[Deck] ANT (Ad Nauseam Tendrils) Storm Combo

[MTG Junkie]

That isn't remotely correct in a burning wish version of the deck. It makes it so wish can find a PiF engine/the primary way you win most games. It seems nightmarishly slow I'll give you that, but what are you running instead?

Don't know how bayou main over trop would ever be right especially in a wish build. Casting cantrips is still vital to ANT's gameplan no matter what build you run and trop does that while bayou does not. All bayou casts is fast mana, tutors not named wish, and discard spells. I prefer to not have my cantrips stuck in my hand due to not having a blue producing land in play. Same reason most people don't run badlands.

Concur with Cuthbert on keeping green out of wish builds. Makes the mana absolutely atrocious. At that point you're far better off with TES.

@ Cuthbertthecat

Iv never liked double Island. Iv alway felt better about the 2nd Swamp. Thats why I play a Bayou main. I do agree that the mana can get clutterd.
How ever its not nearly as bad as you guys think. Game 2 against blue non Waste decks I simply swap the Bayou for a Trop. Against tempo some times i swap a fetch for the Trop or go to 16 lands. Not sure witch one i like best.
I feel the green to be nessary AD kills Med Mage and Swarm provides a Silence affect. Discard just does not go all the way against SaT/decks like SaT.

[sojustcloud]

I used to run singles of both Grim and LDV, but have swapped them for a second BW and a SDT. I hated Grim every time I drew it, and I never once IT'd for it. LDV was great for finding singleton answers post-board (Massacre, Wish for Pyroclasm, a Duress-effect, etc), but Top does a slightly weaker thing over and over again forever, and makes your fetches and cantrips way better.

I've been wondering about having a single LDV in the board to bring in along w/ answers and help dig for that one-of or two-of Chain of Vapours that are brought in, etc.

[Jin Gitaxias]

I'm personally not a fan of LDV to find specific sideboard cards, if I would want that effect I think Grim Tutor is the best effect, I even prefer it over Wish because most of the best sideboard cards are not sorceries. But in testing I found i did not need that effect often so I just play 4 IT and cantrips.

[bondfan]

What are people's opinions on Bayou vs Badlands? I currently run a Badlands as it helps to cast sb options such as Pyroclasm against Wasteland decks. The only time where I would want Bayou would be against Merfolk to help cast Xantid Swarm.

[Patrunkenphat7]

What are people's opinions on Bayou vs Badlands? I currently run a Badlands as it helps to cast sb options such as Pyroclasm against Wasteland decks. The only time where I would want Bayou would be against Merfolk to help cast Xantid Swarm.

Both those duals are wretched, and I would never play either in a million years. Pyroclasm is bad against Wasteland decks anyways because you have to fetch for duals to cast it, and running more duals doesn't make it somehow better against Wasteland. Ergo I would also never run Pyroclasm. You will also be very sad the day that their Mother of Runes counters your Pyroclasm.

[bondfan]

Both those duals are wretched, and I would never play either in a million years. Pyroclasm is bad against Wasteland decks anyways because you have to fetch for duals to cast it, and running more duals doesn't make it somehow better against Wasteland. Ergo I would also never run Pyroclasm. You will also be very sad the day that their Mother of Runes counters your Pyroclasm.

Are you running Massacre instead? My issue with Massacre is that W(x) decks often have Rest in Peace which makes the deck rely more on Ad Nauseam. Pyroclasm has been preforming really well for me recently, not against DnT but against Delver decks. Removing all pressure makes it much more attractive. I agree having to fetch out a dual is awful but so is having 1 Volcanic.

[gregtron]

Both those duals are wretched, and I would never play either in a million years. Pyroclasm is bad against Wasteland decks anyways because you have to fetch for duals to cast it, and running more duals doesn't make it somehow better against Wasteland. Ergo I would also never run Pyroclasm. You will also be very sad the day that their Mother of Runes counters your Pyroclasm.

I think this puts you in the minority. Bayou and Badlands are both fine, depending on what you're trying to do and how. For me, I prefer both over Trop or Volc, as I want my lands to allow me to cast spells in a certain order or together in the same turn, or to be castable after cantripping, and a U/R or U/G dual doesn't really do it for me. Also, Pyroclasm is a really useful sideboard card. I run one copy alongside a single Massacre, and it's been great against random Gaddock Teegs and good D&T players who play out their Karakas and Horizon Canopies to play around Massacre.

