[Deck] ANT (Ad Nauseam Tendrils) Storm Combo

[nevilshute]

First off, thank you.

The thing about Grim is that it's just not good. Also, just because the card is successful doesn't mean it's good. People win with supoptimal lists all the time, myself included. Just look at the pile Timo played way back in Ghent. As I said in the article, I really don't get how you end up with that card in your deck. If it wasn't as widely played, I would never have included it in that section but kept it for the bad cards section.
Regarding Wish, I actually stated that the card is very narrow an only has one use. Should I rewrite that bit to make it clearer that I think you should never play more than the one you might want to play as Extraction insurance?

I really think you are selling yourself short with a statement like this. I like your article and think it's an impressive piece but I agree with Phazon in that the particular bit about Grim Tutor smacks of personal taste and not of analysis. "The thing is, it's not good" is quite an unsatisfactory statement. What you should do is explain why you don't think it's good.

You give three arguments in your article as to why you think Grim Tutor is a bad magic card in ANT but I was wondering if you can expand on why? 2 of your reasons refer to Ad Nauseam and one to Past in Flames. I think you are missing a dimension in your critique of the card because a lot of players that have had success with the card are playing lists without Ad Nauseam in the main deck. If we want to streamline our deck for Ad Nauseam with that card as a main deck player, then I would be hesitant about playing Grim Tutor. I wouldn't rule it out, but Grim Tutor's faults become apparent when paired with AN. When you don't, however, run AN in the main and instead rely more on Past in Flames (a lot of us are playing 2 PiF in the main with AN in the sideboard and have done so for a long time) then Grim Tutor is, I would argue, a pretty good supporting player in the deck. Without AN the life loss, while still not trivial, becomes much less critical. The biggest issue is the extra mana, but in a plethora of situations it still equals a win when a Preordain doesn't.

Yeah, so anyway, I enjoyed your article a lot

[Togores]

You can get hellbent of flussterstorm for just one blue mana. Because you can activate your infernal and with the blue make flsuterstorm original on the infernal and the storm copies on the flusterstorm original so just 1 mana to get hellbent.
Also fluster helps i gain time vs show and tell. I have played show decks a lot end it not easy to have counters to not die. Mana and combo also while playing around fluster is nearly impossible.

[KevinH]

Jona, what do you think of Pyroclasm?

[Jonathan Alexander]

Okay, apparently I need to expand on the Grim Tutor section, noted. I will probably do that when I find the time and motivation to edit in a couple cards that I also don't think are worth playing in general, like Young Pyromancer and Carpet of Flowers.

Now, a few more notes on Grim. I don't think we need to talk about how bad it is with Ad Nauseam, that seems established.
With two copies of Past in Flames in your deck, I think you're doing yourself a disservice running only one copy of Tendrils. I think the tendency to do so stems from the fact that most players started out with Ad Nauseam in their deck and got used to Tendrils being a very weak draw in those decks. In the context of those lists, it's often the worst draw you can have for several reasons.
When you are setting yourself up to player a longer game, however, casting lethal Tendrils from your hand is very much realistic. The life you lose from attacking creatures doesn't really matter until you're actually dead, so you have much more time in going off. In those games, you even want to draw Tendrils because of how hard it is to interact with it on the stack. Further, running multiple copies of Tendrils also opens up casting multiple copies of Tendrils. The double Tendrils kill is an entirely new route to victory that's not even that hard to fuel with the amount of mana Cabal Ritual and Rain of Filth can produce later in the game.
In games where you rely on Past in Flames opening up your graveyard as a resource, Tendrils does nothing. Grim Tutor does. The mana difference between Grim and Infernal is not huge here, but it does come up. The more the game progresses, the more rituals you will be able to amass. But here comes Grim's real drawback, the lifeloss. Losing three is already harsh, that's a full turn of damage against most creature decks. But another three on the flashback? That's worse than playing a manabase with shocklands.
Then there's the argument of not needing to be Hellbent. This is misleading. Ignoring the scenarios where you have to use the mana Lion's Eye Diamond produces, you are still relying on a single spell resolving at some point of your spell chain.

