Hi everyone,

Chimera hobby shop of Appleton, WI will be holding monthly vintage tournaments  on Sundays of ea month.  The 1st will be for an english mana drain.  They will also be holding different format events each sunday ranging from extended, legacy, to vintage and sealed.  So come and support your local hobby shops!

Sunday, March 21
12:00 sign up 12:30 start
10 dollar entry fee
10 proxy (.50 cents a proxy after up to a max of 25)

1st place English Mana Drain (garrenteed)

other prizes 3.99 packs based on attendance

808 W Wisconsin Ave
Appleton, WI 54914

The meta game today is still loaded with a lot of shop decks,  and tezzeret.  There are quite a few aggro varients that are doing extremely well.  Including donavon piloting a G/W aggro deck which is 5-0.  Overall I would say the amount of shop decks and aggro decks are much higher, and slightly less tezzeret decks. 

Balance should never be in the sb unless you have 4 burning wish to find it.  Balance is seriously one of the most busted cards stax has to offer.  Against tezerret type decks its primary function is cutting off lands and making them discard.  Granted it can take down the occasional dsc/ inkwell leviathan I would rarely see the card as dead.  Bazaar of Baghdad combined with smokestacks and LD, easily make balance one of the most busted cards 5c stax has to offer.  If i were to build any 5c stax list it would be one of the 1st cards on my list to include main deck nearly every time. Whatever your meta game is balance always has a function. 

I for one am happy with all the changes that were made to the banned and restricted lists.  I am an advocater of change.  I honestly believe the people behind the banned and restriction changes know what they are doing, and there not a bunch of brain dead idiots.  Thirst for knowledge has been a staple of control decks since its print in mirrodin.  I highly believe that they do not restrict cards based solely because of one deck, or unrestrict cards with the sole purpose to make one particular deck better.  Everyone thinks that crop rotation will only be good in a stax variant, but rest assured there are a lot of loam type decks in legacy, and other control variants that can use crop rotation.  Crop rotation being unrestricted by no means makes land destruction that much greater.  Picture this:  a player plays a 5c land taps and plays a turn one crop rotation sacrificing there land. If that card were to be countered, it would set the player back quite a ways, or even if it did resolve and they got strip mine, you could crop rotate your own land in response making your crop rotation a near 2 for 1.  Crop rotation is a very balanced card, and its fair to say that WOTC saw that. 

I will enjoy seeing all the changes in deck construction, and to see how these changes will truly effect vintage.

Library of Alexandria easily won me 3 games out of the day.  I think it should be an auto include in any tezzeret deck. It just happened to make Lorescale coatl grow extremely fast, and it helped me outdraw every control mirror that I faced, which was a majority of the decks I faced. 

On the car ride to the tourney we guessed that the deck was a crappy oath deck with mystic remora and progenitus.  the only 2 cards we missed were show and tells.   Looks like TK's predition was dead on.

This tourney was a blast.  For anyone who was interested in the list, I got the core of the list from A deck created and played by David Williams from one of the BoM tourneys.  I changed a few cards main and a ran a different sideboard.  The deck was very strong, and if I were to change anything, I would have not run the basic swamp in the main. I expected to see much more wasteland/ fish variants than there were. I think I would have added a darkblast to the board as well, to deal with pesky creatures like dark confidant or welder.  I felt the deck was very strong in the field.  The only match loss I had was against duby 1st round of the swiss to Ichorid.


Here's what I ran

4 polluted Delta
2 flooded strand
4 tropical island
1 underground sea
1 swamp
4 island
1 library of alexandria
1 mox jet
1 mox ruby
1 mox sapphire
1 mox emerald
1 mox pearl
1 black lotus
1 sol ring

4 force of will
3 mana drain
3 commandeer
4 meditate
4 mystic remora
4 lorescale coatl
1 merchant scroll
1 brainstorm
1 ancestral recall
1 fact or fiction
1 echoing truth
1 demonic tutor
1 vampiric tutor
1 yawgmoth's will
1 tezzeret the seeker
1 voltaic key
1 time vault
1 tinker
1 time walk
1 darksteel colossus
4 lorescale coatl


Sideboard
1 rebuild
2 hurkyl's recall
3 krosan grip
2 sower of temptation
4 relic of progenitus
1 planar void
1 pithing needle
1 yixlid jailer



Enjoy!

