In general I agree with you in much of your comments, sometimes is a matter of personal taste to choose one or other option. But I don't agree with you in your vision about Force of Will making the deck more controlling and Duress more direct. Duress is slower, the majority of the time you lost first turn casting it and waiting to next turn to try to go off. Force is faster, you don't use it as a control card, it is only to protect your bombs, nothing else. Obviously against Workshop or hatebears that you don't need to protect your spells you can control a little the field but only to avoid decisive cards. Pitchlong was better than Grimlong because of that flexibility and this capacity to start direct since the first turn.
Imagine you have Necro, ritual and duress against a control deck, you will cast first duress and second turn, ritual necro, but if you have Force instead of Duress then you will start casting Ritual, Necro protecting it with FoW.
Another advantage of FoW over Duress is that it cannot be stopped by Misstep. I don't understand how you fear Misstep and your only real protection is 4 cards that can be countered by it.
I don't say that Duress is bad, it will always a good card for combo, but in a field full of Missteps and hate creatures is not as effective as it used to be.
If you replace the 4 Duress in your long list with 4 Forces it continue being very fast and you can play in a very similar way.

About Fact, if you need to waste your one use accelerants like rituals or vault to cast it faster then it doesn't deserves the investment. It will be 2 cards and 4 manas for 2 or 3 cards.

When I build a deck I try to minimize the number of conditional cards that are included to avoid hands with 2 or 3 conditional cards that can make you lost irremediably. This is the reason I don't like cards like noxious and lion's eye diamond that can be useful at times but other times will remain in your hand without utility.

I think Top is very useful in this deck. To see 3 cards more with 1 generic mana in a deck full of bombs and the option to draw it at the moment is too good. I think 2 are a very good number, so you have 5 cards that with 1 mana you can see 3 more cards after a draw seven (ancestral, brainstorm, ponder and 2 tops). Playing with them you will see that the difference to play two is big, you fizzle much less.
The same with Windfall, it has is drawbacks but I found that I need a draw seven (or similar) more with low cost (3 or less) to not fizzle often and with bouncers to increment my opponent hand at the same time that I make him lost acceleration, it makes Windfall a good option.

I don't like Grim Tutor to much. Two blacks force you sometimes to cast ritual before and it is slow, forcing you often to concede turn before cast the bomb you search for.
Imperial Tutor is different, sometimes I include it, sometimes not, but being a sorcery makes it not flexible enough for my taste. Too many loses after casting it and search for something that becomes useless after opponent turn.

Misstep can annoy you and sometimes make you lost but the majority of the bombs of the deck cannot be stopped by misstep and it can play against one or two without problems. FoW counter always the spell you need to counter meanwhile Duress only take off the best spell he has on his hands at the moment, this is a big difference.
Another problem to use 4 Duress is mana base. It forces you to fectch black to early and sometimes you have inconsistencies because you haven't fetch an island first and you don't have second fetch and one wasteland to your underground can destroy you. I prefer to fetch always an island first because the engine is almost blue. Only to play a bomb like necro or bargain can justify to fetch black first.


Well, you have additional Lion's Eye Diamond, Mana Vault and Cabal Ritual, three accelerators that are very circumstantial and don't have to many synergy with your deck. Lion's without draw seven is like one win more card and Cabal Ritual is slow and clunky.
By the way, 12 lands make you that every mulligan is a risk. You cannot mulligan aggressively, you can be happy if you have 1 land with six or less cards. Consistency is also the capacity of the deck to not need to mulligan too much or in case of necessity not be scared to mulligan.
Also with 12 lands your mana base is very exposed to a lucky Wasteland and current metagame is full of them.
To avoid fizzle my deck has 2 Sensei's Divining Top, 3 Probes and usual 1 cc blue draw so instead of seeing 7 cards lot of time you see 10 or 11, thing that makes the difference.

I admit that 1 Chain of Vapor will be good in my deck, perhaps I can replace 1 Flutterstorm with it. But the 2 hurkyl's are lot of synergy with the deck and sometimes you need to sacrifice it to FoW so you need to have to possibility to find another one. Rebuild can be cycled easily in case of necessity and have also synergy with the deck. They can increase spell count, can be played at the end of turn to play a draw sever just after and made lost to opponent all his acceleration.
What do you think is better, to have chain and repeal to combat any hate or to have chain, 3 artifact bouncers and 4 FoW to counter possible problems before going off?

To have 1 additional hurkyl's I dont think is to have a deck devoted to beat Workshop decks. And in a field full of Wasteland to have more lands is necessary to survive and not to lose to one lucky wasteland.

If your plan against control is to play Fact to race it you will lost to it. When Fact is online it has also Jace and will race you without problems. 1 mana less can be cast 1 or 2 turns earlier and this is the difference between win or loss.
Obviously a good combo player will not play draw seven all the time against control decks, he has to wait to a good moment, specially after first turns.

What makes noxious revival a subpar card is the necessity to have a good card in your graveyard. I dislike cards that are circumstantial and no good  by themselves.

Well now we don't have brainstorm but we have Probes and Divining Tops that can help a lot in what brainstorm make good the deck. Obviously Misdirection is not used anymore, they has been replaced by Flutterstorms that can combat opponent Flutters or Mindbreak trap.
What makes this deck good is the capacity to find bombs and not fizzle often, and Divining Top and Probes are an important part for it.
And of course if I have Necropotence I will force the misstep, but if I only cast ritual to generate mana because I am planning to play a draw seven then I don't have problems to left misstep resolve. Your opponent has to play it without knowing how important to counter it is and you can use it to your advantage.

Perhaps you are right but I have seen lot of combo decks similar to your deck in tournaments with 12 lands, duress and stuff and none made something important a part from an occasional top 8. Perhaps thinking different and try different things will find something better.

Grettings

Well as you say red doesn't hurt the manabase and he provides good sb options, so why no include Wheel that it always has been one of the best cards in combo?

I don't agree about that drain decks being so hard with ritual combo. It is true that the counter suite is now more big and powerful but it is also true that his draw engines are less powerful, slow and less consistent that before, specially in the early turns so Drain decks cannot maintain a counter wall consistently.