I somehow feel like I'm just comparing Grim Tutor to Infernal Tutor, which shouldn't be the point. I don't think anybody is arguing that Grim is the better card. But maybe this will help explaining why I think Infernal is worth playing and Grim is not.

Maybe we should shift the discussion from how good or bad Grim Tutor is to how much it is needed. Personally, I don't think it is needed at all. I just don't see how it really adds to lists with 2 Past in Flames, which are very consistent with a setup of 4 Infernal, 2 Past in Flames, 3 Tendrils.


Also, Lemnear, one more thing I wanted to address. I think we are arguing about Burning Wish in different contexts. You are talking about it in a broader sense, whereas I really only have Cabal Ritual Storm in mind. Without Rite of Flame, the card is just too clunky. With Rite in the deck, it is miles better.

Jona, what do you think of Pyroclasm?

I don't think it provides anything that Massacre doesn't. Sure, you can run it alongside Ad Nauseam, but against Elves I don't think killing their creatures is your main concern and against Death & Taxes Dread of Night does more work while also being easier to cast. Against Jeskai Delver Massacre is better, but the Abrupt Decays you already have are also fine there.

[Sloshthedark]

early 2010's =/= 2010
Good job with the 8 dudes plan. Pity the drop in numbers, but for me this was never crucial, as long as play interesting games with ppl I like.
It surprises me that I see those decklist with several cmc4 cards plus AdN, that's soemthing what I never understood and the most what I did in these dpt. was 2 PiF, ToA, AdN, definitely not double ToA (and even additional GT or EtW). What am I missing?

http://media.novinky.cz/122/221229-original1-36anu.jpg
Nah, no comeback, just h2h selling...

yeah the same kids with the same borrowed decks, most of the older guys I like to play retired or attend irregulary, kids work, you know the stuff... Ad Nauseam is just a SB card for some people therefore no deal with the cmc, MD with multiple cmc4s is not common... I usually end up with Kai's list when the lgs tournament starts and I do not have the deck ready, freaking with SB space so I just jam AdN MD and do not care =D you can fetch it away anyway... //

Hi!!!

My name is Manuel Gómez, I'm from Barcelona (Spain) and I play Nauseam since a lot of time.

nice to have you there...


Flusterstorm... I don't get it w Elves, I'd board Extirpate fx or AD prior to this... regarding S+T I understand the benefits might be better now with Dig discard is not that awesome, still I believe proactive approach s what makes the deck strong, DD-like control scenario are the worst imo

Right now I have 1 Ad Nauseam, 1 PIF, 1 ToA, 7 discard, 2 Preordain, 1 Sensei's Divining Top. I'm trying to fit a second PIF in, without cutting either Top (because I feel I need it vs. Miracles) or AN (I think I need its ability to steal games fast in combo mirrors and non blue decks like Jund or D&T). So I thought about a Preordain, or a Cabal Therapy. I agree with both GoblinZ and Kai, as I believe that when you see more than one discard you are gonna brick with high percentages (Kai's version), but I also belive that I want discard early against Miracles (GoblinZ' version). I could see cutting the top, but this way I want at least 2 in the board for the Miracles match-up.

Also, I'm still unsure about my sideboard, I'm not certain about the "miracles package", maybe 5 decay effects and 1 additional top, or 4 decays and 2 additional tops. And still don't know how to split the decay effects: 4/1? 3/2? 4/0? And, City? City or Grip?
Also I'm not sure about splitting the 2 slots vs. combo in 1 extirpate and 1 flusterstorm or 2 flusterstorm.

So many doubts and the big tournament is on Saturday! I hope I'll come to an end! Any advise or tip is great guys!

when you still have preordains left it's not close imo... just try 2 SDTs MD instead of Preordain/s... hard call on the G package, I'm trying different configs for tournaments instead of Pithing Needle but none satisfied me with pairings or draws, I'm 4AD 2KG 2Extirpate today actually draw the stuff ... GL, If you happen to get paired against Mr. Vlcek send him my regards ; )

I'm done: The Storm Box
Hope this will help players tune their lists.

