Contents
1) What is Ad Nauseam?
2) Card Choices
3) Technical Play
4) Decklists
5) Matchups
6) Articles
1) What is Ad Nauseam?
Ad Nauseam is a WUB combo deck, based around Ad Nauseam + Angel’s Grace/Phyrexian Unlife. Together, these cards allow you to “draw” your entire library. Having drawn all your cards, you can then win by casting Lightning Storm, using Simian Spirit Guides as mana sources, and discarding as many lands as necessary.
Ad Nauseam in Modern is very different from Ad Nauseam in Legacy. In Legacy, Ad Nauseam is meant as a way to fill your hand in a Storm combo deck. There exists the risk of revealing a card with too high a CMC and losing, or not drawing enough cards to reach a storm count of 10. In Modern, Ad Nauseam forms one half of a 2-card combo. If the combo is assembled and undisrupted, you are guaranteed to win. There is no chance of fizzling.
BTW: it’s Ad Nauseam.
Why should you play Ad Nauseam?
1) Good matchups against control and ramp decks. Against slow control decks, you have inevitability: eventually you’re going to draw the combo with backup (especially with the help of tutors) and kill them through counterspells. Ramp decks cannot pressure you without tapping out, and if they tap out anyway, you combo off and kill them. They also goldfish slower than you.
2) It doesn’t play creatures. (Simian Spirit Guide is a creature, but it is not meant to be casted. Laboratory Maniac is casted after the combo with Pact of Negation backup.) Against “fair” decks, you blank all of their removal spells in Game 1.
3) It doesn’t use the graveyard. (Not unless you play Conflagrate, but even then, some forms of graveyard hate are useless against it.) This means that cards like Scavenging Ooze, Relic of Progenitus and Rest in Peace have no effect against you.
4) You can win at instant speed. This is a huge boon, since the moment your opponent taps low (even if it was for a game-ending spell), you can punish him by going for the combo and winning immediately. On the other hand, if they choose to play it slow, you can slowly build up your board with mana-storing artifacts (Lotus Bloom and Pentad Prism), and sculpt your hand with cantrips and tutors.
5) Exciting gameplay. This deck flirts with death. A necessary condition for winning is going into a negative life total, while being kept alive with Angel’s Grace or Ad Nauseam. Some memorable plays you can make are:
a) Opponent: “I cast <some lethal spell>.”
You: “In response, Angel’s Grace + Ad Nauseam, draw my entire library, kill you.”
b) While you only have a single untapped Hallowed Fountain and two Angel’s Grace in hand:
Opponent: “I cast <some lethal spell>.”
You: “In response, Angel’s Grace, going down to 1. On my turn, untap, Angel’s Grace + Ad Nauseam, draw my entire library, kill you.”
c) Opponent: “I cast <some lethal spell>/swing for lethal.”
You: “In response, Pact of Negation/Slaughter Pact. On my turn, untap, upkeep: while the Pact trigger is on the stack, Angel’s Grace + Ad Nauseam, draw my entire library, kill you.”
Why should you not play Ad Nauseam?
1) Weakness to discard. Being a 2-card combo, Ad Nauseam is weak to decks that pack a lot of discard and can keep you from holding both halves in hand. BGx decks are one example; they also have a fast clock in the form of Tarmogoyf.
2) Weakness to faster decks that can win with poison. Against aggro decks, Angel’s Grace and Phyrexian Unlife buy some time, but are completely useless if said aggro deck wins by poisoning you. Infect is the biggest example (and a very bad matchup), while Affinity can sneak wins with Inkmoth Nexus.
3) It needs some support to win on turn 4. Ad Nauseam costs 5 mana to cast, so you need Lotus Bloom/Pentad Prism/Simian Spirit Guide in order to generate the necessary amount of mana. You can’t get there by lands alone. This makes it secretly a 3-card combo deck, although against slower decks, you can get to 5 or 6 just by making land drops steadily.
4) Dead cards in deck. The wincon, Lightning Storm, does nothing by itself. If you happen to draw it, it’s as though you didn’t draw a card at all. Actually, it’s even worse than that: drawing Lightning Storm means that it’s vulnerable to discard. Secondary wincons give you an out if Lightning Storm gets discarded, but those do not share Lightning Storm’s ability to win at instant speed.
5) Revealing your entire deck to your opponent. Ad Nauseam requires you to reveal cards from the top of your library. This means that your opponent has full information of all the cards in your deck. He can see what you have sideboarded in against him, and any super secret tech you have will not stay secret for long.
These are the core cards of the deck, the ones that let you put your entire library into your hand. The combo works because Angel’s Grace/Phyrexian Unlife prevents you from losing the game. Your life total will drop to negative amounts during the combo, but as long as their effects are active, you’re still in the game. Ad Nauseam will not kill you with poison under Phyrexian Unlife either, because it causes you to lose life, not take damage.
On the other hand, if you fail to combo off, you will lose once the turn has passed (Grace) or the enchantment gets destroyed (Unlife). You do not have the opportunity to chain Graces to keep you alive, as state-based actions (losing the game from <= 0 life) are checked before either player gains priority.
Angel’s Grace has split second, so it is naturally protected from most counterspells. Save your Boseijus/Pacts of Negation for Ad Nauseam/Lightning Storm. Chalice of the Void on 1 will trigger and counter Angel’s Grace, though.
There is not much difference between casting Angel’s Grace first, followed by Ad Nauseam, or vice versa. Do note that a) if you cast Angel’s Grace first, you must let it resolve before casting Ad Nauseam, as it has split second, and b) if you cast Ad Nauseam first, announce that you are holding priority (MTGO players: hold Ctrl as you cast Ad Nauseam), then cast Angel’s Grace while Ad Nauseam is on the stack. To make it simple, just cast Angel’s Grace first.
No, you cannot cast a “naked” Ad Nauseam (without Grace/Unlife active), reveal Angel’s Grace, cast it, and continue drawing. You can’t cast spells while another spell is still resolving; you have to resolve Ad Nauseam completely (i.e. announce that you’re not revealing any more cards) first.
The other indispensable part of the deck. After drawing your entire deck, exile three Simian Spirit Guides (or two Simian Spirit Guides, followed by casting a ritual) for mana to cast Lightning Storm. When you cast Lightning Storm, immediately announce that you are holding priority (MTGO players: hold Ctrl as you cast Lightning Storm). Then discard as many lands as necessary (maintaining priority each time), and pass priority once you’ve discarded the final land. Do not ask for responses (e.g. “I cast Lightning Storm, response?”) before you’re done adding charge counters, as this will be interpreted as passing priority, and your opponent can let Lightning Storm resolve and take only 3 damage!
You need 3 SSGs to cast Lightning Storm, assuming you tapped out completely for Ad Nauseam and don’t have any land drops. Most of the time, this means that you have the leeway to use only 1 SSG before comboing off (if you play 4 of them). Keep this in mind and don’t use any more than you need to.
Remember that your opponent can redirect Lightning Storm if he has lands in hand. Always start with the minimum amount of damage required to kill your opponent, then match his lands with yours. You can also respond to lifegain spells by discarding more lands (remember to hold priority).
Keep track of the number of lands in your deck, especially against control. You still lose the game if you don’t have enough lands to pitch to Lightning Storm! Generally you do not need more than 5 or 6 lands out, so sandbag any lands past the sixth instead of playing them.
Lightning Storm has an activated ability. This means it can be stopped by Pithing Needle, Phyrexian Revoker or Suppression Field. Trickbind/Squelch only stops one land discard (i.e. 2 damage). In the case of Trickbind, Lightning Storm is not a permanent, so you can continue discarding lands to it after Trickbind has resolved.
Simian Spirit Guide vs Ritual
SSG is, by itself, better at providing a quick mana boost to cast Teachings/Ad Nauseam, since rituals require 1 red mana and the deck doesn’t play many red sources. Rituals, on the other hand, can be found with Peer Through Depths or Mystical Teachings.
I recommend playing 4 Spirit Guides and 0 rituals. Being able to put a ritual into your hand with Peer/Teachings isn’t much use if you’re not going to be able to cast it. Also, rituals are vulnerable to counterspells.
SSG’s ability is a mana ability and cannot be responded to. Rituals, however, are not mana abilities.
What if Lightning Storm gets discarded?
If you’re only playing one wincon, you lose. It’s unfortunate, but it happens. However, you have to draw the sole copy of Lightning Storm, and your opponent needs to cast a discard spell while it’s in your hand, in order for that to occur.
Most Ad Nauseam decks play two wincons these days, to avoid such mishaps. Playing an alternate wincon lets you cover Lightning Storm’s weaknesses with it. Some wincons can win in situations where Lightning Storm wouldn’t.
Conflagrate
First, cast it for X=0 (using R) to put it into your graveyard. Then, flash it back for RR, discarding as many cards in your hand as you need.
The advantages of Conflagrate are 1) if it gets discarded, you still have an out, as it can (and is meant to) be casted from the graveyard, and 2) you may lack the required number of lands to pitch to Lightning Storm if your opponent has gained a lot of life, whereas Conflagrate consistently hits for 40+.
A proper Conflagrate kill cannot be interrupted by Scavenging Ooze or Relic of Progenitus. After the first 0-damage cast, you still have priority, so your opponent cannot exile it “in response”.
While on the stack, Conflagrate’s mana cost reflects X even if it was cast with flashback. So Chalice of the Void on 1 doesn’t stop it.
Laboratory Maniac
If you have at least one more non-red, non-colorless mana than is necessary to combo off OR you have not used your land drop for the turn, combo off as usual, putting your entire library into your hand. Exile 1 SSG for R, then cast Pentad Prism using R and the mana you had floating from before OR play a land, tap it for mana, then use that mana and an SSG to cast Pentad Prism. Use one counter on Pentad Prism and RR from 2 SSGs to cast Laboratory Maniac, then use the other counter on Pentad Prism to cast Serum Visions.
If you do not have any excess mana, you can still win, but it’s a little riskier. You need Phyrexian Unlife in play, and for your opponent not to kill you with damage by the next turn. Combo off as usual, then end your turn, keeping Lab Man, Serum Visions, Angel’s Grace, as many Pacts of Negation as you have, a land if you don’t have 5 mana on the board, and a Fog effect (Ethereal Haze/Darkness/Holy Day) to avoid dying to poison from Unlife, if you have one. Use your Pacts and Fogs to survive your opponent’s turn. On your turn, cast Angel’s Grace during your upkeep to avoid losing to your Pacts/draw step. Then cast Lab Man and Serum Visions during your main phase and win.
Alternatively, combo off, then exile four SSGs for RRRR. Spend RR to cast Pentad Prism (which will enter the battlefield with only 1 counter), then use the counter on Pentad Prism and the remaining RR to cast Laboratory Maniac. End your turn, keeping as many Pacts/Angel’s Graces/fogs in hand as possible. Use your Pacts to protect Lab Man and survive your opponent’s turn. When your opponent ends his turn and passes back to you, cast Angel’s Grace on your upkeep to avoid dying to Pacts, and win on your draw step.
The advantages of Lab Man are that it bypasses infinite life (e.g. Melira/Anafenza combo), unlike all other damage-based wincons. It also isn’t reliant on having a certain amount of land cards in your library.
Conjurer’s Bauble
Conjurer’s Bauble saves you if Lightning Storm gets discarded. It costs 1 colorless mana, which can be paid for with SSG. Combo off as normal, putting every card in your library in your hand, then cast Bauble if you haven’t already done so before the combo. Sacrifice Bauble, putting Lightning Storm at the bottom of your (empty) library, drawing it immediately. Then use Storm to kill your opponent. Note that your library MUST be empty for this to work.
Conjurer’s Bauble is the least dead out of all the alternate wincons. You can just play and sacrifice it before the combo to draw a card. However, it’s only as good as Lightning Storm, and if Lightning Storm gets exiled, it can’t save you.
If you’re playing two wincons, or against a deck that can’t remove Lightning Storm, you don’t need Bauble.
Bottom-decking a land with Conjurer’s Bauble boosts Lightning Storm’s damage output by 2.
Seismic Assault
Seismic Assault can burn out random creatures on your opponent’s side of the field, such as hatebears and Platinum Angel. However, Slaughter Pact does the job just as well.
(1 Simian Spirit Guide could count)
Casting Ad Nauseam by itself costs 5 mana. With Angel’s Grace on the same turn, that’s 6 mana. These cards are here to enable you to make these plays in a timely manner.
Bloom’s & Prism’s abilities are mana abilities, and can be activated even in response to Krosan Grip.
Lotus Bloom provides 3 mana of one color, not 3 mana in any combination of colors. That means that, for example, Lotus Bloom + Boseiju + Island + Watery Grave is incapable of generating the mana needed to cast Ad Nauseam + Angel’s Grace on the same turn.
Pentad Prism requires 2 different colors of mana for its full potential. Using C or UU is a waste and should not be done except in the most extreme of circumstances.
Pentad Prism can be used as a two-turn Signet. You don’t have to take the charge counters off all at once. If you have Unlife in your hand, but missed your third land drop, you can just use one counter on Prism to cast Unlife.
Pentad Prism can be used to filter your mana. Two common examples are 1) when you have 5 mana, but not BB for Ad Nauseam, and 2) when going for a Laboratory Maniac kill.
If your opponent has Thalia, Guardian of Thraben (or, less commonly, Thorn of Amethyst), you have to pay 1 more mana to cast Pentad Prism, or Lotus Bloom from exile. The silver lining is that Prism enters the battlefield with 3 counters on it if you used 3 different colors to pay for it.
These cards provide answers to disruption. Pact of Negation and Boseiju beat counterspells, while Slaughter Pact removes hatebears such as Thalia, Guardian of Thraben and Gaddock Teeg, or even just a beatstick that’s threatening your life total.
Pacts are a natural fit for the deck, as the combo is quite mana-intensive. You can also avoid paying for them with Angel’s Grace (see “Cheating on Pact payments” under Technical Play).
The converted mana cost of Pacts is 0. If you reveal a Pact from Ad Nauseam, you lose 0 life.
(Conjurer’s Bauble also counts, if you’re playing it)
Cantrips are a staple of combo decks. They help you dig deeper to find whatever you need, be it lands, pieces of the combo, or protection. Chaining them is also easy when they cost 1 mana - if you cast a cantrip and find the card you’re looking for, good. If you don’t, hopefully you found another cantrip, which you can use to dig for that card.
The lands above are sorted by roughly how much play they see. Different builds (see next section) require separate tweaks to the mana base. This deck typically plays 20-21 lands, Boseiju inclusive.
City of Brass is better than Mana Confluence, as it can tap for mana even if you’re at negative life.
Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth makes all lands Swamps (yours and your opponent’s). This makes it easier to cast Ad Nauseam, and lets Boseiju and fetches tap for B.
Tolaria West either tutors for Pacts/Boseiju, or gets played as a land. It also tutors for Tormod’s Crypt out of the sideboard.
Avoid playing too many lands that produce only C, or one specific color. Pentad Prism requires 2 different colors for both counters.
