Beep Beep Storming Through

Ari Lax went 9-0 on Day 1 of Grand Prix Columbus with his take on the Ad Nauseum Tendrils archetype. He narrowly missed Top 8 due to a slew of bad matchups on Day 2 as well as some misplays. Join him on his quest to becoming a Level 5 Pro!

Storm is probably the best deck in Legacy right now. In a vacuum is past what I would classify as degenerate. If you try to play the control, it just sit there and kill you. If you try to play the aggro, it will just play the cards it has and kill you. If you try to attrition it out, it will just play Brainstorm and kill you. The only way to beat it is quickly assemble pieces that prevent them from casting spells ever again, and even then they sometimes just Duress you and proceed to do whatever they want.

My testing for this event was fairly minimal but to the point. I picked up Storm after GP Madrid. I wanted to play combo and like the storm mechanic too much to really consider other combo decks. I learned 3 things regarding the build in testing before Mystical Tutors banning.

1. Doomsday sucks at winning the game outside of extreme corner cases.

2. People kill with Ad Nauseum way too often. Counting to ten is much easier.

3. The deck is easily buildable so you don’t randomly lose to Daze, Wasteland, and other tactics that only dominate because people decide to lose to them.

Mystical Tutor was then banned. It didn’t matter. Most Mysticals went for a Dark Ritual or Duress anyways. Ad Nauseum got a little harder to kill with, but that didn’t matter as it was the worst option to begin with. Preordain and more Tutors just filled in and the deck slowed down a half a turn while goldfishing. You were cold to game one hate now, but that honestly didn’t matter as no one had it bar some random Zoo players with last year’s list.

I started the list off goldfishing until it worked. Then I tested against sequentially worse match ups until I was winning. I never got to test against Counterbalance, but I assumed it was miserable and probably not worth it.

I sleeved up this for the Grand Prix

ANT | The Rusty Machete

Spells:  
1 Ad Nauseam
4 Brainstorm
4 Cabal Ritual
4 Dark Ritual
4 Duress
2 Grim Tutor
1 Ill-Gotten Gains
4 Infernal Tutor
4 Lion's Eye Diamond
4 Lotus Petal
4 Ponder
4 Preordain
1 Tendrils of Agony
2 Thoughtseize

Lands:  
3 Island
4 Misty Rainforest
4 Polluted Delta
2 Swamp
2 Underground Sea
2 Verdant Catacombs

Sideboard:  
3 Chain of Vapor
4 Dark Confidant
2 Krosan Grip
2 Rebuild
1 Reverent Silence
2 Thoughtseize
1 Tropical Island

The sideboard actually didn’t change in spirit from the Mystical Tutor days. It is still just a bunch of bullets for the only things that matter. Thoughtseize and Chain of Vapor are the only cards that are absolutely necessary as they cover so many things. Krosan Grip covered Counterbalance, Rebuild covered Stax and random decks with Chalice on 1, Reverent Silence was there in case some joker showed up with Enchantress, Tropical Island let me cast all of the above (the extra land against Stax helps with Spheres), and Bob was only because I thought attrition decks could actually legitimately beat you. The general board plan is -2 Preordain, -1?, +3?. Preordain is good, but it is the only card you can cut without disrupting the core of the deck. Unless it says otherwise, assume I boarded out 1 Petal as the question mark.

After napping till round 4, I was ready to battle.

Round 4: GWB Natural Order Rock

Game 1: He casts some Duresses and tries to kill me with Qasali Pridemage. He really wasn’t ever close as I draw a blue card that undoes all his work.

I board in Bobs and Chains for Petals and Preordains. Chain was for Teeg or if he boarded graveyard hate in order to build storm. Petal doesn’t do enough to justify the card in an attrition matchup. I also upgraded some Duress to Thoughtseize.

Game 2: He Duresses me on one then plays some Goyfs and another Duress. I take some time to find a Tutor and flip Ill-Gotten Gains off Bob, putting me to 3 life. He stops me on upkeep, obviously debating an Extirpate, but decides to wait. I start going off as I can get back Blue spells and try to dig for my one Tendrils with my approximately DI mana, but he instead decides to Extirpate Grim Tutor and let me just get back Infernal and kill him. (Ari being at 3 is relevant. Grim Tutor causes loss of 3 life. -Amused, K)

Round 5: Canadian Thresh

Game 1: My opponent sits back on cards and I set up. I pull all his counters with raw Infernals that would get Duresses and then kill him.

Seize came in.

Game 2: He decides to be aggressive and play Goyf on two. I untap and kill him with Duress back up.

Round 6: Belcher

Game 1: He keeps 7 and passes on 1, so I snap Duress him taking Belcher and seeing a bunch of mana and Spoils of the Vault with no initial mana. I Thoughtseize on 2 taking a top decked Burning Wish, then he cast Spoils for Belcher and dies to it.

I call for a judge between games and ask for Oracle text on Xantid Swarm. He promptly boards in 6 cards, I board 2 Seize for 2 Preordain.

Game 2: He goes land go, I Ponder and ship the turn. He leads on Autumn’s Veil and then plays a Belcher with 2 lands in play threatening to draw more mana next turn and kill me. I decide now is a good time to win and do so. Good thing Autumn’s Veil wasn’t a real card, I might have died.

Round 7: TES

Game 1: He Duresses my Seize on 1, I Seize on 2 and die on 3.

See above for boarding.

Game 2: I turn 1 him.

Game 3: I mull into Seize, 2 LED’s and 3 lands. I Seize on turn 1 and he Brainstorms to hide cards in response. I take a Ritual and play both LED’s to dodge Duress and let me win off any top decked Tutor. He Diminishing Returns on his turn with UB floating, fizzles, and promptly dies. Sick card…….

