What do Xantids provide?
they provide protection against Force of Will, which is played by every deck running
they provide protection against Drains, which is played by Drain Tendrils, Control Slaver, Tyrant
and Tog.
Essentially it provides protection against
control elements and prevents the casting of Brain Freeze when you cast a top deck tutor.
What's the cost?
You must run reliable
sources to facilitate Xantids.
You must resolve a Xantid and pass the turn
or resolve a Timewalk to make them effective.
I think you need to look at a few things: How controling is the meta you play in? Are there a large number of Drain decks?, is the meta relativly slow in terms of the average turn in which the competition wins? and how fast is the deck you are piloting vs. your ability to see the fastest/most reliable path to victory.
In concerns to the last element, you shouled be aware that a deck like Grim Long, requires very little in terms of counter measures to win a game/match in the hands of a well versed pilot. On the other hand, a Grim Long list can be disasterous in the hands of a player that cannot see beyond the obvious lines of play that ANY Tendrils/Yawg'sWill list provides.
If you are intermediate or new in nature (be honest with yourself) to Tendrils/Will lists, then playing Tropical Storm with Xantids might be a good match for you. To be honest, if I played Grim Long, I would make an unacceptable number of play mistakes, and would opt for Ponder Long (Super Long) or Tropical Storm to suit my play abilities/style.
Haunted.
Agreed on your points for the most part.
Answer number 1: I play in the Northeast metagame (the biggest and most vibrant Vintage metagame around? The only consistently active metagame around? The metagame of TMD players), and usually only have time for the big Stradfordbury events.
Answer number 2: I wouldn't call myself a masterful Vintage player like ELD, or Rich Shay or Stephen Menendian, but I think most of that is due to lack of experience and not being up-to-date on metagame switches and cardpool changes and stuff like that. Vintage is just soooo vast in cardpool that it can be difficult to keep up on the latest "tech". . . until someone pwns you with it! However, all of that aside, I think that I am most comfortable piloting at the head of the Ritual/Yawgwin steamship and I always have been, oddly enough. You'd think that Storm combo would be one of the most difficult things to master and require a deep knowledge of the card pool, but I actually like how everything is compacted in to a couple turns and you basically have to keep track of only what might kill you. I find that fish players and control players must be far more versed in the current card pools as games can go long and many different card interactions will come up.
Storm combo is difficult because it requires extremely tight play and foresight. Kinda like chess. However, I think it does not require as much knowledge of the cardpool as you can generally gather what might beat you and usually the number of cards that might beat you in a given situation can be counted on one hand
. I like mathematical puzzles and I find the "Storm Math" to be exciting when you are trying to find some way to eek out 20 points of damage (or less depending) to your opponent before they gain control of the game and end you. High stakes, but high rewards.
I really like that Storm Combo doesn't tie often too because of its speed. I hate ties at tournaments. They are so lame.
