Burning Tendrils

[shrewarmies]

Over the past few days I have finished my initial building, goldfishing and playtesting of my take on a burning Tendrils list and have just taken down a small monthly tournament locally.

I do have to preface this that I have not seen Smmenen's list but have seen the chat on some of the other threads regarding the list.

Introduction

With the unrestriction of Burning Wish, I have built, goldfished and tested a list I would be happy to take to a tournament, indeed have take to one and come out on top. I have always loved storm combo decks, but this is the first I have played in a long time that I don't feel like such a dog to shops that I would rather go and play a control deck. This deck makes me feel good to be playing it, knowing that any given draw could be a game changer. It is not yet optimized, the sideboard not fully complete but it certainly is the start of a powerful tournament worthy deck. The deck allows some of my favourite things: choosing my opponents fate; looking at their hand and knowing how they will have to play out their next turns, drawing 7 cards at a time multiple times a turn and looking at a board state and puzzling what is needed to win the game right then and there.

The Current list is:

Verbrannte Ranken

Lands
4 City of Brass
4 Forbidden Orchard
2 Gemstone Mine
1 Tolarian Academy

Artifacts
1 Black Lotus
2 Chrome Mox
1 Lotus Petal
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mana Vault
1 Memory Jar
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
2 Mox Opal
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Sol Ring

Creatures
2 Simian Spirit Guide

Enchantments
1 Necropotence
1 Yawgmoth's Bargain

Instants
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Brainstorm
2 Cabal Ritual
4 Dark Ritual
1 Fact or Fiction
1 Flusterstorm
2 Hurkyl's Recall
1 Rebuild
1 Vampiric Tutor

Sorceries
4 Burning Wish
1 Demonic Tutor
3 Duress
1 Mind's Desire
1 Ponder
1 Regrowth
1 Time Walk
1 Timetwister
1 Tinker
1 Wheel of Fortune
1 Windfall

Sideboard
1 Yawgmoth's Will
2 Tendrils of Agony
1 Empty the Warrens
1 Pyroclasm
1 Thoughseize
2 Ancient Grudge
1 Shattering Spree
2 Ravenous Trap
4 Xantid Swarm

The list is very powerful, entirely capable of "going broken" with a number of different ways of storming off without the opponent getting a say in anything, often though a piece of disruption thanks to your Duress' and Flusterstorm.  The multitude of Draw 7's mean that your opponent is only keeping their opening hand every other game (when your on the play) and even if critical spells are countered, you have several surefire ways of getting back in the game. These cards especially give you the ability to just "win", supplying you with the necessary fuel to keep comboing or to disrupt your opponents. Wheeling away your opponents hand can decimate their plans (especially brutal is a Hurkyl's followed by a Windfall) and keep you alive for the necessary turns to go off. It is also able to run a more controlling ( however obviously not preferred) role with multiple Duress effects, Hurkyls etc in order to set up the perfect turn where your opponent is helpless.

The primary route to victory is obviously a lethal number of copies of Tendrils of Agony. The deck has a number of ways to reach this end game and has no strict requirements to begin to combo off. Your end game however, is sure to involve the card Burning Wish (in Game 1). Burning Wish allows you unprecedented access to the cards in your sideboard allowing you to cherry pick what you need for any given situation. Need access to your graveyard> Yawgmoth’s Will, Problem creature > Pyroclasm, problem artefact > Shattering Spree; you get the picture.

One of the main features that draws me to this deck is the pure speed. You are fast, blazingly fast. Where other decks need to pack 6-8 pieces of grave yard hate to survive to turn 3 or so, you can just race the Ichorid player. It even gets better post board when you gain access to the Ravenous Traps, you can fire off a draw 7, watch them dredge their library and exile their GY leaving them with a couple of Narcomoeba’s and then have all the time in the world to finish them off.

I believe that you are faster (on average) than some of the other popular storm decks (e.g. Cobra Gush/Bob Tendrils/ Gristlebrand Oath) and your mass of business spells means that control is going to spend more time focusing on stopping you than advancing their own game plan and you run more bombs than they run countersJ . Because of the explosiveness of the deck, you are able to exploit other decks when they are weak (e.g. tapped out for Jace) seemingly out of nowhere. Your mass of acceleration is a tremendous help in the shops matchup. You can quickly out-mana their prison. The trifecta of Hurkyl’s and Rebuild also ensure you always have access to bounce which performs double duty in buying you time and adding storm.

Some of the more different card choices are:

The land base:
 When I originally build the deck I was using a 2 Sea, 1 Volc, 1 Trops, 1 Badlands + Fetches (Disillusionists mana base) and found that I was having mana problems. Either I would open with a land and a fetch but needed two fetches or just pulling the wrong lands at the wrong time. Then I thought of running City of Brass and found that that worked so well I kept adding more 5 colour lands until I realised my normal mana sources were getting in the way so I went for the full 5 colour mana base. I thought about Glimmervoid over gemstone mine but felt that if I am facing a chalice at 0 from my shops opponent, Glimmervoid basically becomes an unplayable mox. This change has had some other implications (both good and bad) that I will get to later.

