Introducing: Grinding Station

[Jonathan Alexander]

Digging for land is a good reason, as is being cantrip-flooded. Outside of Gitaxian Probe, you don't really want to have more than two cantrips during your combo turn. Ideally, when going the Storm X route, you want to have three to four lands, at least one Gitaxian Probe, a Brainstorm to get rid of land, 2+ Rituals, one or two discard spells (only if they have Stifle), Tendrils. The rest can basically be anything, as long as you have the mana to cast it. Lotus Petals are actually very strong in this deck.

Outside of that, it really depends. You need to think about how you want your hand to look like depending on how it actually looks. When you already have Past In Flames and some discard spells, there's no reason to try to sculpt a Storm X hand. Then you can also cast your cantrips earlier. That's what I like about the deck, it's very resilient and versatile so it's neither bad nor boring to play.

I don't have MTGO, but when I get around to do so, I'm gonna record one or two games on Cockatrice or something.

[Henrik]

I've been trying this deck out some more.

Compared to ANT and TES, the LEDs in this deck are quite weak. Sure, they are still black lotus in conjunction with PiF, so calling them weak might seem like blasphemy ;) but in the storm X route, which I found to be the most common win, their only purpose is actually to generate storm. Also, I very rarely (never?) board in the ANT package from the SB. Actually, I don't use that SB strategy anymore.

I have been toying with the idea of removing them from the deck, but there are quite few realistic alternatives. Red rituals are what comes to mind.

I understand that some of you will say "just don't do it", and that's fine, I get it. But say I want to test it, then please help me with these questions:
- Which red ritual would be best to use?
- Would any other changes to the decklist be beneficial when using additional rituals instead of LED? (I was thinking Intuition)

[DireLemming]

Rite of Flame is without a doubt the best red ritual, although it is not the most synergistic with PiF. Eschewing LEDs also makes running counterspells a much more enticing proposition. Or you can just run Burning Wish which at the same time makes LEDs better.

[Dark Ritual]

The AdN package in the SB is for the 'rough' matchups i.e. nonblue decks generally without countermagic. I wouldn't leave home without it, in theory you could board into DDFT though since we run 12 cantrips 4 of those being probe although without sensei's top I'm not sure if it's worth it. And DDFT sometimes has trouble against aggro when you halve your lifetotal.

I wouldn't replace LED. Sure, it has almost cost me games when I would have preferred rite of flame to LED to generate actual mana or had more spells to flashback with PiF but LED is just bonkers with PiF and the postboard plan of AdN + IT against maverick and other such decks. There have been games where if I didn't draw LED I would have lost, where I can't get lethal tendrils and have to settle for a mini tendrils but have a PiF in the yard and LED helps flashback PiF like a champ when you topdeck multiples or one LED + a dark rit or cabal rit or something.

I wouldn't run countermagic in this deck even if I didn't run LED, not even pact of negation would cut it for me because it's too all in to cast pact and other free countermagic costs an additional card from hand that we likely need. And countermagic that costs mana seems just worse than duress effects or even defense grid.

[Jonathan Alexander]

It's right that the Lion's Eye Diamonds are worse than in other combo decks. I'd rather have Lotus Petal 5-8 to be honest. It's also true that they're quite good with Burning Wish though, I've been thinking about that lately and a friend already played a list with Burnng Wishes maindeck. The sideboard is supposed to let you win against aggro decks ironically, where you have to win as early as possible.

Red rituals are mostly bad, the only exception is Rite of Flame. That's only medium bad. You could run the second Rain of Filth, they're really good unless you have multiples.

Intuition I wouldn't play, much rather Meditate. Intuition is really bad against Surgical Extraction, which seems to be everywhere right now and both get countered by Red Blast and Spell Pierce easily. That's contrary to this deck's general philosophy.

