Ritual Combo in 2014?

[WhiteLotus]

Let me put it this way:  You need ZERO Cards against Dredge.  You get into Drag-Race mode in that matchup.  And Timetwister is the BEST in that matchup.

Hmm I don't know, dread return dredge can be problematic when it's on the play since it almost always wins on turn 2, that means either I need to win on turn 1 or have a way to slow them down by a turn at least without them Unmask/cabal therapy-ing my hand into crap.


By the way SDT and Repeal have been doing far better for me than preordain had, It's definitely the way to go IMO. SDT makes the deck better in the late game while still highly usefull in the early game and repeal makes it faster and more resilient, both of them also make Mox opal stronger. The list is pretty focused while beeing highly flexible and pretty resilient now.

I've only been running it on cockatrice since they don't authorize proxies in events here in France, but I'm winning more than 50% of the time there (and doing better than with any other deck), so I feel like the list is pretty strong.


Anyway I just wanted to add, for this topic's purpose, that I tried to put a Bob tendrils list together, but it seems pretty bad in this metagame.  Although it's a lot better in the mid to late game, it's ill equipped to interact with creature decks so it doesn't really improve any matchups. It's softer to dredge and to Hatebears, merfolks and Rug Delver, while it only improves ever so slightly matchups against grindy decks. It's also not that good at switching from "control" to combo mode without yawgmoth's will or Gifts ungiven, and it's not very good in the "control" mode. Basically either it sucks, I don't know how to pilot it or my list is bad; I don't know which.

Too bad, when I made the list I thought it would be fun to have a kinda Jace bob control deck that would sculpt it's hand while maintaining some kind of defense/ control mode and when it was ready flip the script and use tendrils as a combo finisher instead of time vault.
But it's just to slow and not interactive enough, I think Gush is better at doing what these decks are trying to do.

For reference here's the list I tried:

4 Polluted Delta
2 Bloodstained Mire
1 Scalding Tarn
2 Underground Sea
3 Swamp
2 Island
1 Black Lotus
1 Mana Crypt
1 Sol Ring
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Sensei's Divining Top
4 Dark Confidant
1 Snapcaster Mage
2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
1 Necropotence
4 Force of Will
4 Dark Ritual
2 Repeal
2 Mental Misstep
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Brainstorm
1 Cabal Ritual
1 Hurkyl's Recall
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Gifts Ungiven
4 Duress
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Tendrils of Agony
1 Timetwister
1 Time Walk
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Merchant Scroll
1 Yawgmoth's Will

SB: 2 Hurkyl's Recall
SB: 1 Rebuild
SB: 1 Myr Battlesphere
SB: 1 Tinker
SB: 1 Toxic Deluge
SB: 2 Dismember
SB: 4 Extirpate
SB: 1 Flusterstorm
SB: 1 Library of Alexandria
SB: 1 Island

[Soly]

For an Interesting History Lesson, search "GWSx" on here.  Good times.  Trust me, if Dark Confidant was even borderline playable in this metagame, I would be definitely cramming htat card with Tendrils of Agony.

[WhiteLotus]

Okay Folks, so I've got a few points I'd like to go through about the reid duke deck and of course I would much appreciate your feedback on them

First off I'd like to share (once more) the list I'm working with currently:

Mana sources (28)
1 Lion's Eye Diamond
1 Black Lotus
1 Lotus Petal
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mana Vault
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Opal
1 Sol Ring
4 Dark Ritual
3 Polluted Delta
2 Bloodstained Mire
1 Scalding Tarn
1 Island
1 Swamp
2 Underground Sea
1 Badlands
1 Tolarian Academy

Enablers (8)
1 Memory Jar
1 Necropotence
1 Yawgmoth's Bargain
1 Wheel of Fortune
1 Timetwister
1 Windfall
1 Mind's Desire
1 Yawgmoth's Will

Protection (8)
2 Hurkyl's Recall
1 Chain of Vapor
4 Duress
1 Flusterstorm

Protection & Cantrip (5)
4 Gitaxian Probe
1 Repeal

Cantrip/advantage (4)
1 Brainstorm
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Ponder
1 Time Walk

Tutors (6)
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Tinker
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Grim Tutor
1 Imperial Seal

Win condition (1)
1 Tendrils of Agony

Sideboard

SB: 1 Hurkyl's Recall
SB: 1 Mountain
SB: 3 Ingot Chewer
SB: 1 Blightsteel Colossus/ Myr Battlesphere
SB: 1 Rebuild
SB: 1 Island
SB: 1 Toxic Deluge/ Extirpate
SB: 2 Thoughtseize
SB: 1 Empty the Warrens
SB: 1 Swamp
SB: 1 Massacre/ Extirpate
SB: 1 Flusterstorm

So the maindeck is pretty much fixed, the only changes I would consider would be swapping the scalding tarn for a 4th polluted delta and maybe removing a bounce spell for either Sensei divining top (which I tested to great sucess before swapping it for flusterstorm) or Empty the Warrens.

This sideboard is meant for a hatebear "heavy" metagame with almost non existent dredge. Anyway the deck smashes dredge all day but can have a really, really hard time against Hatebears (which I consider to be it's worst matchup).


Tinker target:

I'm really starting to question whether Blightsteel colossus is the right guy for the job and to consider whether Myr battlesphere wouldn't be a better alternative. There are quite a few games where Blightsteel has caused me to loose and didn't live up to my expectations because my opponent was able to disrupt it and the deck unable to protect the bot.
The main reasons imo why Blightsteel is weak in this deck is because everyone is prepared to deal with it and this deck does not have the resources to protect it from hate. So just relying on the blind speed has not proven itself to be a viable option.

Pros for Blightsteel
Kills in one hit
Immune to removal like Ancient grudge/nature's claim/disenchant
Trample

Cons for Blightsteel
Weak to bounce effects
Weak to exiling effects like Stp/Leonin relic warder
Weak to tangle wire and duplicant
Almost always a dead draw
(Is a stupid cheated card )

Pros for Battlesphere
Provides permanent advantage
More resilient via the tokens left behind even if dealt with
Can provide tempo by blocking
Hardcastable (only 1 mana more than Desire or Bargain)
Has strong synergy with Tolarian academy

Cons for Battlesphere
Takes 2 hits to kill
Easier to kill

Okay so with these lists you can already see that Battlesphere has a non trivial amount of advantages over the Blightsteel in a number of situations. Then let's take into account the situations you are most likely going to face with the bot kill (IE What you'll be confronted to in matchups where you bring the bot in)

The matchups where I board the bot in are mainly Workshops and Hatebears (Heavy denial decks)

Hatebears will usually be able to deal with the bot reactively with Stp & leonin relic warder and proactively with grafdigger's cage and Leonin arbiter/Aven mindscensor ==> Blightsteel seems inferior since it basically gets screwed by exiling effects and can almost never be hardcasted. Battlesphere on the other hand will give you a little army to fight off the creatures that are hurting your main gameplan even if they deal with it, there also is a slim chance you'll be able to put it into play without tinker.

