ANT vs TNT - Storm in Legacy by Iñaki Puigdollers (Ego_Sum)

[PeAcH]

Iñaki Puigdollers, one of the best Storm Combo players of the Eternal Landscape in Spain, publishes an article in Mana Infinito in Spanish on the different options of ANT in the current metagame:

Como ya se ha hablado en numerosas ocasiones, mucho ha llovido desde que, tras el GP Madrid, el Mystical Tutor nos abandonó. Esto fue un batacazo para algunos jugadores de Storm (y para muchos de Reanimator), otros en cambio vieron el vaso medio lleno y entendieron el Ban como la oportunidad no sólo de adaptar su estrategia favorita, sino como un momento en el cual podría “atormentar” a sus oponentes gracias a la carencia quasi-absoluta de hate en el entorno que se preveía (y, de hecho así fue, la gente tardó un tiempo en entender que el Storm no había muerto y aún daba mucha guerra).
El artículo de hoy quería centrarlo en las dos líneas de evolución que han tomado las barajas de Ad Nauseam en la actualidad.

http://manainfinito.com/articulos/le...ki-puigdollers

Enjoy!

[Fossil4182]

Here is a rough translation of the article into english:

As has been said many times, much has happened since that, after the GP Madrid, Mystical Tutor abandoned us. This was a bump for some Storm players (and for many of Reanimator), others saw instead the glass half full and understood the Bank as an opportunity not only to adapt your favorite strategy, but as a moment in which it could "torment "his opponents by quasi-absolute lack of hate in the environment that was expected (and indeed it was, people took a while to understand that the Storm had not died and was still a lot of trouble).

Today's article wanted to focus on the two lines of evolution that has taken the Ad Nauseam decks of today.

For this I consider it important to raise a good common to the two, so who then put the minimum structure could be called the deck, are not those cards (or card type) that all Storm Tendrils deck will, by its very nature, regardless of variant:

1x Ad Nauseam

1x spell that won the game. Typically Tendrils of Agony.

Storm 1x alternative source. The most common is that they are letters that generate some recursion, which may re playing a certain number of your cards you can increase the number of Spells to make your Spell lethal condition of victory, the most common are Ill-Gotten Gains and Past in Flames.

4 (+) x Guardians. 4x Infernal Tutor is the bare minimum, the current incarnations of Ad Nauseam actually live in the Infernal Tutor, in my opinion is the most important card in the deck. After much experimentation has been empirically demonstrated that 4 Tutors can be short, not only by the fact that no time a threat, but because a lone extirpated / Surgical Extraction can make your item is too complicated. The best thing here is to play for 6-8 effects of tutor. Keep in mind that it is advisable to abuse the number of guardians and that, although part of our game plan very often steal our victory will end up slowing down. It's a delicate balance of the deck.

16 (+) x Accelerators. This includes both the artifacts, Lions Eye Diamond Lotus Petal, which are always present as a playset, as the "effects of ritual", of which only one in all the incarnations 4x Dark Ritual. From this are usually added Cabal Ritual, Rite of Flame, Chrome Mox ... depending on the version you want to play, the speed you want to give the deck, the look we want the stability of the importance of mana or want to give to the Power Storm Ad Nauseam alternative or, if for example we want our Ad Nauseam will care more powerful low mana curve of the deck including a Mox and / or adding Rite of Flame Cabal Ritual rather than because of its cost.

8 (+) x Cantrip. The bare minimum 4x Ponder 4x Brainstorm +, I know there who disagrees and believes that the preordained is better than Ponder, personally I think they are too similar in terms of efficiency is concerned, but the chance to see 4 cards with Ponder, while 3 with the only brand supremacy preordained first to an archetype that dedicates its first innings to find very specific cards, such as the combo.

6 (+) x Protection. Usually in the form of culling, but also possible effects of playing "song" that is Orims Chant and Silence, we'll play more or less protection depending on the number of cantrips to play, in fact usually is inversely proportional. A more cantrips, less protection, we must also consider whether efficient guardians play allows you to search, for example Burning Wish, and redundancy own deck, for example TES Storm deck is the most redundant in the current metagame, by that I mean that you have enough of everything, both cantrips as threats and mana accelerators protection, Belcher is much more obviously redundant, but I think this deck should have a classification part by its nature risky.