I can't wait to see what workshop mind's desire deck travis has instore for us this time!!!

RIP my friend, You'll be missed by many

thrashing wumpus isn't just in there to deal with creatures, hes also a win condition.  Against decks like fish he can nicely keep the board cleared and run in for the victory, not to mention that at any point you can generate a ton of black mana and end the game with him.  He's something that I would only board in verses weenie decks, or bug fish.

I played in another small vintage event at college of dupage.  I ended up going 2-2 with the deck.  I made a few changes to my list.  Here is my most current list of the deck.

ICBM Ad Nauseam

4 polluted delta
1 bloodstained mire
1 swamp
1 island
3 underground sea
1 bayou
1 tolarian academy
1 mox jet
1 mox sapphire
1 mox emerald
1 black lotus
1 mana crypt
1 mana vault
1 lotus petal
1 sol ring
4 chrome mox
4 dark ritual
3 cabal ritual
3 tendrils of agony
1 demonic tutor
1 vampiric tutor
1 demonic consultation
1 imperial seal
1 mystical tutor
4 pact of negation
4 duress
1 merchant scroll
1 ancestral recall
2 chain of vapor
1 brainstorm
1 ponder
1 timetwister
1 necropotence
1 yawgmoth's will
4 ad nauseam

sideboard

1 tropical island
4 xantid swarm
2 extirpate
1 yixlid jailer
3 oxidize
2 thrashing wumpus
2 hurkyl's recall

Overall I cut the hurkyl's recall from the main and the repeal and am now running ponder and a second chain of vapor in the main.  There were too many times where i drew a hurkyl's recall in games where it was completely useless to me and I think that the chain of vapor helps deal with creatures more.  While chalice of the void at 1 sucks for me to see i think making this change will win me more games in the long run instead of the hurkyl's recall.  I put ponder back into the deck, becuase i think it truely belongs in the deck.  I was running repeal in this slot but 9/10 i use repeal for the draw effect more than the storm/ bounce effect and i think it will perform better. 

As for the sideboard i did change it up quite a bit.  Bug fish was everywhere and overlal is a harder matchup for the deck.  I opted out of the tinker/ platinum angel route and ran thrashing wumpus as a different alternative win.  It gets the job done against fish.  While it can have problems with tarmogoyf, the guy can clear the board of pesky creatures and is an adequette clock.  I also changed to 2 extirpate over the tormod's crypts, becuase most of the time, im going to be bringing them in verses ichorid and ichorid only, but it  was randomly useful against some tezzeret decks, and it can randomly be decent against slaver/ other decks.  I was pretty happy with it in my board.  I also added hurkyls recalls to the sideboard, and since i dont have one main, i think that there a must in the sideboard.  Chain just can't answer multiple threats like hurkyl's recall can.

you board it in against fish/ creature matchups and verses ichorid

game 2 you sb in +1 tropical island, +4 xantid swarm +2 chain of vapor, - 1 island, - 4 pact of negation, -1 hurkyl's recall, -1 necropotence.  game 2 turn 1 duress/ xantid swarm. your game 2 hand really wants to find xantid swarm in this matchup. If a xantid resolves you cannot lose the game.  Even if you don't have the win right away, chain of vapor will "ALWAYS" be better than seal of primordium. 

How can you say that timetwister is horrible?  If i could play 4 of these over ad nauseam i would.  Hands down is one of the best cards this deck has in it.  2U draw 7 cards with no drawbacks.  In a perfect world you would simply ad nauseam every game and instantly win, but the deck isn't perfect like that.  Every deck out there has ways of throwing in speed bumps, and your not going to just win.  What happens when a tarmogoyf gets you down to 5 or 6 life what will ad nauseam do for you there?  Or what will you do against an apposing tendrils deck when they mini tendrils you to a  low life total?   Every card in the list that I posted was in the deck for a reason.  The build that I posted already has 3 bounce spells in the main, and an extra tutor (merchant scroll) to find them when u need to.  If you cut bombs in the deck for more bounce it will lose you games.  You slim down your options, and doing that will make it harder to recover from being in the hole.   