Yes, fetches do not rank highly in this deck, contrary to almost any other deck. If you play fetchlands, don’t overdo it, as you might end up with insufficient lands to pitch to Lightning Storm after fetching too many times. 4 is enough. Temples are good for the opposite reason: they help you fix your draws without subtracting from your land count.
Choosing Your Build: The Remaining Cards
If you’ve been reading this primer right from the start and counting up all the cards, you’ll have about 55 cards. Now for the exciting part: you get to choose which cards to fill up the remaining slots and complement your cantrips! The cards that you choose for these slots will also affect the lands and sideboard cards that you play.
Why should you play Peer/Teachings?
- Ease of use. Both cards can be cast at any time to search for either half of the combo, or protection for it. You rarely whiff with Peer - even if you don’t find the card you were looking for, odds are good that you’ll find a cantrip or another Peer, which allows you to continue digging for it. If you’re new to the deck, Peer/Teachings is a good way to learn, and it continues to be viable even as you improve.
- Good in slow grindy matchups. This package shines in matchups (i.e. BGx, URx, UW, Grixis) where your opponent has a lot of discard/counterspells and not too fast a clock. Given enough time, you will hit 6 lands and draw Teachings, which will get you 2 cards, or soak up 2 discard/counterspells, or a combination of both.
Why should you NOT play Peer/Teachings?
- Relatively high mana costs. The deck is already strained on mana as it is, requiring at least 5 mana in one turn to win. If you want to cast Peer/Teachings, you pretty much have to do it before the combo turn, unless you have a lot of excess mana from Blooms/Prisms. Teachings is also expensive at 3U - very often, you’ll board it out against fast decks.
Other considerations
- Peer/Teachings can find a wide range of cards, so feel free to mix up your sideboard hate. For example, you might want to have cards with similar effects but different card types, such as Silence + Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir (which can be tutored for with Teachings!). Your opponent’s Dispel/Negate can counter Silence, but not Teferi.
An “8 Temple” mana base. By getting rid of fetchlands entirely, cards that are put on the bottom of the library with Serum Visions/Sleight of Hand/Peer Through Depths stay there, so you won’t see them again (hopefully, you won’t need to). You might want to cut Mystical Teachings if you use this mana base, due to the high number of ETB tapped lands, and Teachings’ shuffle.
(If playing Spoils, you MUST play a second wincon!) Why should you play Spoils?
- 1-mana tutor. Those who have played Demonic Consultation, a card that is banned in Legacy and restricted in Vintage, will notice the similarities. Spoils is more or less Consultation with life loss. It gets better: when Angel’s Grace or Phyrexian Unlife are active, Spoils’ life loss means nothing.
- Emergency button. Sometimes, you’ll be put into do-or-die situations (such as an impending turn 3 kill) where your only way out is to Spoils for something. Cantrips may not dig deep enough (or the threat may demand an instant-speed answer), and anything else may be too expensive to cast. Spoils offers you a small chance at stealing an otherwise unwinnable game.
- Good in fast race matchups. Against aggro or combo decks that aim to kill as fast (or faster!) than you do, Spoils’ low CMC and ability to steal games make it an attractive option. Combo decks can also be thwarted by casting Spoils and naming Pact of Negation or Angel’s Grace.
Why should you NOT play Spoils?
-Randomness. While Spoils’ life loss may mean nothing under Grace/Unlife, exiling cards doesn’t. There is the risk of Spoils exiling too many lands, SSGs, or wincons (which is why it’s a very good idea to play 2 wincons). Without Grace/Unlife, there is a second way you can go out: by losing too much life to Spoils. If you like to feel in control of your games at all times, Spoils is not for you.
- Difficulty. Spoils is a hard card to play correctly. You need a good understanding of how likely it is to kill you, when to play it (save it for the combo turn? After a scry? Or totally blind?), and the discipline to not tilt when it backfires. Some tips for playing Spoils are listed in the “Technical Play” section, but nothing replaces practice.
Other considerations
- Spoils is least likely to kill you if you name a 4-of, so build around that. Having 4 Gemstone Mine in the mana base minimizes the chance that it’ll kill you if you have to name Mine with Spoils. Similarly, a fourth Pact of Negation in the sideboard is a better idea than Boseiju.
- Spoils costs black mana, and Ad Nauseam on the same turn costs BBB. Max out on UB lands and lean towards black sideboard cards (e.g. Darkness over Ethereal Haze).
Casting Angel’s Grace, Spoils of the Vault and Ad Nauseam in one turn costs a lot of mana (black mana in particular). Dreadship Reef helps you store mana for that one turn.
Going up to 21 lands gives you a minor buffer against Spoils exiling too many lands.
Sideboard
Anti-Discard Leyline of Sanctity
The best card against BGx decks. It stops their discard and Bolts.
These cards beat counterspells. Gigadrowse’s main function is to tap your opponent’s lands on his turn, ensuring an uninterrupted combo on yours.
Note that Teferi stops Suspend and Cascaded-into spells. You must cast Teferi in response to the cascade trigger, before they start revealing cards.
These cards remove troublesome permanents, such as hatebears and Pithing Needle.
Note that Patrician’s Scorn necessitates an Angel’s Grace win, as 1) it will destroy your Phyrexian Unlife and 2) you can only cast it for free if you’ve casted another white spell (i.e. Angel’s Grace) on that turn. You can still combo off with Ad Nauseam + Phyrexian Unlife, draw your deck, then cast Angel’s Grace followed by Patrician’s Scorn.
For small aggro decks like Affinity or Abzan Company. Merfolk and Infect can pump its creatures out of Drown range, so it’s not that good against them.
For Infect and Affinity. Fogs are great against Infect because they don’t target, so they can’t be stopped by Apostle’s Blessing or Vines of Vastwood.
Ethereal Haze stops damage from Borborygmos Enraged in the Grishoalbrand matchup.
Playing Grave Titan in the sideboard is a transformational strategy: the idea is that your opponent will take out their removal since you have no creatures, so you board in Grave Titan to take advantage of that. It is quite a rare sight though, as it requires 4 sideboard slots.
3) Technical Play You can win at instant speed
Ad Nauseam, Angel’s Grace and Lightning Storm are instants (and SSG can be activated at instant speed). This is vital when:
- your opponent taps low. Some opponents may get bored of playing draw-go every turn (you can’t kill him if he has counters, he can’t tap out if you have the combo) and flash in something - right then, you can kill them with the combo. Try to act like you don’t have the combo in hand to get him to falter .
- your opponent tries to destroy your Prism or Bloom (usually when it comes off Suspend). In response, combo kill.
- there is a Pact trigger on the stack. You can cheat on paying your Pact triggers by killing your opponent during your upkeep, while they’re still on the stack. Note that you get to choose what order to resolve triggers controlled by yourself, so you can let a Lotus Bloom come off suspend first to give yourself the necessary mana.
Cantrip Sequencing
- On turn 1, play Sleight of Hand over Serum Visions, because it gives you the highest chance of drawing into Lotus Bloom. If you don’t need Bloom (i.e. you have Prism in hand), then you can play Serum Visions and bottom-deck any Blooms you see. Also, suspend Lotus Blooms only after casting cantrips. This gives your opponent less information, as he will not know if you drew the Blooms in your starting hand, or from the cantrip.
- If you have Sleight/Peer Through Depths + SV and an extra draw (draw phases also count), Sleight/Peer first, then SV. Playing SV last lets you set up your next draw.
- If your land for the turn is a fetch, crack it before playing SV. You don't want to cast SV, find 1 or 2 cards you want to keep on top, and be forced to play the fetch without cracking it.
- If your land for the turn is a Temple and your cantrip is Sleight/Peer, play Sleight/Peer, then the Temple. If you play the Temple first, you might end up seeing a card that you want to keep on top, so the scry is wasted.
- If it's Temple + SV, play the Temple first, then SV. The scry from the Temple sets up "draw a card" on SV.
Peer Through Depths/Mystical Teachings
- While Peer Through Depths is an instant, there are times where it is correct to cast it during your turn. The most common is when you are on 3 lands; if you Peer on your turn, you can reveal a cantrip and cast it. If you were to Peer on your opponent's turn instead, you'd miss the opportunity.
- If you cast Peer through Depths and the only valid card is Lightning Storm, decline to put it into your hand. It serves no purpose until you’ve combed off, and putting it in your hand just makes it a target for discard.
- When you have the choice of casting Pentad Prism or Peer Through Depths, choose Pentad Prism. The first reason is that if your opponent casts artifact removal on your Prism, you can remove the charge counters in response to cast Peer. The second is that by waiting to cast Peer, you may draw a card that you needed in the meantime, so you have a better idea of what to get when you do cast Peer.
- You can cast Mystical Teachings on turn 3 with the help of a SSG, or a turn 2 Pentad Prism. This enables a turn 4 kill like so: T1 land, Bloom; T2 land, Prism; T3 land, use one counter on Prism for mana, Teachings; T4 AN + Grace.
- You can cast Mystical Teachings AND both halves of the combo on the same turn for 10 mana (9 if you have Unlife and just need Teachings > AN). Do this if you “flood out” on Blooms/Prisms, for example: T1 land, 2 Bloom; T2 land; T3 land, Unlife; T4 Teachings > AN.
Spoils of the Vault
The most straightforward and safe way to use Spoils is to name and subsequently cast Ad Nauseam when Angel’s Grace or Phyrexian Unlife is active. If you already have Ad Nauseam in hand, you can use it to get a Pact instead. This forces your opponent to counter both the Spoils-for-Pact AND the Ad Nauseam. Note that if you’re under no pressure, you might want to hold off casting Spoils until Lightning Storm is in the safety of your hand or the bottom of your library (through scry).
The second most straightforward way is to cast Spoils when you’re about to lose. If nothing else will work, just go for it. If your opponent has lethal on board, and you have Ad Nauseam and Spoils in hand but not Angel’s Grace, cast Spoils and name Grace. If your opponent goes for a combo, Spoils for Pact of Negation or Angel’s Grace. If your opponent pumps his creature for lethal, Spoils for Darkness.
As an extension of the previous point, try to plan ahead to figure out when you’re actually “about to lose”. If your opponent is attacking for 5 per turn, Spoils-ing one turn earlier gives you five extra cards that you can afford to whiff on. If you wait until you’re at 1 life, Spoils, and see that the card you needed was fifth on top, maybe you could have turned that around if you had Spoils-ed a turn earlier instead, even though your opponent wasn’t threatening lethal.
As the contrapositive of the point 2 paragraphs above, don’t cast Spoils “naked” if you’re not under any pressure. Rather than hand your opponent a free win if Spoils decides to crap on you, continue sculpting your hand with cantrips and scrys until your win is airtight.
You can use Spoils as an instant-speed cantrip if you know what is on top of your library (i.e. after scrying with Temples or Serum Visions). Generally, it is better not to do that - if you Spoils, you have the top card and a random card in hand by the next turn, while if you choose not to Spoils, you have the top card and a Spoils in hand by the next turn. However, if you think that a random card from your library is better than having a Spoils in hand, then go ahead. Or if you don’t have a land drop for the turn, but you know that a land is on top of your library. Or if you cast Serum Visions, AND left two cards that you want on top, AND can win if you draw them both by the next turn.
If you’re casting Spoils without Grace/Unlife active, naming a card of which 4 copies are still in your library has the lowest chance of killing you. Remember to exclude copies that are in other zones, like your hand or the graveyard!
If you remember which cards you put on the bottom of your library with cantrips/Temples, take them out of your calculations. If you bottom-decked a card which is not the one that you named, your library is effectively 1 card smaller. If you bottom-decked a card which is the one you named, your library is effectively 1 card smaller, but you also have effectively 1 fewer copy of that card to hit with Spoils!
If your opponent casts Inquisition of Kozilek, you can Spoils for Ad Nauseam in response, replacing a 1CMC card in your hand with a 5CMC card that he can’t take.
You name the card for Spoils on resolution, not on cast. That means that if your opponent asks you what you’re naming with Spoils, he’s allowed it to resolve. If you’ve played Cabal Therapy, this should be familiar.
If you want to know the expected number of cards you’ll exile to Spoils, here is a quick (and mathematically accurate) method. Count the total number of cards in your library, then subtract the number of copies of the card you’re naming that are in your library. Divide the result by the number of copies of the card plus one. For example: if there are 44 cards in your deck, 4 of which are the card that you named, you’ll expect to lose (44-4)/(4+1) = 8 life. This should also show why it isn’t a good idea to name Spoils for Lotus Bloom on turn 1: you can expect to lose about 9-10 life AND cards.
A good tip for remaining calm if Spoils kills you is to ask yourself if the outcome would have been different with any other card. Sometimes you flip over 15 cards and die to life loss - would playing any other card have helped? Your out was too far down for anything to have been able to dig for it. Or maybe you were forced to combo off early because your opponent was threatening lethal - would playing Peer/Teachings have helped when you were unable to cast either AND combo off on the same turn? If you find that the answer is “yes, I would rather have been playing X instead”, don’t get mad, get sensible. Cut Spoils for whatever card you’re thinking of. Remember, you can give up on Spoils of the Vault, but the rest of the deck will always be there for you.
Frank Karsten has an analysis of how likely Spoils is to kill you (by exiling Lightning Storm, or causing you to lose too much life if you cast it “naked”) here.
I have written a Python script to calculate how likely it is for Spoils to kill you. You can set various factors like how many Lightning Storms/SSGs/lands you need, how many of those are in your library, how many copies of the target card are in your library, and whether Grace/Unlife are active. Remember that you can’t use electronic devices during matches at Competitive or Professional REL though.
The Secret Spoils + Lab Man Kill
You can win with Spoils of the Vault and Laboratory Maniac even if you don’t have Ad Nauseam (e.g. if you don’t draw it, or your opponent named it with Memoricide or Meddling Mage). You need Lab Man on the battlefield, and Grace/Unlife active. Cast Spoils and name a card that is not in your deck. The named card must be legal in Modern though, so don’t name something like Black Lotus. This causes your entire library to be exiled and Lab Man to trigger on your next draw. For best results, do this on your upkeep and win during your draw step.
Land Sequencing
Remember that in order to combo off, you need 3WBB if using Angel’s Grace, or 2W + 3BB if using Phyrexian Unlife. Generally, you should try to fulfill these requirements, in decreasing order of priority:
1) Have 1 blue source (for cantrips)
2) Have 1 white source (for Unlife, or the second counter on Prism)
3) Have 2 black sources (for Ad Nauseam)
The 2 black mana is usually gotten from Lotus Bloom or Pentad Prism.
If you have 2 lands and have the choice of playing a Scars land or a shockland as your third, choose the Scars land, even if you have no plays to make that turn. If you play the shockland first, the Scars land will ETB tapped on the next turn no matter what, since you have more than 2 lands out. However, if you play the Scars land first, you have the choice of playing the shock tapped or untapped. An exception can be made if you are expecting some sort of land destruction that will set you back at 2 lands, turning on the Scars land.
