Video: Vintage Storm!

Round 1

Round 2

Round 3

Round 4

Storm

Drew Levin

Test deck on 06-24-2014

Vintage

Lands (12)

• 1 Swamp
• 1 Island
• 1 Volcanic Island
• 2 Underground Sea
• 4 Polluted Delta
• 1 Tolarian Academy
• 2 Scalding Tarn

Spells (48)

• 1 Sensei's Divining Top
• 1 Tendrils of Agony
• 1 Brainstorm
• 1 Cabal Ritual
• 1 Yawgmoth's Bargain
• 1 Vampiric Tutor
• 1 Mystical Tutor
• 1 Yawgmoth's Will
• 4 Duress
• 1 Necropotence
• 1 Mana Vault
• 1 Wheel of Fortune
• 1 Sol Ring
• 1 Demonic Tutor
• 1 Hurkyl's Recall
• 1 Time Walk
• 4 Dark Ritual
• 1 Ancestral Recall
• 1 Imperial Seal
• 1 Grim Tutor
• 1 Mana Crypt
• 1 Windfall
• 1 Timetwister
• 1 Mind's Desire
• 1 Memory Jar
• 1 Chain of Vapor
• 1 Tinker
• 1 Black Lotus
• 1 Lotus Petal
• 1 Lion's Eye Diamond
• 1 Mox Emerald
• 1 Mox Jet
• 1 Mox Pearl
• 1 Mox Ruby
• 1 Mox Sapphire
• 1 Ponder
• 1 Preordain
• 1 Mox Opal
• 4 Gitaxian Probe

Sideboard

• 1 Pyroclasm
• 3 Hurkyl's Recall
• 1 Island
• 3 Pyroblast
• 3 Tormod's Crypt
• 1 Empty the Warrens
• 1 Thoughtseize
• 1 Nihil Spellbomb
• 1 Blightsteel Colossus

Let me first dispel the myth that this deck is particularly difficult to play. There are clearly a ton of options and games tend to resemble puzzles, but
the sheer power level of the deck makes the nature of the puzzle more like arithmetic than calculus. Your opponent’s meaningful interaction is compressed
to a fairly binary range: either they have permanent-based hate in the form of Tangle Wire, Chalice of the Void, and various Sphere of Resistance effects
that can be answered by Hurkyl’s Recall or Chain of Vapor; or they have stack-based interaction that you can force them to discard, counter with
Pyroblasts, or brute-force your way through with multiple threats.

There are three things that I really like about Vintage Storm. The first is that it’s just utterly busted. It’s unreal powerful, and you’re always drawing
live to a sequence of cards that flat-out kills them.

The second is that you’re never “all-in” in the same way that Legacy Storm often forces you to be. Since your mana acceleration comes in the form of Mana
Vault, Mana Crypt, and a bunch of zero-mana permanent accelerators, you don’t get five-for-oned when your bomb gets countered. If you have four mana
sources and three bombs, they have to have three counters or the ability to stop you from casting the second and third bombs in your hand. Without that
capacity, you’re easily capable of winning the following turn.

The third is that you don’t care about so much of what other people are doing. There are broad answers to everything in Vintage, but people are infinitely
more likely to sleeve up Leyline of the Void than Rule of Law. Of course, the problem with Rule of Law is that it costs three mana in a format where Storm
can very easily kill on turn 1 or 2, so it’s a tough bind. Being able to present a focused anti-counter deck after sideboarding also makes the blue decks a
fairly simple endeavor–although my Oath opponent ran pretty bad to miss their second land drop for so long, the deck was still capable of powering through
three Force of Wills and a resolved Jace and Tinker.

This was, without exception, the most fun I’ve had playing Magic. If you can afford to buy them (which is, I understand, quite the
caveat), the Power Nine on Magic Online provide a play experience that is incredibly satisfying. If you’d like to see more videos like these, let me know.
I’d be happy to indulge you.