[Deck] Fetchland Tendrils

I'm currently playing this DDFT list:

4 Doomsday
3 Infernal Tutor
4 Lim-Dul's Vault
4 Brainstorm
2 Ponder
4 Sensei's Divining Top
4 Duress
3 Thoughtseize
1 Meditate
1 Ill-Gotten Gains
1 Tendrils of Agony
4 Dark Ritual
2 Cabal Ritual
4 Lion's Eye Diamond
4 Lotus Petal
4 Polluted Delta
2 Misty Rainforest
1 Verdant Catacombs
3 Underground Sea
2 Island
1 Swamp

SB: 1 Tropical Island
SB: 1 Bayou
SB: 3 Xantid Swarm
SB: 3 Carpet of Flowers
SB: 1 Thoughtseize
SB: 1 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
SB: 1 Shelldock Isle
SB: 1 Cloud of Faeries
SB: 1 Chain of Vapor
SB: 1 Deathmark
SB: 1 Wipe Away


I'm under the impression that if you need to ask for a UBx list instead of just crafting one that you probably aren't quick enough with the deck to run it in a large tournament like the GP. Instead, I would recommend that you play this TES list:

1 Tendrils of Agony
2 Ad Nauseam
4 Infernal Tutor
4 Burning Wish
4 Brainstorm
4 Ponder
4 Duress
3 Thoughtseize
4 Dark Ritual
4 Rite of Flame
4 Lion's Eye Diamond
4 Lotus Petal
4 Chrome Mox
4 Polluted Delta
2 Scalding Tarn
1 Bloodstained Mire
2 Underground Sea
2 Volcanic Island
1 Badlands
1 Island
1 Swamp

SB: 1 Tendrils of Agony
SB: 1 Empty the Warrens
SB: 1 Diminishing Returns
SB: 1 Ill-Gotten Gains
SB: 1 Thoughtseize
SB: 1 Deathmark
SB: 1 Pulverize
SB: 4 Doomsday
SB: 1 Shelldock Isle
SB: 1 Emrkaul, the Aeons Torn
SB: 2 Chain of Vapor

This is by far the most consistent fast combo deck in the format. DDFT is a mid-range combo at turns 2.5-3.5 whereas this TES list is a half a turn to a turn and a half faster. It's as disruptive playing the currently best protection package of 6+ Duress effects, has an excellent game against counterbalance thanks to Duress effects plus sb Doomsday plan, and can easily mow down things without Force of Will. In testing, New Horizons isn't actually that hard. That deck is trying to be a blue deck with way too many non-blue spells and it shows. Extra lands and extra duresses compared to the standard TES list make the matchup slightly easier.

I'm not entirely sure that I shouldn't be playing this 3c TES list instead of DDFT, which should give you an idea of what that means for someone who isn't able to quickly play spells like LDV and Doomsday. This is easy to play for someone who was familiar with playing ANT and the field should be ripe for it.

Edit: TES list is now 60 cards and has protection spells that I mentioned.

Yeah, but you completely exclude Duress and Orim's Chant in the TES list. Why does Fetchland Tendrils get to run 7 of them?

...nm your list is just short some cards.

I forgot to include 4 Duress, 3 Thoughtseize. Orim's Chant and Silence are worse than Thoughtseize in the deck. Wrecking your manabase and not allowing the deck to function as aggressively is just not that cool.

So what is your reason to not run Wish?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by emidln

I'm under the impression that if you need to ask for a UBx list instead of just crafting one that you probably aren't quick enough with the deck to run it in a large tournament like the GP. Instead, I would recommend that you play this TES list:

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The point is that I actually chose not to run TES and to prefer DDT despites knowing that it's slower, and it's not that I avoided using Lim Dul's Vault because I'm "not quick enough to run it in a large tournament", seriously.
Basically, after having seen that the post-ban incarnations of Storm Combo were either going towards TES or DDFT, I had to make a choice: do I want to keep aggressivity and speed, or do I aim for flexibility and consistency, even at the expense of losing something else?