As for the sideboard, if you worried about arcane labs run more chain of vapors in your sideboard.  Chain of vapor is 100x better than seal of primordium.  Pretty much you only need to remove arcane lab for 1 turn and then win.  Chain of vapor answers to more things than seal of primordium.  Examples being meddling mage, tarmogoyf, or tezzeret, the seeker.  I personally wouldn't stray from running a few ichorid cards in my sideboard.  Ichorid still surprisingly shows up to tournements.   

sensei's divining top seems subpar.  Its too mana intensive, and slow for this deck.  if you were going to cut anything cut that.

It has happened, but when i board it in i usually cut necropotence and a copy of tendrils so the deck is still relatively the same casting cost.  It does suck to hit off ad nauseam, but it really helps aggainst crappy fish decks and such. I would definitely consider ponder, but I don't think theres enough room for it in my build.

LED isnt good in this deck at all.  The scenario you pointed out soly is the only scenario that you could potentialy use it or while ad nauseam was on the stack crack it.  I wouldnt run the card personally.

I run that too see above post.

I have honestly thrown together countless builds of this deck, and have been playing against a lot of solid players online and in person.  The bulk of the deck is pretty much set in stone.  I would say as a player consensus, with the exception of pact of negation vs thoughtsieze, people have mustered the same decks within give or take 5 or so cards.  And I think for the evolution of a new combo deck there has been a lot of good healthy discussion going on.  I'm further going to analyse my build and go through all of the reasonings behind the card choices throughout my deck.  Here again is my list for reference.

ICBM Ad Nauseam Combo

4 Polluted Delta
1 Bloodstained Mire
3 Underground Sea
1 Island
1 Swamp
1 Bayou
1 Tolarian Academy
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Sapphire
4 Chrome Mox
1 Mana Crypt
1 Sol Ring
1 Mana Vault
1 Lotus Petal
1 Black Lotus
4 Dark Ritual
3 Cabal Ritual
4 Ad Nauseam
1 Necropotence
1 Yawgmoth's will
1 Brainstorm
1 Chain of Vapor
1 Hurkyl's Recall
4 Pact of Negation
4 Duress
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Merchant Scroll
1 Repeal
3 Tendrils of agony
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Demonic Consultation
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Imperial Seal
1 Timetwister


SB:
1 tropical island
4 xantid swarm
3 oxidize
1 engineered explosives
1 massacre
1 yixlid jailer
2 tormod's crypt
1 tinker
1 platinum angel

First off I can honestly say that every single card in this deck went in with a lot of thought.  This deck i would say 80% of the time has a very linear and easy strategy. resolve ad nauseam as soon as you can and win the game.  Its plain and simple.  I think that 80% of the games I have won with the deck  did just that.  I think in tournaments I resolved an ad nauseam 1 time in response to a spell on my opponents turn, but this is most definitely a main phase card.  The other 20% of the time you need to win by other means.  I think the other 20% of the time is extremely important, and every card slot you have maindeck will matter when it comes to winning without ad nauseam.  Time walk is a card that i feel is weak in this deck.  For one the deck tries to win on the turn it casts ad nauseam.  85%+ of the time if you are at 14life points or higher when casting this card you will win the game.  Time walk honestly doesn't fit into this deck.  If it is in your openning hand even it is a pretty weak card considering you have 2-3 moxen that don't require an imprint and mana crypt.  Almost all the opening hands I have had time walk was always the weak card.  Any other mana source, protection etc would have been better and that is why I don't play the card. 

Sensei's diving top was another card I saw in a version of the deck that has recently popped up on a similar forums.  This is another card I would strongly stay away from in this deck.  I will give a few examples.  Lets say that you have an opening hand that features 2 land, a ritual, a duress effect, top, ad nauseam, and chrome mox.  For starters sensei's diving top cannot be imprinted on chrome mox.  secondly lets say you decide to play the top on turn 1. on turn 2 you have to dump 1 mana into activating it to fix your draw, and then you still have to hope to hit 5 or even more mana to ad nauseam.  Moral of the story sensei's top is too mana intensive and slow for this deck. Ponder is 100x better. I still don't run ponder in the maindeck, but it has been close to being added.