If you have 3 lands, one of which is a Gemstone Mine with one counter on it, you can tap it for mana, sacrifice it, then play a Scars land untapped.
Negative Life Weirdness
It’s not always that you play a deck where your life total becomes zero or negative and you don’t lose immediately, so remember these rules.
You can only pay as much life as you have above zero. This means you can’t play a shockland untapped or use Boseiju, Who Shelters All if you’re at 1 life or less, even if Angel’s Grace or Phyrexian Unlife is active. You also shouldn’t play Gitaxian Probe with the intention of using it with Laboratory Maniac. Note that this rule does not apply to Ad Nauseam, as it causes you to lose life, not pay life.
If your life total goes below 1, being dealt damage will not increase it back up to 1. If you have Phyrexian Unlife out, plan ahead – once you’re below 1 life, Angel’s Grace does nothing. If you need to burn a copy of Angel’s Grace for an extra turn, do it before you drop below 1.
Life Loss Weirdness
Phyrexian Unlife only causes damage when you’re below 0 to turn into poison counters. Life loss, such as from Ad Nauseam (this is the reason the deck even works) or Siege Rhino, will not give you poison counters.
On the other hand, life loss negates Angel’s Grace’s usefulness as a pseudo-Time Walk. Normally, you can use Angel’s Grace to save yourself from a lethal attack, but if your opponent follows up with a life loss spell, your life total will drop to 0 or negative and you’ll lose when Angel’s Grace wears off at end of turn.
Card Drawing Weirdness
Strictly speaking, Ad Nauseam does not draw you cards, but instead reveals cards and puts them in your hand. 99% of the time there is no distinction between the two, but you’ll want to remember this against weird “you can’t draw” or “if you would draw” cards like Zur’s Weirding, Maralen of the Mornsong or Notion Thief. They do nothing against you.
On the other hand, Laboratory Maniac wins you the game when you draw a card. Use Serum Visions or Conjurer’s Bauble on an empty library to win, not Sleight of Hand.
Unlife saves you from huge 1-shot damage
Combat damage is dealt simultaneously (barring first strike). If you have Phyrexian Unlife, are at 1 life, and your opponent attacks for 11, you go to -10 life with 0 poison counters. The same applies if he Fireballs you for 11.
Cheating on Pact payments
You can cheat on the upkeep costs for Pacts in one of two ways. The first is to burn an Angel’s Grace instead of paying 3UU or 2B. This trick also works against the odd Hive Mind deck. The second is to win during your upkeep, as mentioned in the section “You can win at instant speed”.
Putting the two together, you can play a Pact on your opponent’s turn, cast Angel’s Grace during your upkeep to avoid losing, then combo off with Ad Nauseam with Grace still in effect (until end of turn). You can even move to your main phase after casting Grace if you need to make a land drop.
Beating counterspells
The first thing you should remember is that if your opponent waits, he will lose. With that in mind, counterspells are not that scary - if your opponent has to hold counter mana open every turn, you can just sit there drawing cards until you draw into a piece of protection for the combo.
Soft counters like Mana Leak and Spell Pierce can be beaten by simply paying for the cost. Extra Blooms and Prisms go a long way towards that.
Two Ad Nauseams can beat counters by straining your opponent’s mana. With a Phyrexian Unlife in play, cast one Ad Nauseam on your opponent’s turn. If it resolves then, good, you win. If your opponent counters it, play the other on your turn. Hopefully at that point he won’t have enough mana for a second counter. Remand helpfully puts Ad Nauseam back in your hand .
If your opponent lets you resolve Ad Nauseam, he probably misplayed, or doesn’t have counters. Once you have your entire deck at your disposal, you can play Pact of Negation to stop counterspells on your wincon.
Beating Counterflux Counterflux can’t be countered, so you have to rely on non-counterspells to beat it, like Boseiju, Silence, discard, or tapping your opponent out. Note that with Boseiju, there are two “weak links” in the combo: Ad Nauseam and Lightning Storm, and Boseiju can only protect one. So if you use Boseiju to cast Ad Nauseam, you’ll still need some other way of dealing with Counterflux in your deck (and the mana to cast it).
In theory, Counterflux can be beaten with cards that redirect, like...Redirect. When your opponent plays (an un-overloaded) Counterflux, you play Redirect and change the target to Redirect. Redirect will resolve, the Counterflux will try to counter Redirect, but it’s no longer on the stack, so Counterflux fizzles.
Beating discard
Discard is harder to beat than counterspells. Unlike counterspells, your opponent can play his discard before you go for the combo - he doesn’t have to keep mana open all the time. Discard also costs less than counters.
Most of the time, you have 4 copies of Ad Nauseam and 7 copies of Angel’s Grace and Phyrexian Unlife combined, so your opponent should end up taking Ad Nauseam since it’s harder for you to draw into a replacement for it (unless he sees two copies of Ad Nauseam in your hand). Fortunately, Inquisition of Kozilek can’t take Ad Nauseam, as its CMC is above 3.
If you cast Phyrexian Unlife, it makes things slightly easier. Your opponent can’t get rid of an Unlife on the battlefield with discard, unlike a Grace in hand. All you have to do is topdeck Ad Nauseam for the win. (And not let Unlife get blown up by Abrupt Decay.)
Mystical Teachings helps against discard. If you cast it twice, you get two cards, putting you ahead of 1-for-1 discard. It has flashback, so you can get one use out of it even if your opponent discards it.
Spellskite appears to be a problematic card at first glance. However, there are ways to beat it:
- Use Slaughter Pact or Echoing Truth to remove it.
- If your wincon is Laboratory Maniac or Seismic Assault, you don’t have to do anything special.
- If your wincon is Conflagrate, choose to deal 1 damage to each Spellskite that your opponent has in play, and send the rest to him. He can’t redirect the damage to his face to one of the Spellskites. The relevant rule is below: 114.3. The same target can't be chosen multiple times for any one instance of the word "target" on a spell or ability.
- To beat Spellskite with Lightning Storm, first discard the minimum number of lands required to kill your opponent (You can’t just start with 0 or some other low number of lands discarded, since your opponent will just choose to take the piddling damage and stay alive). Then, every time your opponent activates Spellskite, let the Spellskite ability resolve first, but retain priority after it does and activate Lightning Storm’s ability once, discarding a land. Do this until your opponent runs out of life to pay for Spellskite.
The same technique works if your opponent has lands to pitch to Lightning Storm instead of Spellskite.
Example (with a depiction of the stack at each move): Your opponent is tapped out, at 13 life, with no lands in hand. You cast Lightning Storm and hold priority, discarding 5 lands in succession.
Your opponent responds with Spellskite’s ability, redirecting Lightning Storm to Spellskite. He is now at 11, after paying 2 life for Spellskite. Let the Spellskite ability resolve, but retain priority after it does (CR 116.3b).
Now your opponent can’t activate Spellskite, so the damage goes to his face and you win.
Beating Rule of Law
To win while Rule of Law/Ethersworn Canonist/Eidolon of Rhetoric are on the board (without removing them), you need a Phyrexian Unlife in play. Cast Ad Nauseam during your opponent’s end step and draw your entire library. Then cast Lightning Storm on your turn. Note that you don’t have to leave one card on top to prevent decking out as you can cast Lightning Storm during the upkeep step.
Kira, Great Glass-Spinner and Lightning Storm
If your opponent has Kira, Great Glass-Spinner, it can counter Lightning Storm if your opponent discards a land to change the target to one of his creatures. If this happens, discarding more lands on your side would not help; the target may change, but Lightning Storm would still be countered. Find a way to get rid of Kira before casting Lightning Storm (which is hard, given that you'd need to remove it twice due to its ability), or go for the Laboratory Maniac kill.
If Kira is the only creature that they have, you just need one spell to break its shield, then follow up with Lightning Storm.
Applications of combo pieces, outside the combo
- If you have spare Angel’s Graces, you can cast them to buy yourself some turns.
- Phyrexian Unlife effectively gives you 10 extra life when you play it, slightly more if your opponent can’t hit you down to exactly 0.
- You can cast Ad Nauseam “naked” for value. This deck’s average CMC is actually pretty low (around 1.7-1.9, even with Teachings), thanks to Lotus Bloom and Pacts having a CMC of 0.
- If you have 8 mana, and Lightning Storm and Ad Nauseam in hand, you can try to cast Ad Nauseam to get enough lands for a lethal Lightning Storm.
- You can cast Simian Spirit Guide or Laboratory Maniac as a chump blocker (or even an attacker, in the mirror match!). If you cast SSG, remember that you can’t exile it for mana later.
- You can cast Laboratory Maniac before you combo off. If it survives, you only need U (or 2 SSGs and a Prism) to cast the winning cantrip.
- You can cast Conflagrate to kill something before you combo off. It has to be in the graveyard to be cast for its flashback cost anyway.
Sideboarding tips
- Bring in Pact of Negation, Boseiju, and discard against blue decks with counterspells. Switch to 2 Lightning Storm as your wincons if you can. The same cards (other than Boseiju) are usually good against combo/ramp decks as well.
- Bring in Leyline of Sanctity against decks with discard.
- Bring in Darkness/Ethereal Haze against aggro decks that rely on attacking with creatures.
- Take out a few Pentad Prisms against slower matchups, especially if you suspect Stony Silence.
- If you still need space, cut Prisms, cantrips, or a land.
- If you leave Laboratory Maniac in, keep in at least 1 Pentad Prism to filter colors, and 1 Pact of Negation to stop random removal spells on Lab Man.
- If you’re playing Mystical Teachings, it can come out against fast decks.
- If you’re playing Conjurer’s Bauble, it can come out against decks with no discard.
- If you’re playing Spoils of the Vault, do not take out any Simian Spirit Guides. Spoils can randomly exile SSGs and you don’t want to lose because you boarded out an SSG, got one exiled, and don’t have enough mana to win.
Favorable Burn
- Pact of Negation
- Spoils of the Vault
+ Phyrexian Unlife
+ Leyline of Sanctity
In Game 1, Phyrexian Unlife effectively gains you 10 life, making it very hard for them to beat you if you draw it. Postboard they have Destructive Revelry, but you have Leyline of Sanctity, which slows them even more. Keep in one Pact of Negation for Deflecting Palm. Eidolon of the Great Revel punishes you for chaining cantrips, so you can cut a Sleight of Hand if you need space.
Affinity
- Pact of Negation
+ Darkness
+ Slaughter Pact
This matchup is favorable as long as you have at least 3 Darkness or Hurkyl’s Recall. They are a creature-based aggro deck, and you have Grace and Unlife to buy time. The main ways they can take the game are 1) killing you with an Inkmoth Nexus that’s been pumped by Arcbound Ravager or Cranial Plating, and 2) gaining enough life with Vault Skirge that you can’t kill them with Lightning Storm. Against the former, Slaughter Pact and Darkness counter that plan (note that Echoing Truth, on the other hand, cannot bounce an animated Inkmoth Nexus) and against the latter, you have Laboratory Maniac. Using Pact of Negation to counter Cranial Plating and Angel’s Grace to survive on the next upkeep also works pre-board. Postboard you may face a few Thoughtseize, Stubborn Denial or Spell Pierce, but they don’t play a lot of copies of those. They have a decent number of Ancient Grudge, which you can sidestep by going for Unlife + Ad Nauseam, or winning during the upkeep when Bloom unsuspends.
RG Tron
+ Discard
Tron doesn’t have a lot of ways to interact with you other than turn 3 Karn Liberated, and you goldfish faster. Postboard they have Nature’s Claim, which buys some time, but you should be able to overpower it easily. Watch out for Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger - if it resolves it’s usually game over, since it can keep you off the combo for one turn by destroying two of your lands/mana rocks, and follow up with an attack to exile cards from your library. Pacting Ulamog doesn’t stop its cast trigger.
Jeskai Nahiri
- Phyrexian Unlife
- Pentad Prism
+ Pact of Negation
+ Boseiju, Who Shelters All
+ Discard
+ Echoing Truth
Your ability to win at instant speed keeps them off many of their options. They can’t tap out for Nahiri, the Harbinger or flash in Vendilion Clique if you’re threatening a kill in response. Nahiri exiles enchantments, so Unlife comes out. Cutting Pentad Prisms gives them fewer targets for Spell Snare. Echoing Truth is a decent hedge against Stony Silence, with the added plus of resetting Nahiri.
Temur/Bring to Light Scapeshift
- Lotus Bloom
+ Pact of Negation
+ Boseiju, Who Shelters All
+ Discard
Scapeshift is another control deck with a combo wincon, like Jeskai Nahiri. The difference is that their wincon stacks up poorly against Angel’s Grace - you can use it to survive all the Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle triggers, then win with Ad Nauseam while they’re tapped out. Ad Nauseam also doesn’t damage itself from its mana base, so they have to Scapeshift with 1 more land than usual, or get in a few points of damage with Lightning Bolt or Snapcaster Mage, before they even have a shot at killing you. Leyline of Sanctity is not necessary, but if they’re on Bring to Light, you might want 3 as protection against Slaughter Games.
Merfolk
- Lotus Bloom
+ Phyrexian Unlife
+ Darkness
+ Pact of Negation
Merfolk is a creature-based aggro deck which wastes a lot of space on making its creatures unblockable, something which you don’t care about since you don’t intend to cast any creatures to block with. They are pretty light on disruption, which is surprising for a blue deck. Note that if they get Kira, Great Glass-Spinner into play, you’ll probably have to go for the Laboratory Maniac kill, since they can discard a land to redirect Lightning Storm to one of their creatures, at which point it will be countered; discarding more lands will not help.
Even Grixis
- Pentad Prism
+ Pact of Negation
+ Boseiju, Who Shelters All
+ Discard
Grixis is an interesting case of a fair deck that attacks you in two ways: counterspells and discard. In the meantime, it can keep the pressure on you by playing Tasigur, the Golden Fang or Gurmag Angler. Don’t board in Leyline of Sanctity for their discard; just try to shrug it off. They often play Inquisition of Kozilek as their discard, rarely Thoughtseize, and IoK can’t take Ad Nauseam.
Ad Nauseam (mirror)
+ Phyrexian Unlife
+ Discard
The Ad Nauseam mirror is one of the most ridiculous matchups. Any attempt at a Lightning Storm kill will be thwarted by Angel’s Grace. The plan is to either hardcast Simian Spirit Guides/Laboratory Maniac and beat down, or set up Phyrexian Unlife into Laboratory Maniac and an empty library, and ask “can you stop me” during each of your draw steps.
Unfavorable Jund/Abzan
- Pact of Negation
+ Leyline of Sanctity
They have plenty of discard to stop you from assembling the 2-card combo. Getting a turn 0 Leyline helps a lot, although Liliana of the Veil can still force you to discard. If you draw any extra Leylines or Blooms, keep them in your hand as discard fodder for Liliana.