Extra Moxen:
 As I was testing I found that I wanted more Hurkyl’s Recall effects (started at 1) as I was such a dog to shops. Once I upped my recalls, I found myself sitting with an extra one in hand later in the game where I could only play it for a few storm. I also wanted to be able to accelerate past shops lock pieces and I had knew dropping moxen was one of the best ways to do that. I knew diamond was not going to be good enough (only 10 lands to drop) so I went with 4 Chrome Mox. This did not work as I would often open with or draw into multiples and be crippled because I could not play them for mana. With 14 other low cost artefacts I tried Mox Opals (swapping the chrome moxen) but the legendary rule kept screwing me over so I am happy sitting at a 2-2 split each way.

Flusterstorm:
When I played at Australian Masters a few weeks back my opponent beat me in an end game scenario because he had a Flusterstorm in his GY in his Will turn completely neutering my ability to stop him. I wanted to have this sort of end game and not completely reliant in Duress to see me through. This card is not completely necessary as I have found once you go off you have enough access to duress when you need it.

Fact or Fiction:
I tested Disillusionists list with 3 Facts and 3 Cabals and found Fact to be a completely amazing card. It suits the deck so well, if there were a 61 card minimum rule it would certainly be a second Fact. Once you have your mana set and you are going off, facting into facts is incredible, digging you 5 for the best card/s and setting Y Will up for 1 coloured mana is great. I cut the extras for the additional mana sources but I could certainly see going above the singleton copy.

No tinker Bot:
I don’t like Tinker Bot as a play because it gives me an absolutely dead Draw and is does not guarantee you the win the following turn. Jar has only failed me once (will talk about in cobra gush matchup) in testing. Everyother time I have activated a Jar I have won or put me in the winning position (stocked GY and Will in hand etc.)

The card I am most disappointed with is

Brainstorm:
I was surprised when I found myself not liking drawing Brainstorm when I did. I cut the fetchland base which meant my only real shuffle effects are
tutors. There has been at least twice in testing where I am digging for a draw 7 (for example) and seen mana sources and had to wait the turns to draw through what I put back. I am keeping it in at the moment but it could become fact #2 or any of a number of other cards. I found myself Chrome Moxing a BS more often than I was casting it for full value.


The sideboard is the most flexible part of this deck at the moment. I am still sorthing what deserves a slot. The only definates are:
1 Yawgmoth's Will
1 Tendrils of Agony
1 Thoughseize

Unlikely to move
N Xantid Swarm
1 Pyroclasm
1 Shattering Spree

The rest is negotiable, in fact i have not used Warrens yet, the second tendrils can come in if I am expecting dorks as it can be a pseudo life gain spell. The rest of it has served me fine thus far but they have not been spectacular.

Matchups

I have tested the Deck against multiple opponents both at the Local store as well as on Cockatrice and multiple different Decks. Obviously my testing is going to be biased but this is what I think: Some of the matches I have posted as favourable may be closer to even than I point out however I strongly believe the onus is on the opponent to have a consistent answer for what you are doing. As I point out below, they really have to have a fist full of answers from the get go or they will lose. In this way you are preying to some extent on variance however You are playing the odds in that you have more threats than you have answers. I did not keep a complete record of each match set but going from memory:

MUD(Live+ Cockatrice):(even- near favourable: Die Roll important)
It’s easily the worst matchup I have tested. My MUD opponent and I go about even in the early testing (die roll is quite important) but as I had more experience over the testing session I believe I started winning more games that I was losing. The Onus however is on the MUD Pilot to consistently lock you down. They are pretty much required to put chalices down at 0 and 2 in the first couple of turns and put down spheres every turn of the game. If they try to land a crucible or smokestack early, or keep a hand that doesn’t sphere + chalice every turn, you can just punish them and win the game on the spot. The multiple Hurkyl’s effects are obviously a great boon in the early game. I beat my opponent through multiple different angles of disruption: Chalice Thorn, Trinisphere, Golem Resistance etc. Your ability to lay down your artefact mana base through a T1 golem is fantastic. Shattering spree from the board (or wished for) is awesome. One game I destroyed 5 artifacts before turn 3 or so.

