[Deck] ANT (Ad Nauseam Tendrils)

[emidln]

What are you gonna do when you face at least 4 counterbalance decks at the GP though?
This isn't a challenge or anything, I'm just wondering Hhow all the die hard storm players are getting ready to handle so many rounds in a row of those shenanigans. My brain would melt.

Maindecking 4-5 Red blasts + KGrip + 4 Duress with sb extra KGrips + potentially red blasts. I'm going to be running the same Doomsday list I've been playing for awhile. Incidentally, I won 3 games with CB/Top active and on the table on Sunday. It's not very hard to do when your deck plays Doomsday. I imagine non-Hybrid ANT players are going to hope to get lucky with pairings or simply always draw Duress without an opponent using Brainstorm/Top to hide CB.

I'm actually kinda hoping that I only see blue decks. That way my really heavy metagaming pays off and I don't have to think about how to combo through weird situations presented by random Rock or Loam decks.

[e_hawk77]

Does anyone have a five color list that has been doing well? I would be interested to see what it looks like. I have a 3c list which sides in the 4c for k. grip and i dont know what i would cut for the fifth color.

I really do like the red blast idea but wanted to see if it was worth it to run the red or just try spell snare. Emidln i would play doomsday but i just suck with doomdays stacks and wouldn't be ready by the gp to play them lol.

[ColeM]

Does anyone have a five color list that has been doing well? I would be interested to see what it looks like. I have a 3c list which sides in the 4c for k. grip and i dont know what i would cut for the fifth color.

I really do like the red blast idea but wanted to see if it was worth it to run the red or just try spell snare. Emidln i would play doomsday but i just suck with doomdays stacks and wouldn't be ready by the gp to play them lol.

Unfortunately, my testing with Spell Snare is still incomplete (my academic schedule has been rough lately...). I will say that if you plan on fighting blue all day long, you are better off with the red Blasts. Spell Snare was my attempt at maintaining a stable manabase, having a semi-useful protection spell in non blue matchups, and still have a decent game vs. Counter-Top.

[Deirex]

Spell Snare was a bit clunky for me in testing but sometimes very good but only in much too specific situations, you basically always wanted it on your starthand after that it was useless and it was only effective against CB, Chalice at 1 and hatebears.

Red Blasts are much more flexible and don't force you to try and play control which Spell Snare sort of does.

[jazzykat]

In theory spell snare seems like the shit. In testing I was frustrated by it not being there when I needed it and clogging up my hand, when I could go off with IT and I didn't have a LED.

[Deirex]

In theory spell snare seems like the shit. In testing I was frustrated by it not being there when I needed it and clogging up my hand, when I could go off with IT and I didn't have a LED.

My thoughts exactly. Seems like we´ve had the same experiences with it.

[ColeM]

I should note that I am not really running straight ANT. I either use pure DDFT or a hybrid list that closely resembles DDFT. I don't have much of a problem finding a Spell Snare early or having one clog my hand when I am running 4 Brainstorm, 3-4 Ponder, and 4 Sensei's Divining Tops.

I would imagine, with less cantrips, Spell Snare is more likely to cause awkward situations; at least with Pyroblast, you can aim it at some non blue spell to get rid of it or ramp up the storm count.

[e_hawk77]

When i get home i will post my list and you guys can tell me what you think, but i have no clue what to cut from this list to make it 5 color or 4 for that matter. If someone could give a good shell or deck list that would amazing.

Thanks guys.

k im just gonna edit this post so it isn't a double post. tell me what you think.

4 polluted delta
3 flooded strand
2 underground sea
1 tundra
1 scrubland
1 tropical island
1 swamp
1 island

4 brainstorm
4 dark ritual
3 cabal ritual
3 mystical tutor
2 orim's chant
2 ad nauseum
2 krosan grip
3 ponder
4 infernal tutor
4 duress
1 ill gotten gains
1 tendrils of agony
3 chrome mox
4 lotus petal
4 lion's eye diamond

sb
4 dark confidant
3 tendrils of agony
1 krosan grip
1 hurkyls recall
1 rebuild
1 ill gotten gains
2 slaughter pact
2 echoing truth

[Fossil4182]

Is a non-LED version of ANT possible? I've been reading through the deck lists and also this forum and haven't seen any consideration being given to it. I know the explosive power LED gives the deck. However, does the notion that trading off that explosive power for a greater win % hold true with ANT or is LED just necessary in order for the deck to function?

[matelml]

Is a non-LED version of ANT possible? I've been reading through the deck lists and also this forum and haven't seen any consideration being given to it. I know the explosive power LED gives the deck. However, does the notion that trading off that explosive power for a greater win % hold true with ANT or is LED just necessary in order for the deck to function?