Infect
- Phyrexian Unlife
+ Slaughter Pact
+ Darkness
+ Discard
Possibly the worst matchup for Ad Nauseam. They goldfish faster than you, have counters and Nature’s Claim postboard, and Angel’s Grace and Phyrexian Unlife do nothing to buy time. It would take almost half your sideboard to make the matchup even. Most players just choose to play 3 Darkness and hope to dodge Infect. Remember that the AN nut draw is 3 lands, Pentad Prism, SSG, Grace and Ad Nauseam, so don’t take out any of those cards - you want that chance, no matter how small, of stealing a game from them with the nut draw.
Figured this would get posted eventually, glad to see someone took the time =)
That manabase creeps me out a little every time I see it.
Yeah I am helping the mods out a little bit. I have already sent T_C some deck list and pointed to him some threads and primers for decks that showed up at worlds.
I'm not too sold on the manabase and I also think that the deck has a bit of room to develop.
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In life all we can do is try to make things better. Sitting lost in old ways and fearing change only makes us outdated and ignorant.
Peace cannot be kept by force. It can only be achieved by understanding.
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Millions of innocent men, women and children, since the introduction of Christianity, have been burnt, tortured, fined and imprisoned; yet we have not advanced one inch towards uniformity.
I'm playing Ruben's 75 except for one tiny change; I'm using Lightning Storm instead of Conflagrate (the way Ruben intended, but he couldn't find a Lightning Storm anywhere.). The fact that's it's an instant is nuts! Being able to go off and win at the end of your turn when your opponent taps out for an instant/flash card is powerful.
I've had mixed results. Some nights, I always go off by or on turn 4. Other nights, nothing. Then there are the nights I forget to hold CTRL when casting Lightning Storm... In regards to actual matchups, fast aggro gets me. Even the sided Infests were too slow or irrelevant.
I want to make some changes to the deck. I've noticed that nine out of ten times, I'm winning using Angel's Grace and not Phyrexian Unlife. As such, I think more Peer Through Depths could help. I've also never cast Mystical Teachings. I either never draw the spell, or I have the combo ready to go. I also want to change the sideboard some. I'd like some sort of graveyard hate in the 75. A lot of the singletons in the sideboard seem odd (maybe more so to me since I've never cast Teachings. And I'm not the best player, either.)
In any case, it's a well designed, well built piece of work. It just needs a few tweaks and it'll be a true powerhouse.
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On Mythic Rares: "What's next, Wizards will print six golden Black Lotuses and randomly place them in boosters, and if someone gets one, they get to tour the Wizards facility?"
I'm playing Ruben's 75 except for one tiny change; I'm using Lightning Storm instead of Conflagrate (the way Ruben intended, but he couldn't find a Lightning Storm anywhere.). The fact that's it's an instant is nuts! Being able to go off and win at the end of your turn when your opponent taps out for an instant/flash card is powerful.
I've had mixed results. Some nights, I always go off by or on turn 4. Other nights, nothing. Then there are the nights I forget to hold CTRL when casting Lightning Storm... In regards to actual matchups, fast aggro gets me. Even the sided Infests were too slow or irrelevant.
I want to make some changes to the deck. I've noticed that nine out of ten times, I'm winning using Angel's Grace and not Phyrexian Unlife. As such, I think more Peer Through Depths could help. I've also never cast Mystical Teachings. I either never draw the spell, or I have the combo ready to go. I also want to change the sideboard some. I'd like some sort of graveyard hate in the 75. A lot of the singletons in the sideboard seem odd (maybe more so to me since I've never cast Teachings. And I'm not the best player, either.)
In any case, it's a well designed, well built piece of work. It just needs a few tweaks and it'll be a true powerhouse.
thanks for that bit of information. I didn't read anything about the deck and I haven't played it since I tested it out for extended a couple of years ago. I was just trying to help speed up the meta transition that the mods(T_C especially) are working on.
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In life all we can do is try to make things better. Sitting lost in old ways and fearing change only makes us outdated and ignorant.
Peace cannot be kept by force. It can only be achieved by understanding.
Albert Einstein
Millions of innocent men, women and children, since the introduction of Christianity, have been burnt, tortured, fined and imprisoned; yet we have not advanced one inch towards uniformity.
On Mythic Rares: "What's next, Wizards will print six golden Black Lotuses and randomly place them in boosters, and if someone gets one, they get to tour the Wizards facility?"
I shall post a link on the OP thanks for the link.
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In life all we can do is try to make things better. Sitting lost in old ways and fearing change only makes us outdated and ignorant.
Peace cannot be kept by force. It can only be achieved by understanding.
Albert Einstein
Millions of innocent men, women and children, since the introduction of Christianity, have been burnt, tortured, fined and imprisoned; yet we have not advanced one inch towards uniformity.
hi guys - the numbers are actually a bit mixed up (I got a gameloss for that :-/); it should be 2 sleight of hand, 3 pact of negation.
things to consider:
- 2 unlife may be good enough; I boarded 1 out most of the time
- 1 tolaria west could be used to have the boseiju available, although it's obviously very slow. Feel free to play with the mana base; I was playing the marsh flats (into plains) in order to have game against blood moon.
- maybe 22 lands and 3 sleight of hand is ok
- obviously replace the stupid conflagrate for a lightning storm... man, I haven't played an incomplete list in years, for this to happen at worlds really pissed me off. It really helps against control decks and splinter-twin; "you want a pestermite? I win in response"
...I think the deck is good when under the radar, but can be hated out pretty easily. Last round last game, I played Paulo, mulligan to 6 into a nice turn 5 combo (turn 4 additional angel's grace to stay alive against his zoo deck), even with counter backup... but he had 2 counters ready.
I think the hardest part is to decide which hands one should mulligan. good luck & have fun with the deck!
-Ruben S
Thanks for the updates. I edited the list. If you mess with the deck anymore post a new list and I will put it in the original post. It is nice to have collaboration from players with PT experience.
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In life all we can do is try to make things better. Sitting lost in old ways and fearing change only makes us outdated and ignorant.
Peace cannot be kept by force. It can only be achieved by understanding.
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Millions of innocent men, women and children, since the introduction of Christianity, have been burnt, tortured, fined and imprisoned; yet we have not advanced one inch towards uniformity.
this. Also it is quite good against affinity and elves if they would have showed up.
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In life all we can do is try to make things better. Sitting lost in old ways and fearing change only makes us outdated and ignorant.
Peace cannot be kept by force. It can only be achieved by understanding.
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Millions of innocent men, women and children, since the introduction of Christianity, have been burnt, tortured, fined and imprisoned; yet we have not advanced one inch towards uniformity.
The problem with Spoils is that you could exile Lightning Storm.
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On Mythic Rares: "What's next, Wizards will print six golden Black Lotuses and randomly place them in boosters, and if someone gets one, they get to tour the Wizards facility?"
I've got a question: With Lightning Storm, what's your land discard strategy? I imagine just dumping your hand to it will backfire hard if your opponent has at least one land card in hand. Do you discard just enough lands to kill your opponent, then be prepared to dump extras if they ditch a land, too?
This is why I think Seismic Assault is the better card against graveyard hate, despite the lack of instant speed, but if you can convince me the Storm will NEVER backfire...
I've got a question: With Lightning Storm, what's your land discard strategy? I imagine just dumping your hand to it will backfire hard if your opponent has at least one land card in hand. Do you discard just enough lands to kill your opponent, then be prepared to dump extras if they ditch a land, too?
This is why I think Seismic Assault is the better card against graveyard hate, despite the lack of instant speed, but if you can convince me the Storm will NEVER backfire...
you would have to ask the man who built the deck lol. I always played with conflagrate, but the person who played this in worlds said he wanted it to be lightning storm and had a correction because he had registered his list wrong so it was wrong on the deck list thread.
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In life all we can do is try to make things better. Sitting lost in old ways and fearing change only makes us outdated and ignorant.
Peace cannot be kept by force. It can only be achieved by understanding.
Albert Einstein
Millions of innocent men, women and children, since the introduction of Christianity, have been burnt, tortured, fined and imprisoned; yet we have not advanced one inch towards uniformity.
are there any alternatives to protect our combo when we trying to go off other den pact? and what do we do when out lightning storm is droped into the grave??
If they redirect Lightning Storm to you, what kills you isn't that Lightning Storm now targets you, it's from Lightning Storm NOT targeting your opponent anymore..
Still, it should be easy to toss 9 lands to lightning storm and still have loads left so them redirecting isn't a problem, but not for the reason you stated (since if they DO succeed in redirecting it, you lose, since your kill card has been spent and you'll be passing the turn.
The only way I could see your opponent having as many lands as you is if you get into the mirror and you both combo off at the same time. I mean you do draw out your whole deck.
Quote from Jamjars »
My list uses 2 Thoughtseize to strip the opponent of their counterspells and hate.
Like Ruben Snijdewind (Blaat Kwadraat) already said, the deck should use Conjurer's Bauble so that we don't randomly loose against Duress. You could also run 2 copies of Lightning Storm, which would also make Spoils of the Vault more stable.
I don't think I would run two lightning storm. Conjurer's bauble seems like a good idea though. Also if you reslove the ad nasuem you should win anyways. 2 thoughtseizes isn't going to do anything because a smart opponent would counter your ad nasuem instead of letting it resolve.
Pact of negation is good enough as long as you play smart. I would be more worried about discard anyways. Counterspells are super weak in modern for control decks. Combo decks have pact, dispel, ext, but control have mana leak......it is just not good enough to even worry about. Also the control decks that did good in worlds had discard not counterspells.
In life all we can do is try to make things better. Sitting lost in old ways and fearing change only makes us outdated and ignorant.
Peace cannot be kept by force. It can only be achieved by understanding.
Albert Einstein
Millions of innocent men, women and children, since the introduction of Christianity, have been burnt, tortured, fined and imprisoned; yet we have not advanced one inch towards uniformity.
..the Storm is a bit tricky, but calculations show that there should be no issue:
- I was running 23 lands, but 22 land should be ok as well
- say you're running max 6 fetch-land
- say you never need more than 6 lands in play
- say you're unlucky and of these 6 lands in play, 3 of them were due to fetch lands
- say you're unlucky and your opponent is still at 20 life (could even be 23 due to a lightning helix, but decks with the helix tend to do damage to themselves with dual-lands). Thus, you need 9 lands to set up a lethal Lightning Storm.
- 22 - 6 (in play) - 3 (fetch) = at least 13 lands still in the deck. That means that you'll lose if your opponent is holding 5 (=13 - 9 + 1) or more lands, which is very rare on turn 4.
Note that above calculation is the worse-case scenario; usually you'll have far more lands available. One may get worried about an opponent holding all their lands at hand starting from turn 0. Note that no normal player would do this, since it means not casting any spells during the game, but "what if" never hurts (...and it could be done if this calculation would show that it is a valid strategy). This way (not playing lands), your opponent could hold 7 lands at the time you want to combo out. That means that you need 9 + 7 =16 lands to kill your opponent; this still gives enough room to play 22-16 = 6 lands (note, including fetch lands).
Thus, Lightning Storm is a safe kill-mechanism in >99% of all games.
About Spoils from the Vault: not only do you need 2 lightning storms (without the spoils, 1 storm + 1 bauble is better), you also may need additional ways of creating red mana. If 2 ape's get removed (and a land was already played), it may get tricky to get 3 mana for the storm. But let's assume one can play around this with some careful planning. With 2 Storms and 4 Nauseam in the deck. There are 15 ways to order these cards, of which 1 will lose you the game (that is, both lightning storms are on top of the first Ad Nauseam). That is a 6.7% chance that you will lose the game by simply casting a Spoils from the Vault... I don't like that. More over, we tested the card a bit, but it didn't "feel" good. Sometimes you need a land, and you take 10 damage from the Spoils by naming "island"; ugh.
hope this helps
Ok it is nice to get a little bit more reasoning behind card selections. All of that makes a ton of since. As for the additional red mana that is a tough sell. I would just throw rite of flames in(if it weren't banned). I guess you can go up to 4 monkeys. Chrome mox would have also been nice lol. I guess you could also drop a one of desperate ritual in just in case you only have 2 monkeys left to pitch.
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In life all we can do is try to make things better. Sitting lost in old ways and fearing change only makes us outdated and ignorant.
Peace cannot be kept by force. It can only be achieved by understanding.
Albert Einstein
Millions of innocent men, women and children, since the introduction of Christianity, have been burnt, tortured, fined and imprisoned; yet we have not advanced one inch towards uniformity.
challenge for you guys: Make an Angel's Grace + Spoils from the Vault combo deck. For instance, if your deck contains 2 Death's Shadow and 2 Fling, one could win once 1WBBR is available, and holding Angel's Grace, Spoils from the Vault and a Fling or Death Shadow --> Cast Grace, Cast Spoils to find the other combo-piece (which hopefully is not in the top ~10 cards, depending on how much life you're at), go to minus 7 life (or less) in the process, cast Death's Shadow, Fling it at your opponent for >20 damage. This is a 3 card combo, but requires 1 less mana than Angel's Grace + Ad Nauseam. That was the best I could come up with (which obviously wasn't good enough), maybe you guys can think of something better
I was playing a janky deck based around that. It ran Assault Strobe, Tainted Strike, lots of fetches and shock lands, Phyrexian Revoker... Basically, the plan was to cast Revoker and D. Shadow on turn one, turn two or three win (using Spoils and Angel's Grace to tutor for a kill condition.) Fling was a back up plan.
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On Mythic Rares: "What's next, Wizards will print six golden Black Lotuses and randomly place them in boosters, and if someone gets one, they get to tour the Wizards facility?"
EDH/Commander
Olivia Voldaren
Sigarda, Host of Herons
Jor Kadeen, the Prevailer
Jhoira of the Ghitu
Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord
Edric, Spymaster of Trest
Grand Arbiter Augustin IV
Rosheen Meanderer
Ghost Council of Orzhova
Vela the Night-Clad
I've been playing around with the deck on mws since it first made appearence on Worlds, and I really like it! It's consistently winning on turn 4, and no later than turn 5.
Here is my currenet version of the deck, and as you can see, I've made some notable changes.
The first big difference between this version and the rest is the absence of Mystical Teachings. I thought it to be too slow, and that more reliable cantrips like Telling Time and Peer through Depths would do the job better. Telling Time finds me other pieces, like that extra land, a Pact of Negation or a Thoughtseize. You can also leave a crapcard on top and fetch it away if you save up fetches.
The absence of Mystical Teachings also affects the sideboard which usually consist of 1-of's. My board is very sketchy, but you get some clues of what I'm trying to achieve. Bounce-spells for Leyline of Sanctity, Blood Moon and hate-bears. Duress and Silence as countermeasures against control and other combo. Smother and Path to Exile is for the aggro-matchup, might add more removal here. Leyline of Sanctity for discard-heavy decks and other combo like storm or the mirror.
I run a couple of signets, just for their consistency, and the same goes for the manabase (which could use some tweaking) where I run a bunch of basics. I like the idea of running Tolaria West for tutoring for pacts and Boseiju, but its pretty slow.