What I felt after having played -and tested- TES, both Bryant's and , in the last 2 weeks, yours, is that I'm always missing the centerpiece of consistency in Storm Combo decks: Sensei's Divining Top. I can't just stress enough how wonderful that card is in giving you a continuous stream of hand-crafting, as well as digging for your solutions post-side, and allowing to sculpt a Doomsday-hand which, even if it gets neutered by opposing disruption, can go off using LED just by switching for the Infernal Tutor on top to beat a wall of counters.
These are things TES just can't do: it has 8 excellent cantrips and i probably understand that SDT does not fit its aggressivity (i.e. killing your opponent as fast as possible afer a quick Duress), but sometimes it is just bound to run out of gas and to go to topdeck mode, hoping to draw a bomb or, if you need one, a protection, while your opponent is filling their hand and their board and you're hoping in luck. Also, the fact that it runs 20 pieces of mana acceleration is both a benefit and a disadvantage, because you will often open hands that contain 1-2 lands, 3-4 pieces and a tutor, and you will statistically draw even more. Now, that's a clear possibility to go off on the first turn if there's a LED and a Dark Ritual or similar cards (double petal, Rite of Flame, LED), but according to my own playstyle I just don't feel comfortable on running my head against a wall and test and throw a game away if opponent has Force of Will in hand.
To provide an example about the casuality factor in topdecking, I just lost some games against Merfolks in the last tournament because I hoped for like 5 turns to draw a Bomb while he was beaing me down and getting lots of counters. I brainstormed once, but did not get anything. On the final turn of life, I finally drew...Ponder. I stared at my hand: Seize, Rite o flame, Rite of flame, Dark Rit, Dark Rit, LED, Poder. Looking how Thoughtseize was useless because of being at 1 pv. I then tried to play my Rituals, but they got Pierced, Catchered, and Fowed, even if i tried to run around Daze effects by playing Flame before and then trying to pay the taxing effects with rituals in response. (I also hated how Rite of flame is a sorcery, but this is anothr story).

Instead, what about if you open a hand with 2 Lands, some mana, a bomb and a SDT? It will arguably take much more time, depending on what there's on the top, but it allows you to see 3 cards per time to craft your hand at best against blue-based, it allows to have a stream of gas that's useful against tempo and LD, as well as finding aggressively an Infernal Tutor to quickly seal the game against aggro. SDT is just so powerful that I always regreted not playing it. I you draw a fetchland, things get even better because you're allowed to shuffle and see more cards.

I also think the usual comparison made about the speed of 2 different Storm combo versions (as you said, TES is from a half turn to a turn and a half faster) is often flawed for a concrete purpose, as long as there's not an enormouse gap of time (say, 10 turns).
When you're in a tournament, you're not playing goldfish. You're against opponents that make you pressure or try to screw your game with active disruption. What really makes the difference in here? Being able to stand the disruption and being able to recover, find the right cards needed, stand lots of counters, as well as pull off a quick victory before Nacatls and Bolts finish you off.
I will admit that TES is far way superior against aggro decks (forgetting Gaddock Teeg g1) - of course, as long as you don't draw shitty hands. But against blue-based, and hand disruption (discard)? Chant helps in the first, SDT is resolutive in both, and Xantid/Carpet of Flowers from the sb really helps too. While TES suffers quick discard a lot because , as I was saying, it opens lots-of-mana hands with 1-2 bombs and, if it does not sandbag the key cards with Brainstor or Ponder,is bound to hope tryng to topdeck the missing piece. But this is not very easy given that it runs lots of bad cards like, say, 4 Chrome Moxes.

Also, I don't get how much space you devoted to the Doomsday+Emrakul package against CB. You are using 6 slots and sacrificing other important options.
How are you going to fight Merfolks without REB or other protection, if they are clever enough to not keep a only-1-Fow-hand that may get Duressed and make them lose? Against prison decks you're only relying on resolving (and finding) a BWish for Pulverize, since it's the only out I see if they drop a Chalice@1 on the table.


On a conclusion, I have my very personal belief that Sensei's Divining Top is excessively good to be passed up,and to be renounced to play an hyper-aggressive list. I know I may be wrong in this, and I'm fine in accepting it if some of these days, maybe after a tounrnment, I'll understand that brutal speed is more important than consistency as of now. But, as of now, too many times I've lost with TES due to drawing shit or to hope topdecking the dreamed card while the opponent was beating my face, or going all-in and getting the Fow on the teeth, or having a shitty Diminishing Returns, and I don't feel comfortable playing Russian Roulette even with Storm Combo.

@ Piceli89: exactly my thoughts on the subject.

@Piceli

Did you test my hybrid list with AN, Doomsday and 4 tops? You might like it. You get the flexibility that both doomsday and Top, and still quite a bit of speed.
Here it is:

// Lands
1 [7E] Island (2)
4 [ON] Polluted Delta
1 [U] Scrubland
2 [U] Underground Sea
4 [ON] Flooded Strand
1 [A] Tundra
1 [U] Volcanic Island
1 [B] Badlands

// Spells
1 [SC] Tendrils of Agony
4 [MI] Lion's Eye Diamond
2 [DIS] Infernal Tutor
1 [US] Ill-Gotten Gains
1 [ALA] Ad Nauseam
4 [TE] Lotus Petal
3 [PS] Orim's Chant
2 [TO] Cabal Ritual
4 [MM] Brainstorm
4 [R] Dark Ritual
1 [TE] Meditate
1 [WL] Doomsday
4 [CHK] Sensei's Divining Top
2 [LRW] Ponder
2 [MR] Chrome Mox
2 [AL] Lim-Dul's Vault
4 [JU] Burning Wish
3 [FNM] Duress

// Sideboard
SB: 1 [SC] Tendrils of Agony
SB: 1 [DIS] Infernal Tutor
SB: 1 [US] Ill-Gotten Gains
SB: 1 [WL] Doomsday
SB: 1 [FNM] Duress
SB: 1 [ON] Chain of Vapor
SB: 1 [VI] Helm of Awakening
SB: 1 [TSP] Grapeshot
SB: 1 [TSP] Empty the Warrens
SB: 1 [GP] Shattering Spree
SB: 1 [10E] Deathmark
SB: 4x Pyroblasts/emrakul plan/bounce and CB removal/whatever fits you.

