Gush Tendrils

Gush Tendrils

Gush Tendrils incorporates Fastbond and various draw spells to achieve the necessary storm count to win the game with Tendrils of Agony. This has been a successful archetype for at least a few years. The deck has many different variations and win conditions including: Tinker for any number of artifacts or artifact creatures, Yawgmoth's Will into Tendrils of Agony, Brain Freeze has been used, and also Time Vault/Voltaic Key combo.

Different versions of Gush Tendrils take on varying strategies to achieve a similar objective: casting Tendrils of Agony. Cards such as Regrowth and Noxious Revival are common additions because they allow for the recursion of draw spells, and the retrieval of spells vital to winning the game.

Fastbond
Fastbond maximizes the use of Gush to draws spells and replay land in an attempt to chain spells into a game winning Tendrils of Agony. Although this card can enable turn one and two wins, it is much more common for the deck to wait for the opportune time to begin chaining spells together. This time can be when the opponent is tapped out, or your hand has adequate protection to resolve vital spells such as Yawgmoth's Will.

Gush
It is important to cast this spell to maximize its effects. Casting for the alternative cost of returning two islands to your hand when you have not played a land for the turn is an example. It is not always possible to have Fastbond in play, but it is not always necessary either. The opponent's counter magic can also help the deck achieve the correct storm count. Gush also allows you to draw the cards that have been searched for with Vampiric and Mystical Tutor. Sensei's Divining Top also facilitates these types of plays.

Hurkyl's Recall/Repeal/Thoughtseize
One of this deck's strengths is its ability to interact with Workshops game one. Thoughtseize disrupts the opponent's strategy possibly allowing for a board presence to be created. If not, Repeal can bounce Chalice of the Void on zero, so that Moxen can be played. The combination of counter spells, discard, and bounce spells are important to generate storm count. Post s/b, Dark Confidant can be used against Workshops the same as it was used in the deck GWSx. The Dark Confidants will allow you to draw into your bounce spells while chipping away the opponents life total.

Treasure Cruise/Dig Through Time
It is more common at this time for Dig Through Time to be played in multiples ranging from two to four. This deck uses one of each because they facilitate different advantages. Treasure Cruise can be used as an alternative to Ancestral Recall because of the possibility of Mental Misstep being in your opponents hand. It can be cast when you only have one blue mana available, and it will generate the same effect as an Ancestral Recall. The absence of Regrowth in this deck is partially compensated for by this card.

Dig Through Time can change the direction of the game in many ways. The ability to take two cards from the top seven cards of the library is a strong play for combo decks. More often than not this card will tip the game in your favor. Finding Fastbond/Gush, Gush/counter spell, Yawgmoth's Will/Thoughseize just to name few examples, can be what it takes to win the game. This card opens up so many possibilities for taking different lines of play that the versatility of the deck as a whole is increased exponentially.

Remand
Remand is an extremely versatile card in this deck. You can bait out counters with any number of your spells, and then return them to your hand while drawing a new card. You can mini Tendrils and return it to your hand, and possibly cast it again. You can also effectively Time Walk your opponent with Remand. This card has the potential to win games.

General Strategy
This deck is not typically aggressive in the beginning turns of the game. Patience is important with this deck as generating storm count is the path to victory. Sculpting your hand is more important than trying to enter into counter wars without a clear path to find a Tendrils of Agony. Library of Alexandria is ideal for achieving this objective, but the deck normally plays the waiting game even without it. Mana Drain, Mental Misstep, Force of Will, Misdirection, and Thoughtseize provide strong disruption while you wait for your opportunity. Different versions of the deck might prefer to recur Ancestral Recall with Regrowth and Noxious Revival. Similarly, this deck has that line of play in the form of Noxious Revival and or Yawgmoth's Will. This variation of Gush Tendrils borrows many strategies from many decks to become more versatile.

