[Deck] ANT (Ad Nauseam Tendrils) Storm Combo

[CabalTherapy]

Congrats Hrothgar, pretty sweet run!

Did anyone play in MKM Hamburg this past weekend? I read there was about 300 player and Sneak and Show won... Also, a lot of Leo decks.

I played but dropped quickly having to deal with a food poisoning.

I ended 7-2 in Hamburg ending 17th where the Ranking points (And what Im copeting for) where only for top 16.

Somehow all my opponents lost in last round :/

Unfortunate.

[Jesture]

I ended 7-2 in Hamburg ending 17th where the Ranking points (And what Im copeting for) where only for top 16.

Somehow all my opponents lost in last round :/

Do you have a current list?

[fangzie]

I've been making videos of a few leagues lately. I started back when top was still legal as a way to critically pick apart my own play and hopefully learn from my mistakes. I was originally using the replay function until a bug involving Cabal Therapy, so had to stop for a while. I've made a few more recently and have finaly worked up the courage to share them with those that are interested.

Link to my most recent league
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?lis...sBObDCmFcNY7wv

(++EDIT++ apologies ahead of time for the poor mic I'm using. And just to clarify, all of these were recorded then commentary added afterwards)

[Togores]

Do you have a current list?

1 Ad Nauseam
2 Past in Flames
1 Tendrils of Agony
1 Dark Petition
4 Infernal Tutor
4 Brainstorm
4 Ponder
4 Gitaxian Probe
2 Preordain
3 Cabal Therapy
3 Duress
4 Dark Ritual
4 Cabal Ritual
4 Lion's Eye Diamond
4 Lotus Petal
4 Polluted Delta
4 Misty Rainforest
2 Underground Sea
1 Volcanic Island
1 Tropical Island
1 Bayou
1 Island
1 Swamp

SIDEBOARD:

3 Abrupt Decay
1 Xantid Swarm
2 Flusterstorm
2 Hurkils Recal
1 Karakas
2 Chain of Vapor
1 Empty the Warrens
1 Surgical Extraction
2 Ground Seal

[ScottW]

I've been making videos of a few leagues lately

Thanks for having the courage to post these. I've watched a bit and a few interesting scenarios. I wonder if the DnT OP g2 had the thought to not play Canonist in case you AD eot, in which case you have no B to start the combo but then he'd still have Canonist so not sure... Maybe he's been Massacred too many times.

Is CT fixed or did you record live with a different software and then play back using that software?

[fangzie]

Thanks for having the courage to post these. I've watched a bit and a few interesting scenarios. I wonder if the DnT OP g2 had the thought to not play Canonist in case you AD eot, in which case you have no B to start the combo but then he'd still have Canonist so not sure... Maybe he's been Massacred too many times.

Is CT fixed or did you record live with a different software and then play back using that software?

Thanks, it's a bit scary posting anything to where everyone can see it. So far, I'd only really worked up the courage to share with some of the local players and one other source member.

Yeah, I'm not sure about that canonist. I guess playing around massacre is one reason. Maybe he was too keen to get a clock on? Or maybe he just thought Thalia was good enough. I definitely don't think holding up canonist was the correct idea, regardless.

I'm currently using OBS to record, which has upsides in that I can see my full sideboarding plan, along with any weird decisoin making processes, the downside being it's I can't just click through the really dull parts quickly

[CabalTherapy]

DRS enabled

Very recently, I went through my binders again to find some cards that might be useful against the 4c Control piles, which seem to outvalue storm in the late run; especially since there isn't SDT in the format anymore. I know some good cards are Night's Whisper/Dark Confidant but both appear to be mediocre (even though NW looks good in theory) against a wider field. It happened to be Sloshthedark (Martin V.) who once again (after numerous innovations to the storm archetype from playing 2 Pifs main to fringe options like Sulfur Elemental) came up with the idea to play a certain cc1 creature that sees play in various kinds of decks and also happens to be his worst enemy: Deathrite Shaman. Immediately, I searched up my playset and took it to the next local tournament, even though Slosh wasn't too convinced about it's field of application in the SB (is it really an improvement?) Either way I played the regular CTstorm15 main with Grim Tutor and the following SB:

2 Abrupt Decay
2 Fatal Push
4 Deathrite Shaman
1 Chain of Vapor
1 Tendrils of Agony
1 Empty the Warrens
2 Thoughtseize
1 Hurkyl's Recall
1 Flusterstorm

That said, it is already three weeks ago but I went 4-0 winning against Grixis Delver 2:0, ANT 2:1 (one game won by DRS draining the opponent to death), ANT 2:0, 4c Control 2:1 (DRS making mana and sacrificing himself for a CT during the last turn). I planned to bring the DRS tech to MKM Hamburg and did that trimming 2 Shamans in favour of a Crypt and a Grudge but unfortunately my plans were cut short as I suffered a severe form of food poisoning and was lucky to survive that day without all too much worries (again all my thanks go to the boys who helped me through that day and the day before).

Just to sum up DRS's upsides:
> makes mana
> sacs to CT
> counters opposing DRS
> counters Snapcaster Mage
> prevents SE from hitting too hard
> acts as graveyard hate against Reanimator and ANT
> different angle of attack (it's not a man plan!)
> value turn1 drop

I am not saying it's definitely the way to go but it opens up an interesting possibility to play out games against value piles and BR/Storm if you can survive DRS's sickness.

[GoblinZ]

I wanna pick up ANT again this days, but I have not played this deck for a quite long time.

Do you guys think a second Ad nauseam in the sb would work against 4c control?

[CabalTherapy]

I wanna pick up ANT again this days, but I have not played this deck for a quite long time.