If I'd get a higher win percentage, of course I would drop LED. But it's one of the best accelerants and needed in the aggressive matchups and for AdN, since you need some good accelerants to draw of AdN. I don't care about being explosive, I care about winning.
This seems to be the general consensus, although most people would probably stress it a bit more.

[rsaunder]

If I'd get a higher win percentage, of course I would drop LED. But it's one of the best accelerants and needed in the aggressive matchups and for AdN, since you need some good accelerants to draw of AdN. I don't care about being explosive, I care about winning.
This seems to be the general consensus, although most people would probably stress it a bit more.

Basically, LED is quite a bit like a black lotus that you can run 4-of in many situations (arguably better with IT). Playing a storm deck like this without LED simply means you don't have LED's for some reason and it will be strictly inferior.

[loveisgreen]

So far with this deck I am 14-1 in sanctioned matches, with the only loss being to the mirror (jazzykat) and I've spell snared 2 Ethersworn Cannonist, a Counterbalance, a Pyrostatic Pillar (which is what I think puts it over REB) and a Chalice for 1. Force Spike is also kind of like having snares 5-6 in the board and is worth looking into, but I think snare is a must.

[kicks_422]

Assuming Spell Snare is in the SB, how does your SB look like?

[jazzykat]

I think that while snare is good, I have been having more sucess online with my 4color build BUwg.

w for chants md
g for 1 grip main/3 grip side and 4 tarmogoyf side

[loveisgreen]

Right now my SB is:

4 Spell Snare
3 Force Spike
2 Hurkyl's Recall
2 Rebuild
4 Thoughtseize

I board in the Force Spike against Burn and it works beautifully, I spiked a Ball Lightning last night (and beat a burn deck when the life totals were 4-20 NOT in my favor) and I put in Thoughtseize against non- CB blue decks (C-Slivers, Landstill). Spike is also amazing in the mirror because sometimes they just run right into it w/ AN.

[Nemcon]

I've been testing this a lot recently both on and offline, and I just can't seem to beat blue decks consistenly at all. I'm something like 3-14 in matches overall.

Honestly, when is the best time to try and combo off? I think a lot of my timing is wrong, and I want to try and go off too fast, or too late and I let them draw their counters too much.

Is there things to look for in the game, that signal good times to go off

[Concallesco]

Any thoughts on the top8 TES/ANT hybrid list from the GP? Only 5x protection mainboard, and a couple of really interesting SB choices - Telemin Performance, ostensibly against storm, and Meltdown. No real answers to other than Duresses. Seems really weird to me, but hey, it made top8, so it has to be some good.

[Pulp_Fiction]

Looking at his SB and MD I have no idea how he managed to wade through the sickening sea of Counterbalance and make it to the top 8. There wasn't even a maindeck bounce spell to deal with CotV. My guess is he got pretty good pairings to make it as far as he did. I really like the list but it does not look near optimized to be able to fight through CB and other garbage.

[nodahero]

I also played TK's ANT deck at the grand prix and while I posted poor results it was not due to a lack of power... It was due ENTIRELY on my own poor play... I was overly tired and sided poorly.

I never lost game 1 in the 8 rounds I played in including against Deadguy, White Stax, another storm deck,2 CB/Top decks and a plethora of tribal including 1 Merfolk. Tommy's deck is actually verpowerful due to the 1o main deck tutors he has. Tommy is a HIGHLY expiernced vintage combo player and thus has a major level of skill that most of us do not posses.

There were very few moments playing his deck that really made me regret playing it. The only moment I really did no matter what I played I would have cried. My stax opponent went turn 1 3sphere. Turn 2 Chalice at 1, Turn 3 Chalice at 2 and I promptly conceded due to the inability to really do anything.

[emidln]

I played the ant/dday hybrid at 3 side events and day 1 at the gp this past weekend. Running the hybrid over strait ddft was a major source of frustration against the infinite blue contol I ended up playing against. That said, I still went 11-6-1 with losses in the gp trials to brassman, goobafish, and a deck that resolved turn 1 nether void in 2 out of 3 games on the play. I lost two matches in swiss to my g1, t1 ad nauseam on the play getting fow'd then not being able to pull out the match (1 to ugb thresh, 1 in rnd 8 to T00L playing team america.. I lost another match to t1 fow on my ad nauseam on the draw against unknown opp who opened with a bloodstained mire followed by misplaying my sensei's divining top (opp ended up playing dreadstill). In swiss I played against 8 blue decks (6 w/cb) and 1 suicide black type deck. I never played against anything resmbling aggro like affinity, goblins, goyf sligh, or loam on the weekend.

I played with 4 duress, 4 chant, 1 wipe away md along with 2 dday, 1 ad nauseam. I ran4 pyroblast extra kgrips, and extra lands in my sb. More to come later....posting from phone.