Merchant scroll is such a versitile card in the build that i am playing. turn 1 or turn 2 scroll is never a bad thing. Like i said before, I most always get protection with this, but it finds recall and answers when you need them most.  It is also great to draw in games where you are losing.  Lets say that you are in a late game state with a few lands, and artifact mana in play.  scrolling for mystical tutor, and finding timetwister with mystical tutor can get you right back into the game. or even for yawgmoth's will.  Merchant scroll can get you out of a lot of situations, and I think is extremely good at what it does.   I am still running 1 chain of vapor, 1 repeal, and 1 hurkyl's recall in my main for a few reasons.  For one, my deck has a higher amount of tutors in the deck which can find you answers to a lot of given situations.  Lets say your oponent on the play casts out for example turn 1 chalice of the void at 0, or even a turn one null rod.  Given the situation I can turn 1 use any of my tutors say imperial seal, mystical, vamp, demonic off a ritual to find the best answer.  repeal for the chalice at 0 chain of vapor for the null rod, or even hurkyl's recall for multiple artifacts.  The same is true for being on the offensive.  repeal is good at bouncing your own chrome moxen, and fixing your mana that way. its also combos well with the topdeck tutors, and is an all around great storm enabler, and while it costs more to bounce higher casting cost things, this deck is good at making mana, so even bouncing a 2 drop for 3 mana isn't always terribly difficult.   chain of vapor more often than not is one of the decks greatest problem solvers when it comes to perminants, but resolved chalice at 1s do happen.  multiple threats happen, and Thats why I don't think i could run only multiple copies of chain of vapor opposed to the other bounce effects. 

Timetwister in my opinion is an auto include in any storm deck in vintage.  When having 4 chrome moxen in your deck, this card is easily played on turn 1 or 2.  Its great at almost any state in the game except post resolved ad nauseam, and even after then it can help dig you into things.  The card can get you out of a lot of random ruts, and the fact that it shuffles your graveyard into your library can matter at times.  Point being this card alone for the cost of 3 mana draws you seven cards is too good not to have.  It is the 5th ad nauseam in the deck at a cheaper cost.  necropotence is another card that is in a similar catagory to timetwister.  Necropotence can easily be played on any turn, and it offers for an alternate strategy to the normal linear one the deck has to offer.  Basically when it comes down to it, it is nice to have options when playing any deck.   When you play necropotence your game plan shifts a little bit.  You can use it to simply fill your hand with cards the turn you play it taking like 6-7 life and still use ad nauseam to generate your storm, or you can go a more TPS style route chaining bounce effects, or using your graveyard via yawgmoth's will for your win.  Again, while it is slower this card is like the decks 6th ad nauseam.  if it resolves you are most likely going to win.  And while it is true that you cannot use pact to protect necro, I think the card does way too much for the deck not to have it.

Now for the sideboard.  I can honestly say that my sideboard is completely wrong for you.  Thats because it is.  It was built for a chicago/ WI metagame.  Every area has its own meta, and I think the best way to construct a sideboard for any deck is to look at the general trends of your area, and ask yourself what decks are doing good?  Which ones not so good.  How will the next tourney be different from this one. Everyone who follows vintage magic watches and reads tournament results or at least they should.  Another important thing you should ask yourself is given the information given how do i think the environment will change due to these circumstances and what should I prepare myself for?  Its the survival of the fittest.  Given that I think the 5 cards that should be in every ad nauseam decks sideboard are the extra green source land, and 4x xantid swarms.  There are counterspells and disruption of all sorts in the form of instant speed.  This little guy is the best thing the decks sideboard can offer.  With the exception of that the rest is in the air.  I played 3x oxidize and a massacre in my sideboard previously because of ethersworn canonists and meddling mages.  A general trend at a lot of the icbm opens is that a few players play there pet decks, being UW fish or bombermand varients, and they always show up.  massacre kills canonists, meddling mages, aven mindscensors, etc that these decks bring.  Also jameson bryant a good friend of mine, has being playing a G/W/R zoo varient that has been gaining popularity. as a matter of fact the zoo varient just won another mox pearl at pastimes just last weekend.  A tournament I ended up missing.  In my area massacre almost got bumped up to a 2 of.  oxidize is another cheap way to deal with canonist.  It also is great verse stax, and random other pesky artifacts like null rod, chalice at zero, artifact creatures in general.   Ichorid is literally nearly non existant in my area, where it is very popular in others.  Thats why I pack light on the ichorid hate.  Also its not very difficult to race ichorid.   I run tinker platinum angel in my board for a few reasons.  One its fairly good against zoo type decks with very limited ways to deal with it.  most of the time decks will side out there bounce effects/ creature removal, because 90% of the time it will be useless.  And secondly it combos great with pact of negation.  engineered explosives is fairly good at dealing with sphere of resistance, and just perminants in general.. Its a very versitile card.   