Speaking of boarding into DDFT, this is what I played today to a 6th place finish in a 71 players event:

4 Lion's Eye Diamond
4 Lotus Petal
1 Sensei's Divining Top

4 Brainstorm
4 Cabal Ritual
4 Dark Ritual
1 Meditate
1 Rain of Filth

1 Badlands
1 Flooded Strand
2 Island
4 Polluted Delta
4 Scalding Tarn
1 Volcanic Island
2 Underground Sea

3 Burning Wish
3 Cabal Therapy
4 Gitaxian Probe
1 Past in Flames
3 Preordain
1 Ponder
1 Rite of Flame
3 Tendrils of Agony
3 Thoughtseize

//Sideboard
1 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
2 Extirpate
1 Rain of Filth
1 Sudden Shock
1 Shelldock Isle
4 Doomsday
1 Empty the Warrens
1 Grapeshot
1 Past in Flames
1 Silent Departure
1 Tendrils Of Agony

Doomsday sucked, although that could've been me not being able to build piles (it certainly was). I wouldn't play it again. The issue is that I want a boarding plan that makes me faster and Doomsday just doesn't do that for me. I expected a lot of Dredge and luckily I didn't play against it once.

Burning Wish was pretty strong most of the time, but I didn't play against Threshold at all. Rite of Flame was okay, but mostly only with Wish. Three Wishes seems to be the right number in case I should stick to it.

Chain of Vapor needs to be somewhere. I lost a game to Leyline of Sanctity out of Lands (in fact, I lost the match 1-2 which was my only loss). I'd also like to have a discard spell in the board. Maybe the third Thoughtseize or something. I think it might be time cut the Sudden Shocks entirely now, although I'm not sure on that yet. Sudden Shock and Silent Departure were the only cards I never used today, but I never played against Maverick.

The core of the deck worked just fine as always, I pulled quite a few double Tendrils and Storm X kills. Don't expect a report, most games were uneventful.

By the way, Preordain over Ponder is just good.

[der_agibert]

Hey Jona,

I really enjoyed your primer and blog entries. Being bored and tired with TES losing to itself far too often Grinding Station seems the way to go for me. Especially, I am really into its consistence and ability to buy time by casting mini-Tendrils and recycling them later in a lethal PiF.

I'm running pretty much your 2nd initial list on Cockatrice exept for -Rain of Filth / +SDT and 4x Polluted Delta, 2x U-Fetch and 2x B-Fetch as I often found myself opting to Duress while being immune against Wasteland at the same time.

Have you made any significant changes or do you have any further recommandation up to now?
Please keep on writing. To my mind, Grinding Station still hasn't had its brightest hour and is far from getting the attention and play it deserves.

[Jonathan Alexander]

First off, thanks!

I agree that Grinding Station doesn't get the attention it deserves. It's well positioned both in the US and in Europe, but I think it plays out too differently from other combo decks so it's too easily dismissed. Anyway.

I wouldn't advise cutting Rain of Filth. That card is bonkers. I'm running two of them again. Also, Divining Top is too slow for my taste. What's your list right now?

My current list is here: Report.

I played the same 75 in two tournaments, finishind 3rd and 10th on breakers. Lost against Faithless Looting Dredge in both tournaments. As of now, I wouldn't really change anything about the list, except for maybe (really, just maybe) Diminishing Returns or Time Spiral over Grapeshot. Grapeshot did pretty much nothing for me so far.

By the way, I think the fetchland split should be skewed towards blue. Basic Island is way more important than basic Swamp. The Swamp isn't needed most of the time, and it's only good if you're both light on rituals and light on land. This is also due to the fact that I pretty much don't cast mini-Tendrils anymore at all. I'm usually going for one big turn as of late, most of the time just the storm x route, sometimes with Past in Flames, rarely double Tendrils.

[lordofthepit]

I notice you've made some changes recently. I love the Preordains. I'm using them more aggressively to set up my land drops and to ensure I get a healthy balance of ritual effects and gas (i.e., not just as a way to get 10 vs. 7 in the combo turn, as you've previously suggested for using cantrips). Is that how you use them?

Also, how have the Burning Wishes been doing for you? I loved that the old decklist was pretty much immune to Spell Snare. Is it pulling its weight?

[Jonathan Alexander]

That's exactly how I play the Preordains and also the reason why they're better than Ponder in this deck. For the combo turn, you already have Brainstorms and Gitaxian Probes, so there's no need for Ponder. I'm going to try 4/4/1 soon.

