Can you provide a link?

With the spoiling of Blightsteel this card might be a bit better than we think.

Both Hurkyll's and Tinker/Bot can be pitched to FoW

I'm not quite sure if Jace or Gifts is better for a Storm build with ETW and Tendrils...

Vault/Key is something I'm thinking about. It may replace the 1 Jace in my deck; it makes Gifts a lot better so I wouldn't cut Gifts for it as you can Gifts for Vault, Key, Will, Regrowth or something stupid like that.

However, I think a better Vault/Key shell would look a lot different than my current build.

I find EtW and Tendrils to be more resilient win conditions than Vault/Key, and they play naturally into the Gush game plan; to resolve Fastbond and generate CA and mana with Gush, topping things off with Yawgmoth's Will. At that point, as Steven Menendian would say, Tendrils is a finishing touch.

EtW also provides a strong early-game ploy that can be accomplished relatively easily with a bounce spell and artifact mana; 2 moxes + repeal/hurkyll's + 2 lands = ETW for 10-12 tokens on turn 2. It's also an increasingly potent play in an environment where Gush and Bob are the main engines in blue decks.

I think I'll have to try it out and see merits. If Twister is worth including, is Wheel of Fortune as well?

Twister + Fastbond seems like an excellent synergy, as it lets you play all those mana sources and then get a new hand, which is the traditional use of Twister in a storm deck.

Here's what my current build looks like:

6 Blue Fetches
3 Volcanic Island
3 Underground Sea
1 Tropical Island
2 Island
5 Moxen
1 Sol Ring
1 Mana Crypt
1 Black Lotus

1 Tendrils
1 ETW
1 Regrowth
1 Yawg Will
1 Time Walk
1 Fastbond

1 Jace
1 Gifts
1 Brainstorm
1 Ponder
2 Preordain
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Merchant Scroll
4 Gush

4 FoW
3 Mana Drain
3 Spell Pierce
1 Lightning Bolt
1 Ancient Grudge
2 Hurkyll's Recall
2 Repeal

I dislike twister because it has terrible synergy with Gush; returning a bunch of lands to your hand while shuffling them back into the deck. IIRC, Twister was supposed to take advantage of mana advantage - you spend your hand getting plenty of mana, then you refill your hand after playing it all out.

There is no vaultkey in my maindeck. I would rather have Lotus Petal or disruption, if there was no MD robot/

Seems interesting. I might sideboard it out in the Storm, Tezz, and Mirror matchups for cards like Pyroblast and probably Duress. The question is, what percentage of the metagame are those decks? I might just change it based on scouting

This is my list right now. Not sure how good it is, and I have yet to come up with a sideboard.

Mana Sources
4 Scalding Tarn
3 Polluted Delta
2 Island
3 Volc
2 U. Sea
1 Tolarian Academy
1 Trop
5 Moxen
1 Crypt
1 B. Lotus

Broken Things/Win Conditions

1 Inkwell Leviathan
1 Time Walk
1 Regrowth
1 Tinker
1 Yawgmoth's Will
1 Empty the Warrens
1 Tendrils of Agony
1 Fastbond

Draw/Tutor

4 Gush
2 Preordain
1 Brainstorm
1 Ponder
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Merchant Scroll
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor

Control Elements

2 Lightning Bolt
3 Spell Pierce
2 Mana Drain
4 Force of Will
2 Repeal
2 Hurkyll's Recall


Things I like:

1. Storm Engine, with ETW, 2 Hurkyll's, 2 Repeal, and Tendrils. Excellent with the Gush engine, and playing 2 MD Hurkyll's really improves the Gush MU.
2. 22 permanent mana sources + 2 Preordain. I considered Lotus petal as well, due to the prominent Storm them, but I'm not sure what would go.
3. Lightning Bolt. 1-mana answer to Hatebears, Golems, Bobs, and Jaces on the board.