The maindeck Thoughtseizes are just great, you save them up for the turn you want to go off and grab their hate. It's also pretty sweet in the combo-mirror.
As an idea, conjurer's bauble, then name the card you put on the bottom with spoils, and the Laboratory maniac for game?
Just an idea kinda going off topic
On topic: I highly suggest that 1 you play some stuff in case the OTHER player has leyline because that would just stop the deck in it's tracks. Quasali Pridemage could work since you can produce G and W in the deck.
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”You are breathing borrowed air.”
By izzetmage and epdt
Contents
1) What is Ad Nauseam?
2) Card Choices
3) Technical Play
4) Decklists
5) Matchups
6) Articles
1) What is Ad Nauseam?
Ad Nauseam in Modern is very different from Ad Nauseam in Legacy. In Legacy, Ad Nauseam is meant as a way to fill your hand in a Storm combo deck. There exists the risk of revealing a card with too high a CMC and losing, or not drawing enough cards to reach a storm count of 10. In Modern, Ad Nauseam forms one half of a 2-card combo. If the combo is assembled and undisrupted, you are guaranteed to win. There is no chance of fizzling.
BTW: it’s Ad Nauseam.
2) It doesn’t play creatures. (Simian Spirit Guide is a creature, but it is not meant to be casted. Laboratory Maniac is casted after the combo with Pact of Negation backup.) Against “fair” decks, you blank all of their removal spells in Game 1.
3) It doesn’t use the graveyard. (Not unless you play Conflagrate, but even then, some forms of graveyard hate are useless against it.) This means that cards like Scavenging Ooze, Relic of Progenitus and Rest in Peace have no effect against you.
4) You can win at instant speed. This is a huge boon, since the moment your opponent taps low (even if it was for a game-ending spell), you can punish him by going for the combo and winning immediately. On the other hand, if they choose to play it slow, you can slowly build up your board with mana-storing artifacts (Lotus Bloom and Pentad Prism), and sculpt your hand with cantrips and tutors.
5) Exciting gameplay. This deck flirts with death. A necessary condition for winning is going into a negative life total, while being kept alive with Angel’s Grace or Ad Nauseam. Some memorable plays you can make are:
a) Opponent: “I cast <some lethal spell>.”
You: “In response, Angel’s Grace + Ad Nauseam, draw my entire library, kill you.”
b) While you only have a single untapped Hallowed Fountain and two Angel’s Grace in hand:
Opponent: “I cast <some lethal spell>.”
You: “In response, Angel’s Grace, going down to 1. On my turn, untap, Angel’s Grace + Ad Nauseam, draw my entire library, kill you.”
c) Opponent: “I cast <some lethal spell>/swing for lethal.”
You: “In response, Pact of Negation/Slaughter Pact. On my turn, untap, upkeep: while the Pact trigger is on the stack, Angel’s Grace + Ad Nauseam, draw my entire library, kill you.”
2) Weakness to faster decks that can win with poison. Against aggro decks, Angel’s Grace and Phyrexian Unlife buy some time, but are completely useless if said aggro deck wins by poisoning you. Infect is the biggest example (and a very bad matchup), while Affinity can sneak wins with Inkmoth Nexus.
3) It needs some support to win on turn 4. Ad Nauseam costs 5 mana to cast, so you need Lotus Bloom/Pentad Prism/Simian Spirit Guide in order to generate the necessary amount of mana. You can’t get there by lands alone. This makes it secretly a 3-card combo deck, although against slower decks, you can get to 5 or 6 just by making land drops steadily.
4) Dead cards in deck. The wincon, Lightning Storm, does nothing by itself. If you happen to draw it, it’s as though you didn’t draw a card at all. Actually, it’s even worse than that: drawing Lightning Storm means that it’s vulnerable to discard. Secondary wincons give you an out if Lightning Storm gets discarded, but those do not share Lightning Storm’s ability to win at instant speed.
5) Revealing your entire deck to your opponent. Ad Nauseam requires you to reveal cards from the top of your library. This means that your opponent has full information of all the cards in your deck. He can see what you have sideboarded in against him, and any super secret tech you have will not stay secret for long.
Combo
4 Angel’s Grace
3 Phyrexian Unlife
These are the core cards of the deck, the ones that let you put your entire library into your hand. The combo works because Angel’s Grace/Phyrexian Unlife prevents you from losing the game. Your life total will drop to negative amounts during the combo, but as long as their effects are active, you’re still in the game. Ad Nauseam will not kill you with poison under Phyrexian Unlife either, because it causes you to lose life, not take damage.
On the other hand, if you fail to combo off, you will lose once the turn has passed (Grace) or the enchantment gets destroyed (Unlife). You do not have the opportunity to chain Graces to keep you alive, as state-based actions (losing the game from <= 0 life) are checked before either player gains priority.
Angel’s Grace has split second, so it is naturally protected from most counterspells. Save your Boseijus/Pacts of Negation for Ad Nauseam/Lightning Storm. Chalice of the Void on 1 will trigger and counter Angel’s Grace, though.
There is not much difference between casting Angel’s Grace first, followed by Ad Nauseam, or vice versa. Do note that a) if you cast Angel’s Grace first, you must let it resolve before casting Ad Nauseam, as it has split second, and b) if you cast Ad Nauseam first, announce that you are holding priority (MTGO players: hold Ctrl as you cast Ad Nauseam), then cast Angel’s Grace while Ad Nauseam is on the stack. To make it simple, just cast Angel’s Grace first.
No, you cannot cast a “naked” Ad Nauseam (without Grace/Unlife active), reveal Angel’s Grace, cast it, and continue drawing. You can’t cast spells while another spell is still resolving; you have to resolve Ad Nauseam completely (i.e. announce that you’re not revealing any more cards) first.
1 Lightning Storm
(1 Simian Spirit Guide can be replaced by 1 Desperate Ritual/Pyretic Ritual.)
The other indispensable part of the deck. After drawing your entire deck, exile three Simian Spirit Guides (or two Simian Spirit Guides, followed by casting a ritual) for mana to cast Lightning Storm. When you cast Lightning Storm, immediately announce that you are holding priority (MTGO players: hold Ctrl as you cast Lightning Storm). Then discard as many lands as necessary (maintaining priority each time), and pass priority once you’ve discarded the final land. Do not ask for responses (e.g. “I cast Lightning Storm, response?”) before you’re done adding charge counters, as this will be interpreted as passing priority, and your opponent can let Lightning Storm resolve and take only 3 damage!
You need 3 SSGs to cast Lightning Storm, assuming you tapped out completely for Ad Nauseam and don’t have any land drops. Most of the time, this means that you have the leeway to use only 1 SSG before comboing off (if you play 4 of them). Keep this in mind and don’t use any more than you need to.
Remember that your opponent can redirect Lightning Storm if he has lands in hand. Always start with the minimum amount of damage required to kill your opponent, then match his lands with yours. You can also respond to lifegain spells by discarding more lands (remember to hold priority).
Keep track of the number of lands in your deck, especially against control. You still lose the game if you don’t have enough lands to pitch to Lightning Storm! Generally you do not need more than 5 or 6 lands out, so sandbag any lands past the sixth instead of playing them.
Lightning Storm has an activated ability. This means it can be stopped by Pithing Needle, Phyrexian Revoker or Suppression Field. Trickbind/Squelch only stops one land discard (i.e. 2 damage). In the case of Trickbind, Lightning Storm is not a permanent, so you can continue discarding lands to it after Trickbind has resolved.
Simian Spirit Guide vs Ritual
SSG is, by itself, better at providing a quick mana boost to cast Teachings/Ad Nauseam, since rituals require 1 red mana and the deck doesn’t play many red sources. Rituals, on the other hand, can be found with Peer Through Depths or Mystical Teachings.
I recommend playing 4 Spirit Guides and 0 rituals. Being able to put a ritual into your hand with Peer/Teachings isn’t much use if you’re not going to be able to cast it. Also, rituals are vulnerable to counterspells.
SSG’s ability is a mana ability and cannot be responded to. Rituals, however, are not mana abilities.
What if Lightning Storm gets discarded?
If you’re only playing one wincon, you lose. It’s unfortunate, but it happens. However, you have to draw the sole copy of Lightning Storm, and your opponent needs to cast a discard spell while it’s in your hand, in order for that to occur.
Most Ad Nauseam decks play two wincons these days, to avoid such mishaps. Playing an alternate wincon lets you cover Lightning Storm’s weaknesses with it. Some wincons can win in situations where Lightning Storm wouldn’t.
Conflagrate
First, cast it for X=0 (using R) to put it into your graveyard. Then, flash it back for RR, discarding as many cards in your hand as you need.
The advantages of Conflagrate are 1) if it gets discarded, you still have an out, as it can (and is meant to) be casted from the graveyard, and 2) you may lack the required number of lands to pitch to Lightning Storm if your opponent has gained a lot of life, whereas Conflagrate consistently hits for 40+.
A proper Conflagrate kill cannot be interrupted by Scavenging Ooze or Relic of Progenitus. After the first 0-damage cast, you still have priority, so your opponent cannot exile it “in response”.
While on the stack, Conflagrate’s mana cost reflects X even if it was cast with flashback. So Chalice of the Void on 1 doesn’t stop it.
Laboratory Maniac
If you have at least one more non-red, non-colorless mana than is necessary to combo off OR you have not used your land drop for the turn, combo off as usual, putting your entire library into your hand. Exile 1 SSG for R, then cast Pentad Prism using R and the mana you had floating from before OR play a land, tap it for mana, then use that mana and an SSG to cast Pentad Prism. Use one counter on Pentad Prism and RR from 2 SSGs to cast Laboratory Maniac, then use the other counter on Pentad Prism to cast Serum Visions.
If you do not have any excess mana, you can still win, but it’s a little riskier. You need Phyrexian Unlife in play, and for your opponent not to kill you with damage by the next turn. Combo off as usual, then end your turn, keeping Lab Man, Serum Visions, Angel’s Grace, as many Pacts of Negation as you have, a land if you don’t have 5 mana on the board, and a Fog effect (Ethereal Haze/Darkness/Holy Day) to avoid dying to poison from Unlife, if you have one. Use your Pacts and Fogs to survive your opponent’s turn. On your turn, cast Angel’s Grace during your upkeep to avoid losing to your Pacts/draw step. Then cast Lab Man and Serum Visions during your main phase and win.
Alternatively, combo off, then exile four SSGs for RRRR. Spend RR to cast Pentad Prism (which will enter the battlefield with only 1 counter), then use the counter on Pentad Prism and the remaining RR to cast Laboratory Maniac. End your turn, keeping as many Pacts/Angel’s Graces/fogs in hand as possible. Use your Pacts to protect Lab Man and survive your opponent’s turn. When your opponent ends his turn and passes back to you, cast Angel’s Grace on your upkeep to avoid dying to Pacts, and win on your draw step.
The advantages of Lab Man are that it bypasses infinite life (e.g. Melira/Anafenza combo), unlike all other damage-based wincons. It also isn’t reliant on having a certain amount of land cards in your library.
Conjurer’s Bauble
Conjurer’s Bauble saves you if Lightning Storm gets discarded. It costs 1 colorless mana, which can be paid for with SSG. Combo off as normal, putting every card in your library in your hand, then cast Bauble if you haven’t already done so before the combo. Sacrifice Bauble, putting Lightning Storm at the bottom of your (empty) library, drawing it immediately. Then use Storm to kill your opponent. Note that your library MUST be empty for this to work.
Conjurer’s Bauble is the least dead out of all the alternate wincons. You can just play and sacrifice it before the combo to draw a card. However, it’s only as good as Lightning Storm, and if Lightning Storm gets exiled, it can’t save you.
If you’re playing two wincons, or against a deck that can’t remove Lightning Storm, you don’t need Bauble.
Bottom-decking a land with Conjurer’s Bauble boosts Lightning Storm’s damage output by 2.
Seismic Assault
Seismic Assault can burn out random creatures on your opponent’s side of the field, such as hatebears and Platinum Angel. However, Slaughter Pact does the job just as well.
4 Pentad Prism
(1 Simian Spirit Guide could count)
Casting Ad Nauseam by itself costs 5 mana. With Angel’s Grace on the same turn, that’s 6 mana. These cards are here to enable you to make these plays in a timely manner.
Bloom’s & Prism’s abilities are mana abilities, and can be activated even in response to Krosan Grip.
Lotus Bloom provides 3 mana of one color, not 3 mana in any combination of colors. That means that, for example, Lotus Bloom + Boseiju + Island + Watery Grave is incapable of generating the mana needed to cast Ad Nauseam + Angel’s Grace on the same turn.
Pentad Prism requires 2 different colors of mana for its full potential. Using C or UU is a waste and should not be done except in the most extreme of circumstances.
Pentad Prism can be used as a two-turn Signet. You don’t have to take the charge counters off all at once. If you have Unlife in your hand, but missed your third land drop, you can just use one counter on Prism to cast Unlife.
Pentad Prism can be used to filter your mana. Two common examples are 1) when you have 5 mana, but not BB for Ad Nauseam, and 2) when going for a Laboratory Maniac kill.
If your opponent has Thalia, Guardian of Thraben (or, less commonly, Thorn of Amethyst), you have to pay 1 more mana to cast Pentad Prism, or Lotus Bloom from exile. The silver lining is that Prism enters the battlefield with 3 counters on it if you used 3 different colors to pay for it.
0 Slaughter Pact
0 Boseiju, Who Shelters All
These cards provide answers to disruption. Pact of Negation and Boseiju beat counterspells, while Slaughter Pact removes hatebears such as Thalia, Guardian of Thraben and Gaddock Teeg, or even just a beatstick that’s threatening your life total.
Pacts are a natural fit for the deck, as the combo is quite mana-intensive. You can also avoid paying for them with Angel’s Grace (see “Cheating on Pact payments” under Technical Play).
The converted mana cost of Pacts is 0. If you reveal a Pact from Ad Nauseam, you lose 0 life.
4 Sleight of Hand
(Conjurer’s Bauble also counts, if you’re playing it)
Cantrips are a staple of combo decks. They help you dig deeper to find whatever you need, be it lands, pieces of the combo, or protection. Chaining them is also easy when they cost 1 mana - if you cast a cantrip and find the card you’re looking for, good. If you don’t, hopefully you found another cantrip, which you can use to dig for that card.
0 Darkslick Shores
0 Seachrome Coast
0 Temple of Deceit
0 Temple of Enlightenment
0 Island
0 Plains
0 City of Brass
0 Polluted Delta
0 Flooded Strand
0 Watery Grave
0 Hallowed Fountain
0 Swamp
0 Godless Shrine
0 Boseiju, Who Shelters All
0 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
0 Tolaria West
0 Gemstone Caverns
City of Brass is better than Mana Confluence, as it can tap for mana even if you’re at negative life.
Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth makes all lands Swamps (yours and your opponent’s). This makes it easier to cast Ad Nauseam, and lets Boseiju and fetches tap for B.
