[Deck] ANT (Ad Nauseam Tendrils) Storm Combo

[Hivenet]

I'm having some real problems with Miracles at the moment (aren't we all). My current sideboard for an unknown meta (outside the fact miracles is very popular in the uk) is as follows:

1 Tropical Island
3 Chain of Vapor
3 Abrupt Decay
1 Slaughter Pact
2 Flusterstorm
1 Tormod's Crypt (There is a lot of dredge too)
3 Xantid Swarm
1 Massacre

What should I be siding in/out of a stock storm list for what against them. Should I side out the Duresses for Xantids or keep it all in for more disruption and take out pre ordains?

Cheers

[sawatarix]

what you actually do is to side in your Xantid Swarms and Abrupt Decays.
take out some number of cabal ritual(s) and lotus peral(s) and also a few copies of theraphies.

we do have access to a lot more powerful cards against miracle control,namely senseis devining top and young pyromancer (i still have him in my sideboard because of the blowout potential)

[CabalTherapy]

This Jund against ANT is so sad. :( @SCGSTL
WTF was that?

[Sloshthedark]

This Jund against ANT is so sad. :( @SCGSTL
WTF was that?

clowns, G3 with appropriete ending...

[CabalTherapy]

clowns

I mean seriously, c'mon. This round was just a joke. This Ad Nauseam flip in the third match and the Grim Tutor/Chain of Vapor play were comical.

[Sloshthedark]

I mean seriously, c'mon. This round was just a joke. This Ad Nauseam flip in the third match and the Grim Tutor/Chain of Vapor play were comical.

he also lost G1 to himself weren't opp galant enough to pay 0 attention and scoop

[Surfinbird]

Hi guys!

Today I've been in a 4-round tournament in a local shop and i've won it after a 3-0-1. There is a little report:

My list was the normal one but with 2 preordains and a personal tutor. 4 Duress and 3 cabal therapies as discard spells. My sideboard was:

3 Xantdi Swarm
3 Abrupt Decay
3 Chain of vapor
2 Massacre
2 Tormod's crypt
1 Cabal therapy
1 Empty the Warrens

I expected reanimator and i supposed it wouldn't be any Death and taxes, so i changed 3 Dread of night for 2 Tormod's and teh third chain.




1. UR Delver 2-0

G1: After assembling my mana base despite a stifle and a wasteland i discarded a FoW and an Spell Snare to win through Daze and Spell Pierce before his Young pyromancer played on turn 4-5 killed me in the next turn.

In: 3 Xantid swarm (He's got a building similar tu UGr so i can imagine he's only got 4 bolts)
Out: 1 Gitaxian probe, 1 cabal ritual, 1 preordain

G2: My turn 1 xantid was countered by a Force of will and he played a Pyromancer the next turn. I won 3 or 4 turns later after discarding some counterspells.


2. Miracle control 1-1

G1: I sculpt my hand without seeing any discard spells but with a Pif, infernal and lots of mana which should be enough to win through 2-3 counterspells. The turn before i go off he topdecked a counterbalance and stopped me with brainstorms and jace. At the end, i lost against an snapcaster and a vendilion.

In: 3 Xantid Swarm, 3 Abrupt decay, 2 Chain of vapor (He's playing 4 leylines in sideboard, fucking fascist)
Out: 2 Cabal ritual, 1 Lotus petal, 1 Swamp, 2 Gitaxian probe, 1 Preordain, 1 Cabal therapy

G2: He starts with Leyline and a FoW to my turn 1 Xantid Swarm. Nice. He played top but not a counterbalance. I sculpt a hand with Tendrils, Cabal ritual, infernal tutor and 3 LEDs waiting to find a chain of vapor. I found and copied it with infernal tutor to not loose against a counterspell. Then i played my artifacts, chained them and leyline (the first chain got countered) and won with natural tendrils through his flusetrstorm thanks to the multiple LEDs.

Unfortunately, we didnt have time to play the 3rd match.


3. Painters 2-1

G1: Beeing on the play, i kept a hand with Dark ritual, Cabal ritual, Infernal tutor, LED, Duress, and 2 Gitaxian probe (I knew what he was playing). I didn't see a land in the next 5 draws and he milled me with grindstone.

In: 3 Abrupt Decay, 3 chain of vapor
Out: 1 Personal tutor, 1 Underground sea, 1 cabal ritual, 1 preordain, 2 gitaxian probe (Now i think that maybe I should have taken a Duress out instead of the second probe, but not sure since i want to discard his combo pieces and also lots of hate cards)

G2: I went off in my second turn after discarding his thorn of amethyst.

