Messages

@Nemavera: Teeg/Thalia/Censor suck right?

Btw, congrats winning the thing with "almost-tps"!!

I saw the TPS win coming. That player successfully crossed some TPS variants I tinkered around with (artifacts, oath, FS+key+top), added some more beef (ad naus, doomsday etc) and the result was a critical mass of bombs in the hands of an experienced storm player.
While I enjoy playing with the deck, I agree that the singleton format isn't well suited for it.
One of the major aspects of tps is that it can win out of nowhere, if it has some mana or a good hand. Other combo decks need either more setup on the board (cephalid, pattern) or have only 1 I win button (scapeshift, thopter). storm can easily win of a resolved draw 7, yawgwill, pif and so on.
Considering all this it remains to be seen if the meta can adjust to a new bogeyman. In my opinion let's not just start banning left and right but wait if storm can put up results consistently.
And btw, "fun" or "boring" shouldn't be an argument if it comes to competetive magic.

PS: Aggro is one of TPS easier MUs. I am not sure which which critical turn the winning list has, but it was turn 4 for my lists. I can see RDW winning T4 too, but not too often. And stuff like Beats is often a a turn slower. And god forbid you do not hit the perfect curve.

Several very good cards are missing:

Daze, Gush, Vapor snag, unsummon, curiosity, sigil of sleep, seal of removal, mind sculptor, mental misstep, stifle, spell snare, force spike, spell pierce, (divert), (disrupt), misdirection, (commandeer), psionic blast

No clue about the creats, but I fathom that there are several inefficient dudes.

From a first glance I'd cut:
shuko: no impact
sensei: no shuffle effects
ob stone: this is no control deck

if you tweak the curve some more, you can go as low as 27-28 lands. the bulk should be 1-2 mana spells, while 4 would be the absolute top and your best trumps like Cryptic Command, Jace, Venser, kicked into the roil etc.
monoblue should always be a tempo-deck. It can't really deal with resolved problematic permanents. So it needs a cheaper curve and way more bounce/cheap counters

Some of these cards are plainly bad in HL, some miss a deck.

Land Tax: misses a deck, WW and Boros want to play dudes at start and control decks prefer laying lands.

Redirect: situational, UU cost

Nekrataal: only fringe playable in MBC, other decks have/want better/cheaper options (FTK, shredder, maw)

Wumpus: MBC

Blackmail: situational

dragonmaster, scute: vanilla 1/1 early = not good

strangleroot: already heavily played in G/x aggro

root maze: no deck

Bonehoard: bad

After some testing and looking at other lists, I realized that the artifact mana approach is quite clunky and can be easily disrupted by the host of etb-creatures.

So, Kobolds:

Kobolds:
1 Shield Sphere
1 Ornithopter
1 Kobolds of Kher Keep
1 Crimson Kobolds
1 Crookshank Kobolds
1 Memnite
1 Phyrexian Walker
1 Wild Cantor
1 Snapcaster Mage

Rituals:
1 Dark Ritual
1 Cabal Ritual
1 Pyretic Ritual
1 Seething Song
1 Desperate Ritual
1 Rite of Flame
1 Rain of Filth
1 Helm of Awakening
1 Infernal Plunge
1 Lion's Eye Diamond
1 Lotus Petal
1 Mox Diamond
1 Chrome Mox
1 Grim Monolith
1 Culling the Weak

Tutors:
1 Diabolic Intent
1 Infernal Tutor
1 Intuition
1 Demonic Consultation
1 Rhystic Tutor
1 Grim Tutor
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Personal Tutor

Protection:
1 Defense Grid
1 Cabal Therapy
1 Duress
1 Thoughtseize
1 Inquisition of Kozilek
1 Gitaxian Probe
1 Overmaster
1 Arcane Denial
1 Pact of Negation
1 Flusterstorm
1 Chain of Vapor
1 Remand
1 Repeal

