Hi Ad Naus players. I'm preparing for a big-ish tournament and I was wondering about sideboarding against Ad Naus.
Is it the norm to just run the one Laboratory Maniac? If so, having abrupt decay in hand to insulate against the Lab Man win is effective? Many thanks =)
Decay does typically beat Maniac, at least if they don't have a lot of mana to preemptively TS. But Storm is a much safer win con against BGx to begin with, so I wouldn't depend on it if they execute the combo. That said, Decay is a solid card to bring in anyway, as it stops Unlife, plus Prism and Bloom in a pinch if they aren't comboing that turn.
Also, be careful about keeping too much G2/G3 discard. Leyline can shut down that entire disruptive plan and leave you with 8+ dead cards.
I played with a Snapcaster Mage in the side against discard decks and it worked so well. Even against Control, it was a good one. I'm not very familiar with Humans however, I guess Torpor Orb would be the best.
So far with my testing, it really doesnt seem like there is much of an opportunity cost at all for having three tolaria wests and there are some reasonable benefits. It makes control almost impossible to lose against (it was already a very good matchup though, gives us a both a game 1 out to humans and makes game 2/3 more winnable, and was even used to find black sources against hatebear decks. I am wondering if there is a way to optimize this list, I feel like the one darkslick shores could probably be turned into a utility land, but im not sure which.
This list is interesting. I'm glad to see 3 Tolaria for fetching other cards. I'm not sold on 3, it might be too much in an open meta. If you're only facing control decks however or some midrange like Hatebears, it could work well with 2 Tolaria.
Right now, I'm probably the only one running a fetch/shock list with Peer/Teachings. I know Byrd still does, but I haven't heard about Benson or Ragle lately. Benavides is on 8 temples too. Anyways, here's my list, it could be of help to smooth things :
I'm running 1 Tolaria, but I could go to 2 in extreme circumstances such as way too many control decks and/or random stuff that needs slaughter pact or pact of negation.
I've been off of AdNaus for a while, but I'm looking to run with something pretty close to this list on Friday - it's almost certainly a bad idea considering my local meta, but I love the deck enough to possibly throw one event.
Mainboard is basically the stock layout for mainboard Leylines - I like 3 main because I'm dealing with plenty of Thoughseize decks and it's nice splash damage to further lock up a good matchup against the 3 or so local burn pilots. I'm running Dreadship Reef as my 20th land, which I generally like when playing 4 Gemstone Mine and 0 City of Brass. Other considerations there would be Mikokoro for the reasonable amount of control, or just the safe 4th Temple of Deceit. Urborg is also fine, especially with the 4 Gemstone Mine. However, I tend to default to Reef in the flex land slot when playing the other flex card, Teachings over 3rd Spoils. This is possibly getting too cute with the Gifts sideboard package, but I like the idea of having Gifts be live for Visions, Sleight, Teachings and either a Spoils or Temple. Outside of being great with Gifts, it's a perfectly reasonable flex spot card on its own so I'm ok with having one in the main.
The sideboard is a bit of a mess right now, I'll admit. The Gifts board is something I've been wanting to try, as it wasn't really a thing the last time I sleeved up AdNaus and I think it's space worth exploring. Having a one-card combo that can catch people off-guard when you don't have enough mana represented for an Ad Nauseam win feels really big, and Blazing Archon feels like an autowin against some awful matchups like Humans and Infect. However, only having 9 slots outside of the Gifts package is obviously more constrained than I'm used to working with, so I'll have to sit down and figure out what matchups Gifts doesn't really help, so I can dedicate more to those matchups. In particular, I'm not sold on the 2 Bontu's, because a lot of the decks you want wraths against have games end the second you get Blazing Archon into play. I'm also worried about not having a card like Elspeth Sun's Champion or Grave Titan for the midrange decks, and that I might be leaning on the mainboard leylines a bit too hard there.