14 (+) x Land. Although T.E.S. played with only 13, and needs no more, but this is a direct result of redundancy, I mentioned that before. The number of land from a deck of between 14-17 Ad Nauseam land. The factors vary this number are the number of alternative producers mana cost 0 (Lotus Petal, Chrome Mox ... here we have to take into account the Lion's Eye Diamond since it does not allow us to play any of the letters we have in hand), the number of cantrips, it is also clear that the more cantrips in the deck have the easier it will be to ensure land-drops the key to developing our early bird game, the explosiveness of the version to play, and so on.

With this we have a minimum of 51 cards from which to start working.

ANT (UBr)

Lands (15)
2 Underground Sea
2 Volcanic Island
2 Island
1 Swamp
4 Polluted Delta
1 Scalding Tarn
1 Misty Rainforest
1 Flooded Strand
1 Marsh Flats

Artifacts (8)
4 Lions Eye Diamond
4 Lotus Petal

Instants (13)
4 Brainstorm
4 Dark Ritual
4 Cabal Ritual
1 Ad Nauseam

Sorceries (24)
4 Ponder
2 Preordain
3 Gitaxian Probe
4 Infernal Tutor
2 Grim Tutor
4 Duress
3 Cabal Therapy
1 Past in Flames
1 Tendrils of Agony

Sideboard (15)
3 Chain of Vapor
2 Echoing Truth
2 Slaughter Pact
2 Thoughtseize
2 Extirpate
2 Hurkyls Recall
1 Empty the Warrens
1 Ill-Gotten Gains

As for the selection of cards can be some variability, while maintaining the minimum structure of the deck as above. For example, we decide to play in the form of Protection "Cantos", total or partial, and this could have the following implications:

Total:
+8x “Chant effects”
+1x Tundra
+1x Scrubland
+2x Flooded Strand
+2x Preordain
+1x Ill-Gotten Gains

-4x Duress
-3x Cabal Therapy
-3x Gitaxian Probe
-2x Volcanic Island
-1x Scalding tarn
-1x Misty Rainforest
-1x Past in Flames

Partial:
+4x “Chant effects”
+1x Tundra
+1x Scrubland
+2x Flooded Strand
+2x Preordain
+1x Ill-Gotten Gains

-3x Cabal Therapy
-3x Gitaxian Probe
-2x Volcanic Island
-1x Scalding tarn
-1x Misty Rainforest
-1x Past in Flames

The play "Songs" or "Duress-effects" depends on many factors, not discuss in this article as I lengthen too.
The sideboard also has some flexibility but the bare minimum is:

Chain of Vapor 3x
2x Echoing Truth
2x Slaughter Pact
2x Hurkyl 's Recall
Letters of support from 3x control (which can be discarded, Empty the Warrens, extirpated, Dark Confidant, Xanten Swarm ...)

NOTE: I personally think that adding creatures to the side in a format like legacy is not very efficient because a party has done on numerous occasions and so many veterans opponents contemplate that possibility and play / sidearan with that in mind. And if not so sure that in a possible third game will be much less useful and we will have shown it, and, practically, all Legacy deck has enough creatures answers. They are especially bad in an environment where the blue color is accompanied by the red, as his way of getting rid of the creatures is the same as the way they kill you.

This leaves us with 3 holes to adapt to our metagame deck. For example, I am very keen to play Gotten Gains 1x Ill-somewhere between the 75 cards, so if I play in Flames Past in the main because it is much more potent against control (and that's the metagame I hope to meet) Play IgG 1x side, as it allows you much more explosive plays against aggressive decks. One way to harness sidear against sparks, and I mean that with a lot of sparks, say over 10, is remove the Ad Nauseam the deck and replace it with the Ill-Gotten Gains, since these decks against the ultra-aggressive Ad Nauseam is really efficient in the first round, and rarely in the second, assuming you've won the first game and leave him, therefore, you will begin your turn to 18-16, telling that comes with Goblin Guide or "Spark of 3 "and you have used, or not fetchland, if you play on the second shift your lives and will probably be on 13-9, it leaves very little margin. Besides the lack of common lists Moxes in the play makes Ad Nauseam with little mana very risky).

The great advantage of this version of Ad Nauseam is its strength and consistency of base mana, not only because it essentially bicolor, which leaves room to play enough basic lands, but also because having all the pieces of the combo in a single color (black), you can start to sag in a situation of scarcity with a single land available whenever you have a Dark Ritual in hand. The versions that rely more on the color red may also need a second source of color to play both as the Rite of Flame Burning Wish, or versions that play "Songs" will also need a source to target play with protection.

