Let me start out by saying that over the last few months I've been trying to get a consistant/resiliant Tendrils of Agony list together. I've tried everything from Nausea, Iggy Pop, Sunrise Eggs, Draw 4 (Uno as somepeople called it.), Death Long, Burning Long, ect... None of these have been enough for me. But each deck had something I liked, I won't list each thing I liked about the decks but the one that stood out was Draw 4. Culling the weak just made me want to bust the card in half. I tried creatures like ornithopter and shield sphere, but they just pissed me off mid combo doing nothing. They were about as useful as Vacon's posts to be perfectly honest. Then I was randomly ripping off some kid in a trade and saw Priest of gix. This card I had forgetten about, but with Helm of Awakening it seems better than ornithopter being another ritual effect. After 5 months of testing I've come up with this I'm not saying it's the most broken thing to ever happen to Legacy/1.5 but it's very good. The deck's fundamental turn is turn 2.5, which is very fast for combo. I will say this deck is very hard to play, not as an excuse to anything but if you're unskilled when it comes to combo, click the back button. This deck resembles the best combo deck in Type 1, Grim long. Now onto the deck list.
ShitList Long V. 1.0
Updated 8/11/06
// Lands
4 [AN] City of Brass
2 [WL] Gemstone Mine
1 [OD] Cabal Pit
// Creatures
4 [US] Priest of Gix
3 [FD] Trinket Mage
// Spells
1 [SC] Tendrils of Agony
2 [PS] Diabolic Intent
3 [MR] Chromatic Sphere
4 [B] Dark Ritual
4 [TE] Lotus Petal
4 [TO] Cabal Ritual
4 [JU] Burning Wish
3 [DIS] Infernal Tutor
4 [MI] Lion's Eye Diamond
4 [VI] Helm of Awakening
4 [MR] Chrome Mox
1 [MR] Second Sunrise
1 [US] Ill-Gotten Gains
2 [EX] Culling the Weak
4 [JU] Cabal Therapy
1 [OD] Recoup
1 [UL] Snap
// Sideboard
SB: 1 [SC] Tendrils of Agony
SB: 1 [DIS] Infernal Tutor
SB: 1 [US] Ill-Gotten Gains
SB: 1 [OD] Recoup
SB: 1 [OD] Firebolt
SB: 1 [PT] Cruel Bargain
SB: 1 [GP] Shattering Spree
SB: 1 [CHK] Cleanfall
SB: 1 [AL] Diminishing Returns
SB: 4 [UL] Defense Grid
SB: 2 [FD] Engineered Explosives
Card Choices
Mana Base
City of Brass- Taps for all 5 colors. It's draw back is hardly ever relevant.
Gemstone Mine-Taps for all 5 colors. Can comeback with second Sunrise to double the fun.
Cabal Pit- Kills mage, but only taps for B which can be an issue.
Fast Mana
Dark Ritual- Does this really need explaining? BBB for B. Sounds like a deal.
Cabal Ritual- Get's around chalice for 1, which is nice. Once in a grand while it produces BBBBB I heard.
Culling The Weak- This card helps fuel the deck, Sacing a Mage or Priest for Sunrise while adding BBBB for B, why not?
Lion's Eye Diamond- 0cc neutered Black Lotus, why not? Argueably best card in legacy.
Lotus Petal- 0cc, +1 storm, Add's a mana of ANY color. True story.
Chrome Mox- 0cc, card disadvantage, add's a mana I guess...
Creatures
Trinket Mage- ugh... It's 3cc kinda suck's but with Helm out it's more reasonable and it demonic's LED, Mox, Lotus petal, Chrome sphere.
Priest of Gix- It's a free dude, with helm it's a Cabal ritual. Sac's to Diabolic intent, Culling the Weak, or Cabal therapy.
Tutors
Burning Wish- Horendously broken card...
Infernal Tutor- Demonic for 1.5, ok... I guess I'll take what I can get.
Diabolic Intent-Demonic while Sacing a dude, Wait? No hellbent. Ok.
Other "Stuff"
Tendrils of Agony- Remember it GAINS life. I'm "that guy" who lost to his own Tendrils... Fuckin' Mindslaver.