Kill:
1 Tendrils of Agony
1 Empty the Warrens

Draw7:
1 Timetwister
1 Wheel of Fortune
1 Time Spiral

Library Manipulation:
1 Frantic Search
1 Gush
1 Preordain
1 Ponder
1 Brainstorm
1 Serum Visions
1 Sleight of Hand
1 Fact or Fiction
1 Night's Whisper
1 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Faithless Looting
1 Mana Severance
1 Mind's Desire
1 Thirst for Knowledge
1 Portent

Storm:
1 Ill-Gotten Gains
1 Yawgmoth's Will
1 Past in Flames

Lands(32):
1 Badlands
1 Underground Sea
1 Volcanic Island
1 Watery Grave
1 Blood Crypt
1 Steam Vents
1 Polluted Delta
1 Misty Rainforest
1 Flooded Strand
1 Scalding Tarn
1 Wooded Foothills
1 Arid Mesa
1 Bloodstained Mire
1 Verdant Catacombs
1 Marsh Flats
6 Island
3 Swamp
1 Mountain
1 Ancient Tomb
1 City of Traitors
1 Crystal Vein
1 Sunken Ruins
1 Graven Cairns
1 Cascade Bluffs
1 Drowned Catacomb

This list has many advantages besides being less suceptible to disruption. More Rituals and 0 Mana dudes make it easier to reach a high Stormcount, more protection and tutors.

Edit: 2 minor corrections
- swamp
- mana severance
+ merchant scroll
+ snap

After losing quite alot to censor, this really wants more outs versus problematic creatures.

Edit #2:

- Mind's Desire
- Faithless Looting
+ Manamorphose
+ Impulse

Desire is just "worse" in here. Instead of playing free Thran Dynamos, there are Kobolds to play for free.
Looting didn't impress me, digging deeper for a critical spell is likely better.

Dreamer raises very valid points.

The problems are never the tutors, they are the problem-cards by themselves.
If you ban the tutors you end up in an EVEN MORE goodstuff or linear oriented meta, and by definition, its predators. Why? Because you take away tools to reduce variance. If you do the better single cards, or a critical mass of blowout cards are going to define decks. An example could be some form of Wildfire U/R/w control.

Imho there should be a clear decision of the council to embrace the formats inherit variance and unban accordingly, I wouldn't be even shy of unbanning sacred cows like mystical or vampiric. Everything is worth testing except for Power 9 + fast mana with negligible drawbacks.

There are problems if you start to ban cards which are "just-too-good".
a) Has the meta really adjusted to the offenders (playing U/R/x control vs. goodstuff?)
b) Facing a hateful meta the deck still thrives, so ban all the tutors (pod, survival, demonic, worldly, enlight. etc.) variance will rise due to not being able to tutor as efficiently, so blowouts will happen even more, some decks will cease to exist (pattern)
c) Ban the blowout cards (drain, btb, tabernacle etc.) you end up with the next set of too-good cards (too efficient creatures, next set of tutors).

This is , of course, not very accurate but imho in a nutshell you cannot balance a singleton format, except very clear "broken" cards (lotus, ancestral, time walk).

I played with a few cards a bit, so my evaluation:

New Jace is obv. not as good as JtMS, but still very good and should replace FoF like already mentioned. What makes it so good is that it creates board presence and if empty you get to see 6 new cards which is huge. the +1 ability fits especially well for aggro-control.

Cyclonic Rift is a nice tool for RUG ramp.

Deathrite shaman is the bees knees. That guy is really good. so you basically have a slightly unreliable manadork who can: disrupt the GY, gain life and can threaten to kill a player over time. On top of it it survives a ping. Powerlevel is kind of absurd imho.

More powercreep on legs, ultimate GY hate, 3 mana counters, junky combo engines: YAY! 

I cut severance/belcher/Jace and added green for tinder wall/regrowth/crop rot to increase the density of rituals. Seems to increase the overall stability.

-severance
-belcher
-mind stone
-lit bolt
-perplex
-muddle
-overmaster
-lotus bloom

+regrowth
+noxious rev.
+tinder wall
+crop rot
+grim tutor
+transmute art.
+snapcaster
+pentad prism

and changes to the manabase aswell.