I don't think you have play enough storm combo if you have these firm opinions about draw seven or duress. Pitch long was some years ago the best ritual combo deck to the point that Grim long almost dissapear. The basic difference between both was to use pitch counters (FoW and Missdirections) instead of Duress. The restriction of Brainstorm was his dead but we don't have to forgot how it works and what made the deck strong.
By the way, Misstep is a very circumstantial counter, it doesn't hurt any of the bombs of the deck, only a few enablers like tutors or rituals, so I think the deck can play around it easily.
And not, Fact or Fiction never has been a pillar of combo and never will be, is too slow and not enough powerful compared with draw seven. If it wasn't played in Tps that was the more controlling approach for ritual combo much less in a faster deck.

1 hyrky'ls and 12 lands is not enough to win consistent to workshop decks, not also nullrod decks, basically if they have a good start against you you are dead. Repeal is bad in combo, very expensive and little effect, worst still if you only have one.
In my deck you have Force of Will to protect the first creature hate casted and lot of times this is enough as the deck can win just after. Perhaps a Chain of Vapor can be necessary but the bouncer suite with 2 hurky'l and 1 Rebuild (recyclable) has lot of synergy with the deck.

Obviously I disagree with you at this point. Force of Will is more flexible and give the deck the capacity to interact with enemy decks. Tps is slower and in the current metagame is difficult for it because is not enough fast to play the aggro role and not enough consistent to play the control role. But playing with Force of Will doesn't imply that the deck is Tps, it is pitch long that has to be played more aggressive and try to go off very quickly.
By the way, Gifts ungiven doesn't need Noxious revival to have win piles, I almost always finish the match just after casting Gifts with a good selection of cards.

I think people need to play the deck aggressively and see what happens. It is better that it seems over paper. I haven't played a deck as fast and consistent has this since Ritual Gifts.

Thanks for comment

Red is present because Wheel of Fortune. There is no real replacement for this card, not as good and as fast at it is. As I comment before the threat density is very important and to have a card that can replenish your hand at 3cc is too good to be ignored. Blue or black alternatives are much slower and have less quality. Grim Tutor for example is very slow compared with Wheel.
And mana base is very stable as it is at the moment, with 3 basic lands and 14 lands in total, 2 more than usual in this kind of decks. What allow you to have this kind of mana base is the quantity of bombs and draw cards, avoiding you been mana flooded.

Well, I haven't tested too much against blue decks with this deck but in my humble opinion what the deck needs is something to protect your bombs in the early turns and Mental Missteps is very limited for that, only useful against opposite Duress or Missteps. Missteps is better in a control deck, for ritual combo it doesn't do enough.

Duress can be useful but with the quantity of Missteps present in the metagame it has lost some effectiveness and also sometimes it forces you to fetch black to early.

Current control decks plays a lot of counters but they are circumstantial counters and current draw engines are slow so they are very vulnerable at the first turns and this deck try to exploit it.

I agree with you about Chain of Vapor, probably it deserves a slot.

Thanks for your comments.

Hi everybody,

I have played ritual combo since years but the last two years it was so difficult to play against MUD that I desisted and try more control oriented decks. But lately I started to think about return to ritual combo as metagame turns into more creature base decks and is not well prepared to combat fast combo.
I used to play in Liga Catalana of Vintage every month but after the birth of my second daughter I didn't have enough time and I decided to retire from competition and only play with friends once a week.
So I have not tested the deck against all the meta, only a few decks but probably the worst pairings of this deck (MUD and hatebears).

For me the most important thing when I started building the deck was that it has to be competitive against MUD without sideboard so it needs to interact with this deck. With this in mind I automatically opted for Force of Will instead of Duress/Thoughtsize. Another important thing is to have enough lands to survive to some wasteland and/or chalice of the void.
And obviously the best option to beat MUD is to cast Hurky's/Rebuild and have enough good cards to win just after. So threat density is very important and also to have enough bouncing cards to see then often.

With this premises in mind I pass to write down the list directly:

// Lands

4 Polluted Delta
1 Bloodstained Mire
1 Scalding Tarn
2 Underground Sea
2 Volcanic Island
1 Tolarian Academy
2 Island
1 Swamp

// Fast mana

1 Black Lotus
1 Lotus Petal
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Opal
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Sol Ring
4 Dark Ritual

// Draw

1 Ancestral Recall
1 Brainstorm
1 Ponder
2 Sensei's Divining Top
3 Gitaxian Probe
1 Time Walk

// Bombs

1 Wheel of Fortune
1 Timetwister
1 Windfall
1 Tinker
1 Necropotence
1 Yawgmoth's Will
1 Gifts Ungiven
1 Memory Jar
1 Mind's Desire
1 Yawgmoth's Bargain

// Tutors

1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Mystical Tutor

// Defense

4 Force of Will
2 Flusterstorm
2 Hurky's Recall
1 Rebuild

// Win conditions

1 Tendrils of Agony


Comments:

One of the things that surprise me more about the deck is the capacity to win after a draw seven. Everybody that plays combo knows that to play a draw seven is not always definitive and time to time the deck flooded. But with this version you usually see 3 o 4 more cards after draw seven and this is very important and together with threat density they make you win instead of flooded.

Sensei's Divining Top is important for that because it is permanent and it has synergy with other cards of the deck (mox opal or sometimes with bouncers).

Bouncers has a lot of synergy in the deck, they help you to combat artifacts, to increment casting spells, to up the number of cards in hand and decrease fast mana from opponent before casting a draw seven, etc.

The only thing perhaps I will change from main will be the inclusion of a Chain of Vapor to have a universal solution to any problem but I am not sure is required. If I need it it will replace one of the Fluterstorm I suppose.

The deck is fast, very fast, against opponents without disruption you can win in turn one or two very often. You can use this speed to avoid lot of hate and this is the cause that decks based on hate like null rod aggro or hatebearer are not difficult.
And it is consistent, probably the more reliable ritual combo deck I have played. It has a consistent mana base, it has lot of threats, lot of synergy between cards, disruption to control early game, etc.

