[Deck] ANT (Ad Nauseam Tendrils) Storm Combo

[GoblinZ]

Congratulations on your improvement.
Nevertheless, I think that you have boarded too heavy against UR and UWR. One might also argue about Xantid Swarm against Miracles which I don't bring in in this particular MU. I prefer City of Solitude here which is a bomb against BBD UWR, too.
I am sure that Decay is too slow, weak and useless in these MUs. Especially as they bring in stronger counterspells like Flusterstorm, you are boarding Therapies out... In addition, you state that you have won with Tendrils from your hand thus making Decay > 'random gravehate permanent' useless. CoV/Massacre hit Meddling Kids, too. Also I would go with Chain of Vapor against UR / UWR because it can hit everything and costs only U. Ad Nauseam is a card I don't board out against UR or UWR because I love to win fast and don't care about my opponent's deck or potential damage output. At the Berlin league finals I won on a mulligan to 5 against UR via 2nd turn Ad Nauseam and smashed BBD UWR with Cities.

I don't like boarding out therapy and probe too often either...

I am not sure if CoV is better than decay in ur or uwr mu. There is a decent possibility that they board in extra pyroblast, which is actually mediocre against us. I don't want my CoV eating a blast.

Also, I will cut AdN on the draw against UR and may consider bringing it back if on the play.

city of solitude is absolutely much better than swarm in miracle mu. I believe any experienced miracle player will leave some removals post board, but bring in swarm if there is no other choice. Also, swarm is better than City of Solitude against reanimator or SNT, I really worried that reanimator would regain its popularity in the near future so I will always leave 3 swarm in my sb.

[CabalTherapy]

city of solitude is absolutely much better than swarm in miracle mu. I believe any experienced miracle player will leave some removals post board, but bring in swarm if there is no other choice. Also, swarm is better than City of Solitude against reanimator or SNT, I really worried that reanimator would regain its popularity in the near future so I will always leave 3 swarm in my sb.

True. Therefore I play:

3 Chain of Vapor
3 Abrupt Decay
3 City of Solitude (played with 2, now with the third)
2 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Extirpate
1 Massacre
2 Xantid Swarm

[GoblinZ]

True. Therefore I play:

3 Chain of Vapor
3 Abrupt Decay
3 City of Solitude (played with 2, now with the third)
2 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Extirpate
1 Massacre
2 Xantid Swarm

do you side in extirpate against miracle?

[Togores]

Great finish!
Right now I also cutted the flusters for 2 krossan grip. If there us no heavy on combo i dont but them back in.
I dont like so much city. Because it gets pierced so easy. I also dislike xantid vs miracles. Only board then in if i dont see removal.
I do agree with putting in xantids instead of therapys vs miracles but i would never board out discard vs a blue control deck.

And usualy i board in decays vs ur. They are 100% good. They dont play mana denial. So we can cast them. And also they have really low count of pressure. And board some out. So decaying a delver or a cage is huge.

I usualy board out
-1 nauseam -1 preordain -2 sensei -2 petal
+3 decay +2 carpet +1 tendrills

And I have only lost 1 time to them (with a sb of 3 cages, 3 fluster 2 envelope)

I think is a really easy matchup.

[CabalTherapy]

do you side in extirpate against miracle?

Of course.

[.Ix]

Congratulations on your improvement.
Nevertheless, I think that you have boarded too heavy against UR and UWR. One might also argue about Xantid Swarm against Miracles which I don't bring in in this particular MU. I prefer City of Solitude here which is a bomb against BBD UWR, too.
I am sure that Decay is too slow, weak and useless in these MUs. Especially as they bring in stronger counterspells like Flusterstorm, you are boarding Therapies out... In addition, you state that you have won with Tendrils from your hand thus making Decay > 'random gravehate permanent' useless. CoV/Massacre hit Meddling Kids, too. Also I would go with Chain of Vapor against UR / UWR because it can hit everything and costs only U. Ad Nauseam is a card I don't board out against UR or UWR because I love to win fast and don't care about my opponent's deck or potential damage output. At the Berlin league finals I won on a mulligan to 5 against UR via 2nd turn Ad Nauseam and smashed BBD UWR with Cities.

