[Deck] ANT (Ad Nauseam Tendrils)

Started to brew the following:

Main:

1 Ad Nauseam
4 Brainstorm
3 Burning Wish
4 Cabal Ritual
4 Cabal Therapy
2 Chrome Mox
4 Dark Ritual
3 Duress
3 Gitaxian Probe
4 Infernal Tutor
4 Lion's Eye Diamond
4 Lotus Petal
1 Empty the Warrens
4 Ponder
1 Tendrils of Agony

1 Badlands
2 Bloodstained Mire
1 Island
4 Polluted Delta
2 Scalding Tarn
1 Swamp
2 Underground Sea
1 Volcanic Island

Side:
4 Dread of Night
2 Echoing Truth
3 Inquisition of Kozilek
1 Pyroclasm
1 Tendrils of Agony
1 Empty the Warrens
1 Past in Flames
1 Duress
1 Meltdown


Boarding Plans:

RUG:
- 1 Chrome Mox
- 1 Infernal
- 1 Cabal Therapy
+ 3 Inquisition of Kozilek

Maverick:
-3 Duress
-2 Chrome Mox
-3 Cabal Therapy
-1 Burning Wish

+2 Echoing Truth
+2 Inquisition of Kozilek
+4 Dread of Night

Control (Stoneblade/Miracles):
-2 Chrome Mox
-1 Infernal
-2 Cabal Therapy

+3 Inquisition of Kozilek
+2 Echoing Truth

Leave any questions, comments, or concerns. If you can think of a better boarding plan please share it.

Mainboard PIF is the nuts.
I would advise playing it main.
What I do when I play ANT is try to win all my game ones with PIF.
That way people think there grave hate is better than it is. When game two comes and they distort there deck with more grave hate than normal,I swap the PIF for Empty the Warrens.
Gets em every time.
Never been a fan of the one of Chrome Mox list,let alone two I prefer lands.
I would also recommend not boarding out the 4th IT with only 3 B Wish in the main. Decks like TES cand do that because they play 4 B Wish 4 IT main,but its not a good plan for ANT.
This is all from my months and months of EXP with the deck.

Try it out and let me know if you like it.

I've been pretty happy playing with:

4 Gitaxian Probe
4 Cabal Therapy
3 Duress
1 Chrome Mox
1 Past in Flames
1 Ad Nauseam
1 Tendrils of Agony
3 Snapcaster Mage
0 Preordain
14 lands (2 island, 2 swamp, 2 sea, 8 fetch)

Interesting to note that with Probe, Therapy, and Snapcaster Mage it's not uncommon to just naturally Tendrils someone.

Snapcaster Mage is interesting for a few reasons. It works as extra disruption, both flash blocking and being able to rebuy Duress and/or Therapy. It functions similar to Preordain or SDT in that it keeps you going when you'd otherwise fizzle out. It can function as an Infernal Tutor by rebuying various ritual effects if you just need some extra storm or mana on your combo turn. It doesn't look good in a goldfish, but it makes the deck run very smoothly.

My sideboard has been roughly:

2-3 Confidant, 2-3 Chain of Vapor, 3 Karakas, 1-2 Tendrils of Agony, 2-3 Wipe Away, 3 Virtue's Ruin.

I've basically put down DDFT to play this deck for the foreseeable future.

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Originally Posted by emidln

4 Gitaxian Probe
4 Cabal Therapy
3 Duress
1 Chrome Mox
1 Past in Flames
1 Ad Nauseam
1 Tendrils of Agony
3 Snapcaster Mage
0 Preordain
14 lands (2 island, 2 swamp, 2 sea, 8 fetch)

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Do you feel like you have enough red generating sources to cast past in flames consistently?

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Originally Posted by Rampart

Do you feel like you have enough red generating sources to cast past in flames consistently?

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Yes. You have 4 Petal, 4 LED. If you really wanted more red, you could consider cutting the Chrome Mox for a 15th land that would likely want to be a Volcanic Island.

I was just wondering, I seem to always reach for my Volcanic Island for Red and I didn't know if you missed having that land in there at all. But I guess you did cut the burning wishes for Snapcaster Mage's so you really shouldn't ever have a need for a red land.

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Interesting to note that with Probe, Therapy, and Snapcaster Mage it's not uncommon to just naturally Tendrils someone.

Snapcaster Mage is interesting for a few reasons. It works as extra disruption, both flash blocking and being able to rebuy Duress and/or Therapy. It functions similar to Preordain or SDT in that it keeps you going when you'd otherwise fizzle out. It can function as an Infernal Tutor by rebuying various ritual effects if you just need some extra storm or mana on your combo turn. It doesn't look good in a goldfish, but it makes the deck run very smoothly.