It was a pleasant read but do not know what it accomplishes, more of support OP material (dunno, did not read it) making it easier for new players... I got you like Flusterstorm and dislike GT (ok the card is abysmal for it's pricetag but not useless)

Thanks for reply. Aaah, I did not see the dissynergy between Top and PiF, perhaps I need to reconsider this and perhaps go for Preordain in the main.

If so then I may gamble in little D&T and go -3 Dread of Night, +1 Massacre, +2 Top in the board.

Regarding Carpet: Stops soft counters Daze, Spell Pierce, Flusterstorm (sometimes) in addition to accelerate. Just because I feel they leave removal in for tokens (ETW) that they can also use on Xantid. But perhaps Xantid is stronger. Both could go... I think I would prefer Carpet in this build.

EDIT: could not sleep, just thinking. When playing PiF in past games I rarely want to flashback a cantrip, and if I do, I usually have both Ponder and Preordain in the yard. So perhaps keeping top in is okay after all? And yep, for the Xsntid you have a point... it has won me some games, and is a must-counter / kill for every opponent reliant on counterspells as the answer to my combo.

there isn't much, SDT is just better T3 onwards unless facing Null rod // carpet doesn't stop anything // if you do a lot of times mana does not matter so the SDT gets some mileage out of shuffles

[GoblinZ]

I don't think it provides anything that Massacre doesn't. Sure, you can run it alongside Ad Nauseam, but against Elves I don't think killing their creatures is your main concern and against Death & Taxes Dread of Night does more work while also being easier to cast. Against Jeskai Delver Massacre is better, but the Abrupt Decays you already have are also fine there.

I found sometimes I want a pyroclasm vs grixis delver...but in general I don't think I want to make a cut for it.

[Lemnear]

Also, Lemnear, one more thing I wanted to address. I think we are arguing about Burning Wish in different contexts. You are talking about it in a broader sense, whereas I really only have Cabal Ritual Storm in mind. Without Rite of Flame, the card is just too clunky. With Rite in the deck, it is miles better

The issue for your readers is that this context isn't ever mentioned and says "Legacy Storm Combo". Sweeping Rite of Flame unter the rug and measure Wish as a card (and the potential problems of requiring multiple red mana once you opt to fetch for PIF or EtW) stricktly on how it interacts with Cabal Ritual is too narrow for an article with a headline which implies broader options of deckbuilding.

Even if we ignore the RoF topic for a minute for supporting the explosivness of Wishes, I see that the option to SB an Infernal which you can access via Wish is unmentioned, despite expanding your total number of Tutors to 7 without suffering from Grim Tutors lifeloss for a 2+2 cmc instead of Grims 3 while also having access to the usual tricks enabled by a Wishboard.

There is sooooo damn much discussion potential in regards to Grim Tutor as well as Burning and Death Wishes which no one tackled so far

[Jonathan Alexander]

I found sometimes I want a pyroclasm vs grixis delver...but in general I don't think I want to make a cut for it.

Yeah, the correct answer would have been a counter question: What would Pyroclasm's purpose be? I think you can make a case for just about anything, but it really depends on what you're trying to accomplish, so it's often hard to give definite answers.

The issue for your readers is that this context isn't ever mentioned and says "Legacy Storm Combo". Sweeping Rite of Flame unter the rug and measure Wish as a card (and the potential problems of requiring multiple red mana once you opt to fetch for PIF or EtW) stricktly on how it interacts with Cabal Ritual is too narrow for an article with a headline which implies broader options of deckbuilding.

I did mention Rite of Flame and TES when talking about Cabal Ritual, but I agree that's not enough. Making a clear distinction in the introduction is on the shortlist for the first update. It is also my goal to eventually include the strategies TES employs in this, but it's been ages since I played with Rites, so I don't feel I'm competent to elaborate on them as of now.

