[Deck] ANT (Ad Nauseam Tendrils) Storm Combo

[Sloshthedark]

I've never seen it before, and forgive me if this is a common thing...but I just saw an ANT player resolve Sylvan Library on camera.

Anyone else jam this, too??

Oh! watching replay atm , totally hyped... just finished hilarious (or pathetic, depending on the point of view) 5C Froelich special ... btw. Library is obv. quite bad...

edit: I hope the Sylvan is MD... despite so much Storm featured the quality plays somehow dodge the stream...

[JamieW89]

Top-4'd a ~100 player event today. Played 2 DP, 1 EtW, 1 SDT, 1 Preordain main, 0 Flusterstorm, 2 Hurkyl's (quite a bit of MUD and friends around) as most interesting sb choices.

Round-1: Shardless 2-0 1-0
Round-2: Merfolk 2-0 2-0
Round-3: Elves 2-1 3-0
Round-4: Sneak & Show 2-1 4-0
Round-5: Death & Taxes 2-1 5-0
Round-6: ANT ID 5-0-1
Round-7: RIP Miracles ID 5-0-2

Quarter Final: BUG Control 2-0
Semi Final: RIP Miracles 0-2

Punted the final game against miracles, because I missordered my top three the turn before. The line was ritual, ritual, cabal ritual, cabal therapy(counterspell),led,tutor(counterspell), flip top for.. not the Tendrils for 18 that should have been there. That said, I could only pay for 8 copies versus his flusterstorm he was floating so he'd have been on 2 anyways, but terrible plays regardless.

[Tom T]

Top-8'ed the same ~100 player event yesterday as JamieW. Played 1 Ad Nauseam, 2 Preordain, 1 Sensei's Divining Top and 7th Discard.
Sideboard:
4 Abrupt Decay
3 Dread of Night
3 Xantid Swarm
2 Hurkyl's Recall
1 Empty the Warrens
1 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Chain of Vapor

Round-1: Jund 2-0 1-0
Round-2: Elves 2-1 2-0
Round-3: UW Control 2-0 3-0
Round-4: Miracles 2-1 4-0
Round-5: BUG Control 2-0 5-0
Round-6: ANT ID 5-0-1
Round-7: Sneak&Show ID 5-0-2

Quarter Final: RIP Miracles 1-2

I made a mistake in the first game of the QF; named the wrong card with Cabal Therapy. Had a great weekend though!

[Plague Sliver]

Had an amazing time at #GPSeaTac. Met Jonas, Kai and Bryant Cook in person. I was the storm scrub, but sleeved it up for the GP. Right after the DTT ban, I wasn't sure what I wanted to play. Truth be told, it would be the best time in 18 months to play Death and Taxes. But knowing about the rise of Shardless BUG made me re-evaluate playing Thalia and friends.

Starting in October, I started grinding games against a friend to get more comfortable with ANT (crossing over from TES). Played a ton against RUG Delver, Death and Taxes, and Control. I very quickly realized that playing basic lands + Past in Flames maindeck = OP...

Got knocked out of Day 2 contention by the fifth round, but played it out for the experience.

Played something similar to Kai's Kyoto list with 15 land, 1 Tendrils, 2 Past in Flames, 1 Ad Nauseam, 2 Preordain, 1 Sensei's Top, 0 Dark Petition main. Empty the Warrens in the sideboard.

Here's what I played against:

R1 Dredge: L 1-2
R2 Elves: W 2-1
R3 Merfolk: L 0-2
R4 Burn: W 2-1
R5 Shardless BUG: L 1-2
R6 RUG Delver: W 2-1
R7 Infect: W 2-1
R8 BUG Delver: W 2-0
R9 UWR Delver: W 2-1

I punted 2 rounds against Manaless Dredge and Merfolk essentially due to my own silly play mistakes. This deck is not easy!

