[Report] Adapting Drain Tendrils: Top 4 Split at Charleston, SC

[RaleighNCTourneys]

Adapting Drain Tendrils: Top 4 Split at Charleston, SC - 2/24/07
Announcement Thread: http://www.themanadrain.com/index.php?topic=32028.0

I have played Drain Tendrils at 8 local tourneys and 2 SCG power 9 weekends over the last year. At SCG events, I have piloted Drain Tendrils to 1st place, 12th place, 13th place and 17th place finishes.

At the 8 local tournaments, I have played the deck to a 31-3 match record (91% match wins) and 63-15 game record (81% game wins). This is not including any IDs, games people conceded to me or games I conceded to anyone else. 6 of the 8 tourneys have resulted in a top 4 split for me, one was a 1st/2nd split, while one of the 8 is the only tourney we played out, and I got 2nd. So 8 local tourneys, 8 top 4s, basically 4 out of 4 SCG Top 16s with a 1st place finish, and a 91% match win percentage at the local scene. What more can I ask from a deck? The answer is Red.

Why Red? Extirpate, Empty the Warrens and blasts (REB/pyro). Until yesterday, every build of Drain Tendrils I have run would have lost to an Extirpated Tendrils of Agony, not to mention my primary draw engine (Intuition/AK) can be hit hard, too. This is because my theory behind the deck was this: Tinker/Colossus is too much of a liability game 1 until you know what you're up against. As such, 2 main deck Tendrils as the only kill condition helps me focus my deck's resources and my game plan. And it's worked beautifully. However, at the local scene, I expected Extirpates, 1-2 decks with Hide/Seek and lots of Fish/Stax that would roll to Empty the Warrens.

For reference, here is my usual list:

http://sales.starcitygames.com/deckdatabase/displaydeck.php?DeckID=20188

The only red card I ran main deck was Empty the Warrens. I also decided to add a Tinker/Colossus main deck this time to see how it went and to increase my win conditions. I probably would not do this at an SCG or TMD Open. I really feel like Tinker/Colossus requires too much protection and worrying and I'd rather be focused on storm kills. But it does randomly win, as it did at Charleston.

Here are the changes I made from the main deck:

-1 Frantic Search
-1 Rebuild
-1 Tendrils of Agony
-1 Island
-1 Underground Sea

+1 Empty the Warrens
+1 Tinker
+1 Darksteel Colossus
+2 Volcanic Island

I figured that Empty the Warrens and Tinker would help my workshop match up so I could drop a Rebuild. Without the deck focused only on Tendrils, Frantic Search became much weaker an was also cut.

Here is the list I ran:

Cody Vinci - Drain Tendrils [Played 2/25/07 at Charleston, SC]

// Lands
3 Underground Sea
2 Volcanic Island
3 Flooded Strand
2 Polluted Delta
1 Tolarian Academy
1 Library of Alexandria
3 Island

// Creatures
1 Darksteel Colossus

// Spells
1 Mox Ruby
1 Dark Ritual
1 Sol Ring
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Pearl
1 Tendrils of Agony
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mana Vault
1 Lotus Petal
1 Tinker
3 Thirst for Knowledge
1 Empty the Warrens
4 Mana Drain
1 Fact or Fiction
4 Force of Will
4 Accumulated Knowledge
2 Intuition
4 Brainstorm
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Gush
1 Yawgmoth's Will
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Time Walk
1 Rebuild
1 Chain of Vapor

// Sideboard
SB: 1 Empty the Warrens
SB: 1 Hurkyl's Recall
SB: 1 Darkblast
SB: 1 Diabolic Edict
SB: 3 Duress
SB: 3 Tormod's Crypt
SB: 1 Massacre
SB: 2 Red Elemental Blast
SB: 1 Pyroclasm
SB: 1 Pyroblast

THE REPORT

We had 10 people from NC planning on making the trip. 5 ended up going. Arsenal sent 4 members from NC, 1 from SC and 2 from GA to this event, and the top 4 was 2/4 Arsenal. EJ and Ryan made the trip the night before and myself, Bert and Abe made the trip Saturday morning. It was a 4 hour car ride, which I drove the whole way there and Bert the whole way back. Abe slept the entire car trip both ways. There was a first for a Type 1 event: the event starting on time!! We actually started at 1 pm with 20 people in attendance.

Round 1 - Abe with Drain Tendrils

Abe goes to N.C. State with me and we're living in the same apartment next year. I just met him about 2 months ago and he literally just started playing type 1. This is his first ever T1 tourney and he finished 2-3, which I thought was awesome for his very first time. He put together Drain Tendrils because of Arsenal's expertise with the deck so we could help him learn it. He played the blue/black version with Tinker.