I would love to hear some thoughts from anyone who's played the Gifts sideboard, and also mainboard Leyline builds. Like I said, Gifts in AdNaus is new to me, and I've only played about 4 or 5 FNM-type events with mainboard Leylines.
I came here to talk about the absolut need (or not) in having the leylines on the sideboard.
But then i see ^^ this guy with them on the maindeck and maybe its too soon to adress the elephant in the room
Yeah, Leyline is incredibly powerful. There are basically two ways to fight the combo - on the stack or out of the hand. Pact of Negation fights back on the stack, Leyline covers hand disruption. Depending on the meta, one can be more important than the other, so 3/0 and 2/3 are common splits, with the rest of the playsets in the board.
Why do people play the 4th Pact of Negation in the SB and not dispel?
The fact that pact is "free" gives it a huge advantage over dispel. For example, it allows you to roll out an unlife on t3 and still have the ability to counter something. As far as paying for pact, often times you will just win on top of the pact trigger, and if not, angels grace in response to the pact trigger. Another big advantage of running a 4th pact over dispel is that it gives you better odds at not killing yourself if you need to spoils for pact.
Ok, lets adress the elephant in the room, i cant take it no more
Im an ADN player for more than 3 years with thousands of games on me.
When people that dont play the deck ask me, what are the worse matchups of the deck, i often tell them "Infect, and then any midrange deck with black on it".
When they ask me then, how can i beat this black midrange decks, i just say "4 leylines in, and pray to have one in your opening hand".
In the last months though, this tranformed into "4 leylines in, and pray to have one in your opening hand...because then if you dont, you will be tempted to mulligan into it...after all 6 with leyline is always better than 7 without it...and you mulligan a good hand...and then your 6 is kinda horrible, but it has a leyline on it...will you mulligan or keep...if you keep youll lose to decays on the prisms and unlifes while looking to an ad nauseam, safely secured in your hand...if you mulligan, your down to five and the odds of getting another leylines are getting thiner...you know what, one day ill try playing without them, but not today"
That day came though. Over the past 6 months ive been regularly playing without leylines in my 75.
When you drop the leylines, you get 4 new spots in the sideboard, and there are so many cards, that cover a lot of bases, than can be put in the side.
But the main question obviously was "will my win percentage agains black midrange decks decline, or not". And i s*** you not, it didnt.
I play the spoils version with 2 Lightning storm main and 1 Echoing truth as a one of.
My current sideboard is:
3 Bontus last reckoning
3 swan song
2 Thoughtseize
1 Gigadrowse
1 Phyrexian Unlife
1 wear//tear
1 Laboratory Maniac
1 Pact of Negation
1 Slaughter pact
1 Fatal Push
I started to realize fogs arent good anymore, we need to kill the cretures on the other side of the table, specially now that humans is a super strong deck.
So i wanted a sweeper, started with languish and then damnation but 4 was too much and sometimes a turn too late, so i opted for BLR for its cost. Ive lost games because of the no-untap clause, but the card saved way more times.
To end the kill package i have the slaughter pact, an all time classic, and i added a fatal push wich kills most relevant creatures in the format.Also the 4th Phyrexian Unlife for aggro.
Then against control, i had the 4th pact on the side and i wanted now to find a good and versatile counter and swan song is just that. And i think 3 is the right number. Against pure control decks, it just acts like a dispel. A 2/2 when youre trying to combo is irrelevant. And against Blood moon decks, its an enchantment hard counter, that can be ready as soon as turn 1.
Gigadrowse is an mvp against control decks that rely on counters. Also i found that gigadrowse can be good against some creature based decks that rely on attacking with few creatures, and also aganis tron, where it acts like a time walk on turn 2. (tapping both their tower and mine on their 3rd turn upkeep, then they just play the power plant and pass, holding a karn in hand. this sometimes is the diference beetween a win and a loss, against tron).
Thoughtseize is also another mvp against control decks, tron decks (taking exp map turn 1 is priceless and later the big threats).
Wear//tear and our bro laboratory maniac finish the slots, as 2 measures against hate cards and idiotic strategies (eg. soul sisters).