The plan is pretty linear. You build up as much mana as possible, while trying to a) sculpt a hand b) gaining information about the opponent.
Actual lines of play:
- yawgwill + led + tutor
- past of flames + ritual GY
- IGG + rituals/LED + tutor
- Mind's Desire > 6 (even that is very low-ish)
- draw 7 + LED
- chain of vapor + mox
- remand + mox
- repeal + mox

Basically you wait until the last possible moment to amass ressources (cards/mana) then try to maximize your chances of generating a sufficient amount of storm + finding the necessary cards to do that and win.

In the starthand you want to see:
- artifact mana
- tutors
- library manipulation
OR/AND
- rituals/LED
- draw 7/yawgwill

+ lands ofc.

Arcane Melee costs just too much, especially when most of the rotuals cost only 1 colourless.
Guttersnipe/Electromancer/Arcane belong in a different deck imho, some kind of R/U.

EDIT: About experiences (maybe useful for the council aswell):

It can go off reliably turn 4-5. Randomly turn 3 wins, those are rare though.
LED + the draw7s or recursion engines is VERY good, basically the main line of play, although there were alot of wins without it.
I'd say it is a tier 1-1.5 deck since it asks the opponent if he can interact with the stack/GY/artifacts or just win by turn 4.
Compared to Dreamhalls it runs less uncastable cards but has more difficult lines of play and is easier to disrupt.

The Depletion lands are only for testing purposes, originally I just ran basics. Perplex/Muddle are replacements for Grim Tutor, the lifeloss was unsustainable in some cases.
Future Sight is sometimes hard to cast and not tutorable (transmute), also doesn't do alot on its own for the cost of 5. But I tried it too few times to be totally sure. I'd rather play Spellweaver Volute.
Empty the Warrens is also a so-so, basically it loses alot of power T2-T4. Decks can race it or have answers if it doesn't get played very early.
Lightning Bolt is a good spell to reduce stormcount and randomly kill problematic creatures (teeg,censor).
Workshop is just too broken to not play it imho, but yea. Jace, Teachings and other 4 mana spells just do too few.
Eggs+Baubles: would increase the reliance on will, without doing anything themselves (no academy).
Pentad Prism is a card I totally forgot, could replace Mind stone.
Transmute Artifact is also an oversight, accidentally took it out it seems.

[Lands (31):]

Most of you know my favourite petdeck: Storm. The following list is tested quite thoroughly and derives alot of its power from the potential unbanning of LED.

Lands (31):
1 Swamp
1 Mountain
1 Mishra's Workshop
1 Ancient Tomb
1 City of Traitors
1 Crystal Vein
1 Arid Mesa
1 Wooded Foothills
1 Bloodstained Mire
1 Scalding Tarn
1 Verdant Catacombs
1 Polluted Delta
1 Marsh Flats
1 Misty Rainforest
1 Flooded Strand
1 Volcanic Island
1 Underground Sea
1 Badlands
1 Steam Vents
1 Watery Grave
1 Blood Crypt
1 Seat of the Synod
1 Vault of Whispers
1 Great Furnace
1 Snow-Covered Island
1 Snow-Covered Mountain
1 Snow-Covered Swamp
1 Peat Bog
1 Saprazzan Skerry
1 Sandstone Needle


Artifact Mana:
1 Lotus Petal
1 Chrome Mox
1 Lotus Bloom
1 Mox Diamond
1 Mox Opal
1 Grim Monolith
1 Talisman of Dominance
1 Talisman of Indulgence
1 Izzet Signet
1 Rakdos Signet
1 Dimir Signet
1 Worn Powerstone
1 Coalition Relic
1 Thran Dynamo
1 Gilded Lotus
1 Lion's Eye Diamond
1 Mind Stone

Rituals / Other Mana:
1 Dark Ritual
1 Cabal Ritual
1 Pyretic Ritual
1 Desperate Ritual
1 Seething Song
1 Manamorphose
1 Helm of Awakening
1 Rain of Filth
1 Mana Drain
1 Rite of Flame