Workshops are able to deal with bots re-actively with Duplicant, phyrexian metamorph, Tangle wire and Smokestack and proactively with the cage. ==> Battlesphere seems once again superior since it basically evades all the things Blightsteel is weak to except for Metamorph and the cage. You still have more chances of hardcasting your battlesphere against cage then blightsteel.
And Metamorph doesn't simply trade with battlesphere like it does with blightsteel.  You'll have the first attack step and if they decide to block you with the metamorph/battlesphere, yours will be a 8/7 so will kill theirs as well as deal 4 damage. So they need to put 3 tokens/something else into the block as well which means you still have gained some form of advantage.

You may also want to bring in the bot against Merfolks and Bug fish (I don't), and their way of dealing with the bot will be cage and steel sabotage, where once again Battlesphere is still superior.

So from my perspective it seems pretty obvious that this deck does not want the "mighty" but fragile Blightsteel colossus and would rather have the slower albeit more resilient Myr battlesphere (Although I'll admit I'm biased because I don't like Blightsteel for what it does to the format and how cheap/stupid/unflexible it is).
Thoughts ?

[dangerlinto]

Pros for Blightsteel
Kills in one hit
Immune to removal like Ancient grudge/nature's claim/disenchant
Trample

Cons for Blightsteel
Weak to bounce effects
Weak to exiling effects like Stp/Leonin relic warder
Weak to tangle wire and duplicant
Almost always a dead draw
(Is a stupid cheated card )

Pros for Battlesphere
Provides permanent advantage
More resilient via the tokens left behind even if dealt with
Can provide tempo by blocking
Hardcastable (only 1 mana more than Desire or Bargain)
Has strong synergy with Tolarian academy

Cons for Battlesphere
Takes 2 hits to kill
Easier to kill

Okay so with these lists you can already see that Battlesphere has a non trivial amount of advantages over the Blightsteel in a number of situations. Then let's take into account the situations you are most likely going to face with the bot kill (IE What you'll be confronted to in matchups where you bring the bot in)

I think you are conflating the advantages of Battleshere.

For example, Blightsteel can also block.  In fact it blocks even better than Battlesphere.  It can't however, block a hoard, but then if you are blocking a hoard, Battlespehre isn't likely to win in 2 hits.  Regardless of list (but especially in this one) this is true.
Battlesphere's sysnergy with Academy is also pretty much wasted, as there are so few cards which are mana sinks in this deck anyway.

I think if you really want to give Battlesphere an advantage, it's that you aren't running mental misstep in this deck and Swords to Plowshares is a card.

To be fair there are many matchups where Inkwell Leviathan is the better card of all three,

[WhiteLotus]

Blightsteel can also block. In fact it blocks even better than Battlesphere.

Would you be so kind as to explain how a single blightsteel blocks better then a battlesphere + 4 tokens? Aside from some narrow scenario involving wurmcoil engine or another Blightsteel I fail to grasp how.

Battlesphere's sysnergy with Academy is also pretty much wasted, as there are so few cards which are mana sinks in this deck anyway.

Memory Jar, yawgmoth's bargain, mind's desire, yawgmoth's will and draw 7s disagree strongly with this statement. There is a reason this deck has 28 mana sources, it's mana hungry. Especially when you consider I'm only going to bring the bot plan in matchups where my opponent's main angle of interaction is mana denial (and the only reason I need alternative win cons anyway).

To be fair there are many matchups where Inkwell Leviathan is the better card of all three,

I'm truely puzzled about inkwell being better than the other 2 in matchups I need it (Hatebears & Workshops), could you please develop ?
The way I see it, Inkwell leviathan's only upside is that it can't be targeted by Stp or Duplicant (both of which can only deal with battlesphere in a limited way), other than that it's noticeably slower, blocks as well as Blightsteel (poorly) and is almost as hard to cast.

[dangerlinto]

Blightsteel can also block. In fact it blocks even better than Battlesphere.

Would you be so kind as to explain how a single blightsteel blocks better then a battlesphere + 4 tokens? Aside from some narrow scenario involving wurmcoil engine or another Blightsteel I fail to grasp how.

As I explained in the quote you cut off, the only advantage Battlesphere has is if you are blocking a hoard which would otherwise kill you in one attack.  And you will get to do that once.  Then all the tokens will be dead and you'll have a 4/7.  Which is and all but in all likelyhood you'll still have a hoard to contend with and unless you top deck something awesome, you are still in whatever trouble you caused you to have to go to plan B in the first place.   

Battlesphere's sysnergy with Academy is also pretty much wasted, as there are so few cards which are mana sinks in this deck anyway.

Memory Jar, yawgmoth's bargain, mind's desire, yawgmoth's will and draw 7s disagree strongly with this statement. There is a reason this deck has 28 mana sources, it's mana hungry. Especially when you consider I'm only going to bring the bot plan in matchups where my opponent's main angle of interaction is mana denial (and the only reason I need alternative win cons anyway).

Exactly.  Not that's it impossible to get out from under a mana-denial plan, but if you are holding onto enough greatness in your hand already that you can tinker up a Battlesphere and then live the dream the next turn and find all the cards you need to get out of it all while maintaining an active academy (because, you know, mana denial plans usually use wasteland), you problably could have just found a Hurkyl's/Rebuild or Deluge and done plan A.

To be fair there are many matchups where Inkwell Leviathan is the better card of all three,

I'm truely puzzled about inkwell being better than the other 2 in matchups I need it (Hatebears & Workshops), could you please develop ?
The way I see it, Inkwell leviathan's only upside is that it can't be targeted by Stp or Duplicant (both of which can only deal with battlesphere in a limited way), other than that it's noticeably slower, blocks as well as Blightsteel (poorly) and is almost as hard to cast.

Or relic-warder, or quasali pridemage... I dunno, is your meta running Banisher Priest as well? 


I mean don't take this the wrong way - if your local meta game is simply packing nothing but hate for Blightsteel, by all means, use Battlesphere - it's a great card and you probably won't go wrong.  In fact I regularly play it as opposed to colossus in Tezz 2.0 decks, because it has far superior synergy with it. 

But if your meta really are just gunning for Colossus, then practically any solution that doesn't share a lot of qualities with Colossus will probably be better than Colossus.

