[Deck] ANT (Ad Nauseam Tendrils)

[Pulp_Fiction]

@Bahamuth: I love the Swarm, always have and unless they print a better creature that chants without ever even hitting the opponent I will keep playing it. Here is what is so great about Swarm, sometimes I won't even board him in, instead I will put in EtW or something like that and because my opponents at the card shop I play at know I only play combo they expect Xantid and may keep in 4 Swords. That is just 4 more dead draws they have in their deck. And when playing just 2x Swarm, they are running 3-4 answers for it and I will take those odds anyday.

I totally understand not liking the Swarm, it is all preference. I used to hate the card as well, but oftentimes the threat of Xantid is enough for your opponent to unnecessarily play cards to answer it. Xantid also draws out Force of Will like a boss! Plus I have additional protection spells in the deck! I can see where you are coming from though, I hate Serenity with a passion but others will swear by it, perhaps you had bad experiences/luck with the card in the past.

I board out Ad Nauseam because it is garbage in the blue matchup IMOP. Especially because I have to board out Chrome Mox. I used to take out Ponders and go down to 1x Cabal Ritual but I feel this is a terrible mistake. Doomsday allows me to take my time and setup and Ad Nauseam forces me to have high life points where as you only need 2 for Doomsday! The card is just great against blue and the 4x blast 4x chant DDFT builds fuck CB thresh up hard, but they suffer from serious speed issues in the aggro matchups. DD is just a lot better because it allows you to sculpt your hand and preiodically test defenses while your life is being whitted away by Goyf and Ad Nauseam just becomes useless after turns 4-6.

I play kicked chant maybe 1/7-10 aggro matchups I encounter and I do think it is relevant, especially if you have the AdN setup for next turn. In general it is not a common play, I will agree there, but the kicker is relevant. Either way, play whatever manabase you feel comfortable with, there is no correct manabase with the lists, because we will all argue whatever works for us is better; but if you almost never lose games due to mana issues and feel confident playing against wasteland and the occassional Moon effect then thats the right manabase!

I never much kept track of my matchups after I write a tournament report, but in general I am roughly 50-50 lifetime VS CB with combo. With DDFT (the Hybrid list posted above morphs into this after SB) I am about 55/60% against them. It is only CB though that gives these lists a hard time, I don't think I have ever lost a matchup to Landstill with the Hybrid list or DDFT, or TES for that matter.

I can't ever get behind the blast plan, and if they don't have Top then they will BS in response and put a 1 drop on top or Force your blast and proceed to lock you out of the game. Very rarely will a 1 CC spell remove CB. Krosan Grip is the best answer. Now, if you want to play blast, chant, and grips ... even better! I found it to be complete overkill and top activations reveal a little more useless spells than it should but the matchup is damn good! The blast plan just puts more of an emphasis on speed (much like AdN) and opening hand. Grip is all about setup and timing and doesn't have to be in the opening hand to remove CB which is crucial IMOP when deciding which is better at dealing with that fucking enchantment! They both have their merits but if I had to choose one over the other I will take Grip everytime.

@spankme: Stay as far away from Doomsday as you can. Play regluar ANT lists with IT, LED, and IGG. Probably the best way to learn storm combo. If you have questions about how to play a hand or think you can win but don't know how post a scenario and we will help you out. Best way to learn though is goldfishing over and over and over again.

[Horror Business]

Had a rough time in my CB match this weekend. I've never beaten it in tournament play with storm combo. I can get 1 game and that seems about it. I just need to play it a lot more that's for sure. I haven't really had trouble against Fae or Canadian.

Game 1 he didn't drop Balance so I just Chanted into the Igg loop.
Game 2 I Slaughter Pact away a Teeg but he and Goyf had beaten me down to low life so I had to Ad Naus at about 11 through a CB at 1. Didn't get there.
Game 3 I Grip two CBs but a Crypt and a Goyf beating me down forced me to Ad Naus at even lower life(lol) which of course didn't work out.

