[single card discussion] The Benefits of Brainstorm

[mylkhead]

This sounds like a newbie question so I thought I'd post it here.  

What are the best things Brainstorm can do?  What are the ways to abuse it?  I have noticed that in many threads, there is some mention of if you are running Brainstorm, then run this....etc.  I use Brainstorm myself of course, but I don't think I realize the full potential of this card.  What are your thoughts??

[lilmidget]

Brainstorm + Fetchland = tech

Using a brainstorm allows you to put bad cards in your hand on top of your library and a fetchland allows you to shuffle away those bad cards.

[mylkhead]

yeah that is definitley a good thing.  i currently have no fetchlands in my deck (working on getting some) and i have run across many time when I brainstorm at the end of my opponents turn.  Put away usless cards.  Then draw one of the usless cards.  Or, brainstorm, and then ancestral or impulse following.  I hate that.  Most of the time I should have ancestraled or impulsed first, but sometimes I brainstorm into one of those other search cards, and thus it makes those search cards less useful after a brainstorm.  Know what I mean?  But I like the Brainstorm fetch combo.  Very cool.  

What are more ways to abuse Brainstorm?

[Marton]

brainstorm alone is a damn good card. It's strength is that it play like a mini tutor, in the sense that it replaces itself with *at least* the best card in the next 3 cards. Of course, it's great because you can also put cards you dont need/cards to hide from duress on top of your deck that originally were in your hand. Sorcery speed tutors aren't as good as instant speed tutor (duh), the reason being that you want to have an answer to *new threats* that has been played on your opponent's turn, where you couldn't had been able to respond to if you had played demonic tutor on your turn. brainstorm is also great with reshuffles/fetchlands/tutors because you turn possibly dead cards into possibly good ones (in the worst situation brainstorm will give you the best card out of the next 3 cards, which already is good). brainstorm is also great because the casting cost is low, and of course because you can pitch it to force of will. brainstorm can get you out of a mana screw / bad mulliganned hand (think like after youre down to 4-5 cards). brainstorm is good because it can turn a bad hand into a good one, particularly if you draw a reshuffle effect. brainstorm is good because it opens up more plays/response to your opponent's threats. There is no bad threats, only bad answers, meaning that having access to more/better answers is a definitive advantage.

The important thing about this card, in short is:

-mini tutor. at worst you exchange brainstorm for the best card in the next 3 card.

-instant speed. means you can answer your opponents threats more easily. it also means that you're not forcing yourself to tap a blue mana during your turn which prevents you to play that mana drain / imply the threat of a mana drain to your opponent.

-card advantage. dead cards/situational cards (ex: wasteland versus mono colored deck, or stifle vs aggro) can be turned into better cards. a dead card is the same as drawing no card. drawing a force of will when you're at one life and don't have 5 mana is a bad thing. brainstorm can turn those cards into answers/threats. Also, if combined with reshuffles/fetchlands/tutors, produces directly quantifiable card advantage.

-can turn a passable hand into a good one. this could be fit under card advantage section, but sometimes not all your cards are dead cards. mishra's factory isn't a great answer to a quirion dryad coming your way. This also means that sometimes it allows you to keep a so-so mulliganed/starting hand while otherwise it wouldn't have been keepable.

-protection from duress/mind twist.

-force of will/misdirection discardable.

-blue. (i mean, advantage of being blue compared to only making it force-of-willable is that should it had been white or green, it wouldn't be as much played as it is now)

[Bram]

Or, brainstorm, and then ancestral or impulse following. I hate that. Most of the time I should have ancestraled or impulsed first, but sometimes I brainstorm into one of those other search cards,

Just so you know, Brainstorming into an Ancestral hardly constitutes 'a bad thing.'

In, for example, Gro builds, Brainstorm in combination with Sleight of Hand or Serum Visions (or Opt ;-) allows you to be very land-light. It gets you the land you need when you need it while pumping your Dryad and allowing you to draw more business spells (every land left out of your deck means a good spell in its place). The fetchlands help this matter greatly as they shuffle away useless Brainstorm crap as well as thin out your deck even further.

Brainstorm is such a powerful card however, that it need not even be used together with Fetchlands. It is included as a four-of in various combo builds like Draw-7, which cannot support fetchlands, for its raw tutoring power and it's low mana cost nature that allows you to efficiently up your spell count for a lethal Tendrils.

Also, if your opponent is really stupid and you're cheating skills are above average, you could think of them as 'Ancestrals two through five'.

[VGB]

Everybody's already hit on the main points as to why Brainstorm is such a current T1 staple - I guess I can try to interject a couple of historical points:

1) Before fetchlands, Brainstorm was widely detested, and Impulse was the preferred occupant of the cantrip/mini-tutor slot in many decks.

2) Brainstorm + Future Sight was a lot of fun for a short while.