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Yes! Glad someone else has been messing around with snapcaster. I use the little guy pretty often but I quit mentioning it here since I could never get anyone else into a discussion on it. Anyway I vary between 1-2 but 3 seems like too many, especially since you can IT for one to chain out.
I did find SCM really lessens the need for loop spells like IGG or even PiF in the main, have you considered a 2nd AdN in place of PiF? Ive been finding lately that I rarely need any kind of loop/draw spell to combo off, especially with EtW main as an alternative so ive just been running a single PiF in my board since early game its not usually that good and later I can wish for it.

lambert101- your list is very close to what I run although your boarding plan is different (mine is pretty fluid though). I would suggest the 4th probe over the 2nd mox, its just that good and makes SBing easier I think.

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4 Dread of Night
2 Echoing Truth
3 Inquisition of Kozilek
1 Pyroclasm
1 Tendrils of Agony
1 Empty the Warrens
1 Past in Flames
1 Duress
1 Meltdown

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Your SB looks good from where im standing although I question why so many people fill up on IoK? I dont like the plan of discarding threats/hatebears since those decks can topdeck/dig for one too easy. Meanwhile therapies + EtW tokens does this just as well I think. Also I dropped my grave hate for a short while but regretted it pretty quickly, just something to consider since those matches are difficult.

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Boarding Plans:

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I like your plans except I wouldnt board out wish/IT. I also tend to board out some number of probes once I have an idea of what to expect or if its an aggressive deck. RUG is the biggest problem when boarding for me since I really dont have anything worthwhile to bring in ATM. Im reconsidering defense grid but I wish there was something a little more..hateful. Ideas anyone?

@Tombstalker

I really don't care for the extra discard but don't know what to put in. Possibly extirpates or grafdigger's cafe? Do you mind sharing your current list and boarding plans so we can test similar lists?

Thanks,

Lambert101

Snapcaster Mage to flashback Therapy is very intriguing. I'd be interested in seeing your complete 75, emidln.

Lambert101- my current 60 is same as yours -1 mox +1 probe. My board changes here and there but currently is:
4 dread of night
2 echoing truth
2 gilded drake
1 extirpate
2 surgical extraction
1 infest
1 tendrils of agony
1 empty the warrens
1 shattering spree

This is based on what I face though and I'm wanting a wishable sweeper or removal for g1 sometimes.

On snapcaster- he can sometimes fall short without sufficient mana or be dead early or in multiples. That being said scm + rits + therapy is 3 storm for 0. He's insane value at times but UB still suffers from not enough tutors at times IMO. I was testing entomb in place of grims/bw to mitigate that. EtW main is better with therapies but scm is fun and more versatile.

I am very interested in a snapcaster tendrils list, as snapcaster is insane value. Sure he flashbacks dark ritual for a net zero mana however that ramps up storm and with therapy in the yard netting 3 storm is no small thing. With cabal ritual snapcaster has the potential to add +1 mana as well.

I absolutely despise chrome mox in this deck after kansas city. Every time I naturally drew it without a brainstorm to shuffle it back it was quite crappy. I would probably substitute it for a volcanic in your list Emidln, sure it makes ad nauseam a little worse. However I almost never go for ad nauseam with this deck as I prefer a guaranteed kill with PiF. Also of note PiF is insane and I was wrong about it, at least in this deck. Flashbacking cabal rit with threshold is obscenely good. IGG is a lot worse in comparison, at least for now with infinite blue decks in the metagame IGG is very bad and usually doesn't get there unless your hand is stacked i.e. you can afford to get back one or two protection spells along with a tutor. If you NEED to get back two protection spells, you only need twelve mana to win before you resolve IGG to get back infernal, therapy, therapy or some mixture depending on your opponents grave. If they have two FoW's you need 2 duresses or a therapy. It is quite unlikely that this scenario pops up often, as it often involves all the lotuses or all the threshed cabal rits or a mixture of both.

The sideboard, as usual, is meta dependant. In my UBr list that I just top 16'ed with I am heavily considering cutting the singleton chrome mox for the 4th duress maindeck and changing that sideboard slot to some wishable artifact removal. And I am seriously considering cutting the 3 extirpates for 3 pyroblasts, as counterblance and clique were the only reason I didn't top 8. Also saw next to no reanimator in the entire room at SCG KC, I think I saw it a grand total of one time while walking around the hall. While I suspect that with countertop miracles winning the event it will become extremely popular in the coming weaks, leading me to running pyroblast to combat countertop miracle's clique's and counterbalance's because those cards are public enemy number 2 behind force of will in my eyes for UBr ANT. Heck, I infinitely prefer to face just force of will as that is almost too easy to beat because most people never draw more than one force of will a game leading me discarding it and untapping into the win or winning on the spot after they are completely stripped of their hard counter unless they have some soft counters, but those are typically easy to play around in my experience.