Do you guys think a second Ad nauseam in the sb would work against 4c control?

Yes, I think it is a viable possibility.

[Dr_D]

@Togores, how would you board against stoneblade with the most recent list you posted?

[Togores]

@Togores, how would you board against stoneblade with the most recent list you posted?

Depends on theyr deck. Uwr is what I expect you want.

+3 decay
+2 ground seal
-2 preordain
-1 swamp
-1 lp
-1 dp/led

More or less

[FlyingDelver]

Depends on theyr deck. Uwr is what I expect you want.

+3 decay
+2 ground seal
-2 preordain
-1 swamp
-1 lp
-1 dp/led

More or less

Is it usually correct to cut the swamp vs decks without wasteland? Or would you cut the swamp even against some decks with wasteland, and if yes, in which cases?

[Togores]

If they have wastelands I never cut a land.

If I wanna grind them I leave all lands.

I cut island vs ur delver and burn

And swamp vs miracles, blade, storm, reanimator, sneak and show and so. Fast matchups where you dont wanna make landrops or slowish decks that you wanna win fast and dont pressure your mana base.

[FlyingDelver]

If they have wastelands I never cut a land.

If I wanna grind them I leave all lands.

I cut island vs ur delver and burn

And swamp vs miracles, blade, storm, reanimator, sneak and show and so. Fast matchups where you dont wanna make landrops or slowish decks that you wanna win fast and dont pressure your mana base.

Thanks for your reply!

Would you consider the 4c Leovold matchup a grindy matchup? Or do we want to win asap here? Also what are the cards to cut for that matchup? Finding it quite hard to find a good SB plan for it.

On another note, is the main purpose of Chain of Vapor to deal with problematic permanents or do we bring it in on purpose for other applications as well? (since I often saw it being used to speed up storming etc.)

Sry for those (I guess) noobish questions, am more or less in the beginning phase of learning storm.

[ScottW]

Thanks for your reply!

Would you consider the 4c Leovold matchup a grindy matchup? Or do we want to win asap here? Also what are the cards to cut for that matchup? Finding it quite hard to find a good SB plan for it.

On another note, is the main purpose of Chain of Vapor to deal with problematic permanents or do we bring it in on purpose for other applications as well? (since I often saw it being used to speed up storming etc.)

Sry for those (I guess) noobish questions, am more or less in the beginning phase of learning storm.

These are great questions. I tend to always go for the long game but I'm loosing too many matches Vs. control lately. I'm also curios what others are doing.

For 4c and similar discard decks (not storm) in general, have most people been playing out their artifact mana or holding it? My intuition is to play it out against discard but sometime the extra storm might help or just don't end up needing it so it's fine to have it discarded.

For CoV, I don't play it atm but I can't imagine anyone SBing specifically for a storm engine.

[FlyingDelver]

These are great questions. I tend to always go for the long game but I'm loosing too many matches Vs. control lately. I'm also curios what others are doing.

For 4c and similar discard decks (not storm) in general, have most people been playing out their artifact mana or holding it? My intuition is to play it out against discard but sometime the extra storm might help or just don't end up needing it so it's fine to have it discarded.

For CoV, I don't play it atm but I can't imagine anyone SBing specifically for a storm engine.

Yeah whether to hold artifact mana or not is also what I am wandering. I always think I don't want to make my opponents Engineered Explosives or Decays or KCommands useful. Thats why I usually keep them in hand, but discard is really making that difficult.

Alright, seems that CoV just occasionaly helps storming when the situation is right.

[Togores]

Thanks for your reply!

Would you consider the 4c Leovold matchup a grindy matchup? Or do we want to win asap here? Also what are the cards to cut for that matchup? Finding it quite hard to find a good SB plan for it.

On another note, is the main purpose of Chain of Vapor to deal with problematic permanents or do we bring it in on purpose for other applications as well? (since I often saw it being used to speed up storming etc.)

Sry for those (I guess) noobish questions, am more or less in the beginning phase of learning storm.

VS 4 color I have done things like that:

-2 preordain
-1 swamp
-2 petals
-1 pif
-1 another card, like petal, led or so

+2 ad
+2 ground seal
+2 fluster (for the hymn version, and thats the most played)
+1 empty

But Im not sold on my plan, I think removing petals and playing empty is quite bad, but I just wan t it as a late game insrance more than an early wincon.


Chain is great vs hate, eldrazi, reanimator and thalia decks.

[Ronald Deuce]

I love Chain of Vapor. I've never gone below a double in my 'board, though it's pretty rare that we get the nuts and can use it to power up our storm. I'm not a pro, but I've never found a card I'd rather use than Chain as spot removal in blue. (Hurkyl's Recall is for different stuff than Chain, imo.)

A question for people who run Flusterstorm: do you think a fourth Cabal Therapy or Duress is a reasonable substitute? I've been using one in the 'board but it hasn't come up all that often.

[CabalTherapy]

I love Chain of Vapor. I've never gone below a double in my 'board, though it's pretty rare that we get the nuts and can use it to power up our storm. I'm not a pro, but I've never found a card I'd rather use than Chain as spot removal in blue. (Hurkyl's Recall is for different stuff than Chain, imo.)

Chain is generic but too weak sometimes and so is single permanent bounce in general.

A question for people who run Flusterstorm: do you think a fourth Cabal Therapy or Duress is a reasonable substitute? I've been using one in the 'board but it hasn't come up all that often.

Thoughtseize

[Jeff]

Chain is generic but too weak sometimes and so is single permanent bounce in general.



Thoughtseize

How is the user CabalTherapy recommending Thoughtseize over Therapy? What is the world coming to?