Thanks for all the good advice. I brought in Xantid vs Miracles because I was sure he would board out all the removal. He had very little experience with the matchup, and neither did I, but I knew him as a player and I was just sure he would do that. It was a very risky read but it worked out perfectly.

Regarding UR and UWR BBD:

I'm not very confident in this deck's ability to go off with turn 2 AN because it's running 2x Sensei and no Grim Tutor. It's pretty slow and grindy, so I think -1 AN +1 Tendrils is much better here. I figure decay helps buy a lot of turns against their few creatures (and I did decay a pyromancer, forcing him to play into his Swiftspear and making it very obvious that he was holding a FOW). If I can force them to keep spending mana on finding and playing creatures, I gain a lot of time and create a lot more opportunities to go off. Also, I think I actually removed 2 Sensei, and not 2 probes against UR. I didn't really take notes.

I had never played the UWR BBD.dec matchup before and I really had no idea where I was going with it. I agree that I shouldn't have boarded out Therapies or Probes, but Decay seemed really solid. It beats Meddling Mage no questions asked (Unless the Mage is naming Decay, of course) and could buy a lot of time like in the UR matchup. I had to grind pretty hard, and Decaying the Pyromancer in our game 2 bought me maybe 4 turns of spinning the Top. Of course that's just one game, so it's not enough evidence of Decay being good or better than Chain. City of Solitude sounds very good, though. Might just have to get me some of those.

I'm actually 16-4 with ANT here so far, and I'm really loving it. It's a very interesting deck with so many choices to make in almost every single turn. It's also really fun to crush people who think you autolose to their blue deck.

[CabalTherapy]

I'm actually 16-4 with ANT here so far, and I'm really loving it. It's a very interesting deck with so many choices to make in almost every single turn. It's also really fun to crush people who think you autolose to their blue deck.

Apparently there are still some of these individuals out there... ^^


I might try Decay against UR / UWR BBD. It certainly provide a lot of time when destroying the opponent's clock, similar to L. Bolt but with the ability to destroy Cage and other shit as well.
Keep on stormin'.

[kkkant]

Well, finally, after almost a year playing nauseam, i pulled out my first good result at a mayor tournament ("mayor" means 50 people, which here in Argentina was the record of asistance for a legacy tournament this half of the year)

I used sawatarixs Grinding Station.dec with only 2 changes in the 75 (1 empty the warrens main instead of the 3rd ToA and a tropical island instead of the bayou), and natural tendrils was the mvp of the tournament all day long. After starting up 0-1-1, i managed to get into the top8 with 4-1-1 and wining top 8 and top 4, then spliting the finals.I will try to recall all the games here.

Round 1 - Miracles
G1 I know what my opponent was playing, so i kept a little slow hand but with some disruption. I Duress hime turn 1 and only took a counterspell (he had 1 sword 1 terminus 1 entreat and some lands), but after some turns of grinding, all i got was a short storm for tendrils, and since he had already a top on play i decided to go for the warrens since he had already used a bs and saw the terminus in his hand again. Warrens for 12 tokens did it for me that game.
G2 i was not sure how to side, so i played with 1 ad nauseam, 1 PiF, and only 1 tendrils, no warrens. I made a big mistake playing a natural tendrils for 5, then discarding a PIF with my tutor to search for ad nauseam which was absolutely useless since that very turn i tried to cast past in flames which got countered, which left me without any chance to win that game. There were 4 minutes left on the round and he was on no position to kill me any time sooner, but since we were pals i put my card together as soon as the pif got countered, and ended up tying on game 3.

