Brainstorm Piles

Preamble

Brainstorm is one of the most powerful spells available in the Legacy format at this time. There have been numerous articles written on this seemingly innocuous at first glance one mana cantrip. We'll assume you know the basics of casting Brainstorm, and instead focus on the specifics of using it as a part of — or to initiate — your Doomsday piles. In many cases it can be used as any other cantrip, but it has unique applications to Doomsday piles by allowing you to swap cards in hand for cards in the pile.

In the core concepts we alluded to the use of Brainstorm as being a special case when discussing the use of cantrips to dig into our Doomsday piles. More than just a cantrip to start consuming your piles, Brainstorm can enable you to access three cards at once from said pile unlike other options from your suite of cantrips. This, combined with what could be otherwise dead cards from hand can turn a resource-light turn into a winning one.

Brainstorm piles allow you to win with very limited initial mana resources. For example, if you are constrained on mana against Wasteland or opposing Rishadan Port activations you can still combo out with only a Brainstorm post-Doomsday as long as you have at least one extra card in hand to put back. Sometimes it can be difficult to identify when you have access to a Brainstorm pile, or when your Brainstorm is better off simply as the second cantrip in a Double Cantrip pile. With this guide, and some practice, you should become confident in this decision making in no time.

Also to note: we'll start to use more acronyms and abbreviations in this chapter

Brainstorm in Hand

+ Brainstorm + X

Here we have the simplest type of Brainstorm pile. Instead of needing both a cantrip effect and , we can convert the Brainstorm into what is missing.

Let's look at the steps to complete the pile:

1. Cast Brainstorm, draw LED, SW, IU and put back X then IU on top
2. Cast LED
3. Cycle SW, hold priority crack LED for , draw IU
4. Cast IU, draw X, LP and TO
5. Cast LP, crack for
6. Cast TO and win the game with 0 cards left in your deck

In the worked example above, you effectively turn the Brainstorm and the superfluous card into plus a way to draw into your two mana draw spell, in this instance Ideas Unbound.

Another example is presented here using other cantrips.

+ Brainstorm + X

1. Cast Brainstorm, draw LED, SW, Pnd and put back X then Pnd on top
2. Cast LED
3. Cycle SW, hold priority crack LED for , draw Pnd
4. Cast Pnd, draw TO
5. Cast TO and win the game with 2 cards left in your deck

The Island in the example can be any card as it is not used in the execution of the pile. You can use Consider to turn this second example from an imperfect pile to a perfect one.

+ Brainstorm + X

1. Cast Brainstorm, draw LED, SW, Con and put back X then Con on top
2. Cast LED
3. Cycle SW, hold priority crack LED for , draw Consider
4. Cast Consider, surveil X, draw SW
5. Cycle SW, draw TO
6. Cast TO and win the game with 0 cards left in your deck

As always you can play around with the compositions of these piles depending on what X is in your hand.

Brainstorm and Combo Piece Available

You may find yourself in a scenario where you have a card in hand that is thought to be dead outside of the combo turn. Thankfully, Brainstorm allows you to transfer it out of your hand and replace it into the pile. Let's take the example above. It may be the opponent has a card like Scavenging Ooze out and you need to utilize LED to generate mana but don't want to discard your one Oracle to have it eaten by the Ooze.

Take the following example:

+ Brainstorm + Thassa's Oracle

1. Cast Brainstorm, draw LED, SW, Pnd, put back Oracle then Pnd on top.
2. Cast LED
3. Cycle SW, hold priority crack LED for , draw Pnd.
4. Cast Ponder and arrange your library so that it is (Top - EoA, TO, Pnd - Bottom), draw EoA
5. Cycle EoA and draw TO.
6. Cast TO and win the game with 1 card left in your deck

As you can see this is an imperfect pile as it does not beat removal on Oracle due to it leaving a single card in your deck. If you have an additional available then you can change step 3. above to arrange the deck (EoA, Pnd, TO) and cast the second Ponder with the additional . Likewise, if you have another Ponder or Preordain in addition to the Oracle in hand, you can use that instead of the first Ponder in the example and use that extra card to generate the additional needed for the same starting mana cost.

+ Brainstorm + Thassa's Oracle + Cantrip

1. Cast Brainstorm, draw LED, SW, LP, put back Oracle then your Cantrip on top
2. Cast LED and LP
3. Cycle SW, hold priority crack LED and LP for , draw the Cantrip
4. Cast the Cantrip and arrange your library as (EoA, Pnd, TO), draw EoA
5. Cycle Edge, draw Ponder
6. Cast Ponder, draw Oracle
7. Cast Oracle to win with 0 cards left in your deck

The Cantrip in the above example can be any of Ponder, Preordain or Brainstorm. Depending on which cantrip you use changes how you perform step 3 above. If it is Ponder, you simply rearrange the deck as there are only 3 cards left in it during resolution. Likewise, with Brainstorm; you will draw all three cards and replace 2 in the desired order as required. With Preordain you scry the Oracle to the bottom of your library and draw the next card along. Another free cycler will not work in this position as they do not have the deck manipulation effects needed however even something as simple as Opt can be used.