Highlights of the weekend:
- (in trials) Punishing Jund opponent triple Thoughtseizes me on the play, resolves Chains of Mephistopheles. Fist pumps says he has me dead. I untap and win :)
- (in trials) Shardless BUG opponent goes first in two games, has the Force of Will in both games, I win both games. This is why we play this deck!!!
- (in trials) Elves player has active deathrite, exiles a meaningless Socery in response to my Buyback Tendrils for lethal.
- Burn opponent had Eidolon resolve in all 3 games and I won a nail-biter in game 3.
- RUG Delver player saw 3 Force of Will and 3 Stifles over one game, I never X-for-1'd him ever with Cabal Therapy but still win the game. This is why we play this deck!!!
- T1 and T2 kill BUG Delver opponent. It's supposed to be our worst matchup, right?
- UWR Delver player had 9 power on board, I win at 6 life with Past in Flames.
- Beating Bryant Cook 50% of the time in test games. It was testing, but I wanted to rep Past in Flames Storm :)

Some observations:
- I was much too aggressive with Ad Nauseams, cost me a game or 2. Probably carrying over from my TES days where AN can easily win the game. Have to learn to be more conservative or set up to win easily on my untap step.
- Really torn about Dark Petition. In testing it was pretty bad to flip a 5 CC card, but there were situations where not needing to go Hellbent to find Tendrils would have won me some matches.
- Empty the Warrens is BAD when you can't cast it T1 or even T2 on the draw. I tried playing it main at the side event and absolutely hated it. It stays in the board.
- Top wasn't really all that relevant because I didn't face a ton of discard. Might consider going back to a 3rd Preordain.
- 6 discard spells is just fine. Originally had 3-3 Duress/Therapy split but opted to go 2-4 because there were a ton of Burn decks in the room. Being able to hit Eidolon and Thalia was important.

Overall, a great if mistake-filled time. Keep storming, brothers.

[monovfox]

Hello Lovely storm players. My storm-flinging housemate has recently been quite frustrated with the whole idea of how fucking difficult it is to beat the following cards in game 1: Thalia, Chalice of the Void, and Counterbalance. While I may be no storm veteran, I knew there was a solution in one of my favorite cards, waiting to be utilized. Thus, I present to you: Pyromancer's Ascension Tendrils, or simply "God dammit PAT my eyesight is making me see double, you know I can't see your fingers from this distance. No, I didn't go to the store last night, that was your job, I was picking up the kids from soccer practice. "

2 Island
4 Misty Rainforest
4 Polluted Delta
1 Swamp
2 Underground Sea
1 Volcanic Island
4 Brainstorm
4 Cabal Ritual
4 Cabal Therapy
2 Dark Petition
4 Dark Ritual
4 Gitaxian Probe
4 Infernal Tutor
1 Past in Flames
4 Ponder
2 Preordain
1 Tendrils of Agony
4 Lion's Eye Diamond
4 Lotus Petal
4 Pyromancer Ascension

It can combo through chalice, and is fairly resilient to force of will because they have to force of will Ascension. Lacks a little bit of the consistency regular ANT has, but makes for it in straight up "No, you don't get to interact with me, at all". Pretty mediocre against DRS decks, but it pretty much could care less about Regular Blue decks (non-DRS), Thalia, Chalice, and Counterbalance.

deck might want a single ad naeseum over 4th pyromancer ascension. It's capable of doing pretty broken stuff when pyro has two counters:

1 colorless 2 black mana up mana up, only infernal tutor in hand, you literally just win the game. Infernal tutor, 2 copies. First one resolves and you grab a dark ritual, holding priority add 6 mana to your pool from dark rit, then second tutor resolves and you grab dark petition.. Dark petition, leaving you with 7 mana and freshly cabal therapy and infernal tutor. Get two cabal therapies for 1 mana, leaving you at 6 mana. infernal tutor -> Dark rit -> dark pit again, grab lotus petal + past in flames, win.

Thought I think the most broken thing it does is kill your opponent through chalice on 1, resolved thalia, or with counterbalance out.