One weakness is the dependence of the lives that we have the time warp, as many of our letters defining pass through the loss of life (Ad Nauseam, Grim Tutor), regardless of the Probe Gitaxian most of the time at least the first one, I'll play paying the lives that allows us Phyrexian manna.

On the other hand, we have:

Lands (14)
2 Underground Sea
2 Volcanic Island
1 Island
1 Swamp
4 Polluted Delta
1 Bloodstained Mire
1 Flooded Strand
1 Misty Rainforest
1 Scalding Tarn

Artifacts (10)
4 Lotus Petal
4 Lions Eye Diamond
2 Chrome Mox

Instants (13)
4 Brainstorm
4 Dark Ritual
4 Cabal Ritual
1 Ad Nauseam

Sorceries (23)
4 Ponder
3 Gitaxian Probe
4 Infernal Tutor
3 Burning Wish
4 Duress
3 Cabal Therapy
1 Tendrils of Agony
1 Past in Flames

Sideboard (15)
2 Extirpate
2 Chain of Vapor
2 Echoing Truth
1 Hurkyls Recall
1 Silent Departure
1 Meltdown
1 Pyroclasm
1 Tendrils of Agony
1 Empty the Warrens
1 Grim Tutor
1 Ill-Gotten Gains
1 Cabal Therapy

This version was born as a hybrid T.E.S. and A.N.T, hence its name. And has several lines d development (some are more important than others to red, which I propose is one that depends less on the color).

First of all I would like to discuss some points on the sideboard.
Extirpate covers 2 slots in dispute with the Pyroblast, depending on whether you think you will find many Reanimator or not, many Vendilion Clique or not (and to a lesser extent Counterbalance, as they seem to be taking a long break), would play one or the other .

Something similar happens to Pyroclasm, played the Virtues Ruin site. While the former is faster and more versatile, definitely the second deals with all creatures that really bother us, no matter what are the 4 Mother of Runes to table, the Virtue's Ruin it kills them dead.

The strongest point of the deck is to turn your greatest weakness, the Burning Wish. This letter allows one thing to the other versions of Ad Nauseam and not have the full alignment with the course of the game and avoid having to shake hands with your opponent by a "well played" if in the first game they play a Gaddock Teeg occurs (for example). It also gives us access to more explosive outputs via Empty the Warrens (no need to go 16 Goblins, 8-12 often can be more than enough to close the deal).

It is clear that this has a price. On the one hand partially disassembled the strength of our development of mana, because as I mentioned before will need access to more colors when playing our cards. But for me, perhaps most important, is that Burning Wish is a death trap!, I mean. Many people when mounting the deck has the Burning Wish, by itself, as a guardian over the deck and this is a great fallacy. The great defect is that Burning Wish, and I repeat himself, does not have the ability to search an efficient engine Storm (Ad Nauseam is an instant, Ill-Gotten Gains on / Past in Flames need to recover letters to be effective and Burning Wish into exile once played and Diminishing Returns / Time Spiral are simply a lottery, to make matters worse hand fill the resources of our opponents waiting for something to go wrong, play the last two is not recommended unless play "Cantos" for protection, and yet the probability of hitting a hand that we can finish the job is not too high, if anyone is interested in the numbers that you discuss it and put a link). This is why many people play the following structure:

4x Burning Wish
3x + 1x Infernal Infernal Tutor Tutor on the Sideboard

On the other hand I've chosen to play Infernal Tutor 4x and 1x in the main on the side Grim Tutor. As I mentioned at the beginning of the article Infernal Tutor is the most important card in the deck, is currently the most efficient in its function and has no substitute, however if you like reasonable (in fact this is the topic of discussion in the article!), so that Grim Tutor in the sideboard make a function similar to Infernal Tutor whenever we need a little more than cost.

In conclusion, what should make me decide for one or another version?, Apart from the latter is significantly cheaper and you need a Grim Tutor least the ANT Ubr has a linear, solid game, and plays better than the TNT in an environment fraught with Spell Snare. While T.N.T. is better when it comes to face a metagame that requires timely responses to permanent hate letters (particularly creatures and artifacts).

The choice is yours. Regards,

Iñaki .-

I leave an alternative list of T.N.T. Red more dependent than before. The list is based on a version played by Liam Kane, one of the greats in this from the Storm.

