[Deck] Meandeck Tendrils

[Yawgs_sammich]

quoth Suacemaster: "The order in which you listed them there is interesting"

As far as I can tell from playing the deck (mostly goldfishing), Ancestral is almost never the *wrong* answer (it just may not be the "perfect play" answer).  I agree that my playtesting is no where near as much as yours (or your team's) and I freely admit that my playskill is not probably much poorer, I have almost never regretted digging out Ancestral.  the occurances of drawing three crap cards in a row are just too rare.  And should Yawgmoth come a callin', I will always want Ancestral waiting in the yard.  So while I am almost undoubtably playing less than perfect, my order of tutoring is: Will, Ancestral, Lotus, then specific combo piece.  My logic being that with those first three cards, I sure as hell better be able to draw something in the fourth group.

[Saucemaster]

Oh I certainly never meant to impugn your play with the deck.  But I think what I'm trying to drive at is that whenever possible it's better to "win small" with the deck than it is to go for the big effect.  This deck wins in increments, and if you really just need to grab a Cabal Ritual to fuel your remaining draw and have the extra mana afterwards to cast Tendrils, then often all going for Ancestral will do is give your opponent a juicy target to counter.  Obviously Ancestral will pan out the majority of the time if you tutor it up, but it's on the margins where your tournament success (if any...) will be found.

Mostly I'm just intrigued by the fact that you seem to be playing the deck a little differently than I do; I usually find that the limiting factor in my play of the deck is mana, not storm count or the number of cards I see.  I was mostly just surprised that I didn't see Lotus at the top of your list.

[Shock Wave]

I was mostly just surprised that I didn't see Lotus at the top of your list.

Agreed. If the cards were listed in order of importance (I'm not sure if that was the intention), Lotus is the best choice. By "the best choice", I mean that in the majority of circumstances, the Lotus is best card to tutor for, but obviously not exclusively. Ancestral is often superfluous whereas a Lotus is essential to winning.

[Yawgs_sammich]

It sounds like i have just had some odd luck when playing, because i have more often run out of business cards then mana.  I have found that a lot of times I have no gas in my hand but enough mana to throw into an egg on a wing and a prayer that the topdeck will be some draw.  I will agree that I probably try to "win big" instead of incrementally though, so I am probably blowing my load of cards faster than I can spend my mana.

[Yawgs_sammich]

I am probably also playing it as more of a Will deck than a cantrip deck.  which goes back to Saucemaster's comment about winning incrementally.  I guess i more play with the intention of playing 5-6 spells then yawgwill and winning than just playing 9 then and tendrils.  Which is probably a poor choice on my part.

[Fall-Titan]

I see that you have chrome mox in the board. How often and when do you board it in? It seems like an include in the main deck as i cannot see a matchup where it breaks the deck enough to put it in from the board.

[thecapn]

I board Chrome Mox in against decks with Trinisphere and Chalice of the Void but no countermagic.  In these matchups you generally just want to win ASAP, so you board out the Polluted Delta in favor of the Chrome Mox in order to maximize the odds of winning turn 1 at the cost of some stability.  Chrome Mox was main deck in earlier lists (including the one we played at Waterbury), but we cut it for Chain of Vapor.  Often times Chrome Mox is played without imprint to up your storm, something Chain of Vapor often does better, and Chain of Vapor is needed against main deck hate cards such as Platinum Angel more than having a conditional mox.

[Smmenen]

To the comment made on the previous page: I actually tested Desperate Research - but you have to name a card and it only sees the top 7.

[smilerz]

Mostly I'm just intrigued by the fact that you seem to be playing the deck a little differently than I do; I usually find that the limiting factor in my play of the deck is mana, not storm count or the number of cards I see.  I was mostly just surprised that I didn't see Lotus at the top of your list.

I know that earlier you stated that you liked Night Whisper because you draw two cards off it.  Ever thought about trying Plunge into Darkness?  It can serve as a redundant Spoils that can't kill you, and even though it only replaces itself, you should be able to dig deep enough to always find a DR or Cabal Ritual.

[Smmenen]

Many of the questions in this thread are now answered by my pair of articles.  

I know that people had lots of questions about how to play any particular hand.  Does anyone have a hand that they might be interested in talking about?  I'd like to discuss it if people are still interested.