Ill-Gotten Gains- Get's cards back, the deck isn't based around it. No need for leyline.
Helm Of Awakening- Makes cards cost less, Makes my cards better. Alright.
Chromatic Sphere- Fix's your mana issues, cantrips, sure.
Second Sunrise- I like to pretend this card is yawgmoth's will... Has great synergy with the whole deck.
Cabal Therapy- Rip's out force of will, comes back for second's if need be. Has synergy with Sunrise, and Ill-Gotten Gains.
Recoup- Has synergy with second sunrise, it's a 2 for 1.
Snap-Effectively deals with Meddling mage while adding mana, you can also always target you're own men.
Sideboard
Tendrils of Agony- Look up.
Infernal Tutor-Look up.
Ill-Gotten Gains-Look up.
Recoup- Helps against control, Snyergy with LED 2 for 1.
Firebolt- If you manage to fizzel it can kill them, kills mage.
Cruel Bargain- Draws 4.
Shattering Spree- Kills pesky artifacts, can't think of too many at the moment.
Cleanfall- Kills enchantments, why have a SB that can't deal with EVERYTHING?
Diminishing Returns- Draw 7, I tend to try and not use this. It's an OH! SHIT! handle.
Defense Grid- Boarded against Control and Solidarity.
Engineered Explosives- Mage can tutor it, kills mage and ton's of other cards.
Cards that didn't make the cut
Land Grant and his nasty green friends- Forests only can tap for so many colors.
Forbidden Orchard- I just prefer City of brass. If you can justify this go ahead run it.
Spoils of the vault- I'm no gambler. I hate losing to bad luck also.
Tainted Pact- Read above.
Intuition- I hate this card, end of story.
Night's Whisper- Only if you got to choose what two cards you draw...
Chain of Vapor/Echoing truth- Makes comboing inconsistant and keepable hands iffy.
Duress- Therapy is just better in this deck.
Brainstorm- I love this card but I just can't justify running it.
Shield Sphere and friends- They don't do anything.
Auriok Salvagers- Alternate win? Makes swords relevant.
Eternal Witness- GG in casting cost was in a few lists, I had 2 Sunrises though to justify her.
Match-ups
Angel Stax(5-3) Hard to believe, I know but this is no Dirt story. I would either attempt to go off turn 1-2 fizzel or not and finish him off with small beaters or He'd mull into chalice 0 and chalice 1 and I played gix/mage and beat until he was within range of a 10-12 point tendrils. Chalice 0 or Chalice 1 is not death for this deck, sorry. Trinisphere however.
Threshold (Ugw) (3-3) This is against threshold with MD mages, You can wait to go off in this match-up by saving up therapy's or until your clock is up. Or you can have huge nuts and go for the 1-2 which isn't always a bad choice. Red threshold is much easyier.
Solidarity(6-4) The key is too go off when they have 2 lands or before that. Because at worse when they have 2 lands they could have remand and force. You can shrug off remand. Force is annoying but can be played around.
Goblins(4-2) You race. Not too much to say, The two games I lost he had nut starts and all I had was ritual effects.
Deadguy/Red Death (2-6) Horrible their disruption is just too much sometimes if the game is dragged out and they dont have a solid clock, don't scoop. You can recover with Ill-gotten Gains.
Rifter (7-1) You're a combo deck, all they have is creature removal. Although the one game I lost was to a Chant in responce to Burning wish.
Affinnity(5-5) Disiple, and cabal therapy are annoying to work around, thier clock is just as fast as you with disruption. An annoying match-up, winnable though.
Uber Maddenss(4-0) Their clock is extremely fast, but you're always a turn faster. Side out therapies for explosives, since therapy is about as good as an island of walk-walk.
5/3(2-5) Horrible match-up their clock and fast lock peices leave you near hopeless. If they didn't have a clock you'd be fine, but the two combined leave this a horrible match-up.
Burning Tog(4-2) IF they stall you out into a cranial on B.Wish it's an extremely hard uphill battle. That's how I lost the two games I did, they run 11 counterspells so don't wait all day.
Zoo/Random Aggro Generally in your favor, not much testing here a few games. I won them all. Random aggro with black had 4 duress 4 therapy which was annoying but I still pulled it out.