Tinker platz is really good against bug fish. most of them only run 1 bounce spell in there deck and limited ways of finding it. The evasion platinum angel has is great against them too.  I think with my sideboard my plan would be -1 underground sea, -4 duress,-necropotence, - tendrils of agony,, -1 cabal ritual ( if they dont run challice) + tropical island, +4 xantid swarm, +1 tinker +1 platz.  +1 EE  xantid swarm turns off there counters and stifle effects. It cannot be countered by curse catcher.  tinker platinum angel offers a new secondary plan if you get low on life.  It also allows you to late game draw and play your entire deck with ad nauseam.

You have to run necro and timetwister in this deck.  One thing you have to understand is there will be times where you are just in bad shape. Timetwister and necro are great at recovering from being in slumps.  Merchant scroll also fits into this catagory as well.  Granted the most linear plan this deck has is resolve ad nauseam and win, but there will be times that you have to win without ad nauseam.  These cards greatly assist in doing that.   What does timewalk do in this deck?  The card with the exception of playing turn 1 land, mox, walk is honestly quite terrible.   

The original hybrid build of ad nauseam that I ran at the ICBM open had dark confidant in its sb.  I never really felt the need to board him in.  He honestly is really slow, and in a deck like this its not hard to achieve the 10 storm at any point, so he got the axe.  I dont run time walk in my list.  It almost always ends up a bad cantrip or imprinted on chrome mox.  I think the only way that I would include it is if i had some sort of man plan from the sideboard, which i dont think is a very good option with this deck.  As for force of will,  I don't think i run enough blue cards in the main to support fow.  I think that I would hate flipping it to ad nauseam, and i think that i would rather have thoughsiezes over the fows. 

It's nice to see all of the discussion that has risen from the new set shards of alara.  I agree with many that it is honestly the greatest set since mirrodin for vintage in the playable card pool it has given us.  I'd like to to thank steve on sharing his article on meandeck ad nauseam.  I would like to share my opinion on the emergence of this new combo deck. The above list was the poster's own version of the deck, not my own. Below is my list and I'll explain my given card choices.

ICBM Ad Nauseam Combo

4 Polluted Delta
1 Bloodstained Mire
3 Underground Sea
1 Island
1 Swamp
1 Bayou
1 Tolarian Academy
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Sapphire
4 Chrome Mox
1 Mana Crypt
1 Sol Ring
1 Mana Vault
1 Lotus Petal
1 Black Lotus
4 Dark Ritual
3 Cabal Ritual
4 Ad Nauseam
1 Necropotence
1 Yawgmoth's will
1 Brainstorm
1 Chain of Vapor
1 Hurkyl's Recall
4 Pact of Negation
4 Duress
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Merchant Scroll
1 Repeal
3 Tendrils of agony
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Demonic Consultation
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Imperial Seal
1 Timetwister


SB:
1 tropical island
4 xantid swarm
3 oxidize
1 engineered explosives
1 massacre
1 yixlid jailer
2 tormod's crypt
1 tinker
1 platinum angel