Tolaria West either tutors for Pacts/Boseiju, or gets played as a land. It also tutors for Tormod’s Crypt out of the sideboard.
Avoid playing too many lands that produce only C, or one specific color. Pentad Prism requires 2 different colors for both counters.
Yes, fetches do not rank highly in this deck, contrary to almost any other deck. If you play fetchlands, don’t overdo it, as you might end up with insufficient lands to pitch to Lightning Storm after fetching too many times. 4 is enough. Temples are good for the opposite reason: they help you fix your draws without subtracting from your land count.
Peer/Teachings
1 Mystical Teachings
Why should you play Peer/Teachings?
- Ease of use. Both cards can be cast at any time to search for either half of the combo, or protection for it. You rarely whiff with Peer - even if you don’t find the card you were looking for, odds are good that you’ll find a cantrip or another Peer, which allows you to continue digging for it. If you’re new to the deck, Peer/Teachings is a good way to learn, and it continues to be viable even as you improve.
- Good in slow grindy matchups. This package shines in matchups (i.e. BGx, URx, UW, Grixis) where your opponent has a lot of discard/counterspells and not too fast a clock. Given enough time, you will hit 6 lands and draw Teachings, which will get you 2 cards, or soak up 2 discard/counterspells, or a combination of both.
Why should you NOT play Peer/Teachings?
- Relatively high mana costs. The deck is already strained on mana as it is, requiring at least 5 mana in one turn to win. If you want to cast Peer/Teachings, you pretty much have to do it before the combo turn, unless you have a lot of excess mana from Blooms/Prisms. Teachings is also expensive at 3U - very often, you’ll board it out against fast decks.
Other considerations
- Peer/Teachings can find a wide range of cards, so feel free to mix up your sideboard hate. For example, you might want to have cards with similar effects but different card types, such as Silence + Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir (which can be tutored for with Teachings!). Your opponent’s Dispel/Negate can counter Silence, but not Teferi.
Sample Mana Bases for Peer/Teachings
2 Temple of Deceit
2 Temple of Enlightenment
2 Flooded Strand
1 Polluted Delta
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Watery Grave
1 Godless Shrine
1 Island
1 Swamp
1 Plains
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1 Boseiju, Who Shelters All
1 Tolaria West
This mana base has a little bit of everything: fetches, Temples and utility lands. The Urborg + Boseiju “combo” is also present.
4 Temple of Enlightenment
4 Gemstone Mine
3 Seachrome Coast
2 Darkslick Shores
2 Island
1 Plains
1 Boseiju, Who Shelters All
An “8 Temple” mana base. By getting rid of fetchlands entirely, cards that are put on the bottom of the library with Serum Visions/Sleight of Hand/Peer Through Depths stay there, so you won’t see them again (hopefully, you won’t need to). You might want to cut Mystical Teachings if you use this mana base, due to the high number of ETB tapped lands, and Teachings’ shuffle.
Spoils of the Vault
(If playing Spoils, you MUST play a second wincon!)
Why should you play Spoils?
- 1-mana tutor. Those who have played Demonic Consultation, a card that is banned in Legacy and restricted in Vintage, will notice the similarities. Spoils is more or less Consultation with life loss. It gets better: when Angel’s Grace or Phyrexian Unlife are active, Spoils’ life loss means nothing.
- Emergency button. Sometimes, you’ll be put into do-or-die situations (such as an impending turn 3 kill) where your only way out is to Spoils for something. Cantrips may not dig deep enough (or the threat may demand an instant-speed answer), and anything else may be too expensive to cast. Spoils offers you a small chance at stealing an otherwise unwinnable game.
- Good in fast race matchups. Against aggro or combo decks that aim to kill as fast (or faster!) than you do, Spoils’ low CMC and ability to steal games make it an attractive option. Combo decks can also be thwarted by casting Spoils and naming Pact of Negation or Angel’s Grace.
Why should you NOT play Spoils?
-Randomness. While Spoils’ life loss may mean nothing under Grace/Unlife, exiling cards doesn’t. There is the risk of Spoils exiling too many lands, SSGs, or wincons (which is why it’s a very good idea to play 2 wincons). Without Grace/Unlife, there is a second way you can go out: by losing too much life to Spoils. If you like to feel in control of your games at all times, Spoils is not for you.
- Difficulty. Spoils is a hard card to play correctly. You need a good understanding of how likely it is to kill you, when to play it (save it for the combo turn? After a scry? Or totally blind?), and the discipline to not tilt when it backfires. Some tips for playing Spoils are listed in the “Technical Play” section, but nothing replaces practice.
Other considerations
- Spoils is least likely to kill you if you name a 4-of, so build around that. Having 4 Gemstone Mine in the mana base minimizes the chance that it’ll kill you if you have to name Mine with Spoils. Similarly, a fourth Pact of Negation in the sideboard is a better idea than Boseiju.
- Spoils costs black mana, and Ad Nauseam on the same turn costs BBB. Max out on UB lands and lean towards black sideboard cards (e.g. Darkness over Ethereal Haze).
Sample Mana Base for Spoils
4 Seachrome Coast
4 Gemstone Mine
4 Temple of Deceit
1 Temple of Enlightenment
2 Dreadship Reef
2 Plains
Casting Angel’s Grace, Spoils of the Vault and Ad Nauseam in one turn costs a lot of mana (black mana in particular). Dreadship Reef helps you store mana for that one turn.
Going up to 21 lands gives you a minor buffer against Spoils exiling too many lands.
Leyline of Sanctity
The best card against BGx decks. It stops their discard and Bolts.
Discard
These cards are catch-all answers to hate. Duress is useful against opposing combo or control decks.
Anti-Counterspell
These cards beat counterspells. Gigadrowse’s main function is to tap your opponent’s lands on his turn, ensuring an uninterrupted combo on yours.
Note that Teferi stops Suspend and Cascaded-into spells. You must cast Teferi in response to the cascade trigger, before they start revealing cards.
Removal
These cards remove troublesome permanents, such as hatebears and Pithing Needle.
Note that Patrician’s Scorn necessitates an Angel’s Grace win, as 1) it will destroy your Phyrexian Unlife and 2) you can only cast it for free if you’ve casted another white spell (i.e. Angel’s Grace) on that turn. You can still combo off with Ad Nauseam + Phyrexian Unlife, draw your deck, then cast Angel’s Grace followed by Patrician’s Scorn.
Board Wipes
For small aggro decks like Affinity or Abzan Company. Merfolk and Infect can pump its creatures out of Drown range, so it’s not that good against them.
Fogs
For Infect and Affinity. Fogs are great against Infect because they don’t target, so they can’t be stopped by Apostle’s Blessing or Vines of Vastwood.
Ethereal Haze stops damage from Borborygmos Enraged in the Grishoalbrand matchup.
Other
For Bogles and Infect. They can’t pump their creatures while these are in play. Favor of the Mighty also causes any auras will also fall off.
Extra Wincons
Playing Grave Titan in the sideboard is a transformational strategy: the idea is that your opponent will take out their removal since you have no creatures, so you board in Grave Titan to take advantage of that. It is quite a rare sight though, as it requires 4 sideboard slots.
You can win at instant speed
- your opponent taps low. Some opponents may get bored of playing draw-go every turn (you can’t kill him if he has counters, he can’t tap out if you have the combo) and flash in something - right then, you can kill them with the combo. Try to act like you don’t have the combo in hand to get him to falter .
- your opponent tries to destroy your Prism or Bloom (usually when it comes off Suspend). In response, combo kill.
- there is a Pact trigger on the stack. You can cheat on paying your Pact triggers by killing your opponent during your upkeep, while they’re still on the stack. Note that you get to choose what order to resolve triggers controlled by yourself, so you can let a Lotus Bloom come off suspend first to give yourself the necessary mana.
- If you have Sleight/Peer Through Depths + SV and an extra draw (draw phases also count), Sleight/Peer first, then SV. Playing SV last lets you set up your next draw.
- If your land for the turn is a fetch, crack it before playing SV. You don't want to cast SV, find 1 or 2 cards you want to keep on top, and be forced to play the fetch without cracking it.
- If your land for the turn is a Temple and your cantrip is Sleight/Peer, play Sleight/Peer, then the Temple. If you play the Temple first, you might end up seeing a card that you want to keep on top, so the scry is wasted.
- If it's Temple + SV, play the Temple first, then SV. The scry from the Temple sets up "draw a card" on SV.
- If you cast Peer through Depths and the only valid card is Lightning Storm, decline to put it into your hand. It serves no purpose until you’ve combed off, and putting it in your hand just makes it a target for discard.
- When you have the choice of casting Pentad Prism or Peer Through Depths, choose Pentad Prism. The first reason is that if your opponent casts artifact removal on your Prism, you can remove the charge counters in response to cast Peer. The second is that by waiting to cast Peer, you may draw a card that you needed in the meantime, so you have a better idea of what to get when you do cast Peer.
- You can cast Mystical Teachings on turn 3 with the help of a SSG, or a turn 2 Pentad Prism. This enables a turn 4 kill like so: T1 land, Bloom; T2 land, Prism; T3 land, use one counter on Prism for mana, Teachings; T4 AN + Grace.
- You can cast Mystical Teachings AND both halves of the combo on the same turn for 10 mana (9 if you have Unlife and just need Teachings > AN). Do this if you “flood out” on Blooms/Prisms, for example: T1 land, 2 Bloom; T2 land; T3 land, Unlife; T4 Teachings > AN.
The second most straightforward way is to cast Spoils when you’re about to lose. If nothing else will work, just go for it. If your opponent has lethal on board, and you have Ad Nauseam and Spoils in hand but not Angel’s Grace, cast Spoils and name Grace. If your opponent goes for a combo, Spoils for Pact of Negation or Angel’s Grace. If your opponent pumps his creature for lethal, Spoils for Darkness.
As an extension of the previous point, try to plan ahead to figure out when you’re actually “about to lose”. If your opponent is attacking for 5 per turn, Spoils-ing one turn earlier gives you five extra cards that you can afford to whiff on. If you wait until you’re at 1 life, Spoils, and see that the card you needed was fifth on top, maybe you could have turned that around if you had Spoils-ed a turn earlier instead, even though your opponent wasn’t threatening lethal.
As the contrapositive of the point 2 paragraphs above, don’t cast Spoils “naked” if you’re not under any pressure. Rather than hand your opponent a free win if Spoils decides to crap on you, continue sculpting your hand with cantrips and scrys until your win is airtight.
You can use Spoils as an instant-speed cantrip if you know what is on top of your library (i.e. after scrying with Temples or Serum Visions). Generally, it is better not to do that - if you Spoils, you have the top card and a random card in hand by the next turn, while if you choose not to Spoils, you have the top card and a Spoils in hand by the next turn. However, if you think that a random card from your library is better than having a Spoils in hand, then go ahead. Or if you don’t have a land drop for the turn, but you know that a land is on top of your library. Or if you cast Serum Visions, AND left two cards that you want on top, AND can win if you draw them both by the next turn.
If you’re casting Spoils without Grace/Unlife active, naming a card of which 4 copies are still in your library has the lowest chance of killing you. Remember to exclude copies that are in other zones, like your hand or the graveyard!
If you remember which cards you put on the bottom of your library with cantrips/Temples, take them out of your calculations. If you bottom-decked a card which is not the one that you named, your library is effectively 1 card smaller. If you bottom-decked a card which is the one you named, your library is effectively 1 card smaller, but you also have effectively 1 fewer copy of that card to hit with Spoils!
If your opponent casts Inquisition of Kozilek, you can Spoils for Ad Nauseam in response, replacing a 1CMC card in your hand with a 5CMC card that he can’t take.
You name the card for Spoils on resolution, not on cast. That means that if your opponent asks you what you’re naming with Spoils, he’s allowed it to resolve. If you’ve played Cabal Therapy, this should be familiar.
If you want to know the expected number of cards you’ll exile to Spoils, here is a quick (and mathematically accurate) method. Count the total number of cards in your library, then subtract the number of copies of the card you’re naming that are in your library. Divide the result by the number of copies of the card plus one. For example: if there are 44 cards in your deck, 4 of which are the card that you named, you’ll expect to lose (44-4)/(4+1) = 8 life. This should also show why it isn’t a good idea to name Spoils for Lotus Bloom on turn 1: you can expect to lose about 9-10 life AND cards.
A good tip for remaining calm if Spoils kills you is to ask yourself if the outcome would have been different with any other card. Sometimes you flip over 15 cards and die to life loss - would playing any other card have helped? Your out was too far down for anything to have been able to dig for it. Or maybe you were forced to combo off early because your opponent was threatening lethal - would playing Peer/Teachings have helped when you were unable to cast either AND combo off on the same turn? If you find that the answer is “yes, I would rather have been playing X instead”, don’t get mad, get sensible. Cut Spoils for whatever card you’re thinking of. Remember, you can give up on Spoils of the Vault, but the rest of the deck will always be there for you.
Frank Karsten has an analysis of how likely Spoils is to kill you (by exiling Lightning Storm, or causing you to lose too much life if you cast it “naked”) here.
I have written a Python script to calculate how likely it is for Spoils to kill you. You can set various factors like how many Lightning Storms/SSGs/lands you need, how many of those are in your library, how many copies of the target card are in your library, and whether Grace/Unlife are active. Remember that you can’t use electronic devices during matches at Competitive or Professional REL though.
1) Have 1 blue source (for cantrips)
2) Have 1 white source (for Unlife, or the second counter on Prism)
3) Have 2 black sources (for Ad Nauseam)
The 2 black mana is usually gotten from Lotus Bloom or Pentad Prism.
If you have 2 lands and have the choice of playing a Scars land or a shockland as your third, choose the Scars land, even if you have no plays to make that turn. If you play the shockland first, the Scars land will ETB tapped on the next turn no matter what, since you have more than 2 lands out. However, if you play the Scars land first, you have the choice of playing the shock tapped or untapped. An exception can be made if you are expecting some sort of land destruction that will set you back at 2 lands, turning on the Scars land.
If you have 3 lands, one of which is a Gemstone Mine with one counter on it, you can tap it for mana, sacrifice it, then play a Scars land untapped.
You can only pay as much life as you have above zero. This means you can’t play a shockland untapped or use Boseiju, Who Shelters All if you’re at 1 life or less, even if Angel’s Grace or Phyrexian Unlife is active. You also shouldn’t play Gitaxian Probe with the intention of using it with Laboratory Maniac. Note that this rule does not apply to Ad Nauseam, as it causes you to lose life, not pay life.
If your life total goes below 1, being dealt damage will not increase it back up to 1. If you have Phyrexian Unlife out, plan ahead – once you’re below 1 life, Angel’s Grace does nothing. If you need to burn a copy of Angel’s Grace for an extra turn, do it before you drop below 1.
On the other hand, life loss negates Angel’s Grace’s usefulness as a pseudo-Time Walk. Normally, you can use Angel’s Grace to save yourself from a lethal attack, but if your opponent follows up with a life loss spell, your life total will drop to 0 or negative and you’ll lose when Angel’s Grace wears off at end of turn.