Cards Which Win:
1 Mind's Desire
1 Yawgmoth's Will
1 Past in Flames

Win Conditions:
1 Tendrils of Agony
1 Grapeshot
1 Mana Severance
1 Goblin Charbelcher

Tutors:
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Rhystic Tutor
1 Personal Tutor
1 Intuition
1 Lim-Dûl's Vault
1 Tainted Pact
1 Muddle the Mixture
1 Perplex
1 Merchant Scroll

Draw 7:
1 Windfall
1 Wheel of Fortune
1 Timetwister
1 Time Spiral
1 Memory Jar

Other Library Manipulation:
1 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Brainstorm
1 Ponder
1 Preordain
1 Gush
1 Gitaxian Probe
1 Frantic Search
1 Fact or Fiction
1 Thirst for Knowledge
1 Meditate
1 Impulse
1 Sleight of Hand

Protection / Utility:
1 Chain of Vapor
1 Pact of Negation
1 Overmaster
1 Duress
1 Thoughtseize
1 Inquisition of Kozilek
1 Remand
1 Repeal
1 Lightning Bolt

Alot of cards are autoincludes. Cards which could find a way in and did at some point: noxious revival, snapcaster, IGG, sins of the past. IGG is more or less superceded by Past in Flames, but still is a serious contender. Sins of the Past is only worthwhile targetting Spiral or Mind's Desire.
In this list I took out the aformentioned cards to make space for an alternate kill in the way of Severance/Belcher, which is sometimes easier to attain than 10 storm. Also a resolved Severance with 3-4 lands in play is quite good. But if testing doesn't prove the merits of this, it's easy to change back and get revival/snap/IGG.
Another card I am on the fringe about is Lotus Bloom. In the starthand it is godlike increasing the chances for a successful T3 win by a large margin. But any turn after it is often just dead.

In the past I experimented with a 4-5c version sporting silence effects, regrowth, crop rotation (as mini ritual getting workshop/city of traitors) and such, but the problems with the manabase made me discard that idea.

Last but not least this list can easily include more basics if you run across much nonbasic hate, but Tainted pact would have to go then.

I welcome any costructive criticism and advices about the deck.

I constructed a similar one lately:

Lands(34):
1 Bloodstained Mire
1 Verdant Catacombs
1 Marsh Flats
1 Polluted Delta
1 Underground Sea
1 Watery Grave
2 Island
1 Academy Ruins
1 Creeping Tar Pit
4 Swamp
1 Mishra's Workshop
1 Phyrexia's Core
1 Wasteland
1 Dust Bowl
1 Misty Rainforest
1 Scalding Tarn
1 Flooded Strand
1 Arid Mesa
1 Windswept Heath
1 Tundra
1 Scrubland
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Godless Shrine
1 Plains
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Vault of Whispers
1 Seat of the Synod
1 Flagstones of Trokair
1 Darksteel Citadel
1 Tolaria West

Mana stones:
1 Mind Stone
1 Mox Opal
1 Mox Diamond
1 Talisman of Dominance
1 Coalition Relic
1 Dimir Signet
1 Everflowing Chalice
1 Azorius Signet
1 Orzhov Signet
1 Talisman of Progress
1 Chrome Mox

Creatures:
1 Solemn Simulacrum
1 Wurmcoil Engine
1 Trinket Mage
1 Baleful Strix
1 Phyrexian Metamorph
1 Braids, Cabal Minion

Artifacts:
1 Ichor Wellspring
1 Mycosynth Wellspring
1 Spine of Ish Sah
1 Trading Post
1 Nihil Spellbomb
1 Smokestack
1 Expedition Map
1 Tangle Wire
1 Thopter Foundry
1 Sword of the Meek
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Ensnaring Bridge
1 Pithing Needle
1 Crucible of Worlds
1 Crumbling Sanctuary

Planeswalkers:
1 Liliana of the Veil
1 Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas
1 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
1 Tezzeret the Seeker
1 Elspeth, Knight-Errant
1 Sorin, Lord of Innistrad
1 Elspeth Tirel

