[Deck] Fetchland Tendrils

[Arsenal]

I'm pretty sure it can't be Smothered.

But yeah, I don't see the reason/need for Fae when the current gameplan works pretty well. And if you really want 1/1 tokens to smash face, isn't that what the rarely-used ETW is for?

[conboy31]

Right, that is what I was trying to convey with the minus sign in front of smother.
I really don't see how Fae could be playable though, game 1 they have removal. Games 2 and 3 they may side out removal, but then again they will be siding in some form of combo hate which means the old school 5/5 Tomb land may be just as good as Fae.

[WiLdFiRe]

Oona is stupidly mana intensive, if you want to play a dude in this spot I think that Meloku would be a better target. Besides, playing a dude makes their removal relevant.

[Arsenal]

If I were MDing Death Wish, I would SB Massacre for Meddling Mage removal and Reverent Silence for Counterbalance removal with a /g splash. The tutor is expensive, so your answers may as well be free.

Also, I'd be all over Death Wish -> Slithermuse.

Massacre. I've always liked this card, but why would you run this over Damnation? Damnation hits Mage, and other random junk floating out there that Massacre might not hit.

[C.P.]

Massacre. I've always liked this card, but why would you run this over Damnation? Damnation hits Mage, and other random junk floating out there that Massacre might not hit.

Because it's Free?

[Arsenal]

HAHAHAHA, I'm retarded. I confused Massacre with Mutilate. I'm retarded. Please disregard.

[TeKo]

3BBBB and half your life to blow up some critters?

You can play Massacre for free and it kills MM or other shit even Goblins since most builds play the white splash.

[emidln]

Pyroclasm hitting both Mage and Teeg is much more relevant than something being Free. If you were in desperate need of ways to get rid of multiple mages that wasn't Echoing Truth or Rushing River, Clasm would likely be the choice unless you were green (then you have the possibility of Deed).

In any event, I've been using Death Wish primarily to find things I already play with. The reason for this is that my Death Wish is a 1-of, and dilluting my sideboard plans for a 1-of seems really bad. The only concessions I've made to Death Wish are Empty the Warrens and Tendrils of Agony. Empty the Warrens has been very "meh" to me so far, winning a few games, but mocking my lack of sideboard space in others. Tendrils is a necessary evil to fight off the looming Earwig Squad which is starting to see play, although playing to something that isn't quite universal may be a mistake (i.e. Tendrils #3 in the board may go). So far, the things I wish for the most are (in order):

Extirpate
Abeyance
Serenity
Extirpated Tendrils
Rushing River
Empty the Warrens

I don't honestly see why you need an alternative win condition, but if you really want one, there are much better options than Oona. For starters:

Empty the Warrens
Tombstalker
Tarmogoyf
Brain Freeze

are all solid options outside of Tendrils/Street Wraith/Dark Confidant.

[Arsenal]

So Death Wish is being played, as a 1-of, in current builds? Wow. Why this over Grim Tutor, which isn't seeing much play at all (except in specific metas)?

[emidln]

So Death Wish is being played, as a 1-of, in current builds? Wow. Why this over Grim Tutor, which isn't seeing much play at all (except in specific metas)?

Death Wish answers Extirpate, the decks called Stax and Dragon Stompy, Meddling Mage, Counterbalance, and decks that don't have a solution to Empty the Warrens. Grim Tutor finds you a card in your deck. They're actually different roles. Death Wish is being used as a second utility card. Also tested in that slot were Echoing Truth #1 and Rushing River #1. Grim Tutor was used to supplement the number of Wipe Aways, the number of Chants, and the number of Infernal Tutors. Grim Tutor is a lot better at what it is meant to do, but Death Wish is meant to do something else.

[Arsenal]

Cool, so DW is accepted in the list?

[emidln]

Cool, so DW is accepted in the list?

Honestly, there are 52 accepted cards and then the last 8 slots are what determines the variant you are playing. The iPop Negation deck, although not designed on the storm boards, actually fits this framework too. This is a cross-post from the storm boards:

Current lists are becoming fairly standardized. I'll try to summarize the decklist and its variants:

//52 Standard Cards
//14-15 Land
4 Polluted Delta
3 Flooded Strand
1 Underground Sea
1 Tundra
1 Scrubland
1 Island
1 Swamp
2+ Land Slots

// 16 Acceleration
4 Lotus Petal
4 Lion's Eye Diamond
4 Dark Ritual
4 Cabal Ritual

// 10+ Card Draw
4 Street Wraith
4 Brainstorm
2 Ponder

// 8+ Tutors
4 Infernal Tutor
3 Mystical Tutor
1 Ill-Gotten Gains

// 3+ Protection
2 Orim's Chant
1 Bounce Spell

// 1+ Win Condition(s)
1 Tendrils of Agony

This leaves roughly 8 cards that we haven't quite agreed on yet. Now, some of the cards are under more contention than others. I haven't heard an argument against the 3rd Orim's Chant in at least a month, but things like the number of Ill-Gotten Gains, Tendrils of Agony, Ponder, Bounce Spells, Empty the Warrens, Colors to be played, Basics to be played, Fetchlands to be played, Draw4s, Grim Tutors, Impulses, Wishes, and various other cards have been. So far, here are the metagame slots:

Island #2,#3
Swamp #2,#3
Plains #1
Mountain #1
Flooded Strand #4
Bloodstained Mire #1,#2,#3
Underground Sea #2,#3
Volcanic Island #1,#2
Tropical Island #1,#2
Tundra #1,#2
Badlands #1
Bayou #1
Tomb of Urami #1,#2,#3,#4