Boarding:
-1 Flusterstorm
-2 Duress
+1 Shattering Spree
+2 Ancient Grudge

Dredge(Cockatrice): (Favourable)
Dredge is pretty much a walkover. You are generally faster than their deck (was playing against dread returnless version) and it gets better post board as you bring in Rav Traps and nuke their GY after a Draw 7. I beat my opponent one game because he Dredged his GY after I Wheel him twice and I nuke his GY leaving him with 4 Narcomoeba  5 cards in Library and then I Wish for Pyroclasm GG. I have not tested against a version with dread return but the only difference would be a preference for not passing the turn on a Jar Hand.

Boarding:
-2 Duress
+2 Ravenous Trap

Cobra Gush (Live):Favourable
 This was only a small testing session but my opponent only won a single game when we had matching Tinkers T1 (mine for Jar and his for BSC), My Jar drew him into a force and I did not have 2 mana sources for Duress then Ritual and my first ritual got countered. Not needing to spend a turn casting a dude really gives me the edge.


Cerebral Assassin (Live):Extremely Favourable
 A friend was testing Chromatic Lantern in his old assassin deck (Bob, Welder, Shop, Bazaar) but the games are pretty short and I win most of them (I can’t remember losing but I might have)


Merkfolk (Reel Fish I think)(Live)-Extremely Favourable.
 I only lost one game of this testing Session to quadruple lord beats. The dudes make Necro a riskier play but I never felt like I would have any problem with the deck. Daze was a very annoying and multiple Daze effects are annoying but nothing more than that. I have so much mana that Daze is quickly outclassed and drain remains the only real spell of worry however the deck packs Wastes and Caverns meaning UU is not achieved until it’s too late. My deck was able to go off turn 2 through a waste effect and 2 Dazes on the draw.

Grixis(Cockatrice): (?Favourable?)
Grixis is a very good deck and requires discipline to beat. Your best bet is to go off early when they are tapping out for their bobs/Jace etc. An early force can set you back and the longer the games go, the more chance they have of “locking you out”, the onus is however again on your opponent because they are required to keep a counter heavy hand and be lucky enough to keep drawing into forces when you wheel. Misstep is not as bad as I originally thought it would be due to the only cards I generally care for getting countered at 1 are 4 Ritual, 1 A- Call, 1 Brainstorm and VT. This is a low number compared to some other storm builds where the bulk of plays are at 1 mana. Due to the huge amounts of acceleration I don’t run so many 1 drops. I only post favourable because I won more games than my opponent by a fair margin but depending on build Grixis in G1 can be tough. Post board Xantid Swarms come in and just take over the game if they resolve.

+4 Xantid Swarm
-2 of choice
-1 Rebuild
-1 Hurkyl's Recall


I have not tested the Dork Matchup but I believe that unless Stony Silence becomes a major player, you should have no problems. More target bounce/pyroclasm may have to come into the board to combat this shift.


Here are a few sample hands from the deck on the play vs Freddy the goldfish.

Opening 7:
Simian Spirit Guide
Chrome Mox
Cabal Ritual
Dark Ritual
VT
Duress
Mox Jet

Against Freddy the Goldfish this hand wins turn 3 through a piece of disruption. It is soft to chalice at 1 (which you can Duress) but beats a sphere also. I would keep this in a G1 scenario. I have randomized my hand so these are not cherry picked hands.

T1 20
Jet > Duress, Chrome Mox imprinting Cabal ritual > VT for Necro when necessary.

T2 18
Draw Necro. Ritual > Necro Pay 11 Life
 (Burning Wish X 2, Lotus, Forbidden Orchard, Mox Ruby, Duress, Cabal Ritual, Rebuild, Sol Ring, City of Brass, Mox Opal)Keep Lotus, Opal, Ruby, Cabal, Burning Wish, Duress.

T3 5
Duress(1), Lotus (2), Opal(3), Ruby(4), Lotus for black (BBB), Cabal Ritual (BBBB)(5), Tap Ruby (BBBBR), Burning Wish for Will(BBB)(6), Tap Chrome Mox (BBBB), Play Will (B) (7), Play Lotus (8), Dark Ritual (BBB) (9), Cabal Ritual (BBBB) (10), Tap Opal (BBBBR), Burning Wish (BBB) (11), Crack Lotus (BBBBBB), Duress (BBBBB)(12), Duress (BBBB) (13), Tendrils 14 Copies.

Opening Hand
Burning Wish
Mox Opal
Simian Spirit Guide
Vampiric Tutor
Ponder
Cabal Ritual
Duress

= Mulligan
Time Twister
Forbidden Orchard
Simain Spirit Guide
Black Lotus
Dark Ritual

Here is a risky hand. I would keep it but you can certainly argue that it dies to a Force. As Freddy is a goldfish, he will not force here. Shops/Dredge/Fish this is certainly a keep.