Against black midrange decks, i found there is only one solution: play good.
Just play good.
I started to keep the classic "air hands", basically hands with a mix of lands and some cantrips. The less of my combo i have in my hand at the begining, the better. Then start thinking turns in advance. Make a plan and follow it.
Thoughtseize has proven to be a very good card against these decks, either to take out the decay turn1 and be able to play prism turn 2 safely, or just to seize his seize before you triple cantrip and pass with a hand that kills next turn.
Also i started to feel my wins were not just leyline wins.
I'm glad that someone else like me is toying with Engineered Explosives in the sideboard to complement the Tolaria West in the main which is great in fetching Pact of Negation or Slaughter Pact (for Meddling Mage) -- does anyone else hate the Humans matchup like me??
I've also been toying with the Gifts package and the additional sideboard slots needed is a curse especially drawing the needed fatty when cantripping. Looks like Faithless Looting + missing combo piece + fatty + Unburial Rites is the safest way but it's just bad that Faithless Looting takes up another slot and this is weak against a resolved Liliana of the Veil on turn 3. Sigarda, Host of Herons can hose it but uses another slot. I've also been toying with 1 Griselbrand rather than the Blazing Archon since it can draw 14 cards to pull off the combo and can stall 1 or more turns with the opponent fearing the lifelink. So I currently have
3 Gifts Ungiven
1 Iona
1 Elesh Norn (I think Blazing Archon can replace this instead) unless we run Timely Reinforcements or Lingering Souls
1 Blazing Archon
1 Griselbrand
1 Sigarda, Host of Herons
I've been pretty much using a 3 Leyline build before mainboard since it gives a cleaner answer even to the Humans matchup against Kitesail Freebooter that gets Phantasmal Image'd and of course the various discard decks. Was comfortable with 2 Pact of Negations mainboard but had to re-tool my build because of the prevalence of Jeskai and Humans. I will be trying to fetch build finally next week with City of Brass and I might switch to 3 Mystical Teachings instead of 2 Spoils. Mystical Teachings is easier to cast T3 or T4 with less fastlands. I might also replace the Lab Maniac with a second Lightning Storm to help kill a Meddling Mage or an Echoing Truth (against a T0 Leyline from Bogles) replacing Slaughter Pact. Slots are pretty tight right now!!
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plays Ad Nauseam and Amulet Bloom in Modern
"He traded sand for skins, skins for gold, gold for life. In the end, he traded life for sand."
—Afari, Tales
Honestly, it sounds like you're mulling to Leyline far too aggressively. Like you said, keeping hands with a bunch of cantrips and no combo pieces can be fine against Thoughtseize decks, and that doesn't change when you have Leyline in your deck. It's not even close to an auto-win, so why would you mulligan like it is? Even though Dispel is great in control mirrors, you won't go to 5 looking for one, so why do similar here?
That no Leyline's 75 really intrigues me RADN. It looks very alien to see a list without a Leyline.
Two Face, how does the Unburial Rites Board feel to you? Been trying to find an experienced opinion on it because I hate the look of it. The only two players I've met running that sb were relatively new to the deck so they weren't really able to give an opinion. (either that or they hated that I had just beat them in the mirror *shrugs*)
I feel that the deck is in a good place at the moment I'm finally starting to see the light again. This time last year I was quite down about the deck but I'll always opt to play it over any other modern deck.
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When the task spilled over into undeath, he stopped calling it his life's work.
Decks
Standard: GBGB EnergyGB GRGR EnergyGR
Modern: RBUWAd NauseamRBUW GRGR TitanshiftGR UBLUE STEEEEEELU UR Storm U Turbo Turns
Hey everyone. I'm not an Ad Nauseum player, but had an idea I thought I might run by ya'll. A while back I had an itch to see if I could make Ad Nauseum into more of a control deck (I had this weird dream that I'd done it, woke up, and just kept thinking about it). Anyways, was in the car today on the way home and realized that it is, in fact, possible. I don't know how competitive it can be, how effective, etc., but I know it's possible.