[BrettF]

Looks like at GP-Paris Timo is playing the same deck as his last BOM run. Does anybody know how he sideboards with his deck?

The only resource I have is his 2012 article but the deck is wildly different. (http://www.eternal-central.com/?p=3216)

[JamieW89]

Kinda failed at Paris today, missing day-2 ;(
R2 Sneaky Show 0-2 1-1
R3 4c Control 2-1 2-1
R4 Death Blade 1-2 2-2
R5 Esper Blade 2-0 3-2
R6 UWR Delver 2-1 4-2
R7 Miracles 1-2 4-3
R8 TES 2-1 5-3
R9 BUG Delver 2-1 6-3

Some interestjng situations, including beating 3 Fow, CS and REB in one turn without a discard spell (and making some silly missplays..)

[DeepDish]

Hey guys. First time I've posted here but I've been reading this thread for a while now. I wanted to post my list that I will be taking to a local 1k guar tournament and see what you guys think. Thanks for the feeback!

4 Lion's Eye Diamond
4 Lotus Petal
1 Ad Nauseam
1 Tendrils of Agony
4 Dark Ritual
4 Cabal Ritual
2 Underground Sea
1 Volcanic Island
4 Scalding Tarn
1 Swamp
2 Island
4 Ponder
1 Past in Flames
4 Infernal Tutor
4 Gitaxian Probe
3 Duress
4 Brainstorm
4 Polluted Delta
3 Cabal Therapy
2 Preordain
1 Tropical Island
1 Grim Tutor
1 Lim-Dûl's Vault
SB: 3 Abrupt Decay
SB: 2 Chain of Vapor
SB: 1 Karakas
SB: 3 Xantid Swarm
SB: 2 Flusterstorm
SB: 1 Surgical Extraction
SB: 3 Dread of Night

[BrettF]

Hey guys. First time I've posted here but I've been reading this thread for a while now. I wanted to post my list that I will be taking to a local 1k guar tournament and see what you guys think. Thanks for the feeback!

List looks solid DeepDish. Would you mind sharing how you sideboard in common matchups?

General statement regarding the ANT thread:
Which business spells and lands you play maindeck is very personal and at this point, not worth debating over. I think if we all focus on perfecting sideboarding with the deck we can make good ground. The deck is so good in almost every game 1, I only feel disadvantaged if i'm not sure what my boarding plan is. I'd love if players just shared their boarding plans for common matchups.

Calling you out, ANT players!

[Sloshthedark]

Right back from GP Paris - 5-0 trial, 7(5)-2 D1, 3-3 D2 missed money in the end =/

the list is not interesting enough to squeeze into the coverage (ok around 50 trials were played) so:



Trials were the same except -1Duress +1Bolt, SB:-2AD +Vendilion Clique +Chain of Vapor

T1
UW Rip miracles 2-0 - his ability to not draw proper lands is the key factor to be honest
Reanimator (with Wastelands, WTF?) 1-2 ... G1 won // G2 blind PiF with 4 GP, 2 BS, Ponder misses // G3 tapped out wrong in crucial turn so I can't win with Extirpate on FoW, he rips reanimate->Iona, I have to extirpate and die to double FoW

T2
UBr Ant 2-0
Sneaky Show 2-0
URw Painter 2-1 G2 keep a potent 2xGPno lander, haven't seen a mana source ever after
SoL Deadguy 2-0
Sneaky Show 2-0 ... G1 I go off through Griselbrand, he thinks too much, counters wrong spell and dies

T3 (for a playmat)
UWr Miracles 1-2 G1 4x discard+no CB=kill // G2 I go off with PiF through counters, he Top-draws a Spell Pierce with my Notion thief in play, I miss it as situation is really complicated and lose thanks this


I'm surprised by number of Combo+Miracles therefore the SB changes, none of the S+T had Leylines


DAY 1
1-0 Bye
2-0 Bye
3-0 2:1 Esper (death)blade, SB feat Meddling Mage

4-0 2:0 UBR Ant G1 fails a Grimtutor loop for 14 storm after I see it comming and ToA for 12, draining himself to 1, I IT -> Bolt him // G2 discard his hand, Thief him, kill him

4-1 1:2 Esper (death)blade G2 mana shy of PiF through FoW, has 1 turn for outs, rips a RiP, I'm forced to EtW which is 1 storm less than needed to race Batterskull and no removal gets drawn