Even if we ignore the RoF topic for a minute for supporting the explosivness of Wishes, I see that the option to SB an Infernal which you can access via Wish is unmentioned, despite expanding your total number of Tutors to 7 without suffering from Grim Tutors lifeloss for a 2+2 cmc instead of Grims 3 while also having access to the usual tricks enabled by a Wishboard.

This is only relevant when you feel there are not enough Tutor effects or there is use for a wishboard. Most of the time, I don't think either is the case.

There is sooooo damn much discussion potential in regards to Grim Tutor as well as Burning and Death Wishes which no one tackled so far

Yeah, I think those aren't talked about for good reason.

[Rokkastut]

Just me again, can't sleep and thinking about storm... and it kinda fits good with both the Burning Wish and Massacre/Pyroclasm discussion.

I am thinking about going;

Main: 1 Tendrils, 1 PiF, 1 Ad Nauseam, 1 Burning Wish
Side: 1 Tendrils, 1 PiF, 1 Massacre...

This way I have the Ad Nauseam in game one where I want it, and also the ability to play two PiF or Tendrils via Burning Wish.

I also have the ability to play Massacre in game 1, and against Death & Taxes and Jeskai Delver the cost is exactly the same as Pyroclasm.

I'm not sure if this is the right route to go.... but it may be worth a try.

[Megadeus]

I too am going to try out a burning wish over a preordain next time I get to play

[sawatarix]

Our Jona really dislikes Grim Tutor and I kind of understand his point of view.

- Bad synergy with Past in Flames
-Unplayable with Ad Nauseam
-Requires 3 Mana (a full Cabal Ritual on it's own)

Instead, he argues for more copies of Stormspells in the deck, namely Tendrils of Agony (sometimes also Empty the Warrens but the card is, as I mentioned earlier, not needed in G1 most of the time). The main issue is that not everyone is comfortable with the "natural Tendrils from you hand" plan because it is so much different compared to our normal way to execute the combo with fast cantrips and Infernal Tutor+ Led.

For me another downside of Grim Tutor is that it can't act like another ritual spell.
Infernal Tutor can do it by getting a cabal ritual which is
+1 black mana.
So Grim Tutor is limited to finding Engines or Stormspells (and sometimes Protection)

I would be pleased if someone can do some game records with grinding station (3+ Tendrils)
Just to show how it performs against Miracle. The deck is known to be good against control in general so this could get some attention.

@Lemnear: I really hope that you suggestion "Death Wish" is a Joke. i really do :D

[Lemnear]

Of course was Death Wish a joke and I just picked it up as there was indeed once the talk about that card in this thread and I pointed out the flawed idea to pay half your life for mere Engines & Solutions as it was suggested. Atm i don't think there is a card existing which is stong enough (as a non-Instant/-Sorcery killoption for Ritual-decks) to run Death Wish and it's lifeloss instead of Burning Wish. I guess it's still something to have on the radar as it was once core of Vintage Storm, even if here only mentioned as joke and to make a point, which is to not ignore cards and options because of "no one else used them". I mean the same is true for Rain of Filth and the TES-like manabase you ran at the GP. Sometimes we all need to break the mold of established decks/cards and try something new or old in a new context.

@Rokkastut
I don't think a single Wish is worth running a wishboard unless you run stuff in the board you want to board at times anyways. I suspect it being the case here like 2 ToA, 2 PIF (only 1 MD) postboard at times and Massacre(s) part of your gameplan against D&T? If that's your intent, I can totally see that for more MB flexibility and for boarding into Grinding Station against control

[Ghiwo]

when you still have preordains left it's not close imo... just try 2 SDTs MD instead of Preordain/s... hard call on the G package, I'm trying different configs for tournaments instead of Pithing Needle but none satisfied me with pairings or draws, I'm 4AD 2KG 2Extirpate today actually draw the stuff ... GL, If you happen to get paired against Mr. Vlcek send him my regards ; )