T1 20
Orchard, Lotus (1), Crack Lotus (BBB), Play and Tap Vault (BB3) (2), Tap Orchard (BB3U), Time Twister (BB1) (3), in response Exile SSG (BBR1) + Dark Ritual (BBBBR1) (4)
 Draw City of Brass, Burning Wish X 2, Mind’s Desire, Ponder, Sapphire
Sapphire and Tap (BBBBRU1)(5), Ancestral (BBBBR1)
Draw Crypt, Mox Ruby, Simian Spirit Guide
Mana Crypt and Tap (BBBBR3) (6), Mox Ruby and Tap (BBBBRR3) (7), Exile Simain (BBBBRR3), Burning Wish (Thoughseize) (BBBBR2) (8), Thoughtseize (BBBR2) (9), Burning Wish (Tendrils) (BBB1) (10), Tendrils for 11 copies

Final Hand
Wheel of Fortune
Duress
Dark Ritual
Dark Ritual
Sol Ring
Mox Sapphire
City of Brass

This hand offers you two distinct options, the balls to the walls involves fireing off a draw 7 this turn and going from there. I would however advise the Duress turn 1 to ensure your wheel resolves next turn.

T1 20
City of Brass, Duress.  Mox Sapphire > Sol Ring
T2 19
Draw Lotus Petal; now that’s a Draw.
Play Petal (1), Tap City and Sol Ring > Wheel (2). In response, Crack petal (B) Dark Ritual (BBB)(3) Dark Ritual (BBBBB)(4)
Draw Duress, Burning Wish, Hurkyl’s Recall, Memory Jar, Mind’s Desire, Regrowth, Vampiric Tutor (our storm plan ends here)
Duress (BBBB), Tap Sapphire Memory Jar

T3 18
Upkeep Tap Jar and cast VT (Lotus)
Draw Emerald, Opal, Orchard, Jet, fact or Fiction, Hukyl’s Recall, Black Lotus, Time Walk.
Play Orchard, Tap Sapphire + Sol Ring Cast Hurkyl’s Recall targeting opponent.  Move to second main phase. Play out mana sources (lotus first), Cast Time Walk

T4
Draw Chrome Mox
Tap Opal and Emerald cast Burning Wish (thoughtseize)(1), Tap Jet > Thoughtseize (2). Play Chrome Mox (3) Tap Sapphire + Sol Ring Cast hurkyl’s (1) (4).Play Lotus (5), Sapphire (6), Jet (7), Emerald (8), Opal (9) Sol Ring (10) Chrome Mox(Regrowth) (11) Crack Lotus (UUU),  Tap Sol Ring (UUU2) and Chrome Mox (UUU3), Mind’s Desire for 12 copies.
Reveal: Cabal Therapy, Dark Ritual, Burning Wish x 2, Simian Spirit Guide, Mana Vault, Rebuid, Tinker, Time Twister, 2 Gemstone mine, City of Brass.

From here you can win in an innumerable number of ways. Most basic way is play out mana sources and burning wish for tendrils.

Outro

The deck as you can see is certainly powerful and can rip apart the opponents not ready for it. I encourage you to pick it up and test it for yourself. My favourite thing however is that it has no prerequisites in order to start storming, in one game against shops I through the course of the game I Chrome Mox'd my Ancestral on turn 1 and my Tinker later in the turn. Having such superfluous cards seems great.

Enjoy

[Prospero]

Thank you for a very well thought out post.  The deck looks strong - good luck with it.

[brokenbacon]

Sick pile. Had I rituals etc., I would play that no question. Nice work!

[Phele]

Why two Tendrils? If you need a second, isn't it better to go after Will? And with the rainbow manabase and all these moxen, wouldn't Balance be better than Pyroclasm?

[Womprax]

Ranken Verbrennt makes no sense. Burning Tendrils would be Brennende Ranken.

[Phele]

I like Ranken Verbrennt, even from the germans perspective ...

[Lemnear]

Ranken Verbrennt makes no sense. Burning Tendrils would be Brennende Ranken.

QFT

Without any offense, the list seems a Look-alike of Stephen's and lacks a lot of explanation for Card choices which strengthen my Impression. Why orchard without oath sb? No demonic consultation? No Engine in the SB like diminishing returns? No LED? A Single flusterstorm over the 4th duress? 2 Tendrils?

[shrewarmies]

Why orchard without oath sb?

The Orchard is there basically because it is the second best 5 colour land. City of Brass only pings you for one while Orchard may bite you for 2 or three damage over a game. Putting oath in the SB would require 6 or so slots and even though I have stated there is more room than you have for a "normal" sideboard, 6 slots is a lot for a couple of matchups, and the cards that would be coming in against me from certain decks (e.g. Cage) hose the oath plan as well. As I pointed out above, the shops matchup at this point in time  is not bad enough to require an additional 4 SB slots (if I remove grudges and add 4 Oath+ 2 Dudes). I have not tested landstill yet but I was the only landstill player in the areas so that should be fine.  