I have obtain good results against MUD, including at draw position. After sideboarding it will be easier of course but it has a change to compete against them during first match at draw, not like other ritual combo decks.

I didn't create a sideboard because it depends on metagame. Obviously against MUD 2 more Hurkyl's and 2 Ingot will help, and some Toxic Deluxe or Pyroclasm will help against bears. Nothing different that sideboards we have seen in this thread.


What do you think about the deck?

Cheers

I prefer to play less counters and play topdeck tutors.  This option allows you to play more aggressively in the first turns and makes Snapcaster better with the possibility to replay ancestral or time walk more often. Without them Snapcaster has no sense because the only targets you will have usually will be counters.
I suppose is a question of play style, but when I add black to Bomberman is to play it aggressively the first turns and play control game after if the match is still not resolved. For me is basic to put a Confidant quickly into play or try to resolve ancestral once or twice quickly. These are my lines of play for two first turns, trying to take card advantage. After that if I can resolve combo I will go for it and if not I will try to play traditional control as with UW Bomberman.
I think this add more options to the deck to adapt to any situation, playing the role required in each match instead of playing always the control role as with UW version.

So I will cut Thirst for Knowledge and some Mental Misstep to add one more Snapcaster and topdeck tutors.

I don't think vault-key combo is necessary. Auriok combo replace it and is more reliable. You have more than an Auriok and the rest it is fetchable with Trinkets. I prefer to have two useful cards instead of it.

What black gives to this deck is something that it never has, a good early game and also a solid and non mana intensive draw engine that the deck lost with the restriction of Thirst of Knowledge.
Black tutors help also to make combo faster. As a counterpart it makes mana base a little worse.
To include or not black depends more of your style of play but I don't think UW version is better than UWB by definition. In fact black improves MUD pairing without worsen the blue one, something not so easy to do.

I have arrived to same conclusion, you need to choose between Rituals and Cobras, both in the same deck is too redundant. I also prefer Cobras, it's not a one shoot boost of mana like ritual, it's something from where you can extract mana lots of times, very synergistic with Gush including when you don't have fastbond and need extra mana because your lands are in hand. It's also a permanent and a creature that can make extra damage or stop a enemy creature when needed. It's ability helps a lot to skip spheres or spell pierces and the fact that you can choose the color of the mana help you to cast spells with color intensive cast.
A card that has a lot of synergy with this kind of deck is Grim Tutor. It is very easy to  cast with Cobras, find Fastbond very quickly and is no card disadvantaged like when casted with ritual.
Currently I am testing a deck of this kind that I think  has lot of power and could be a contender if refined a little:

Lands
4 Misty Rainforest
1 Flooded Strand
1 Scalnding Tarn
1 Polluted Delta
2 Island
3 Tropical Island
3 Underground Sea

Fast Mana
4 Lotus Cobra
1 Fastbond
1 Black Lotus
1 Mana Crypt
1 Lotus Petal
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Sapphire

Protection
4 Force of Will
2 Misdirection
1 Rebuild
1 Hurkyl's Recall
1 Chain of Vapor

Business
4 Gush
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk
1 Brainstorm
1 Ponder
3 Preordain
1 Timetwister
1 Necropotence
1 Yawgmoth's Will
2 Jace the Mindsculptor
1 Merchant Scroll
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Imperial Seal
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Demoinc Tutor
2 Grim Tutor

Finisher
1 Tendrils of Agony

It is a very fast deck, very aggressive and that can explode from nowhere. Plays like first turn Cobra, second turn Fetch, Grim Tutor, Fastbond, Gush,  Jace or other Bomb is not so difficult to find.

It can attack for 12, not only for 8 (+4/+0 for taped myrs and 4 more damage to defending player). So if unblocked can be faster than Colossus.

Well, after two more weeks of testing I have modified the deck quite a lot:
First modification was to replace one Ancient Tomb with a basic island to have more stable mana base. The change was very positive, more color implies less mulligans and 13 color lands and 2 Tombs make the mana stable and more explosive that the standard 14 color land.

After testing heavily the MUD match before using sidebar I noted that continue to be very hard and unfavorable match. After sideboarding is better but I wanted something with more chances in the first game on the draw. As Deep Analysis was a dead draw against Workshop decks I replaced one with another Hurkyl's Recall. Passing from 2 massive bouncers to 3 increase quite a lot the % of wins the first game. With 3 you see one of then or tutor for it in every game so you have a change in much more games than before. This change make a little weak other match ups but you lose very few compared with what you win in MUD match up.
I also tried again Ponder, is not my favorite card but is necessary to smooth casting costs and  develop your mana base, and much better than ToK with 1 or 2 spheres on the table.

Other changes I made was to replace Imperial Seal with Merchant Scroll. Seal is a very good card and more powerful than Merchant but force you to fetch swamp quickly. I try to avoid very black hands with this deck because is very important to start with an island on the table and if you have only a land and a heavy black hand you are forced to fetch swamp. Usually after that you can draw blue cards and not develop anything because you don't have blue.

At this moment what my test reveals is that the weakest cards in the deck are Deep Analysis. They are good against control, average against Fish and combo and bad against workshop based decks. You need 2 turns to take full profit of then and have at least 4 mana to cast it from hand.
So I need something to replace it, something blue and with a similar function. Then I though about Jace the Mind Sculptor, I haven't still play it  and seems that is wining more and more adepts with the time. As my mana base has enough blue is not a big problem the double cost.
Mind Sculptor is more powerful that DA and more versatile, definitively a good addition.
The only problem is that the name I chose for the deck is not valid any more
Now Jace Long seems more accurate.

Last change was replace Mana Vault with Mox Emerald, I prefer to have mana every turn that a boost of 3 once now that DA is not in the deck anymore.