Game 1: I keep a hand with turn 1 Tinker and FOW back up. These kinds of hands are stupid and require no skill. I'm on the play and Tinker and pass. Abe tries to Ancestral Recall, which I Force of Will. I take 2 more turns and win.

Kill: Colossus

Board In: +3 Duress, +2 REB, +1 Pyroblast, +1 Hurkyl's Recall
Board Out: -2 Intuition, -3 Accumulated Knowledge, -1 Vampiric Tutor, -1 Rebuild

Game 2: Abe keeps a strong hand with Library of Alexandria, but I have 2 Duress. He is on the play so he never gets to activate Library because of Duress. I get my own Library going and never lose control of the game after the 2 Duress. I am able to Tendrils kill without Will. I used lots of Moxen and Hurkyl's. 

Kill: Tendrils

Matches: 1-0 Games: 2-0

Round 2 – Food Chain Goblins

Game 1: I am on the draw and a turn 1 Lackey resolves. I am able to Mana Drain a Piledriver on Turn 3 and use the mana to draw into a Tinker, which I cast. The FCG player gets off a Recuiter the turn before and stacks his deck. He doesn't have any huge threats in play, but he does have a Food Chain to go off with. I am able to counter his top deck goblins and win with Colossus.

Kill: Colossus

Board In: +1 Empty the Warrens, +1 Diabolic Edict, +1 Darkblast, +1 Massacre, +1 Pyroclasm
Board Out: -1 Rebuild, -1 Gush, -1 Dark Ritual, -1 Fact or Fiction, -1 Chain of Vapor

Game 2: He opens with land and Black Lotus and then goes to cast a spell. I yell "Wait!" and bluff a FOW on the Lotus for 30 seconds, then I let it resolve. He passes the turn without playing anything. He gets out 2 goblins eventually, one of which is a Recruiter and stacks his deck with a Food Chain in play. I Tinker for Colossus and Massacre away his board. He drops a Mana Crypt and plays a Ringleader, which I Drain. The Big Man goes all the way.

Kill: Colossus

Matches: 2-0 Games: 4-0

Round 3 - Gus with Stax

Game 1: I am on the draw and Gus gets a turn 1 Sphere of Resistance. I play a Turn 1 Ancestral Recall off a land and Black Lotus, and then I play out a Mana Crypt, Sol Ring, and Mox. Next turn Gus gets a Gorilla Shaman and my board in destroyed. I wish I had a FOW. We play draw go for a while, and Gus gets a Mana Crypt into play. He loses 2 flips and can eat his Crypt but he doesn't. The game state appears to be that I can't win, and that's exactly what I want Gus to think. After Crypt damage, I say something like "it's not like it's going to matter," and I hope that he continues to keep it in play. Gus plays a Chalice on 2. My hand, however, consists of Tendrils, Chain of Vapor, a mox or 2, AK and a brainstorm. Gus casts a Triskellion and I respond with Brainstorm hoping to hit FOW to buy me some time. However, I hit a Mana Vault and now I know I can win if he doesn't do anything and just passes. He does exactly that and I win with my 3 blue lands, chain of vapor, artifacts, Lotus Petal, Dark Ritual and Tendrils.

Kill: Tendrils

Board In: +1 Hurkyl's Recall, +1 Diabolic Edict, +1 Darkblast, +1 Empty the Warrens
Board out: -1 Dark Ritual, -1 Fact of Fiction, -1 Vampiric Tutor, -1 Something Else

Game 2: This game ends relatively fast after Intuitoning with an AK in hand, drawing 7 cards, taking another turn and winning. I have Will in hand and try to Tinker out a Lotus, which gets blasted. I then DT for Lotus instead and Will away, at which point Gus scoops. I was 1 short on the Tendrils kill so it would have been the Empty the Warrens I had in my hand.

Kill: Warrens

Matches: 3-0 Games: 6-0

Round 4/5 - IDs with George Goanos and Bert Kyle.

Top 8 - Jonathan Goanos with Shop Aggro

Game 1: I'm on the play and see a turn 1 Juggernaut. Turn 2, I Drain a Gilded Lotus. Turn 3, I Empty the Warrens for 12 Tokens. Turn 5, I win. It's really that easy with Empty the Warrens vs. Stax.

Kill: Warrens

Board In: +1 Hurkyl's Recall, +1 Diabolic Edict, +1 Darkblast, +1 Empty the Warrens
Board out: -1 Dark Ritual, -1 Fact of Fiction, -1 Vampiric Tutor, -1 Something Else

Game 2: This game ends rather quickly again with an early Mystical for ETW and Warrens for 10 tokens followed by ETW for 4 tokens the next turn.