[mmcgeach]

battlesphere basically is way better than blightsteel against shops (as you've pointed out).  I don't think its that close.

against hate bears, I dunno if either is real great.  They might be able to race the battlesphere, if they have tarmogoyfs, or a few chump blockers, or a trygon predator...  also getting it disenchanted / nature's claim / stp really is pretty bad.  Although, with any luck, they side out their creature hate.

Against hatebears, the best thing is pestilence / infest / toxic deluge effects...  a long time ago, when people used inkwell, they also used to talk about stuff like thrashing wumpus (a 3/3 for 5 mana with the pestilence ability).  Now we have stuff like steel hellkite, which might be about the best thing if we are going to assume they have no disenchant / stp.  I mean, won't that blow up their whole board?

[WhiteLotus]

battlesphere basically is way better than blightsteel against shops (as you've pointed out).  I don't think its that close.

against hate bears, I dunno if either is real great.  They might be able to race the battlesphere, if they have tarmogoyfs, or a few chump blockers, or a trygon predator...  also getting it disenchanted / nature's claim / stp really is pretty bad.  Although, with any luck, they side out their creature hate.

Against hatebears, the best thing is pestilence / infest / toxic deluge effects...  a long time ago, when people used inkwell, they also used to talk about stuff like thrashing wumpus (a 3/3 for 5 mana with the pestilence ability).  Now we have stuff like steel hellkite, which might be about the best thing if we are going to assume they have no disenchant / stp.  I mean, won't that blow up their whole board?

Yeah I agree hatebears usually have lots of ways to deal with tinker targets, the whole point of the battlesphere Imo is that even if you deal with it, it leaves the tokens behind that will block whatever bear(s) is(are) disrupting the storm kill or disrupt your opponents beatdown gameplan.

Thrashing wumpus and pestilence look nice but they cost too much mana, I already have 1 massacre and 1 toxic deluge to fill that role.

The bot plant has won me about as much games as it has cost me, so I'm even questioning whether the deck wants a tinker target in the sideboard at all at this point.

Steel hellkite definetely has some potential but it seems very vulnerable and suffers against stony silence.

I wish sphinx of the steel wind had protection from White

Thanks for the input

[AmbivalentDuck]

I think it's a mistake not to run 1x maindeck Doomsday since you can turn any draw spell into a lethal Tendrils pile. Think of it as being between Vampiric Tutor and Imperial Seal in power.

[WhiteLotus]

Okay so I had a blast playing reid's long deck and while it had a lot of strengths such as it's incredible velocity and raw power I came to the conclusion that it was too un-interactive to be viable. I tried pushing the build to include fow but then the deck became awkward and inconsistent while not very apt at playing the control role.

It has become clear to me that a storm deck can not be good overall if it isn't able to interact to a similar extend than a mana drain deck and if it is 100% reliant on the tendrils kill. One has only to look as far as Burning oath, doomsday or Talrand gush to measure this.

Gush is pretty strong against blue decks but weak to workshops and too much denial unless it's a cobra build but then it becomes vulnerable to lightning bolt. Although I've managed to make a list with cobras and unconventional synergies that make it very resilient and improve it's overall matchups but that's another topic.

Burning oath is pretty cool except it's not interactive enough to deal with oath hate (grafdigger's cage shuts in down completely as well as abrupt decay) and it's not very good at going off without oath since it needs 2 wishes to use Ywill and it's very vulnerable to wasteland or chalice of the void.

TPS has been dead for a while because it does not have the same speed as Ad Nauseam or Long builds do and it lacks a resilient alternative win condition to tendrils.

But what about Trying a Tps deck that uses a consistent and Resilient alternative engine that's also a wincon on it's own, behold the mighty Griselbrand.
I don't want oath since it's very vulnerable to abrupt decay and grafdigger's cage. So I think Show and tell is the way to go, it pitches to force of will as well as putting bargain into play and since we're a ritual deck we can also cast him much easier than an oath deck can.

So here's is the list:

LANDS (14)
4 Polluted Delta
1 Bloodstained Mire
1 Scalding Tarn
3 Underground Sea
2 Island
2 Swamp
1 Library of Alexandria

ARTIFACTS (7)
1 Black Lotus
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Sol Ring

CREATURES (3)
3 Griselbrand

PLANESWALKERS (2)
2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor

ENCHANTMENTS (2)
1 Necropotence
1 Yawgmoth's Bargain

INSTANTS (19)
4 Dark Ritual
1 Cabal Ritual
4 Force of Will
2 Flusterstorm
2 Mental Misstep
1 Hurkyl's Recall
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Brainstorm
1 Fact or Fiction
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Mystical Tutor

SORCERIES (13)
4 Show and Tell
3 Duress
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Merchant Scroll
1 Time Walk
1 Timetwister
1 Yawgmoth's Will
1 Tendrils of Agony

SIDEBOARD (15)
SB: 2 Hurkyl's Recall
SB: 2 Toxic Deluge
SB: 1 Duress
SB: 3 Yixlid Jailer
SB: 2 Pithing Needle
SB: 1 Extirpate
SB: 1 Energy Flux
SB: 2 Steel Sabotage
SB: 1 Flusterstorm

So the goal of the deck is pretty straightforward, play the control role while digging to assemble the combo (Show and tell + Griselbrand/Y Bargain) or set up a lethal Yawgmoth's will.

Why Griselbrand is good ? Because he acts as a bargain that fuels itself as well as being a strong backup win condition against the deck's bad matchups (Denial decks like workshops and Fish/ Hatebears). He also makes the deck faster and more consistent.

Card choices:

So I chose to have a strong interactive plan (11 slots) composed of the most efficient countermagic + a couple duress that way the deck can strongly back up it's own gameplan while making sure it can thwart the opponent's. 2 additional can be added post sideboarding against control decks for a total of 13: 4 force of will, 2 mental misstep, 2/1 Flusterstorm, 3/1 Duress.

The tutor package is pretty limited compared to traditional ritual decks due to limited space, I would definitely like to fit in Intuition and imperial seal maybe even Grim tutor.

The number of enablers is restricted (only the best stuff that synergises with the Show and tell plan). I chose not to include Gifts ungiven but rather Fact or fiction since it synergizes with Yawgmoth's will and Digs 5 card deep to find combo pieces or generates card advantage.
Timetwister makes the cut because it resets dredge and can help to reload as well as reshuffling a countered Yawgmoth's will, it's also pretty nice to generate card advantage on turn 1.
Necropotence is really good in this deck it's not meant to win the game directly but rather dig and replenish the hand every turn.
Yawgmoth's Will and ancestral recall need no explaining obviously.
Jace is very good in this deck (no surprise) He will help to dig and get ahead of the opponent (as well as getting rid of redundant combo pieces), protect from troublesome creatures (Spirit of the labyrinth, Thalia, Revoker,...).
Library of Alexandria serves a similar albeit more limited role as Jace (Digging, getting ahead of the opponent).