Doomsday would have helped me out tremendously in that round.
I also think I kept subpar hands esp Game 3 but I opened up a Grip and 3 lands so I kept. Thought I could sculpt my hand until I Grip and win the following turn. Not so much.

I had a good lol moment when I Duress my WW opponent in game 2 and he's holding Mindbreak Trap. Anyone run into that guy yet?

[NQN]

Yep, I faced Ugw Balance Thresh that weekend.
I won game 1 through Balance/Top because of "hardcast"(without rituals) AN EoT.
But he brought in 4 Spell Pierce and 2 Minbreak Traps in Addition to Snare,Clique,FoW already beeing Maindeck. He really was afraid of combo o0
Long story short: Chant->FoW->Pyroblast->V.Clique->(he was down to 2 cards)->D.Ritual->D.Ritual->MindbreakTrap :(
I would´ve won that game later on but I exiled both rituals and not only one so I failed during Igg Loop some turns later. But I still got a 1-1-1 out of it :D

How do you guys feel about Bant Aggro? It´s pretty common over here and I don´t feel very comfortable playing against it.
They have the same Manadenial as TT but 3 additional V.Cliques plus Gaddocks out of the SB. Against TT, you can usually relax and sculpt your hand until it´s gg, but Bant applies much more pressure. :/
I won that match but only because I bluffed a FTK in game 3 :D
I finished 4-1-1 loosing a match to Landstill packing Balance MD +4 Mages +3 Extirpates +Chant for g2/g3 because he blindly revealed cc1 two times in a row, one of them beeing Top :(

[Pulp_Fiction]

@NQN: What does your meta generally look like? If it is usually a lot of blue (more than 60% of your matchups) then I would advise a different combo deck. Just describe what kinds of decks you usually play against and there are quite a few combo lists you can look into as long as you are comfortable playing Doomsday. But there are numerous different builds for DDFT and it greatly depends on your meta, also, post a list for reference and how the deck usually performs in your meta.

[NQN]

Well, first of all I have to say that I haven´t played Combo since ~1,5 years.
I played TES back then when it was cool (read: AN wasn´t printed) and then stopped it for blue control.
I´m currently trying out different approaches to find one that I feel comfortable with. I started with a Next Level Storm build and went 4-2 loosing twice to ANT.
Then I picked up ANT myself and played against 3 blue decks and 3 nonblue decks which is kinda fair imho.
What I can say for sure is that I rarely face Counterbalance (In 1,5 years with Landstill maybe 10 times...) so I think a faster list would be better. Im not sure what´s wrong with me but when I play a list with DD I always fizzle with Ad Nauseam since I never reveal any rituals but lots of buisness :/
I really liked the Uwb +r list since it was fast but still had lots of ways to fight through hate. Actually, I´d like to first play without Doomsday until I got enough practice to play decks I assume to be slower.

Another question that bothers me: What do you think about Duress? In testing, I found it terrible. If I played it early, it didn´t really mattered since they always could refill their hand within 1-2 turns. If I tried to protect Chant with it while going off the same turn, I often got pwned by Brainstorm+Top. It´s also bad against Tempo Decks since they usually have only 1 force but plenty of other disruption (Spell Snare,Stifle)...
I tend to play 6 Chants instead of Duress, you?