Main points to consider:

1. Is Tinker worth it, or will it and/or Inky just be dead while Gushing?
2. Is 2 Lightning Bolt too many? Is fire/ice better?
3. Should I cut Gifts (and maybe something else) to include Jace?
4. What should the sideboard be like? Likely candidates include:

Leyline of the Void
Ingot Chewer
Rack and Ruin
Red Blasts
Nature's Claim
Duress
Tormod's Crypt
Ancient Grudge
Pyroclasm

4 Thoughtseize still seems a little too many, and I'm inclined to have a couple Duress instead. I may go -1 Duress, -2 Drain, +3 Pierce in my own list; that seems reasonable. But drawing Spell Pierce while you're Gushing seems a bit worse than drawing Duress, as the latter is proactive and pumps Dryad on your own turn.

I'll stand by Bolt; there's better cards against Shops, but it's sick in a bunch of matchups, and is really efficient.

Steve, I've been trying out 2 maindeck copies of Lightning Bolt in my testing with GAT now. They've done wonders against both Jace Vault decks, picking off Bobs and Jaces for only 1 mana; and they are, for obvious reasons, a strong tool against Fish/Beats.

Question: how good was Spell Pierce for you? I've been trying 4 Duress, 3 Seize, 4 Force, 2 Drain for discard/countermagic, with 1 Hurkyll's and 1 Nature's Claim MD for artifacts; it seems fine so far, and you've said that Spell Pierce wasn't that amazing in the 'Grow' deck you showcased in a recent article (at least, when you wrote about it around a year ago, post-Zendikar). Mana Drain has seemed like filler to me; Pierce might do the job better there, but I find myself using most or all of my mana in the early turns, playing discard and Preordains.

Also, I've been trying a single Empty the Warrens, and it's been okay, a strong surprise tactic.

Now considering adjusting my list a bit, cutting a Bolt for a Predator...

Agreed. Null Rod just seems inferior to targeted answers like Nature's Claim nowadays, which also removes Oath (something very important for a creature deck like this one). People also are cutting down on artifact mana; many lists have cut Mana Vault; some omit Mana Crypt as well.

Suppression Field seems like it could just be completely dead a lot more times than Arbiter, which is a 2/2 beater.

I would try something like this:

4 Dark Confidant
4 Qasali Pridemage
4 Leonin Arbiter
4 Tidehollow Sculler
3 Tarmogoyf
3 Gaddock Teeg
3 Jotun Grunt/Kataki

4 Swords to Plowshares
4 Thoughtseize
3 Nature's Claim

1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Lotus Petal
5 Fetchlands
3 Scrubland
3 Savannah
3 Bayou
4 Wasteland
1 Strip Mine

Yesm fetches are asynergistic with the Arbiters, but are essential to mana fixing.

I cut the TFK for a Welder, TFK seems somewhat underwhelming when stacked up against Jace and Gifts.

This deck seems like it could use Lotus Cobra nicely, pumping out bombs very quickly, such as Jace. Cobra also fixes mana, and lets you play Necropotence.

7 Blue Fetches
2 Tropical Island
1 Volcanic Island
2 Underground Sea
1 Bayou
2 City of Brass
5 Moxen
1 Black Lotus
1 Mana Crypt
1 Sol Ring
1 Lotus Petal

4 Lotus Cobra
1 Inkwell Leviathan
3 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
1 Tinker
2 Voltaic Key
1 Time Vault
1 Lightning Bolt
2 Nature's Claim
1 Misdirection/Hurkyll's Recall
1 Goblin Welder

4 Force of Will
1 Brainstorm
1 Ponder
1 Wheel of Fortune
1 Windfall
1 Memory Jar
1 Necropotence
1 Regrowth
1 Time Walk
1 Yawgmoth's Will
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Merchant Scroll
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Gifts Ungiven

This deck is like Long, in that it just drops bombs and hopes that one sticks. Force of Will should generally be an offensive weapon in this deck.

