Title: The Grinning Storm
Tags: elemental storm deck red type II
Blog Entry: **Originally written at 2am 5/9/08 and not posted until 3 due to my last post still being on the front page. I wanted to give the other one space, but nuts, I want to post this one too. I hope that this one still stands a chance of being featured. Thanks for reading everyone. ;) Ever since the midnight rantings of my last post my mind’s been going crazy debating on what subject to cover next- Oona, Queen or Painter’s Servant? Enchanted Scorn or wait ‘til draft on Friday? Lo and behold, I’m typing up what is another midnight rant and chose none of the above. I am at the same time nervous and excited because it is awesome to finally have a reason again to use the computer other than looking up cards, values, e-mail, or mapquest, so I didn’t want to mess things up. This is because Magic has become more than a game, it is transcending those boundaries and becoming an entity… a storm entity… A passion really. One that can be personified in this first deck I am going to cover which I fondly call Grinning Storm. Grinning Storm was just inches away from being another RDW until just this last Tuesday when it’s main combo presented itself in front of me. This deck is very different from RDW in that it’s beefy; it has combos and big fatty juicy creatures to spit out at your opponent like chewing tobacco in some western movie. Because of this, it’s name was almost “POW” which stands for… Power Often Wins . This deck has power, and the use of the word “often” seemed a little less arrogant than the finality of “Red Deck Wins”. But hey, that name didn’t make it to the presses, so further back story can be forgotten. With that said, let it be known that this deck is intended for beating face by upping your storm count. Why in elementals though? Because of that great card, Storm Entity. Just thinking about it makes me wonder what else will be in the set that card will make it’s appearance in… Now what I intend to do is display the decklist in order of how it should be played. The key components are all in playsets because I am a believer in consistency- also this deck is not intended for burn, however it could be if you wanted to throw in Grapeshot or some other awesome burn spell with mana cost X. 4x Manaforge Cinder 4x Brighthearth Banneret 4x Grinning Ignus 4x Storm Entity 4x Flamekin Harbinger Did you catch it yet? Well, in case you did, what follows are ways to spend all of your excess mana or even to help you explode more. 3x Ceaseless Searblades 4x Bogardan Hellkite (now what’s going on here?) 3x Dragonstorm (makes sense now, right?) 4x Grapeshot 3x Lotus Bloom 3x Rite of Flame Incandescent Soulstoke is unfortunately cut for now, further testing may warrant its reinstatement however its tap ability just was not getting used. +1/+1 is nice, but using that ability back in the Lorwyn days of my elementals was King. Nova Chaser and Smokebraider also did not make the cut merely because they were remnants of the old deck and weren’t keeping up with the new themes. Sorry guys, I still love you- especially you Chaser! Perhaps I will see you again in the r/b elementals with Kulrath Knight and Everlasting Torment. As for lands- I could care less. This is a straight red deck that you can run any sort of trickery you fancy with mountains. You can either abide by KISS (Keep It Simple, Stupid) or you can toss in Dark Depths from Cold Snap as another good outlet for your mana. As for me- two Dark Depths and I’m golden. Now here’s the breakdown of how this deck works from the ground up. It is elementals, so obviously it is cheap and can survive off of only two lands if it has to. Harbinger always searches for what you need so if you don’t have enough- then search! But "Search for what?" I hear you asking… Turn one: play a land and Manaforger, assuming you do not need to harbinge for anything. Turn two: another land, Banneret. (If you Rite of Flame here, you may play the second Banneret) Turn three: land- and this is possibly the last land you really need- and then play a second Manaforger and a Grinning Ignus. Turn four: By now you can play anything you like. The basic idea is to utilize Bannerets by making Grinning Ignus a one red-drop creature that bounces back for one red to add one red and two of anything to your mana pool. He plays himself back, and you have two colorless floating. Do this again and again, do the math, and you increase your storm count. If you run out of land then start using Manaforger’s ability to filter through the colorless mana you have floating thereby making your Grapeshot incredibly powerful or a Dragonstorm scary (for which if you really intend on using properly you need more dragons in the deck) and a Storm Entity huge. And on a side note: if you have Ceaseless Searblades while all this is going on, every time you bounce Ignus and filter mana through the forger your Searblades will also become bigger. Now yes, this is complicated and yes, there may be mana burn, but as long as you can follow up with the combo and play it wisely there is nothing to worry about, Dark Depths can make this an easy feat. Just manage your mana well and if the game goes on long enough you too can have your very own 20/20 indestructible flyer within as little as three turns. True, this does require a good number of cards, but even with just one Banneret, a Forger, and the Ignus, you can still up your storm count to make your other spells that much more impressive. Assuming you decided to run it, if you Lotus Bloomed on turn one it comes into play turn four adding one to the count, and if you saved a rite until now that’s another one, and eventually you may still have a Grapeshot worth casting. As for sideboard there’s Door of Destinies (oh come on, you didn’t think I wouldn’t put that card in what with Grinning Ignus constantly bouncing around) and Vexing Shusher. Doors is more of a card I would like to playtest with but that is generally what my sideboards are- cards that I will eventually play with that sound like a good idea for the deck. Other good ideas include any beefy elementals that I can easily cast because of Primal Beyond or Smokebraider if she is ever re-added. Lastly- If you really wanted to , you could throw in any big red creature that would be surprisingly easy to hardcast. Hellkite can be hardcast no prob, same with the unexpected Gargadon, which is almost never hardcast, only comboed with and suspended. Imagine the look on their face when that comes into play from your hand! Whatever you do with this crazy elemental combo, keep a paper and pen ready to count up all your colorless floating mana, your spell count, and possibly even your activated ability count for Searblades. Just be careful about Forger, because each one can only grant your wish three times each turn. Playtesting to come in a future blog… **Afterthought- Freaking Wizards! They just posted what I intended on blogging about in the future. The lid has officially been blown off of Painter’s Servant and the Enchanted Scorn deck (separately of course) beyond just tcgplayer. This is why I shouldn’t wait to post what I have already been thinking about, which can unfortunately be said about five different topics– because someone else is bound to think of it too. Nevertheless- my own Scorn deck has been built and saw lots of play today and so hopefully next time I post there will be results of both decks to talk about. Until next time, fell free to message me.
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