5-1 2:0 "Farmville" Bant Depths - G1 I'm surprised by Flagstones go opening and crop rotate-> tundra+waste but kill him anyway // G2 feats T2 12 Goblins +double CT, he doesn't find outs (Living wish->Peacekeeper) I was more afraid of Tabernacle, which he does not play

6-1 2:0 Elves G1 T1 bolt a shaman, T2 BS->kill // G2 he mulls 5 and similar happens

6-2 1:2 4C Deathblade - G1 I bolt a shaman, despite 2 BS he keeps his Swords in hand for my Delver, lol, you know how this ends...I make my 1st misplay of the day with BS, should have killed him T2, then missboard G2+G3, really did not deserve to win

7-2 2:0 Jund - G1 he starts MFlats -> Swamp->Thoughtseize, wastes my land next turn, I BS in response and kill him T2 // G2 not sure what he plays so I board Karakas+Elementals like vs Deadguy, just to be sure... He has GY hate overkill hand+Sylvan library, I prefer to discard a Thoughtseize, he Sylvan draws himself to 10, storm 5 = no problem... Day 2 hooray!


DAY 2

7-3 1:2 4C death blade - he made top 8, G1 he is well equipped to fight creatures =) I see a MD Zealous Persecution and EE // G2 he opens with Leyline of Sancticity and has Persecution for my 16 Goblins // G3 he keeps Leyline nolander on 6, finds a Tarpit T2, so I extirpate my land to get hellbent my T3, if I draw a manasource = 14 goblins and in retrospect a win ... I draw a therapy... he sticks
DRS, Relic, CS my attempt and here I die...

8-3 2:0 Esper (death)blade some Mtg Madness guy, uneventful

8-4 0:2 UWR Tempo - G1 questionable mulligan choice vs. T1 Delver and no luck // G2 CT your Delver vs. 1st turn Delver, my last turn removal met a FoW

9-4 2:0 Esper (death)blade, Michael Bonde G2 feat. really complicated situation me going off intentionaly into clique... I believe he made a mistake not cliquing me endstep previous turn, he has complicated reasoning why he did not do so... and loses

9-5 0:2 UBR Ant - THE MOST RIDICULOUS pseudoMIRROR EVER ... Oh my, I've lost my pen before the round, It was a lucky pen I guess ... G1 I win the dieroll, I know what he's on, I have a land+therapy+LED+Tutors in my hand.. name a LED, miss, play mine... next 6 turns!!! he draws just lands and petals and can't get hellbent because of it, while I need to draw any land, DR or LP for the kill... i discard his IT, so it's basically monolands control vs 1 land belcher and he keEps on drawing just mana ... this is not even funny... I die around turn 12 BS locking myself twice still on 1 land... for the record my next 4 cards are blanks... ok... // G2 I mull into GP+Therapy+2xLED+IT+land... GP reveals land, rituals, petal, ponder, and GP.. I take a ponder and opt not to play the LEDs as I do not play Ad Nauseam and any of his discard just blanks me anyway... he obv. draws a CT with the Probe... how this continues? - see G1 feat lands on both sides I Extripate his 2 DR in hand early to prevent IT->AdN... after several turns I Pyroblast his ponder, BS lock myself again looking for tutor, Pif, for the kill, ponder or anythink... and die 2 turns later to a topdecked IT...

10-5 2:0 TES ... he has some dice and looks like combo, G1 he's afraid of going of into my Untapped Sea->go, T2 I BS and Tutor chain him // G2 2x TS, 2x CT, LED, Land, BS is fine, he starts with ponder and never gets above 1 card in hand, I EtW to check him every turn and finish with IT-> PiF a turn later... preserving some dignity... still undefeated ANT vs. TES

I obv miss money by breakers, spend more euro on some foil asian shit and go get drunk under the Eiffel tower...


--------------
Found out I'm totally unprepared vs. Esper/deathblade variants, I don't consider it much good, haven't expected it and no one plays it around me, so I lack experience and do not follow builds... I played 6 of them and each was a bit different, shamans/confidants/discard/counters SB Meddling Mages/Extractions/RiP, all different, worst of all I'm not aware of any signs how to distinguish the versions... SB was a real lottery

I'm fairly disappointed, I've won 4 dice rolls in 15 matches and lost 3 of those, I believe I could have played better few times - mulliganing with UWR, SB with Esper Day 1, other than that the decklist surprised me how well it performs in anonymous competitive tournament (my testing last month = few hours of goldfishes + 6-3 vs UBG tempo on the plane)


double ToA >counterspells
double ToA/PiF > discard+shaman+overconfident players
I'm sad Canadian Thresh is so dead =/
0 foil jap ToA in binders