Jace Long (DeepTombLong 1st revision)

Mana Base
4 Polluted Delta
1 Scalding Tarn
1 Flooded Strand
3 Island
1 Swamp
2 Underground Sea
1 Tolarian Academy
2 Ancient Tomb

Accelerators
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Perl
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mana Crypt
1 Lotus Petal
1 Sol Ring
4 Dark Ritual

Draw Engine
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Brainstorm
1 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Ponder
1 Time Walk
2 Jace the Mind Sculptor

Bombs
1 Necropotence
1 Tinker
1 Timetwister
1 Yawgmoth's Will
1 Gifts Ungiven
1 Fact or Fiction
1 Memory Jar
1 Mind's Desire
1 Yawgmoth's Bargain

Tutors
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Merchant Scroll

Protection
4 Force of Will
2 Misdirection
1 Chain of Vapor
2 Hurkyl's Recall
1 Rebuild

Finishers
2 Tendrils of Agony

The deck now is more stable, continue being very powerful (has same bombs than TPS) and is a blast to play.

I will try to add later an analysis against main archetypes and a generic sideboard

Well I test against a list like the following, lot of mana denial but important threats also:
// Lands
    1  Strip Mine
    1 Tolarian Academy
    4 Ancient Tomb
    4 Mishra's Workshop
    4 Wasteland
    4 Mishra's Factory

// Creatures
    2 Razormane Masticore
    4 Lodestone Golem
    4 Juggernaut

// Spells
    1 Mox Sapphire
    1 Mana Crypt
    1 Mox Ruby
    1 Mox Emerald
    1 Trinisphere
    1 Mox Pearl
    1 Mana Vault
    1 Sol Ring
    1 Mox Jet
    1 Black Lotus
    2 Sculpting Steel
    4 Chalice of the Void
    4 Tangle Wire
    4 Null Rod
    4 Sphere of Resistance
    4 Thorn of Amethyst

If you don't have seen one like this list before is that you didn't face the good ones

I think bob tendrils is a good deck but too depending on confidant. If opponent kills it then your deck is very slow, without engine and few threats. It is not the best deck to combat Oath also, a deck that is seeing play lately.
In general bob tendrils is a reliable deck but a bit slow that have problems if cannot resolve a confidant during the first turns of the game.
Another thing I dislike about this deck is that the number of blue cards to support Fow is very low and often you have Fow in hand but not blue card.

Well if you add duress then better to play with TPS. I am trying to build something more similar to old Pitchlong, faster but with less control. I don't want to spend mana to protect my spells, I want spend mana only for draw or play bombs.

To play Grim tutors you need more rituals, at least 2 or 3 Cabal. But Cabal is not very good in a world of spheres and you don't reach threshold quickly know that 4 brainstorm are not allowed.
I don't think the mana base is so bad, it plays 3 basic, 6 fetchlands, 2 duals and Tolarian, just like TPS before Lodestone arrives. It plays 3 additional Tombs that are vulnerable to Wasteland but allow you to play your bombs very quickly and after casting the bomb it doesn't matter if they blow-up.
By the way I am thinking to replace 1 Tomb by 1 basic island more to make it more stable, I need to test more to be sure.

I think you don't understand what is the goal I try to reach. The main objective is to be able to cast all the bombs in turn 2 or 3 consistently. I have played a lot with TPS since the restriction of brainstorm and one of the problems the deck have is that sometimes you do not have the fast mana necessary to cast the bombs in your hands or sometimes you have only fast mana and no bombs. What I tried to accomplish is to cast something relevant in turn 1 or 2 and never have to wait with bombs in hand. Tombs help me to have more mana in turn 2 consistently and help me also when opponent plays null rods. I only cut 1 off color mox of 10 artifact accelerators and add 3 Tombs that could be considered fast mana also so I doubt I am rapping the mana base. About rebuild/energy flux my only comment is that if shop player plays with null rod, spheres and tangle wires you need lot of luck to draw flux and play it.

The flashback part is what make DA resilient to counters and what allow you to draw 2 more cards in turn 3 that together with the 2 drawed the turn before make easy to cast a bomb for the win. Probably 3 are too many, probably 2 are the correct number. But what make good DA is the fact that with this mana base you can consistently play it in turn 2 and flashback in turn 3 with few mana resources.

when shop player is on the play a very common start is chalice for 0 and sphere or null rod and sphere. Tell me how you plan to cast flux on turn 2 or 3 when you need 4 lands to do it and probably shop player will play tangle wire or another sphere faster.

What are you talking about man? I only dismiss Emerald that in a world of Null Rods is not the most useful of the mana sources. Nobody plays Grim Monolith, it was discarded years ago. I think you haven't play enough against new MUD decks with 13 spheres and 4 Null Rod, you don't have the opportunity to play Energy Flux very often.

Deep Analysis is not there to combat Shop decks, is to give a stable draw engine, to support Fow and to help to recover from a bad situation when control deck has counter your first treats. If you can cast DA in turn 2 reliably is much better that you think, increasing your changes of win in turn 3 quite a lot.

As I explain before the problem with flux is to cast before you are under a lock, difficult if you are on the draw. And if you think Repeal is very useful against MUD I will tell you that you need to test much more against them. Repeal is very bad against MUD or any workshop deck. It is only useful for chalices and only if they don't put chalice at once, very common playing against combo.

I am not newbie player, I started to play in 1994 and restart at 2003 playing without interruption since then. I have played tendrils combo the last 3 years in all his forms, TPS, grim, pitch, IT, bob tendrils, etc. obtaining good results.
I have tested the deck against MUD and Noble Fish and it works fine. I am not saying the deck is perfect but what I can say is that has lot of potential. Has very powerful hands and is reliable. If someone try the deck will see quickly what I am talking about.
I will add tournament report as soon as I can play in one.

After some months of inactivity in magic tournament scene due to personal issues (born of my second daughter) I am planning to return to competition this summer. I continue following the evolution of the game knowing the dominant decks of the moment and showing how my favorite type of deck, storm combo, was losing the battle month to month. With the apparition of Lodestone Golem things still went worse, making to play with combo in a tournament a nightmare of spheres and null rods.
I tried bob tendrils, that I think is a good deck that can compete against MUD and Noble Fish, but when playing with it I have the feeling that the deck is turning more slow sacrificing raw power and speed by stability and consistency. It could be a fair exchange but I was trying to find something different, something that remember me the feeling of playing with Pitchlong or Grimlong. With the return of  oath as a contender  still convinced me more that I need to find something different.