Last Question: How important are basiclands? While we have only a few balance players, we have lots of merrows and other decks packing wasteland so I feel like I want at least 2 basics. Is that a wrong way to look at it(remember, I´ve only played LS for a long time^^)

Thanks in advance :)

[emidln]

Im not sure what´s wrong with me but when I play a list with DD I always fizzle with Ad Nauseam since I never reveal any rituals but lots of buisness

I can think of once since the beginning of the summer that I've fizzled with Ad Nauseam at a decent life total (above 12). It's possible to fizzle, but the DD lists providing SDT and Mystical Tutor make it even easier to win post-AdN than those without Doomsday. In NLS or the UBw hybrids, you're down 1-2 Cabal Rituals, and maybe 1 Chrome Mox (both decks run 4 Rit, 2-3 CRit, 4 Petal, 2 CMox, 4 LED) from ANT's 3-4 Cabal Rit and 2-3 Chrome Mox. Cabal Ritual is significantly worse in straight AdN builds unless you hit Cabal Ritual because the card forces you to have either extra Petals/Moxen or to also have Dark Ritual to not cost a ton of initial mana sources. In the DD builds, there is a very real chance that you can win with something like a singleton Cabal Ritual, a SDT + any other cantrip, and a Doomsday if you draw it (Petal/LED, Tendrils, chaff is the pile, or you can turn it into a normal Brainstorm pile replacing chaff in hand for LEDs or something if you drew one of those). The compromises that Doomsday builds make is on protection/cantrips, not acceleration. The average CMC is even similar:

The UBwg Hybrid that everyone on Storm Boards plays (Pulp_Fiction's maindeck posted recently) has a total CMC of 56 in a 60 card deck. If you don't count the 1-of Ad Nauseam, which is impossible to hit off Ad Nauseam, the total CMc is 51 in a 59 card deck. TES isn't that low (58 total CMC, 53 without AdN).

Now look at a standard Ad Nauseam list. I'll take jegger's because it's handy (and because taking a 2-3 AdN list is too easy to prove my point). He has a total CMC of 53 in a 60 card deck. Discount his 1-of Ad Nauseam and you're looking at 48 total CMC in a 59 card deck. This is 3 less than my hybrid and 5 less than TES (which nobody complains has an issue winning off Ad Nauseam, despite playing a similar number of 2s, 3s and 4s as ANT-DD).

Another question that bothers me: What do you think about Duress? In testing, I found it terrible. If I played it early, it didn´t really mattered since they always could refill their hand within 1-2 turns. If I tried to protect Chant with it while going off the same turn, I often got pwned by Brainstorm+Top. It´s also bad against Tempo Decks since they usually have only 1 force but plenty of other disruption (Spell Snare,Stifle)...
I tend to play 6 Chants instead of Duress, you?

NLS has roughly the same clock as normal ANT and doesn't have much issue with only running 5-6 Duress effects as protection. It requires tighter play in some matches than if you had Chants, and sometimes it forces you to play with Doomsday/Ad Nauseam instead of IGG to sidestep hate, but there isn't a ton of difference in results overall (some matchups, like Tempo Thresh, are a lot easier with Chant effects whereas matchups like Dreadstill put a premium on hand information since their deck is so inconsistent despite both being tempo decks). The strength of Duress/TS is hand information combined with the ability to kick your opponent while they're down (taking a Duress early to guarantee a maximum number of counters for example). Duress also requires more discipline in timing when you want to cast it because, as you mentioned, a Duress that isn't followed by a combo attempt is probably a wasted Duress. Duress gains strength when you play with Burning Wish by better enabling/protecting ETW.

Last Question: How important are basiclands? While we have only a few balance players, we have lots of merrows and other decks packing wasteland so I feel like I want at least 2 basics. Is that a wrong way to look at it(remember, I´ve only played LS for a long time^^)

If you're running 6 chant, the only basics worth playing are Island/Plains/Mountain (if you side a lot of REBs). In the 4c/green lists I tend to play only basic Island maindeck with basic plains in the sb, but in 3c lists I'll play Island and Plains maindeck if I'm playing at least 15 lands. In 4c/red, I traditionally play a lot of Doomsdays (3ish) without Ad Nauseam maindeck (only a couple Infernal Tutor) and those lists tend toward 2 Island, 1 Plains maindeck with 6 chants and sb 6-8 REBs with a Volc and a Mountain (4 Strand, 4 Tarn, 0-1 other blue fetch).