Kill: Warrens

Matches: 4-0 Games: 8-0

Top 4 split followed.

Post Carnage Report- Kills:

Warrens: 3
Colossus: 3
Tendrils: 2

I was very happy with the well-balanced attack from 3 win conditions. Certain decks have certain vulnerabilities and having 3 ways to kill definitely helped me exploit this. I didn't take any mulligans all day, which is very characteristic of this deck. I almost never mulligan with it. If anyone has any questions on the deck, let me know.

PROPS

AJ for holding this awesome event!
Abe for giving type 1 a try and sticking with it
All the out of staters for coming
SC Type 1 players for holding fun events AND being good players
Jonathan and Steven Goanos for beating people twice their age all day and making top 8
Brett for proving himself
Bert for driving the way home while I dozed off
Starting on time!
George for typing up the decklists/report

SLOPS

Abe for sleeping both ways
EJ for missing top 8 on tiebreakers... again and again
5 people from NC for bailing out of the tourney for various reason
SUVs for eating up so much gas
Myself, apparently, for not telling my teammates the changes I made to the deck before the tourney

- Cody

 

[bdg4life]

Great report, congrats on the split.

[Aneurysm]

I still don't think that not eating my crypt was the wrong play. I had the trike in hand, and the longer I let the game go on the better chance you have of somehow comboing me out. I thought that you were locked out anyway, so I guess my logic is flawed. Anyway, I didn't have much experience versus your deck, so next time may be different. I did enjoy playing you, however, and am looking forward to future matchups.

Props to arsenal for making the tourney more fun.

[RaleighNCTourneys]

Thanks... it's always nice to play against good players with good decks. Can you refresh my memory about our game 1? I didn't take any notes. Did you play the Crypt to cast anything or did you play it out with Sphere and use it the next turn? After you used it to cast whatever you wanted to could you have eaten it? I could have done 18 damage to you (vault, petal, mox, chain, vault, petal, mox, ritual, tendrils) so the second flip wasn't relevent. Anyway, good match and good seeing you again.

Cody

[Aneurysm]

I didn't take any notes either, sorry. All I remember is the first turn crypt(?)-->sphere trying to get you to play moxen so I could eat them. I played monkey on turn 2 so I don't think it mattered as I lost a flip already and was at 17. Anyway, I'm putting stax on the backburner for what I think is a better deck, Pitchlong. Of course, this gives me an even worse matchup against you, but alas, I would probably lose anyway. Funny after round 2 we were like, "well, it's either next round or the finals." Then I proceeded to lose 3 straight and go home. Anyway, the next one should be fun, I just hate all this hindsight bias....

Gus

[Yare]

Wtg, Cody!

What can I say?  The first Duke lacrosse match after the scandal and some pretty good women's basketball only come along so often.

[Grand Inquisitor]

Nice finish.  It's good to see people continue to abuse Int/AK with all the new toys out there.

I do have some questions about your sideboarding:

Board In: +3 Duress, +2 REB, +1 Pyroblast, +1 Hurkyl's Recall
Board Out: -2 Intuition, -3 Accumulated Knowledge, -1 Vampiric Tutor, -1 Rebuild

First, why leave in hurkyl's over rebuild?  Rebuild seems more flexible since you can cycle it if you're not in a position to abuse storm (and since drain decks don't threaten your mana, the CC doesn't matter).

Second, regarding AK, do you always side out all but one in the mirror (I agree with taking out intuition)?  I find that aggressively playing AK's in the mirror allows you to take the active role, which can often allow you to overpower another drain deck.  Also, since the control matchup is of great importance here in NE I was wondering what you thought of AK's role against Gifts variants.  Do you find that the extra draw helps, or that because the general power level of the card is low (without intuition) that it's a burden?

[RaleighNCTourneys]

First, why leave in hurkyl's over rebuild? Rebuild seems more flexible since you can cycle it if you're not in a position to abuse storm (and since drain decks don't threaten your mana, the CC doesn't matter).

My reasoning behind that decision was this: This was Abe's first ever T1 event, and I knew he was much more comfortable with the Tinker kill than Tendrils. His plan was most likely going to be to Tinker ASAP and try to race me. If he did resolve an early Tinker, I wanted Hurkyl's Recall, which costs 1 less than Rebuild, to increase my ability to Hurkyl's with Drain backup (or Brainstorm back up to find FOW, etc). Secondly, I knew he wasn't running Misdirection, and if there was going to be Colossus staring down a Colossus, I wanted Hurkyl's to return his dude and not mine. Also, in the event that I did a mini-Tendrils or mini-Warrens, I wanted to return my stuff and not his so that he could not use the storm to combo out. That was my reasoning at the time, not sure if it is correct.