G3: I kept a hand with 1 Island, 1 Swamp, 1 underground sea, 1 Bloodstained Mire, 1 Duress, 1 Chain of vapor, 1 Dark ritual. Probably a bad hand, but i kept it after considering it would save me against T1 blood moons and early turn combos. My oponent started with T1 city of traitors, chrome mox and blood moon I played swamp into Duress to take his grindstone, leaving him with only a painter's servant. I played for a couple of turns holding the chain and a decay (lotus petal in board) to prevent him form winning, and in the end i went of after decaying a trinisphere.


4. Junk 2-1

G1. I killed him in T1 after with 2 LEDs, 2 DR and Ad Nauseam.

In: +3 abrupt decay +3 chain of vapor +2 Massacre (Lots of removal for DRS, Gaddock teeg, Spirit of the labyrinth, Mother of runes and Ethersworn canonist)
Out: 4 Duress, 1 Cabal therapy, 1 cabal ritual, 1 preordain, 1 gitaxian probe

G2: He played a turn 2 Ethersworn canonist and turn 3 Gaddock Teeg. I sculpt my hand as in the second game against miracles to combo via chain of vapor, but my oponent topdecked a thoughtseize the turn before could go off and took my 2nd chain of vapor:(

G3: After decaying a Gaddock teeg i played an Ad Nauseam and stopped at 5 life after revealing Massacre,Abrupt decay, chain of vapor and lots of mana (but not lotus petal to start with), a brainstorm and a ponder but no infernal tutor. I massacred their confidant and stoneforge mystic leaving him a hand with only equipment and lands and i kept decay and chain of vapor to survive while digging for a tutor. I found it with tutor and won without problems.


I'm vary satisfied with the work of the last days and with the advice you've given to me, specially Slothofthedark and Cabal Therapy (I found your articles abaout storm very interesting and helpful). I'm stll unsure about some sideboard slots, but i'll keep working!

Also, i want to say that i'm quite happy with the Personal tutor working as a 5th Infernal. Playing more than one would be an error since seeing 2 of them in hand is horrible and having one when you already have an Infernal is sometimes a bit clunky (but then you can use your infernal to copy a ritual and PT to look for PiF!). In this tournament it helped me to assemble the combo as well as winning after Ad Nauseam.

I'm interested in your opinions, so keep talking and storming!

[nevilshute]

he also lost G1 to himself weren't opp galant enough to pay 0 attention and scoop

Just watching it now... makes me wish even more that I was able to get over to America and play in some Opens

[CabalTherapy]

he also lost G1 to himself weren't opp galant enough to pay 0 attention and scoop

The best move was nonetheless discarding the only kill-spell ToA because of Liliana against an active Deathrite Shaman.
Maybe he thought that he can win the race with his Confidants.
Edit: Ah, the Shaman was played afterwards. I see.
And he still got 14th place. Thumbs up for this one.

I'm vary satisfied with the work of the last days and with the advice you've given to me, specially Slothofthedark and Cabal Therapy (I found your articles abaout storm very interesting and helpful). I'm stll unsure about some sideboard slots, but i'll keep working!

Thanks. Nice report and keep up the good work.

[Sloshthedark]

The best move was nonetheless discarding the only kill-spell ToA because of Liliana against an active Deathrite Shaman.
Maybe he thought that he can win the race with his Confidants.
Edit: Ah, the Shaman was played afterwards. I see.
And he still got 14th place. Thumbs up for this one.



Thanks. Nice report and keep up the good work.

yeah I wanted to add "and he'll top 16 nonetheless" but found it not worth the time for editing and improbable... and here we have him :D

makes me want to play in US, but I'm sure I'd lose to random kid with Burn just because... This can happen on camera, nervous and such, you lose track of lifes, I'm sure this has happend with GT to me too, but overall impression is really sad even comical... The thing is I can't remember a good Ant player on SCG streams, like literary every one made dumb mistakes... well maybe Rill wasn't that bad and Hunter Wilson you may say but I don't think he was on the stream outside of Invitational...

Surfinbird - nice report

[P-E]

ahah it was funny to watch afterall ^^

Good job surfing bird

[AsmodeusDM]

After a lot of Land decks started showing up a bunch of people in my local meta have shown up with Burn lists....

I always remember this being a fairly positive match-up for ANT....

Yesterday in 4 rounds I played Burn 3 times... and lost all 3 burn matches 0-6.

The culprit in many games was a turn 2 Eidolon of the Great Revel...

Between that card and the usual damage pressure.. I felt it was impossible to ever get to enough storm to combo off without killing myself.

My sideboard (aside from CoV) was not remotely prepared for this amount of burn? Any sideboard suggetsions?