You take out Ad Nauseums, Lab Maniac, Lightning Storm, and Spoils of the Vault, and put in Shared Fate. Could also fit in some Leylines or creature removal, if needed. Deck still works about the same, just try to stay alive until it plays the Shared Fate, at which point you just start doing Shared Fate things. Could even use it as a transformational sideboard plan.
So I am fairly new to Ad Nauseam. I come from a long Storm background and have been taken off because of Humans. I am just not creative enough to work out past a Meddler and Free Booter. But I enjoy Ad Nauseam for it's ability to cast sweepers. So how does you all feel about the deck in a Humans world?
So I am fairly new to Ad Nauseam. I come from a long Storm background and have been taken off because of Humans. I am just not creative enough to work out past a Meddler and Free Booter. But I enjoy Ad Nauseam for it's ability to cast sweepers. So how does you all feel about the deck in a Humans world?
Humans is hard, hence the mandatory sweepers. I actually think that storm has a better game 1 on account of Repeal+Unsubstantiate MD whereas Ad Naus only has Echoing Truth at best. Post board they both suck, Humans is just a hard matchup for combo generally.
I came here to talk about the absolut need (or not) in having the leylines on the sideboard.
You're nuts..... Except I think you might have a point so maybe we're both nuts? I haven't seen any idea's really worth testing lately (I've just been playing Tron/Storm instead) so I think I'll give this a shot, going to run this SB:
Hey, guys, after a stint of not having time for Modern because of work, I'm back. Initially I was trying to pick up the Best Deck (tm) and swapped from GDS to Humans, but I've had less time than I'd like to go to game stores and play, so I haven't been able to tune my lists to the metas. I also realized that, while I enjoyed winning, I didn't love Humans' playstyle, and decided that if I was only going to go to an event every other week or so, I'd rather do it with something I enjoy more. Before I moved, I was on Ad Nauseam (right around GotT), and thought I'd try picking it back up again. My other thought was Storm, as a more "tested" combo deck, and I haven't really made up my mind yet.
The clunkiest thing about the deck that I remember was the land configuration. Iirc, there was never really any consensus on what combination of lands to play. Fastlands, scrylands, even storage lands, the exact number of gemstones, whether or not to run fetches/shocks. Has there been any culmination in a stock landbase? I'm happy to experiment with spell choices, in choosing Spoils over Peer, or whether to run Mystical Teachings, but if I'm not going to have a ton of chances to play the deck, I don't want to be actively altering the manabase every week. I'm pretty sure most people forgo fetch/shocks to make scries more impactful, but beyond that I'm not sure if Cities of Brass are common choices, or if painless bases are preferred. Is there much discussion on this?
The clunkiest thing about the deck that I remember was the land configuration. Iirc, there was never really any consensus on what combination of lands to play. Has there been any culmination in a stock landbase?
Those are the most common land setups I've seen. I personally am on the first one (4:1 Split of Gemstone/City of Brass, Urborg as the Utility). The exact balance of U/w vs U/b's is flexible depending on how white/black heavy your SB is but usually want to be slightly black-leaning on account of Ad Naus and Spoils. There isn't a ton of discussion and it's not exactly solved because there aren't enough people playing Ad Naus for the deck to converge. Look around on MTGGoldfish and you'll find plenty of variation in Land and SB's.
On the topic of land bases, my meta is heavy on blood moon and land destruction at the moment, what do you guys think would be the best middle ground on basics to run in this environment? My current idea for land base is this
more islands for cantrips and an extra plains for the ability to grace/unlife. I lose out on x1 utility land, and lose out on multiple scrylands but feel like this improves my matchup vs these land hate decks enough for it to not hurt me against other decks. Does anyone have input for this?
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Decay does typically beat Maniac, at least if they don't have a lot of mana to preemptively TS. But Storm is a much safer win con against BGx to begin with, so I wouldn't depend on it if they execute the combo. That said, Decay is a solid card to bring in anyway, as it stops Unlife, plus Prism and Bloom in a pinch if they aren't comboing that turn.