What I observed playing against 13 spheres + null rod MUD was that have 3 or 4 basic lands in the table and the artifact bouncer in hand doesn't warrant you a win. Lot of time I would need one mana more but the time I spent to find the land the opponent kill me  or  put another sphere in the table and I was in the same situation.
Then an idea came to my mind, why not use Ancient Tombs like then to try to break the lock? Tombs as extra lands can help to break lock more than basics , combat pretty well null rod and help the deck to cast the most powerful spells like bargain, gifts, fact or fiction. It was clear that I need to work more in the idea but did not seem so stupid at all.

Other problem I found in storm combo is that since the restriction of brainstorm we don't have a good draw engine. Sometimes our hands are clogged with lot of acceleration and protection and sometimes with bombs but not fast mana. Playing with Ancient Tombs opens the possibilities to construct a draw engine and I thought directly in one card I always loved when playing control but too slow these days. The card is not other than Deep Analysis. With 3 Ancient Tombs and lot of acceleration is very easy to cast it in turn 2 and 3 to refill our hand. It is reliable to counters, you can cast it from graveyard easily and  it is blue, very important  to support  FoW.

So I think at this point I can present the deck, card by card:

Mana Base
4 Polluted Delta
1 Scalding Tarn
1 Flooded Strand
2 Island
1 Swamp
2 Underground Sea
1 Tolarian Academy
3 Ancient Tomb


Accelerators
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Perl
1 Mana Crypt
1 Lotus Petal
1 Mana Vault
1 Sol Ring
4 Dark Ritual

Draw Engine
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Brainstorm
1 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Time Walk
1 Thirst for Knowledge
3 Deep Analysis

Bombs
1 Necropotence
1 Tinker
1 Timetwister
1 Yawgmoth's Will
1 Gifts Ungiven
1 Fact or Fiction
1 Memory Jar
1 Mind's Desire
1 Yawgmoth's Bargain

Tutors
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Imperial Seal
1 Mystical Tutor

Protection
4 Force of Will
2 Misdirection
1 Chain of Vapor
1 Hurkyl's Recall
1 Rebuild

Finishers
2 Tendrils of Agony

Some comments about cards selection
- 2 Tendrils are necessary because the loss of life in this deck is very big so you need to find the Tendrils very quick to finish as soon as possible.
- No Ponder: I dislike this card more and more every day, is not a brainstorm's substitute, is much worse. You deep 3 cards but if you like 1 you need to keep the other 2 if you do not have any shuffle effect. I used to include it because is blue and until now the number of blue cards was low, but I replace it by Thirst for Knowledge and I am very happy with this change, it has synergy with DA, is card advantage and allow you too renew your hand with 3 new cards.
- No Mox Emerald: I need some space to add a thirst Tomb and Mana Vault has more synergy with the rest of the deck.
- 0 Cabal Ritual: I never like this card to much and in a world of spheres, spells pierce, etc an accelerator that cost 2 to cast is going to be worse and worse


How the deck plays
Well it plays very similar to other storm combo decks like Pitchlong or Grimlong. Try to resolves his bombs as soon as possible and if they are countered try to refill hand with Deep Analysis. It has a very strong turn 2 and 3 but differs from other long decks because can recover better if his first treats are countered.
Obviously is more aggressive than TPS or Bob Tendrils, doesn't intent to play the control role, only to win as soon as possible.
Against control DA make it very resilient and against Fish  Tombs help a lot to play around Null Rod and Spell Pierce.
Against Workshop suffers more, like other combo list, but Tombs help to break the lock and after a massive artifact bouncer is easier to win now than with other decks.

I do not have a fixed sideboard, only general lines, nothing special:  Islands, Sphinx, some bouncers, Leylines, Jailer


I think the deck has some potential and is something refreshing in an archetype that do not have too much innovations last months.
I hope some of you try the deck and contribute to his development.

Cheers

@Mods: was really necessary to "entomb" the post into creative forum so quickly?

Anybody has noted that you only take control in your turn so you can only play instants from his hand?
Do not seems very powerful for me, only against counters and Xantid Swarms do the same for much less mana.

Why not Ad Nauseam in the Windfall/Ill-Gotten-Gains spot as one or two off?
It cost 5 but the deck runs quite a lot acceleration and it will be good against non blue decks and blue decks.
With 3 Tendrils main and very few expensive cards (only Dessire & Tendrils > 3) I think the life lost can be supported quite well.

Just my two cents,

Roberto.

It's much easier to cast something that cost 3 mana that something that cost 6. Obviously if you have the mana to play Bargain go for it, but if you have to wait 1 or 2 turns to put it into play I prefer go to Necro to take the initiative, very important against control.

And the other question is clear also, I prefer necro because drawing 10 o more cards I can protect myself and go for the win while putting DSC on play don't avoid the other player can win before you kill him or that he find an answer for DSC. Playing with 4 Fow is a big different with necro in play.

Against control I think the best play is go for Necropotence. It is easy to setup and with it in play and without control player putting pressure on the board you win easily. Going for Necro after first turn duress and putting in play with a ritual in second turn usually is a win.

Twister is not bad against control on the first turns (1st or 2nd), when control player hasn't developed his mana base. Then you can abuse it taking advantage of your acceleration. After that is dangerous because with Mana Drain online and with is draw engine ready he can take more advantage than you, you need luck drawing to abuse it.

Tinker for Colossus is only necessary against Fish and aggro or if there exist something that avoid you to win with Tendrils. I Tinker Colossus against control very few times, and always after seeing his hand and be sure he cannot find and answer. Tinker for Jar is quite good against lot of decks, your opponent only can counter some spells but not take profit of all the cards drawn like you. At worst you can develop your mana base. 

What list do you play this week? I see you use at least 1 night's whisper you didn't play before.

Thanks for your updates.

