August marks ten years of The EPIC Storm, I’m beginning to feel a little reminiscent of the last ten years. Right about now is when I began working on combo archetypes before landing on TES over the summer. Below you will find some of my favorite The EPIC Storm memories! They’re in no specific order. Anything in a block-quote was taken from old tournament reports, I provided links to video coverage when available. Enjoy!

Oh, how the deck has changed.

Grapeshot on Camera

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From the moment I started playing in Star City Games events my long-time friend Mike Edinger stated that I needed to, “Grapeshot some mother fucker in the face”.

His words, not mine. Mike, I certainly made you proud and let’s be honest, I kind of wanted to do it too. Grapeshot is my favorite magic cards and killing people with it feels way better and more demeaning than killing anyone with a Tendrils of Agony. What made this specific scenario of using the Grapeshot even better was that I did it while winning a Star City Games open. While these recollections are not in any order, this is certainly one of my two favorite memories.

Turn 1 – Silence, Kill You

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While this is certainly awesome, it’s not as significant as the others in my opinion. That said, I included it based on how rare the situation actually happened. With Silence being an “off-color” disruption element, you could not cast it off of Dark Ritual or Rite of Flame. Meaning that playing Silence on the first turn AND THEN killing the opponent almost never occurred. This recorded match is essentially a TES unicorn anomaly and pretty freakin’ sweet.

Tight Play!

The reason this is so memorable to me is the ability to read the situation paired with knowledge of ever-changing decklists. Plus, I totally got to use Dark Petition in my first big event with it!

Dark Petition

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Same event in the very next round, I got to use Dark Petition on camera to close out another match. This time against Dylan Donegan! In our first time meeting, he denied me of a top 8 in Baltimore. This time I get revenge, even with Dig Through Time on his side.

TES Mirror Match

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Royce is a good friend of mine, not only magically but in life. Which made playing against him at 5-0 a little bittersweet. It’s not too often TES get’s a mirror match where both players are undefeated, yet alone on camera.

After the match we went over to the coverage booth to see how the twitter feed (before Star City Games used twitch) reacted to the match. We received a “Good, good. But Royce, You should at least cut his deck.” As if I planted the Ad Nauseam there. I went back and rewatched, I shuffle for over a minute before Royce shuffles.

We still laugh about the comment to this day.

Defeating Reid

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This match’s significance isn’t really based on the games played (They weren’t incredibly interesting) but on the opponent. I’ve played against a lot of high-level players, none of which have the skills Reid does. He’s probably the best player I’ve ever played (and in this scenario, beaten) and a great person as well. He’s truly what everyone says about him.

GP: Columbus 2010

The true power of Grapeshot and my first (and only, let’s be honest) Grand Prix top 8 berth. That said, I was probably a little harsh on Ari in my report. Since then I’ve worked with him on storm/TES and he’s not that bad of a guy.

Nihil Spellbomb

Some time, years ago, I made a joke about how I don’t lose to decks that play Forests. Mike Keller went out of his way to then make a mono-green prison deck with Chalice of the Void, Trinisphere among other hate pieces that won with Natural Order into Terastodon or Progenitus. I lost. Michael Caffrey enjoyed reminding me on a regular basis that I lost to a “green” deck. I was going to Grapeshot him, I was going to Grapeshot him hard.

Many Grapeshots were had in game three. What I left out of the report was that Mr. Caffrey and I both savagely misplayed. During the “I showboat for a very long time, probably about ten minutes, and Grapeshot him for 35-40″ I had played a Past in Flames not realizing that Michael had a Nihil Spellbomb on the board – it was off to the side of the table. Fortunate for me, he forgot as well. After I was done knocking him out of top 8, a spectator came by and said, “Unless I’m missing something, you two realize there was a Nihil Spellbomb in play. Right?” Our reactions were not the same. Mine was immediate laughter.

I might not be able to beat Forests, but I can beat Michael Caffrey.