Round 2 - UR Delver
Well, game 1 i go off very quickly and he had no counters in hand (i think i saw it with a probe), no questions asked
Game 2 i left the 2 pif and 2 tendrils, siding out warrens, a cabal ritual and a lotus petal for 2 carpet of flowers and a couple CoV
I dont recall very much of this game, besides my opponent playing really bad and i being quite mad for not being able to overcome his 3 topdecks (a fow to counter my pif and then a daze to counter my first ritual after flashbacking pif game 2, and a fow after sawing his hand with 2 daze game 3)

Round 3 - Esper Miracles
Odd version of miracles, playing jace, stoneforge, clique, elspeth, thoughtseize, and of course counterspells and counter-top.
I won the roll, and since i knew my opponent was playing miracles and he did not knew my deck, i started underground sea go, into polluted delta braistorm, then duress to see Clique, Stoneforge, Jace, Counterspell, Elspeth and a land. I took out counterspell, next turn tried to combo with pif (in hand) and got FoW'd. Next turn i go off again flashbacking pif.
I sided in 2 carpet of flowers, 1 nauseam, 1 chrome mox and i think some xantids, i took out empty the warrens, 1 tendrils and 1 pif again i think, and 2 cabal ritual for the carpets.
Game 2 my hand is cabal ritual, gitaxian probe, duress, LED, Ad Nauseam, U Sea and Ponder he starts with t1 top, I go duress and see Thoughtseize, Inquisition of Kozilek, and a couple of dead cards. Took the Seize in order to protect AN. Next turn he inquisitioned my ponder. Then i go off turn 2 by playing gitaxian into gitaxian, double lotus petal thus getting threshold for cabal ritual, and going off with a pretty generous ad nauseam.

Round 4 - UWR Stoneblade
Game 1 i managed to resolve a top and dig a lot, getting his hand without any counterspells but without finding any bussiness. He passed the turn with 2 pyromancers and like 6 tokens (lethal), so i decided to go for it. I spinned the top and saw nothing, having only 1 fetchland in play, so i played dark ritual - cabal ritual - cabal ritual - led - led, cracked the fetch and spinned the top to see a infernal tutor. Talk about adrenaline.
Figuring he would side in rest in peace and some graveyard hate (which didnt happen) i sided out 1 tendrils, 1 empty the warrens, and 1 pif, to make room for 1 ad nauseam, chrome mox, 2 or 3 decays and 2 carpets.
Game 2 he leads with a turn 2 meddling mage ToA (not the best choice imo but won him the game), then a pyromancer. I managed to pull an AN on turn 3 but couldnt get enough mana to decay and then pif, so it was game for him.
Game 3 my hand was a tendrils and some rituals. After deigging a little bit more with no discard and a top on play i was looking at letal, so i started gitaxian probe, triple ritual, led led, brainstorm (which got fowed leaving him without counters and no bs), into natural tendrils (he was at 17).

Round 5 - GW Post (mono g post but with some cards i didnt see coming in the sb such as gaddock teeg and rip)
Game 1 he did not have much to do. I discarded some acceleration and then comfortably comboed.
Sided in ad nauseam and took 1 pif 1 toa i think, dont recall very much of the sb except ad nauseam and CoV.
Game 2 he managed to get a rip in play, after some grinding i was looking at the combo in my hand (tutor chain) and he had which i thought were 3 known cards in the hand (i forgot to cross out a land, and he had drawn an unknown card for the turn). So i asked him "i know your 3 cards, right?" -yes. Ok, so i went off making storm of 10 + ToA. When i play the tendrils he asked me "how much damage is it?" i answer without thinking 20, thinking he had nothing to do. He responded with crop rotation for glimmerpost going to 1. After he resolved the crop rot i counted the storm again and realised it was 22 dmg, but i wasnt smart enough to call a judge and blamed it on my anciousness and got really upset.
Game 3 he starts with leyline of sanctity and i go off with and early empty the warrens he coulndt resolve.

