting Past in Flames (ideally rituals) then you would with Pyromancer Ascension on the turn you go off.  While both ways of winning are feasible and happen regularly, Past in Flames is harder to win with because of how choked you will be on blue mana at times, making your management of mana more important here than it would be otherwise.  You only have finite resources when working with Past in Flames, and if you are exiling cards you cast with flashback, then those are less spells you have to work with if you fail and have to wait another turn to win.  It also makes you have to eek more value out of each spell you flashback because you're not getting the same rate as you would with Pyromancer Ascension.

But wait, why are we talking about Past in Flames and Pyromancer Ascension if the deck wins with Grapeshot and/or Empty the Warrens?  What do those cards have to do with the actual win condition?  While it's true that the cards with "Storm" on them will be the ones to deal lethal to an opponent, they aren't necessarily the reason you're winning.  Those cards have to have other cards to make them function and be more powerful than they originally are, it's Pyromancer Ascension and Past in Flames that let you get to the point where those cards are going to do anything.  Pyromancer Ascension and Past in Flames are the cogs that make the clock turn, they are the engine through which the other cards are given life and power.

How to play Storm

Practice.  

Practice.  

Practice.  

It's somewhat difficult to explain Storm to someone as not every turn is the same, and each matchup offers different play to it.  Unfortunately we don't have the luxury of just going Pestermite into Splinter Twin, our combo is more convoluted and requires more setup and skill in execution than other combo decks.

Goldfishing Storm is probably the best way to learn the deck.  Generally you're looking to get either a Past in Flames or active Pyromancer Ascension, then going through the task of "going off" and analyzing what actually happens during that turn.  At this stage you're not worried about how long it takes you to win, what is more important is understanding what happens when you win and what steps you took to get there.  Easy mode is winning via Pyromancer Ascension, so you'd like to start out each game with the goal of adding two counters onto the Ascension then working from there.  Once you can figure out how to add the counters, then you can start to play with the Ascension and see how powerful it can be when you're doubling your card draw and mana each time you cast a spell.  After repeated repetition, you'll learn this:

To win with Pyromancer Ascension, I must find a way to add 2 counters onto it.  Afterwards, my card draw spells will draw me into more card draw spells, which will draw me into rituals, which will allow me to cast more spells, which eventually will allow me to Grapeshot for lethal.

Eventually you'll end up casting a Past in Flames with an active Ascension and see how powerful Past in Flames is when you can cast a multitude of spells from your graveyard.  Once you realize this you'll understand what an "ideal" graveyard/boardstate looks like when you resolve PIF, so working backwards you can construct a similar boardstate and know what a potential winning PIF looks like.  Oftentimes you'll want to have a bunch of rituals in hand, a bunch of cantrips in the graveyard, and a way to either use as little mana as possible on rituals as to conserve your blue mana, or to have enough ways to convert red mana into blue mana via Manamorphose once you start casting your rituals.

Once you're able to comprehend how to win using Pyromancer Ascension and/or Past in Flames, you'll want to start testing against actual opponents.  When goldfishing you can win without disruption and take as long as possible until you feel certain that you can win any time you like.  When there is pressure and time constraints, the nature of the game changes and you have to maximize each turn and cantrip to get yourself to a winning boardstate as fast as possible.

How to sculpt your hand

  • Serum Visions. - This card offers you four potential looks at a card (the draw, the scry 2, then the next draw).  Knowing this, it's best to use Serum Visions when you are looking for a particular card and have either a card draw spell to follow up or a draw step if it's not immediately drawn.  Serum Visions allows you to smooth out your draws and have more consistency in your upcoming turns, so it's a bit slower than your other draw spells.  This card cares about card quality, not card velocity.
  • Sleight of Hand - This card offers you less looks at a card (top 2 as opposed to top 4), so it's not as useful in looking for a particular card.  Sleight of Hand is best used when you care about card velocity and not card quality; you want to see as many cards as possible quickly regardless of what they are.  It's also useful at getting a card that you've scryed to the top with Serum Visions.
  • Thought Scour - This card allows you to put more cards in your graveyard than any other card, so this card works best when you're trying to set up an Ascension or PIF.  This card also cares about card velocity and not quality as it's just a random card off the top, so you're only getting 1 look at a card.  This is a set up card more than anything and is best used when you don't need to find a particular card.
  • Gitaxian Probe - While this card is on par with Thought Scour in terms of looks, the information you get by looking at your opponents hand makes it a far superior choice to play early over Thought Scour. Using the information from your hand and your opponents hand, Gitaxian Probe allows your follow up draw spells to have more purpose and direction, so because of that Gitaxian Probe is a card that cares both about card quality and velocity.
  • Manamorphose - On par with Thought Scour in terms of looks, but the ability to funnel red mana to blue mana is quite important to the deck.  Many times you're able to produce a lot of red mana but find yourself short on the number of blue spells you're able to cast since the only blue mana you have is in the form of lands.  Manamorphose is the only card in the deck that can act as a "blue ritual" and allow you to cast more blue spells than your lands would dictate.
  • Desperate Ravings - On par with Sleight of Hand in terms of looks, but with this card you have a chance to keep both cards in hand in exchange for discarding a card at random.  Desperate Ravings feels like a mix of Sleight + Scour in the fact that you're looking at 2 cards but you're also fueling your Ascension/PIF.  The fact that Ravings has flashback is key since you're able to turn the first copy from card parity to card advantage once you flashback it.