Lucky Abeyance

A match against Anwar Ahmad (For those of you who don’t know, Anwar had a huge influence on Legacy in it’s early days. He was a writer for Star City Games as well as a fantastic deck builder.), when he was piloting a creation of his – Permanent Waves (PW). You can probably guess the archetype based on the deck name. For those of you who aren’t very clever, it’s a sorcery speed High Tide deck. At the time, all of the High Tide decks were instant speed and based on the card Reset (Made popular by David Gearhart).

I don’t think I’ll ever forget the match, even if I don’t remember all of the details. It was at The Mana Leak Open 3, I had won my first big event at the previous series and was anxious with excitement. That said, it’s safe to say that I was a little disappointed when I just missed top 8. In the middle of the event, I was paired against the Legacy guru in the middle of the event. It’s game three, Anwar has a second turn Merchant Scroll for Force of Will. I don’t remember many of the other turns of the match, but I do remember the combo turn. I played multiple Orim’s Chant into Anwar’s Force of Will(s), none of which resolved. What did resolve was my Dark Ritual and Rite of Flame into Diminishing Returns (I don’t exactly remember what mana I had floating). I “remove the top 10 cards of my library from the game” because I certainly couldn’t “Exile” them in 2007-2008 and then draw seven.

At this point there’s several spectators including my friend and teammate, Adam Barnello. I peel each card slowly and I realize that my hand comes just short, I had an Infernal Tutor, a few Abeyance, Lotus Petal, a few more Rituals but couldn’t win the game due to the inability to become hellbent. I realize that the game is lost (I imagine that Anwar would kill me on his turn), but the only way I could win is if the top card of my deck is Lion’s Eye Diamond AND Abeyance resolves. I Dark Ritual, play Lotus Petal and cast Abeyance. It resolves… I draw. It’s Lion’s Eye Diamond! I couldn’t believe it and was in disarray. Probably from Adam Barnello shaking me from behind, I’m fairly certain he was more excited for that draw than I was.

The game ended with a Tendrils of Agony and a handshake. Even in a ridiculous situation and in loss, Anwar was a great sport.

One Match. One Lotus.

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Back in 2012 I was in points race with Eli Kassis for Jupiter Games’ Player of the Year. We were neck-and-neck (I was a few points ahead) going into the last event of the season. We played each other twice, which means I had two opportunities to deny him a Black Lotus in one event. I fell victim to bad luck in one round and a play mistake in another.

I would do it all over again and not take a prize split. The thrill of playing one match for $1400 (At the time the beat white-border Black Lotus was $800 and the prize for first was $600) was exhilarating. The rush, intensity and adrenaline of playing a match like that felt like none-other. Each play was more important than the last. Playing this match has certainly helped me in other high-stress big events, experience is key. Sometimes you need to fail once to succeed many times.

My only regret was not playing tighter and not seeing the Intuition line in game two.

First Turn Griselbrand

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Probably my favorite memory. Todd Anderson and I were in a tight match at Star City Games: Baltimore, the winner was likely to make Top 8! (SPOILER: I had bad tiebreakers, had to play against Dylan Donegan and lost.) The first two games were blow outs on each side with the third game being insane. I have a turn one Ponder, Todd decides to play a turn one Griselbrand (I put a land into play) and then dies.

Todd activates Griselbrand (going to 13 life), discards and passes. I start off with Lotus Petal (Storm 1) and Cabal Therapy (Storm 2) (Naming Force of Will and hit).

Dark Ritual (Storm 3 – BBB) and Duress (Storm 4 – BB).

Lion’s Eye Diamond (Storm 5 – BB) and (using Lotus Petal and breaking Lion’s Eye Diamond) Burning Wish (Storm 6 – BBBB).

Todd and I shake hands, then he forces me to show him the Tendrils of Agony after my suspicious sigh of relief. It was an incredible match and one of the few times I’ve won with a Griselbrand on the table.

After rewatching videos and reading old tournament reports my one lasting thought is, “Why the hell am I not playing Grapeshot anymore?”