Rest:
1 Black Sun's Zenith
1 Innocent Blood
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Death Cloud
1 Smallpox
1 Duress
1 Inquisition of Kozilek
1 Thoughtseize
1 Hymn to Tourach
1 Shred Memory
1 Brainstorm
1 Timely Reinforcements
1 Swords to Plowshares
1 Transmute Artifact
1 Bitterblossom
1 Muddle the Mixture
1 Mana Drain
1 Vindicate
1 The Abyss
1 Mind Shatter
1 Yawgmoth's Will
1 Fabricate
1 Sinkhole
1 Fact or Fiction
1 Gerrard's Verdict
1 Armageddon

More controllish and the goal is to grind the opponent out of the game. Ancient Tomb and City of Traitors might have to be íncluded, but I wanted more basics instead. Other toolbox lands like tabernacle and maze would be good too.

oops. I totally overlooked that one. Easy to splash 3/4 flash flyer with a relevant ability and a good cost

W

Angel of Jubilation: nice ability, horrible manacost

Avacyn: another big gal

Divine Reflection: white conditional removal and possible CA - good card in aggro metas

Entreat the Angels: Powerful Miracle - nice finisher for U/W

Silverblade Paladin: S.-mystics new best friend

Terminus: Good when cast as miracle

U

Arcane Melee: Another Enabler for TPS, still no ritual

Devastation Tide: Playable in various U/G Ramp-decks

Stolen Goods: Playable if you have some way to control the top of your opponent's library (probably no)

Tamiyo: wouldn't write this off

Temporal Mastery: Good when miracled.

Vanishment: Overlooked card, but not in HL, I would not want to play vs this + temporal spring though.

B

Blood Artist: Another kill for infinity

Demonic Rising: Playable

Essence Harvest: Another drain effect for black, soon MBC will contain only these and its engines

Exquisite Blood: See above

Griselbrand: the true lord of the fallen!

Homicidal Seclusion: maybe playable in hexproof, exalted doublestrike.dec

R

Archwing Dragon: nice

Battle Hymn: goblins?

Bonfire of the Damned: U/R and Stax might consider this

Dangerous Wager: wow. this is a good card for certain decks.

Hound of Griselbrand: maaaybe playable

Mad prophet: see above

reforge the soul: Woa. needs a dedicated deck but is surely powerful especially when cast eot.

Rite of ruin: Stax likes this but it ha strong competition

Thunderous Wrath: RDW

Vexing Devil: RDW

G

Abundant Growth: What? Little gem provides colourfixing at a very low cost if you run basic forests

Craterhoof Behemoth: Elves etc.

Descendant's Path: Emrakul + Mutavault or any Tribal.

Rain of Thorns: Possibly playable but oppressive Manacost

Revenge of the Hunted: Haha. I like this one, because it can lead to annoying blowouts

Triumph of ferocity: phyrxian arena for some decks = good card

Ulvenwald Tracker: playable

Wild Defiance: This stops red removal cold, so it might be worth a second look

Wolfir Silverheart: possibly playable

A

Conjurer's Closet: see above

vessel of endless rest: another manastone at 3

Scroll of griselbrand: instant discard

You misunderstood my post. When I said G/W/x "aggro" I meant the almost uniform goodstuff decks.
And exactly they "break" your triangle of Aggro -kills-> Control -kills-> Combo -kills-> Aggro.

And the problem in goodstuff is not Jace, nor it is intuition, lol. Jace is a legitimate if overpowered swiss knife. See how many decks run him. But if you made the choice to run creatures you are really hard pressed not to start G/W.
I am not even saying the Goodstuff is totally dominating, but it has basically only good matchups. A good comparison would be the old landstill in vintage years gone. It had 50% vs. everything. Goodstuff takes this further and has - I don't know - maybe 60%-65% vs. many decks, except a few designed to beat it. That is imho simply wrong, but I am not sure if this can be solved with the banlist or is a byproduct of the format's rules.