RGW Storm Seeker

[stripezero]

This is a green deck that uses lock-down and card-drawing to blast your opponent's hand. I want to make it more competitive.

The lock is with Root Maze and Winter Orb. I started experimenting with Sphere of Resistance too. You can get some drawing engines on the table to keep their hand full. The synergy with Shah of Naar Isle for this purpose is really nice.

Originally the main source of damage was Storm Seeker during opponent's draw phase. Black Vise was another good source when it came off the restricted list. Shrapnel Blast fits in with over twenty artifacts. I usually use a tapped Tree of Tales to pay for it. You can also blast your own Winter Orb.

I splashed white for the creature removal. At one time I used green's Tangle but the games sometimes drag out too long for it.

Artifacts
4x Black Vise
3x Howling Mine
3x Winter Orb
1x Sphere of Resistance
1x Sol Ring
1x Lotus Petal
1x Font of Mythos

Creatures
1x Radha, Heir to Keld
3x Shah of Naar Isle
4x Birds of Paradise

Enchantments
4x Root Maze

Land
4x Tree of Tales
2x Karplusan Forest
2x Copperline Gorge
2x Razorverge Thicket
2x Forest
1x Gruul Turf
1x Strip Mine
1x Crystal Vein
1x Brushland
1x City of Brass
1x Maze of Ith
1x Ancient Tomb
1x Gemstone Mine

Spells
4x Storm Seeker
4x Shrapnel Blast
4x Swords to Plowshares
1x Wheel of Fortune
1x Final Fortune

Sideboard
3x Naturalize
3x Smoke
3x Tsunami
3x Compost
3x Warmth

The Owling Mine archetype in Standard played some of the same ideas as this. Howling Burn decks with Sudden Impact are also similar.

If I had to change it today I would do this:

-1 Final Fortune
+1 Sphere of Resistance

Can we think of any other ways to improve it (without Black Lotus and friends)?

[Daenyth]

In order to give relevant improvements, we'd need to know what you play against often, what you beat of that, and what beats you.

[stripezero]

I play against bratty kids on MWS mostly...! So I don't really know, it is such a mixed lot.

It used to have trouble with Aggro decks turning out creature armies. The T8 Burn deck beats this too. I tried to cover my bases with the SB.

I wonder if I missed any cards that might add synergy though? I sat out a few expansion sets.

[Delha]

Offhand, I'd suggest building it GU or RU.

Blue lets you run bounce, which plays well with your game plan of choking up their hand. Boomerang or Hoodwink on their untapped lands as they try to slowly build back mana under Orb is brutal. Alternately, you can just bounce Orb to get a full untap. Blue also, opens up cute counters like Arcane Denial, Memory Lapse, and Remand which dodge the UU requirement.

If you go GU, you keep access to acceleration like Birds to dodge Orb, or Exploration/Fastbond to make sure you can unload your lands quickly enough.

If you go RU, you can add burn more burn for spot removal or just dome them when you're sitting on a full grip. You also still have access to Storm Seeker effects through Gaze of Adarmo or Sudden Impact.

Either way, I'd cut Radha, Shah, Wheel, and Final Fortune. After that, I'd up the number of lock pieces, to minimize the chances of your opponent being able to use the extra cards you give them.


A few card suggestions:
If you want more Vise effects: Viseling, Iron Maiden
If you want more orb effects: Static Orb, Stasis
If you want more Mines: Kami of the Crescent Moon
Recurring bounce/mana denial: Words of Wind, Blood Clock/Umbilicus, Sunken Hope, Storm Cauldron, Tradewind Rider, Barrin Master Wizard, Waterfront Bouncer

If you run Tradewind Riders, then Kami and Viseling are a couple good ways to fill out your creature requirement. Also, Skyshroud Ranger can serve as a creature based substitute for Exploration.

Also, you may want to look up Owling Mine, another deck built on the same premise.

[stripezero]

Yea I mentioned the Owling Mine build earlier... I was hoping to pioneer something new here.

Storm Cauldron is really interesting and I thought a lot about it. Umbilicus is a really cool card too.

So far I am gonna cut Wheel of Fortune and Final Fortune for Winter Orb and Sphere of Resistance.

Storm Cauldron and Root Maze lock things up really well. I wish the one wasn't CC5.

[MaximumCDawg]

Cauldron is hella fun but also hella expensive.  The posted deck concept has merit, though.  If you want mana denial, though, you need more ways to prevent them from just using artifact mana to accellerate past you.  I also think you're focusing too hard core on a single thing; your threats and answers arn't very diverse.  Storm Seeker?  Why even bother?  If you've locked them down, beats and Vise should be enough, right?