Matchups:

Blue Control decks are the easiest matchup for the deck, since it usually has as much interaction with it's counter + duress package. it's also more consistent and has as much or more ways to generate card advantage.

Fish/creature decks are also pretty beatable since Griselbrand is a major hoser to their gameplan and they have no cards to deal with it (no stp, no jace, no metamorph; and Dismember/snuff out don't do anything to it). and the manabase is very hard to attack since the deck is resilient to wasteland (high basic count + Pithing needle out of the side) and null rod (with it's limited artifact mana) it also has a high ritual count so it can function if it's being attacked from both angles.

Dredge can be winnable game 1 with an early griselbrand that requires them to have more firepower in order to be lethal or just race them. The sideboard has 6 slots to hate on them: 2 pithing needle to shut off Bazaar, 3 Yixlid jailer to cut them off their grave and dredging and 1 extirpate either to slow them down (by targeting bridge, nacromoeba, cabal therapy ...) or to cut them off their hate answers (Darkblast, Chain of vapor)

Hatebears white trash are usually the toughest matchup for storm decks, but Griselbrand is just unreal against them with a few counters to protect it. Out of the side Toxic deluge is also very strong as a Hurkyl's recall creature equivalent.

The worst matchup is probably workshops but Griselbrand and Hurkyl's recall kind of have an oath quality against them (only one spell to slip through). Fow is also key to the matchup to either  counter something that would give them too much tempo (trinisphere, tangle wire, Crucible lock...) or counter something that would exploit the tempo they create (Lodestone golem, kuldotha, ...).
The sideboard has lots of hate for them: Pithing needle to cut off whatever is needed (Karn, wasteland, Kuldotha, ...), The traditional hurkyl's recall plan, and Steel sabotage to either be a counter or a tempo card. I also have Energy flux but it hasn't been really convincing, I think I will end cutting it for a dismember/Snuff out.

[mmcgeach]

I've recently come to the same conclusion (Show and Tell is good).  You might want to look at, or at least reference, the original thread on this, from a year ago:
http://www.themanadrain.com/index.php?topic=44327.0

The change I would make is to cut jace...  I think its not very good against such a creature-heavy meta game w/o your own creatures (bob, deathrite, whatever) to block for it.  Jace is great early, of course, and a powerful card in general... but I don't think it does what you want: make the hate-bears / fish-stuff matchup any better.  Also I think there's other things you could consider that have greater synergy with the show and tell plan. 

One thing you might want to consider from the previous iterations of this deck is the 2 tendrils; this makes up for the fewer tutors.  Also with so many ways to pay life, getting off a non-lethal early tendrils for 10 or 12 is pretty decent, since you can then use that on griselbrand or something.

The reason the old version of this deck was sidelined is the terrible shops matchup.  A year or so ago loadstones were like 30% of the metagame; and this deck really has a hard time against shops.

I'd run gift > fact, of course.  It's a combo deck.

[Hrishi]

I'm not sure I'd run Library either. You don't have many ways to keep your hand size filled until you have Griselbrand on the field, and in that case it's really not going to make a huge difference. I could be wrong, but it just seems like you don't have too many cards which create CA outside of Griselbrand/Jace/Necro/Bargain. If you were running Gush, I'd use Library.

[WhiteLotus]

I've recently come to the same conclusion (Show and Tell is good).  You might want to look at, or at least reference, the original thread on this, from a year ago:
http://www.themanadrain.com/index.php?topic=44327.0

The change I would make is to cut jace...  I think its not very good against such a creature-heavy meta game w/o your own creatures (bob, deathrite, whatever) to block for it.  Jace is great early, of course, and a powerful card in general... but I don't think it does what you want: make the hate-bears / fish-stuff matchup any better.  Also I think there's other things you could consider that have greater synergy with the show and tell plan. 

One thing you might want to consider from the previous iterations of this deck is the 2 tendrils; this makes up for the fewer tutors.  Also with so many ways to pay life, getting off a non-lethal early tendrils for 10 or 12 is pretty decent, since you can then use that on griselbrand or something.

The reason the old version of this deck was sidelined is the terrible shops matchup.  A year or so ago loadstones were like 30% of the metagame; and this deck really has a hard time against shops.

I'd run gift > fact, of course.  It's a combo deck.

Oh I completely missed on that thread, interesting that the builds look pretty close. Although my version is a lot closer to a Combo control deck with a tendrils/Griselbrand finish instead of Blightsteel/Time vault.

I hate having 2 tendrils because then it starts clogging my hand, even as 1 of it's pretty crappy in the opener or to draw it at an inopportune moment, I can't ever imagine a game where I'd get stuck with 2 tendrils. I can still use a mini tendrils if I need it since I can always Re-access it with Timetwister or Yawgmoth's Will.
Also the deck has Griselbrand as a wincon, it does not revolve solely around tendrils and that's what makes it strong IMO.

Shops are rough yeah but the current iteration usually have 9 spheres instead of the old 13 sphere builds, Force of will really helps when you use it correctly and Show and tell is still very asymmetric, metamorph cannot interact with Griselbrand when show and telled since they enter the battlefield at the same time, and you can draw in response to the revoker/duplicant etb trigger. The matchup is rough but not unbeatable at all. I consider it pretty similar to a mana drain deck workshop matchup in terms of odds, on average you'll loose on the draw and win on the play and game 1 will be tougher for you but post sideboarding it should be tougher for them.
I Think that in the 30% Workshop metagame it also made a lot more sense playing Burning Oath rather than this deck. But With more Bug fish, Regular Oath, Merfolk and hatebear decks in the meta maybe this deck has it's chance to shine, as a parallel Omni Rector has been putting "a lot" more results than it was before.

Gifts ungiven is good but Fact pretty much does the same thing with 1 combo piece in your hand since it digs so deep, and it generates more card advantage. Gifts requires you to have a snapcaster/noxious revival in your deck and becomes terrible when your opponent has a Grafdigger's cage. I think a lot of people underestimate Fact or Fiction. Although Gifts ungiven has some advantages in that it's more consistent in the results it produces. I may go back on this but for now Fact has been fine for what I wanted it to do.

Jace is one of the best cards in the deck IMO, it helps you shuffle away additional Griselbrands/ Show and tells while digging for the other part. It helps the deck to play the control role and diverts attention from the opponent. It also has uses in the bear matchup, I've used it to bounce a Spirit or thalia with Griselbrand on board and go for the win. Just bouncing for Tempo purposes can make the difference.