Obviously, you can also go with:
-3 chants
+3 Thoughtseize
+ a more stable manabase

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Bahamuth

So what is your reason to not run Wish?

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Part of the same reason I don't want to run Ponder and will likely cut it: it makes my LDV less insane. What I mean by less insane is less of a guaranteed untap, win. The higher density of ritual effects and infernal tutors in addition to the common cards between Wish and non-Wish lists) makes it very easy to find a Brainstorm that will win me the game next turn. Burning Wish is worse at that because it doesn't as easily enable an IGG loop and it's off color even when I just want to kill with Doomsday.

Burning Wish certainly isn't bad, and it is more powerful than Infernal Tutor, but I believe that LDV can be best abused with a higher density of Cabal Rituals and Infernal Tutors.

Merfolk has exactly 4 relevant spells for that TES list. The deck has a ton of initial mana and ritual effects which will largely negate Daze/Cursecatcher and sideboard Spell Pierce (if they even get played anymore). You side in a Thoughtseize, side out a Ponder and call it a day. Thoughtseize/Duress is more than enough to force through your Ad Nauseam or Wish->ETW. REB/Pyroblast would have been worse than Xantid Swarm and I don't really want to splash for Xantid Swarm because (a) I want to actually consistently smash CB and (b) I want to have cheap bounce to deal with 2cc hate from Zoo and Goblins.

Counterbalance is the most important matchup a storm combo deck will face outside of aggro. Beating Counterbalance and Zoo makes winning a tournament a lot easier. As said before, your tempo matchup isn't all that bad. The 8 Duress over Chant/Silence/Pyroblast/Xantid Swarm lets the deck play more aggressively with its mana (calculated risks like Duress turn 1 and combo turn 2 are possible, as well as Rit, Duress, combo with only 2-3 initial mana sources) and simultaneously punish mulligans and bad draws by its opponents resulting in free wins.

As far as Chant be better than Thoughtseize, the only time I'd want Chant over Thoughtseize is if I'm playing against Spell Snare. The two dominant tempo decks don't play Spell Snare. Their "soft" counters are either irrelevant to my combo attempt due to Ad Nauseam drawing me more disruption or the same effectiveness against Chant or Thoughtseize because they are taxing effects and will either stop me from comboing that turn or not without regard to what kind of protection I'm using. Chant being off color is far more relevant than Spell Snare + Force of Will decks being common from anything outside of glacially slow stuff like NO Bant, Thopters, or Landstill. (Tempo Thresh exists I guess, but it's on a down turn due to a sketchy matchup against its white mirror that has no boltable creatures).

Speed is a very important factor in the deck as you'll often find that it's extremely hard to use LDV effectively in the face of Zoo. Worse, LDV into Doomsday or IGG has a decent chance of leaving you conspicuously in burn range for a Zoo player who stopped spending mana on dudes after turn 2 or 3. We're lucky right now that some Zoo lists are play extra paths/stps for the mirror since the matchup would be much more difficult and possibly require Burning Wish and Ponder to make pass the turn piles more viable if this ever changes.

Speed puts enormous pressure on an opposing blue deck and makes them mull harder into disruption. This in turn makes our discard-based disruption even more effective. This can also give us more time to setup as mulligans into protection likely won't be able to put any pressure on us as well without extremely good draws.

Speed is important against randomness. TES will likely kill you on turn 2 unless you can stop it from doing so. Force of Will and Thoughtseize are good ways of probably not losing before you've had a third turn, although if you only have one protection, TES can still kill a fair amount of time with a Duress effect on turn 1-2 into AdN or ETW. Just killing them stops jank from developing strange board positions that aren't easily solvable.

Prison decks are terrible in Legacy. If I thought I had even a remote chance of playing against one in every tournament I might take more steps with a sideboard for it, but as is, I'll bank on not being in the loser's bracket or winning the die roll in the unlikely event I find myself matched up against a prison deck.

Guys regarding stax (emidln you know my meta), if stax was a considerable amount in the meta would a S&T list warrant it's inclusion in the SB?

emidln - your current DDFT list at the top of this page is missing 2 cards in the maindeck.

Isn't Infernal Tutor terrible in the blue matchup for this deck? You can't IGG them, and IT --> DD costs 8 mana.