On the other hand, Laboratory Maniac wins you the game when you draw a card. Use Serum Visions or Conjurer’s Bauble on an empty library to win, not Sleight of Hand.
Putting the two together, you can play a Pact on your opponent’s turn, cast Angel’s Grace during your upkeep to avoid losing, then combo off with Ad Nauseam with Grace still in effect (until end of turn). You can even move to your main phase after casting Grace if you need to make a land drop.
Soft counters like Mana Leak and Spell Pierce can be beaten by simply paying for the cost. Extra Blooms and Prisms go a long way towards that.
Two Ad Nauseams can beat counters by straining your opponent’s mana. With a Phyrexian Unlife in play, cast one Ad Nauseam on your opponent’s turn. If it resolves then, good, you win. If your opponent counters it, play the other on your turn. Hopefully at that point he won’t have enough mana for a second counter. Remand helpfully puts Ad Nauseam back in your hand .
If your opponent lets you resolve Ad Nauseam, he probably misplayed, or doesn’t have counters. Once you have your entire deck at your disposal, you can play Pact of Negation to stop counterspells on your wincon.
Beating Counterflux
Counterflux can’t be countered, so you have to rely on non-counterspells to beat it, like Boseiju, Silence, discard, or tapping your opponent out. Note that with Boseiju, there are two “weak links” in the combo: Ad Nauseam and Lightning Storm, and Boseiju can only protect one. So if you use Boseiju to cast Ad Nauseam, you’ll still need some other way of dealing with Counterflux in your deck (and the mana to cast it).
In theory, Counterflux can be beaten with cards that redirect, like...Redirect. When your opponent plays (an un-overloaded) Counterflux, you play Redirect and change the target to Redirect. Redirect will resolve, the Counterflux will try to counter Redirect, but it’s no longer on the stack, so Counterflux fizzles.
Most of the time, you have 4 copies of Ad Nauseam and 7 copies of Angel’s Grace and Phyrexian Unlife combined, so your opponent should end up taking Ad Nauseam since it’s harder for you to draw into a replacement for it (unless he sees two copies of Ad Nauseam in your hand). Fortunately, Inquisition of Kozilek can’t take Ad Nauseam, as its CMC is above 3.
If you cast Phyrexian Unlife, it makes things slightly easier. Your opponent can’t get rid of an Unlife on the battlefield with discard, unlike a Grace in hand. All you have to do is topdeck Ad Nauseam for the win. (And not let Unlife get blown up by Abrupt Decay.)
Mystical Teachings helps against discard. If you cast it twice, you get two cards, putting you ahead of 1-for-1 discard. It has flashback, so you can get one use out of it even if your opponent discards it.
Leyline of Sanctity is your best card against discard, but you’ll only have access to it during sideboarded games. It stops turn 1 Thoughtseize and Inquisition of Kozilek, but unfortunately not Liliana of the Veil’s +1.
- Use Slaughter Pact or Echoing Truth to remove it.
- If your wincon is Laboratory Maniac or Seismic Assault, you don’t have to do anything special.
- If your wincon is Conflagrate, choose to deal 1 damage to each Spellskite that your opponent has in play, and send the rest to him. He can’t redirect the damage to his face to one of the Spellskites. The relevant rule is below:
114.3. The same target can't be chosen multiple times for any one instance of the word "target" on a spell or ability.
- To beat Spellskite with Lightning Storm, first discard the minimum number of lands required to kill your opponent (You can’t just start with 0 or some other low number of lands discarded, since your opponent will just choose to take the piddling damage and stay alive). Then, every time your opponent activates Spellskite, let the Spellskite ability resolve first, but retain priority after it does and activate Lightning Storm’s ability once, discarding a land. Do this until your opponent runs out of life to pay for Spellskite.
The same technique works if your opponent has lands to pitch to Lightning Storm instead of Spellskite.
Example (with a depiction of the stack at each move): Your opponent is tapped out, at 13 life, with no lands in hand. You cast Lightning Storm and hold priority, discarding 5 lands in succession.
Lightning Storm spell
Lightning Storm ability x5 (now targeting your opponent, 13 life)
Your opponent responds with Spellskite’s ability, redirecting Lightning Storm to Spellskite. He is now at 11, after paying 2 life for Spellskite. Let the Spellskite ability resolve, but retain priority after it does (CR 116.3b).
Lightning Storm spell
Lightning Storm ability x5 (now targeting Spellskite)
Discard a land and change the target of Lightning Storm to your opponent.
Lightning Storm spell
Lightning Storm ability x6 (now targeting your opponent, 11 life)
This will go on 5 more times, at which point your opponent will be at 1 life.
Lightning Storm spell
Lightning Storm ability x11 (now targeting your opponent, 1 life)
Now your opponent can’t activate Spellskite, so the damage goes to his face and you win.
If Kira is the only creature that they have, you just need one spell to break its shield, then follow up with Lightning Storm.
- Phyrexian Unlife effectively gives you 10 extra life when you play it, slightly more if your opponent can’t hit you down to exactly 0.
- You can cast Ad Nauseam “naked” for value. This deck’s average CMC is actually pretty low (around 1.7-1.9, even with Teachings), thanks to Lotus Bloom and Pacts having a CMC of 0.
- If you have 8 mana, and Lightning Storm and Ad Nauseam in hand, you can try to cast Ad Nauseam to get enough lands for a lethal Lightning Storm.
- You can cast Simian Spirit Guide or Laboratory Maniac as a chump blocker (or even an attacker, in the mirror match!). If you cast SSG, remember that you can’t exile it for mana later.
- You can cast Laboratory Maniac before you combo off. If it survives, you only need U (or 2 SSGs and a Prism) to cast the winning cantrip.
- You can cast Conflagrate to kill something before you combo off. It has to be in the graveyard to be cast for its flashback cost anyway.
Worlds 2011, 4-2
1 Misty Rainforest
2 Scalding Tarn
3 Island
1 Plains
2 Watery Grave
1 Hallowed Fountain
3 Seachrome Coast
2 Darkslick Shores
1 Creeping Tar Pit
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
2 Gemstone Mine
1 Boseiju, Who Shelters All
4 Angel's Grace
3 Phyrexian Unlife
3 Simian Spirit Guide
1 Desperate Ritual
1 Conflagrate
4 Lotus Bloom
4 Pentad Prism
4 Serum Visions
3 Sleight of Hand
1 Peer Through Depths
2 Mystical Teachings
2 Pact of Negation
1 Slaughter Pact
3 Leyline of Sanctity
1 Thoughtseize
1 Duress
1 Vendilion Clique
1 Gigadrowse
1 Silence
1 Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir
1 Path to Exile
1 Echoing Truth
1 Slaughter Pact
1 Patrician's Scorn
2 Infest
Matthew “Wedges” Hare
GP Brisbane, 31st place
1 Misty Rainforest
2 Marsh Flats
2 Island
1 Plains
1 Swamp
2 Watery Grave
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Godless Shrine
2 Darkslick Shores
2 Seachrome Coast
2 Gemstone Mine
1 Gemstone Caverns
1 Boseiju, Who Shelters All
4 Angel's Grace
2 Phyrexian Unlife
4 Simian Spirit Guide
1 Lightning Storm
4 Lotus Bloom
4 Pentad Prism
4 Serum Visions
2 Sleight of Hand
2 Peer Through Depths
2 Mystical Teachings
1 Spoils of the Vault
3 Pact of Negation
1 Slaughter Pact
4 Leyline of Sanctity
2 Thoughtseize
1 Gigadrowse
2 Silence
1 Echoing Truth
1 Path to Exile
1 Steel Sabotage
1 Patrician's Scorn
1 Infest
1 Favor of the Mighty
Bryan Gottlieb (8-1-1) and Jared Boettcher (7-2-1)
Pro Tour Born of the Gods
2 Scalding Tarn
1 Island
1 Plains
1 Swamp
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Watery Grave
4 Gemstone Mine
1 Seachrome Coast
2 Temple of Enlightenment
2 Temple of Deceit
1 Gemstone Caverns
1 Boseiju, Who Shelters All
4 Angel's Grace
3 Phyrexian Unlife
4 Simian Spirit Guide
1 Lightning Storm
4 Pentad Prism
4 Lotus Bloom
4 Serum Visions
4 Sleight of Hand
2 Peer Through Depths
1 Mystical Teachings
3 Pact of Negation
1 Slaughter Pact
1 Conjurer's Bauble
3 Leyline of Sanctity
1 Drown in Sorrow
3 Hurkyl's Recall
1 Echoing Truth
1 Patrician's Scorn
1 Slaughter Pact
1 Tormod's Crypt
1 Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir
1 Silence
1 Tolaria West
1 Phyrexian Unlife
IxidorVersionTwo
PTQ 2nd Place
2 Misty Rainforest
1 Arid Mesa
1 Marsh Flats
1 Plains
1 Swamp
1 Island
1 Seachrome Coast
1 Tolaria West
1 Hallowed Fountain
1 Watery Grave
1 Boseiju, Who Shelters All
2 Temple of Deceit
2 Temple of Enlightenment
4 Angel's Grace
3 Phyrexian Unlife
1 Lightning Storm
4 Lotus Bloom
4 Pentad Prism
4 Simian Spirit Guide
4 Serum Visions
4 Sleight of Hand
2 Peer Through Depths
1 Mystical Teachings
1 Conjurer's Bauble
3 Pact of Negation
1 Slaughter Pact
3 Leyline of Sanctity
3 Hurkyl's Recall
1 Drown in Sorrow
1 Supreme Verdict
1 Echoing Truth
1 Slaughter Pact
1 Dismember
1 Silence
1 Favor of the Mighty
1 Patrician's Scorn
1 Teferi, Mage of Zhaflir
Tahn
GP Madrid Top 64
4 Temple of Enlightenment
1 Darkslick Shores
1 Seachrome Coast
1 Watery Grave
2 Hallowed Fountain
3 Gemstone Mine
1 City of Brass
1 Island
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1 Dreadship Reef
4 Ad Nauseam
4 Angel's Grace
2 Phyrexian Unlife
1 Lightning Storm
4 Lotus Bloom
4 Pentad Prism
4 Simian Spirit Guide
4 Serum Vision
4 Sleight of Hand
4 Peer through Depths
3 Pact of Negation
1 Slaughter Pact
1 Echoing Truth
4 Leyline of Sanctity
2 Hurkyl's Recall
1 Wear//Tear
1 Disenchant
1 Patrician's Scorn
1 Slaughter Pact
1 Conflagrate
2 Thoughtseize
1 Boseiju, Who Shelters All
1 Drown in Sorrow
Darien Elderfield
GP Charlotte Top 8
4 Temple of Deceit
4 Gemstone Mine
4 Seachrome Coast
4 Darkslick Shores
2 Plains
2 Dreadship Reef
4 Ad Nauseam
3 Spoils of the Vault
4 Angel's Grace
3 Phyrexian Unlife
2 Lightning Storm
4 Lotus Bloom
4 Pentad Prism
4 Simian Spirit Guide
4 Serum Visions
4 Sleight of Hand
3 Pact of Negation
1 Pact of Negation
3 Darkness 1 Gigadrowse
1 Slaughter Pact
4 Leyline of Sanctity
1 Laboratory Maniac
1 Repeal
2 Esper Charm
Daniel Grafensteiner
Pro Tour Oath of the Gatewatch 7-3
4 Gemstone Mine
1 Island
1 Plains
4 Seachrome Coast
4 Temple of Deceit
2 Temple of Enlightenment
4 Ad Nauseam
3 Spoils of the Vault
4 Angel's Grace
4 Phyrexian Unlife
4 Lotus Bloom
4 Pentad Prism
4 Simian Spirit Guide
1 Lightning Storm
1 Laboratory Maniac
4 Serum Visions
4 Sleight of Hand
3 Pact of Negation
1 Pact of Negation
2 Spellskite
3 Hurkyl's Recall
4 Leyline of Sanctity
1 Slaughter Pact
2 Thoughtseize
1 Boseiju, Who Shelters All
1 Tolaria West
Alessio Lin
GP Bologna Top 32
2 Seachrome Coast
3 Temple of Deceit
1 Temple of Enlightenment
1 Watery Grave
1 Hallowed Fountain
2 Polluted Delta
1 Flooded Strand
3 Gemstone Mine
1 Tolaria West
1 Swamp
1 Plains
1 Island
3 Spoils of the Vault
4 Angel's Grace
3 Phyrexian Unlife
4 Lotus Bloom
4 Pentad Prism
4 Simian Spirit Guide
2 Lightning Storm
4 Serum Visions
4 Sleight of Hand
1 Slaughter Pact
3 Pact of Negation
1 Slaughter Pact
3 Leyline of Sanctity
2 Angelsong
2 Hurkyl's Recall
2 Silence
1 Mystical Teachings
1 Echoing Truth
1 Laboratory Maniac
1 Boseiju, Who Shelters All
1 Patrician's Scorn
Andreas Ganz
GP Charlotte 1st place
4 Gemstone Mine
1 Island
1 Plains
4 Seachrome Coast
4 Temple of Deceit
2 Temple of Enlightenment
4 Ad Nauseam
3 Spoils of the Vault
4 Angel's Grace
4 Phyrexian Unlife
4 Lotus Bloom
4 Pentad Prism
4 Simian Spirit Guide
1 Lightning Storm
1 Laboratory Maniac
4 Serum Visions
4 Sleight of Hand
3 Pact of Negation
1 Pact of Negation
1 Boseiju, Who Shelters All
1 Slaughter Pact
2 Thoughtseize
3 Hurkyl's Recall
3 Spellskite
4 Leyline of Sanctity
Tomoya Tsubochi
GP Kobe Top 8
2 Plains
2 City of Brass
3 Gemstone Mine
4 Temple of Deceit
4 Darkslick Shores
2 Temple of Enlightenment
2 Seachrome Coast
4 Ad Nauseam
3 Spoils of the Vault
4 Angel's Grace
4 Phyrexian Unlife
4 Lotus Bloom
4 Pentad Prism
4 Simian Spirit Guide
1 Lightning Storm
1 Laboratory Maniac
4 Serum Visions
4 Sleight of Hand
3 Pact of Negation
2 Grafdigger's Cage
4 Leyline of Sanctity
2 Fatal Push
1 Echoing Truth
2 Thoughtseize
1 Godhead of Awe
2 Hurkyl's Recall
1 Supreme Verdict
- Bring in Pact of Negation, Boseiju, and discard against blue decks with counterspells. Switch to 2 Lightning Storm as your wincons if you can. The same cards (other than Boseiju) are usually good against combo/ramp decks as well.
- Bring in Leyline of Sanctity against decks with discard.
- Bring in Darkness/Ethereal Haze against aggro decks that rely on attacking with creatures.
- Take out a few Pentad Prisms against slower matchups, especially if you suspect Stony Silence.
- If you still need space, cut Prisms, cantrips, or a land.