I finally decided for cutting the Preordain, so I'm with 7 discard. The decision came from what my friends told me about the side event of today: it was full of Miracles, so I want to max out on 7 discard rather than have the second preordain. I though about a sideboard very well rounded to address the match-up I expect most: Miracles on top, OmniTell, Team America, Elves, Storm mirror.. also we know ANT has a pretty good match-up vs. blade decks, so I don't have any specific card like Massacre. Here is my sideboard for tomorrow:

2 Sensei's Divining Top
4 Abrupt Decay
3 Dread of Night
2 Flusterstorm
2 Chain of Vapor
2 Xantid Swarm

The Miracles package is 6 cards, but I'm still thinking about cutting a DoN for a singleton City of Solitude or Krosan Grip. I'll keep thinking about it till tomorrow morning. Every suggestion is accepted guys! Also I have Flusterstorm and Xantids for OmniTell, the 2 Flusterstorms come in also in other combo mirrors. The chains are a catch all, and will care about Medding Mages. DoN is self explanatory I don't know how much Death and Taxes will be represented, but I just want to win that match-up, no matter what. Massacre was mediocre, and I prefer to handle at best the D&T match-up rather than having Massacres against Blade decks, which I believe are already a good match-up.

I will for sure send your regards to Mr. Vlcek if I'll get paired agains him. I really hope I will be, as long as I believe he'll be X-0

Again, any last minute tip is welcome! Thanks guys, I hope to do well!

[Sloshthedark]

I finally decided for cutting the Preordain, so I'm with 7 discard. The decision came from what my friends told me about the side event of today: it was full of Miracles, so I want to max out on 7 discard rather than have the second preordain. I though about a sideboard very well rounded to address the match-up I expect most: Miracles on top, OmniTell, Team America, Elves, Storm mirror.. also we know ANT has a pretty good match-up vs. blade decks, so I don't have any specific card like Massacre. Here is my sideboard for tomorrow:

2 Sensei's Divining Top
4 Abrupt Decay
3 Dread of Night
2 Flusterstorm
2 Chain of Vapor
2 Xantid Swarm

The Miracles package is 6 cards, but I'm still thinking about cutting a DoN for a singleton City of Solitude or Krosan Grip. I'll keep thinking about it till tomorrow morning. Every suggestion is accepted guys! Also I have Flusterstorm and Xantids for OmniTell, the 2 Flusterstorms come in also in other combo mirrors. The chains are a catch all, and will care about Medding Mages. DoN is self explanatory I don't know how much Death and Taxes will be represented, but I just want to win that match-up, no matter what. Massacre was mediocre, and I prefer to handle at best the D&T match-up rather than having Massacres against Blade decks, which I believe are already a good match-up.

I will for sure send your regards to Mr. Vlcek if I'll get paired agains him. I really hope I will be, as long as I believe he'll be X-0

Again, any last minute tip is welcome! Thanks guys, I hope to do well!

you can still have 3/1 AD/KG split or Massacre/DoN split, dunno how big or likely are MM+CB and UWR blade in Italy

Good luck Ghiwo, I hope to read some good news tomorrow =)

[Togores]

Hey guys, yesterday I played at my weekly legacy event and won it.
i wanted to test Wagners deck (2 pif 3 tendrills). Just changed the sb to this:
3 decay
3 xantid
1 nauseam
1 burning
2 chain
1 hurkil
2 massacre
2 fluster

Usualy no one or may be one plays miracles but from 34 ppl this time was 3-4 miracles there.
I ended up playing vs 2 of them.

2-0 jund
Pif and so gets there first game.
Nauseam gets there g2

2-1 miracles
He has top and balance turn 3 i infernal for doble tendrills and two turns later they got there.
G2 he has balance and 2 canonist.
I board in the masaacres in
G3 he mulls and keeps a hand with balance meddling cannonist and counterspell with one land.
T3 he dosnt draw second land and I win.