NLS tends to run 0-1 Island and nothing else. I don't personally like Island (I opt for all Fetches/Duals) in such an aggressive deck, but some play with it replacing the 7th dual or 8th fetch. NLS plays 4 Delta/4 Tarn almost exclusively due to needing lots of URB with Green or White being light splash colors.

[Bryant Cook]

The UBwg Hybrid that everyone on Storm Boards plays (Pulp_Fiction's maindeck posted recently) has a total CMC of 56 in a 60 card deck. If you don't count the 1-of Ad Nauseam, which is impossible to hit off Ad Nauseam, the total CMc is 51 in a 59 card deck. TES isn't that low (58 total CMC, 53 without AdN).

Now look at a standard Ad Nauseam list. I'll take jegger's because it's handy (and because taking a 2-3 AdN list is too easy to prove my point). He has a total CMC of 53 in a 60 card deck. Discount his 1-of Ad Nauseam and you're looking at 48 total CMC in a 59 card deck. This is 3 less than my hybrid and 5 less than TES (which nobody complains has an issue winning off Ad Nauseam, despite playing a similar number of 2s, 3s and 4s as ANT-DD).

Well, this is a statement. I could honestly care less about the argument.

TES plays more artifact mana while keeping the same amount of mana sources allowing it to win easier. Where there's additional Chrome Moxen instead of lands 12-15. Another thought is 6 of that 53 (I'm taking your word for it) is Simian Spirit Guide, an initial mana source.

Just some food for thought.

[deviant]

a pretty long post

About fizzling off of nauseam: Straight ANT decks sometimes run mox diamond to make nauseam better, and then they run the 3rd chrome too pretty often, TES has what, 4 c.mox, 4 petals and now (again) ssg's for initial mana sources. This is what makes it easy to fizzle when you play an aggressive early nauseam with a deck like NLS: you have usually used two or three of your initial mana sources (2 mox, 4 petal and lands) to get the nauseam off fast (turns 1 or 2), you have made your land drop: your deck now has like, 4-ish initial mana sources left. I usually start my nauseam flips with the IGG and meditate, followed up with multiples of burning wishes, so yeah - if you play incarefully you can fizzle.

Basically this means that when you think of going for an early nauseam, you have to make sure you float some mana (one black mana should suffice) or that you have an acceptable number of initial mana sources left in the deck.

EDIT: while i was writing, what bryant pointed out about initial mana sources is what I was trying to say. NLS and DDFT are no ad nauseam decks, and you shouldn't play them like they were, it's just another win-con among others. TES is my presonal favorite of "nauseam decks", as it's fun to play, versatile and exploits nauseam really well.

[lorddotm]

Well, this is a statement. I could honestly care less about the argument.

TES plays more artifact mana while keeping the same amount of mana sources allowing it to win easier. Where there's additional Chrome Moxen instead of lands 12-15. Another thought is 6 of that 53 (I'm taking your word for it) is Simian Spirit Guide, an initial mana source.

Just some food for thought.

Bryant, I'm going to kiss your ass for a second, TES is probably the best built "aggro" combo deck in legacy. It is extremely fast, versatile, and resiliant. Where as NLS gets pretty much destroyed by a blue based aggro/control.

In my opinion, the only two viable storm decks are TES and the ANT/DD hybrid that pulp_fiction shared. One is extremely fast and deadly, while the other is resiliant and versatile.

Back to the discussion.

The Ad Nauseum thing doesn't work as well with NLS or ANT since it has fewer IMS after casting Ad Nauseum, which causes more fizzling

[emidln]

About fizzling off of nauseam: Straight ANT decks sometimes run mox diamond to make nauseam better, and then they run the 3rd chrome too pretty often, TES has what, 4 c.mox, 4 petals and now (again) ssg's for initial mana sources.