No demonic consultation?

Consultation seemed too risky. I have not tested it extensively however my initial impression lead me to discarding it. This may be a mistake but I have not missed it thus far. I will be testing it again, I just did not run it on the weekend.

No Engine in the SB like diminishing returns?

This is a problem with my list. I did want a draw spell in my board in some games and I will certainly be testing some spells in the board

No LED?

I sold my LED a couple of weeks before the unrestriction. I found it not completely necessary during this particular tournament however I did find myself DTing for Lotus so perhaps it should go in.

A Single flusterstorm over the 4th duress?

I did discuss this in an earlier paragraph but let me rephrase. If you have a Flusterstorm in your GY when you Will you cannot lose period. Flusterstorm also can make sure your Will resolves if it is in your hand, much like a Duress which is the main role of Duress. It is also the smallest hedge against your opponents spells nothing major but it may be relevant.

2 Tendrils?

I was expecting Dark Times with Sad Sac in the board. Having the second Tendrills meant I could main one in game two so I would have to be hit by the card twice before I definatly lost. With only one tendrils in the board all but 1 Burning Wish can be taken making my life very hard. It also was a hedge against dork decks as it acts as a life gain spell and also again gets around mage naming Burning Wish

What other cards have I not explained?

EDIT: Updated name to reflect original intent

[boggyb]

Do add in Consultation for sure. It is one of the most powerful magic cards ever printed, but very few decks can reasonably support it. Yours can, easily.

[arj]

I really really like this list.

Have you considered/tested gifts ungiven? Is fact or fiction just that much better?

[shrewarmies]

I really really like this list.

Thanks man

Have you considered/tested gifts ungiven? Is fact or fiction just that much better?

Sorry about waiting so long to reply. I have just finished the final exams of my undergraduate course.

I tested gifts ungiven however I felt that it pulled the list in the wrong direction. I felt that Gifts power was maximised as an EOT play which this deck does not want to do. Fact, while powerful as an EOT play, was working better mid combo than Gifts was which was often restricted by a smaller than usual library. This deck realy cares about getting the maximum number of cards in hand, it has no "I win" gifts pile like Y Will, Time Vault, Key, Snapcaster which is where I prefer to be playing gifts.

Just last weekend I took the list with a couple of changes to another small tournament and managed to top 4 with through some of the worst draws I have ever had. The tournament was filled with unlikely draw 7's (a jar hand was 5 lands, a chrome mox and a SSG; this was the worst but not far off my typical draw 7's) and unlucky draws. No doubt some of this is due to construction but I feel that the main is sufficiently strong enough as is that even with these poor draw 7's that it does not need too much changing. For reference

The list I ran was:

Lands
4 City of Brass
4 Forbidden Orchard
2 Gemstone Mine
1 Tolarian Academy

Artifacts
1 Black Lotus
2 Chrome Mox
1 Lotus Petal
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mana Vault
1 Memory Jar
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Jet
2 Mox Opal
1 Mox Pearl
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Sol Ring
1 Lion's Eye Diamond

Creatures
2 Simian Spirit Guide

Enchantments
1 Necropotence
1 Yawgmoth's Bargain

Instants
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Brainstorm
2 Cabal Ritual
4 Dark Ritual
1 Flusterstorm
2 Hurkyl's Recall
1 Rebuild
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Demonic Consultation

Sorceries
4 Burning Wish
1 Demonic Tutor
3 Duress
1 Mind's Desire
1 Regrowth
1 Time Walk
1 Timetwister
1 Tinker
1 Wheel of Fortune
1 Windfall

Sideboard
1 Yawgmoth's Will
2 Tendrils of Agony
1 Empty the Warrens
1 Pyroclasm
1 Thoughseize
2 Ancient Grudge
1 Shattering Spree
2 Ravenous Trap
4 Xantid Swarm

Thats the OP's list -1 Ponder -1 Fact or Fiction +1 Lion's Eye Diamon +1 Demonic Consultation
I ran these changes because of the feedback I had received on here and While Demonic Consultation was indeed as fantastic as promised, LED was ok but I really did miss Fact or Fiction as the deck lost most of its top deck draw power which came up during the match I lost vs Shops.

The tournament was 3 rounds
R1 vs Espresso (2-1)
I had never seen the guy before so I assumed he was on a fish deck of some description and lose to T1 Lodestone Chalice, T2 Lodestone without revealing anything about my deck as I was forced to go land Sol Ring go and got my land wasted from under me leading to my only having a sol ring and no more mana facing two lodestones

-Flusterstorm
-3 Duress

+Thoughseize
+Empty the Warrens
+2 Ancient Grudge

I like to keep the Spree in the board as I will still have access to my anti artifact through BW

G2- I resolve a turn 1 Wheel which nets me nothing but mana and 2 x Hurkyls Recall but managed to get rid of his 2 opening shops and he is on the ancient tomb route in order to resolve things, I keep drawing more mana sources (and a time walk) and he resolves his 2nd lodestone and a smokestack on his turn and I Hurkyl's him. Next turn he draws lotus and resolves 2x lodestone and smokestack  and I hurkyl's him again and draw demonic consultation on my turn. I Consult for BW, get Will and DC for burning wish and tendrils him on 8 life.