General tips and tricks

  • If you have a Probe on turn 1 you should pay 2 life instead of a blue mana in order to cast the spell.  You do this so that your land drop is better informed, especially if you don't have any other turn 1 play after you draw.  You also don't want to lose the opportunity to play a cantrip if you draw one off your Probe and used a land to play it.
  • Serum Visions is better early in the game since you're able to sculpt your hand and have more chances at finding any 1 particular card.  If I have the option to Sleight or Visions on turn 1, I'm more likely to Sleight than Visions (unless I have 2 Sleights and an Ascension).  Additionally, you don't want to cast your Serum Visions before casting a Thought Scour unless you're perfectly fine targeting your opponent with it.
  • When in doubt name UR for your Manamorphose.  This is important in the early stages of the game since a UU won't let you cast either Ascension or Goblin Electromancer.  Once you have an active Ascension you're more likely to want to name UU since rituals will give you an abundance of red mana while you're more likely to be choked on blue mana later on.
  • Unless you need to draw into something specific, don't use multiples of the same card until you hit an Ascension.  You can burn the first copy freely, but the second copy might be needed to turn the Ascension on and get your engine going.
  • You can maintain priority and cast a Desperate Ravings on top of a Past in Flames.  This allows you to get the Ravings under the PIF and might allow you the chance to cast another good instant before the PiF resolves.
  • For the most part, you don't care what gets discarded with a Ravings since most cards are replaceable and PIF can give your instants/sorceries flashback at some point.  Sometimes Ravings will bite you in the butt if you lose a key card, but those situations are few and far between.
  • When you're going off, cast your Serum Visions before any other card draw spell if possible.  If you cast your Visions last you may run into the trouble of scrying a card to the top with no way to get it.
  • You can go off at your earliest convenience, but if you have time then take advantage of it and wait a bit until you're forced to play your hand.  The longer the game goes and the more cards you draw, the more likely you're favored to win once you attempt to go off.
  • If you go off and fail, don't fret.  As long as you have an active Ascension you can just untap, play a cantrip and attempt it again.  However, if you feel you might not be able to win once you start going off with PIF, do try to not destroy your entire graveyard.  If you can live another turn then just pass and try again later.

Matchup Analysis & Sideboarding Notes

  • Affinity - 50% preboard, 60% postboard.  Game 1 it's simply a race to see who can kill each other the fastest.  You both have the potential for explosive draws, so it really comes down to who goes first in game 1.  Postboard you have the chance to bring in Shatterstorm which gives you a huge edge in the matchup if you're able to resolve it.  Play/draw is huge here.
  • Amulet Combo - 50% preboard, 60% postboard.  Game 1 is another race to see who can do the more degenerate thing first.  Their best draw can beat your best draw, so speed is of great importance here.  You can attempt to Grapeshot an early Asuza to buy time, but if that's the case then you likely have enough turns to combo out.  Play/draw is huge here.  Postboard is better for you since you have options in Wear/Tear and Blood Moon.  If you can stick a Blood Moon you're a heavy favorite.
  • Abzan Aggro - 45% preboard, 50% postboard.  This matchup is slightly worse for you than the Abzan Midrange matchup, but they don't have too much interaction so your good draws will go relatively unopposed.  The problem is that they have more pressure on you and don't give you as much time to set up shop.  Postboard gets a little better since you get Bolts + Blood Moon, but it's still a coin flip at best.  Your goal here is to combo out as soon as possible.
  • Abzan Midrange - 55% preboard, 55% postboard.  This matchup is one where I feel you have a slight edge if they have an average draw since their average draw is a bit slow and you can use that time to your advantage.  If they don't draw Abrupt Decay game 1 then you're a huge favorite once you get an Ascension to 2 counters.  The Abzan deck doesn't have a lot of pressure, so you're likely to have 5-6 turns before they kill you.  Postboard you can bring in Empty and Wear/Tear to fight any potential Leylines they might have.  You can also try to win via Blood Moon.
  • Burn - 25% preboard, 40% postboard.  Game 1 is extremely bad for you, and almost unwinnable if they turn 2 Eidolon you.  They can put a lot of pressure on you and force you to have the turn 3/4 kill or die.  Postboard you get answers to Eidolons but it's still quite bad for you.  Your best bet here is to steal game 1 and hope to win game 3.
  • Boggles - See Affinity except your postboard is still 50%, less if they Leyline you.
  • Infect - 20% preboard, 30% postboard.  This matchup is probably worse for you than the Burn matchup since they can beat you fairly quickly and you'll put up little resistance.  Postboard gets slightly better for you but the combination of Wild Defiance + pump spells means your Bolts do nothing.
  • UR Twin - 50% preboard, 50% postboard.  You can't stop them game 1 while they can keep you off kilter enough to dig for their own combo.  Postboard you get answers to their combo in Wear/Tear and Echoing Truth but they have countermagic to back it up.  Your best bet is to hope they don't have it and go off as quickly as possible.
  • Merfolk - 60% preboard, 55% postboard.  This matchup centers around Aether Vial.  If they start out on a turn 1 Vial, the odds of you winning drop about 10-15%.  If they're not on the Vial plan then you have enough time to go off turn 4 or 5.  Unfortunately the matchup gets a bit worse after game 1 since they can bring in more countermagic and still Islandwalk all over you.  Bolts do some work here but you don't have a lot of time to durdle.
  • Scapeshift - 55% preboard, 50% postboard.  I feel you're a slight favorite game 1 since while they are a combo deck with countermagic, they're not as fast as Twin, so you get multiple turns to fight through their relatively soft countermagic while they try to set up a Scapeshift.  The same applies for postboard games but since they know what you're up to they give you less margin for success.  If you can stick an early Blood Moon AND color screw them you're a good favorite to win.
  • UW/UWr Control - 60% preboard, 55% postboard  UW Control is a much easier matchup as they don't have a lot of pressure and while they do have countermagic, they give you enough time where you're able to PIF for the win.  Postboard they bring in more countermagic, but you should still be able to beat them.  UWr is harder since they can go on the tempo/burn plan, but it's still a decent matchup for you.