Round 8: Burn

G1: I can’t kill him on my 3 as I would have to Grim for Ill-Gotten and die to him returning Shard Volley. I go to 2 on my next turn but draw Infernal and short Tendrils him back up to 17. I runner Inferal Tutor, Cabal Ritual and kill him with Ill-Gotten Gains. He had me as he had Fireblast, Magma Jet, 2 Bolt effects in yard, and 4 mana and I had fetched. Only problem was one of the Bolts was Shard Volley and he didn't have enough lands for Fireblast and Shard Volley. Ding.

I board Chains. The question mark card here is Grim Tutor.

G2: His hand is all Mindbreak Traps. He doesn’t do anything because of this and I get to set up and Duress them all before winning.

Round 9: Saito with Merfolk

Game 1: He doesn’t do anything relevant, I set up and kill him.

I board in 2 Seize.

Game 2: He goes Cursecatcher, Standstill. I play a bunch of lands and hang out. I decide to go for a Duress, he Forces, and I ship back. He plays 2 more Cursecatchers and a Coralhelm Commander putting me to dead on board. I try to play a spell, he Dazes twice, and I forget that if I keep paying he loses his one turn clock by sacrificing Cursecatchers. I concede when I probably win the game next turn. I also had an alternate line of play involving cracking two LED’s in response to a Brainstorm, which not only lets me pay for his counters but puts him at dead if I draw any Tutor or business spell.

Game 3: I Thoughtseize on one and see Coralhelm Commander, Lord of Atlantis, Silvergill Adept, Cursecatcher, Standstill, Underground Sea, and a Spell Pierce I take. He untaps, plays Aether Vial, and dies.

Round 10: Sperling with CB Top

The feature match pretty much sums this up. Stole Game one when he mulliganed, got smashed the next two.

Round 11: Lands

Game 1: He dies on two.

I board in 3 Chain of Vapor. Mystery card is Lotus Petal.

Game 2: He ends up with Chalice one, Chalice zero, and Tormod’s Crypt in play. I die to a Bob.

I board in a Rebuild and Preordain for 2 Chains.

Game 3: He Chalices for zero, but I set up Rebuild and kill him. I thought I was exact on Storm and mana, but it turns out I actually had several extra on each.

Round 12: Survival

Game 1: He opens on Noble Hierarch, my Duress whiffs seeing Vendillion Clique, Noble Hierarch, Tarmogoyf, Rhox War Monk, and lands. I try to figure out how to Brainstorm around the Clique, but he decides to play Goyf and Hierarch so I just kill him instead.

I board in Chains for Preordains and a Petal. I might have also boarded Thoughtseize in.

Game 2: He Brainstorms, I Duress a Force but he has a second one. Plays another Brainstorm and a dual then plays a Survival next turn but no land. I Duress him again for the other Force. He upkeep Survivals for Noble Hierarch, plays it, and dies. He could have also gone for Meddling Mage and hoped to rip a land, but that’s about it.

Round 13: Doomsday Show and Tell

Game 1: I cast a bunch of discard and he died.

I board in 2 Thoughtseize and a Chain for 2 Preordain, 1 Petal.

Game 2: I Duress him a bunch then go off, forgetting that he can Ritual into Force of Will. I get countered and fizzle. A bunch of turns later I go off again as he draws all bricks, but don’t consider I might need to Thoughtseize twice as I forgot I used all my Duresses. I can only Seize once and lose to two Stifles.

Game 3: I Duress out his answers, but he draws Top. I go for it and he has a Force in his top 3.

Round 14: Jason Ford with Land Still

Game 1: I Duress his business spells has he has a bunch of Forces. Later on I go off at the wrong point as he can Force a Tendrils copy to stop it, but he doesn’t draw a Blue spell off his Standstill.

I board in 2 Seize for 2 Preordain as I know he has no real hate in his 75.

Game 2: See game one, only he doesn’t have 3 Forces but instead has things like Submerge (it’s blue and Ghastly Demise isn’t!) so everything is much easier. I even up our lifetime 2-2 record of abysmal matches.

Round 15: Bryant Cook with TES

Game 1: I Duress a bunch and killed him on three.

Game 2: He leads on Ponder, Petal. I go for it on one and he Chants.

I board in 2 Seizes for 2 Preordains G3 as on the play they are much better.

Game 3: I Duress 2 Chants then go off 2 turns later only for him to have ripped the third.

Round 16: Tom Martell with CB Top

He doesn’t get unlucky and I die a miserable death.

What would I change about the deck? Well, I might want a bit more Counterbalance hate, but I honestly don’t know if it matters. The only real change would be to add in a second Tendrils or an Empty the Warrens in the board over the 4^th Bob as you sometimes randomly want the extra one. I would have boarded it in against the Show and Tell deck with Stifle, Burn, and the Landstill deck. Bob on the other hand is only there to shore up an already solid match up and maybe for the mirror on the play.

If you plan on playing in Legacy Champs this weekend, I might not advise playing this deck however. The prize structure is very top heavy and losing to CB-Top in the top 8 is a blow out. If you are confident you won’t punt other matches though it’s still a very good choice. The hate for the Show and Tell decks isn’t actually good enough to beat you, specific cards are needed. The only ways I think a deck can legitimately defeat Storm are Leyline of Sanctity plus counters and Counterbalance Top and those both have problems with a 15/15. The aggro control decks are the next best bet, but even Merfolk is probably a 40/60 dog at best in the match up and the rest are even worse.

The other decks I would consider are Saito’s Merfolk deck, the Madness deck, and Goblins with a good anti-combo board plan. The Gencon event is likely to be flooded with poorly built mana bases and those decks punish them very well. I will be there but hopefully will be slinging quests and Purloins instead of Brainstorms and Duresses. At the very least I’ll have time for some Joonding.