[Dr_D]

Hello Lovely storm players. My storm-flinging housemate has recently been quite frustrated with the whole idea of how fucking difficult it is to beat the following cards in game 1: Thalia, Chalice of the Void, and Counterbalance. While I may be no storm veteran, I knew there was a solution in one of my favorite cards, waiting to be utilized. Thus, I present to you: Pyromancer's Ascension Tendrils, or simply "God dammit PAT my eyesight is making me see double, you know I can't see your fingers from this distance. No, I didn't go to the store last night, that was your job, I was picking up the kids from soccer practice. "

2 Island
4 Misty Rainforest
4 Polluted Delta
1 Swamp
2 Underground Sea
1 Volcanic Island
4 Brainstorm
4 Cabal Ritual
4 Cabal Therapy
2 Dark Petition
4 Dark Ritual
4 Gitaxian Probe
4 Infernal Tutor
1 Past in Flames
4 Ponder
2 Preordain
1 Tendrils of Agony
4 Lion's Eye Diamond
4 Lotus Petal
4 Pyromancer Ascension

It can combo through chalice, and is fairly resilient to force of will because they have to force of will Ascension. Lacks a little bit of the consistency regular ANT has, but makes for it in straight up "No, you don't get to interact with me, at all". Pretty mediocre against DRS decks, but it pretty much could care less about Regular Blue decks (non-DRS), Thalia, Chalice, and Counterbalance.

deck might want a single ad naeseum over 4th pyromancer ascension. It's capable of doing pretty broken stuff when pyro has two counters:

1 colorless 2 black mana up mana up, only infernal tutor in hand, you literally just win the game. Infernal tutor, 2 copies. First one resolves and you grab a dark ritual, holding priority add 6 mana to your pool from dark rit, then second tutor resolves and you grab dark petition.. Dark petition, leaving you with 7 mana and freshly cabal therapy and infernal tutor. Get two cabal therapies for 1 mana, leaving you at 6 mana. infernal tutor -> Dark rit -> dark pit again, grab lotus petal + past in flames, win.

Thought I think the most broken thing it does is kill your opponent through chalice on 1, resolved thalia, or with counterbalance out.

If you're hellbent on beating cards like Thalia and Chalice in game 1, just play TES.

[Minniehajj]

If you're hellbent on beating cards like Thalia and Chalice in game 1, just play TES.

I see what you did there!

[Lemnear]

Hello Lovely storm players. My storm-flinging housemate has recently been quite frustrated with the whole idea of how fucking difficult it is to beat the following cards in game 1: Thalia, Chalice of the Void, and Counterbalance. While I may be no storm veteran, I knew there was a solution in one of my favorite cards, waiting to be utilized. Thus, I present to you: Pyromancer's Ascension Tendrils, or simply "God dammit PAT my eyesight is making me see double, you know I can't see your fingers from this distance. No, I didn't go to the store last night, that was your job, I was picking up the kids from soccer practice. "

2 Island
4 Misty Rainforest
4 Polluted Delta
1 Swamp
2 Underground Sea
1 Volcanic Island
4 Brainstorm
4 Cabal Ritual
4 Cabal Therapy
2 Dark Petition
4 Dark Ritual
4 Gitaxian Probe
4 Infernal Tutor
1 Past in Flames
4 Ponder
2 Preordain
1 Tendrils of Agony
4 Lion's Eye Diamond
4 Lotus Petal
4 Pyromancer Ascension

It can combo through chalice, and is fairly resilient to force of will because they have to force of will Ascension. Lacks a little bit of the consistency regular ANT has, but makes for it in straight up "No, you don't get to interact with me, at all". Pretty mediocre against DRS decks, but it pretty much could care less about Regular Blue decks (non-DRS), Thalia, Chalice, and Counterbalance.

deck might want a single ad naeseum over 4th pyromancer ascension. It's capable of doing pretty broken stuff when pyro has two counters:

1 colorless 2 black mana up mana up, only infernal tutor in hand, you literally just win the game. Infernal tutor, 2 copies. First one resolves and you grab a dark ritual, holding priority add 6 mana to your pool from dark rit, then second tutor resolves and you grab dark petition.. Dark petition, leaving you with 7 mana and freshly cabal therapy and infernal tutor. Get two cabal therapies for 1 mana, leaving you at 6 mana. infernal tutor -> Dark rit -> dark pit again, grab lotus petal + past in flames, win.

Thought I think the most broken thing it does is kill your opponent through chalice on 1, resolved thalia, or with counterbalance out.