Most matchups are about 50/50 with various percentage points to be gained/lost depending on the skill of both opponents.  Even though Storm is a relatively known deck, not many have experience against it so you can definitely use that to your advantage.

The very nature of Pyromancer Ascension makes it so you want as many redundant cards as possible while keeping most cards to a 4 of, so I usually take 3-4x of a spell for sideboarded cards.  You never take out rituals since those are needed to generate enough mana if you're attempting a PIF kill, the Ascensions never get taken out because they give you the fastest kill, so now we're left with card draw spells and lands.  It might be correct to take out a land if you're expecting a long game, but most of the time I leave the lands in since you can always scry excess lands away and you don't mind drawing 3-4 lands in a game.  Thought Scour is your worst card draw spell, so I take some number of those out before touching anything else.  If I'm taking out Thought Scour then I'm more inclined to take out one or two copies of Past in Flames (but never all 3!) as that card gets a bit worse without Scours.

Empty the Warrens comes in against decks that will pack graveyard hate and/or Leyline of Sanctity, (Lighting Bolt) comes in against any aggressive strategy, Wear/Tear comes in if you see enchantment hate and/or you need to nab an artifact, Shatterstorm/Hurkyl's Recall is for Affinity only, Echoing Truth is a catch-all answer to anything, and Blood Moon comes in against decks that can't beat it.

The Hurkyl's Recall is in the board because of the rise of Ensoul Artifact in Affinity, but is is possible that with Wear/Tear alone you can deal with the enchantment, so you can replace the Recall with another Blood Moon if you like.  The Wear/Tears are there as enchantment hate while also giving you a card against Affinity.  It's an Echoing Truth in the situations you would want that card, except it actually deals with the problem and is better against Rest in Peace and Leyline of the Void.

How to beat Storm

There are several ways to beat Storm, the best of which is to be faster than it.  Affinity, Amulet Bloom, Burn, Infect: these are all decks that pose a problem for Storm and can force you to try and go off before you're ready.  Another way is to disrupt and put a quick clock on the Storm pilot.  UR Twin is a good example of this since they can combo you any time past turn 3, so every turn you get past that is almost like a bonus turn.  Their countermagic + combo kill makes playing a long game quite bad, so Storm has to try and win before they do.  Hand disruption alone will not get the job done, you must put pressure otherwise you risk losing to Past in Flames.

You can bring in powerful hate cards for the postboard games, but a skilled Storm pilot will foresee such a move and attempt to counter with either an Empty the Warrens kill and/or their own hate for your hate.  Your hate is good, but not unbeatable, especially if they are on the Wear/Tear plan since now they have outs to Rule of Law, Rest in Peace, random Leylines, etc.  Do not rely 100% on your hate cards, yes they are powerful but you also have to not give them time to find a way to beat them.  Again, you must pressure them.

Conclusion

The fact that Storm doesn't have a lot of slam dunk matchups means that while sometimes you just turn 3 your opponents, you do have to work for your wins and play every turn as optimally as possible.  The upside to this is that you always feel like you're earning your wins and that the choices you make actually matter.  Storm is about maximizing your percentages and sequencing your plays in a such a manner to provide you with a winning boardstate.  Besides, isn't counting to 20 fun?

If you have any comments, questions, or concerns, please leave them in the comments section below!  This is my first attempt at a deck primer, and I would welcome any feedback or suggestions as to how to improve myself should I ever attempt another one.

Thank you for reading!