[Deck] ANT (Ad Nauseam Tendrils) Storm Combo

[CabalTherapy]

I have a minor question about handling Esperblade and Patriot Delver postboard, hoping to find some insight. Both decks have troublesome permanents like Rest in Peace, Meddling Mage, and the occasional Ethersworn Canonist. With that in mind, some sort of removal is needed, but I've seen people opt for either Chain of Vapor or Abrupt Decay in both matchups. The former being easier to cast versus the latter's uncounterability is the obvious tradeoff, but I'm unsure which is the optimal removal agent in either matchup, or if it's different between the two decks, despite the problem cards being the same. Since Wasteland/Stifle occur more often in Delver decks, I'm initially inclined to think Chain of Vapor is a solid choice for Patriot. whereas the relatively less taxing Esperblade matchup could be good for Abrupt Decay, as it can strike down permanents like Liliana/SFM, though those aren't exactly exciting choices, they could be relevant.

In my opinion boarding Abrupt Decay against UWR Delver is just strictly wrong. As you already mentioned, they have Wastelands and sometimes a fast clock, where you don't want to sacrifice a land. I am pretty sure that the correct plan is to board 3 Chain of Vapor and 1 Massacre (if one plays Grim Tutor, if not +2 Chain of Vapor, +2 Massacre), although Massacre blocks Ad Nauseam which is nonetheless not a good option against a Delver deck (against UWR, being maybe the slowest of them, it is still reasonable to cast it). Chain of Vapor is almost never a dead card, bouncing LEDs or a flipped Delver, even without hate permanents of the opponent's side. The problem with Esperblade is that this deck plays differently against us in game 2 and 3. They have a lot of dead cards preboard and transform their deck to a hatemachine with more counter, hate permanents, discard, Extractions... and what have you. I wouldn't board a lot against them because, as you can read in Carsten's newest article, we don't want to make our deck worse in order to fight against hate, albeit there are times we have to. The main reason I wouldn't board Decay or more than two cards against Esper is on the one hand their discard (let the Preordains in there), and on the other hand their huge boarding plan which makes their deck's main strategy weaker thus our deck is still superior even in game 2/3 where we have 2 cards from the SB and Esper having 10 or whatever.

[wonderPreaux]

Alright, I''ll try the CoV + Massacre plan for Patriot Delver, and try some CoVs for Esper. Thanks.

A followup question about Sensei's Divining Top: Am I right in thinking that I'd only want it against control and non-combo decks with discard? It seems vaguely alluring in some midrange matches, but I get the feeling I'm just better off trying to crush such decks with a fast combo, perhaps even supplemented by a sb Empty the Warrens. Also on my mind, has anyone had success with the sided Flusterstorm for combo and Delver matches? I'm wondering how good a tech it is.

[JamieW89]

7-0'd a local with ANT last weekend, my first legacy tournament since the dissapointing BoM. Not sure how relevant that was though since I beat RUG 5x and didn't see a single BUG Delver or Miracles opponent. I was also well set up for RUG with Empty main and 2 Carpets in the board.

Some quick thoughts:
*I finally played a singleton SDT in the main over the second preordain and liked it.
*Tried LDV over Grim Tutor and still think Grim is much better.
*Obviously happy with MD empty, because of the skewed meta.
*I like one Flusterstorm versus RUG, but I'm not sure if I want more (I would board 2 vs BUG, but I have a split with 1 Divert. With a meta full of combo I could definately see playing 2-3 Flusterstorm)

@Carsten
In your Prague article you sb out SDT in the mirror, that seems strange to me. Isn't top insane in the grindy half of the games (even more so with the Flusterstorms)? Nice articles though, I especially like the boarding one.

[Acclimation]

Is the sb Flusterstorm that great of a slot?

I've been looking into ANT builds recently and question it, since LED+Countermagic don't play well together. For the match-ups that it is brought in, does it increase our percentages against those decks?

[sawatarix]

i'm back from vacation,made a road trip through germany and attended 2 legacy tournaments.
in Nürnberg i 50-ed and finished first and in Mainz i 50-ed and finished 3rd due to brakers.

gonna write a report soon for sou guys with some tips&tricks how to crush tournaments.
sounds good?

[Barbed Blightning]

i'm back from vacation,made a road trip through germany and attended 2 legacy tournaments.
in Nürnberg i 50-ed and finished first and in Mainz i 50-ed and finished 3rd due to brakers.

gonna write a report soon for sou guys with some tips&tricks how to crush tournaments.
sounds good?

Sounds great.

[meffeo]

i'm back from vacation,made a road trip through germany and attended 2 legacy tournaments.
in Nürnberg i 50-ed and finished first and in Mainz i 50-ed and finished 3rd due to brakers.

gonna write a report soon for sou guys with some tips&tricks how to crush tournaments.
sounds good?

Sounds really good. Waiting for.