I think the location could be a little more explicit:

Location: Mollet del Valles, Barcelona (Spain)

The pairings were:

Miquel Alcoriza (Bomberman) -------------
                                                       Miquel Alcoriza --------
Sergio Perez (Mana Ichorid) ---------------
                                                                                     Miquel Alcoriza --------------
Xavier Muntada (UW Fish) -----------------
                                                       Tomàs Winand --------
Tomàs Winand (Baazar Oath) ------------
                                                                                                                            Miquel Alcoriza wins
Rubén González (Control Slaver) --------
                                                        Roberto López -------
Roberto López (Grim Long) ---------------
                                                                                      Roberto López -------------
Marc González (TK Deeznoughts) -------
                                                        Joan Lava --------------
Joan Lava (Manaless Ichorid) --------------

@all: Thanks for the compliments 

I cut Ponder because I need some space in the main and cannot like to cut disruption or business. I like Ponder, but sometimes I find out that having it in multiples didn't help me as much as I would like if I don't want to shuffle after casting first. It is a good card, but isn't as good as Brainstorm and is more limited. Anyway I don't discard return to 4 Ponder but for the moment I will try with 3.
From the 3 cards you propose for replacement the only card I doubt about it is Cabal Ritual, but I'm not sure if after quitting it I can have problems to cast Bargain or to exploit better draw 7.

I'm not sure about Flash match. Until now I haven't had problems with it but I haven't test a lot because in my meta isn't a predominant deck until now. With the current disruption I think you can stop it from winning the first 2 turns and after that you have advantage. After boarding more disruption and Leylines I don't think you have less options.

I try Mind's Desire before adding Bargain and I don't have problems to cast it for 6 to 8 storm counts, but more than once I couldn't win after this and I start to think that maybe isn't the card I need. I suppose it was bad luck, but after replacing it with Bargain I don't want to  undo this change. Bargain was easy to cast with all the rituals, need less resources to be effective and after casting it you will win almost always. So I discard to replace Bargain with it and I'm not sure about playing with both in this deck because they can clog your hand.

I'm working in the sideboard and I not sure about all the cards. For now I'm working with:
4 Leyline of the Void
2 Engineered Explosives
2 Pithing Needle
1 Darksteel Colossus
1 Hurkyl's Recall
2 Extirpate
1-2 Thoughtseize

Against Stax I board Explosives, Pithing Needle, Colossus and Hurky's trying to find the tinker path.
Against Gat, Oath and similar decks I use Extirpates and some thoughtseize depending of the speed of the deck.
Against Ichorid I have lot of cards useful: Leylines, Explosives, Needles
Against Flash I put Thoughtseizes and Needles or Explosives depending of the combo used.

Hi guys, I have played this deck since kobefan publish is first list and I was playing similar decks (Gush storm based decks) since the unrestriction of Gush. I dislike the direction where the list is going lately because in my experience is not a good path and I will try to explain why.

Before playing TTS I played Gush Tendrils (with 4 Merchant Scrolls and no Necropotence) and I have some good results but I dislike the dependence of the Fastbond and Gush engine. If you didn't find Fastbond quickly or the opponent nullify Gush (with Extirpates for exemple) it was very difficult to win. In return you have some spectacular games winning in first or second turns.

I started playing TTS because it wasn't as dependent about Fastbond as Gush Tendrils and because Necropotence is really a bomb that can winning you a lot of games.

With the initial list I dislike Tinker-Jar because his inconsistency in this deck, sometimes you don't have the artifact, some times after activation you didn't find enough gas to win, etc. I started to explore possibilities and try some Merchant Scrolls, Scroll Rack, Infernal Contract, Night Whisper, etc. After trying this draw spells I found out that the deck see a lot of cards but have few bombs and an intelligent opponent can avoid then I win you in the middle game. I come to the conclusion that if you spend the first turns trying to draw cards and casting Merchant Scrolls to try to combo out after controlling the first turns Empty Gush is a much better deck to do this.

So I start again to include some more bombs in the deck. I try Gifst Ungiven, Fact or Fiction and Doomsday. I discard Fact early because is cost and because isn't a bomb really, you don't win after calling it. Gifts were better but is casting cost can be problematic sometimes and the only combination I find a winner one was that involve Necro, Lotus and 2 tutors supposing you have enough life to exploit Necropotence. Doomsday is different. I was one of the first to test it after some Spanish boy start to use it. It wins now if you have the correct cards in your hand and it is really a bomb. But the problem I find is that when you have it you play around it, trying to protect it and searching the cards needed to combo (dark ritual and gush or brainstorm and some protection). This strategy delay you one or two turns a lot of games and could make easy the game to your opponent. The Spanish boy who start to play with it play also 2 Xantids making is use more safe. My conclusion was that isn't a bad card but the delay required to be sure you don't lost using it don't worth it.

Then I need some more bombs and I try again with Memory Jar and Tinker but trying to built the deck to exploit more this bomb. To do it I added more permanent artifacts, replacing Petal with Crypt, and replacing off color moxes with Sol Ring and Vault. This make the deck more explosive and then I added one more bomb that I could't play before because his cost, Bargain. I added also a Cabal Ritual to facilitate the casting of the Bargain.
With this configuration I find the deck is more explosive, casting always something relevant in turn 2 or 3 and is more consistent that Super Long because have Gush to recover quickly.

This is the list I am playing at present:

Mana Sources
3 Polluted Delta
3 Flooded Strand
3 Underground Sea
3 Island
1 Tropical Island
1 Back Lotus
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Jet
1 Mana Crypt
1 Sol Ring
1 Mana Vault
4 Dark Ritual
1 Cabal Ritual

Draw Engine
4 Brainstorm
3 Ponder
4 Gush
1 Time Walk

Bombs and Tutors
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Necropotence
1 Yawgmouth's Will
1 Timetwister
1 Tinker
1 Memory Jar
1 Yawgmouth's Bargain
1 Fastbond
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Imperial Seal

Defense
4 Force of Will
4 Duress
1 Thoughtseize
1 Hurkyl's Recall
1 Echoing Truth

Finisher
1 Tendrils of Agony

Just my two cents.