2-0 mud
He mulls to 6 keeps a t2 metalworker into t3 lodersone. He plays the worker and dies.
G2 he mulls again and keep a t3 metalworker into steel helktide.
He dies to my t1 nauseam.

2-0 miracles
G1 pif gets there after probing and theraping 2 balance.
G2 i naural tendrills him for 18 being him at 16 he flusters i play but he counters one copy with pierce so he is at 2 life. He fetches to 1 life. And then I wait ti drAw a sencond tendrills or discard to clear the path for the pif in grave. Wheb im one hit away from dead by clicke i draw brainstorm he counters. I play titual he counters (i had 6 lands) then led infernal tendrills with pif backup gets there.

Final
Bug delver
Probe and therapy gets his desthrite. And he starts with delver. T2 he has no counters or diascard so pif wins.
G2 i get rid of his counters and when he plays his first creature t4 that is a goyf i nauseam and win.

So deck feelt good.
3 cabal are not nice. But prefer 3 cabal 2 preordain than 4-1.

Missed grip. But was weird that so many miracles apeared.
In a normal meta (not so much mud and decks with spheres) I would cut the hurkil and another card (may be xantid?) and play 2 grip or 1 grip 1 city of solitude (but being natural tendrills a real plan havigt grip to stop top + fluster by surprise seems legit. Im not sure).

So thats all ^^

[Rokkastut]

Togores: how did you side against Miracles? And how would you side against Miracles with new SB in the future?

[Togores]

I sided diferent each time.
That was the cards I took out:

Island (a miracles player sb blood moon i took trop out)
2 petal
1 led
1 cabal
1 infernal
1-2 preordain
1 pif (if he sb rip)

In
3 decay
2 massacre (he has canists AND mages)
2-3 xantid (sometimes yes, sometimes no)


Also depends on a lot.
Im not used to this deck so I sb on the fly.

Also today played another event 2-2
Beating infect and elves
Loosing vs 2 miracles.
Having both g1 t2 balnce + top
And one at 2 life 3 slusterstorm + 2 balance lock. The other balance lock t3. T4 canonist. T5 vendilion + karakas.


Was sad.
In this event there was more control but les mud and show deck so I changed 1 xantid and 1 hurkil for 2 krossan.

[CabalTherapy]

Hello storm mates,

we went to a 6-round tournament in Hannover yesterday. Our 3 hour drive was amusing but also a bit uncomfortable because of the small car and us sitting very tight at the back seat.
As we finally arrived, I immediately went for some juicy sandwiches and some energy drinks. Luckily the prices at the site are very complaisant.

I have registered this list:

Grim Storm by Team RugStar Berlin

4 Dark Ritual
4 Cabal Ritual
4 Lotus Petal
4 Lion's Eye Diamond
4 Brainstorm
4 Ponder
4 Gitaxian Probe
2 Preordain
4 Infernal Tutor
1 Grim Tutor
1 Ad Nauseam
1 Tendrils of Agony
1 Past in Flames
4 Cabal Therapy
3 Duress

4 Polluted Delta
2 Scalding Tarn
1 Misty Rainforest
1 Bloodstained Mire
2 Underground Sea
1 Volcanic Island
1 Tropical Island
1 Bayou
1 Island
1 Swamp

SB:
4 Abrupt Decay
3 Chain of Vapor
2 City of Solitude
2 Xantid Swarm
1 Sensei's Divining Top
2 Flusterstorm
1 Massacre

Round 1 - Sneak Show
I put my opponent on Reanimator because of our previous encounter but fortunately he had a slow Sneaky hand without cantrips but the combo already in hand.
I chained some Probes for a couple of turns and discarding his Intuition he was left with only big spells. I proceed to kill him via a spicy PiF loop. I brought in some Xantids and Flusterstorms for the second game, where I landed a Xantid on turn 3 after stripping his hand of Force of Wills with Therapy. He managed to play Show and Tell on his turn but hasn't found anything to remove my Xantid and extended the hand.
2:0
1-0