[Togores]

@Kai


Why telemin pefomance? And if, why over bribery?

[redhamjack]

I don't want to speak for Kai, but I'd assume the Telemin Preformance fills the same role as Bribery but with the upside of being a 5cc insta win against creatureless decks.

[Togores]

I tested and telemin is not so great vs sneak and show. U get an emrakul on your next turn you opp gets emrakul on its own with sneak atack and ur dead >.<

[Barbed Blightning]

I tested and telemin is not so great vs sneak and show. U get an emrakul on your next turn you opp gets emrakul on its own with sneak atack and ur dead >.<

You could get a Grizzlebees and win on the spot, too

[Togores]

But with bribery u get it 100% also getting a sb card like vendion or so is not so nice i think.

[Togores]

Lately (2 months) I have been playing 1 empty in the side mostly for Canadian ***** and taxes usualy taking out the nauseam against them.

Against taxes it was ok cause playing 2 massacre let me clear theyr field for free and then smash the goblins but in most situations i could have pifed or nauseam anyway.


but specialy vs Canadian it was not so great, also nauseam is also not great if they just got 1 beater so Idk what to do. Because I would like a second bussines spell. and think nauseam is weak, pif is cool but with cage/surgical is not the best. Im thinking of sidding like the second tendrills in so that when we go into a counter war to resolve the spell I can just end up with tendrills.

nowadays my side vs ***** is
-1 sensei (I main 2)
-1 preordian
-1 ant

+1 emty / tendrills
+2 fluster

I also thought on putting in the 8th discard spell. And sidding like so:
+1 tendrills
+1 therapy
-1 nauseam
-1 preordian



what you guys think about the empty plan vs Canadian? convinced? agaianst? whats ur plan? just pif? or another?


thanks

[sawatarix]

Empty is fine against RUG Delver, they board in 2 rough/tumble against us but we have cabal therapy+flashback to get rid of it (or cantrips like ponder)

so boarding out ad nauseam for empty is fine.but i wouldn't side out to many cantrips as they are crucial to find missing pieces to combo off.
remember that we only run 4 infernal tutors and 1 past in flames so each cantrip is really helpful.
most of the time we don't have that much time to sculpt a hand so every mana has to be spent for cantrips during the early turns.

i would just board like this:

-1 ad nauseam
+1 empty the warrens

end of story.

ps: -1 lotus petal +1 discard is also fine to combat a wall of countermagic , especially if your opponent runs spell snare which is a hardcounter.

pps: my report will be up today so stay tuned ;)

[Sloshthedark]

what you guys think about the empty plan vs Canadian? convinced? agaianst? whats ur plan? just pif? or another?

thanks

My deck is different, with 2 pif, 2 Toa, EtW and Bolts it's hard to lose... Generaly I won't respect gy hate, Thresh plays 1-2 slot maxa and Cage is prefered... I usualy board in Xantid swarm and another land if I have them

So i strongly support EtW vs Thresh other than that small amount of additional disruption for LP and cantrip, 4 therapy is a no brainer

[sawatarix]

Tadaaaa:

http://www.mtgthesource.com/forums/s...many-vs-Brasil

[cheerios]

Kai,

Do you aggresively mulligan slow hands vs elves post board knowing they are packing a ton of hate after? Do you look for a specific set of cards in your openers vs elves? Thanks for the awesome report!!

Cheers

[sawatarix]

The games against Elves looks like this short example:

It is a pure race, we try to combo off as soon as possible and they try to resolve natural order (ruric thar which is a common card in most elves maindeck).
While game 1 is really in our favour, they board in around 6-8 hatecards against us.Most of the time it is a combination of discard and a few counterspells like flusterstorm/swan song.
They still can't really stop us completely from going off but they can delay our comboturn to buy time for their natural order or stain the mind(m15).
They want to have a long (fair) game , not us.

so keeping a fast hand with a lot of gas is welcome.
cantrip heavy hands are good in general but not in this matchup.
for example i would ship back this opener on the draw.

scalding tarn
underground sea
ponder
ponder
lotus petal
duress
preordain

while i would snapkeep this one:

lotus petal
lotus petal
dark ritual
lion's eye diamond
duress
duress
brainstorm

[cheerios]

Thanks a lot! I'm not yet confident in my postboard game against elves. I will keep the tips in mind.

[CabalTherapy]

Thanks a lot! I'm not yet confident in my postboard game against elves. I will keep the tips in mind.

Kai is right. We have 2 games to win against their hate because the first one should be one-sided; of course in our favour.
Due to their discard and possible counter, Elves weakens themselves which means that their game becomes more of a creature > discard > creature > attack play moving away from the combo kill.
I would recommend to board light, moving the Top to the board (if you play one) and the Swamp in favour of two Chain of Vapor which can deal with Null Rod, Deathrite Shamans (if planning to kill via PiF and adds to storm and and and...). Aggressive (fast) hands are the precondition for a win here.