[Modern] Storm

Going to be playing this next weekend at a PTQ, provided I can borrow another Blood Moon, which if that doesn't happen, it'll likely be Anger of the Gods in the side.


Rituals:
4 Goblin Electromancer
4 Pyretic Ritual
4 Desperate Ritual
4 Manamorphose

Card Draw/Cantrips:
4 Gitaxian Probe
4 Sleight of Hand
4 Serum Visions
3 Thought Scour
3 Desperate Ravings

Action Spells:
4 Pyromancer Ascension
3 Grapeshot
3 Past in Flames

Lands:
4 Scalding Tarn
3 Polluted Delta
2 Shivan Reef
4 Steam Vents
2 Island
1 Mountain


Sideboard:
2 Defense Grid
3 Empty the Warrens
2 Echoing Truth
2 Shatterstorm
4 Lightning Bolt
2 Swan Song


I've tried the Looting version of the deck in the past and absolutely hated it, since the card just makes so many hands so much worse and punishes mulligans like no other card.

The list, in general, is fairly stock. Mostly just not sure if the sideboard is as good as it could be so I'm open to ideas on that.

Considered Void Snare in the SB, but one of the important things it's used for is bouncing Thalia, and losing 2 mana on the storm turn to do so means it doesn't really beat Thalia at all. It also doesn't deal with 2 Leylines, which makes it seem even worse.

-1 Thought Scour
+1 Desperate Ravings

-2 Shivan Reef
-1 Misty Rainforest
+3 Polluted Delta (I actually own these now, yay!)

Sideboard:
-2 Blood Moon
+2 Swan Song

This was to hedge vs the Ascendancy combo deck that I never played against anyway. I don't like Blood Moon or Swan Song as sideboard cards, fwiw, and I basically played with an 11 card sideboard at the GPT this last weekend anyway, since I didn't play against Affinity either. Shatterstorm is still too good against Affinity to not include, though.

I'm going to throw in a tournament report for the GPT this last weekend. The GPT was competing for 4 Polluted Deltas to the winner.

Round 1 vs UW Resto Control
He had Disrupting Shoals and Augur of Bolas's. I didn't see any Cryptics and I'm honestly not entirely sure why since his deck was foiled enough that he could definitely afford it. Still, that's unimportant because a deck with 4 Disrupting Shoal, 4 Spell Snare, 4 Remand, and mana leaks with a clock is pretty good against storm.
Game 1 the obvious stuff happened. He countered all my stuff and killed me with a Resto. I should note that I had all my mana producing lands in play at the end of this game as well as two fetches in my hand. So no, I didn't draw fantastic either.
Game 2 he disrupting shoaled my Ascension on turn 2, discarding a Snapcaster. Needless to say after casting the best Hymn to Tourach of my life winning was relatively trivial since I had a Defense Grid for him to tap out a D-Sphere onto anyway, and I proceeded to get a second Ascension live and combo off from there.
Game 3 was just a carbon copy of game 1. I play 9 mana-producing lands, how am I so good at drawing them?!

0-1

Round 2 vs Bogles
Bogles are terrible, that's why game 1 he had a turn 4 kill and I had a turn 4 be dead.
Game 2 he drew a Seal of Primordium and an abysmal clock and I won on turn 4 with Electromancer fueling my combo and leaving my Ascensions in my hand.
Game 3 I went off on turn 4 through a Leyline and a Seal. It took about 10 minutes or so to find the Echoing Truth I needed to win, but when I did I got to Grapeshot him for like 28 or something, which was value.

1-1

Round 3 vs BW Tokens
This matchup is honestly a joke. For starters, I think Tokens is a horribly unplayable deck in modern. It's slow, and it's not nearly disruptive enough for being so slow, AND it requires you draw very well every game, as opposed to a lot of decks that just have to draw decently. So, game 1 he Thoughtseizes me turn 1 and dies on turn 4, because Storm doesn't die to a single Thoughtseize, especially with no clock.
Game 2 he Thoughtseized me twice but I combo'd off on turn 5; again due to tokens being very slow to get going and Ascension being a broken magic card.

2-1

Round 4 vs Budget Waste Not
I was paired down against the guy on 1-2 who had a bye as his only win. Were he playing 8-rack then there's almost no way I win this match, btw. Game 1 he Burning Inquiries with 2 Waste Nots in play, which set up my combo perfectly for me, which was kinda cute.
Game 2 my opener was awkward, and he Thoughtseized my Serum Visions. I drew a Sleight of Hand, and his deck's slow clock wasn't enough to beat an Ascension and an Electromancer.

3-1

Round 5 vs Burn
ID.

My tiebreakers before round 5 were less than 36% or something. I seem to be very good at low tiebreakers since at the last game day I was at I had a tiebreaker of 33.3%, which is as low as the system will physically go on a positive record.

Top 8 vs UWR Geist
I like this matchup more than most people tend to. They often drop a lot of disruption to make their aggressive plan stronger, which is nice.
Game 1 he had a hand with no counters and a lot of burn spells. I ended up comboing off on turn 4 or 5 with 3 life left, since I had to crack a fetch from 4, which was super awkward, but he didn't have one of his 3 remaining Helices or his last Bolt.
Game 2 I landed a Defense Grid after he mulled to 5. Yup.

Top 4 vs Kiki Pod.
Game 1 he had Pod on turn 2 and my first 3 draws from an opener with 3 lands were 3 more lands. So there's just about no way I win that game.
Game 2 I had a turn 4 combo with Electromancer + Ritual, Ritual, Morphose, Grapeshot, Past in Flames with cards already in my graveyard. Also his mulligan to 4 was hilarious, since it was Witness and 3 lands. It didn't matter too much, though, since he had very, very few ways to interact with my combo in his deck anyway.
Game 3 he had another turn 2 Pod. I could have tried to go off on turn 4, but it involved throwing Rituals into a Ravings that had to hit a Morphose or I throw away gas for no reason, and I'd have no blue mana. I opted to wait a turn since the only way he kills me is with a topdecked Image or 1-drop. He drew a Hierarch and combo'd me off, so eh.

Overall, me and the people I went with did alright. One of my friends ended 2-3, but he was playing Tokens so he deserved it. My other friend won the whole thing and I placed top 4 so yay. I opened a foil Delta from my packs which I then traded for the 4 Deltas my friend won, which was awesome.

Definitely the best part of your report is the trade.

Congrats on the awesome weekend.