The only weakness of the card (besides those already stated) are that the draws are just that: draws.  Thus cards like Mind's Eye, Plagiarize, and Chains of Mephistopheles (and Underworld Dreams   ) become huge threats to any deck utilizing blue.

I guess I can also summarize the card's usefulness:

1) Digs 3 deep at instant speed for a single U.
2) Hand optimizer that has great synergy with shuffle effects.
3) Guards against discard/controls your draws.
4) Allows for more aggressive mulling.
5) Allows for fewer land slots to increase business spells.
6) It is blatantly superior to all the other mini-tutor cantrips that cost U (Serum Visions, Sleight of Hand, Opt, Portent), except for Ancestral Recall, obv.

[PucktheCat]

The only weakness of the card (besides those already stated) are that the draws are just that: draws. Thus cards like Mind's Eye, Plagiarize, and Chains of Mephistopheles (and Underworld Dreams  ) become huge threats to any deck utilizing blue.

The other disadvantage to Brainstorm is cards like Trinisphere, Sphere of Resistance and, to a lesser extent Standstill.  Decks that use Brainstorm cast more spells than other decks so cards that take advantage of that fact will get an advantage.

Leo

[Bram]

Additionally, it is a potent weapon against Slavery. Unless you're in a full slaver lock already, you can use it to prevent your opponent from killing you in your next turn with a 'random' Mindslaver (put Necro, Tog etc. on top with a card above it) while partially 'stacking' your lib in order to maximize your actions on the turn after during which you will hopefully be allowed to make your own decisions

[mylkhead]

wow a lot of great responses.  So, what about Impulse?  Has Impulse fallen out of favor?  A lot of times I like the effect of Impulse.  It has more of a tutor feel to it.

There are many pluses and minus to both cards, Brainstorm and Impulse, but where do they belong?  What kind of decks run only Brainstorms, only Impulses, or a combination of both.  How do you know which is better and why?

[Xman]

Brainstorm is a good draw spell.  It replaced Ancestral for Blue's 1 for 3 card.

With Brainstorm, as with all the benefits listed above, I have another use for it.  If you are looking at a hand without a very good pitchable blue card to your force, you can brainstorm usually into something to toss.  It is always a gamble, but works wonders.

All in All, a very good T1 staple card.

[goober]

I usually just pitch the BS, because sometimes you don't fnd anything, or find something you are loath to toss.

Impulse is not really played at all, because it doesn't get you any card advantage, and costs 2.  There isn't room in Blue decks for that when they will probably be Draining with the 2 mana, then using higher CC draw.  They only have room for 1 card quality card, and the rest need to be business spells or actual draw.

[mylkhead]

Well, I feel Impulse is still a good card.  Keeping the two mana open on your opponents turn is always a good thing.  And if they dont play something counter worthy, I use the two mana to impulse.  Technically it's a 1 for 1 card, but it digs 4 deep.  A lot of times I am looking to find one card and it gets me there quicker.

I don't have Mana Drains.  If I get Drains, would the best option is to fit them in by taking out Impulse?

[Marton]

drains or not, impulse isn't a good choice in many decks. you're probably just better off by splashing black for tutors than using this. Or you're likely to draw more cards using the intuition + accumulated knowledge combo. Assuming that you were thinking about removing brainstorms for impulses, and thinking about cutting impulse for mana drains, i would simply not cut either, i would only keep the 4 brainstorm and remove other stuff for mana drain.

Oh, I also had forgotten. brainstorm has another small advantage. brainstorm is great with yawgmoth's will, particuliarily considering the likeliness of having tutors/fetches in the graveyard too. just alone its a 'free' draw card for only 1 blue when used with yawgmoth's will.

[mylkhead]

Alrighty, I like this conversation.  For the longest time I thought Impulse WAS a very good card.  Better than Brainstorm.  But now after discussing the the power of Brainstorm, I am beginning to see why it's so good.  Hehe.

So Impulse is a no-go for most competitve decks at the moment.  What are some other reasons for Impulse being not so good?  What about Mystical Tutor or Enlightened Tutor?  Could I replace Impulses with either of these?  I currently DO run black for Demonic Tutor.  I don't have a Vampiric Tutor at the moment.

Mana Drains, I feel, shouldn't be taken out or put in in place of Impulse.  They are there for completely different reasons.  If I had Drains, I would run them hands down.  I have one Mana Drain, is it worth putting in?  

So 4x Brainstorms are a must.   If I had to replace 4x Impulses with something, what should that be?  Vampiric Tutor?  Enlightened?  Mystical?  More counters?

I don't mean to turn this into a thread on what I should replace Impulse with.  But it's on the topic of why Brainstorm is better. Impulse is found to be 2nd tier and should be replaced by more effective spells.  What is more effective is my question?  Ancestral is at the top.  Then comes Brainstorm?  Standstill is up there.  What else?