This is my current list.  I have been playing it quite a bit and I must say i have been pretty happy with how the deck has been performing.  Now I'll go through all of my card choices.  I currently have 12 lands in the deck. 1 basic swamp and 1 basic island, are definitely needed.  Although the blue count in my deck is lower than some, not having to worry about wastelands makes the deck much stronger.  I run 12 lands not 10 or 11 like some people have been suggesting through pms and such because in my area (midwest/ WI) there are a lot of fish and worshop decks. I at times would like to run a second swamp in the main over the bayou, but cannot fit the second land into the sideboard.  If shops are non existant in your area, it may be safe to cut it down to 11, but i wouldn't go any lower than that.  Secondly 4 chrome mox for me is not even a question.  Even before "going off" via ad nauseam or whichever path you choose chrome mox is excellent at fixing your mana.  At times it can clutter up your hand, but it makes the deck incredibly more consistant.  I run the emerald main because I have heavy green in my sideboard.  If you choose not to run the green, this can easily become the 4th cabal ritual.   

I choose not to run the off color moxen (pearl and ruby) because all they offer is the addition of 1 colorless mana at the cost of 1 card. With the exception of ad nauseam the deck doesn't have a whole lot of ways to draw cards, andI would much rather draw a ritual effect a lot of the time than an off color moxen.  I also choose not to run lion's eye diamond because this deck really isn't a graveyard deck. black lotus, sapphire, jet, mana crypt, mana vault and sol ring are auto includes.  I choose to run 3x copies of tendrils of agony and I strongly believe that 3 is the correct number. 9 times out of ten you only want to see one of this card.  With necropotence it doesn't hurt to see a second copy.  I think that running 4 of them is a little excessive in a build like this.  When going off via ad nauseam you almost always never want to see more than one copy of tendrils flip.  When running tendrils as a 4 of you will most likely hit 2 of them more often than once.

Necropotence, timetwister, imperial seal  are all great cards in this deck.  These cards were made for storm combo.  While necropotence doesn't always fit the cast ad nauseam and win linear path the deck can take, Its an extremely powerful card that I would auto include in any combo deck.  Its extremely easy to turn 1 or even turn 2 this card, fill your hand up and win the game the next turn or in a few turns.  Timetwister is an absolute power house.  It draws you seven cards and shuffles graveyards into libraries. shuffling an opponents graveyard into there library is great verse things like ichorid or a deck that abuses the graveyard.  Imperial seal while it is weaker than say vampiric tutor, it will find you one of your componenets you need to win, whether it be ad nauseam, mana, or protection.  It also helps find late game yawgmoth's will to help you recover if needed.

Pact of negation verse thoughtsieze has been another issue many people have been asking themselves.  I personally have been happy with pact of negation.  It offers free protection when attempting to going off, and it doesn't cost any life points.  I at first ran 4 thoughtsieze in the main, and after using one or 2 of them, the 2- 4 life points can mean not drawing anywhere from 2-5 cards on average.  I think the only time I would prefer to have thoughtsieze over pact of negation would be against U/W fish or any deck that runs eithersworn canonist/ meddling mage.  This is honestly one of the scariest matchups for the ad nauseam decks.  It locks you down like stax does, and puts you on a timely clock.  Each point of life lost makes ad nauseam weaker.  In matchups that feature such creatures etc thoughtsieze is better.   Mid game you can counter things and pay for pact of negation during your upkeep.

The inclusion of merchant scroll has been controvercial in this deck.  I think its important to be able to find your pact of negations when necessary , a bounce effect, mystical tutor,  or ancestral recall.  Tutoring for protection on turn 1 is a common play this deck does.  I have a few times I've found myself casting merchant scroll for mystical tutor then mystical tutored at upkeep to find ad nauseam or a dark ritual.   I currently have 1 chain of vapor, 1 repeal, 1 hurkyl's recall, and merchant scroll in my maindeck.  Merchant scroll wouldn't be included in the deck if I did not run the pact of negations.  It probably would just be the the 4th bounce spell. Is repeal worse than chain of vapor?  I honestly think that it is a coin toss.  Being able to cantrip the repeal has mattered at times.    In the meandeck version of the deck they have 4 maindeck chain of vapor.   Many times when going off you don't need to ever use a bounce spell.  Against stax being able to find your hurkyl's recall can be extremely important.  Hurkyl's recall will get you out of many situations that chain of vapor cannot, and at the cost of 1 extra mana.  It can enable as much storm by bouncing your own artifacts as chain of vapor. No matter the way you look at it, stax is a pretty hard matchup.   