T.N.T. by Liam Kane

Lands (15)
1 Gemstone Mine
2 Underground Sea
2 Volcanic Island
1 Island
1 Swamp
4 Polluted Delta
1 Bloodstained Mire
1 Flooded Strand
1 Misty Rainforest
1 Scalding Tarn

Artifacts (8)
4 Lotus Petal
4 Lion

Instants (12)
4 X Brainstorm
4 X Dark Ritual
3 X Cabal Ritual
1 X Ad Nauseam

Sorceries (25)
4 Ponder
2 Preordain
4 Rite of Flame
4 Infernal Tutor
3 Burning Wish
4 Duress
2 Thoughtseize
1 Tendrils of Agony
1 Past in Flames
Sideboard (15)

2 Pyroblast
2 Chain of Vapor
2 Echoing Truth
1 Silent Departure
1 Meltdown
1 Pyroclasm
1 Tendrils of Agony
1 Empty the Warrens
1 Ill-Gotten Gains
1 Grim Tutor
1 Cabal Therapy
1 Thoughtseize

[Sims]

Stop fucking calling it TNT. That's a deck already. Even as a conjunction of TES and ANT that's the stupidest fucking name imaginable. You are literally calling it "The Nauseam Tendrils".

This. 1000% This.

I enjoyed the article, and don't really have much constructive to say... but come on, this isn't an old school vintage/1.5 deck... Stop calling it TNT.

[death]

ANT - T. Saito/A. Lax/80% Storm players
TES - B. Cook/A. Planting/15% Storm players
DDFT - emidln/C. Alsheimer/~5% Storm players

TNT - ??????? a new label attempt to sell expired goods

UBr ANT > B-Wish/Rite of Flame. A couple of Japanese boys posted results at deckcheck back then waaaay before Mystical Tutor banning.

[Sims]

TNT - ??????? a new label attempt to sell expired goods

Old label for an old deck.

http://www.starcitygames.com/magic/v...in_Type_1.html


/dead horse derailing thread.

[John Cox]

TNT has been around for a long time as Liam Kain's solution to mental misstep (a really good one). TNT is also what dynamite is called so as a hybrid of names (IE the deck is explosive) its is kind of clever.

[death]

Mental Misstep -> NPH. Not long ago.

Burning Wish in ANT -> pre-Mystical Tutor banning.

[John Cox]

Mental Misstep -> NPH. Not long ago.

Burning Wish in ANT -> pre-Mystical Tutor banning.

A lot of people like to point this out. frogboy (In the TES thread) had a list that was nearly identical to the first TNT list, and the TNT thread was merged with the ANT thread because it was considered "not new".
I Wouldn't call TNT really new and I wouldn't call it "old goods" its one of the possible configurations for a legacy storm deck. In the article above inaki talks about how similar ANT and TES are, TNT is a third similar option.

[lordofthepit]

WTF is the big deal with everyone getting all uptight about a deck name?

If we're going to go down this route, sorry Deadguy Ale, a real Deadguy deck is monored and runs roughly 20 lands/20 creatures/20 burn. Ditto to Dragon/Angel/Faerie Stompy, since a real Stompy deck runs roughly 10 lands and about 30 one-drop creatures. I apologize for those of you who enjoy piloting decks with Punishing Fires, because "Fires" is reserved for decks running Fires of Yavimaya.

Also, if we're going to take decks literally, why do Threshold decks not run any creatures with that mechanic anymore? Similarly, why do many Affinity decks not have creatures with that mechanic either? Why doesn't Pox run its namesake card? Why doesn't Solidarity? How come Stax decks don't run Smokestack anymore? Nor can those decks be referred to as "four thousand dollar solutions" anymore. This is to say nothing dozens of other decks whose names don't literally describe the cards contained.

I'm someone who has played UBr ANT (and usually refer to it as such), but I don't object when someone calls it TNT either. I have never gotten it confused with Tools-n-Tubbies.

[TooCloseToTheSun]

So because of some (virtually) nonexistent vintage deck from 2002 we can't reuse the name in legacy? How absurd. Also, the translation was not a bad read.

[death]

I only see the lack of innovation paralleling the lack of creativity in choosing deck names.

[KevinTrudeau]

I'm totally on majikal's side regarding this issue, although I am now very tempted to call Elves 'Keeper' from now on.

[Nihil Credo]

This is an incredibly trivial issue to get apoplectic about.

The discussion shall now proceed without any more expressions of disproportionate outrage or hostility.