Burning Wish is amazing, although I board it out against most blue decks, bringing in Tendrils, Empty the Warrens and Past in Flames. But they're really good against everything without Spell Snare, which is also not that much of an issue anymore with Cabal Therapy in the list, which works almost like Orim's Chant / Silence against blue decks.

[der_agibert]

Sorry, Jona, haven't been checking this thread recently.
Thank you very much for keeping it up and sharing our thoughts and new list with us.

I do not think sharing my old list would have any real benefit to this thread as it just a slight alteration of your initial one, the majority already listed in my last post. I will rather comment on the differences in my further remarks.

I've just read your double report on your modified list and goldfished it quite a few times in the last 20mins. At first glance, it seems to run even smoother and at the same time enables quicker, yet suffiently protected kills if needed. Props on that.
I love the additional wishes for offering more business and versatility while not having the mentioned "all-in/all-lost" character of Infernal Tutors relying way heavier (i.e. hellbent) on LED.

I see your point now concerning the Fetchies, the basic Island is just really way more important because of early cantrip actions. Changed that back shortly after some matches on cockatrice.

Furthermore, yesterday's testings against Belcher and UR Control ft. Painter+Stone once more showed me Ponder's disadvantage: The well-known turn 1 or 2 "1 cool, 2 crap cards" scenario without Fetchies in play/found.
Even though I was on TES and you can hardly compare it to Grinding Station in so many aspects, it eventually convinced me to give Preordain a try changing Ponders' slots to 2x Preordain and 2x Ponder in both decks. But do not see that as this subject's answer to everything, right now I tend to run even more Preordains as I really liked them in the first few matches with your new list. They are simply better to be cast in the early game in order to sculpt a reasonable hand and ensure the first 2 or 3 land drops.

Your being right regarding SDTs' slowness and "counter me, please"-character, I am still not 100% sure about 2x Rain.
On the one hand, they are not accumulative when having two of them or flashback-partying with PiF. Furthermore, when going the fast IT+ANT SB-route, they are hardly ever better than just a Petal for B. But that should not be an argument here as we both know that Rain is the worst, but needed fastmana in Grinding Station.
On the other hand, they are incredible to reach CRs' Threshold and serving a huge amount of B in grinding long games.
Especially with your new integration of Rite of Flame (even though I seems like a one-off filler, justifiably, and -R / +2 storm wishtarget after boarding) I was thinking about running 1x Rain and a 2nd Rite instead. But I guess you spent much more testing on your list than me and already considered it.
Right now, having written this paragraph, however, I think it is actually true that the 2nd Rain is better after all :D

-

Going through your current list, there are some aspects I'd love to hear more about:

Firstly, your protection-suit aka the division of discard spells. I can absolutely see Therapy's point with Probe and other discard spells, but why not just additional Duresses/Thoughtseizes in its slots? Of course, facing hands with multiple one-of-a-kind counter spells, Therapy turns to pure gold ripping 2 of them with just one spell. But why would your opponent let Therapy resolve having 2x FoWs in hand (if I remember your report correctly)? Is it just because people tend to hoping you do not know how to use it properly that you play it over other cc1 discard spells? Even if you were to play it to oppose pesky hate-bears like Thalia or Censor, wouldn't Thoughtseizes be just better (despite its life loss)?
Or did I just horribly miss any aspect of Cabal? :)
EDIT: Having read your reports a 2nd time, ever-present Thresh featuring Stifles is another reason for CT, right?

Secondly, why are you not running the full playset Wishes? I often found myself stuck with a whole lot of acceleration with the old list, lacking business. Wish is just great in almost every situation as it may act not only as PiF or Tendrils but as an additional permission spell (given you run 1x Duress/TS/CT in our SB) or anti-hate as well (as you did it with Chain Lightning disposing of Teeg).

