"Swamp, Dark Ritual, Necropotence." This is what I said.

But what I did was to deploy a Ramosian Sergeant.

This was twenty-six years ago, the summer of 2000. The format was Masques Block Constructed. Our Hero was good at it. Really good. If you don't know this story already, you're about to see just how.

That first game took only a few minutes. On the back of Ramosian Sergeant searching up a squad of Steadfast Guards, we were on to Game 2.

My opponent was Justin Polin, a future writing partner and Grand Prix Top 8 competitor... But at this point kind of a pain in the ass.

"You only beat me," Justin said... "Because you went first and played Ramosian Sergeant on the first turn." Ramosian Sergeant was ostensibly the best card in either Rebels-laden deck, so it's easy to imagine someone believing this.

"Let's be honest," I responded. "I could have played her on the second turn and probably still beat you." Wink.

We both laughed.

"But I'll tell you what," I continued. "I'm so much better than you that I will side out all my Ramosian Sergeants and win anyway."

Justin was incredulous to say the least. "Shut up," he began; and then really began, "Let's see how you like it."

Justin opened on a Swamp / Dark Ritual / Necropotence, aka a Ramosian Sergeant of his own, going first in this game, as was his right.

A few minutes later we were filling out the match slip. 2-0 YT.

Justin was shaking his head, not really understanding how the game had gone. He had opened on the dream, had access to his Rebel Informer essentially the whole game... And just kind of died while drawing two or more cards per turn.

I flipped over my sideboard. Not only were my Sergeants there, like I had promised, but so was every other Rebel in my starting sixty.

"Told you."

I went on to go undefeated in the Swiss and then get boned by the original Legend Rule in the Top 8. Should have won the roll, I guess.

But our match became legend in the Northeast during that PTQ season. Most memorably, three-time Pro Tour Top 8 competitor Chris Pikula once shrugged his shoulders and told his opponent "I know I just beat the hell out of you with all these Rebels, but I guess it's right to side them out..."

Not everybody sided out their Rebels heads up, of course. It's not intuitive. They thought they were going to get advantages with cards like Rebel Informer. They thought they were going to spread the floor with their search cards. Certainly, they were drawing all kinds of extra cards per turn... Weren't they?

What I had figured out on the fly while trash talking Justin was that Rebel players weren't actually drawing any extra cards at all. What they were doing was pulling all the threats out of their decks and putting them on the battlefield. They couldn't stockpile their Rebels in hand in case something bad happened. Quite the opposite, in fact.

Moreover, they weren't drawing extra "good cards", or good cards at all. They were drawing plopping out Grizzly Bears. Balduvian Bears. Fresh Volunteers. These 2/2s all kind of sucked. Because everyone was metagaming against each other's presumably ever-widening number of 2/2s, it wasn't just that they had uncastable cards like Rebel Informer... But their non-Grizzly Bears cards were mostly stuff like Reverent Mantra or Ramosian Rally. You literally just there to break up boards where both players had three or more 2/2s. And the worst part? At some point their entire decks were going to be mostly Lands.

After sideboarding, I made my deck all Parallax Waves and Chimeric Idols, and most importantly Mageta the Lions. The big realization was that it didn't matter how many Creatures the opponent searched up. Mageta killed all of them and Chimeric Idol always survived. The breakers weren't Sergeants or Informers, they were Disenchants. Eventually I maxed out so many Disenchants I had Devout Witness in my deck by the end of the season.

You can pull two things out of this. The more inspiring of the two is that even the best openers are breakable on the draw by better strategy and preparation. But the other is that in some matches, it is simply really important to understand how the other player is going to play even if, especially if, they get the cards they want.

Fast forward to 2026.

The matchup is Pauper Madness Burn versus Pauper Ruby Storm. I played (and luckily won) both sides of this matchup in the last seven days and simply found it fascinating.

The Phases of The Ruby Storm Matchup

The default of this matchup seems to be that Ruby Storm plays in phases.

1. It gets out a "Ruby Medallion" which is not a Medallion at all, but a 2/1 or a 2/2 Creature. Maybe two of them. While not impossible, it is unlikely Ruby Storm will ever be able to combo off without at least one cost reduction Creature on the battlefield.
2. Once this happens, Ruby Storm can start netting mana. It can churn through its deck. Relatively few cards actually net cardboard to hand (sound familiar?), but it can sure put a lot of cardboard on the battlefield.
3. At some point Ruby Storm has so much mana it can cast as many as four copies of Seize the Storm.

With Haste and +1/+1 counters aplenty, these tokens (combined with some buffed Thornscape Familiars or Spider Manifestations) can Trample over Red's poor 1/3 and 2/2 Creatures for dozens of damage all in one turn.

From Red's side, the historical operating instructions are pretty simple.

First of all, remember Red is a four-turn goldfish deck. If you untap with Guttersnipe, you usually just win.

Ruby Storm can mess with this by going First Day of Class into Firebending Lesson (a tactic I employed in both the Ruby Storm games I won)... But this is a scary play on many fronts. Red might have another Guttersnipe, but Ruby Storm will not have another Firebending Lesson. Worse, every First Day of Class is precious. You can't kill the opponent in one turn without one, and the card Spider Manifestation (if you play that version) has almost no text in the Storm strategy in the absence of Haste.