[Bram]

Impulse is worse simply because it costs more. In 'ye olden days' it actually used to be better (or people thought it was anyway). When you could actually shuffle your lib instead of just putting stuff on the bottom like you need to do nowadays, Impulse was a lot better than it is now.

It replaced Ancestral for Blue's 1 for 3 card.

Eh? What do you mean 'replaced'? There is no replacement for the best hardcore draw spell in the game, yo.

What you could probably do is look in the Open T1 forums and the T1 forums and look for decklists that are somewhat similar to yours. You'll probably get some good ideas on what to use. Vampiric is a very good card as it allows to cheaply fetch any bullet in your deck. You can do this at your oppnent's EOT so that you draw into it, or use Brainstorm to get what you want. It's also quite potent against decks which run Wheel of Fortune, since you can put answers on the top.

On that note, Mystical Tutor is still used often, and is usually played like it has 'Dearch your library for target Ancestral Recall' written on it. It also fetches Yawgmoth's Will which can seal a game right then and there.

Enlightened Tutor is rarely used as it usually doesn't fetch anything in terms of virtual or real card advantage or massive game-swinging effects to compensate for it's inherent card disadvantage. Also, it's non-pitchable to Force of Will and it may require splashing an additional color which you really don't wanna do unless you're playing GermBus (Swords, Angels etc.).

[Marton]

you should not ask what to replace impulse with, but rather WHY you play with impulse Putting impulse in any deck is generally a bad thing. There's some corner case where bad cards can be good, like, for example, memory lapse when you play with winter orb. but you see the problem with theses 2 cards is that both cards arent really that good, they are only good when used together. The point of this is that you don't play bad cards in your deck because they 'feel' good (when used alone or in a weird combo like listed above), you only take the most efficient cards (ex: demonic tutor) and the most synergistics ones (ex: spiketail hatchling/daze in fish). Impulse is bad because it costs you 2 mana for *possibly* a good card on the next 4 ones. The problem is that you're spending 2 mana on something that has no warranty of giving any decent payout. brainstorm can and often gives more than just a 1-for-1 card advantage.

I also am the proud owner of a perfect mint mana drain (only one tho). Having only one can sometimes be a small advantage, because people know you only have one they assume you don't hold one in hand. If you have a mana drain and it does fit in your deck then put the one you have, there are no bad reasons for not putting it.

Asking what to replace the impulse for is a foolish question as it does not mentions the context in which it was used. A decklist would be required to properly evaluate the best replacement card. I strongly recommend that you do not post a sub-optimal decklist and expect other people to fix it for you, as it is directly against the forum rules.

If you do run black for demonic tutor, then I would likely suggest adding yawgmoth's will. In some decks it's pretty useless, but in most decks using fetchlands and brainstorms/tutors it is a bomb. Personally I like playing deck that have some 'tools' in it, going against consistency for instead playing with more generic answers for everything (and of course such a strategy requires generally to play more tutors). The idea is a bit like keeper: have an answer for everything. Assuming that you don't play with draw-7s, and depending on your deck, mind twist can be a bomb. It is random, but it can also randomly win you games. skeletal scrying would likely be a strong contender for the open spots assuming that you play with brainstorms fetches and strips/wastes. In short, it really depends on your decklist.

[mylkhead]

I understand what you mean about Impulse now.  I mean, when I compare it to Demonic Tutor for example (same CC) the Demonic Tutor is clearly better.  So when I look at it that way, I really see what I am missing when it comes to Impulse.  I get possibly the card I am looking for in only the next 4.  And a lot of the times I have regret having to put a Force of Will or a Time Walk on the bottom on my library simply because I needed one or the other at that particular moment.  

I also know what you mean about asking what I should replace Impulse with.  I am not going to post a decklist, especialy in this thread.  But I do play LandStill Oath.  I took out 4 Impulses, and added 1x Brainstorm, 1x Mana Drain, 1s Mystical Tutor, and 1x Yawgmoth's Will.  I feel that the deck will play a lot more consistantly as seeing as drawing ANY of those cards would make a lot more sense than getting Impulse and hoping for something.  

Thanks a lot for the discussion everyone.  Until the next time.

[Marton]

You really ought to AT LEAST give a try to skeletal scrying. This card is really more powerfull than my initial impressions I had on it. BTW, Vampiric tutor generally is agreed to be better than mystical tutor, barring the case where you can't pitch it to force of will. You could also try out and play cunning wish instead of mystical tutor (I personally don't like that card much). Put 1 skeletal scrying in your sidebord and 1 mystical tutor/vampiric tutor (of course, take the opportunity to put some other misc. usefull instants, stuff like 1x misdirection, fire/ice, stifle and misc removal like perhaps chain of vapor/hurkyl's recall, oxidize and of course red/blue elemental blasts).