Round 2 - Grixis Delver
Again I put my opponent on a different deck and was shocked that he sifled my first fetchland because I was expecting Miracles for sure. Nonetheless, Sifle was his only interaction with me during the first game. Since I didn't see the third color of his deck, I thought about brining in some Chains for Meddling Mages. His second hand was decent but didn't have a clock which allowed me to sculp my hand, only caring about Wasteland/Stifle.
2:0
2-0

Round 3 - Team America
I knew that my opponent was on TA because it was Rugstar's own meffeo with a full Hymn list. Well, I can't really remember the interactions in the first match but eventually he had a Hymn but I recovered using either Ad Nauseam or PiF. I can't rememeber the engine that got me there. In came some Flusterstorms and the single Top which I played on turn one. He again played Hymn and putting a clock via Delver. Some turns later, I used a sweet PiF line where I played with the top 2 cards of my library being Cabal Ritual and Infernal, beating his Force of Will and double Daze.
2:0
3-0

Round 4 - Team America
I kept a greedy one-lander and hoped for a land to kill him quickly but unfortunately the draws were really shitty but I still managed to play Ad Nauseam from 13 life but with already 3 LEDs in the grave it was doomed to fail. The following two games, I simply won with using PiF in the second and a nice Ad Nauseam in the third one.
2:1
4-0

Round 5 - UWR Controlblade
It looked like a easy MU and the first game was very one-sided. I won with a PiF line without LED but with Tendrils in hand. I boarded some Decays because I thought about Mages, RiP and other stuff coming at me. But as we played his deck unveiled itself as being packed with counterspells, Cliques and fat draw spells. I lost the two following games due to his hard permission and the first mulligan in the tournament in game three.
1:2
4-1

Round 6 - Miracles ID
Things looked good for me with a spicy opp-score but I decided to draw with my opponent because I was a bit tired and felt that it was ok to draw in this situation.
4-1-1

In the end, I got 4th and me being the only comboplayer in a heavily blue Top8. Grim Tutor has won me some games being awesome as usual and Ad Nauseam in the main seemed as perfect as in 2013 but these are only my impressions. I am looking forward to the next bigger torunament in Prague next month.


Afterwards, we went to a kebap shop in Hannover and I drank my well-deserved and favourite energy drink from my favourite Russian supermarket. Big thanks to the Berlin crew for this pleasant day.

[sawatarix]

Well gratz Robert and Togores :)
Nice to see some good results in Europe.

Togores: What's your opinion about Grinding Station? For me it never worked out so far but I'm open for some input from prime storm players.

[Togores]

Well gratz Robert and Togores :)
Nice to see some good results in Europe.

Togores: What's your opinion about Grinding Station? For me it never worked out so far but I'm open for some input from prime storm players.

As I spoke yesterday with a friend:
Time ago I played usual ant list with 2 tendrills sb.
So that against uwr blade or miracles I could just brute force them with the tendrills. One the first event i won both miracles at least one game while balance was on play and just two natural tendrills made it. Grinding station just makes the same but backwars. You think you will play a lot of control decks and just aply brute force vs them. Even if they land balance + top you can just tendrills them. And then you side a fast plan vs other decks.
Its really usual that I sidr out -1 pif -2 toa for like nauseam and if they play black the bw. So that my deck is just a speed nauseam.
At the end of the day it is.
Will I face more control decks and burn where having a brute force deck that also has sone speed (because of pif + toa + cabal +infernal + led any 3 of this cards "more or less" let you go into the combo, either tutoring for more mana. Or bussines or so). Or you will face more combo and decks where u want to be fast with nauseam enghine instead of sitting there and waiting to make a natural tendrills?

Thanks just a metagame thing. Im sure in a field full of canadian, patriot, blade, miracles, burn and golddigger is better while in a field full of bug delver, shardless, jund, nauseam, show and tell and elver the ant version is better.

Just a thing of taste and metagame analyse.

:D