Roberto.

I don't understand why Eric choose de card, he only can change the target player but you choose the card you want to discard. Or you didn't have any other non land card in hand?

I piloted this deck in the tournament and I wrote a report here:
http://www.themanadrain.com/index.php?topic=34676.msg487701#msg487701

Sure, I suppose I don't cast mystical, I don't remember very well. At this moment my library was very thin and it was probably that I draw it directly from Baazar without any tutor.

This past weekend I have the opportunity of test my deck after some weeks of tunning. It was in a 67 people tournament corresponding with the 10th tournament of the "Liga Catalana de Vintage" (Vintage Catalan League).
The deck ran very well all the day and I finish in Top 4 after losing to GAT in semifinals.

The deck I play was:

Mana sources
3 Polluted Delta
3 Flooded Strand
3 Underground Sea
3 Island
1 Tropical Island
1 Volcanic Island
1 Black Lotus
1 Lotus Petal
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Emeral
1 Mox Ruby
2 Dark Ritual

Draw engine
2 Bazaar of Baghdad
1 Ancestral Recall
4 Brainstorm
4 Merchant Scroll
1 Time Walk
2 Impulse
1 Timetwister
1 Windfall
4 Gush

Tutors
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Imperial Seal
1 Mystical Tutor

Bombs
1 Yawgmoth's Will
1 Fastbond

Disruption
4 Force of Will
4 Duress

Defense
1 Chain of Vapor
1 Echoing Truth

Finishers
1 Tendrils of Agony
1 Empty the Warrens

Sideboard
2 Red Elemental Blast
2 Hurkyl's Recall
1 Ancient Grudge
1 Empty the Warrens
1 Tinker
1 Darksteel Colossus
2 Pyroclasm
4 Leyline of the Void
1 Trickbind


My level of english isn't good enough to do a detailed report of the tournament but I will try to do a mini report with my matches and my impressions.

Round 1 - Combo with Tendrils (I don't know if TPS or something similar, I didn't see Grim Tutors or Cabal Rituals)
The two games were similar. My opponent starts developing some mana but no business and after some disruption for my part I combo out with Fastbond, Gushes  and Yawgmoth's without opposition. 1-0-0

Round 2 - UW Fish
The first game start with him playing some small criatures but without enough pressure to worry me and I combo out with fastbond and Yawgmoth's in turn 4 or 5.
The next two games went very bad to me. I have average initial hands and he start as always with some creatures. He tries to attack my mana base but I have enough lands to avoid it. But the problems was that I didn't draw enough business spells and after 5 or 6 turns I was in very critical situation and has to try to combo out desperately and the two times I failed. 1-1-0

Round 3 - UW Fish
First game I draw very well with Fastbond , Gush, some lands, Merchant Scroll and Fow. I don't remember if I combo out first or second turn but I didn't have any opportunity to do something.
I lost second game after some mana denial for his part and some Grunt hitting me for a pair of turns.
The last game he has a good defensive hand with counters and stifle but without creatures. After some draw and go after wasting our hands I have enough business spells to put 14 goblin tokens and after some desperate turns from my opponent I win the match. 2-1-0

Round 4 - Urbana Fish
He starts with Confident but after 2 turns I have a very good hand and I combo out via Yawgmoth's without much problems.
Second game I draw the nuts and I put 20 tokens in the first turn so I finished the next one. 3-1-0

Round 5 - Control Slaver with Metalwolker-Staff combo
The first game was interesting. He tried to control the situation with a first turn Welder but I ruined his plan duressing his only castable artifact in hand (Sol Ring) and making useless his Tolarian Academy. After a pair of turns he cast Thirst of Knowledge discarding a Titan and put it in play but I only have an island, the rest were fetches, so I didn't lost enough lands to put in danger my position. At the end of his turn I mysticaled for Yawgmoth's and I combo out with duress and Fow protection.
Second game was very quickly with him combo out on turn 2 with Metalwolker and Staff (what the fuck!). This surprised me a lot and after his first turn Metalwolker I couldn't do anything to avoid loss this game.
In the third game I started with a very control hand with duress and Fow and controlled the game. He has Metalwolkers but no more business in hand. After some turns hitting me with Workers we enter on turns. He walked to steal me a turn so I have to try to combo out in my last turn. I play Gush, Bazaared and play Brainstorm before I saw Yawgmoth's and combo out in extremis. 4-1-0

Round 6 - Bomberman with counterbalance
I play against a very slow opponent that insisted in shuffling intensively my deck each time I play a fetch or a tutor and with 14 shuffle effects in my deck this was a lot.
The first game started with a duress from my part discarding a Brainstorm instead of a Counter Balance that would cost me the game after. He has a slow hand and I tried to putting pressure casting an Empty the Warrens of 2 but he show me his first card in the library and was a Savager (he have casted Counter Balance previously) so I only put 2 tokens, insufficient for my plans. He plays Savager in his turn and I decided to try to combo out in my turn with Yawgmoth's. It was a little risky because if he discovers his first card and her casting cost was 3 I will lost but if not I was sure he will combo the next turn. He tries to cast brainstorm but I cast Fow and then he show me the first card directly and obviously have 3 casting cost so I was dead. He combo next turn as I though.
The second game was very quickly because I know that if I didn't play fast I won't have time to finish it. I risk a little and combo out in second turn with Fastbond and Yawgmoth's. Just then arrive the judge and said time so we didn't start the third. 4-1-1

Round 7 - Mud
I know he played Workshops so I was prepared to suffer in my last match to try to get the top 8.
He start dropping 1 Wasteland, 2 Moxes and a Sphere. I didn't have Fow (I mulligated to 6) but have enough lands to play things. He plays another Sphere and I play a dual land on my second turn to try to force him to sacrifice Wasteland (he haven't drop any land his turn). He did it and I gushed saving my land and leaving him with only 2 moxes with 2 Spheres in play. After some more turns when I develop my table with more lands and moxes and a lot of business in my hands he conceded.
The second game was very quickly. He mulligated to 6 and started with Wasteland, Black Lotus and Metalwalker. I have first turn Fastbond, two lands and Gush so I will draw to show what I get and try to combo out or return to his hands the Metalwalker with a Chain of Vapor. I draw very well and combo out in the firts turn after some gushing, scrolling and a Yawgmoth's Will. 5-1-1

Finally I have finished 4 in the Swiss after suffering a lot in some moments.