Been running some tests against Snake City Vault with this:

6 blue fetch
3 U. Sea
3 Tropical Island
1 Volcanic Island
1 Island
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Black Lotus

4 Quirion Dryad
1 Empty the Warrens

2 Lightning Bolt
1 Nature's Claim
1 Hurkyll's Recall
4 Gush
4 Preordain
1 Brainstorm
1 Ponder
1 Regrowth
1 Merchant Scroll
1 Vamp
1 DT
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Fastbond
1 Timewalk
1 Ancestral
1 Yawg Will
4 Force of Will
4 Duress
3 Thoughtseize
2 Mana Drain

Not totally sure about ETW; I've only used it once (it won rather quickly). It certainly makes GushBond a lot stronger when you don't have Dryad out. You can also use Hurkyll's to fire off a good-sized Warrens.

I've run some test games against Snake City Vault, and the results were very positive. In general, the Vault deck didn't have enough stuff to overcome the disuption; it needed a quick Bob or Jace to start generating card advantage, and for Gro to not have an answer (Force, Bolt). Otherwise, the Gro Deck be able to pluck the Vault deck of all relevant cards, maybe taking a few beats, and overwhelm with card advantage; setting up GushBond or just hammering away with a Dryad.

-Mana Drain is solid. Nothing special, but this deck doesn't really need Pierce, doesn't fit the best either. You want hard counters to back up Dryad
-Preordain is great, definitely play 4
-Lightning Bolt is solid. Having 13 0-1 tools against Jace is great. Killing early Bobs is strong, too; it also grows Dryad and can finish the opponent off. With increasing reliance on Bob and Jace for card advantage, cutting these off is extremely important.
-Regrowth is great

Problems I have with Cobra:

-The historical strength of Gush decks was that they could operate well on low mana, and had virtual card advantage by running more nonmana spells. Cobra not only doesn't do much on his own, and is a poor topdeck, but he requires you to play 23-24 mana sources to support him, including a minimum of 7-8 fetches.
-You have to play expensive spells to make him worthwhile; while recovering from Gush is good, the point of Gro is that you don't need much mana to cast your spells anyway
-With Fastbond, Cobra becomes somewhat win-more; since you just keep drawing cheap spells, you don't get much out of the extra mana

Duress.

1. Stops Jace
2. Stops Oath
3. Stops Artifacts
4. Stops Yawg Win

I'm starting to believe that, and Menendian's Old Gro deck seems to indicate this. Maybe a fourth Duress, and a Misdirection or two.

I see - though I think it merits discussion.

Jace + Gush = Nonbo.

In fact, can't you just get infi mana, get Yawg's will and replay them with this combo anyways? Seems better than Brain Freeze and whatnot, as it's a fine combo on its own.

Not just FoW, but Spell Pierce, Duress, and Thoughtseize all.

Your disruption and counterspells cost 1 or 0 mana - you don't need a lot to deploy them. Lotus Cobra is best when powering out things like Jace - which GAT runs away from.

EDIT:

Testing vs. Snake City Vault, results so far:

1. Regrowth is awesome.
2. Tinker/VaultKey/Inky is not impressing me.
3. Quirion Dryad is insane, and having Tarmogoyfs as well is really good.

So,
-1 Tinker
-1 Inky
-1 Vault
-1 Key
+1 Duress
+1 Pierce
+2 ???

If I understand correctly, in Vintage threats tend to be rather small in number, and are thus dealt with by a limited number of answers. The exceptions tend to be Fish and Workshops - in workshops, while most of their cards aren't threats per se, they threaten a lock quickly if you don't stop them - and fish hatebears beat down.

Answers, thus, tend to be either massively devastating or highly efficient. Energy Flux and Perish fall into the former category; Force of Will and Nature's Claim, the latter. Non-counterspell answers tend to be inferior, because of the presence of Ancestral Recall and Yawgmoth's Will, which obviously can't be stopped by a Lightning Bolt. And even devastating answers must be able to be deployed on a short notice.

Also, given the mass tutoring and draw power of Vintage decks, the specific and non-counterspell answers tend to be played in somewhat small amounts; the exception being graveyard hate, which is boarded in en masse due to the need to stop dredge quickly.