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Originally Posted by emidln

I've been pretty happy playing with:

4 Gitaxian Probe
4 Cabal Therapy
3 Duress
1 Chrome Mox
1 Past in Flames
1 Ad Nauseam
1 Tendrils of Agony
3 Snapcaster Mage
0 Preordain
14 lands (2 island, 2 swamp, 2 sea, 8 fetch)

Interesting to note that with Probe, Therapy, and Snapcaster Mage it's not uncommon to just naturally Tendrils someone.

Snapcaster Mage is interesting for a few reasons. It works as extra disruption, both flash blocking and being able to rebuy Duress and/or Therapy. It functions similar to Preordain or SDT in that it keeps you going when you'd otherwise fizzle out. It can function as an Infernal Tutor by rebuying various ritual effects if you just need some extra storm or mana on your combo turn. It doesn't look good in a goldfish, but it makes the deck run very smoothly.

My sideboard has been roughly:

2-3 Confidant, 2-3 Chain of Vapor, 3 Karakas, 1-2 Tendrils of Agony, 2-3 Wipe Away, 3 Virtue's Ruin.

I've basically put down DDFT to play this deck for the foreseeable future.

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I read this right before heading to bed, and I liked the list so much I immediately sleeved it up and spent another two hours testing it.

UB ANT has always been my favorite ANT build, and this just seems to go to a whole new level. Snapcaster solves the biggest problem discard has as a strategy vs chant effects, which is that chant often provides virtual card advantage. Snapcaster also allows some very interesting combo chains.

From other testing, though, I know I prefer a singleton Mox Diamond over a singleton Chrome Mox. After an Ad Nauseam it provides whatever colour I need without having to pitch a business spell, which is sometimes relevant. And while I don't want to see it in my opening hand (any more than Chrome Mox), it can sometimes allow me to get hellbent in hands that otherwise would have been dead. It's fairly easy for this deck to cast it's spells, but more difficult to dump it's lands. Finally, you discard the land, rather than exile the spell, so it can sometimes make getting threshold that little bit easier, too.

I also pondered with Snapcaster, but abandoned him because aside some insane value usualy in long games I find it clumsy in T2 T3 mode often not supporting threshold and not synergic with Pif, so after moving to SB he was pushed out by more straightforward cards so I'd say he doesn't fit my playstyle... But still interesting setup by emidln, I'll give it a try, i disliked BW lately so aarons list interests me, i like how changing just few cards change how deck feels/plays out dramaticly, glad to see the thread's alive

@tombstalker - more pif, more toa, actualy I'm more happy playing against Thresh than Maverick

Dark ritual- I think we were saying similar things except I was lazy posting from my phone. I said it a few pages back but snapcaster is like a mini one-sided IGG at times, generating storm without giving back previously discarded countermagic. This is why I believe snapcaster as a 1-of is probably the correct way to play it, if at all.

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Sloshthedark
I also pondered with Snapcaster, but abandoned him because aside some insane value usualy in long games I find it clumsy in T2 T3 mode often not supporting threshold and not synergic with Pif, so after moving to SB he was pushed out by more straightforward cards so I'd say he doesn't fit my playstyle... But still interesting setup by emidln, I'll give it a try, i disliked BW lately so aarons list interests me, i like how changing just few cards change how deck feels/plays out dramaticly, glad to see the thread's alive

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I agree with this which is why I mostly just dig him out for fun. EtW main is better letting us play out like dredge with tendrils backup. When I do use a single SCM he replaces 1 BW.

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@tombstalker - more pif, more toa, actually I'm more happy playing against Thresh than Maverick

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Not sure what you mean by that since I have tendrils main and side? PiF has moved to side for now in favor of EtW although I go back and forth on whether PiF should replace tendrils in the main but for now im satisfied. PiF is very very good but so is 10-14 tokens t1, otherwise I usually just chain tutors or naturally tendrils thanks to probe therapy. Note that EtW > thresh.deck, I just would prefer to have some sort of "edge" to bring in, in addition to EtW, not sure what though.

I cast Snapcaster Mage on turn 2 and 3 all the time. Everything from rebuying Dark Ritual or Cabal Ritual to rebuying Probe + blocking/therapying to casting AdN using LED mana. Sometimes Snapcaster Mage is *only* a regrowth after an opponent stopped a turn 2 attempt by countering mana.

