Legacy Report – ANT versus 43 Lands and Merfolk

I played in a small Legacy tournament for a playset of Tropical Islands. I didn’t win but felt I still learned a decent amount about my current deck of choice, ANT (Ad Nauseam Tendrils).

Round 1 was versus Merfolk, which Tomaharu Saito described on Channel Fireball as being a suprisingly easy matchup. Much of the other reading I’ve encountered ont he matter suggests otherwise, but then most people aren’t Saito. Anyway, I was able to win game 1 after dropping dangerously low on life, comboing once to survive, and again for the win. Game 2, I never got to go off and was beat down pretty quickly. Game 3, I had a pretty great 7-card starter, with a fetch, City of Traitors, Duress, Dark Ritual, Ad Nauseam, Cabal Ritual, and another irrelevant spell. On the play, I laid down a Fetch and passed the turn. I considered cracking it to avoid Stifle but only briefly because I hadn’t seen Stifle in the previous two games. I had seen plenty of Wastelands, and as Black was the color of mana I needed, fetching the deck’s only basic (an Island) to avoid Stifle seemed like a bad idea. The way I saw it, I could play around Wasteland, and then go off Turn 2 leading off with a Duress. Well, I’m sure you can tell where all of this was leading…I was Stifled upon cracking my fetch and never saw another land. I guess that happens sometimes.

Round 2 I played against the 43 Lands deck that I had loaned to another player for the tournament. We both knew he had little to no chance of winning but we tried nonetheless. Game 1 I steamrolled him, as he has no way to apply pressure early and no maindeck disruption. Game 2 was a surprise though. Of course he boarded in the 4 Chalice of the Voids as expected. What was not expected was to have Turn 1 Chalice for One, followed by an Intuition for the other three Chalices, which were shortly cast for Zero and Two. Granted he slows his own game down by that, but I have almost no chance of winning after that, as even my bounce spells are now shut off. It was good to see Lands isn’t completely cold to ANT. Game 3 was less exciting, as I was able to go off Turn 1.

Round 3 I played another Merfolk deck. Game 1, I was able to clear his hand of disruption pretty quickly and go off without any problems. Game 2, he had some early pressure and was able to put me down to about 10 or so before I was able to go off. However, the cards revealed left no option but to keep going, and I sadly killed myself. In game 3, he had some early board pressure, but I was able to clear his hand enough to resolve a Tendrils for 8 life. In retrospect it should have been for 10 life, because he had cast a Daze while I was trying to go off. Sadly, I had forgotten about it in the moment. A couple of turns later I was able to go off again, this time from 18 life, which should normally be more than enough to guarantee victory. However, I hit the other Ad Nauseam almost immediately and never found a direct way to get Tendrils into my hand. As such I pushed through at 2 life and killed myself. After the game, I saw a much better option. I had Sensei’s Divining Top out and had not yet played a land. At two life and with plenty of mana sources, I should have stopped drawing cards with Ad Nauseam, played a bunch of mana sources, and used the Top to look at the top three cards. If I didn’t find what I needed that way (either Lion’s Eye Diamond, Tendrils, or Mystical Tutor), then I could still play a fetchland, crack it, shuffle, and then Top to take a look at three new cards. Not a solid lock or anything, but still much better than my decision to keep flipping cards.