Hello faithful listeners of The Brainstorm Show! Apologies for the extended hiatus while we got back into the recording booth. In this episode we take on a bunch of questions that were generated from the Facebook community we have been building. Check us out at The Brainstorm Show Community Board.
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Special thanks to all the listeners who generated fun topics for us to discuss. We hope you enjoy!
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re: grinding station storm.
to be blunt, i don’t think you all are giving enough respect to or understanding of grinding station.
for example, at ~00:41:10 wilson says “that guy had to have, what, his one top in play and find the flusterstorm on top of his deck because you have to be hellbent to be going off with infernal tutor.” this doesn’t mean anything since grinding station is going (at a minimum) -4 led, -4 infernal tutor against miracles. also, most grinding station lists have 2 tops in their 75. at 00:41:17 wilson correctly notes that “… you could also do the raw-dog tendrils plan with the grinding station stuff and then also happen to have the flusterstorm as the last card in your hand. you just sorta have to set up waaay too many things…” which i agree with (and so i also agree that flusterstorm isn’t very good). but with 2 tops, 3 tendrils, and 0 infernal tutor in the post-sideboard 60, i have a feeling that grinding station vs miracles plays out a bit differently than you all think it does (the grinding station plan is actually fairly consistent because you have such a high density of good cards). so i’d say you should practice some of these games before making such judgements about the deck. in my opinion, grinding station is _favored_ vs miracles. and so with eldrazi not being popular these days and all these miracles and slow bug lists being popular, i think grinding station is an interesting metagame choice that deserves consideration.
I generally agree with some things you are saying, but my pushback is that I have a lot of experience playing Grinding Station-style Storm builds and sleeved it up at large competitive events way before it was popular. I was the first or one of the first players to place highly at a large event with multiple Past in Flames main as well. I personally never cut the tutors and LEDs when I was on that plan, but I know that there is a contingent of players that appears to do that.
Grinding Station Storm is a complex topic, but very generally I can tell you that it has been a bit dated from Miracles players playing actual efficient win conditions like Mentors. I never have trouble beating them with Miracles because they take forever to set up, and I simply get aggressive and don’t let them dictate the slog.