I agree that there are things that have nice synergy with Show and tell that could be added Such as Intuition and more tutors, but I'm limited on slots and I don't see myself making the deck any less interactive to make it more consistent.

You could make a deck with (only) 4 duress and 4 fows cut the jaces then add more tutors and more enablers but that is not what I'm trying to accomplish, I want a deck that is resilient and convincing at interacting while it sets itself up.

I'm not sure I'd run Library either. You don't have many ways to keep your hand size filled until you have Griselbrand on the field, and in that case it's really not going to make a huge difference. I could be wrong, but it just seems like you don't have too many cards which create CA outside of Griselbrand/Jace/Necro/Bargain. If you were running Gush, I'd use Library.

Let's compare to other decks that use library of alexandria:

Grixis has 4 bobs, 3 Jace, 1 ancestral and sometimes Thirst for knowledge or Gifts ungiven

Landstill has 4 Jace, 4 Standstill, 1 Ancestral

Gush has 4 Gush, 1 (Sometimes 2) Jace, 1 Ancestral

Tezzeret has 1 Jace, 1 Thirst, 1 Gifts, 1 Ancestral

My build has 3 Griselbrand, 1 Yawgmoth's bargain, 1 Necropotence,  2 Jace, 1 Fact or Fiction, 1 Timetwister, 1 Ancestral

I do not see where it's any worse to make use of Library than most of the other decks that run it.

[Samoht]

You can't include Necro, Bargain, or GB as reasons to run Library. Hrishi already explained why.

[mmcgeach]

hmm, you are in a bit of a weird place with this deck, positioning it as a control build with the "show and tell -> griselbrand" finish.

It looks like you're cutting the fast mana and enablers and the 2nd tendrils for the control elements... I think that'll make it hard to go off with the storm kill when you need to.  With the build in the older thread, I had issues going off...  if I have to draw 14 cards and win RIGHT NOW (as frequently happens) it's entirely possible to miss the (only 3) tutors and the 1 tendrils and just fizzle.  Or miss the remaining 1 black mox or something.

Maybe there's a possibility to make a "show and tell control" deck that ran Show and Tell, and Griselbrand, and maybe some other junk; and just skip the storm kill?  Although, I guess that's almost what a modern Oath deck is, minus the oath.

I agree with library... its very strong in the matchups where you want it.  In other matchups it just gets wastelanded, and probably cycles.

I feel like it'd be fun to test massacre wurm in this deck.  You could show and tell it in, or hard cast it with rituals.  And that seems like it would help the hatebear matchup.  Or maybe tidespout tyrant.

[A.-1.]

Not sure if two decks, one box or three decks, one box...

[Samoht]

Not sure if two decks, one box or three decks, one box...

<3 you so much.

It's at least two divergent plans. Could be worse though.

[WhiteLotus]

hmm, you are in a bit of a weird place with this deck, positioning it as a control build with the "show and tell -> griselbrand" finish.

It looks like you're cutting the fast mana and enablers and the 2nd tendrils for the control elements... I think that'll make it hard to go off with the storm kill when you need to.  With the build in the older thread, I had issues going off...  if I have to draw 14 cards and win RIGHT NOW (as frequently happens) it's entirely possible to miss the (only 3) tutors and the 1 tendrils and just fizzle.  Or miss the remaining 1 black mox or something.

Maybe there's a possibility to make a "show and tell control" deck that ran Show and Tell, and Griselbrand, and maybe some other junk; and just skip the storm kill?  Although, I guess that's almost what a modern Oath deck is, minus the oath.

I agree with library... its very strong in the matchups where you want it.  In other matchups it just gets wastelanded, and probably cycles.

I feel like it'd be fun to test massacre wurm in this deck.  You could show and tell it in, or hard cast it with rituals.  And that seems like it would help the hatebear matchup.  Or maybe tidespout tyrant.

Yes the deck does have some issues going off sometimes, I would not Skip on the tendrils kill though or I would just end up playing Griselbrand Oath.
More tutors seems like the right answer to find the other combo piece or the tendrils/Ywill/Lotus when going off, but I don't know what to cut for them.
The mana base is okay so far. The enablers seem fine for this deck, Mind's desire and memory jar would be awkward.

2 tendrils has never been needed in storm decks IMO it's only relevant in a handfull of situations.

Griselbrand is already pretty devastating for hatebears off show and tell and I don't see how running Massacre wurm will be better than toxic deluge or Perish.

You can't include Necro, Bargain, or GB as reasons to run Library. Hrishi already explained why.

Ok for Griselbrand and bargain probably doesn't matter, but Necro totally, necro is not used to go off most of the time but rather to refill the hand to 7 cards at which point you can use your library every turn without being conservative.

Not sure if two decks, one box or three decks, one box...

<3 you so much.

It's at least two divergent plans. Could be worse though.

Constructive criticism is greatly appreciated, Condescending trolling is not...

[Hrishi]

Ok for Griselbrand and bargain probably doesn't matter, but Necro totally, necro is not used to go off most of the time but rather to refill the hand to 7 cards at which point you can use your library every turn without being conservative.

Wouldn't you use Necro to go off? Sure, there are times when you don't draw well with Necro and you need to Necro again. Most of the time when you Necro, you're looking to pass the turn and win as soon as it's your turn again. If you're looking to Necro a second time, it's only if the first Necro doesn't let you win (which honestly with a deck like this, you'll probably be able to go off). There might be some synergy with the top deck tutors and having Necro on the field, especially since you aren't using Gitaxian Probe, but that seems like too narrow a use for Library.

As you pointed out yourself, most of the the decks that use Library have ways to get continuous card advantage (Standstill, Bob, Jace, etc) to keep your hand at 7 cards. Most of the ways your deck has to refill your hands are from draw7s and necro/bargain, which honestly do not need library.

I also noticed you do not have Tolarian Academy. I'd run that in place of Library. You aren't using Mind's Desire (and you might want to consider this card too) but even so, Academy is a lot of mana acceleration.

[A.-1.]

2 tendrils has never been needed in storm decks IMO it's only relevant in a handfull of situations.

GWSx was a highly successful deck that ran 2-3 copies of Tendrils. Demonic Consultation.

Not sure if two decks, one box or three decks, one box...

<3 you so much.

It's at least two divergent plans. Could be worse though.

Constructive criticism is greatly appreciated, Condescending trolling is not...

I apologize if you didn't find the humor in my post. It's one of those five-percenters that references an innovative deck builder in Samoht's and my area combined with a Futurama meme. As for actual criticism, you should probably revisit TPS. In an early post you mentioned that TPS was "dead," but I don't think you should be so quick to dismiss it.