How have the Carpets been? Do you board them in against Merfolk, or anything else than tempo?

The 2 missing cards are lands.

I side out Cabal Rit for Carpet in most blue matchups. They're not spectacular, but they do the job.

Infernal Tutor->DD is serviceable, but it's really there to make it easy to race aggro. That list is missing 2 lands.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by emidln

Part of the same reason I don't want to run Ponder and will likely cut it: it makes my LDV less insane. What I mean by less insane is less of a guaranteed untap, win. The higher density of ritual effects and infernal tutors in addition to the common cards between Wish and non-Wish lists) makes it very easy to find a Brainstorm that will win me the game next turn. Burning Wish is worse at that because it doesn't as easily enable an IGG loop and it's off color even when I just want to kill with Doomsday.

Burning Wish certainly isn't bad, and it is more powerful than Infernal Tutor, but I believe that LDV can be best abused with a higher density of Cabal Rituals and Infernal Tutors.

---

So your list is more focused on trying to use LDV as a storm engine. At least that's the impression I'm under. I'm running 3, and it can very well be abused that way. I more or less use it as a mass tutor, paying BUU + X life to change 3 cards in my hand to whatever I want in my deck. It doesn't always draw me into a win, but LDV + draw spell is very very good.

So I went 6-3 day one at columbus and didn't make day 2, finishing overall at 259, but as my first tournament with over 16 people, I'm quite satisfied with my performance. (I live in Hanover, NH, and I don't think there's a single competitive legacy player in the area). In fact, I've probably played in about 9 DCI sanctioned events over all, 2 standard FNM's about 6 years ago, around 6 draft events over the last year, and 1 legacy event that I organized myself.

I started out with Emidln's UB list, but decided at 4am the night before that those burning wish piles are just too sexy to pass up (without them I often find myself 1 or 2 storm short of lethal), so I decided to splash for red, with a minimal toolbox sideboard and some green for carpet of flowers/xantid swarm, both of which are just sick when they hit.

// Deck file for Magic Workstation (http://www.magicworkstation.com)

// Lands
4 [ON] Polluted Delta
1 [ON] Bloodstained Mire
1 [ZEN] Verdant Catacombs
1 [ZEN] Scalding Tarn
1 [ZEN] Misty Rainforest
3 [B] Underground Sea
1 [B] Badlands
1 [B] Volcanic Island
1 [B] Tropical Island
1 [UNH] Swamp
1 [UNH] Island

// Spells
4 [JU] Burning Wish
2 [DIS] Infernal Tutor
3 [WL] Doomsday
1 [SC] Tendrils of Agony
4 [FNM] Duress
1 [TE] Meditate
4 [TE] Lotus Petal
2 [M10] Ponder
4 [CHK] Sensei's Divining Top
4 [FNM] Brainstorm
1 [TO] Cabal Ritual
4 [MI] Lion's Eye Diamond
2 [LRW] Thoughtseize
2 [AL] Lim-Dul's Vault
4 [B] Dark Ritual
1 [ON] Chain of Vapor
1 [US] Ill-Gotten Gains

// Sideboard
SB: 1 [WL] Doomsday
SB: 1 [SC] Tendrils of Agony
SB: 1 [LRW] Thoughtseize
SB: 1 [TSP] Empty the Warrens
SB: 1 [CS] Deathmark
SB: 1 [ROE] Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
SB: 1 [UL] Cloud of Faeries
SB: 1 [LRW] Shelldock Isle
SB: 1 [TSP] Wipe Away
SB: 3 [SC] Xantid Swarm
SB: 1 [B] Bayou
SB: 2 [US] Carpet of Flowers


I'm not good enough at taking notes to write a real tournament report, but here goes -

Round 1 - I get paired up in a tournament with 1300 people against one of my 2 teammates (they live in PA, but very kindly gave me a ride and helped me with some testing the night before). It's Matthew Bevenour playing merfolk. I lose the die roll.

G1 - I forget what happened, but I just lose.

Sideboard: -1 IGG, -1 Chain of Vapor, -1 Cabal Ritual, -1 Lotus Petal, -2 Lim Dul's Vault, +2 Carpet of Flowers, +3 Xantid Swarm, +1 Bayou.

G2 - Some reejerey antics lets him swing for 12 on turn 4, putting me at 3. Next turn I duress, doomsday into an SDT/meditate pile and win with 1 life remaining.

G3 - Again I'm at 3, I duressed him a few times already so he has no countermagic, but I can't seem to draw any gas. I attempt to meditate in resp saccing LEDs, but hit 3 lands and a duress ftl.

0-1
1-2


Round 2 - Jon Keilholz with Charbelcher, I lose the die roll.