Thirdly, Grapeshot and Telemin Performance in our SB (never heard of Performance before, had to look it up :) ). Grapeshot never came to me as a good slot in wishboards. Cook is convinced that it is worth the slot for turning a non-lethal Tendrils to a lethal one and killing hate bears, however, I think of it mostly as win-more and a way of swanking about casting it for storm 20. To my mind, Infest should get that slot as it is higly capable of wiping the board against Maverick's hate-bears through a Mother and furthermore getting rid goblin tokens by Belcher and other storm builds and cleaning random boards to buy another turn or two. Ruin of Virtue is worse as one should not have any problems having access to 1BB and being just more specific as an additional down-side. Pyroclasm is just insufficient in that slot due to a Mother protecting the hatebear.
Am I right that Performance is only reasonable against opposing Storm builds (and to a lesser extent S&T decks)? Was it a meta call or do you really think it is worth a slot in an unknown enviroment?

[Dark Ritual]

Telemin Performance is also wonderful against lands if they don't run dark confidant, because they typically board confidant against us at least in my experience due to all their dead cards. Also works against old school landstill without snapcaster, but I wouldn't play it against them on the offchance that they run some creature and you just lose.

The only reason I would shave on the count of rain of filth is because I ALWAYS seem to draw both of them when playing this deck without a brainstorm to shuffle one away. It also seems less effective with 15 land in Jona's current list, if you have just 3 lands it's a dark ritual sure I adore the card when I have 4+ lands because it's black lotus for black mana and the interaction with cabal ritual is insane with that many lands you're practically guaranteed threshold.

Have you ever thought of running Dark Confidant in the SB Jona? I've thought about it, but it doesn't seem to fit anywhere. Although maybe I'm just trying to squeeze it in for the cabal therapy interaction it has, which is quite favorable for us for ripping an opponents hand apart. Also, has spell snare been an issue at all with the new list? That was the allure of the old list IMO, they could only snare cabal ritual and that was it.

[Jonathan Alexander]

I've just read your double report on your modified list and goldfished it quite a few times in the last 20mins. At first glance, it seems to run even smoother and at the same time enables quicker, yet suffiently protected kills if needed. Props on that.
I love the additional wishes for offering more business and versatility while not having the mentioned "all-in/all-lost" character of Infernal Tutors relying way heavier (i.e. hellbent) on LED.

Yes, I agree. Burning Wish really does a lot for this deck, even though there are only three. You don't want too many of them, but they're often nice to have. They also make Lion's Eye Diamond better.

Your being right regarding SDTs' slowness and "counter me, please"-character, I am still not 100% sure about 2x Rain.
On the one hand, they are not accumulative when having two of them or flashback-partying with PiF. Furthermore, when going the fast IT+ANT SB-route, they are hardly ever better than just a Petal for B. But that should not be an argument here as we both know that Rain is the worst, but needed fastmana in Grinding Station.
On the other hand, they are incredible to reach CRs' Threshold and serving a huge amount of B in grinding long games.
Especially with your new integration of Rite of Flame (even though I seems like a one-off filler, justifiably, and -R / +2 storm wishtarget after boarding) I was thinking about running 1x Rain and a 2nd Rite instead. But I guess you spent much more testing on your list than me and already considered it.
Right now, having written this paragraph, however, I think it is actually true that the 2nd Rain is better after all :D

Rain of Filth is just insane. If it wasn't so bad with flashback, it'd easily be the best of the rituals. I think the worst one is Rite of Flame, which, just as you said, is just a filler, but I think that slot is necessary. I have another idea what to do with it, but I'll come to that later, at the end of this post.

It is actually so good with Ad Nauseam that Ari Lax included it in his new Ad Nauseam Tendrils list. Check out this article for reference. Turns out turn two threshed Cabal Rituals are really good. It really does make your Ad Nauseams way better.

Going through your current list, there are some aspects I'd love to hear more about:

Firstly, your protection-suit aka the division of discard spells. I can absolutely see Therapy's point with Probe and other discard spells, but why not just additional Duresses/Thoughtseizes in its slots? Of course, facing hands with multiple one-of-a-kind counter spells, Therapy turns to pure gold ripping 2 of them with just one spell. But why would your opponent let Therapy resolve having 2x FoWs in hand (if I remember your report correctly)? Is it just because people tend to hoping you do not know how to use it properly that you play it over other cc1 discard spells? Even if you were to play it to oppose pesky hate-bears like Thalia or Censor, wouldn't Thoughtseizes be just better (despite its life loss)?
Or did I just horribly miss any aspect of Cabal? :)
EDIT: Having read your reports a 2nd time, ever-present Thresh featuring Stifles is another reason for CT, right?

