Johannes Leutenegger

I tried to replicate the latest Ruby Storm list by Bryant Cook of “The Epic Storm”. The deck has notably three Galvanic Relays in the maindeck. Bryant is notoriously a fan of the card. The deck also has 5 MDFC (3 Shatterskull Smashing // Shatterskull, the Hammer Pass and 2 Valakut Awakening // Valakut Stoneforge) I missed some of the MDFC, I replaced them with Mountains. Otherwise it was the same in the mainboard. In the sideboard however, I only ran one Silence and two Orim's Chant. Bryant is not a big fan of Orim's Chant because it does not play around The One Ring. I agree with him and already ordered some more copies of Silence.

Nonetheless, I wanted to test the deck in a tournament.

First round against Inkeeper's Talent brew

The first game in a new LGS I went to, started pretty bad. My opponent came late, and he played a strange deck with Innkeeper's Talent, which revolved around a Planeswalker (can't remember which one) and lands with +1/+1 counters on them. The deck was pretty fast in the first game, when I was on the draw, and I lost. The second game dragged on for minutes. I was durdeling around, until I got the win in the first extra turn. So we drew. 1-1

Second round against Boros Energy

In the first game I felt really bad, because I basically played with myself like a horny teenager. My opponent understandably had not a lot of fun. I won. In the next to games my opponent hated me out with graveyard hate and Drannith Magistrate. I had removal in my starting hand (Static Prison) but after two or three hate pieces it got really hard to handle. 1-2

Third round against Dimir Mill

This matchup is crazy good for me, at least in the first game. My opponent filled up my graveyard really good, and it was so easy to combo off, that my opponent conceded before I really started. Games two and three however were terrible. In the second game I sided out my Galvanic Relays put in three of my four Static Prisons (I left one in my sideboard in case of a Wish). My opponent hated me out in the worst possible way: In the third game for example, he removed my Wish with Surgical Extraction. I did not have any serious win con in my mainboard. So I basically lost, when the spell resolved. Sadness went on the stack and it resolved. My next list will have at least one Grapeshot main. 1-2

Fourth round against Domain Zoo

I was really tired in the fourth round, but I guess my opponent was too, so no excuses. The deck was really solid and fast. In the first game my opponent just was to fast for me. He had a Leyline of the Guildpact in his starting hand, and this was enough to slam out Territorial Kavus and Wild Nacatl. He finished me off with a Tribal Flames for exactly the right amount of damage. The second game I was faster than him on the play. The third game I lost, my opponent had two Damping Spheres. 1-2

Final thoughts

I don't want to complain to much, how MH3 warped Modern. I play a MH3 deck as well. But it showed what the problem of Ruby Storm or Storm in general is: It is too easy to hate out. One of my opponents (round two) had six pieces of hate against me: Graveyard hate, the Drannith Magistrate and a Deafening Silence. The last one is so good in a creature deck, it is insane.

I only had one Shatterskull Smashing // Shatterskull, the Hammer Pass in my deck. Three would be better, especially against the Drannith Magistrate. The card is already ordered. I don't know how I feel about Modern at this state. All my other decks (Burn, Dredge) are not viable anymore and my new deck does not cut it either.