My list:
3 Underground Seas
1 Volcanic Island
2 Islands
1 Swamp
4 Polluted Delta
4 Scalding Tarn

4 Gitaxian Probe
4 Brainstorm
4 Ponder
2 Preordain
1 Sensei's Divining Top

4 Dark Ritual
4 Cabal Ritual
4 Lotus Petal
4 Lion's Eye Diamond

4 Cabal Therapy
3 Duress

4 Infernal Tutor
1 Past In Flames
1 Ad Nauseum
1 Tendrils of Agony

s//b:
3 Abrupt Decay
2 Chain of Vapor
1 Tropical Island
1 Karakas
3 Xantid Swarms
1 Thoughtseize
2 Massacre
1 Empty the Warrens
1 Dread of Night

[Togores]

Usualy I beat always burn, I usualy side out duress, sensei and ant nauseam. to side in chains, and my secodn tendrill and the rest of the cards i can in the form of decay. I also when starting dosnt therapy turn 1 I wait to make it turn 2. because so they only have 1 draw to get it.

[AsmodeusDM]

Usualy I beat always burn, I usualy side out duress, sensei and ant nauseam. to side in chains, and my secodn tendrill and the rest of the cards i can in the form of decay. I also when starting dosnt therapy turn 1 I wait to make it turn 2. because so they only have 1 draw to get it.

Yeah I had 1 game where I therapy'd T1 (on draw) and another where I t2 therapy'd (on play) naming Eidolon... in both games no hit; and then top deck the very next turn!

Still.. it does seem like a very strong card against us.. especially game1 and they are running 4 of ... I have no answer game 1 to an eidolon at all.

[Togores]

çu dont have an aswer like to a canonist or tegg. just race this decks, hope they dont draw or discard the thread. It will not always happen that they draw it.

[wonderPreaux]

Another tactic to use is Empty the Warrens, if you can go off before their Eidolon for ~12 Goblins, you can just retire from playing spells for the rest of the game. If your Goblins force them not to play the Eidolon, since it's so bad when they're behind on board, you can then aggressively Therapy their creatures/burn spells to win the race, and also Abrupt Decay blockers.

[sawatarix]

excuse me but there must be a misunderstanding:
burn is by far one of our best matchups ever,similar to elves.

they don't do anything relevant all the time.eidolon is the only theraphy target during all games and even if it hits the battlefield we have answers like chain of vapour/void snare (if you play burning wish)/abrupt decay/krosan grip/chain lightning (burning wish) to get rid of it.
notice that tendrils of agony is also a lifegain machine so you can even win while facing an eidolon.

ad nauseam against burn decks is really poor,especially if they have 2 mountains ->fireblast.
tutor chains and pif-loops are the way to go and they have no interaction.

honestly don't really know where the problem :D

[nevilshute]

There's no doubt that Eidolon has given burn an "oops-I-win" ability against storm that it didn't have before, but I have to second what Kai is saying, in that Burn is still a pretty good matchup for us.

I would consider storm the favorite, though not a huge favorite. In a sense it feels very comparable to Elves in that it's a slower combo deck. It used to be that neither Burn nor Elves had any main deck way to disrupt us, which basically meant we were goldfishing against a slower combo deck - hence we were/are clear favorites. That doesn't mean that we can't lose. We are playing Magic after all.

Well Elves got Deathrite Shaman (and to a lesser extent Ruric Thar) as main deck ways of disruption and now Burn has got the Eidolon. I play 4 Cabal Therapies and that just seems to be more than enough to combat 4 out of 60 cards in a deck that has no way to tutor or manipulate. Yes, occasionally I will lose a game to Eidolon, but more often I just win. Either by therapying it on my first turn, or by them simply not having it.

I'm down to boarding in one Chain of Vapor against them, and I've even started to sometimes just not board in anything. The chance of randomly having my Chain in hand when they drop the Eidolon is very slim and even casting 2 cantrips to search for it usually means we lose.

I am always happy to face both Burn and Elves.

With that said, there are some Burn players (at least on mtgo) that really don't like losing to storm so they pack 4 Pyrostatic Pillar in the board on top of the Eidolons. But that is the exception rather than the norm I think.

[AsmodeusDM]

I agree that match-up feels like it should be in our favor... but in certainly didn't feel that way for me Sunday.

Between D&T, Burn, and Elves dominating in my meta; that's why I'm almost always packing 4 Therapies and only 3 duress... I need to be able to hit those creatures!

[Togores]

Just saw the round 6 of the last scg, jund vs ant. The ant guy just trows the 2nd game out the window for not going for ant with 2 leds a rit and a infernal.