In my sideboard i have an extra green source and xantid swarms.  This is an awesome sideboard card for the deck, and I often thought about maindecking it.  It is hands down been the mvp when testing online and in tournaments.  I also have less emphasis on Ichorid in my sideboard, because in my area very few ichorid decks show up to tournaments.  Myself and steve both agree that yixlid jailer and tormod's crypt are the decks best defenses against ichorid.  I have tinker and platinum angel in my sideboard.  These also would get boarded in against the ichorid match, and against many aggro decks.  Platinum angel also has great sinergy with pact of negations that I run in the maindeck.  The other sideboard slots are kind of up in the air depending on your metagame.  I include oxidize in my sb which is great at handling sphere of resistance, null rods, and ethersworn canonists.  I also have engineered explosives, which sounds strange, but is excellent at taking care of pesky artifacts and creatures, and I also have 1 massacre in the sideboard dedicated to the fish matchup, because meddling mages, and ethersworn cannonists have been bigger in my area.

I would not include time walk into the deck, unless you have some sort of man plan on your sideboard.  When testing this card it almost always was just a cantrip, or imprinted on a chrome mox.  Overall I hope that helped answer some of your questions, and I hope people give this new deck a try.  I have had some success with the deck, and I am sure you will to.


-Jeremy

Basically i feel that 3 tendrils of agony is the perfect number.  the deck actually likes to see on in its opening hand unlike other storm combo decks.  I am still running the 4 chrome moxen main.  The ruby and the pearl never really seemed to be that good in the deck.  merchant scroll i think is almost always better than ponder. it can turn 1 find ancestral recall, protection, bs, or any bounce spell in your deck. I almost always get pact of negation with it, but being able to tutor for answers can be very important.  There is hardly ever an implied UU with the deck. The only time there is one, is when you merchant scroll up ancestral or the bounce effect and then use it on that turn.  If you do this on turn 2 its not very hard. 

I unfortunately ran into tommy the 1st round of top 8.  I think that this deck is truely my decks absolute worst matchup.  I have to combo out as soon as i can, because if am ethersworn canonist or glen alundra arcmage hits its close to no chance of me winning.   I haven't tested sensei's top yet, but i did at one point have ponder in the decklist, and Ponder seemed just mediocre to me.  I opted to run 4 duress and 4 pact of nagation for my protection in the deck, because i think that the 2 life cost of thoughtsieze is too much when every life point matters when going off.  The same is true for why i opted not to run yawgmoth's bargain in the maindeck.  When going off via ad nauseam the highest casting cost card in my deck is ad nauseam itself pre board, and i can comfortably bring myself down to 5 life or below 5 from the last card.  taking 2 dmg from a thoughtsieze could mean i dont see an extra card or 2, and overall, i tried to make the average casting cost as low as possible.  I got a few private messages asking why aren't I running force of will in the deck, and its the same reason I'm not running yawgmoth's bargain or mind's desire.  The casting costs are way too high, and on top of that i don't have enough blue cards in the maindeck to support them.   I'm running 4 chrome moxes and I believe that 4 is the right number in the deck, because when you are going off you can never have enough of these.  A. they hit for zero from ad nauseam, 2 when drawing all the cards you do with ad nauseam, you'll always have extra duress/ ad nauseam, or whatever to imprint on to them. 

merchant scroll is fine in this deck.  It finds you ancestral recall.  It finds you bounce effects and it finds you protection.  I tried the deck with one less land, and it just wasn't hitting consistantly enough, and since the last few tournements in the area had a high amoun of shop decks and wastelands I wanted the 12th land in the deck. 

