you can IT -> chant as well. why split 2/2?
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I finally managed to grow some balls and ordered Burning Wishes, Rite of Flame, Empty the Warrens, Grapeshot and a Volcanic Island.
I'll be doing the same fairly shortly. I've pulled my ANT deck to pieces and miss playing combo so TES seems the logical replacement deck.
The only expensive cards I need are Burning Wish, City of Brass and Gemstone Mine (EDIT: they aren't actually expensive but I want Foils).
In a few solo test games on MWS the only part of the deck I miss (vs my former ANT deck) is being able to use any of the 8 tutors to find Ad Nauseum. If only they reprinted it as a Sorcery *sigh*. Though I'm liking being able to use any tutor in combo with LED.
You could also play a 2/2 split so you don't get hosed over by meddling mage naming chant. And if they extirpate 4 chant effects you are hurting for protection whereas the split hurts you a lot less. The kicker ability of chant is not often used anyways, as WW in a deck with 13 lands is sometimes hard and if you're using petal to kick chant you are probably doing something wrong.
Do people actually name Orim's Chant with Medling Mage?
Do people actually Extirpate Orim's Chants?
If you Infernal Tutor for an extra Chant against something like Landstill and they play Meddling Mage on their turn, then they will/should name it with the mage because they know you have 2 copies in hand. That's the only time I think someone would name it, but playing a split of Chant and Silence doesn't really prevent this. No one will ever blindly name Chant with MM.
I've never had a protection spell Extirpated and if it ever happens, it's probably because my opponent is either really bad or just psychic. There's no need to worry about Extirpate anymore, really. Extirpate's primary function used to be stopping Mystical and SDT, but now it doesn't really do much against storm combo.
Actually, if you are playing Meddling Mage and a variety of (free) counters and your opponent is playing TES, good players pretty much always name Chant. It hurts the combo player most by negating protection and the IGG loop. This becomes quite obvious after playing actual games of TES vs. Mage and used to be a basic tactic earlier when mages saw more play. Less experienced players usually name something retarded like Tendrils of Agony.
If Meddling Mage (or TES) was played more nowadays, there would be point in playing 2/2 split with Silence. So I guess it's up to your meta.
Naming Chant with Mage is stupid unless you know they have it and you have several counters in hand. Naming Burning Wish is a much safer blind play as it stops their setting up, their answers to the mage (making the second one godly) and stops AdN into Burning Wish into Tendrils.
Naming blind Chant and then getting Duressed is as stupid as stupid is.
Of the options; naming chant, naming duress, naming wish, naming Ad nauseam or being real techie and naming Tendrils I would name Ad Nauseam. But I think Chant is next best.
It means they can't win with Ill-Gotten Gains, It means they have to win blind, -or having cast a duress that turn. At the worst you know that your going to be in charge of you own stack. And from a control point of view all you have to do is counter obvious stuff and hit with your mage.
If my meta has a lot of meddling mage/extirpate show up I'm splitting my chants.
Yes, you just repeated what I said in my first sentence: If you have many counters, Mage should name Chant.
That said, this was before Ad NAuseam was printed and when Chant was the main protection in every credible storm combo. Nowadays it's not like that anymore and if you weren't too busy typing "stupid" too many times, you would have noticed that I was writing of past times.
Naming Burning Wish can be worthless if they chant you and go Infernal Tutor -> win. Naming Chant guarantees that you have active disruption, even other than double Force of Will. But I guess I have to stress that Meddling Mage is best used in conjunction with lots of countermagic. One single Mage does nothing if your hand is just full of blanks.
Even so I think that Chant got a bit weaker with the duals manabase. With rainbow lands you tend to ignore the mana costs. Now I found myself often with either US/VI hands capable of winning with Chant as a protection that I wished was Duress. I'll try a playset of Thoughtsieze MD.
You'll be surprised. I won the semi-finals against ANT ( back in 2009 at the dutch legacy nationals) due to me extirpating his chants.
I read his moves in took advantage of his upkeep to extirpate his chants, removing another one in his hand a couple more from his deck.
This made my hand extremely strong against combo. ( double force, double daze and 2 blue cards, but still nothing to get my reanimate deck online, not that I cared for it at that moment)