In this episode, we invite GP New Jersey Top 8 competitor, Phillip Braverman, onto the show to help us discuss ANT. Wilson and Phil go back and forth about key matchups, what cards matter in each, and how to craft the game from both sides of the table.
We also talk about Wilson’s most recent ANT list and we hear why he thinks you shouldn’t even be playing Ad Nauseam in the mainboard! Here is the list for your reference:
Main:
4x Polluted Delta
2x Flooded Strand
1x Misty Rainforest
1x Scalding Tarn
1x Bloodstained Mire
2x Underground Sea
1x Volcanic Island
2x Island
1x Swamp
4x Lion’s Eye Diamond
4x Lotus Petal
4x Dark Ritual
4x Cabal Ritual
4x Brainstorm
4x Ponder
4x Gitaxian Probe
4x Duress
3x Cabal Therapy
4x Infernal Tutor
2x Grim Tutor
2x Past in Flames
1x Empty the Warrens
1x Tendrils of Agony
Sideboard:
1x Tropical Island
2x Xantid Swarm
3x Abrupt Decay
1x Ad Nauseam
2x Chain of Vapor
2x Thoughtseize
2x Massacre
1x Inquisition of Kozilek
1x Ill-gotten Gains
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Whats your opinion on running a bayou as your green source. Bryant Cooks logic on it seems pretty sound. As black is your main combo color, and disruption color. Obviously TES is a different deck, but it seems like it would make sense if you moved around your fetch lands.
We are not excited about the idea of Bayou. We understand the logic of wanting your combo color the turn after you cast Abrupt Decay in a deck like TES, but since ANT is all about hand-sculpting, we would rather have the blue source to cast all our cantrips on turns 1-3ish. Furthermore, we only ever board in the green splash against non-Wasteland decks. We do not like making our mana worse against decks like D&T, so we simply board in the Massacres and some CoV’s. The only deck that runs Wasteland where we consider bringing in the Trop are decks like MUD where we know Abrupt Decay is better than the CoV’s because of Chalice of the Void, but even then we are not very happy about it. This is why we do not like the Carpet of Flowers plan because it forces you to make your mana weaker to Wasteland just to get a slight mana advantage. Seems counterintuitive to us, but we invite you to come to your own conclusions on that. For your reference, the latest SB is as follows:
1 Tropical Island
1 Ad Nauseam
2 Massacre
3 Abrupt Decay
2 Thoughtseize
3 Chain of Vapor
2 Xantid Swarm
1 Inquisition of Kozilek
Most of our sideboarding revolves around swapping out bad discard for better discard. We rarely board into more than 7 discard spells, except against faster disruptive combo decks, like Reanimator. It is more about tweaking your available disruption slots to fight their hate better. So bringing in Thoughtseizes against hate bear decks. If you are interested in a full sideboarding guide, we could probably post that in a “Brief Brainstorm.” Let us know. Hope that helps.
Thank you for the extensive reply, it should help. I would love to see a sideboarding guide.
What match-up is Ill-Gotten Gains good for? I can only think of like Jund-ish match-ups against hymn, but as you said PiF is also great, if not better. Wouldn’t there be a better sideboard card like Dread of Night or Pithing Needle?
Also P.S. #Necrobump
IGG has since been cut. We are going with the following SB now: 1 Tropical Island, 1 Ad Nauseam, 2 Massacre (over any number of Dread of Night since it hits all the problem hate bears out of D&T), 3 Abrupt Decay, 2 Thoughtseize, 3 Chain of Vapor, 2 Xantid Swarm, 1 Inquisition of Kozilek