Second, regarding AK, do you always side out all but one in the mirror (I agree with taking out intuition)?  I find that aggressively playing AK's in the mirror allows you to take the active role, which can often allow you to overpower another drain deck.  Also, since the control matchup is of great importance here in NE I was wondering what you thought of AK's role against Gifts variants.  Do you find that the extra draw helps, or that because the general power level of the card is low (without intuition) that it's a burden?

The AK mirror is fairly rare now a day, but in the Drain Tendrils mirror, I had to take out all but one of the AKs in order to make room for all of my board cards. I'd much rather have 3x blast and 3x duress and still have a ton of draw spells than be stuck with AKs. With red on the board, it makes it much easier to board out the AKs because you have more disruption coming in that you want instead of the AKs.

Regarding aggressively playing AKs in the mirror: Why? I don't see how this is a good strategy. If you AK for 1 and 2... they have 4x AKs for 3+ now. How is this good? +1 card advantage is hardly overpowering. In my experience vs. Gifts, AKs have won me the game. Well, AKs combined with all of the other draw in my deck. AK for 1 and then AK for 2 is pretty nice against Gifts, while Intuition for AKs can outright win if they get through. It's also really nice to be able to turn Inuition + AK into AK for 3 and 4 vs Gifts. AK has not been a burden at all in the Gifts match up. Even if you only AK for one all game, it's not a big deal. You have so much other draw in the deck, cycling one card usually isn't going to cost you the game.

Thanks for the reply, let me know if I've adequately answered your questions/what you think.   

[Lymph]

Now that you have added red, have you considered Recoup ?

[RaleighNCTourneys]

I have considered it, but with only 2 Intuition it doesn't really make sense to me. I haven't tested it though, so I'll give it a try and see how it goes. Thanks for the suggestion.

[RaleighNCTourneys]

Just out of curiosity, what does the community think about Drain Tendrils? I'm sure there are a lot of people who think it's just an inferior Gifts type deck... is that the general concensus? I've never played Gifts or proxied it up and tested it (I've tested against it, though), so Gifts could very well be a better deck. This deck has worked for me time after time, so I've had no reason to try anything else. Has anyone ever put together Drain Tendrils and if so how were your results? 

[Gekoratel]

I have a friend who plays T1T which has some similarities to Drain Tendrils, the deck seems to have a strong match against combo due to running Drain, Force, Merchant Scroll and 2 or so Duress.  The control matchup comes down to player skill.  I think your list is one of the few dedicated control decks left in the format, along with CS.  I see Gifts as more of a hybrid control combo than your deck, sacrificing some late game strength for faster wins.  It's really hard to say what deck is better in the abstract and I think playing the deck that fits your style is probably more important.  I do think that Extirpate is going to make Drain Tendrils life more difficult while doing very little against Gifts.

[RaleighNCTourneys]

I also wanted to stress how important Gush is to this deck. As far as I know, there is no established archetype that uses Gush. This card has been amazing, and I wish people would give it a closer look. The format is so fast right now that the tempo loss of returning 2 lands rarely matters, and there is no rule saying you have to use its alternate cost. It's perfectly fine to hard cast it at EOT, and even if it gets drained you have a turn to do whatever you want. If it resolves, it's card advantage. It's also disgusting with Will. Turn 4 Will with 4 free cards and 2 free storm wins the game (even using it turn 2-3 with will is very good).

Then there is Gush + mystical or Vamp. This single-handedly makes it worth running. Think about it. Gush is +1 card advantage, vamp/mystical is -1. So you essentially get a 1 mana demonic tutor and 2 storm. And you get to see another card. On top of all this, if you don't have a land for the turn, you get an on color mana source. So at best, Gush is not only a 1 mana demonic tutor, its a free demonic tutor, you see another card, and it potentially draws you 4 cards for free with Will and adds 2 storm! Couple this with the fact that your brainstorms get infinitely better when going off b/c you can hide the lands you returned and you can use Gush for waste/strip evasion + card advantage while doing so. ZOMG!!! GUSH IS SO GOOD. I'm no expert on Gifts, but why couldn't this fit into Gifts and why isn't Gush ever talked about?

[zeus-online]

I find your deck very interesting, so i might try it out sometime soon, i don't see it as an inferior gifts deck. I find the intuAK engine to be powerful enough to add up for the lack of speed (compared to gifts).

I think most people see gush as overkill, since its basicly only good with a storm spell, and very bad at keeping drain online!