Okay so you got your first turn disruption to not lose right away:

4x Root Maze
4x Gorilla Shaman
4x Cursecatcher (4x Waterfront Bounce in SB against aggro or shops seems good)

(12 cards total)

Then you got your long-term lock pieces:

4x Null Rod (4x Meekstone or Smoke in SB to stop Fish seems good)
4x Winter Orb
2x Stasis

(22 cards total)

And your kill cards:

2x Garruk Wildspeaker
4x Black Vice

(28 cards total)

And round it out with disruption that works with the rest of your deck:

4x Curfew
4x Nature's Claim
4x Daze

(40 cards total)

And then a mana base that doesn't lose to your own root maze (also no Gemstone Mine bc it does not play nice with Garruk+stasis lock):

4x City of Brass
4x Tropical Island
4x Volcanic Island
3x Tiaga
2x Island
2x Forest
1x Mountain

[stripezero]

Thanks for the replies..!

I like Storm Seeker for the same reason I don't like Garruk Wildspeaker - classic cards and style points.

...which is totally irrelevant and frustrating for you trying to help tune this deck. But could we use Eon Hub and Forsaken City with Stasis instead?

EDIT: Yes - the Vise should be enough after a good lock-down for sure.

[MaximumCDawg]

So you like Storm Seeker for style points.  You don't like newfangled Planeswalkers.  I can relate, I had the same experience when I came back to Magic after a 10 year hiatus.

Fine, so we're killing with Storm Seeker and Black Vise.  First off, how are you going to get cards in their hand?  Vise is a great investment if you're slow-rolling them, since it damages 1-3 each turn, but Storm Seeker wants them to be choked with lots of cards, preferably 20, at a single go.  Drawing a 4 cc damage spell and having to cast it for 2 - 7 damage is not a good way to win in Vintage, imho.  

Also, you can run Spiraling Embers or Rune Trap instead of Storm Seeker.  You'd do this to be in Red and to ignore the size of the enemy's hand.  (P.S. I think this is better.)

But, if you must have your green wincon, howabout the ol' prosperous bloom engine?  We've got lots of draw redundancy now in Prosperity, Minds Aglow, and Skyscribing.  You can have bloom redundancy by running Academy Rector.  How do you kill off your Rector?  Howabout Phyrexian Tower or High Market?  Alright sooooo lets see...

Win Con (7)

4 Black Vise
1 Storm Seeker (You do not want to see this until you're ready to burn for the win)
2 Prosperous Bloom

Creatures (8)

4 Academy Rector (Finds Prosperous Bloom)
4 Myr Moonvessel (Mad accell with Phyrexian Tower)

Accell (8)
 
4 Dark Ritual
4 Phyrexian Tower (also stops Oath dead)

Draw (7)

2 Prosperity
4 Minds Aglow
1 Yawgmoth's Will (Soooo sick in the middle of a pros-bloom chain)

Disruption (18)

4 Cabal Therapy
4 Force of Will
3 Mental Misstep
3 Flusterstorm
2 Mindbreak Trap
1 Misdirection

Land (other than Tower) (13)
4 Polluted Delta
2 Misty Rainforest
2 Verdant Catacombs
2 Underground Sea
1 Bayou
2 Tropical Island

So this deck's goal is gonna be to use Rituals or Moonvessel + Cabal Therapy / Tower to accellerate quickly into a Rector, who you then sac for prosperous bloom, or prosporous bloom itself.  Then, you start tossing cards to Bloom and casting Minds Aglow or Prosperty to draw more and more cards.  Hopefully, with six copies of the draw engine, each draw will dig you into more copies.  Duress effects beyond therapy are not played, because you're filling your opponent's hand before the kill anyway.  Your eventual goal is to have a hand full of pitch counters (FOW, Trap, MisD) and Flusterstorms that will allow you to win the counter war over a really big Storm Seeker, just like you wanted.

P.S. Tendrils of Agony might just be better than Storm Seeker, even in this deck!

[stripezero]

So you like Storm Seeker for style points.  You don't like newfangled Planeswalkers.  I can relate, I had the same experience when I came back to Magic after a 10 year hiatus.

...Precisely! 

This is a really cool idea - I will test a little and report back..?

[MaximumCDawg]

So I tinkered a bit with this deck, since the American Beats concept is really going nowhere fast.  If you're going to kill with Prosperous Bloom, then I think Abeyance is superior protection than discard or countermagic (abeyance early in the chain, when countermagic is at a minimum; win that and you're golden).  I also think that Stroke is a superior wincon to Vise or Seeker, since it can do double-duty mid combo.  I still think Moonvessel is super-cute.  Here's what Im building tomorrrow:

Lands (21)
4x City of Brass
4x Gemstone Mine
1x Polluted Delta
2x Misty Rainforest
2x Underground Sea
1x Tropical Island
1x Bayou
1x Tundra
1x Island
1x Swamp
3x Phyrexian Tower

Creatures (6)
3x Myr Moonvessel
3x Academy Rector

Accel (11)
1x Mox Emerald
1x Sol Ring
1x Mana Vault
1x Mana Crypt
4x Dark Ritual
3x Cadaverous Bloom

Tutor / Draw (9)
2x Minds Aglow
2x Prosperity
2x Stroke of Genius
1x Mystical Tutor
1x Vampiric Tutor
1x Yawgwin

Disruption (15)
4x Force of Will
3x Flusterstorm
2x Mindbreak Trap
3x Abeyance
3x Cabal Therapy