Round 6 -Food Chain - Great, win and in and one fine matchup for me.
Game 1 i won the roll with duress, led, 2 rituals, 2 lands and a gitaxian probe. I duress and took out manipulate fate, leaving him with 2 lands, 1 hierarch, 2 shardless agents and a venser. He played trop island for hierarch go. I draw a petal, gitaxian probe and draw a past in flames, well this could work. I saw he draw the food chain. Turn 2 hi plays chain, exiles hierarch for GG, plays hierarch, exiles hierarch for UU and plays a shardless cascading a shaman. Fuck.
Turn 3 i draw a land and pass the turn. He draws, plays a shardless agent, and attacked with shardless and shaman (...). I drew another gitaxian, ,saw nothing and figured i had to go for it now or never, so i played Pif (which got bounced by vencer), played it again into double gitaxian but only drawing a ritual and a LED. GG for him
Game 2 i sided in 2 carpets 2 xantids and a couple decays (i knew he was playing chalice of the void on sb). I start turn 1 gitaxian, seeing only a flusterstorm for counter, so played xantid swarm and turn 2 carpet of flowers. Going off from there was pretty easy.
Game 3 i had the gut i had to go all the way with ad nauseam so i sided out 1 tendrils 1 warrens and 2 pif. It payed off well, since on turn 2 i went Led, Led, Lotus Petal -> Cabal ritual (no thresh), Ponder (cracking a led in response) and drew the AN i saw last turn with another ponder. Ad Nauseam in 19 with a mana floating and a led, without him having any counters. Nothing left to say haha.

Top8!
Round 1 - Monored Sneak Attack AKA The Horror.
Played with a close friend of mine who managed to get 3 straight top8s (and a 2nd place) at 3 major tournaments with the very same deck.
4 Chalice of the Void, 4 Blood Moon and the abilitiy to go off on turn 1 wasnt very promising for me.
I lost the roll, so after a lot of thinking he starts mountain chalice x=0, after one or two turns, he managed to get a blood moon and then a chalice for 1 next turn (i think turn 4), but no combo for him. After he resolved the moon i recalled i had a basic swamp second from top from a ponder last turn (before chalice) leaving me with: Led, Cabal Rit, Cabal Rit, Dark Rit, ToA, ToA and 4 basic mountains. I passed the turn, he passed the turn, played the swamp and did led (countered), cabal rit -no thres, BBB, Dark Rit (countered) BB, Cabal rit-threshold, BBBBB, and double tendrils for 22. The expression on his face was priceless.
I sided in the nauseams in order to get some speed, and in a mistake sided out all discards for 3 decays and a Grip
Game 2 he goes turn 1 chalice for 1 (i had 1 dark rit 2 ponder and a bs in my hand), then trinispher, then blood moon, then combo. OK GG.
Game 3 i sided in the discards again, but didnt really needed them since i went off turn 2 without him having nothing to do (besides comboing next turn).

Round 2 - UWR Stoneforge with Counterbalance.
I won the roll, saw his hand with a bs, ponder, SFM and counterbalance. By turn 2 i had an empty the warrens, led, infernal tutor, dark ritual and brainstorm, i brainstoemd and saw the petal so i left the ToA and the tutor on top, played ritual led petal into empty the warrens for 12 (dont recall the other spell, i think a SDT) leaving me with an infernal tutor and a cabal ritual in my hand and another tutor and a ToA in my top. This forced him to all in in the SFM plan, compromising all his mana. After some turns, he had a batterskull with a jitte and 2 counters and i was left with 5 tokens. Played Cabal ritual, infernal tutor for cabal ritual, cabal ritx2 ToA for 5 (he was at 5) he activated the jitte to won 4 and StP'ed his token for another 4, leaving him at 3 and 2 sfm, meaning exactly lethal for me with my 5 tokens.
Game 2 i sided exactly like aggainst the other uwr stoneblade - 2 carpet 2 swarms, a nauseam and took 2 cabal rit, empty the warrens 1 pif and 1 toa.
I Led with an early carpet, then xantid swarm, giving him 1 or 2 turns to find the removal which he ddint, then went off with another very generous AN.