Even if not the Oracle, if you already have another element of the pile in hand, you can substitute additional toolbox cards within the standard pile to utilise the additional resources. Let's look at an example where you have an extra available, Ideas Unbound in hand and you know your opponent is holding a Stifle in hand.

+ Brainstorm + Ideas Unbound + X

We can play the pile in the following manner:

1. Cast Brainstorm, draw LED, SW, Duress, put back X then Ideas Unbound on top
2. Cast Duress targeting the opponent, take their Stifle
3. Cast LED
4. Cycle SW, hold priority crack LED for , draw IU
5. Cast IU, draw X, LP, TO
6. Cast LP, crack for
7. Cast Oracle to win with 0 cards in your deck

Because we had additional resources we were able to utilise them to provide additional protection against what our opponent had. In this instance having the extra card in hand allowed us to make use of three of the pile cards immediately rather than just two. This also results in a perfect pile.

Brainstorm and Free Cantrip Available

You may find yourself with all the tools in hand to perform a Brainstorm pile, but you don't have a spare this time to cast the Brainstorm itself. If you have any free cycle effect in hand you can get around this by placing a Lotus Petal as the first card of your pile. This works with a -producing land as well if you have an available land drop for that turn.

+ Brainstorm + Street Wraith + X

1. Cycle SW, draw LP
2. Cast LP, crack for
3. Cast Brainstorm, draw LED, EoA, TO, put back X then TO on top
4. Cast LED
5. Cycle EoA, hold priority crack LED for , draw TO
6. Cast Oracle and win the game with 2 cards in your deck

Again this is an example of an imperfect pile. If you played a list featuring Consider in, you can make the following minor adjustment to the pile to turn it into a perfect pile.

+ Brainstorm + Street Wraith + X

1. Cycle SW, draw LP
2. Cast LP, crack for
3. Cast Brainstorm, draw LED, EoA, Consider, put back X then Consider on top
4. Cast LED
5. Cycle EoA, hold priority crack LED for , draw Consider
6. Cast Consider, surveil X, draw TO
7. Cast Oracle and win the game with 0 cards in your deck

Free Cantrip Available

Using the concepts we learned above, we can actually create an imperfect Brainstorm pile without Brainstorm even being in our hand. Instead of needing something like a Lotus Petal to be our top card, we can set Brainstorm as our top card instead.

+ Street Wraith + X

This time you cycle into the Brainstorm rather than into the mana needed for it and make an imperfect pile. Once again, you can use excess mana or add mana in the pile if the card X is a cantrip in order to make it a perfect pile.

Alternatively, use Consider to get rid of X and achieve a perfect pile.

+ Street Wraith + X

Not Using LED

Sometimes you may not wish to commit to a Brainstorm pile because you are concerned about interaction and are holding Force of Will and a pitch card for it. In these circumstances you can often create an imperfect Brainstorm pile to win that same turn whilst keeping up your countermagic.

For instance, you successfully resolved Doomsday but suspect your opponent may be holding an Endurance in hand. In this scenario you can build the following pile:

Brainstorm + Street Wraith + X + X

1. Cycle SW, draw EoA
2. Cycle EoA, draw LP
3. Cast LP, crack for
4. Cast Brainstorm, draw LP, LP, TO, put back both Xs on top
5. Cast both LP, crack them for
6. Cast TO to win with 2 cards left in your deck

Here we successfully perform an imperfect Brainstorm pile without needing to discard our hand to LED.

You can also utilise a spare land in hand plus a land drop to enable a perfect Brainstorm pile. Take the following scenario where we have perhaps run out of fetchable lands from our deck as they are in our hand:

Brainstorm + Street Wraith + Underground Sea + Underground Sea

A fetchland in play and a land drop available for turn

1. Cycle SW, draw SW
2. Cycle SW, draw LP
3. Cast LP, crack for
4. Cast Brainstorm. draw Misty, Daze, TO, put back both Underground Seas
5. Play Misty Rainforest, crack both fetchlands
6. Tap both Seas for
7. Cast TO with 0 cards left in your library

Next Steps

One final point to make is to be careful in the use of Brainstorm. When resolving, it requires you to draw 3 cards at once which can be painful if you are hit by an opposing mill effect in response. Sometimes a Brainstorm can get stranded in your hand or pile without use.

Now you have covered the basic concepts of pile building and the use of Brainstorm to exchange resources between hand and the pile itself. The next stage starts looking more at passing the turn, sometimes multiple times, to execute a pile.