Also, be careful about keeping too much G2/G3 discard. Leyline can shut down that entire disruptive plan and leave you with 8+ dead cards.
Aggro: Naya Burn RWG
Combo: Scapeshift RG
Control: Jeskai Control UWR
Legacy
Control: Miracles UW
Aggro: Burn R
4 Lotus Bloom
4 Simian Spirit Guide
1 Laboratory Maniac
1 Lightning Storm
4 Phyrexian Unlife
3 Spoils of the Vault
4 Angel's Grace
4 Ad Nauseam
2 Pact of Negation
1 Slaughter Pact
1 Plains
4 Gemstone Mine
2 Temple of Enlightenment
4 Temple of Deceit
1 Island
4 City of Brass
1 Darkslick Shores
4 Serum Visions
4 Sleight of Hand
1 Walking Ballista
4 Leyline of Sanctity
2 Pact of Negation
1 Echoing Truth
2 Slaughter Pact
2 Thoughtseize
2 Bontu's Last Reckoning
So far with my testing, it really doesnt seem like there is much of an opportunity cost at all for having three tolaria wests and there are some reasonable benefits. It makes control almost impossible to lose against (it was already a very good matchup though, gives us a both a game 1 out to humans and makes game 2/3 more winnable, and was even used to find black sources against hatebear decks. I am wondering if there is a way to optimize this list, I feel like the one darkslick shores could probably be turned into a utility land, but im not sure which.
Right now, I'm probably the only one running a fetch/shock list with Peer/Teachings. I know Byrd still does, but I haven't heard about Benson or Ragle lately. Benavides is on 8 temples too. Anyways, here's my list, it could be of help to smooth things :
4 Simian Spirit Guide
1 Laboratory Maniac
Lands (20)
2 City of Brass
2 Flooded Strand
2 Island
2 Polluted Delta
4 Temple of Deceit
2 Temple of Enlightenment
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Plains
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1 Tolaria West
1 Swamp
1 Watery Grave
4 Ad Nauseam
4 Angel's Grace
4 Lotus Bloom
4 Pentad Prism
4 Serum Visions
4 Sleight of Hand
3 Pact of Negation
3 Phyrexian Unlife
2 Peer Through Depths
1 Mystical Teachings
1 Lightning Storm
1 Slaughter Pact
4 Leyline of Sanctity
2 Ethereal Haze
2 Path to Exile
1 Snapcaster Mage
1 Thoughtseize
1 Echoing Truth
1 Dispel
1 Supreme Verdict
1 Timely Reinforcements
1 Wear // Tear
I'm running 1 Tolaria, but I could go to 2 in extreme circumstances such as way too many control decks and/or random stuff that needs slaughter pact or pact of negation.
Aggro: Naya Burn RWG
Combo: Scapeshift RG
Control: Jeskai Control UWR
Legacy
Control: Miracles UW
Aggro: Burn R
4 Darkslick Shores
1 Dreadship Reef
4 Gemstone Mine
1 Island
1 Plains
4 Seachrome Coast
3 Temple of Deceit
2 Temple of Enlightenment
Protection
3 Leyline of Sanctity
2 Pact of Negation
Mana
4 Simian Spirit Guide
4 Lotus Bloom
3 Pentad Prism
4 Ad Nauseam
4 Angel's Grace
3 Phyrexian Unlife
1 Laboratory Maniac
1 Lightning Storm
Filtering
1 Mystical Teachings
4 Serum Visions
4 Sleight of Hand
2 Spoils of the Vault
3 Gifts Ungiven
1 Unburial Rites
1 Iona, Shield of Emeria
1 Blazing Archon
1 Echoing Truth
1 Leyline of Sanctity
2 Pact of Negation
2 Bontu's Last Reckoning
1 Slaughter Pact
2 Thoughtseize
I've been off of AdNaus for a while, but I'm looking to run with something pretty close to this list on Friday - it's almost certainly a bad idea considering my local meta, but I love the deck enough to possibly throw one event.