G1 - I keep a good hand with some accel, wish, top, duress, but no black source. He goes bayou, pass. I draw, play tropical island -> SDT, pass. The guy next to him goes "I wonder what he's playing". Ironic, huh. Next turn, he goes off, playing charbelcher and activating with LED. Taiga was his 13th card.

Sideboard: no change.

G2 - I keep a hand with LED, LED, SDT, IT, Sea, Fetch, Fetch, pretty much the nuts. I play Sea -> SDT, pass. He goes land grant, bayou, mox imprinting wish, tinder wall, lotus petal, lotus petal, LED, and plays his other wish, but forgets to activate LED before asking "ok?" and scoops. Guess it wouldn't have mattered since empty the warrens doesn't kill me instantly anyway.

G3 - So thus far, he still thinks I'm on some version of countertop, though my G2 sea probably confused him a bit. I keep a hand of Petal, Duress, Duress, IT, Doomsday, 2 Lands. He's now on the play, and plays a T1 xantid swarm (yay). I draw, duress his wish, and pass. He attacks and passes. I drop another land, duress seeing no business, so I take his seething song and pass. This goes on for another few turns, with me duressing him a third time to make sure he can't go off. I end up drawing another brainstorm and IT, IT-ing twice for lotus petals (3 petals in hand now), and on the 6th turn I go off with 4 lands, dropping 3 petals, doomsday, brainstorm into meditate, etc. Meanwhile he had dropped 2 more Xantid Swarms that had been trying their best to bug me as I sculpt.

1-1
3-3


Round 3 - David Bonelli with GW Survival

G1 - I duress his survival, thoughtseize something else, and won on T4-ish.

Sideboard: -1 Lim Dul's Vault, -1 Tropical Island, -1 IT, -1 Ponder, +1 Emrakul, +1 Shelldock Isle, +1 Cloud of Faeries, +1 Wipe Away.

G2 - He plays land -> birds, go. I play land, thoughtseize, seeing canonist + survival. I take the canonist, hoping he's only got one. T2 he plays land, survival, and end of my turn discarding pridemage -> squee. I wince. T3 he discards squee for canonist, and plays it. I wince. Next turn I wish for deathmark, deathmark it, do some topping, pass. End of my turn he discards survivals for emrakul, and during his turn survivals emrakul for his once defunct canonists, and play them again. Eventually he gets another canonist and 2 teegs in play and I scoop.

G3 - I keep a hand of Rit, DD, BS, SDT, Thoughtseize, 2 lands. I play land -> SDT. He draws, land, go. I upkeep top, drawing myself a land with a petal coming up, I thoughtseize him seeing 1 survival as the only relevant card, and make him discard it. Next turn apparently he topdecked another survival and played it. My T3, I play land, and think about doing a double cantrip pile, and after about 30 seconds he gets impatient and tells me to make a move. Apparently a judge hears this and starts watching the game. Eventually I decide that an emrakul pile is much cooler, so I dark rit into doomsday, SDT into shelldock isle, brainstorm into cloud of faeries, play petal, play shelldock, crack petal + land for cloud of faeries uptapping shelldock and a sea. When I make the motions to activate shelldock, the other guy goes "wait, that's your second land for the turn". My face pales as I realize that he was right, but the judge had been watching the entire sequence of events, gave me a warning for a game rules violation, but ruled that too much had happened since the violation that it was impossible to reverse the game state to before the violation, and asked us to play on. So I end up winning that game, but not without inadvertently cheating :-\.

2-1
5-4


Round 4 - Calosso Fuentes with Countertop Goyf. I lose the roll.

G1 - I can't find protection in time before he drops counterbalance + top with fow in hand. Lose.

Sideboard: -1 IT, -1 Trop, -2C Petal, -1 Ponder, -1 C.Rit, -2 Thoughtseize, -1 IGG, -1 LED, +3 Xantid, +2 Carpet, +1 Bayou, +1 Wipe Away, +1 Emrakul, +1 Shelldock, +1 Cloud of Faeries.

G2 - I Turn 1 duress, seeing daze + force as the only relevant cards. I take force. He plays land -> SDT, go. Turn 2 I play land, rit -> doomsday, he brainstorms and says ok. Next turn I draw and play shelldock, pass. He tops, can't find an answer, and scoops.

G3 - I don't remember precisely how this went, but my T1 duress gets dazed, T2 burning wish gets dazed, and while I'm up 3 lands to 1 on my T3, I can't find doomsday fast enough before he lands countertop with a krosan grip on top. I have wipe away, but by the time I'm ready to use it and go off, he had another top AND another counterbalance on the board >.<

2-2
6-6


Round 5 - Joshua Dodson with Aeon Bridge. I win the roll.

G1 - Turn 1 duress his SnT, T2 I play land, top, petal, LED, LED, IT cracking LED's for BBBUUU, play doomsday, top into meditate, win.

Sideboard: -1 Trop, -1 C.Rit, -1 Lotus Petal, +1 Bayou, +2 Carpet.