[WhiteLotus]

Ok for Griselbrand and bargain probably doesn't matter, but Necro totally, necro is not used to go off most of the time but rather to refill the hand to 7 cards at which point you can use your library every turn without being conservative.

Wouldn't you use Necro to go off? Sure, there are times when you don't draw well with Necro and you need to Necro again. Most of the time when you Necro, you're looking to pass the turn and win as soon as it's your turn again. If you're looking to Necro a second time, it's only if the first Necro doesn't let you win (which honestly with a deck like this, you'll probably be able to go off). There might be some synergy with the top deck tutors and having Necro on the field, especially since you aren't using Gitaxian Probe, but that seems like too narrow a use for Library.

As you pointed out yourself, most of the the decks that use Library have ways to get continuous card advantage (Standstill, Bob, Jace, etc) to keep your hand at 7 cards. Most of the ways your deck has to refill your hands are from draw7s and necro/bargain, which honestly do not need library.

I also noticed you do not have Tolarian Academy. I'd run that in place of Library. You aren't using Mind's Desire (and you might want to consider this card too) but even so, Academy is a lot of mana acceleration.

I don't necro like a madman with this deck, it is not used like in a long variant where you would want to go for 10/12 cards. I'm not looking to win the game the turn after Necro drops but rather use it as a card advantage engine that refills my hand every turn, I usually only go for 4/5 cards for 2/3 turns until I can play Griselbrand or go off with Ywill.

I don't run academy because I'm light on artifact acceleration, Mind's desire would just fizzle a lot in this deck.

Jace and necro are continuous ways to keep my hand filled for Library. Library is very good against Control decks. Timetwister is also not used like in a long variant, so It's actually pretty nice with Library.

2 tendrils has never been needed in storm decks IMO it's only relevant in a handfull of situations.

GWS was a highly successful deck that ran 2-3 copies of Tendrils. Demonic Consultation.

Not sure if two decks, one box or three decks, one box...

<3 you so much.

It's at least two divergent plans. Could be worse though.

Constructive criticism is greatly appreciated, Condescending trolling is not...

I apologize if you didn't find the humor in my post. It's one of those five-percenters that references an innovative deck builder in Samoht's and my area combined with a Futurama meme. As for actual criticism, you should probably revisit TPS. In an early post you mentioned that TPS was "dead," but I don't think you should be so quick to dismiss it.

Ok so private joke then, It seemed like you were saying my build was trying to be 3 different decks in a bad way.

Well TPS as it once was is definitely dead, It can't play the control role enough and it is ill equipped to deal with anything else than blue control decks (Fish, Dredge, Workshops, fast combo decks). Storm decks need alternative gameplans then just going off Or Blightsteel colossus. Griselbrand gives a lot depth to what the deck can do, It wins the games that Tendrils can't, and it makes mini tendrils lethal and a lot easier to go off. It also can recharge like no other storm engine can.

The way I see it either storm has to be an all-in Ad nauseam/Long deck, a combo control deck like Gush or some Hybrid deck like Burning oath and Doomsday. And those decks still have some pretty big flaws in a number of matchups. So unless you do something that deals with bad matchups as well as synergizing with the tendrils plan there is no way your storm deck will be able to deal with a metagame as diverse as the current one is.



I've taken into consideration suggestions especially those of MMc geach, thanks for the input

And i've changed a couple things

Maindeck:
-1 Fact or Fiction
+1 Gifts ungiven
-2 Mental misstep
+1 Snapcaster mage
+1 Grim tutor

I chose Grim tutor over imperial seal for the only reason that off griselbrand or Necropotence imperial seal seems pretty bad without probe, I'm also thinking about trying intuition in that slot as either a combo piece fetcher or a mini gifts post show and tell.

[mmcgeach]

The list I'm testing is as follows...

Show'n'Storm

force of will   4
thoughtseize   3
show and tell   3
griselbrand   3
massacre wurm   1
   
timetwister   1
necropotence   1
yawgmoth's bargain   1
yawgmoth's will   1
mind's desire   1
   
tendrill of agony   2
   
mystical tutor   1
vampiric tutor   1
demonic tutor   1
ancestral recall   1
timewalk   1
ponder   1
brainstorm   1
hurkyl's recall   1
chain of vapor   1
gifts ungiven   1

underground sea   3
island   1
swamp   1
polluted delta   4
misty rainforest   1
tolarian academy   1
library of alexandria   1
   
dark ritual   4
cabal ritual   1
   
five moxes   5
black lotus   1
lotus petal   1
mana crypt   1
sol ring   1
mana vault   1
mox opal   1
chrome mox   1


Its possible something like:

-1 cabal rit
-1 chrome mox
+2 preordain

is a good idea.  Or you can put in your 2 jace's there.  Also repeal seems like its worth testing.

[The Atog Lord]

It's been on a few years since I had run Dark Rituals in a tournament. But, this past Sunday, I won a 20-or-so person Vintage tournament with a deck heavily based on Reid Duke's Vintage Champs deck. Why play Ritual Storm? I think there are a few reasons. First, the matchup against Mana Drain decks, and other fair Blue decks, feels quite favorable. Those decks all have a strong game plan, it it takes a little bit to cement; in that time, you can often have won the game. Second, you do end up with a very high level of power of card in your deck. You have the highest percentage of game-ending cards of anything else. And third, many of the cards that are beginning to appear in mainstream Vintage control lists, such as Toxic Deluge and Swords, are basically non-cards against you.

Ultimately, the reason to play Dark Ritual is celerity. If you wanted a deck that is slower but more resilient than Ritual Storm, then play Gush or a deck focused on assembling Vault/Key quickly. Speed is the reason to play Rituals over Gushes. I'm not saying that this is always a favorable tradeoff; that is a metagame call. I am saying that that is the very reason to play Dark Rituals in the first place.

I see people here discussing strategies using Dark Rituals but using a slower approach. I don't think that will be correct; if you want a slower and more steady deck, then just play something else. The main difficulty of the Ritual Storm deck is the Workshop matchup. I need to play that more before I can be sure of a winning strategy against that deck. But even in that matchup, it seems vital to win either on the first time if on the play, or otherwise be able to win quickly after resolving a mass-bounce spell in a single turn.

[WhiteLotus]

It's been on a few years since I had run Dark Rituals in a tournament. But, this past Sunday, I won a 20-or-so person Vintage tournament with a deck heavily based on Reid Duke's Vintage Champs deck. Why play Ritual Storm? I think there are a few reasons. First, the matchup against Mana Drain decks, and other fair Blue decks, feels quite favorable. Those decks all have a strong game plan, it it takes a little bit to cement; in that time, you can often have won the game. Second, you do end up with a very high level of power of card in your deck. You have the highest percentage of game-ending cards of anything else. And third, many of the cards that are beginning to appear in mainstream Vintage control lists, such as Toxic Deluge and Swords, are basically non-cards against you.