For example, one could argue that the old Slaver players should've brought in more Tormod's Crypts against each other. It would shut down the recursion of massive artifacts very quickly, and also cut off Yawgmoth's Will. But they didn't do this - most would have one Crypt maindeck, or side one in - because you only need one to shut down the opponent at a critical moment.

Against a deck like TPS, boarding graveyard hate is justifiable, because while they don't need Will to tendrils you out, it severely limits their options, as most of the time the path to victory is Engine > Will > Tendrils.

The historical merits of Gro included that it had a higher business spell count, compared with Drains that run 24-25 mana sources. I'd rather side in one or two more lands, rather than lose this edge against many other decks.

Updated List, with corrected post.

Apologies, I was on short notice and had to get back to class, I could not offer an explanation.

3 Polluted Delta
3 Scalding Tarn
3 Underground Sea
3 Tropical Island
1 Volcanic Island
1 Island
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Emerald
1 Black Lotus

3 Quirion Dryad
2 Tarmogoyf
1 Inkwell Leviathan
1 Voltaic Key
1 Time Vault
1 Tinker

4 Gush
4 Preordain
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Brainstorm
1 Ponder
1 Merchant Scroll
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Yawgmoth's Will
1 Fastbond
1 Lightning Bolt
1 Nature's Claim
4 Force of Will
3 Spell Pierce
2 Duress
3 Thoughtseize
1 Time Walk

General Features
1. Tinker/VaultKey/Leviathan. Tinker is a huge trump card against most decks; with slower Trygon Tezz decks now the norm, Leviathan is comparatively more effective. It trumps Jace. VaultKey, I feel, is superior to Storm in this deck because it is not as consistent of a broken deck as previous iterations have been.
Red - Having red is an advantage for several reasons, IMO.

1. Access to lightning bolt. While it probably won't be good against other Gush decks, killing Mind Sculptor, Bob, Cobra, Lodestone, Trygon, and other random creatures. I play one in the main here, and would probably sideboard one more.
2. Access to Red Blasts, a clear advantage in Blue mirrors
3. Potential access to Rack and Ruin - I'm not sure about this one, it may be too slow - but it's a devastating bomb against MUD. I would sideboard in 1 more Volcanic Island against MUD and Fish, to help against Wasteland.

The sacrifice in the manabase isn't much, as your manabase is already light. The slots that are cut would have been basics which, while valuable to have, are not an advantage against most blue decks.

Questions

1. What should be in the sideboard? I think 4 Leylines and 1 Nature's claim at least, but more things would definitely go in. What should they be?
2. Regrowth. Is it worth it, over another Duress?
3. Mystical Tutor. Again, would be a nice inclusion, but what to cut?

3 Polluted Delta
3 Misty Rainforest
3 Underground Sea
2 Tropical Island
2 Volcanic Island
1 Island
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Emerald
1 Black Lotus

3 Quirion Dryad
2 Tarmogoyf
1 Inkwell Leviathan
1 Voltaic Key
1 Time Vault
1 Tinker

4 Gush
4 Preordain
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Brainstorm
1 Ponder
1 Merchant Scroll
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Yawgmoth's Will
1 Fastbond
1 Lightning Bolt
1 Nature's Claim
4 Force of Will
4 Spell Pierce
3 Duress
2 Thoughtseize
1 Regrowth


Since someone was just told not to post decklists standing alone, and you did just that, I'm going to give you a verbal warning.  Please explain your card choices, plan for the deck, desired feedback, or some reason why this decklist was posted.  -DA

I was thinking about that, but really it's inferior unless you have Red Blasts or something to go with it.

Imperial Recruiter, while featuring a hefty pricetag, can be worked in within 15 proxy limits well, and 10 proxy limits on low mox counts, or just not playing many of them.

Strengths:
-Tutors up any hatebear/disruption creature in your deck
-1/1 body (not much, but not to be disregarded)
-One colored mana (good with moxen)

Weaknesses
-Little immediate board impact
-3 mana
-Requires red

Discuss.

Do this more, this is awesome!