- If you leave Laboratory Maniac in, keep in at least 1 Pentad Prism to filter colors, and 1 Pact of Negation to stop random removal spells on Lab Man.
- If you’re playing Mystical Teachings, it can come out against fast decks.
- If you’re playing Conjurer’s Bauble, it can come out against decks with no discard.
- If you’re playing Spoils of the Vault, do not take out any Simian Spirit Guides. Spoils can randomly exile SSGs and you don’t want to lose because you boarded out an SSG, got one exiled, and don’t have enough mana to win.
Favorable
Burn
- Pact of Negation
- Spoils of the Vault
+ Phyrexian Unlife
+ Leyline of Sanctity
In Game 1, Phyrexian Unlife effectively gains you 10 life, making it very hard for them to beat you if you draw it. Postboard they have Destructive Revelry, but you have Leyline of Sanctity, which slows them even more. Keep in one Pact of Negation for Deflecting Palm. Eidolon of the Great Revel punishes you for chaining cantrips, so you can cut a Sleight of Hand if you need space.
Affinity
- Pact of Negation
+ Darkness
+ Slaughter Pact
This matchup is favorable as long as you have at least 3 Darkness or Hurkyl’s Recall. They are a creature-based aggro deck, and you have Grace and Unlife to buy time. The main ways they can take the game are 1) killing you with an Inkmoth Nexus that’s been pumped by Arcbound Ravager or Cranial Plating, and 2) gaining enough life with Vault Skirge that you can’t kill them with Lightning Storm. Against the former, Slaughter Pact and Darkness counter that plan (note that Echoing Truth, on the other hand, cannot bounce an animated Inkmoth Nexus) and against the latter, you have Laboratory Maniac. Using Pact of Negation to counter Cranial Plating and Angel’s Grace to survive on the next upkeep also works pre-board. Postboard you may face a few Thoughtseize, Stubborn Denial or Spell Pierce, but they don’t play a lot of copies of those. They have a decent number of Ancient Grudge, which you can sidestep by going for Unlife + Ad Nauseam, or winning during the upkeep when Bloom unsuspends.
RG Tron
+ Discard
Tron doesn’t have a lot of ways to interact with you other than turn 3 Karn Liberated, and you goldfish faster. Postboard they have Nature’s Claim, which buys some time, but you should be able to overpower it easily. Watch out for Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger - if it resolves it’s usually game over, since it can keep you off the combo for one turn by destroying two of your lands/mana rocks, and follow up with an attack to exile cards from your library. Pacting Ulamog doesn’t stop its cast trigger.
Jeskai Nahiri
- Phyrexian Unlife
- Pentad Prism
+ Pact of Negation
+ Boseiju, Who Shelters All
+ Discard
+ Echoing Truth
Your ability to win at instant speed keeps them off many of their options. They can’t tap out for Nahiri, the Harbinger or flash in Vendilion Clique if you’re threatening a kill in response. Nahiri exiles enchantments, so Unlife comes out. Cutting Pentad Prisms gives them fewer targets for Spell Snare. Echoing Truth is a decent hedge against Stony Silence, with the added plus of resetting Nahiri.
Temur/Bring to Light Scapeshift
- Lotus Bloom
+ Pact of Negation
+ Boseiju, Who Shelters All
+ Discard
Scapeshift is another control deck with a combo wincon, like Jeskai Nahiri. The difference is that their wincon stacks up poorly against Angel’s Grace - you can use it to survive all the Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle triggers, then win with Ad Nauseam while they’re tapped out. Ad Nauseam also doesn’t damage itself from its mana base, so they have to Scapeshift with 1 more land than usual, or get in a few points of damage with Lightning Bolt or Snapcaster Mage, before they even have a shot at killing you. Leyline of Sanctity is not necessary, but if they’re on Bring to Light, you might want 3 as protection against Slaughter Games.
Abzan Company
+ Slaughter Pact
+ Discard
+ Echoing Truth
Abzan Company doesn’t have many ways to interact, and you typically win faster than them. They have some tricks which will stop a Lightning Storm kill (infinite life combo, Burrenton Forge-Tender, Phyrexian Revoker), but they all lose to Laboratory Maniac. I like boarding in discard for their expensive payoff spells (Collected Company, Chord of Calling).
Here is a list of possible targets for Chord of Calling:
X=1: Burrenton Forge-Tender
X=2: Spellskite, Phyrexian Revoker, Qasali Pridemage, Tidehollow Sculler, Kataki, War’s Wage
X=3: Eidolon of Rhetoric, Reclamation Sage, Sin Collector
Merfolk
- Lotus Bloom
+ Phyrexian Unlife
+ Darkness
+ Pact of Negation
Merfolk is a creature-based aggro deck which wastes a lot of space on making its creatures unblockable, something which you don’t care about since you don’t intend to cast any creatures to block with. They are pretty light on disruption, which is surprising for a blue deck. Note that if they get Kira, Great Glass-Spinner into play, you’ll probably have to go for the Laboratory Maniac kill, since they can discard a land to redirect Lightning Storm to one of their creatures, at which point it will be countered; discarding more lands will not help.
Even
Grixis
- Pentad Prism
+ Pact of Negation
+ Boseiju, Who Shelters All
+ Discard
Grixis is an interesting case of a fair deck that attacks you in two ways: counterspells and discard. In the meantime, it can keep the pressure on you by playing Tasigur, the Golden Fang or Gurmag Angler. Don’t board in Leyline of Sanctity for their discard; just try to shrug it off. They often play Inquisition of Kozilek as their discard, rarely Thoughtseize, and IoK can’t take Ad Nauseam.
Ad Nauseam (mirror)
+ Phyrexian Unlife
+ Discard
The Ad Nauseam mirror is one of the most ridiculous matchups. Any attempt at a Lightning Storm kill will be thwarted by Angel’s Grace. The plan is to either hardcast Simian Spirit Guides/Laboratory Maniac and beat down, or set up Phyrexian Unlife into Laboratory Maniac and an empty library, and ask “can you stop me” during each of your draw steps.
Unfavorable
Jund/Abzan
- Pact of Negation
+ Leyline of Sanctity
They have plenty of discard to stop you from assembling the 2-card combo. Getting a turn 0 Leyline helps a lot, although Liliana of the Veil can still force you to discard. If you draw any extra Leylines or Blooms, keep them in your hand as discard fodder for Liliana.
Infect
- Phyrexian Unlife
+ Slaughter Pact
+ Darkness
+ Discard
Possibly the worst matchup for Ad Nauseam. They goldfish faster than you, have counters and Nature’s Claim postboard, and Angel’s Grace and Phyrexian Unlife do nothing to buy time. It would take almost half your sideboard to make the matchup even. Most players just choose to play 3 Darkness and hope to dodge Infect. Remember that the AN nut draw is 3 lands, Pentad Prism, SSG, Grace and Ad Nauseam, so don’t take out any of those cards - you want that chance, no matter how small, of stealing a game from them with the nut draw.
Michael Bonde:
http://blog.mtgmadness.com/index.php/ad-nauseam-in-modern/michael-bonde(link is down)Ari Lax (Video): http://www.starcitygames.com/article/27985_Ad-Nauseam-In-Modern.html
Luis Scott-Vargas (Video): http://www.channelfireball.com/videos/channel-lsv-modern-ad-nauseum/
Ari Lax (Video): http://www.starcitygames.com/article/32052_Video-Ad-Nauseam-In-Modern.html
Bob Huang: http://www.channelfireball.com/articles/ad-nauseam-deck-guide/
Andreas Ganz: http://www.blackborder.com/q/node/19785
Bob Huang (Video): http://www.channelfireball.com/videos/channel-bob-huang-modern-ad-nauseam/
Andrea Mengucci (Video): http://www.channelfireball.com/videos/channel-mengucci-modern-ad-nauseam/
Andrew Brown: http://www.starcitygames.com/article/33676_Winning-Ad-Nauseam.html
Andrea Mengucci: http://www.channelfireball.com/articles/ad-nauseam-deck-guide-2/
Patrick Dickmann: http://www.mtgmintcard.com/articles/writers/patrick-dickmann/moderns-best-combo-deck
MKM Series #3 Prague: featuring Togores
vs Company Zoo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OwmdqgQ2Eo0
vs Merfolk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2f9Ji4fDA0
vismal's channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC54C4FmDYG-dWRLUqsv2Lhg
| Ad Nauseam
| Infect
Big Johnny.
That manabase creeps me out a little every time I see it.
http://officeofstrategicinfluence.com/spam/ <---- kills spam, fyi.
Yeah I am helping the mods out a little bit. I have already sent T_C some deck list and pointed to him some threads and primers for decks that showed up at worlds.
I'm not too sold on the manabase and I also think that the deck has a bit of room to develop.
Albert Einstein
Thomas Jefferson
I've had mixed results. Some nights, I always go off by or on turn 4. Other nights, nothing. Then there are the nights I forget to hold CTRL when casting Lightning Storm... In regards to actual matchups, fast aggro gets me. Even the sided Infests were too slow or irrelevant.
I want to make some changes to the deck. I've noticed that nine out of ten times, I'm winning using Angel's Grace and not Phyrexian Unlife. As such, I think more Peer Through Depths could help. I've also never cast Mystical Teachings. I either never draw the spell, or I have the combo ready to go. I also want to change the sideboard some. I'd like some sort of graveyard hate in the 75. A lot of the singletons in the sideboard seem odd (maybe more so to me since I've never cast Teachings. And I'm not the best player, either.)
In any case, it's a well designed, well built piece of work. It just needs a few tweaks and it'll be a true powerhouse.
On Mythic Rares: "What's next, Wizards will print six golden Black Lotuses and randomly place them in boosters, and if someone gets one, they get to tour the Wizards facility?"
Wydwen|Edric|Sakashima|Marrow-Gnawer|Hazezon
8.5 Tails|Seton|Rasputin|Doran|Gisela|Karona|Márton
thanks for that bit of information. I didn't read anything about the deck and I haven't played it since I tested it out for extended a couple of years ago. I was just trying to help speed up the meta transition that the mods(T_C especially) are working on.
Albert Einstein
Thomas Jefferson
http://youtu.be/sSpTlyylP7A
On Mythic Rares: "What's next, Wizards will print six golden Black Lotuses and randomly place them in boosters, and if someone gets one, they get to tour the Wizards facility?"
Wydwen|Edric|Sakashima|Marrow-Gnawer|Hazezon
8.5 Tails|Seton|Rasputin|Doran|Gisela|Karona|Márton
I shall post a link on the OP thanks for the link.
Albert Einstein
Thomas Jefferson
Thanks for the updates. I edited the list. If you mess with the deck anymore post a new list and I will put it in the original post. It is nice to have collaboration from players with PT experience.
Albert Einstein
Thomas Jefferson
Why not Timely Reinforcements in the SB instead of Infest? Less mana intensive and buys you at least 2 turns or so.
this. Also it is quite good against affinity and elves if they would have showed up.
Albert Einstein
Thomas Jefferson
The problem with Spoils is that you could exile Lightning Storm.
On Mythic Rares: "What's next, Wizards will print six golden Black Lotuses and randomly place them in boosters, and if someone gets one, they get to tour the Wizards facility?"
Wydwen|Edric|Sakashima|Marrow-Gnawer|Hazezon
8.5 Tails|Seton|Rasputin|Doran|Gisela|Karona|Márton
This is why I think Seismic Assault is the better card against graveyard hate, despite the lack of instant speed, but if you can convince me the Storm will NEVER backfire...
you would have to ask the man who built the deck lol. I always played with conflagrate, but the person who played this in worlds said he wanted it to be lightning storm and had a correction because he had registered his list wrong so it was wrong on the deck list thread.
Albert Einstein
Thomas Jefferson
The only way I could see your opponent having as many lands as you is if you get into the mirror and you both combo off at the same time. I mean you do draw out your whole deck.
I don't think I would run two lightning storm. Conjurer's bauble seems like a good idea though. Also if you reslove the ad nasuem you should win anyways. 2 thoughtseizes isn't going to do anything because a smart opponent would counter your ad nasuem instead of letting it resolve.
Pact of negation is good enough as long as you play smart. I would be more worried about discard anyways. Counterspells are super weak in modern for control decks. Combo decks have pact, dispel, ext, but control have mana leak......it is just not good enough to even worry about. Also the control decks that did good in worlds had discard not counterspells.
Albert Einstein
Thomas Jefferson
Ok it is nice to get a little bit more reasoning behind card selections. All of that makes a ton of since. As for the additional red mana that is a tough sell. I would just throw rite of flames in(if it weren't banned). I guess you can go up to 4 monkeys. Chrome mox would have also been nice lol. I guess you could also drop a one of desperate ritual in just in case you only have 2 monkeys left to pitch.
Albert Einstein
Thomas Jefferson
I was playing a janky deck based around that. It ran Assault Strobe, Tainted Strike, lots of fetches and shock lands, Phyrexian Revoker... Basically, the plan was to cast Revoker and D. Shadow on turn one, turn two or three win (using Spoils and Angel's Grace to tutor for a kill condition.) Fling was a back up plan.
On Mythic Rares: "What's next, Wizards will print six golden Black Lotuses and randomly place them in boosters, and if someone gets one, they get to tour the Wizards facility?"
Wydwen|Edric|Sakashima|Marrow-Gnawer|Hazezon
8.5 Tails|Seton|Rasputin|Doran|Gisela|Karona|Márton
4 Simian Spirit Guide
4 Ad Nauseam
4 Angel's Grace
4 Lotus Bloom
3 Pact of Negation
2 Peer Through Depths
3 Pentad Prism
2 Phyrexian Unlife
3 Serum Visions
1 Slaughter Pact
3 Sleight of Hand
1 Boseiju, Who Shelters All
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
4 Telling Time
2 Watery Grave
2 Hallowed Fountain
2 Sunken Ruins
1 Gemstone Mine
2 Scalding Tarn
2 Marsh Flats
2 Misty Rainforest
2 Seachrome Coast
2 Darkslick Shores
3 Island
2 Infest
1 Patrician's Scorn
4 Inquisition of Kozilek
2 Gigadrowse
2 Echoing Truth
Standard
Modern
Living End Combo
Legacy
T.E.S.
TezzAffinity
Combo Elves
Belcher
Forgemaster Combo
High Tide
Solidarity
Merfolk
Burn
Goblins
UnLEDed Dredge
EDH/Commander
Olivia Voldaren
Sigarda, Host of Herons
Jor Kadeen, the Prevailer
Jhoira of the Ghitu
Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord
Edric, Spymaster of Trest
Grand Arbiter Augustin IV
Rosheen Meanderer
Ghost Council of Orzhova
Vela the Night-Clad
As an idea, conjurer's bauble, then name the card you put on the bottom with spoils, and the Laboratory maniac for game?
Just an idea kinda going off topic
On topic: I highly suggest that 1 you play some stuff in case the OTHER player has leyline because that would just stop the deck in it's tracks. Quasali Pridemage could work since you can produce G and W in the deck.