Been there; discussed it here; tested myself over a week; dismissed for being slow as fuck (which is a problem against Thalia/Chalice/Counterbalance/etc. in the first place). It does not get better once CB is resolved thanks to the 2cmc

If you want a storm deck which realistically beats all the turn 2 drops like MeddlingMage/Thalia/Canonis/Chalice/Counterbalance/Hymn/ActiveDRS/whatever, Dr_D gave you the answer.

Orherwise, just deal with that stuff via Sideboard

[Plague Sliver]

Hello Lovely storm players. My storm-flinging housemate has recently been quite frustrated with the whole idea of how fucking difficult it is to beat the following cards in game 1: Thalia, Chalice of the Void, and Counterbalance. While I may be no storm veteran, I knew there was a solution in one of my favorite cards, waiting to be utilized. Thus, I present to you: Pyromancer's Ascension Tendrils, or simply "God dammit PAT my eyesight is making me see double, you know I can't see your fingers from this distance. No, I didn't go to the store last night, that was your job, I was picking up the kids from soccer practice. "

Has this list been put to the test in any tournament? It's one thing to theorize or to win test games, quite another to do well in a tourney...
Second Lemnear's opinion that it seems too slow.

[ScottW]

Kai,
I saw you play round 2 at GP Seattle and really liked your card edition choices and alters. Have you ever posted your deck in the pimp thread? Those altered and signed Alpha basics are so neat.

How'd you do overall in the tournament?

[Tom T]

Hello Lovely storm players. My storm-flinging housemate has recently been quite frustrated with the whole idea of how fucking difficult it is to beat the following cards in game 1: Thalia, Chalice of the Void, and Counterbalance.

So he is frustrated because his opponents basicly kill him on turn 2? Guess how he makes hís opponents feel all the time by playing storm..

On a more serious note, Chalice on 1 or 0 is actually not that hard to beat and Counterbalance is also not that hard to play around. It's when your opponents also have a clock or in counterbalance's case a Top, cantrip or counterspell it becomes pretty hard. Storm still has options to go off turn 1 or 2 or cast a discard spell and the opponent has to draw that hatepermanent.
And even if that permanent resolves you can still win; sunday I won through Double balance and 4 land in play (one of them was a fetch), a snapcaster mage on top, 3 Force of Will and a spell snare in hand. I didnt even cast an abrupt decay, just went for natural in hand tendrils with some mindgames to make him use his fetch and shuffle away the snapcaster.

[Dr_D]

So he is frustrated because his opponents basicly kill him on turn 2? Guess how he makes hís opponents feel all the time by playing storm..

On a more serious note, Chalice on 1 or 0 is actually not that hard to beat and Counterbalance is also not that hard to play around. It's when your opponents also have a clock or in counterbalance's case a Top, cantrip or counterspell it becomes pretty hard. Storm still has options to go off turn 1 or 2 or cast a discard spell and the opponent has to draw that hatepermanent.
And even if that permanent resolves you can still win; sunday I won through Double balance and 4 land in play (one of them was a fetch), a snapcaster mage on top, 3 Force of Will and a spell snare in hand. I didnt even cast an abrupt decay, just went for natural in hand tendrils with some mindgames to make him use his fetch and shuffle away the snapcaster.

To add to this, Death and Taxes is pretty easy if you're on the play game 1 in my opinion. Between the ability to just turn 2 them or cabal therapy their thalia, I don't see how it can be that frustrating for the friend.

[downtoonelife]

So he is frustrated because his opponents basicly kill him on turn 2? Guess how he makes hís opponents feel all the time by playing storm..

On a more serious note, Chalice on 1 or 0 is actually not that hard to beat and Counterbalance is also not that hard to play around. It's when your opponents also have a clock or in counterbalance's case a Top, cantrip or counterspell it becomes pretty hard. Storm still has options to go off turn 1 or 2 or cast a discard spell and the opponent has to draw that hatepermanent.
And even if that permanent resolves you can still win; sunday I won through Double balance and 4 land in play (one of them was a fetch), a snapcaster mage on top, 3 Force of Will and a spell snare in hand. I didnt even cast an abrupt decay, just went for natural in hand tendrils with some mindgames to make him use his fetch and shuffle away the snapcaster.

^Agree.