Mainboard is basically the stock layout for mainboard Leylines - I like 3 main because I'm dealing with plenty of Thoughseize decks and it's nice splash damage to further lock up a good matchup against the 3 or so local burn pilots. I'm running Dreadship Reef as my 20th land, which I generally like when playing 4 Gemstone Mine and 0 City of Brass. Other considerations there would be Mikokoro for the reasonable amount of control, or just the safe 4th Temple of Deceit. Urborg is also fine, especially with the 4 Gemstone Mine. However, I tend to default to Reef in the flex land slot when playing the other flex card, Teachings over 3rd Spoils. This is possibly getting too cute with the Gifts sideboard package, but I like the idea of having Gifts be live for Visions, Sleight, Teachings and either a Spoils or Temple. Outside of being great with Gifts, it's a perfectly reasonable flex spot card on its own so I'm ok with having one in the main.
The sideboard is a bit of a mess right now, I'll admit. The Gifts board is something I've been wanting to try, as it wasn't really a thing the last time I sleeved up AdNaus and I think it's space worth exploring. Having a one-card combo that can catch people off-guard when you don't have enough mana represented for an Ad Nauseam win feels really big, and Blazing Archon feels like an autowin against some awful matchups like Humans and Infect. However, only having 9 slots outside of the Gifts package is obviously more constrained than I'm used to working with, so I'll have to sit down and figure out what matchups Gifts doesn't really help, so I can dedicate more to those matchups. In particular, I'm not sold on the 2 Bontu's, because a lot of the decks you want wraths against have games end the second you get Blazing Archon into play. I'm also worried about not having a card like Elspeth Sun's Champion or Grave Titan for the midrange decks, and that I might be leaning on the mainboard leylines a bit too hard there.
I would love to hear some thoughts from anyone who's played the Gifts sideboard, and also mainboard Leyline builds. Like I said, Gifts in AdNaus is new to me, and I've only played about 4 or 5 FNM-type events with mainboard Leylines.
But then i see ^^ this guy with them on the maindeck and maybe its too soon to adress the elephant in the room
Yeah, Leyline is incredibly powerful. There are basically two ways to fight the combo - on the stack or out of the hand. Pact of Negation fights back on the stack, Leyline covers hand disruption. Depending on the meta, one can be more important than the other, so 3/0 and 2/3 are common splits, with the rest of the playsets in the board.
Dispel seems just as good against Control, Combo, and better vs Burn.
Post board games go a little slower, so having a counter that is almost as good but without the large cost seems better.
You can even sideboard it in against Company/Chord decks like Elves/G-W Value Town which Pact is horrible against.
The fact that pact is "free" gives it a huge advantage over dispel. For example, it allows you to roll out an unlife on t3 and still have the ability to counter something. As far as paying for pact, often times you will just win on top of the pact trigger, and if not, angels grace in response to the pact trigger. Another big advantage of running a 4th pact over dispel is that it gives you better odds at not killing yourself if you need to spoils for pact.
Im an ADN player for more than 3 years with thousands of games on me.
When people that dont play the deck ask me, what are the worse matchups of the deck, i often tell them "Infect, and then any midrange deck with black on it".
When they ask me then, how can i beat this black midrange decks, i just say "4 leylines in, and pray to have one in your opening hand".
In the last months though, this tranformed into "4 leylines in, and pray to have one in your opening hand...because then if you dont, you will be tempted to mulligan into it...after all 6 with leyline is always better than 7 without it...and you mulligan a good hand...and then your 6 is kinda horrible, but it has a leyline on it...will you mulligan or keep...if you keep youll lose to decays on the prisms and unlifes while looking to an ad nauseam, safely secured in your hand...if you mulligan, your down to five and the odds of getting another leylines are getting thiner...you know what, one day ill try playing without them, but not today"
That day came though. Over the past 6 months ive been regularly playing without leylines in my 75.