Cabal Therapy is almost as good as Orim's Chant concerning protection. Almost. As you already said, it's really good with Gitaxian Probe. Often, it forces people to do things they wouldn't do against other discard spells. Also, it solves the "two Forces with one other blue card"-issue. Just check out my report, there are a lot of scenarios where I won games with Therapy that I otherwise wouldn't have won.

Against decks like Maverick, you want to board out most of your discard. I tend to keep in two, so there's two Thoughtseizes.

Secondly, why are you not running the full playset Wishes? I often found myself stuck with a whole lot of acceleration with the old list, lacking business. Wish is just great in almost every situation as it may act not only as PiF or Tendrils but as an additional permission spell (given you run 1x Duress/TS/CT in our SB) or anti-hate as well (as you did it with Chain Lightning disposing of Teeg).

I rarely happen to be in situations where I lack business but have a lot of mana. You need way more acceleration than business, and Burning Wish is somewhat clunky. Having a discard spell in the sideboard was brought up often, but I didn't get to test it yet, nor did I ever feel like I needed it. Also, Burning Wish into Past in Flames isn't even that good of a play. I had several situations where I had a Burning Wish in hand but still couldn't go off, and that sucked. Maybe there should be a Diminishing Returns or even Time Spiral in the board. Other suggestions welcome. I also considered Cruel Bargain / Infernal Contract, but I don't have any of these lying around nor do I think they're actually good enough.

Thirdly, Grapeshot and Telemin Performance in our SB (never heard of Performance before, had to look it up :) ). Grapeshot never came to me as a good slot in wishboards. Cook is convinced that it is worth the slot for turning a non-lethal Tendrils to a lethal one and killing hate bears, however, I think of it mostly as win-more and a way of swanking about casting it for storm 20. To my mind, Infest should get that slot as it is higly capable of wiping the board against Maverick's hate-bears through a Mother and furthermore getting rid goblin tokens by Belcher and other storm builds and cleaning random boards to buy another turn or two. Ruin of Virtue is worse as one should not have any problems having access to 1BB and being just more specific as an additional down-side. Pyroclasm is just insufficient in that slot due to a Mother protecting the hatebear.
Am I right that Performance is only reasonable against opposing Storm builds (and to a lesser extent S&T decks)? Was it a meta call or do you really think it is worth a slot in an unknown enviroment?

Grapeshot you're right about. I never needed it so far, so it should be replaced with something that actually does something. If it's just about getting in some extra damage, Chain Lightning is usually enough.
Also, this is an entirely different animal than TES. Here you only have rituals, whereas in TES you have Chrome Moxen for acceleration which make it hard to reach storm ten without casting any engine spells. Therefore mini Tendrils, Burning Wish, Grapeshot is a much more reasonable play with TES. Nonetheless, it's mostly used for showboating (and I know that's fun, I used to play TES for some time as well).
If you're looking to kill multiple hatebears through Mother of Runes you should also take equipment into account. It's easy to pump a Gaddock Teeg with Umezawa's Jitte in reponse to Infest, whereas Virtue's Ruin just wipes the board. Much more reliable, and therefore better in my eyes.

Telemin Performance is mostly there for the storm matchups, yes. It's an "I win"-button against most of them, and especially those with Chants can be really tough to beat. High Tide sees a reasonable amount of play in my area, so having something for that matchup is really good, although I managed to dodge it so far (luckily, I like having time to eat between rounds). It can also be pretty good against Reanimator. I wouldn't cut it in an unknown meta, it's pretty good.

The only reason I would shave on the count of rain of filth is because I ALWAYS seem to draw both of them when playing this deck without a brainstorm to shuffle one away. It also seems less effective with 15 land in Jona's current list, if you have just 3 lands it's a dark ritual sure I adore the card when I have 4+ lands because it's black lotus for black mana and the interaction with cabal ritual is insane with that many lands you're practically guaranteed threshold.