G3- He mulls to 4 with Shop Crucible to my windfall. We both build resources and I again draw 2 Hurkyl's effects and win in due course to a lethal tendrils

Beating shops round 1 I felt good going into round 2

R2 vs Espresso Shops- (0-2) just my luck.
Game 1 I miscount my mana and cannot Desire T1 for 5 so I have to settle for a memory jar which I blow straight away searching for land and business and get the aforementioned 5 lands, a chrome mox  and a SSG and promptly lose.

Same Side boarding as before

G2- I keep an explosive hand of lots of mana and a BW but no real business. This game goes very long as I keep stalling for time by casting ancient grudge 3 times, I end up using my Burning Wish on a Shattering Spree but by then he has a smokestack at 2 counters and coupled with tangle wire and a Rishadon Port  I was always 1 mana short of clearing his board for a third time lost. This game made me mad because I draw 6 lands/mana sources in 9 draws. Completely unlikely but sometimes the odds are just not with you.

I played him a third time while waiting for the next round (on the draw- post SB) and won off a Empty for 8 Goblins turn 3-4 which got me there.

R3 vs Dredge.
I win my first Die Roll and promptly squash him on turn 2

-3 Duress

+1 Pyroclasm
+2 Ravenous Trap

G2- my opponent actually cheated without because he didn't know how memory jar worked and discarded his original hand and then dredged the draws, I didn't realise until it was too late but we moved onto game 3 anyway because we had time and my opponent was having a really tough time so we said meh.

G3- I crushed him as I do with dredge.


After the tournament I also sparred with a Dark Times player and went 3-1 losing only one match to a flying indestructable 20/20 when I had a 18 Goblins on the field and him on 16.

I really miss the draw spells that were in the original list. I am thinking of swapping the Brainstorm out for Ponder (I am running no fetches) and finding room for the fact or fiction to squeeze back in there. I also need a draw spell in the board. I have now seen Menendian's list and see that he is running Diminishing Returns in that slot so that's a possibility, Deep Analysis maybe.  With these changes I hope to alleviate my poor draws in the tournament especially round 2. Going forward I will be testing the following side board

1 Yawgmoth's Will
1 Tendrils of Agony
1 Empty the Warrens
1 Pyroclasm
1 Thoughtseize
1 Draw Spell (Diminishing Returns/Deep Analysis/???)
1 Shattering Spree
2 Ravenous Trap
2 Ancient Grudge
4 Xantid Swarm

[Purple Hat]

If you're gonna be wishing for it diminishing returns is the most efficient at 7 cards for 4 mana, but if you're worried about the remove 10 cards, concentrate is an option at 4 mana, council of the soratemi at 2U is cheaper for 2 cards and night's whispers at 1B, 2 life is very mana efficient.  for that matter, Trade Secrets at 1UU for 4 cards is also solid if you don't mind giving your opponent 2 cards.

[shrewarmies]

The remove 10 clause is not worrying me and I am leaning toward diminishing returns. Deep Analysis was offered up at the time of writing and I will be testing it but it does seem a little fair.

[arj]

Thanks for your long reply. I've been testing chain of vapor instead of rebuild and have been VERY happy about it. It deals with thalia, stoney and can also be used for storm on moxen.

Also I've been testing the 1 Xantid Swarm in main, as Menendian suggested for a non-oath list and have also been happy about it.

I feel this deck is much stronger than the oath variant, but don't tell anyone

[shrewarmies]

If thalia amd stony are the main targets have you tested repeal? If you have a strong presence of dude decks not being misstepable may or may notbe relavent. I also cringe at the idea of my memry jar or necro being bounced back to my hand.

 Thalia and stony  are almost non existant in my area so while there has been traditonally a strong shops presenceso I ran rebuild as a hedge aginst those decks.

which slot are you running the bug in?

[Purple Hat]

Thanks for your long reply. I've been testing chain of vapor instead of rebuild and have been VERY happy about it. It deals with thalia, stoney and can also be used for storm on moxen.

Also I've been testing the 1 Xantid Swarm in main, as Menendian suggested for a non-oath list and have also been happy about it.

I feel this deck is much stronger than the oath variant, but don't tell anyone

I find that I'm beating the hell out of blue decks without xantid.  do you really find you need it?