When you drop the leylines, you get 4 new spots in the sideboard, and there are so many cards, that cover a lot of bases, than can be put in the side.
But the main question obviously was "will my win percentage agains black midrange decks decline, or not". And i s*** you not, it didnt.
I play the spoils version with 2 Lightning storm main and 1 Echoing truth as a one of.
My current sideboard is:
3 Bontus last reckoning
3 swan song
2 Thoughtseize
1 Gigadrowse
1 Phyrexian Unlife
1 wear//tear
1 Laboratory Maniac
1 Pact of Negation
1 Slaughter pact
1 Fatal Push
I started to realize fogs arent good anymore, we need to kill the cretures on the other side of the table, specially now that humans is a super strong deck.
So i wanted a sweeper, started with languish and then damnation but 4 was too much and sometimes a turn too late, so i opted for BLR for its cost. Ive lost games because of the no-untap clause, but the card saved way more times.
To end the kill package i have the slaughter pact, an all time classic, and i added a fatal push wich kills most relevant creatures in the format.Also the 4th Phyrexian Unlife for aggro.
Then against control, i had the 4th pact on the side and i wanted now to find a good and versatile counter and swan song is just that. And i think 3 is the right number. Against pure control decks, it just acts like a dispel. A 2/2 when youre trying to combo is irrelevant. And against Blood moon decks, its an enchantment hard counter, that can be ready as soon as turn 1.
Gigadrowse is an mvp against control decks that rely on counters. Also i found that gigadrowse can be good against some creature based decks that rely on attacking with few creatures, and also aganis tron, where it acts like a time walk on turn 2. (tapping both their tower and mine on their 3rd turn upkeep, then they just play the power plant and pass, holding a karn in hand. this sometimes is the diference beetween a win and a loss, against tron).
Thoughtseize is also another mvp against control decks, tron decks (taking exp map turn 1 is priceless and later the big threats).
Wear//tear and our bro laboratory maniac finish the slots, as 2 measures against hate cards and idiotic strategies (eg. soul sisters).
Against black midrange decks, i found there is only one solution: play good.
Just play good.
I started to keep the classic "air hands", basically hands with a mix of lands and some cantrips. The less of my combo i have in my hand at the begining, the better. Then start thinking turns in advance. Make a plan and follow it.
Thoughtseize has proven to be a very good card against these decks, either to take out the decay turn1 and be able to play prism turn 2 safely, or just to seize his seize before you triple cantrip and pass with a hand that kills next turn.
Also i started to feel my wins were not just leyline wins.
I've also been toying with the Gifts package and the additional sideboard slots needed is a curse especially drawing the needed fatty when cantripping. Looks like Faithless Looting + missing combo piece + fatty + Unburial Rites is the safest way but it's just bad that Faithless Looting takes up another slot and this is weak against a resolved Liliana of the Veil on turn 3. Sigarda, Host of Herons can hose it but uses another slot. I've also been toying with 1 Griselbrand rather than the Blazing Archon since it can draw 14 cards to pull off the combo and can stall 1 or more turns with the opponent fearing the lifelink. So I currently have
3 Gifts Ungiven
1 Iona
1 Elesh Norn (I think Blazing Archon can replace this instead) unless we run Timely Reinforcements or Lingering Souls
1 Blazing Archon
1 Griselbrand
1 Sigarda, Host of Herons
I've been pretty much using a 3 Leyline build before mainboard since it gives a cleaner answer even to the Humans matchup against Kitesail Freebooter that gets Phantasmal Image'd and of course the various discard decks. Was comfortable with 2 Pact of Negations mainboard but had to re-tool my build because of the prevalence of Jeskai and Humans. I will be trying to fetch build finally next week with City of Brass and I might switch to 3 Mystical Teachings instead of 2 Spoils. Mystical Teachings is easier to cast T3 or T4 with less fastlands. I might also replace the Lab Maniac with a second Lightning Storm to help kill a Meddling Mage or an Echoing Truth (against a T0 Leyline from Bogles) replacing Slaughter Pact. Slots are pretty tight right now!!