G2 - I win again, this time vs an SnT'd emrakul on the board :-D


3-2
8-6


Round 6 - Cedric Phillips with Aluren. His name sounded a little familiar, but it wasn't until after the game that I found out that he writes for starcitygames. I lose the roll.

G1 - I keep a hand of DD, Duress, LED, LED, SDT, 2 Lands. He plays a T1 trop -> Birds. I go land -> Duress, seeing nothing but lands and a brainstorm. I take the brainstorm, pass. He drops another land, passes. I drop a land, SDT, activate to find a second DD in top 3, pass. He drops land, go. My T3 I drop a land, LED x2, DD, which somehow meets a FoW pitching brainstorm. I think okay, I've got another DD coming up, so that's not really a problem, so I pass. Next turn I play DD again, which resolves, but then for a moment I panic, as without the storm from the two LED's, I wouldn't be able to achieve lethal storm with the usual pile. So I think for about half a minute, at which point he calls a judge to watch for slow play. I explain that this is doomsday and by the end of this turn I will either concede or win. Nonetheless after about a minute the judge gives me a slow play warning, which I just ignore and continue thinking. Eventually I finalize on the pile Meditate, LED, LED, Chain of Vapor, Burning Wish. I crack both LEDs for UUUUUU, spin top into meditate, playing meditate. Right now I've got UUU in pool, LED, LED, SDT, Chain in hand, and 3 tapped lands in play. I drop LED, LED, SDT with UU left in pool (currently 5 storm). I play chain targetting LED, saccing 2 lands to bounce SDT and the other LED as well, replaying them all for now 9 storm with my pool empty. I crack LED's for BBBRRR, top into wish, wish into tendrils for 11 storm.

Sideboard: -1 Trop, -1 Island, -1 Cabal Rit, -1 Lotus Petal, -1 IGG, -1 IT, +2 Carpet, +1 Bayou, +1 Emrakul, +1 CoF, +1 Shelldock Isle.


G2 - After G1 I saw literally nothing but brainstorm, FoW, and Birds. I guess looking back seeing the havenwood battlegrounds in his hands should have tipped me off that he was playing Aluren, but oh well, I'd never seen an aluren decklist or tested against it before. Turn 1 he drops battleground. I go Turn 1 dark ritual -> doomsday, it resolves, I go for emrakul pile. Next turn he plays land, go; I play shelldock, go; next turn he plays land, aluren, and combos off with cavern harpy and coiling oracle, eventually finding strix for the win. Bleh.

G3 - I duress him twice, once T1 and again T3, leaving him with nothing but 2 lands in hand. Next turn I win with a standard meditate pile.

4-2
10-7


Round 7 - Joel Ferris with Bant Tempo. I'm still in the running for Day 2, but I have to win my next 3 rounds. I win the roll.

G1 - I get paired up against this friendly looking guy with a red shirt and curly hair who asks me if I use the source and who I am on it. I tell him, and he tells me he's mossivo, and from that I immediately deduce that he's playing bant tempo. He does not seem pleased, but after a T1 hierarch into a T2 vendilion clique at the end of my draw step taking my only engine piece, followed by a pridemage on his next turn, I was dead in 4 turns with a double exalted clique with countermagic backup.

Sideboard: -1 Swamp, -1 Petal, -1 Lim Dul's Vault, -1 C.Rit, -2 Thoughtseize, +2 Carpet, +1 Bayou, +3 Xantid


G2 - I forget the beginning of the game, but sometime around T3, he had nothing but 2 lands + hierarch + goyf on the table, whereas I had 3 lands, an SDT on the table, and an LED, Petal, and Doomsday in hand. I was at 18ish from fetches. The turn before I had duressed him, ripping out a FoW leaving Swordsx2, RWM, Daze, goyf. He played a heath as his unknown card, so I had perfect information going into this turn. I knew the petal made me daze-proof, he was at 20, and playing out my hand into the standard meditate pile with wish would let me storm out for exactly 20 life. So I went ahead, and he inspected literally every move, and at the very end he sworded his own goyf in response to my tendrils. Whoops. To this day I can't believe I missed that interaction. I could have easily gone for a emrakul pass the turn pile, which would have given him 1 turn to find a wasteland before emrakul can attack. I'm now 4-3, but one of my teammates is still X-2, so I decide to continue playing.


4-3
10-9


Round 8 - Samuel Stoddard with Zoo. I lose the roll.

G1 - I turn 1 SDT, turn 2 double dark rit into doomsday with a Sea untapped, top into meditate etc.

G2 - Couldn't goldfish in time.

G3 - IGG appears in my opening hand, I infernal tutor for a second LED, win on T4 with 5 life remaining.


5-3
12-10


Round 9 - Matthew Cline with Bant Survival, though I didn't see a single survival in all 3 games. I lose the roll again.