Last edited by Bryant Cook; 08-11-2006 at 11:16 PM.
I liked how this deck runs a low amount of lands so it doesnt draw into any dead cards like Solidarity. I think you should run 1 Maindecked Cruel Bargain to be tutored for because card Draw does keep you from fizzling.
what % of the time do you go off turn one?
Do wastelands hurt badly?
Have you considered including some artifacts in your board that trinket makge can grab (engineered explosives takes out chalices/mages...)
How good have helm of awakening's been for you? It seems like alot of your deck can cant use them and your not running any eggs.
Could you try Thunderscape Familiar or Stormscape Familiar in its place? It helps almost as many spells as helm without helping your opponent and it can sac to all of your outlets.
Ill give this deck a try... I<3combo...
High score..what does that mean? Did I break the game?
Did you ever consider running any number of Meditates in the mainboard? Meditate absolutely rocks in Nausea and I was thinking you might want to think about running them or at least one to tutor for.
Also has Priest of Gix ever been a liability for the deck considering that its a card that does nothing on its own except upping the storm count?
Good luck with your deck though. It looks pretty cool.
Belcher, RUG Delver, Death & Taxes, Colorless Eldrazi, Goblins
Originally Posted by Caboose
Fuck you
Except, even with one Helm, priest generates mana, so that would be his relevance.
-Steve
How come it needs to be a holiday to bang noobslayer's sister?
Except you can't always have a Helm in play or a Cabal Therapy, so sometimes he would be a bad draw. Just wondering how big of a setback that can be.
Belcher, RUG Delver, Death & Taxes, Colorless Eldrazi, Goblins
Priest also has the ability to turn colorless mana into black mana. He also ups the storm for free. He also beats for 2. I don't see the issue here.
1.) No, Most of the time you only need 1 mana source to go off. Artifact mana will do.
2.) I have given thought to artifacts, but not to engineered explosives. That's a great Idea.
3.) Helm of awakening is a nessessary evil with this deck. The deck doesn't rely on it, but its nice to draw.
4.) Familiars are nice but fragile. Also leaves you open to creature removal, which this deck doesn't want. Combo that loses to creature removal = bad.
5.) Priest acts as a psuedo ritual with one or two helms out 1 helm unthresh cabal ritual, 2 helms a dark ritual.
6.) Meditate an other draw spells, I could see 1 going into the MD as a tutor target but this is tutor based long, not draw 4. The weakness of draw 4 was it's random factor of drawing shit off meditates and bargains. When you could just get I'll-Gotten Gains and win sometimes.
I think creauture removal wont matter much on familiar when you have so many outlets to sac him too. (Decks that waste time to deal with your 1/1 instead of droping threats will lose to you anyway)--Plus he owns a first turn lackey :)... It seems like trinket mage is pretty slow in this deck and you seem unsatisfied with it. Mabey you could try familiar in its place?
With the new errata... Gix works under second sunrised... woot...
High score..what does that mean? Did I break the game?
Just to note, you did just mention:4.) Familiars are nice but fragile. Also leaves you open to creature removal, which this deck doesn't want. Combo that loses to creature removal = bad.Even if the creature is killed, this deck should still be able to combo off smoothly. You also act as if no artifact removal is present either. Most likely not game 1, but every deck in the format sans Solidarity has some form of artifact removal. If you aren't able to go off because of a destroyed Familiar(or shit, helm also applies in this case too), then you were probably trying to go off too soon. The fact that Familiar doesn't help your opponent is huge though. Helm is honestly crap.The deck doesn't rely on it, but its nice to draw.
But if you want a decent option for cost reducer, why not Jet Medallion? The only spells it doesn't it doesn't affect are Trinket Mage, Second Sunrise, and Burning Wish. Wish isn't that big of a deal, and Mage gets sacrificed to Culling of the Weak, so that basically justifies it. Second Sunrise will already generate enough mana to make that extra colorless mana worthwhile.