Additionally, the Red Deck can just kill all the Medallion Creatures, which can prevent Ruby Storm from ever getting to the point that it can go off. While it is possible for them to combo off without a "Ruby Medallion" ... probably not against a four-turn combo deck on the other side of the table. Going in this direction Red can essentially win at their leisure, the way they do many other matchups, two or four points at a time.

The Easiest Way to Lose to Ruby Storm

Underestimate their ability to go off early. Tap out for that Guttersnipe? Maybe on the play? With no Medallion Creature on the other side of the battlefield? Believe it or not, you might lose to combo then and there.

I had a play-test game last week where I opened on Hickory Woodlot, followed up with Sandstone Needle, and forgot to play my third Land. It just never came up.

I had to start...

Played Goblin Anarchomancer for ...

Got the discount on Thornscape Familiar for all of ...

Cast Seething Song with the remaining floating ...

And went completely through my deck without ever playing one of the basic Mountains that must have become available thanks to Reckless Impulse, Wrenn's Resolve, or Glimpse the Impossible. Which sounds impossible.

"I just didn't think you could do it with no Medallion," said Rich Bucey (my frequent play-test partner and podcast co-host).

"Yeah, obviously you didn't"

Default Sideboarding from the Storm Side

In a lot of ways, Seize the Storm (Ruby Storm's "combo" win condition) is the worst card in the deck. Almost every other card either generates mana (Seething Song, Thornscape Familiar), draws cards (Wrenn's Resolve, Reckless Impulse), or both (Manamorphose, Big Score).

Seize the Storm isn't terrible. It's a fitting win condition for a deck designed around First Day of Class, and has the added bonus of having Flashback. While Seize the Storm may not draw cards itself, you can at least discard it to a Pirate's Pillage to keep your rhythm going mid-combo.

When sideboarding against the Red Madness deck, one thing we found is that you are at least less dependent on Seize the Storm to win. I think you can confidently side out one of the two copies, if not both.

Why?

Because you can start your combo, "fail" and still end up way ahead of the opponent if you draw (and presumably play) a Weather the Storm anywhere along the way. In some ways, Weather the Storm can replace Seize the Storm. Is 61 life not enough space to win by? What if you have a couple of 4/4s thanks to First Day of Class? Some of them might be able to attack, right?

Red Deck Counterplay

Remember our story from way up top? The duel Rebel Informers against... let me see here... zero Rebels?

I had the privilege of playing Ruby Storm against Mono-Red Madness first, and then reversed the matchup the next night (against the same opponent, inspired by Ruby Storm if you can believe that) the next night.

I had gotten Guttersnipe on a Firebending Lesson in Game 1.

He "Stormed" me out on turn four in Game 2 (I played a lot of cards in response to the lethal Fireblast, but none of them were Weather the Storm).

And in Game 3, ignorant of my own option to side out at least one Seize the Storm, I got a concession mid-combo when I went to 61 with a Weather the Storm.

So, at that point the jig was up. We talked about the games and I was like "I don't know if you even need Seize the Storm anymore. Can you not win with a bunch of 4/4s? Red isn't good at killing a bunch of 4/4s."

... Or isn't it?

This is how I sideboarded from the side with double-digit basic Mountains the next night:

• +2 End the Festivities
• +4 Searing Blaze
• +4 Cast into the Fire
• -4 Faithless Looting
• -2 Highway Robbery
• -4 Sneaky Snacker

Sneaky Snacker is the definition of "small ball" in this matchup. They're not losing to a 2/1, and playing Snacker is just going to trick me into doing dumb things and keeping dopey cards.

What I wanted to do instead was to have access to every card in my deck and sideboard that could conceivably kill a Creature, even if it had to team up to kill a Creature. This sideboarding strategy isn't perfect against a 20/20 Elemental token, but I thought that with the cards that could ping for even one damage I might keep my opponent from getting to critical mass.

In fact, I killed quite a few 0/1 Eldrazi from Glimpse the Impossible with End the Festivities, which turned out to be an efficient exchange of mana, especially when I had a pinger in play.

So, here's my thought: How big can the non-Elemental Creatures actually be? Goblin Anarchomancer might be 5/5, but that's the max Anarchomancer. Would there be four of them in play all at once? That could be problematic; but any game where the opponent was making multiple 5/5s was probably going to be an uphill battle either way.

But if he "just" gained a few dozen life and had maybe a 4/3 and a 4/4 or two in play? That's manageable with some Cast into the Fire / Lava Dart / End the Festivities help on top of a Lightning Bolt or Fiery Temper. Again, as long as there were no Elementals in play, I might be able to Gear Two the win, even if the opposing life total looked enormous.

Of course, Sazacap's Brew is a back door way to win in corner games where the opponent is a little too enthusiastic.

It's 2000 again. It matters a lot how the Ruby Storm deck is going to sideboard. Are they Idols and Disenchants, or did they leave their Rebels in? That is, are there four possible Elementals or none at all? How big will the non-Elementals be, and how many of them might show up? Can I cut this possibility off entirely?

The open secret here, of course, is that this sideboarding strategy is one of the best for preventing the combo entirely. Sometimes the other guy will just go Hickory Woodlot into Thornscape Familiar. I'll take that End the Festivities trade every day! Of course, Searing Blaze is indiscriminate about what it kills. It gets every Bug, Goblin, or Spider (or Eldrazi, I suppose) the opponent wants to throw at you.

Just some thoughts from both sides of the battlefield on this one.

Just don't make it easy for them.

LOVE

MIKE