G1 - Lose to double goyf beats, couldn't go off in time.

Sideboard: In goes Emrakul Pile + Xantid/Carpet package + Wipeaway. Take out the usual.

G2 - Duress his force, wish + deathmark 1 teeg, and win through a second teeg via a meditate pile with chain of vapor as 4th card.

G3 - I win with IGG on T4 at around 3-4 life ish with two goyfs on table. His only blue cards in hand + graveyard is 1 daze + 1 force. I duressed his force earlier, so I play two LED's, dark rit into IGG, returning LED, duress, tutor, duress his daze, making his FoW useless, replay LED, tutor for wish, wish for tendrils for exactly 18 life (he was at 18).

Final Record:
6-3 in matches
14-11 in games.


After standings were up, I find myself at EXACTLY #128, though my exuberation was put to an end when a teammate noted that it was just for my pod.

Notes -
1. Lim Dul's Vault is pretty sub-par against decks that can put on a relatively fast clock. It's really good with a brainstorm or meditate in hand, but usually it's just a 2cmc mystical tutor that costs life.

2. Carpet of Flowers is AMAZING vs blue. I've never been disappointed to draw one. Against blue it's usually at least a lotus petal the turn it hits the table, and after that a dark ritual or better every turn after that.

3. With one notable exception, for the last 5 games or so I actually felt really good about how I played. At the very least, I learned a ton about how to play the deck. Looking back, I was lucky not to encounter any heavy artifact hate, and emrakul is almost good enough to include in the maindeck. I might just stick in emrakul permanently, opening up some room on the sb for a pulverize or shattering sprees. Reverent silence might also be worth it.

4. It cost me around $200 to attend the tournament and play in a couple grinders, and while I didn't win anything, the experience itself of being at a GP was incredible. My heart was pounding the entire day. By the end, I was exhausted, and yet still couldn't stop thinking about my deck and how to tweak it. Some of the people are douches, but the spirit of competition there is just unparalleled.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by oxeimon

// Lands
4 [ON] Polluted Delta
4 [ON] Bloodstained Mire
...
1 [B] Tropical Island

---

Wouldn't be a few Scalding Tarns better, as they can find the Tropical Island? Otoh they cannot find the Bayou... :-/

oh, yeah I actually made a last minute change to replace the 4 mires with 1 mire, 1 tarn, 1 catacombs, 1 rainforest.

I played the deck at GP Columbus also, so I thought I would chime in with my thoughts. I played mostly the same deck as oxeimon except I had
+ emrakul package
+ 1 cabal ritual
-1 wish
-2 LDV
-1 chain of vapor

I went 5-0 to win a trial the day before, and then 3-3 in the GP, losing in the last round to miss day two. I was nervous playing the deck due to inexperience and fear that I would screw up. As matches went by (and after punting one) I began to calm down and play better and faster. If I had the play experience at the start that I have now, I believe I would have made it through.

Observations:
I played three basic land and was very thankful for it. I believe only two underground seas are necessary.
Decks that do not have blue are in trouble against you, even if they have hate cards.
I was afraid that not having a bounce spell would cost me, but it did not.
New Horizons is not impossible like I thought it would be, although it isn't easy.
The green sideboard cards are both amazing, and I was glad that I played three of each.
I would not cut the emrakul package, but I would consider reworking the deck to not include wish.
Twice, against decks with counters but presumably no wasteland, I played turn 1 ritual doomsday for emrakul, and it won the game. One of those times, the opponent revealed later that he had a force of will, but was waiting to counter the combo.
The only time I feel like I can't win is facing down a resolved counterbalance.
Other storm decks with chants are really aggravating.
If I had another big legacy event coming up soon, I would play the same deck (probably still with wishes).

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by oarsman

The only time I feel like I can't win is facing down a resolved counterbalance.

---

Shelldock plan really shines here since you can get a dday through CB with just 3 lands. Also, packing the discard package rather than chants is HUGE in the CB matchup.

I already cut red from the deck. As nice as Burning Wish was, I was completely reliant on duals, especially with Pulverize. Having room for some basics will be nice. I'll still have the Emrakul plan in the board. For protection I have Duress, Thoughtseize, and Daze MD.

Myself and two others also played DDFT at the GP. Only one of us made day 2, sadly, and it wasn't me. We all ran the same maindeck, but the sides might have varied slightly. Here it is:

4 Doomsday
1 Ad Nauseam
1 Ill Gotten Gains
1 Meditate
1 Tendrils of Agony
4 Duress
4 Orim's Chant
4 Sensei's Divining Top
4 Brainstorm
4 Lotus Petal
4 Lion's Eye Diamond
4 Dark Ritual
3 Cabal Ritual
3 Infernal Tutor
1 Brainfreeze
1 Helm of Awakening
1 Chain of Vapor

3 Underground Sea
1 Scrubland
1 Tundra
4 Polluted Delta
2 Marsh Flats
1 Flooded Strand
2 Swamp
1 Island

First of all, thank you emidln and cheeseburger for the 12 pages of Doomsday piles and notes. I studied these for over 10 hours at work the week of and wouldn't have been able to play the deck without them.

