TEPS or The Extended Perfect Storm

TEPS is an upcoming deck that recently surfaced at Worlds 2006.

It is a varient of Ritual Desire, but it has since evolved. i.e. saying TEPS is Ritual Desire is like saying Aggro Loam is CAL - They are quite different animals.

Why am I interested in TEPS?

Well i always like new competitive decks =)

Also one of the creators is Singaporean.

Also it abuses the Lotus Bloom =P

Will post more on it later, but you can find it at mtgsalvation.com under the extended competitive forums.

Note that the Sally thread is locked.

Current TEPS thread

here

Also at the moment the old threads seem to be gone which is a shame cause, now you can not longer see the old posts.

I found the archives!!

The current thread is alright but alot of rehash.


My list is the same as the one found in this thread


Oh my first welcome into the thread was here, thanks Nim! =D



++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 070124


The internet has'nt changed, and you meet some of the most anal people out there =)

Seriously.


Even when they have utterly lost the argument.

They go on.


and on.





and on.


Oh bother.


But I have become more understanding towards some people as I understand some of them may be suffering from something. An article on mtgsalvation enlightened me to that.

Thank God for that article or I would really have a very dim view of the human race.



As it is I am relatively easy going with anal people.



yah.




Now back on topic....



I still like the version by d.phoenixxxx best.

And the serum visions have been grand


// Deck file for Magic Workstation (http://www.magicworkstation.com)
// NAME: TEPS(S) from MTGSalvation.com

// Lands
4 [IN] Ancient Spring
4 [IN] Sulfur Vent
4 [TS] Gemstone Mine
3 [8E] City of Brass

// Spells
4 [TS] Lotus Bloom
4 [MR] Chrome Mox
4 [TS] Chromatic Star
4 [CS] Rite of Flame
4 [JU] Burning Wish
4 [TO] Cabal Ritual
4 [9E] Seething Song
2 [FD] Channel the Suns
1 [SC] Tendrils of Agony
3 [RAV] Sins of the Past
3 [SC] Mind's Desire
3 [DIS] Infernal Tutor
4 [FD] Serum Visions
1 [FD] Plunge into Darkness




Now the tops and serum visions argument.



Tops allows some nice tricks mid to late game (or when you are already winning).

But you need 2 tops to do the trick.

In any other situation it is poorer than serum visions.

Why?

Serum visions allows you to mess with your draw.

You hate bloom on your second turn, you hate land when you desire. You need to reorder the sequence of dropping your tapped lands.


Serum cures your headaches ;P


aside from that tops only allows you to dig and reorder up to 3

While serum shaves off 3 and diggs deeper.

Call it a cumulative effect ;)

2 top can digg?

You got it 3. And no draw at that. Oh unless you are talking about them tricks. Later.

2 serums?

up to 6 baby!

And so on.



Now the thing is if you are going mid to late game, go tops.

If you are trying to go off asap.

Serum lets you do that and do that safely!!


Whats there not to like?

I shall later post about varients of this deck, as well as my own tweaks.



[edit: 070127]

am beginning to think that I should use a template when thinking about TEPS .

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
cards I want in my opening hand


cards I want to flip with desire


cards in the board and why


What is my objective?


Is this card a win more?


Is this card an enabler? Why?
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++


Reason being, I have tried to use Wheel of Fate in the deck... and it was'nt too bad... but it was win more... also it exposes you to your opponent as he is able to benefit too as WOF is symmetrical. So to make it Assymetrical, I need gigadrowse. But that necessitates the need to stuff a card into an already dense and running perfectly fine deck.


Then it hit me. Dang. It deserves its own deck. Sighs.... So I quit tryin' to stuff the WOF in the deck, but then what to do with the Fury Charm??

also in the threads, there have been talk of replacing Blooms with Simian Spirit Guide. I think its awful, but the player claims it is now faster with more possible turn 3, but less consistence or resilence against disruption.

Then there are proponents of duress MD.

Most recently I believe it was Karsten or flores, then said, quite rightly, that by the time you are casting the duress, you have set yourself 1 card down.

Of course this was already stated in the older thread



...AGAIN. AND...




AGAIN.



AND [getting predictable and tired huh? Thats how I felt too in that thread] AGAIN.


sighz...



Only in a control dense meta should you EVER use duress main.

More ANALytical people will disagree of course, but lets leave people who can only, agree with and talk to, themselves in their own worlds and continue on.


Oh yeah so I looked at Null Profusion.

This was immediately shot down of course in that thread fulla egomaniacs =)

Though I guess it was shot down rightly, though with little to no substantiation.

I tried it out.


So I think I have beginner's luck, cos i lucked out and pulled off a combo like fourth turn.

And the NP was imppressive.

But on subsequent runs it was average.

And it got me thinking. As we test the cards, we really should be very clear on our objectives.

So many arguments were ignorant and baseless. Simply because they had no frame (willingly or no) with which to base their thoughts.

For example, land count in TEPS.


The one d.phoenixxx runs has less than your usual. Dangerously less some say. But why? If you played TEPS enough. You'd know that lands are your absolute BANE when desiring. Which is why early serums are important. Brainstorms are good as they allow you to put cards in hand into the deck (no, Tops does not do this). Unfortunately thast is not present in extended. Serum visions allow you to precognition them. Hmmm literally.

I am deviating to much. ... back on topic.

So you have to consider the deck as a whole. The synergies, the why. etc. Not on a card by card basis like so many in threads have done.

Why?

Cos whether the card can be supported or whether the card adds to the deck will affect all other cards.

Ritual Desire (I am using this generically) is special in that, since the idea is just a bunch of rituals (that hardly makes a deck by the way, hence the stupidity of the name), the kill and synergy becomes rather fluid.

The kill by wheels deck I am thinking of will likely utilise the same idea. Heartbeat can also use the desire engine DUH!


grrr...

Null profusion turn out alright, but the thing is this. The real limit of null propulsion is "mana available". And running it I realised that cards like Channel the Suns suddenly become crucial/very good as opposed to being the target of "cards I am gonna cut first if i wanna stuff something new in".

Wheel was very attractive as it allowed me to dump useless "draws" (lands blooms), NP is very attractive as it makes your storm even more dangerous, but it also makes drawing out your library even a more imminent risk. As such. Is it worth it.

Upon thinking, it felt like "win more", rather than "help you win" or "win now". It does have some "help you win" aspects, as such I am still testing it.

Later. - 343 pm 070127