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Originally Posted by Tombstalker

Note that EtW > thresh.deck, I just would prefer to have some sort of "edge" to bring in, in addition to EtW, not sure what though.

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Interesting -- I don't even bring in ETW against Thresh, as very rarely do I have trouble generating lethal storm against them.

My gameplan against them is to just sit and discard them while I hit land drops, so I don't have to worry about crap like Wasteland, Daze, Stifle, and Pierce. ETW is only really good if you're sitting at 10+ life and they have no Delver out, which isn't typically when I want to go all in against them.

Currently I board -3 Gitaxian Probe, +3 Thoughtseize.

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Interesting -- I don't even bring in ETW against Thresh, as very rarely do I have trouble generating lethal storm against them.

My gameplan against them is to just sit and discard them while I hit land drops, so I don't have to worry about crap like Wasteland, Daze, Stifle, and Pierce. ETW is only really good if you're sitting at 10+ life and they have no Delver out, which isn't typically when I want to go all in against them.

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This plan is still completely viable for me, I simply have the option of t1-2 EtW 8 ways (7 tutors or EtW in hand) for only 4-6 mana. Thats sick and 1 less then casting ad nauseam blind. Its just one more option. A very common play is probe-> therapy-> IMS-> EtW-> flashback therapy. Most decks simply cannot recover in time and if they do tendrils finishes it. Even without therapy in the mix its easy to chain 5 spells and put them on a 2 turn clock. Meanwhile ALL pressure is taken off of you while they scramble to survive.
How many times do you (or anyone else) find that when casting PiF it is simply to showboat? Serious question. Im not trashing PiF, because the card is ill, its just that we can only have so many cc4 in the main so for me its between tendrils or PiF. Sure sometimes its much needed to power through counters (in which case I currently board it in, rarely) but often it just isnt necessary, especially with probes and therapies + tokens for flashback. This is why EtW came in (thanks to bahamuth) and initially why I began testing snapcaster also, because a "lesser" on color version was often all I needed. Anyway it just gives the deck a more aggressive option against decks where the long game isnt advised and it wrecks tempo strategies. Its like adding 5 more ad nauseams to the maindeck with no drawback. Anyway not saying tendrils main is correct in my build though, PiF might be the better option but EtW stays.

To me it seems like Ad Naus is the card you should look at cutting, as it seems like it's similar in function to EtW (a finisher that requires fewer resources and setup than PiF) - very few cards are as powerful as a turn 3+ past in flames, so it seems wrong to cut to me.

That said, our lists play out very differently, so it's hard for me to comment on yours (my list is more similar to the older, slower lists that used to Iggy loop, your list is faster and much more similar to TES). That said, at least in my version, PiF is the only finisher I would never swap out.

Snapcaster seems pretty cool, I might try 1 or 2 - kinda neat that it nets an extra storm in a tutor chain w/ therapy in the bin.

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aaronm678
To me it seems like Ad Naus is the card you should look at cutting, as it seems like it's similar in function to EtW (a finisher that requires fewer resources and setup than PiF) - very few cards are as powerful as a turn 3+ past in flames, so it seems wrong to cut to me.

That said, our lists play out very differently, so it's hard for me to comment on yours (my list is more similar to the older, slower lists that used to Iggy loop, your list is faster and much more similar to TES). That said, at least in my version, PiF is the only finisher I would never swap out.

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I have actually considered dropping ad naus but the card just wins sometimes. I think the best option is likely PiF main and tendrils side but im trying the other for now. Your right our lists play very differently. The fact that one card in 75 changes the fundamental nature of the deck is the true beauty of storm combo and why I probably cant ever play anything else again. That said im newer to storm than most of you guys here so im still on a journey of discovery even though I feel proficient with the archtype now.

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Snapcaster seems pretty cool, I might try 1 or 2 - kinda neat that it nets an extra storm in a tutor chain w/ therapy in the bin.

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It adds a whole new dimension to the deck but increases the chances of fizzling if your not careful. Its hard to say what the correct number is; its not good to open with one usually but tutoring for one increases the mana commitment. Currently I like 1.

Edit- upon further reflection Im not sure why I sided PiF for tendrils now. I know I wanted to reduce the color commitment necessary for early ad nauseam kills but the infrequency of ad naus kills suggests im wrong. Maindeck tendrils does have other benefits as well but now im not so sure they outweigh the loss of a card as powerful as PiF. Need to re-evaluate this.

I made an SCD about this on General, but how about Augur of Bolas instead of Snapcaster?

Augur enables Therapy just like, is a better blocker, less mana intensive, doesn't hurt ********, filters a bit, is cheaper than Snap -> Ponder.

It doesn't flashback Duress, Cabal Ritual, Tendrils.