"He traded sand for skins, skins for gold, gold for life. In the end, he traded life for sand."
—Afari, Tales
Two Face, how does the Unburial Rites Board feel to you? Been trying to find an experienced opinion on it because I hate the look of it. The only two players I've met running that sb were relatively new to the deck so they weren't really able to give an opinion. (either that or they hated that I had just beat them in the mirror *shrugs*)
The list I've been playing is the list I've seen most people in the Ad Nauseam FB page playing and have been impressed with it so far the best list I've played in a long time. Before that I was on 3 Leylines mb. (follow link attached)
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-LsZrf6PZYl7woVV-cTUmNsz0dYxhgvEMSDjB80NzXo/mobilebasic
I feel that the deck is in a good place at the moment I'm finally starting to see the light again. This time last year I was quite down about the deck but I'll always opt to play it over any other modern deck.
Decks
Standard:
GBGB EnergyGB
GRGR EnergyGR
Modern:
RBUWAd NauseamRBUW
GRGR TitanshiftGR
UBLUE STEEEEEELU
UR StormU Turbo TurnsYou take out Ad Nauseums, Lab Maniac, Lightning Storm, and Spoils of the Vault, and put in Shared Fate. Could also fit in some Leylines or creature removal, if needed. Deck still works about the same, just try to stay alive until it plays the Shared Fate, at which point you just start doing Shared Fate things. Could even use it as a transformational sideboard plan.
Lantern Control
(with videos)
Uc Tron
Netdecking explained
Netdecking explained, Part 2
On speculators and counterfeits
On Interaction
Every single competitive deck in existence is designed to limit the opponent's ability to interact in a meaningful way.
Record number of exclamation points on SCG homepage: 71 (6 January, 2018)
"I don't want to believe, I want to know."
-Carl Sagan
RUBDa ShadowBUR
Not gonna lie, that seems pretty bad. Don't think there's much to be gained from that "Transformation".
Humans is hard, hence the mandatory sweepers. I actually think that storm has a better game 1 on account of Repeal+Unsubstantiate MD whereas Ad Naus only has Echoing Truth at best. Post board they both suck, Humans is just a hard matchup for combo generally.
You're nuts..... Except I think you might have a point so maybe we're both nuts? I haven't seen any idea's really worth testing lately (I've just been playing Tron/Storm instead) so I think I'll give this a shot, going to run this SB:
2 Boseiju, Who Shelters All
2 Nephalia Academy
1 Pact of Negation
1 Thoughtseize
2 Path to Exile
1 Wear // Tear
1 Hurkyl's Recall
1 Vendilion Clique
2 Bontu's Last Reckoning
1 Supreme Verdict
The clunkiest thing about the deck that I remember was the land configuration. Iirc, there was never really any consensus on what combination of lands to play. Fastlands, scrylands, even storage lands, the exact number of gemstones, whether or not to run fetches/shocks. Has there been any culmination in a stock landbase? I'm happy to experiment with spell choices, in choosing Spoils over Peer, or whether to run Mystical Teachings, but if I'm not going to have a ton of chances to play the deck, I don't want to be actively altering the manabase every week. I'm pretty sure most people forgo fetch/shocks to make scries more impactful, but beyond that I'm not sure if Cities of Brass are common choices, or if painless bases are preferred. Is there much discussion on this?
6 Scrylands
5 Rainbow
2 Basics
1 Utility
5 Scrylands
4 Rainbows
2 Basics
1 Utility
3x Darkslick Shores
2x Gemstone Mine
3x Island
2x Plains
3x Seachrome Coast
2x Temple of Deceit
2x Temple of Enlightenment
more islands for cantrips and an extra plains for the ability to grace/unlife. I lose out on x1 utility land, and lose out on multiple scrylands but feel like this improves my matchup vs these land hate decks enough for it to not hurt me against other decks. Does anyone have input for this?