Ultimately, the reason to play Dark Ritual is celerity. If you wanted a deck that is slower but more resilient than Ritual Storm, then play Gush or a deck focused on assembling Vault/Key quickly. Speed is the reason to play Rituals over Gushes. I'm not saying that this is always a favorable tradeoff; that is a metagame call. I am saying that that is the very reason to play Dark Rituals in the first place.

I see people here discussing strategies using Dark Rituals but using a slower approach. I don't think that will be correct; if you want a slower and more steady deck, then just play something else. The main difficulty of the Ritual Storm deck is the Workshop matchup. I need to play that more before I can be sure of a winning strategy against that deck. But even in that matchup, it seems vital to win either on the first time if on the play, or otherwise be able to win quickly after resolving a mass-bounce spell in a single turn.

I guess you are completely right, I've switched back to playing with the reid build and a Gush deck today after failing miserably with the show and storm deck and I came to the conclusion that those deck were just superior in almost every way.
Although Griselbrand is nice for being able to deal with Aggro decks, the show and tell deck is pretty bad without it, it can't go off very well and it can't interact very well.
I think I'll just abandon it since it was mostly an awkward deck that I wanted so bad to make work for fun purposes, same as Burning Oath.


About the Reid Duke list (I guess one could even call it Duke.deck instead of Long since it has so little to do with Mike Long's deck)

It seems odd you consider the shop matchup to be hardest I found that hatebears/white trash decks were the real Nightmare matchup. After playing the deck a bit against different iteration of shops (mosty the 9 sphere builds that seem to be the norm today) I came to the conclusion that it was a roughly even matchup once I had developped a strong sideboard plan.
The ritual deck will loose when the shop deck is on the play and shuts it down completely with chalice of the void, tangle wire and lodestone golem. But to be honest any mana drain deck that didn't draw it's force of wills would of probably ended in the same situation.
Game 1s are of course usually pretty rough even if you are on the play. But in games 2 and 3 with full hurkyl's recall power and strong basic mana base they should start to feel less relaxed. After all they do not have force of will and resolving hurkyl's recall is roughly the same as resolving oath of druids and the ritual deck has a lot more mana at it's disposal than the oath deck does.

Maybe Force of wills in the sideboard could help against shops and bear decks but those almost always play Cavern of souls. I tried Forces in the main deck but I didn't like what they did to the deck, they just seemed bad in most matchups.

Towards the shop matchup, I think the hurkyl's plan is still the thing you want to be doing, only since workshop decks are much faster than they used to be you need a way to take tempo back through something that can get rid of their threat, while you set yourself up to bounce them and win.

The way I View their strategy is: laying tons of lock pieces to create tempo, tempo that they attempt to exploit with an efficient beater than synergises with the tempo strategy (Karn, hellkite, Lodestone golem...)

So the key to winning that matchup is focusing on the beater instead of the lock components which are too numerous to be dealt with 1 for 1 trades.

For a ritual deck you want to deal with what's thwarting your gameplan in one mighty blow with hurkyl's recall, except you aren't always ready to just directly win the turn after or you don't have that 2 manas but you need to do something or their beatdown strategy will kill you shortly.

So my strategy is to build up a steady mana base in order to be ready to bounce them when I know I'll be able to win on the next turn, and in the meantime use an efficient destroy artifact effect that will deal with their threat or a very troublesome lock component (such as a chalice of the void). The card I've found to be the best to fill that role is Ingot Chewer since it evades chalice of the void and thorn of amethyst, it can also be hardcasted to keep a lodestone golem at bay in certain narrow scenarios.

I also like to use Empty the warrens in order to enable easy wins with 4/5 storm count or keep their beatdown/Permanent advantage strategy at bay. Having a tinker bot target is a bad idea in my opinion since the deck lacks the interaction to protect it so that strategy has cost me almost as much games as it has won me.

My strategy against Disruptive creature decks is pretty similar only instead of Hurkyl's recall I go for Toxic Deluge but no 1 for 1 trades.

I would like to see your sideboard plan Atog if you care to share it.

[The Atog Lord]

Lotus, thank you for the insights. I run one Toxic Deluge, though more may be correct.  I honestly don't have a sideboard plan against Shops or Creatures that I am comfortable enough with yet. I still need to work on that.

[WhiteLotus]

I've also spoke with players that suggested I try a Transformative Oath Sideboard to deal with the problematic matchups. But I never got around to actually trying it since those decks tend to board Grafdigger's cage quite often to deal with Yawgmoth's will and tinker.

[WhiteLotus]

I tried including Fow in the Reid Long deck, and it seems pretty nice, although in some situations you don't want to 2 for 1 yourself on a counterspell, it's nice being able to push a will or a bargain through occasionally. The primary reason for it's inclusion though is that it helps with the bad matchups (Workshops, disruptive creature decks).
Especially with the workshop matchup, where countering that Lodestone golem or chalice at 0/1 that locks you out of your artifact mana or from half of your spells, should be pretty huge.

On the other hand the deck doesn't seem to loose much speed.

What i did from previous build was go
-1 Mox opal
-1 Lion's eye diamond
-1 Hurkyl's recall
-1 Windfall
-1 Gitaxian probe
-1 Flusterstorm
+4 force of will
+1 cabal ritual
+1 Gifts ungiven

I would like some suggestions on the list because i'm now short 1 mana source in the main deck (27) and i have an additional sideboard slot. Blue spell count is 19.

Pitch Long

Mana
3 Polluted Delta
2 Bloodstained Mire
1 Scalding Tarn
2 Underground Sea
1 Badlands
1 Island
1 Swamp
1 Tolarian Academy
1 Black Lotus
1 Lotus Petal
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mana Vault
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Sol Ring
4 Dark Ritual
1 Cabal Ritual

Protection
4 Duress
4 Force of Will
1 Chain of Vapor
1 Repeal
1 Hurkyl's Recall

Buisness
1 Necropotence
1 Yawgmoth's Bargain
1 Mind's Desire
1 Yawgmoth's Will
1 Memory Jar
1 Wheel of Fortune
1 Timetwister
1 Tinker
1 Gifts Ungiven
1 Grim Tutor
1 Imperial Seal
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Brainstorm
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Ponder
3 Gitaxian Probe
1 Time Walk
1 Tendrils of Agony

SB: 2 Hurkyl's Recall
SB: 1 Mountain
SB: 3 Ingot Chewer
SB: 1 Rebuild
SB: 1 Island
SB: 2 Toxic Deluge
SB: 1 Thoughtseize
SB: 1 Empty the Warrens
SB: 1 Swamp
SB: 1 Flusterstorm
SB: 1 ???