[Bed Decks Palyer]

Hello Slosh! I'm sad you didn't won any money. That's what we phoned about last week, and now I'm even more happy that I stayed at work. (Not that I'd went anyway, you know... travelling, Magic, etc., not my cup of tea.)
Are you satisfied with the build? I still can't get used to the Bolts, but as the DRS, Confidant and esp. Thalia are everywhere, it might be right choice.
I'm surprised that you got so few removal in SB. I think one CoV should be added, but then again, you met no DnT (which is so unexpected), so seems like a good choice.

Nice deck, btw. Except for the Sulfur Elementals. They're so ugly. I wouldn't want them. Never.

[kiwi]

Sorry guys, the week before of GP Paris, I changed Ant for Team America. Im my testing Team America destroyed all combo decks including storm, if you can win vs your enemy join in his team, I took TA for the GP ( althought Ant did me the work of won me 2 byes one month ago in a tournament) and I did top 8 in the gp , of course I was paired in some matches vs combo decks and I won, hymn to tourach is a very powerfull weapon vs combo.

[Sloshthedark]

Hello Slosh! I'm sad you didn't won any money. That's what we phoned about last week, and now I'm even more happy that I stayed at work. (Not that I'd went anyway, you know... travelling, Magic, etc., not my cup of tea.)
Are you satisfied with the build? I still can't get used to the Bolts, but as the DRS, Confidant and esp. Thalia are everywhere, it might be right choice.
I'm surprised that you got so few removal in SB. I think one CoV should be added, but then again, you met no DnT (which is so unexpected), so seems like a good choice.

Nice deck, btw. Except for the Sulfur Elementals. They're so ugly. I wouldn't want them. Never.

no, I'm glad I went... The bolts are still great, totally mislead my opps, bought me a lot of time... The metagame was weird, I understand painter did well... I know I will return them ;) has been taken care of online and Toa too, so I'm 2 thoughtseize left from perfection, unfortunately the unbelievable price spike of jap foil xantid swarm made my deck 4, oh, 5 languages, not sure I can live with that... Overall the build is great, i'm 100% satisfied, sb is ok, Elementals underperformed, but I've met 0 thalia and 0 canonists, the rest is 90%, I always had 1 more card to put in and did not want 1 out, 1 cov was a close cut, but I like pyro much better, and 1 elemental is soo random


Congrats kiwi! The choice was good then, looking forward to the report

[Bed Decks Palyer]

Martin, what I meant was that I'm glad that it was me who stayed at home, I do believe you had a good time. And again, congrats on quite solid result.
Why do you want foil Swarms, aren't the non-foil enough? After all, you can't completely foil the deck.

[Sloshthedark]

Martin, what I meant was that I'm glad that it was me who stayed at home, I do believe you had a good time. And again, congrats on quite solid result.
Why do you want foil Swarms, aren't the non-foil enough? After all, you can't completely foil the deck.

Oh sure... I know you hate foil, I hate new border, but find some charm in old foils, and even some new ones... Again it's greed and rarity factor too... Some guy had a "nice" chinese playset, so a went for it after some deliberation ... I have no intention in foiling the deck, I dislike black foils and fetchlands are far far beyond reach for me... I'm not sure I'll look for foil AD, all foil sb might look suspicious to someone

[Bed Decks Palyer]

Oh sure... I know you hate foil, I hate new border, but find some charm in old foils, and even some new ones... Again it's greed and rarity factor too... Some guy had a "nice" chinese playset, so a went for it after some deliberation ... I have no intention in foiling the deck, I dislike black foils and fetchlands are far far beyond reach for me... I'm not sure I'll look for foil AD, all foil sb might look suspicious to someone

Sounds reasonable. Also, your foil Chains look beautiful. Some old foils are really nice.

What surprised me in your list were the Thoughtseizes. I guess they're good without AdN, but still, it's a bit strange card. Also, would you play Inq. of Kozel?

[Lemnear]

IoK can't rip FoW ... that's a no-go

[Grand Superior]

Very nice deck, Sloshthedark! Makes me wish there was a black-bordered Grim Tutor out there. I recently took the $200 plunge and bought a copy for my ANT deck, but it drives me crazy that it's the only non-dual land white-bordered card in the deck (though it is quite the nice looking card).