So after a two-year stint of not playing, I'm thinking of running a Storm deck, mostly because I love the archetype and have most of the pieces. And though WotC banned my beloved Gitaxian Probe, making decision making a bit more difficult, and nerfing a lot of draw power, I think this new-school Storm is still perfectly playable, and has some advantages that weren't around last I played the deck.
Namely, Baral, Chief of Compliance is a pretty big deal. Effectively giving the deck extra copies of Goblin Electromancer, this means considerably improved consistency and resiliency. He's even got a slightly bigger butt, is easier to cast, and has a nice little advantage thrown in for when we're running counterspells.
It also seems that it's now vogue to run Gifts Ungiven, which I think is great, as I was running Gifts in weird Storm builds back when. Baral makes it a lot easier to rely on a 4-drop. Gifts' synergy with Past in Flames has always made the pair incredibly potent. And Gifts gives you the option of tutoring answers to your opponent's deck.
So overall, the deck may have lost some speed, and I think this version is maybe even better for a pilot who understands that the deck can do more than just race. But it is definitely still capable of turn 3 wins.
Anyway, I think my list is pretty standard from what I've seen floating around, apart from the lack of fetchlands (I sold mine). I think the land base works okay enough for now.
A few notes and open questions:
My sideboard choices might seem weird, but I'm coming back and have no idea what the local meta looks like, so I went with very broad-reaching spells. I also included several one-ofs and Noxious Revival, to facilitate using Gifts to grab a package that looks like Answer v1, Answer v2, Noxious Rev., PiF.
The weirder card I'm considering on my sideboard is certainly Invasive Surgery. I want to experiment using this against decks that pack a lot of Thoughtseize and Inquisition of Kozilek. I can hopefully borrow some fetchlands in order to make this work. Those slots could easily turn into Spell Pierce or something else entirely.
Cards I've been considering include Crumble to Dust (but is Tron really a big problem?), Thing in the Ice
(I keep seeing this in Storm sideboards - but when does it win where Empty the Warrens doesn't?). Is the bounce effect the important bit? Should I drop a wrath for it in that case? The deck that I don't have a great solution for is Burn. Yes, I could board 2X Leyline of Sanctity for Burn and hand disruption - but I really hate having a 2-of card that's pretty much dead if it isn't in my opening hand. I also prefer the bounce spells to straight up enchantment removal. It's also worth noting that I don't have any copies of Blood Moon and probably don't want to buy any for now.
Feedback and comments appreciated.