Deckcheck says 3.03 Chrome Mox and less than 1 Mox Diamond in the average ANT list. ANT lists with Mox Diamond are also likely to not play Infernal Tutor or LED at all. This means they absolutely must hit 3 Initial Mana Sources (abbreviated IMS unless I forget; thanks quicksilver) or Tendrils to win the game. Their total CMC (in a list with 3 Ad Nauseam, 4 Chrome, 2ish Mox Diamond) is generally between 56 and 62 putting them directly in line with an IT/LED list or the hybrid lists. Their flips are slightly swingier (as multiple copies of Ad Nauseam are wont to do), but they also play additional copies of Tendrils to make up for this.

you have usually used two or three of your initial mana sources (2 mox, 4 petal and lands) to get the nauseam off fast (turns 1 or 2), you have made your land drop: your deck now has like, 4-ish initial mana sources left.

I find I tend to use 1-2 IMS on turn 1 and slightly fewer (0-1) on turn 2 (I use LED mana more often than Petal/CMox on turn2). I rarely go for a turn 1 kill because it's difficult to do so protected, and turn 2 kills with DD lists have the added benefit of abusing SDT to let LED pay for Ad Nauseam (which happens a lot).

TES and ANT need more initial mana sources because wining the game costs more colored mana for them. This is fine for TES, which simply plays more IMSs combined with a secondary ritual that costs less (Rite vs Cabal Rit) but ANT has some slack to make up. Hybrids are far better at using LED mana and Mystical Tutor after Ad Nauseam than either ANT or TES. When winning the game costs less colored mana, you don't need as much colored mana to start off with.

When you're trying to win the game while resolving Ad Nauseam, you need to dig into these:

With ANT:

1 IMS + Rits + Tendrils (1 IMS + 3 Mana)
1 IMS + Rits + LED + IT (1 IMS + 5 mana)
1 IMS + Rits + IGG + IT (IGG gives you hellbent) (1 IMS + 5 Mana (ability to make 6 from 2 cards))
1 IMS + Rits + LED + IGG + Mystical + BS/Ponder (1 IMS + 4 Mana + LED)
2 IMS + LEDs + IT (2 IMS + 1 Mana + LED)
2 IMS + LEDs + BS/Ponder + Mystical
3 IMS + Rit + Rits/LED + BS/Ponder + Mystical (3 IMS + 4 Mana)

With TES:

Everything that ANT can do
1 IMS + Rites/LEDs + Wish (1 IMS + 2 Mana + LED)
2 IMS + Rites/LEDs + Rits + Wish (2 IMS + 1-2 Mana + Rit/LED)
2 IMS + LEDs + Wish
3 IMS + Rites + Wish (3 IMS + 3 Mana, 2 IMS must be B)

With Hybrid:

Everything that ANT can do
1 IMS + Rit + Rits/LEDs + Doomsday + SDT
2 IMS + Rit + Doomsday + Brainstorm
2 IMS + Rits + Doomsday + SDT
2 IMS + Rit + Rits/LED + Mystical + SDT
1 IMS + Mystical + LEDs (with an SDT in play pre-AdN)


This is of course assuming no mana floating. In terms of winning off a resolved Ad Nauseam with no mana floating, the UBw Hybrid should be behind TES (4 extra IMS + the secondary ritual also costs 1; @bryant: total CMC determines how many cards you can draw, it has nothing to do with IMS. higher IMS count determines how many cards you need to draw to win, on average; I might work on a chart showing this relationship) but in front of ANT.

I usually start my nauseam flips with the IGG and meditate, followed up with multiples of burning wishes, so yeah - if you play incarefully you can fizzle.

If you're complaining about flipping 1-ofs all the time, perhaps you need to play more games. Over the course of a few hundred (or maybe just a quick refresher through stats) you're likely to find that starting off with 11 in the first 4 flips is extremely unlikely.

Basically this means that when you think of going for an early nauseam, you have to make sure you float some mana (one black mana should suffice) or that you have an acceptable number of initial mana sources left in the deck.