[A.-1.]

Here is a primer on TPS from 2004. Other than new cards being printed and cards being restricted, there are very few changes between that list and Reid Duke's Champs list. I'm glad that a Ritual-based storm deck made top 8 at Champs to help give the archetype some visibility, but newer players need to realize that his list is not revolutionary.

Adding Force of Will to Reid's deck results in a list similar to the third-place list here from June 5, 2011. It is the earliest inclusion of Gitaxian Probe in TPS listed on both TC Decks and Morphling. Your list is only 10 cards or so different than Tobi's maindeck. I've been playing a version very similar to his list, off and on, since late 2011.

I would say you're definitely on the right track with your current list, but I am also in the camp that believes that Force of Will is necessary in TPS. I believe that 27 mana sources is the correct number. I would run Rebuild over Repeal in the maindeck unless Oath is a large part of your metagame. This also frees up a sideboard slot. I would also recommend running a Robot somewhere in the 75. I'm currently running Blightsteel Colossus in the main and Inkwell Leviathan in the board. Instead of cards like Thoughtseize and Flusterstorm, you should test Defense Grid. You'll never be able to fight all of the narrow counters in decks like Landstill and Bomberman.

[WhiteLotus]

Here is a primer on TPS from 2004. Other than new cards being printed and cards being restricted, there are very few changes between that list and Reid Duke's Champs list. I'm glad that a Ritual-based storm deck made top 8 at Champs to help give the archetype some visibility, but newer players need to realize that his list is not revolutionary.

Adding Force of Will to Reid's deck results in a list similar to the third-place list here from June 5, 2011. It is the earliest inclusion of Gitaxian Probe in TPS listed on both TC Decks and Morphling. Your list is only 10 cards or so different than Tobi's maindeck. I've been playing a version very similar to his list, off and on, since late 2011.

I would say you're definitely on the right track with your current list, but I am also in the camp that believes that Force of Will is necessary in TPS. I believe that 27 mana sources is the correct number. I would run Rebuild over Repeal in the maindeck unless Oath is a large part of your metagame. This also frees up a sideboard slot. I would also recommend running a Robot somewhere in the 75. I'm currently running Blightsteel Colossus in the main and Inkwell Leviathan in the board. Instead of cards like Thoughtseize and Flusterstorm, you should test Defense Grid. You'll never be able to fight all of the narrow counters in decks like Landstill and Bomberman.

Thanks for the primer it was an interesting read. But this deck is not really a Tps build, it has more to do with 3 color Grim long. Reid said himself that he took his old Grim long list and just adapted it to fit in 4 probes and a misstep.
It's not revolutionary, but for me it's the first time I ever saw a Long list with a resilient land mana base, and Gitaxian probe made the deck pretty awesome so that's what attracted me to it. Prior to that I was trying the Burning Oath deck, which had weaknesses I was not comfortable with at all (Wasteland, Grafdigger's, surgical extraction/extirpate vulnerability; also burning wish makes the storm kill kind of clunky imo).

Reid's list is very "combotastic" but some games it just stands there as a victim and cannot impose it's overwhelming velocity. I hope the Force of will plan will give a new depth to the deck, being able to slow down the opponent's gameplan and serve as additional threat density as it helps resolving key threats. In other words help it play the tempo game.

It's not clear to me that 27 mana sources is too few, I still get flooded or screwed seems to about the same extent for each, so you're probably right. Especially since I cut the situational mana that is sometimes just blank anyway (no LED, opal, Chrome)

I'm Now trying your suggestions:

Rebuild for repeal, seems like neither one is strictly superior to the other.
Rebuild will be better as a 2 for 1 when you would need to hurkyl's your opponent (especially against workshops where it will pertty much pay for itself with enough artifact mana) it can also be used as a topdeck tutor enabler same as Repeal.
Repeal is better when you have memory jar and it's more flexible in what it can target (stuff like stony silence, thalia, magus of the moon, rest in peace), it's also strong as a tempo play since it draws you a card (pseudo time walk) and set's your opponent back a turn. I guess testing/ metagame will tell.

In the sideboard I cut the rebuild, thoughtseize and fluster for 3 defense grid and completed my superfluous slot with snuff out.
The good thing about defense grid is that it's so good against decks that rely on counters to interact almost in a cavern of souls kind of way. But the downside is that flusterstorm and thoughtseize are very valuable in combo mirrors, and thoughtseize is also good against shops and hatebears.
Snuff out is a test to deal with shops and Disruptive creatures, it might switch to being a robot, now that i have force of wills to protect the tinker plan.
But I'm not a very big fan of the robot plan since everyone in their right mind is prepared to deal with it and people tend to board grafdigger's cage a lot against this deck to weaken Yawgmoth's Will.

I haven't played against dredge since I brought force of wills in the deck, but I suppose that the I'm faster than you in a goldfish plan should still work. After all the deck does win by turn 2 more than 50% of the time and almost never takes more than turn 3 to win.

[A.-1.]

I can see the similarities to the circa 2007 Grim Long lists. It's amazing to me that Dark Ritual-based storm decks have remained mostly the same after 10 years (with Burning Wish's printing, restriction, and then un-restriction being major exceptions). I was simply pointing out older lists to hopefully give you some new ideas and perspective. When switching decks, I almost always revisit old lists as a jumping off point.

You are correct that Rebuild can be used as a cantrip but only from your hand. You cannot cycle Rebuild off Yawgmoth's Will or Mind's Desire. I've learned both the hard way. Game one versus hatebears, Repeal might be better if they're not running Gaddock Teeg. Postboard, you should consider siding out Memory Jar.

If your metagame has a lot of combo decks, Sadistic Sacrament is a good answer. I'm not of fan of getting into counter wars with this deck. I'd much rather go over the top with a card like Sacrament or go around with Defense Grid.

You can't unequivocally say that Thoughtseize is good versus Shops. I'd argue that it's only good versus Forgemaster versions while you're on the play. Other versions will laugh at your Thoughtseize and thank you for the life loss.

If you want single-target creature removal, I'd recommend Smother or Doom Blade. Snuff Out is fine in a deck like BUG Fish, but this deck does not want even more life loss and another dead card versus Gaddock Teeg. I'm not sure you even need targeted removal since you're already running two Toxic Deluge. Now that you're running Force of Will, go back and test a Tinker robot. You might be surprised to find how many decks are ill-prepared to deal with Inkwell Leviathan.

The Dredge matchup is dependent on what version they're playing. You can certainly outrace the version without Dread Return that is more disruptive but slower. The versions with Dread Return can be problematic if they're on the play. That said, I've found that Dredge hate is not necessary in this deck.