Way back before mystical tutor got banned, I beat Makihito Mihara with his board containing Jace, the Mind Sculptor, Sensei and Counterbalance but no creature in play. I just continue playing until I drew Tendril's. Fortunately I have enough mana to just cast spells, let it get countered just to have a storm count and tendril's him ftw. After playing Omnitell and Animator for 2 years, now I'm re-learning to play Ad Naus (I stop playing ANT after Mystical got banned).

[Jonathan Alexander]

I wrote a report, it's online now: https://theweeklywars.wordpress.com/...5-at-gpseatac/

[Tom T]

Any of you slinging some spells at Grand Prix Brussels this weekend?

[Ronald Deuce]

I wrote a report, it's online now: https://theweeklywars.wordpress.com/...5-at-gpseatac/

Thanks for linking that! Great to see some reporting that's a lot more reliable than I've managed (I keep forgetting to bring note-taking materials, and everything fuzzes up really quickly for me).

At the risk of retreading something Ad Nauseam (huehuehue), I'm wondering how you felt the double Past in Flames performed for you. The reason I ask is that last Sunday I played against Pox and got pretty thoroughly crushed. Surgical Extraction made a few appearances, in one game wiping LEDs, Dark Rituals, and Cabal Rituals. Not my finest hour. I'm not prepared to chalk it up to my general incompetence (though that's doubtless a factor in my subpar performance with the deck) because, especially against heavy discard, I feel like mulliganing more than once is pretty much asking to fold. Let me know what you think!

[OlegtheSuper]

I wrote a report, it's online now: https://theweeklywars.wordpress.com/...5-at-gpseatac/

Thank you very much! Very interesting

May be there is a mistake. In round one vs D&T you in 3 dread of night, but there are only 2 of them in picture of yoir deck. May be there 2 dread and 3 decay

[Jonathan Alexander]

Thanks for linking that! Great to see some reporting that's a lot more reliable than I've managed (I keep forgetting to bring note-taking materials, and everything fuzzes up really quickly for me).

At the risk of retreading something Ad Nauseam (huehuehue), I'm wondering how you felt the double Past in Flames performed for you. The reason I ask is that last Sunday I played against Pox and got pretty thoroughly crushed. Surgical Extraction made a few appearances, in one game wiping LEDs, Dark Rituals, and Cabal Rituals. Not my finest hour. I'm not prepared to chalk it up to my general incompetence (though that's doubtless a factor in my subpar performance with the deck) because, especially against heavy discard, I feel like mulliganing more than once is pretty much asking to fold. Let me know what you think!

Most decks have insufficient graveyard hate before sideboarding, so multiple copies of Past in Flames are great. They are generally lower on relevant cards, which means you get away with being slightly slower and more resilient.

Thank you very much! Very interesting

May be there is a mistake. In round one vs D&T you in 3 dread of night, but there are only 2 of them in picture of yoir deck. May be there 2 dread and 3 decay

Thanks, I fixed that now for both rounds against Death & Taxes.

[movadomk5]

1 Swamp
1 Volcanic Island
2 Island
2 Underground Sea
4 Misty Rainforest
4 Polluted Delta
1 Sensei's Divining Top
4 Lion's Eye Diamond
4 Lotus Petal
1 Ad Nauseam
4 Brainstorm
4 Cabal Ritual
4 Dark Ritual
1 Dark Petition
2 Preordain
1 Tendrils of Agony
1 Past in Flames
3 Duress
4 Cabal Therapy
4 Gitaxian Probe
4 Infernal Tutor
4 Ponder
SB: 2 Empty the Warrens
SB: 1 Tropical Island
SB: 2 Chain of Vapor
SB: 3 Abrupt Decay
SB: 2 Disfigure
SB: 1 Rebuild
SB: 2 Dread of Night
SB: 2 Xantid Swarm

The list I've been running for a few months now and wanted to see others opinions on my sideboard strategy against blue based decks that also have Deathrite. My plan has been:

-2 Preordain
-1 Infernal Tutor
-1 Cabal Ritual
-3 Duress

+ 1 Tropical
+2 Swarm
+2 Chain
+2 Disfigure

The games always seem close but not sure this is the best configuration to go with.

[ScottW]

Anybody notice the 4 Monastery Mentor and 1 Tundra in the side board of the top 32 ANT list at the GP?