Second, Orim's chant is rediculous. It allows you to go off through spell snare, stifle, and mindbreak trap and also allows Ill Gotten Gains to be used in a lot of tough situations. It also hoses other combo decks mid-combo, especially belcher. I would run it again for sure.

I tested without white and using Burning Wish/Lim Dul's Vault/ Thoughtseize and found it to be really clunky. I ended up just liking chant better. I also thought Lim Dul's was really sub par. It really is an expensive Mystical that makes you lose life and doesn't cantrip. I really like Burning Wish, but I couldn't make room and never really found myself needing to wish for something.

The brainfreeze/Helm of Awakening is the alternate combo, I never actually used it, but it gets around Teeg and Meddling Mage naming Tendrils. It also beats random life gain decks and decks with canonist out since you generate storm with tops and brainfreeze is the only colored card. (Granted that it's a Doomsday, pass the turn pile.)

As for matchups:

Round 1: UBG Landstill
I really hate this matchup. I can never get ahead and with 12 counters and Standstill maindeck, it's very hard to go off.
I might have won one game, I don't remember, but I lost the match.
0-1

Round 2: Reanimator
Game 1 was kinda long, I duressed away some combo pieces and eventually went off with chant into IGG.
Game 2 I brought in Leylines and started with one in play. He show and tells it that betrays. I try to go off with Ad Nauseam and forget that my deck is now full of 4 drops. I lose.
Game 3 I tear apart his combo and win on turns.
1-1

Round 3: UBG Faeries
He played next to me in round 2, so I knew his deck, but he didn't know mine.
I remember that he beat me down one game, but I comboed the other two and won. Chant won it for me, he always had a Stifle.
2-1

Round 3: MonoR Goblins
Game 1 he smashes my face for a turn 3 win. He doesn't know what I'm playing.
Game 2 I Doomsday for the win on my turn 3 while he had damage on board.
Game 3 was interesting to say the least. We both mull to 4. He plays lackey, go. I land, go. He swings with lackey, no reveal. Next turn, we swings with lackey and reveals lackey. lol He hits me for 2 a turn with no reveals for quite awhile. I'm trying to build up to lethal storm and eventually I decide to try something really stupid and risky, but it might pay off. I infernal for a second Doomsday, and cast it dropping me to 4 life, with top in play. I have some rituals, LEDs and 2nd DD in hand. I think I got Med, LED, LED, Petal, Tendrils or something like that. I pass the turn(not enough mana to go off) he drops me to 2and drops some irrelevant goblin with lackey. I draw, play everything except DD, Med into the rest of my pile cracking my LED's. Play all Rits and LED's, cast DD breaking LED's and going to 1, getting Med, Rit, Rit, Tendrils, and useless card. Spin top and win. I've never tested a double DD pile before, but I sure was glad that it worked.
3-1

Round 4: Grim Monolith/ Power Artifact
Game 1 I think I chain of vapored his monolith just so i didn't have to discard. Turns out that he would've won if I wouldn't have done that, I went off next turn.
Game 2 he has monolith and transmutes for power artifact.He now has 5 cards in hand. I play duress, FoW, pitching something random. Chant, Fow pitching the Power artifact. He only has one card in hand. I go off with Ad Nauseam, get lethal storm and play tendrils...Mindbreak Trap. WTF are the odds! I was a little salty. He got his combo back together before i did.
Game 3 he has counters for my stuff and goes off relatively quick. Plays emrakul and I scoop.
3-2

Round 5: Countertop Horizons
Game 1 Daze, Daze, Daze, FoW, FoW, FoW, FoW. I lost.
Game 2 At one point I duress him and see FoW, Daze, Spell Pierce, and Counterbalance with a top in play. I take FoW, which I still believe was the right call. He plays Counterbalance, leaving no blue open. I play Duress, he puts his top on top to counter it. I end up casting Doomsday with 5 more mana available, he dazes, i go to 4 mana. I have the win on board. I was gonna grab Med, Petal, LED, LED, Tendrils. Oh wait, I can't replay my top to draw my Tendrils, can I? Nope, thanks to CB. Try the pile Med, Pet, Cabal, Infernal, Tendrils. I'm not short by one mana to cast the tendrils. If it weren't for the Daze, I would have played through Counterbalance like a pro...but he had Daze, so I lost.
3-3
Drop

I really liked the deck, it was just impossible to play when the opponent had infinite counters. I probably would have done better if I had more practice, also. I might sideboard the Helm/Brainfreeze next time, though since I didn't use it. Maybe add two chrome mox to the main.