You should be doing this anyway. ANT is worse at winning with no mana floating (Rhe average on deckcheck for ANT decks is 3.03 Chrome Mox and <1 Mox Diamond btw; interestingly enough, the total CMC of the composite deck is a little over 66) than the hybrids (as illustrated above) with the critical bottlenecks being IMS and bombs. The hybrid trades, on average 1 IMS for 1 bomb (Doomsday) and extra ways to ease the bottleneck by better exploiting LED.

Where as NLS gets pretty much destroyed by a blue based aggro/control.

I have rating points, tournament reports, and can point to several top8s that strongly disagree with you. Maybe you get destroyed with NLS while playing against blue, but that just means you're, so far, worse than the rest of us.

edit: I added the generalized mana needed in parens for the post-Ad Nauseam requirements. These might be useful for someone just learning Ad Nauseam who needs to recognize where to stop/how to win.

[quicksilver]

You know how long it took me to figure out what the hell you wer talking about with IMS? I just could not think of what card had the initials IMS. Then finally I realized you meant Initial Mana Source. Does anyone else hate it when people use extremely obscure acronyms? Just wastes far more time than it saves by not typing out the whole word. I mean you can just copy and paste if you are really using it that much, or at least specify somewhere what this acronym stands for, instead of just using it out of the blue.

Reminds me how in angel stompy people would always talk about "mom" and you could never figure out if they were talking about mask of memory or the nickname for mother of runes.

[spankme]

@Bahamuth: Thank you very much for your answer - it helped me a lot in understanding how the deck works. After few days of goldfishing I am now able to launch off the combo more consistently and often.

My next questions are about decklist, sideboard and playing around blue decks. I have collected this decklist: http://www.deckcheck.net/deck.php?id=25934 with some number of cards from other lists for possible modifications.

The meta from last tournament was like that:

5x Merfolk (with white: 1)
3x Mono R burn/aggro (with goyfs: 1)
3x MBC (with rack: 1)
2x White Weenie
2x Bw Pox
2x UGr ThreshThreshThreshThreshThresh
2x Counter-Top (1 with Natural Order + Progenitus)
ANT
Goblins
Bant (Supreme Blue)
Slivers
BGW Pox
Zoo
Affinity
Elves combo
UGW Dreadstill
Ideal Combo
Mono G (aggro)
Mono U (aggro-control)
Bw Aggro
Esper (aggro-control)

Is the list I've chosen proper for such meta? Should I change anything? What about its sideboard?

I also have big issues with playing with blue decks, since my meta is heavily blue - what can I do to have a chance in these matchups? Should I mulligan until I can have some sort of protection in hand? What are sideboarding techniques, what to take out and what to put in?

Thanks a lot for any advice!

P.S. I also dislike using acronyms like IMS, since they make reading really difficult for newcomers.

[lorddotm]

I have rating points, tournament reports, and can point to several top8s that strongly disagree with you. Maybe you get destroyed with NLS while playing against blue, but that just means you're, so far, worse than the rest of us.

Okay, in relation to the other lists, which have chants, blue is harder for NLS. Destroyed is too strong of a word, but it is a much more difficult matchup than it has to be.

NLS isn't a popular deck because it's decent at everything, where TES is a faster more robust deck and UBwg Hybrid is a stronger jack of all trades. It just seems subpar to the options. You're a strong player, no one is doubting that, but your deck isn't as strong as the other options.

[Pulp_Fiction]

Well Ad Nauseam is random in nature and there is no list that is going to win every single time you cast it, that is how the cards works. If you do not feel comfortable taking the occassional loss I would advise another deck. So, all of these decks have the optimal spell count (taking CC into consideration) to win off of a resolved AdN, emidln was taking about this is great detail. It is all about maximizing your mathematical chances of winning the game and thus, the more cards you reveal off AdN the greater chance you have of winning.