Ponder #3,#4
Infernal Contract/Cruel Bargain #1,#2,#3
Dark Confidants #1,#2,#3,#4
Meditate #1,#2,#3
Night's Whisper #1,#2,#3,#4
Impulse #1,#2
Sensei's Divining Top #1,#2,#3,#4

Mystical Tutor #4
Ill-Gotten Gains #2,#3
Death Wish #1,#2
Grim Tutor #1,#2,#3
Lim-Dul's Vault #1,#2,#3
Burning Wish #1
Plunge into Darkness #1,#2,#3
Intuition #1
Enlightened Tutor #1,#2,#3,#4
Trinket Mage #1,#2,#3,#4

Tendrils of Agony #2,#3
Empty the Warrens #1,#2,#3
Brain Freeze #1,#2,#3
Isochron Scepter #1,#2
Tarmogoyf #1,#2,#3,#4
Tombstalker #1,#2,#3,#4

Orim's Chant #3,#4
Abeyance #1,#2,#3
Extirpate #1,#2
Duress #1,#2,#3,#4
Thoughtseize #1,#2,#3,#4
Cabal Therapy #1,#2,#3,#4
Bound//Determined #1,#2,#3,#4
Xantid Swarm #1,#2,#3,#4
Pyroblast/Red Elemental Blast #1,#2,#3,#4,#5,#6
Pact of Negation #1,#2,#3,#4
Force of Will #1,#2,#3,#4
Misdirection #1,#2,#3
Daze #1,#2,#3,#4
Disrupt #1,#2,#3,#4
Divert #1,#2,#3,#4
Spell Snare #1,#2,#3,#4
Remand #1,#2,#3,#4
Counterbalance #1,#2,#3,#4

Wipe Away #1,#2
Rushing River #1
Sudden Death #1
Echoing Truth #1
Pernicious Deed #1,#2,#3
Repeal #1,#2
Chain of Vapor #1
Pyroclasm #1

[TeKo]

Do you play Badlands/Volcanics with your Wish->EtW build?
I dont like it to have other colors than B U W with my first 2-3 land drops.

atm my manabase looks like:
4 Strand
3 Delta
2 Island
1 Swamp
1 Plains (I like it^^)
1 Tundra
1 Underground Sea
1 Scrubland

I think I'll cut 1 Island for 1 Delta (BrainStorm rox).

Maybe I test Death Wish in the Ponder #4 Slot.

[bladewing019]

Infernal Contract/Cruel Bargain #1

What kind of meta would you want 0 draw 4s in?

[ACME_Myst]

Probably a meta consisting of over 75% Burn, Goyf Sligh, Goblins, and combo.

So basically, never.

[Shriekmaw]

What kind of meta would you want 0 draw 4s in?

You want Draw 4's in a control heavy meta, because having cards in your hand against control is very good. Basically, you sit there until you have the ability to go off with protection and drawing cards lets that accomplish this much faster.

[emidln]

What kind of meta would you want 0 draw 4s in?

None, to my knowledge, but builds without it were experimented with. I played without one in the MTGSal tourney and lost the few games that I lost to not having it available as a tutor target. Some people do play without it though, so it's on my list of not universally accepted cards. That's similar to Chant #3, Island #2, and Ponder #3 in how universally it has been adopted. For reference, my UBw manabase looks like this:

4 Polluted Delta
4 Flooded Strand
2 Island
1 Swamp
1 Plains
1 Tundra
1 Underground Sea
1 Scrubland

I have not had any problems with manabase stability or color access. Basic plains is so amazing. I can't overstate how good that card is, despite only producing white mana.

[kicks_422]

Basic plains is so amazing. I can't overstate how good that card is, despite only producing white mana.

This is so true. Basic Plains has saved me so many times in testing that I'm never cutting it. Also, the 15-land count has been amazing, it's very stable and IMO is the perfect number of land for the deck. The 4 basics add so much stability. Also, it feels so good when you Tendrils for 24 with only 4 foil Unhinged basics in play. However, with the changes I'll be making below, I might try switching the numbers of Basic Island and Basic Swamp.

I think I'm going to try going down to 1 IGG and 1 Tendrils to fit in 1 Death Wish and 1 Infernal Contract. I know I'll miss the 2nd IGG, but I rarely use it twice though. Cutting the 2nd Tendrils might be bad since I lose the double-Tendrils plan that I'm so fond of, but that could possibly be replaced by the utility of Death Wish and explosiveness of Contract. I'll continue with running 4 Chants and the full 8 cantrips MD, as well as a Wipe Away.

[Jaiminho]

I'm skeptic about removing the 2nd IGG since if you can't protect it against discard, you are hoping to be facing an opponent with no answer to ETW or with a slow enough clock to let you set for tutor chain into Tendrils or something of the kind.

In the other hand, Tendrils as a singleton is perfectly fine, I'd say.

[BreathWeapon]

I'm skeptic about removing the 2nd IGG since if you can't protect it against discard, you are hoping to be facing an opponent with no answer to ETW or with a slow enough clock to let you set for tutor chain into Tendrils or something of the kind.

In the other hand, Tendrils as a singleton is perfectly fine, I'd say.

Double Tendrils is standard tho', I wouldn't cut it and leave the deck 100% dependent on LED, Tutor, IGG and Tendrils for no reason.