For some reason, I always draw much more land than anybody else. Right now I can only remember two games I lost to not having enough lands, and in one of those my opponent had Life from the Loam going. But yeah, drawing both Rains sucks. The card is way too powerful to give up though, so I rather draw it often than never draw it twice.

Have you ever thought of running Dark Confidant in the SB Jona? I've thought about it, but it doesn't seem to fit anywhere. Although maybe I'm just trying to squeeze it in for the cabal therapy interaction it has, which is quite favorable for us for ripping an opponents hand apart. Also, has spell snare been an issue at all with the new list? That was the allure of the old list IMO, they could only snare cabal ritual and that was it.

I considered Confidant, and a friend actually tested them already. That was a while ago though, I don't really know if they're that good. I think they aren't though, as they can be really bad against Canadian Thresh. You can't really afford spending a ritual or a Lotus Petal on casting Confidant, so you have to wait at least until your second turn to cast it. Then consider Daze and take Spell Snare into account and you will never come up with a reasonable situation to play it.

I wanted to try out one or maybe even two Snapcaster Mages though. I think those can be really strong, especially now with Cabal Therapy. Could replace the Rite of Flame. In theory, the only downside is that Snapcaster Mage only works when you already cast some rituals, but eh. You'd use it to flash back rituals most of the time anyway and get a free Cabal Therapy out of the deal. Seems cool, but maybe too cool.

Speaking of Mage; Spell Snare. It's not too much of an issue with Burning Wishes. You board them out against decks with Spell Snares and that's it. This might slightly reduce your game one win percentage against Canadian Threshold, but it helps against almost every other deck. Although I must admit that maybe I wouldn't run them if I was playing in the US. I don't really know how the UW Stoneblade matchup is with the current list, as that deck sees almost no play over here anymore.

I hope I answered all questions now. If I left out something, just let me know. I'm also looking if I can finally rewrite the opening post within the next few days.

[Wombo Combo]

Hello, I've been a source "lurker" for the past a year now. I've been playing vintage for about 2 years and legacy for about 1.5 years now. Unfortunately, there are not any tournaments in my area unless I drive 3 hours. I was very happy when I heard that scg would be coming to Sacramento because that is only an hour drive from my house. I could not decide what to play for this tournament. I considered dredge and TES, but I could never get a list that felt solid until I tried Grinding Station. This is the list I played:

4 Lion's Eye Diamond
4 Lotus Petal

4 Brainstorm
4 Cabal Ritual
4 Dark Ritual

1 Badlands
1 Island
1 Swamp
4 Polluted Delta
4 Scalding Tarn
1 Volcanic Island
2 Underground Sea

2 Cabal Therapy
4 Gitaxian Probe
4 Past in Flames
4 Preordain
4 Ponder
4 Tendrils of Agony
4 Duress

//Sideboard

4 Infernal Tutor
4 Burning Wish
3 Chain of Vapor
1 Ad Nauseam
1 Ill-Gotten Gains
1 Infest
1 Meltdown

I would probably not change anything about the list if I were to play in the same tournament again. I ended up in 12th place at 5-2-0 for the day, but all of my match losses were due to misplays . The maindeck beats most of the blue decks in the format easily. The sideboard was mostly for aggro matchups because this deck has trouble going off before turn 3/4. Other than counterbalance, decks with discard + surgical can be a problem for the deck. My solution was to board out 3 PIF + 1 Tendrils and put in 4 Burning wish. I used every card in my sideboard that day except for infest, but this was only because I drew the Chain for his Teeg anyways.

[Jonathan Alexander]

Hi there! Cool to see people pick up my deck (=
Although your list is much more similar to the first versions than the most recent ones. How did you like all the cantrips? That seems somewhat excessive; even with the nine I'm running right now I often draw more of them than I'd like to have. Also, why did you run the full set of Past in Flames? You almost never want to have more than one in my experience.