I think a lot of people are just casting Ad Nauseam as soon as they can and expecting to win. AdN is similar to Doomsday in that you have to set it up. Sure, turn 1 land, rit, rit AdN is going to win games. But there is nothing wrong with waiting another turn (unless you are forced to while on the play against Stax or DStompy) so you can have that extra mana drop. TES is clearly better at winning turn 1 with AdN due to the VERY high IMS count of 4 Petal, 4 CMox and SSGs but it also has a lot of cards with higher CC in it.

A big part of playing this deck is understanding how to play a combo deck. What I mean by this is truly understanding combo decks before AdN. I would highly advise anyone who is new to combo to go into the DDFT thread and build the old Street Wraith Fetchland Tendrils list from the OP and see if you can consistently get that to work. Knowing every single loop hole and trick about your deck is very important. Top adds a whole different level of difficulty to the deck and once you begin to understand how to consistently abuse these cards you will start to see additional (and much simpler) ways to win.

"Ad Nauseam is easy to play, cast it, draw deck, win". It goes a lot deeper than that and I think a lot of people just expect that his is how the deck works and it is no where near. If you truly understand how to play a combo deck those "bad Ad Nauseams" usually aren't that bad at all, and once you understand how really play combo you will be able to take advantage of this. Now if anyone has questions on how to play the deck, set up a situation, write you hand and just post in the thread about how to play it. Everyone in here will be glad to offer advice and tips on how to handle a particular situation. I think combo is the most skill testing of all archetypes in magic and there are very few set in stone play, most situations have numerous factors that come into play and had you considered them beforehand you probably would have won. Just put a list together, goldfish the hell out of it, and take it to tournaments to get experience.

@lorddotm: I totally disagree with what you said about TES but I get what you mean. A big part of success with combo is being confident in your abilites to properly play the deck. If you feel a lot more comfortable with TES against CB Thresh (any troublesome matchup) then keep playing it. Based on my experience, straight up DDFT ravages the fuck out of blue-based decks but suffers in the speed department. I think the best equipped combo list for aggro-based decks is either regular ANT, ANT Hybrid, or NLS but I personally don't like TES very much and don't play it nearly as much as I used to. I feel like all the above decks are more consistent than TES but thats because I feel very comfortable playing combo decks with Top in them and don't want to play one that lacks it and relies on 4x Ponder 4x Brainstorm for consistency. But that is me, you may feel infinitely more confident with TES which is fine. It all comes down to preference.

[NQN]

Well, tried the same list in a 12-player tournament but with 4 Confidants in the SB. I went 3-1 loosing to Ur Dreadstill which I would consider a pretty bad matchup. During g1 he played Balance on turn 2. I tried a top the following turn and he blindy flipped...top <.< Well, my draw was very good and so I managed to wipe away the balance and cast 2 chants during my turn, but he had 2 Forces. I went for AN at 13 life and flipped: Tendrils, IGG,IT,IT,Land,C.Rit->K.O.
Well, I boarded: +4 Confidant +3 Pyroblast +1 Rushing River
-1 AN -2 C.Mox -2 Ponder -1 C.Rit -2 I cant remember, what would´ve been correct?

I´d consider correct sideboarding one of the hardest things with ANT. Maybe someone could figure out what he does against the 2-3 hardest Matchups?(TT,BalanceTop, Dreadstill for example?)

So, tomorrow there´s a 40+ tournament coming up and I expect a few Balances, many merrows and some Byes(aka random aggro).
Which build would you go for?

EDIT: I took 11 mulligans in 4 rounds, starting ONE game with 7 cards because I always had one of the three Wincons(sometimes more) and zero Initial manasources :/ Hell, I´ve almost lost to RG Beatz because I started two games at five, one at six cards -.-.