How much of a disadvantage would it be to use Death Wish and rebuild the SB a little bit? Its 3 mana which is probably an issue but if your going off turns 1-3 then life shouldnt be. A sideboarded trick might take this deck over the top.
info.ninja
If you waste mana casting familiar or helm, to have it destroyed early game it'll most likely make you lose. Creature removal is relevant because you only have 3 instant creature sacrifice outlet's, so thier removal will hurt if you play familiar. Cabal therapy if it flashedback as an instant, ok.
I was running 1 DeathWish over the 4th BurningWish but I hated opening handing it's really only good if you tutor for it. As for Rebuild all you'll be bouncing is Helm and Chrome mox = mana lost, not mana gained.
@Priest- I was also happy about that when I built this deck.
Last edited by Bryant Cook; 08-06-2006 at 11:55 PM.
So do you plan on playing helm in the midst of comboing off? That would make you need something like ritual => Helm => ritual to do anything, a net loss of 3 cards, and 4 mana in your pool. I would really like a Night's Whisper in that situation, especially since your seven land count keeps your deck as close to "all business" as possible. Also, even though all of your lands are rainbows, didn't you say you expect very few lands while going off? All your rituals produce black, which leaves Petal or Sphere as the only effective ways (barring extra lands) of casting Trinket Mage. Perhaps the mage could be cut in favour if a black tutor that functioned the same under helm. Last I heard, we could still play four Grim Tutor in this format. Spoils of the Vault is also an open option from you, but that makes me think of Meandeck Tendrils, which was not a fun deck to play at all.
I love playing combo decks and the list looks very solid and interesting. I'm just reluctant to say that I like "Shlong".
On another note, have you considered Shield Sphere? It ups the storm count, provides a sac outlet and can even be an early turn blocker. It also has great synergy with Trinket Mage. Just something to consider.
The thing about whisper is that, you don't ever draw what you need. Helm is usually played the turn before or ritual, helm, ect... The thing is this deck has enough tutors to build up the storm count without draw spells. Because draw spells have a random factor, why be random when you can be consistant? The deck has Petal,Sphere,LED and Sunrise occassionally to add colored mana. I can't count how many times I've brought back gemstone off a sunrise. Grim Tutor is 120$ and it sucks without helm, you might as well play Death Wish with Burning Wish. I completely agree with you spoils of the vault is horrible, when playing nausea at times I'd want to throw it because of spoils. But I'm not one of those guys so...
@ Cavius The Great- C'mon who doesn't like SHLong? Shield sphere if it added a colorless mana, yes. But if you read the first post it says why it wasn't included. Doesn't do anything but add 1 storm count.
I've made a few changes... To make second sunrise better with the deck I added 1 recoup. So that you can cast it off LED mana, instead of waiting until turn 3.
My Changes
-1 Culling the weak
+1 recoup
My Current Sideboard
// Sideboard
Tendrils of Agony
Infernal Tutor
Ill-Gotten Gains
Recoup
Firebolt
Cruel Bargain
Shattering Spree
Cleanfall
Pyroclasm
Diminishing Returns
4 Defense Grid
2 Engineered Explosives
This won't work; Second Sunrise is an instant and Recoup can only target sorceries.
Heh, that's not what I was implying. I was saying that you can tutor up sunrise in response crack LED, discard recoup, cast sunrise get everything back. But you have no way to get tendrils if thier's no recoup. Unless you mage up chrome sphere and draw like a god. It's easy if you tutor or Bwish the recoup earlyier on while comboing also. I've always been aware that sunrise is an instant and recoup can onyl target sorceries.
My apologies; the meaning of your comment was somewhat unclear to me. Thanks for elaborating on it.
I just played WastedLife on MWS (I was playing Übermadness), and he beat me 4-0 without much difficulties. Once I had turn 1 Roar of the Wurm and Basking Rootwalla on the table, and he still managed to go off during his third turn easily.
Let me just tell you that this deck is amazing... It is really consistant and brutally fast. I hear that he beat Di on turn 1 three times in a row. :). It seems to be quite complicated but powerful. I will definitely throw it together and do some testing after having seen this deck in action...
Sometimes you have to read between the minds.
++ T8ing all over Europe since 2005 ++
++ Team aYb - all your base (are belong to us) ++
Wouldn't you expect this to crush an aggro deck like madness, though?
And aren't there plenty of Tendrils decks that can win on turn three? Why were you so surprised at these results?
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