Side Board plans for the current meta

RUg Delver
-2 Repeal, -2 Hurkyl's Recall / +1 Tinker +1 Sphinx of the Steel Wind, +1 Flusterstorm, +1 Misdirecton

Dredge
-2 Hurkyl's Recall,-1 Remand, -3 Thoughtseize, -1 Misdirection / +2 Pithing Needle, +2 Grafdigger's Cage, +3 Yixlid Jailer

Workshops
-3 Mental Misstep, -2 Flusterstorm, -1 Misdirection / +2 Pithing Needle, +1 Hurkyl's Recall, +3 Dark Confidant

Oath
-2 Hurkyl's Recall, -1 Remand, -1 Preordain / +2 Grafdigger's Cage, +1 Misdirection, +1 Flusterstorm

Various blue matchups
Bringing in the Dark Confidants for various Vault/Key or Dark Confidant Strategies has been effective.

The evolution of the Vintage format causes decks to change over time, so the list shown here is for the meta game directly following the printing of Treasure Cruise and Dig Through Time. Workshops, Delver, and Oath are prevalent in many meta games, so their influence is heavily realized in this list.

Artifacts
Black Lotus
Mox Sapphire
Mox Jet
Mox Emerald
Mana Vault
Mana Crypt
Sol Ring
Sensei's Divining Top

Enchantments
Fastbond

Instants
Ancestral Recall
Brainstorm
Dig Through Time
Gush x4
Force of Will x4
Mana Drain
Mental Misstep x3
Misdirection
Flusterstorm x2
Remand
Repeal x2
Hurkyl's Recall x2
Mystical Tutor
Vampiric Tutor
Noxious Revival

Sorceries
Demonic Tutor
Yawgmoth's Will
Tendrils of Agony
Thoughtseize x3
Ponder
Preordain
Treasure Cruise
Time Walk

Land
Library of Alexandria
Tolarian Academy
Underground Sea x3
Tropical Island x2
Island x2
Misty Rainforest x4
Scalding Tarn x2

Sideboard
Grafdigger' Cage x2
Pithing Needle x2
Yixlid Jailer x3
Dark Confidant x3
Tinker
Sphinx of the Steel Wind
Flusterstorm
Misdirection
Hurkyl's Recall

Update - This is the list that I am using as of April 20, 2015. More decks are using Gitaxian Probe, so in order to keep up I have also included a play set. Four Probes cause this deck to run much more smoothly. However, as a result of their inclusion the Shops match is worse game one, but it was never the best match in game one anyway. The deck is much better against blue decks now, and games two and three against Shops might be easier to play. The Dark Confidant plan against Shops was effective, but the new s/b does not allow for its inclusion. The deck is also much more fun to play now that it set up to play against blue in game one.

1 Island
4 Underground Sea
2 Tropical Island
1 Tolarian Academy
1 Library of Alexandria
4 Scalding Tarn
2 Flooded Strand

1 Sol Ring
1 Mana Crypt
1 Lotus Petal
1 Mana Vault
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Jet

1 Sensei's Divining Top

1 Jace, the Mind Sculptor

1 Fastbond

1 Demonic Tutor
1 Time Walk
1 Ponder
1 Preordain
4 Gitaxian Probe
1 Tendrils of Agony
1 Yawgmoth's Will
1 Regrowth
1 Merchant Scroll

4 Force of Will
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
4 Gush
2 Dig Through Time
1 Noxious Revival
1 Brainstorm
1 Hurkyl's Recall
2 Flusterstorm
3 Mental Misstep
1 Misdirection

SB: 2 Pithing Needle
SB: 2 Yixlid Jailer
SB: 2 Hurkyl's Recall
SB: 1 Tinker
SB: 1 Toxic Deluge
SB: 2 Tormod's Crypt
SB: 1 Blightsteel Colossus
SB: 2 Thoughtseize
SB: 2 Trygon Predator

Update - Two maindeck Thoughtseize, One Monastery Seige, and one Mana Drain have proven more consistent than Gitaxian Probe. The additional disruption improves the Shops and Oath Matchup while having synergy with the strategy. Monastery Seige allows one to find important cards faster while having extreme synergy with Yawgmoth's Will. It is also very good in the Shops match. In the place of the second Thoughtseize in the s/b I have added Sphinx of the Steel Wind. The Tinker package is brought in against Mentor decks that are playing the creature package rather than planeswalkers. In the Shops match Sphinx is brought in as an additional blue card to pitch if not to just Tinker in. This build has a very good match against Mentor decks as long as one is experienced with the correct lines to take.