What decks did you play against? I'm very interested in your experience since so far only myseld and some friends have played the deck in tournaments (as far as I know, that is).

[OurSerratedDust]

Someone got 12th with Grinding Station at SCG Sacramento!

http://sales.starcitygames.com//deck...p?DeckID=44904

I'm glad this awesome deck finally caught on!

[Wombo Combo]

Hi there! Cool to see people pick up my deck (=
Although your list is much more similar to the first versions than the most recent ones. How did you like all the cantrips? That seems somewhat excessive; even with the nine I'm running right now I often draw more of them than I'd like to have. Also, why did you run the full set of Past in Flames? You almost never want to have more than one in my experience.

What decks did you play against? I'm very interested in your experience since so far only myseld and some friends have played the deck in tournaments (as far as I know, that is).

Hi there! Cool to see people pick up my deck (=
Although your list is much more similar to the first versions than the most recent ones. How did you like all the cantrips? That seems somewhat excessive; even with the nine I'm running right now I often draw more of them than I'd like to have. Also, why did you run the full set of Past in Flames? You almost never want to have more than one in my experience.

What decks did you play against? I'm very interested in your experience since so far only myseld and some friends have played the deck in tournaments (as far as I know, that is).

The reason I went up to the full set of cantrips is because it makes it really easy to find lands early and it makes finding the tendrils easy if you resolve PIF. At least three times in the tournament I was able to go off with PIF and just find tendrils by flashing back all of my cantrips in the graveyard. This deck kind of reminds me of the vintage deck TPS. Turns 1-3 you sculpt your hand with cantrips. Then, turn 3-4 you resolve a bomb (PIF) and draw a bunch of cards with it until you can win (find tendrils). Of course you can just draw the tendils naturally. Usually I can get rid of extra cards I don't need with brainstorm. I wanted the deck to be really consistent, so that's why there are 4 PIF. I can do a report, but I didn't take very good notes:

Round 1: UW Stoneblade

Game1: I remember that he plays a stoneforge on turn 2 or 3 and searches for Sword of Feast and Famine. I am able to go off before he gets a swing in.

Game2: I didn't board in anything. He mulls to 5 and opens with turn 0 Leyline of Sanctity . I consider playing the game out to see what other hate he brought in but decide that there might not be enough time.

Game 3: I board in my chain of vapors this game. I keep my 7 and he mulls to 6. Around turn 3 I probe him and see flusterstorm, but I have the duress to stip it from his hand.

2-1
1-0

Round 2: Esper Stoneblade

Game 1: I don't remember much from this game other than I won.

Game 2: I don't board in any cards. I don't remember much from this game either other than he has a hand full of countermagic and I have duress+probe+cabal.

4-1
2-0

Round 3: GW Aggro with Squadron Hawk

Game 1: He has a couple creatures that are beating me down. Luckly I had the double tendrils this game.

Game 2: I board like this: +1 Ad Nauseam +1 Ill-Gotten Gains +4 Burning Wish +4 Infernal tutor -3 Tendrils of Agony -3 PIF -4 Duress. He has turn 2 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben. He lands another threat turn 3. I find burning wish, but it is a turn too late and I die to his creatures.

Game 3: I board in the Chain of vapors for this game. This was the first match I threw by misplays. He mulls to 4 looking for hate and it looks like the game is easily mine. For some reason I forget that I have a land in my hand and try to go off with rituals + infernal tutor. I stop after the first 2 rituals, but now he has landed a threat. After a couple turns he finds Sword of Fire and Ice and my life total is shrinking fast. I again misplay by not using chain of vapor on his hawk at EOT. I try to go off as I am likely dead next turn but I'm unable to get hellbent. I keep playing cantrips into more cantrips and lands instead of mana. In the end I have to get rid of the chain of vapor from my hand, but that leaves me one mana short of Infernal tutor for Tendrils.

2-1
5-3

Round 4: Affinity

Game 1: He doesn't know what I'm playing so he keeps a slow hand with tezzeret. This lets me build a lethal hand with ease.