[shrewarmies]

I like Xantid swarm as a measure against countermagic obviously. It's a great catchall against any deck playing counter spells or things that are likely to get in your way. They are just a little added insurance at the moment which is nice, but like insurance not a necessity. They could certainly move out of the board if you are finding the U match-up easy enough post board. At the moment the U pilots are starting to warm up to Flusterstorm more than they have in the past so I like having the little green insects, especially if they are siding out their bolts etc.

What would you propose to move into the board in their place? I have always said that the original sideboard was not optimal, hopefully we can move it toward that goal.

[Purple Hat]

my comment was in reference to the single copy in the main, but I'd rather have at least 1 diminishing returns and more shop hate in my board.  I'd also prefer Balance to Pyroclasm since you don't play creatures main, play few lands and can usually easily spend your hand for good value.  returns turns all your wishes into potential draw 7's effectively upping your bomb count by 4.

[shrewarmies]

I mistook your response regarding Xantid swarm.

I don't feel that the singleton copy in the main is necessarily bad, its just not a choice that I would have made as you want to be winning game 1 as much as possible, whether going for sheer speed or being able to "drop bombs" repeatedly and Xantid does not help with that in most matchups unlike another mana source or a draw spell. It would be great against Landstill (which I was the only player in my meta, so not a problem for me) but I do find that I am beating most other U decks fairly consistantly without it. If you are expecting alot of drain control decks it could be good choice and a smart metagame slot but its certainly not a given to be part of the main deck.

I am testing both diminshing returns and deep analysis in the board at the moment as well as trying to slot FoF back into the deck. The next tourney I will take it to will be Dec 1 and I will let everyone know my results. Due to it being the final event of the year for us it is looking like it will be bigger than normal which wil be good.

Balance is interesting in the board...

[shrewarmies]

Yesterday I ran the burnt tendrils in a 12 man tournament and placed a extremely disapointing 5th (no top 8) due to bad luck in R1 and a serious missplay in Round 4 which lead to that game being a draw and missing top 4 by 2 percentage points to Ken who I drew with. I made a few changes to the deck taking into account suggestions from here as well as changes for the expected meta  and the deck ran quite well.

The list I ran was

Joshua Butler – Verbrannte Ranken

4 City of Brass
4 Forbidden Orchard
2 Gemstone Mine
1 Tolarian Academy

2 Simian Spirit Guide

1 Necropotence
1 Yawgmoth’s Bargain

1 Ancestral Recall
2 Cabal Ritual
4 Dark Ritual
1 Demonic Consultation
1 Chain of Vapour
2 Hurkyl’s Recall
1 Rebuild
1 Vampiric Tutor

4 Burning Wish
1 Demonic Tutor
3 Duress
1 Mind’s Desire
1 Ponder
1 Regrowth
1 Timetwister
1 Time Walk
1 Tinker
1 Wheel of Fortune
1 Windfall

1 Black Lotus
2 Chrome Mox
1 Lion’s Eye Diamond
1 Lotus Petal
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mana Vault
1 Memory Jar
5 Moxen
1 Sol Ring

Sideboard
1 Diminishing Returns
1 Empty the Warrens
1 Balance
1 Shattering Spree
1 Tendrils of Agony
1 Thoughtseize
1 Yawgmoth’s Will
2 Ancient Grudge
2 Ravenous Trap
4 Xantid Swarm

The Cliffnotes changes to the last list are

- 1 Brainstorm
- 1 Flusterstorm
SB: - 1 Pyroclasm
SB: - 1 Tendrils of Agony

+ 1 Ponder
+ 1 Chain of Vapour
SB: + 1 Diminishing Returns
SB + 1 Balance

These were pretty simple changes to the list as I expected a meta full of Shops and Fish so took out the weakest card (Flusterstorm) and having Tarmogoyfs on the other side of the board diminished the power of Pyroclasm so I tried out balance and was correct (6/12 decks). This lead to me running Chain of Vapour in the Flusterstorm slot as an extra bounce spell for Null Rod/ Stony Silence which really hurt the previous deck.

A quick rundown of the event

R1) Daniel Dowse- Mono R Shops

This round was decided by who mulliganed to 5. I lost the die roll and mulled down to 5 to my opponents 7 and my opponents opening was very good w Lodestones and Welder and we shortly moved to game 2.

- 3 Duress
+ 2 Ancient Grudge
+ 1 Empty the Warrens

G2) My opponent mulligans to 5 and I open with an Empty the Warrens for 8 off my mana acceleration and he really doesn't do much. On turn 2 I go off completely and kill him.