2ndEdit: What do you think about the 1-off SB Cards like: Extirpate, Hurkylls Recall, Pyroclasm, Angels Grace? I´ve never casted one of those but I kinda like the artworks :D

[lorddotm]

4x LED
4x Orim's Chant
4x Dark Ritual
4x Brainstorm
4x Top
4x Mystical Tutor
4x Lotus Petal
3x Infernal Tutor
2x Ponder
2x Cabal Ritual
2x Silence
2x Chrome Mox
1x Tendrils
1x Krosan Grip
1x Meditate
1x IGG
1x Ad Nauseam
1x Doomsday

4x Polluted Delta
4x Flooded Strand
2x Underground Sea
1x Tundra
1x Bayou
1x Scrubland
1x Tropical Island
1x Island

Sideboard
3x Xantid Swarm
2x Disenchant
2x Chain of Vapor
2x Doomsday
2x Krosan Grip
1x Naturalize
1x Slaughter Pact
1x Empty the Warrens
1x Plains

This is a good place to start. Personally don't like that sideboard, but pulp_fiction is a good player.

[NQN]

Looks kinda nice, but that doesn´t help me much without SB plans since I dont
know when to board additional Doomsdays(i´d suppose for aggro) and when to board EtW etc. :/

[Pulp_Fiction]

@lorddotm: Thanks man :) The board is optimized for my meta, I encounter Null Rod, Pyrostatic Pillar, Cannonist, and Teeg most often so that is why it looks as it does.

@NQN: Dark Confidant is just terrible out of the board. You can run him if you really want to but there are a lot better cards to be played. He is to slow and usually he is killed on the spot. A big part of why Swarm is run (as a 2-of against Thresh) is the threat, he resolves, you opponent can't interfere with combo turn, they lose. They don't have to answer DC immediately but Swarm is an imminent threat they have to deal with and he avoids Spell Snare :)

I know emidln was playing Extirpate in the board for a while with DDFT, but I don't remember if he liked it or not. I played it ... twice and boarded it against Dredge and Thresh but never drew it, had the opportunity to Tutor for it but there were always better cards to Tutor for. Pyroclasm is unneeded, Slaughter Pact/Chain works perfectly, and Angel's Grace is just win-more and is dead a good percentage of the time. Hurkyl's Recall is great, sometimes if a couple people in my meta do good with Stax and Stompy I stick one in the SB for the next time I play cause I will most likely be seeing those decks again.

Empty the Warrens is not necessary, at all. I run one because it makes me feel a LOT better against the people in my meta because they run some of the most jank ass cards and I have lost to Tendrils being Extirpated before from Mono-Black Rack.dec .... I just wanted an alternate kill that didn't rely on Doomsday to win. I never board in Helm and Grapeshot and don't really think it is necessary anymore in my meta. EtW comes in against decks that can't deal with it and ones that ravage you hand. Again, this is the open slot in the board, don't have to run EtW but I just feel better knowing it is there.

Your SB strategy seems fine, you were playing ANT without Doomsday correct?

[NQN]

Yip. Well, thanks a lot. I´ll remember then and probably give the swarms another shot.
What are the doomsday for?

[lorddotm]

Yip. Well, thanks a lot. I´ll remember then and probably give the swarms another shot.
What are the doomsday for?

The doomsdays are there against control decks, but if you don't know the piles, it is pretty much impossible for you to use it.

@pulp_fiction Dude, you're a beast. Plus your named is an awesome movie. Cook was the reason I played combo, but you're the reason I play Doomsday in combo :P. Plus youve always been super nice to everyone and supportive of upcoming combo players, emidln has always kind of been an ass (no offense) but an interesting read.

Yeah your board seems like it's pretty narrow, very meta'd for yourself.
Personally I run thus board:

1 Echoing Truth
1 Chain of Vapor
1 Deathmark
1 Mox Diamond
1 Cabal Ritual
1 Plains
1 Bayou
1 Silence
3 Xantid Swarm
2 Doomsday
2 Krosan Grip

It had been working pretty well.