Well this was long, ha. A very exciting tournament, since as you have seen a lot of victories had been unexpected even for me, with tons of adrenaline as its expected from this deck. I sure had a lot of mistakes (some little like adding BBB with carpet and then attacking with swarm, burning my mana, and some huge
like not counting the storm vs Post) and a lot of luck, but i think the deck deserves the credits. Double ToA (and the two tops) maindeck means being able to natural tendrils much more often which is HUGE, specially since no one expects it, at least game 1.

[Sloshthedark]

3 City of Solitude (played with 2, now with the third)

I like that, might be good, but would require redefining SB for me... also korean or dark Visions?... gives me a headache already =/

natural tendrils was the mvp of the tournament all day long.. wining top 8 and top 4, then spliting the finals.

I certainly like that, congrats! what was your finals MU?

[JamieW89]

Played an 8 man single-elim invitational yesterday, with 6 tournament winners and 2 point slots.

QF: UWR Blade with CB package sb
g1: I mull to 6 but have a t2 Ad Nauseam from hand which gets there.
g2: He assembles Top+CB and has some countermagic, I die hopelessly.
g3: I have a solid hand with PiF,Grim Tutor,AdN,Decay and 3 Rituals but am brainstorm-locked while he has the lock out and I lack green mana for the Decay. I luckily draw a green source just in time and despite him having 3 FoW's, Flusterstorm, REB and the soft-lock he dies in every line he has.

SF: Chalice Merfolk
g1: He always plays UR Delver, so I calmly prepare to go off on turn-3 after his t1 Island->go doesn't refute my expection. But then he throws down a Chalice on 1.. I have the right mana (LED,LP,CRit), but fail to find a Tutor in time. He forgets his chalice when I duress (had to fill my graveyard), if I had slipped through a cantrip instead I'd have made it (Tutor was one card deeper)..
g2: I make a bunch of goblins on t2 and he dies.
g3: He plays Island,go. I cast duress and see Chalice,Chalice,FoW,Daze,Lord,Island. I take one Chalice, he plays the second on 1. He FoWs my Grim Tutor a little later and I never find one my Decays.

The final would have been versus UR Delver or BUG Delver. At least the top-4 split the 400 store credit ^^.

[kkkant]

I like that, might be good, but would require redefining SB for me... also korean or dark Visions?... gives me a headache already =/



I certainly like that, congrats! what was your finals MU?

Bug delver, a match up i really dont want to play at all..

[Madsk]

Is Contagion tested out as a hatebear killer?

Definitely a hard hit on Ad Naseum but is a universal hatbear kill card

Can kill a 2/2 og two x/1 at instant speed for the cost of a ritual/discard + 1 life.



What do people board in vs Meddling Mage, Teeg, Canonist , "insert any hatebear with x/2"
Is it a long shot to board in 3 Dread of Night?

Edit: i think in mu's with counterspells or where Thalia/Mother are not played

[Lemnear]

Is Contagion tested out as a hatebear killer?

Definitely a hard hit on Ad Naseum but is a universal hatbear kill card

Can kill a 2/2 og two x/1 at instant speed for the cost of a ritual/discard + 1 life.



What do people board in vs Meddling Mage, Teeg, Canonist , "insert any hatebear with x/2"
Is it a long shot to board in 3 Dread of Night?

Erm ... Massacre?

[Madsk]

Erm ... Massacre?

I know about Massacre

[nevilshute]

Hey Lemnear. I hope you don't take this the wrong way, but...

Is Contagion tested out as a hatebear killer?

Definitely a hard hit on Ad Naseum but is a universal hatbear kill card

Can kill a 2/2 og two x/1 at instant speed for the cost of a ritual/discard + 1 life.



What do people board in vs Meddling Mage, Teeg, Canonist , "insert any hatebear with x/2"
Is it a long shot to board in 3 Dread of Night?