Top 8 - 5-colors Stax with Metalwalker-Staff combo
Another hard pairing.
This time I win the dice (my second time of the day) and I will start in a very important match.
I draw very well and started with Mox Emeral, Fastbond, Tropical, Fetch, Merchant to Gush, Gush, replay lands and I play Impulse sawing another Gush. Gushed again and saw another land so I play Windfall and draw another 7. I combo out soon after with Yawgmoth's Will and a Tendrils of 40 o more and my opponent desperate without playing any turn.
Second game wasn't as good for me and I conceded after my opponent were in a dominant position with a Welder and 2 Spheres on the table.
The third game didn't start very well for me. I have to mulligan to 6 and I don't have a very good hand with only 1 land and Lotus and some defensive spells (Hurky's and Ancient Grudge) but withou business. He plays a Trinisphere and Staff of Domination but didn't pressure hard. He cast Chalice of 1 but I was confused and Though it was at 2 so I sacrifice Lotus and play Ancient Grudge against his Trinisphere. I haven't enough lands and with the Chalice at 1 I can cast any card of my hand. I drop Bazaar and start to cycling my hand. He drops a Wolker and I thoughs I was lost but he don't have enough artifacts in hand. After some turns with my cycling my deck and him drawing without seeing enough artifacts he plays Tinker to Jar. If he draws 3 artifact I lost but fortunately for me he didn't and give me the turn. I draw mystical, cast it and put Yawgmoth's on top drawing it with Bazaar. I cast it and have enough mana to cast Hurky's from my graveyard. I know he has to have 2 or 3 reb in his hand but this chalice at 1 finally save me because I can play the Hurky's protected. I don't have more mana but I have to drop a land for the turn and casted Fastbond with it. I combo out after some spells a little after.
My opponent was a little angry with his luck and I understand him but inconsistency was the main problem of 5 color Stax, and more with Metalwoker-Staff combo. Not enough artifacts, a lot of 1 man plays (welders, rebs, ancestral, sol ring, vault, etc.)

Semifinals - GAT (with only 3 Dryads, no Tog and Tendrils has alternative finisher)
This match was very intense, with a lot of alternatives but a lot of sportmanship from both players. the match we always like to play.
He started with a very good hand, duressing my Ancestral and casting mystical in response to my duress. After he plays a Dryad and cast Ancestral I was in a very bad position. He grows the Dryad until 8 or 9 but I return then to his hand with a Chain of Vapor. But hi has Regrowth, Time Walk and Yawgmoth's so I couldn't abort his win.
The second game start very well for me, with Lotus Petal, Mox Emerald, Lotus and Twister but I don't have protection so I prefer to cast a Brainstorm first. I saw Mox Jet, Duress and Force of Will. Things started to look well. I cast Duress and Twister and draw another 7 cards with four mana sources in play, isn't bad. I combo out soon after.
We started the third and final game. Both started slow, trying to control the game. He started with Library but after I duress him next turn and couldn't activate library. Soon after he extirpated my Gushes so I lost my first draw engine. I saw and empty so my plan was to cast some goblinks to pressuring him. I tutor for Lotus and play Empty for 10 tokens. He scrolled to Echoing Truth and return my tokens the turn after but emptying his hand. We draw and go a pair of turns and I try again with Empty. He only has 1 card in hand so it was the moment. Next turn he cast duress and gave me the turn. I hit with goblins leaving him at 6. But unfortunately for me his other card was Yawgmoth's so he recast Ancestral, Gush and Echoing and  kill my tokens having seven cards in hand. I don't have enough mana to win but was in a very good position. I only have 1 card but he had only 6 life so I can cast a mini tendrils and win.
But he draws a lot of disruption (2 Duress and 1 Mana Drain) and I cannot cast any spell. Finally he cast Fastbond and a mini Tendrils for 6 and replay Tendrils with Regrowth killing me.
And incredible game that I though was mine in more than one instant but finally I lost to a very good playerd and very nice person.

Conclusions
The deck run very well, with a very solid mana base that allow you to deploy all your game without problems and with a very good draw engine that make you draw a lot of cards until you find what you need to win.
I want to make special emphasis in the capacity that have this deck to recover from bad positions and how well it is when you need to combo out just in this turn or lost. The deck rewards taking risks more than others and no fizzle as often as other combo decks.

Some info about the tournament
67 players, 7 rounds of Swiss
Metagame with lots of Stax,fish and goblins and some gat, control and combo.
Top 8 was: 2 Stax, 2 Bomberman, 1 Urbana fish, 1 GAT, 1 Ichorid, 1 Gush Tendrils

Roberto.

Personally I play 14 lands and I consider 13 the minimum lands I will play in a deck like this. My current mana base is:

3 Polluted Delta
3 Flooded Strand
3 Underground Sea
3 Island
1 Tropical Island
1 Volcanic Island
1 Black Lotus
1 Lotus Petal
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Emeral
1 Mox Ruby
2 Dark Ritual

I'm very happy with this mana base. It is very stable and I haven't problems to find the proper color when I need it. I used to play with 13 lands but I found that the mulligans were very dangerous, forced to keep 6 card suboptimal hands because mulligating to less than 6 made impossible to find the necessary lands.

I don't think Gifts fit well in this deck. It is a good card and when you resolve it you are ahead of your opponent but in this deck with so few mana producers isn't easy to cast. This deck isn't a control deck that can wait until play a Gifts on the opponent's turn and then try to combo out in your turn. Very often Gifts will clog your hand and the best use you will find will be to pitch to Fow.
In my experience what the deck needs to work properly is not to have any card with converted mana cost bigger than 3, except finishers. This philosophy makes the deck flow very well and never have cards that clog your hand.