For those who were wondering, Here was what I played at the ICBM open.  My sideboard was slightly different than what I posted, but I think this sideboard is an improvement from the one i used.  Overall the deck, is very fast, and in some ways reminds me of flash.  I run 3 tendrils of agony in the main, because unlike other decks, you actually like seeing a tendrils of agony in your opening hand, and you always want to hit just 1 with ad nauseam.  only having 2 copies of tendrils in this deck seems too little.  From the board i have xantid swarms, and they are pretty amazing.  They were golden for me all day.  they came in more than anything else in my board.  engineered explosives and massacre are solid verses decks with things like meddling mages, or ethersworn canonists.  Overall I was really happy with how the deck played out, and wouldn't change anything in the maindeck if I played it again.   From the board I have platinum angel and tinker, which at the tournament i didn't run, but after discussion with my teammate owen turtenwald, He convinced me it was definitely a gem from the board.  It allows you to draw every card in your deck with ad nauseam, and makes your pact of negations even better.  Shop decks, and fish decks with null rods, meddling mages, and ethersworn canonist give the deck some problems. 

This deck in my opinion is the next level of combo. The only card I kind of wanted to include was mind's desire, because of the brokenness of it, but hitting it on nauseam really sucks.  This combo deck nearly never relies on the graveyard to win.  I think i casted yawgmoths will only 2 or 3 times the whole day.  The yard hate people brought in to fight me was nealry useless for them.

ICBM Ad Nauseam Tendrils

4 polluted delta
1 bloodstained mire
3 underground sea
1 tropical island
1 bayou
1 swamp
1 tolarian academy
1 mox jet
1 mox emerald
1 mox sapphire
4 chrome mox
1 mana crypt
1 sol ring
1 mana vault
1 lotus petal
1 black lotus
4 dark ritual
3 cabal ritual
4 ad naseam
1 necropotence
1 yawgmoth's will
1 brainstorm
1 chain of vapor
1 hurkyl's recall
4 pact of negation
4 duress
1 ancestral recall
1 merchant scroll
1 repeal
3 tendrils of agony
1 demonic tutor
1 demonic consultation
1 vampiric tutor
1 mystical tutor
1 imperial seal
1 timetwister


sb
4 xantid swarm
2 tormod's crypt
1 yixlid jailer
3 oxidize
1 island
1 tinker
1 platinum angel
1 engineered explosives
1 massacre

Its different.

Here's the list i played for all of those who were wondering.

maindeck (60)

4 mishra's workshop
1 ancient tomb
1 tolarian academy
4 city of brass
3 gemstone mine
3 wasteland
1 strip mine
1 bazaar of baghdad
5 mox
1 lotus
1 crypt
1 sol ring
1 mana vault
4 chalice of the void
4 sphere of resistance
4 smokestack
3 tangle wire
3 crucible of worlds
1 trinisphere
1 seal of cleansing
1 in the eye of chaos
1 choke
1 engineered explosives
2 goblin welder
1 balance
1 ancestral recall
1 tinker
1 demonic tutor
1 vampiric tutor
1 duplicant
1 sundering titan
1 karn silver golem



sideboard(15)

4 leyline of the void
1 tormod's crypt
1 yixlid jailer
2 choke
1 in the eye of chaos
3 ancient grudge
2 ray of revelation
1 engineered explosives


Overall i was pretty happy with how the list was.  The only card that i really questioned and was a last minute add was the 1 maindeck choke. I never really saw it in any of my matches and never really needed or wanted it.  If I were to play the deck again it would definitely be a second engineered explosives.  As for the sideboard, the cards that were really good for me were the 1 in the eye of chaos, 1 explosives, the ray of revelations and the ancient grudges.  I personally thought that there would be a lot of mono blue at the tourney, thats why i had choke in the main and board.  They could easily be something else, and for the ichorid hate it could be anything.  The jailer came in verses the workshop mirrior and did some damage, maybe it should just be like 3 -4 of them. 

bump, only a few days away everyone.  Come support the event.  BTW alcohol is served on site for those who are over 21, and its at a bowling alley, so if u scrub out u can bowl a few rounds until your friends are done. 

ICBM will be representing.  Should be a fun time, maybe we'll through another huge party in our hotel room again. 

This thing is only a few more days away.  who's all going?