Erm ... Massacre?

The question asked is, primarily, has Contagion been tested? Secondarily, and by implication alone, do you think it's any good?

I've noticed that you excuse your - at times - agitating behavior on these boards by the fact that you find it insulting when someone answers in one-sentence posts to a serious, worked-through post or question. Not saying you were impolite here, per se, but I gather you understand my meaning.

@Madsk:

I have no idea if Contagion has been tested. I've not done so myself but it seems like a bad card for our pus. It's 5CMC so it doesn't kill Teeg - the only reason I could have seen to play it over Massacre. It targets. It's also card disadvantage which is a big detriment. The one advantage I could see for the card is the fact that it can kill X/1's at the same time. So, a Thalia and a Revoker/SoL/Mindcensor/?

But again, Massacre kills 10 X/2s for no mana as well, and you're not down a card that way.

[Megadeus]

Yeah I see almost no reason to run it over massacre (which if your opponent has no plains you can still ritual out). Both suck versus Teeg. One needs a plains, but how often is a hate bear on board without a plains? I know it happens versus DnT, but meh.

[Madsk]

Hey Lemnear. I hope you don't take this the wrong way, but...





The question asked is, primarily, has Contagion been tested? Secondarily, and by implication alone, do you think it's any good?

I've noticed that you excuse your - at times - agitating behavior on these boards by the fact that you find it insulting when someone answers in one-sentence posts to a serious, worked-through post or question. Not saying you were impolite here, per se, but I gather you understand my meaning.

@Madsk:

I have no idea if Contagion has been tested. I've not done so myself but it seems like a bad card for our pus. It's 5CMC so it doesn't kill Teeg - the only reason I could have seen to play it over Massacre. It targets. It's also card disadvantage which is a big detriment. The one advantage I could see for the card is the fact that it can kill X/1's at the same time. So, a Thalia and a Revoker/SoL/Mindcensor/?

But again, Massacre kills 10 X/2s for no mana as well, and you're not down a card that way.

Fair enough,

How do you guys approach UWr Delver (BBD style) where you expect x/2 hatebears and counters, if they play x/1 bears i slam DoN and every new year i land 2pcs , but if i only see x/2 bears, do you board Massacre and thats it or Massacre + CoV and Abrupts. We have alot of answers but i dont want to ruin my mainplan doing it.

[GoblinZ]

Fair enough,

How do you guys approach UWr Delver (BBD style) where you expect x/2 hatebears and counters, if they play x/1 bears i slam DoN and every new year i land 2pcs , but if i only see x/2 bears, do you board Massacre and thats it or Massacre + CoV and Abrupts. We have alot of answers but i dont want to ruin my mainplan doing it.

Massacre+Decay seems okay for me, CoV may meet pyroblast, aslo you don't want to over board.

Contagion needs another card unless you hardcast it, it is more suitable for manaless dredge, which has no other choice than Contagion.

[Madsk]

Massacre+Decay seems okay for me, CoV may meet pyroblast, aslo you don't want to over board.

Contagion needs another card unless you hardcast it, it is more suitable for manaless dredge, which has no other choice than Contagion.

In:
1-2 Massacre
1-3 Abrupt Decay

out:
3 Preordain
1-2 Cabal Ritual/LED

So basicly the same cards as versus D&T, minus the DoN.

Boarding with this deck feels like a nightmare.

[GoblinZ]

In:
1-2 Massacre
1-3 Abrupt Decay

out:
3 Preordain
1-2 Cabal Ritual/LED

So basicly the same cards as versus D&T, minus the DoN.

Boarding with this deck feels like a nightmare.

I have not tested this mu a lot actually, so here is only personal suggestion.

based on my current sideboard, I may board in 1 Massacre 3 decay

if they play a lot of soft counters, board one cabal ritual is okay. I will not consider cut LED.

Vs DnT, CoV over Decay, because of Thalia and wasteland.