G3) I mull to Lotus, Grudge, Timetwister, Hurkyl's and X. He lands a turn 1 Smokestack  and I hold the Lotus, he drops Karn on turn 2 and bashes me with a smokestack. I drop Lotus and Grudge the Karn his deck slowly puts stuff on the board  while I hold back the lands as much as possible  but there really was no chance as he keeps wasting me and Bazaaring to find more wastes and spheres and I scoop shortly after

0-2 (0-1) (0-2)

R2) Luke Mccandless -Martello Shops

G1- MOAR SHOPS. I lose the die roll but manage to scrounge a win through a Hurkyl's Recall Timetwister combo to wipe his board and combo the next turn

Same sideboarding as R1

G2) This game goes longer than usual and midgame my opponent puts a chalice at 2 to stop my win cons however I am able to tutor for the rebuild and combo out with Yawgmoth's Bargain.

2-0 (1-1) (2-2)

R3) James Dowling (Oath)

My opponent wins the die roll and keeps a sketchy Mox Preordain + business hand and I am able to combo his face through force and 2 missteps on and he never gets another turn.

-  2 Hurkyl's Recall
- 1 Chain of Vapour
- 1 Rebuild

+4 Xantid Swarm

G2) Game two he opens with an oath and has the flusterstorm for my draw 7 and Emrakul bashes me down very early

G3) I open with a duress and take his flusterstorm leaving him with land X 3 and 2 Oath  and something irrelevant. He plays Oath on turn 2 while I set up for an insane turn. I fight through a misstep to kill him with his active oath not doing much.

2-1 (2-1) (4-2)

R4) Kenneth Cheong (U/W Bomberman)
G1) This game is one of the most tense games of magic I have played in a very long time if not ever. He wins the die roll and keeps a disruption heavy hand with T1 Sensei's Divining Top, Mox go. Ken is a very good player and knows which spells to counter and this game goes long. Mental missteps, leaks and forces counter what needed to be countered however the cost of all this disruption means that he had no real board presence for the first few turns. I Burning Wish for the Will and he responds on his turn for with a Trinket Mage for a Grafdiggers Cage. I decide to vamp a few turns later putting me to 12 life when he flashes in a Mindcensor and I took at my top 4 and see Emerald, Ancestral, Hurkyls and City of Brass and I have to tank here to decide my future play. If I take the Hurkyls and he has another counterspell I just lose, If I take the ancestral he may let that resolve and try and counter something relevant. I decide that I am dead in 2 turns either way so I take the Hurkyl's. He bashes me down to 4 on his turn and I win the crypt roll. I have fought through so many counterspells at this point that I finally get the Hurkyl's to resolve which bounces the cage and I cast will. However I don't get full use of my Academy as he blows his explosives on 0 when I start replaying my mana sources so I am forced to use my city of brass taking me down to 3 (thank god I won the crypt roll ). I am in the clear (counterwise) but due to his explosive I no longer have the mana to do the full storm 10 and Ken knows this. I keep mulling over what I can do and I am at storm 6 where I have the mana for a wheel effect or I can just BW for the tendrils and hope to gain some time, I consult the life totals and go for option 2. I cast the tendrils and Ken checks the mana, checks the storm
"ok"
"thats 8 storm"
"ahuh"
"you take 16, I gain 16"
"ok, cool"
"You're on 14"
"oh..."
"Game 2"

The game was soo close, he had all the answers in the opening turns, he made his board presence known but I had the luck to hit the hurkyl's, win the die roll on crypt and make it by the skin of my teeth.

- 2 Hurkyl's Recall
- 1 Chain of Vapour
- 1 Rebuild

+4 Xantid swarm

G2) I open with a duress and follow it up with a xantid swarm however he has the mindcensor for the flash blocker and I am unable to go off and I lose to creature beats and counterspells

G3) We only have a short period of time remaining in the round as game 1 went for so long.  I open with Mox Jet, Dark Ritual (countered) Chrome Mox imprinting Necro, Sapphire, Ancestral Recall (Resolve) City of Brass Time Walk.  I Draw DT and DT for the Lotus and pass. Two turns later I missplay for the loss as I  do not Duress my opponent before playing the Mana Vault in my hand  which gets misstepped  and I cannot cast the  Mind's desire for 4 on turn 2 of turns (I think). My opponent cannot kill me in time and we time out. We play it out and I combo off  on effective turn 6 of time but that was too late. My games with Ken were really good games but unfortunately I missplayed on the penultimate turn and so I missed top 4 by 2% to ken.

1-2 (2-1-1) (5-4)

I had a blast and this deck really is competetive. I feel good bringing it to a tournament because I know it has the power to do well and be resiliant to alot of the decks out there. I am not sure of the Chain of Vapour/Flusterstorm switch as a permanent thing but it was certainly the correct call for the day. I am still not sold on balance but I'll keep testing it.

Food for thought:
I did not wish/cast Thoughtseize, Diminishing Returns, Balance during the tournament or the practice games with the eventual winner Weng