Game 2: I board +1 Ad Nauseam +1 Ill-Gotten Gains +4 Burning Wish +4 Infernal tutor -3 Tendrils of Agony -3 PIF -4 Duress again. This time he mulls to 6 and keeps a fast hand. I have the turn 2 Burning Wish for Meltdown, but he attacks me to 1 the following turn . I wrath his board leaving only darksteel citadel and I combo out with Ill-Gotten Gains a few turns later.

3-1
7-3

Round 5: UBG Tempo (Bob/Delver/Stifle/Goyf)

Game 1: He mulls to 4 and opens with trop into delver. He starts beating me with it and I have to go off or he'll kill me. I am one storm short of killing him outright because I have the tendrils. His hand is daze, daze, bob. All I have to do is bait him to use a daze. I storm up to 7 with ritual effects and then play cabal therapy. He thinks for a long time and decides to daze. I play tenrils for storm 10 and he is not too happy.

Game 2: I don't board in anything this time. He opens with delver on turn one. Flip delver on turn 2 and play bob. This is going to be a race. I have tenrils again, but this time he doesn't fall for the trap and I get him to 3 life. Two turns later bob reveals vendilion clique .

4-1
9-3

Round 6: RUG Tempo

Game 1: I don't remember much about this game other than I won.

Game 2: This is the game I threw by a misplay. I go off with PIF and he surgicals my dark rituals. This is ok because I have 2 cabal rituals and LED. I forgot to add the 3 mana from LED to my pool when I sacked it, so when I go to flashback my cabal rituals I don't have enough mana .

Game 3: This match was on camera. He has the turn 3 CB/Top lock. He knows to leave a cmc 1 on top and I can't do anything.

4-2
10-5

Round 7: GW Maverick

Game 1: I keep a slow hand and he knows I'm on storm from the previous match. He has the turn 3 GSZ->Teeg and I scoop.

Game 2: I board like this: +1 Ad Nauseam +1 Ill-Gotten Gains +4 Burning Wish +4 Infernal tutor +3 Chain of Vapor -3 Tendrils of Agony -3 PIF -4 Duress -2 Cabal Ritual -1 Gitaxian Probe. I don't remember which hate bear he plays, but I have the chain for it anyways. I win with Iggy loop.

Game 3: I keep the same board. My opening hand is the nuts: Sea, Delta, ritual, LED, LED, Infernal, chain. He plays turn one mother and I play turn one ad nauseaum .

5-2
12-6

I should have done more playtesting before I took it to a tournament. I found out playing storm for 7 rounds can be a little taxing on the brain. Overall, it was a good day.

[murkymercy]

Taking Grinding Station to my local legacy tournament today, will report back on any interesting conclusions

[gamer4life]

Taking Grinding Station to my local legacy tournament today, will report back on any interesting conclusions

So how did it go?

[Jonathan Alexander]

Just dropping by to say that I finished third in a BoM-trial this past weekend (second after swiss). My only losses were against a Reanimator player (0-2 twice), other than that I won everything 2-0. Seems solid.


4 Lion's Eye Diamond
4 Lotus Petal

4 Brainstorm
4 Cabal Ritual
4 Dark Ritual
2 Rain of Filth

1 Badlands
1 Bloodstained Mire
1 Island
4 Polluted Delta
4 Scalding Tarn
1 Swamp
2 Underground Sea
1 Volcanic Island

3 Burning Wish
3 Cabal Therapy
1 Duress
4 Gitaxian Probe
1 Past in Flames
1 Ponder
4 Preordain
1 Rite of Flame
3 Tendrils of Agony
2 Thoughtseize

//Sideboard
1 Ad Nauseam
2 Chain of Vapor
2 Surgical Extraction
1 Chain Lightning
1 Empty the Warrens
4 Infernal Tutor
1 Infest
1 Past in Flames
1 Telemin Performance
1 Tendrils of Agony

This is the list I played. Infest over Virtue's Ruin because I got home at 6 AM (I had to get up at 9 AM) and didn't even try to get one. Didn't make a difference, but usually Virtue's Ruin is better. Telemin Performance is awesome by the way.

[randomly.anonymous]

I suppose Telemin Performance is for those combo mirrors/sneakshow?