Haven't played GAT or anything else with gush, so i'm not exactly an expert...but i'm always willing to test new tech (or old tech for that matter, man i got my face kicked in last time i tried keeper  :lol:)

Anyway, keep up the good work!

/Zeus

[Tobi]

Your latest changes to the deck move it more towards the spanish Intuitive lists, though they use Recoup and more disruption where you play card draw (Thirsts, Gush). I think the amount of card draw is what separates this deck from standard Gifts, moving it more into a control role.

I noticed you still play 61 cards maindeck. Maybe you can cut a Thirst or a Fact. Or even one mana source, since you have 26 which is a lot. Gifts decks use 24-25.

I really like the lone Dark Ritual. Very nice acceleration and storm enabler.

[RaleighNCTourneys]

I think most people see gush as overkill, since its basicly only good with a storm spell, and very bad at keeping drain online!

I think most people are scared to cast Gush's alternate cost when not going off... but I play it agressively when I have no more gas in my hand. For instance if I have 3 lands in play and no gas and no land drop for the turn, I would almost definitely use Gush's alternate cost on my main phase and still keep drain mana up for my opponents turn. Or, you can keep drain mana up on your turn and your opponents turn and use its alternate cost at EOT with 3 lands in play. Gush has so many uses, I think it's hard to just look at one of them and say it's hard to run because of [insert drawback]. I think Drain Tendrils may be the best archetype to use/abuse Gush, which is why it's worked so well for me. 

Thanks for everyone's comments!

[abeliu]

Abe for sleeping both ways

Hey. I wasn't sleeping. I'm asian, so my eyelids at rest are in their "squinting" position. Beware, I'm always watching.

[zeus-online]

I think most people see gush as overkill, since its basicly only good with a storm spell, and very bad at keeping drain online!

I think most people are scared to cast Gush's alternate cost when not going off... but I play it agressively when I have no more gas in my hand. For instance if I have 3 lands in play and no gas and no land drop for the turn, I would almost definitely use Gush's alternate cost on my main phase and still keep drain mana up for my opponents turn. Or, you can keep drain mana up on your turn and your opponents turn and use its alternate cost at EOT with 3 lands in play. Gush has so many uses, I think it's hard to just look at one of them and say it's hard to run because of [insert drawback]. I think Drain Tendrils may be the best archetype to use/abuse Gush, which is why it's worked so well for me. 

Thanks for everyone's comments!

Not saying that it's bad, just guessing at why people aren't using it
It might have a place, i know i'm gonna try it out...i love trying new tech (or old tech) out...

/Zeus

[Neonico]

Very interesting report for a deck i really love. Congeratz on the finish.
Just to mention something and ask another :
How scared are you with extirpate ? You didnt face any but actually, in both testing and tournaments, did you allready loose because of it ?
What about the lack of "Gifts-like" engine ? In my version, i play less Thirst to keep recoup in the deck.
Im also a huge fan of Gush in gifts (playing it since november 2006) and i totally agree with everything you told about it. Its really good as a stormer, Mana producer, help keeping library active in the mirror control, facing duress and it has alots of other use. all you dont want is to keep it far from mana drain but that's it. As far as i played it (alot) it has never been a tempo problem or a card i didnt want to play to keep drain open. Especially in a 26 mana source deck.

[RaleighNCTourneys]

How scared are you with extirpate ? You didnt face any but actually, in both testing and tournaments, did you allready loose because of it ?

Extirpate is very very bad for the blue/black Tendrils version of Drain Tendrils. I suspected that it would be bad just thinking about it, and in testing with my team this was confirmed. I decided to add red to the deck the day before the tourney and not tell anyone so I could have an edge/surprise factor. I haven't tested my newest list against extirpate, but I suspect it will still be very bad for me, but at least I don't lose to an extirpated Tendrils and I still have 2 other win conditions.

What about the lack of "Gifts-like" engine ? In my version, i play less Thirst to keep recoup in the deck.

The Gifts-like engine is replaced with the Intuition/AK engine. I don't want to add Recoup to the deck because I only run 2 Intuition and no Gifts, which in my opinion makes the Recoup plan very poor. This deck isn't trying to do what Gifts is... the red is a light splash in response to Extirpate (and the printing of ETW)... Gifts decks run more Volcanic Islands than U. Seas and I run more U. Seas than Volcanic Islands as evidence of this. This deck is not like Gifts and has its own strategies that need to be mastered. I've said this again and again: Thirst for Knowledge (or some other graveyard independent draw spell) is necessary with the Inuition/AK engine. I would not dedicate 6 slots in my deck to an engine that rolls to graveyard hate without a lot of additional (draw spell) support.