Just biding it's time

Enter Lotus Petal.

I highly enjoy reading cards by how they affect the deck they are in. For example, Dark Ritual reads “add BBB to your mana pool” – but what it says in Ad Nauseam is “+2 mana, +1 storm count, maybe -1 life (if you draw it with Ad Nauseam)". Lion’s Eye Diamond reads +3 mana, +1 storm count, you can only use this card if you want to play unprotected”. As such, Lotus Petal is a star in the deck, as it reads “+1 mana, +1 storm”. No life loss, no conditions – nothing. There are no other cards like that available in classic. And because of that, Ad Nauseam has remained lurking in the background since it’s release. I think that is about to change. As such, I’ve been goldfishing the absolute crap out of this particular build of Ad Nauseam.

Lands (11)
4 Polluted Delta
1 Bloodstained Mire
3 Underground Sea
1 Badlands
1 Island
1 Swamp

More Mana (21)
4 Chrome Mox
1 Mana Crypt
4 Lotus Petal
4 Dark Ritual
4 Cabal Ritual
4 Lion's Eye Diamond

The Engine & win condition (6)
3 Ad Nauseam
3 Tendrils of Agony

Protection (10)
2 Chain of Vapor
1 Hurkyl's Recall
4 Pact of Negation
3 Duress

Draw/Tutors (12)

4 Brainstorm
2 Infernal Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
4 Mystical Tutor
1 Demonic Consultation

Sideboard (15)

2 Hurkyl's Recall
2 Pithing Needle
3 Gorilla Shaman
4 Tormod’s Crypt
3 Pyroclasm

I think the concept of the deck is self-evident, but just in case, here it is. Play Ad Nauseam, draw a bunch of cards, play them all, then play Tendrils of Agony.

Now that the simple stuff is out of the way, let’s get down to the gritty. There are a lot of choices that have gone into the deck, and there are a lot of choices that kept things out of the deck. Here we go

Land Count
Originally, I had 13 lands in the deck, and no Lion’s Eye Diamonds. Then I put the LEDs in and brought the land count down to 12 (with some other cards removed, I think Thoughtseize). Then, even as I play tested, I brought it down to 11. You can seriously get away with 1 mana source in this deck, and actually win off of it – much like a Necropotence deck. For example, a Dark ritual, a Lion’s Eye Diamond and a Tutor (and an Underground Sea) can get you on your way to playing an Ad Nauseam. Props goes to DJ Catchem for reminding mw that you can float mana through to your draw phase. The trick is to put Ad Nauseam on top of your deck with Mystical/Vampiric the turn before and play out your LED, untap, then play Ritual and crack LED during your upkeep (hint: crack the LED for 3 blue mana – you’ll see why when you do it), then draw Ad Nauseam with your regular draw and play it as an instant during your draw step. Online, you have to remember to set a stop during your draw step to do this. At which point if Ad Nauseam resolves, you’ll be able to draw a mitt full of cards and very likely have a 1 mana blue instant you can play to avoid taking the mana burn (normally Brainstorm, plopping 2 lands back on top of your deck).

Hence, 11 lands is generally enough to make sure you have at least 1 in your opening hand, and a good portion of the time, 2.

Ad Nauseam & Tendrils Count
Boy I went back and forth on this one for a while. The fact is that the only design problem with Ad Nauseam is that you definitely don’t want to run into another Ad Nauseam when you are revealing cards off it. I tried, many times, to figure out if 4 Ad Nauseams would work, but it seemed that the number of times I’d bump into 2 more Ad Nauseams with a four-pack in the deck was too many for my liking. With Ad Nauseam, you want to draw into at least 10 cards, but generally you want to hit 14-15. With 3 more Ad Nauseams in the deck and an average of 50 cards in the deck when you play it, if you are going to draw 15 more that’s nearly a 3^rd of the deck. Just pure odds put you on hitting another Ad Nauseam that way, and it’s the only card you really don’t want to see again. It’s 5 life and the only thing it’s good for is removing from the game to Chrome Mox.

All that being said, this is your draw engine. You want to see Ad Nauseam in your opening hand, as it makes it easier for you to work with your tutors. Two I think it is too few – you are practically begging someone to take you out of the game by countering them both. 3 seemed to be the right amount. If Classic was more like Vintage, and Ad Nauseam decks could run 5 Moxen and Sol Ring and Black Lotus, 4 might be the better call, but we’re stuck for now.

Tendrils is another story. Originally I had only 2 Tendrils, but I found I had to tutor for it far too often, even after the Nauseam. And unlike running into two more Ad Nauseam, revealing two Tendrils is not nearly so big a problem. First of all, it’s obviously less life, but more importantly, so long as you can create 8 mana, making use of double tendrils is almost exactly what you want to do in this deck. I found most of the time I hit two tendrils, I was able to launch an attack of Tendrils for 12 and Tendrils for 13. Stifle that! So I upped the count to 3.

Protection

Here, the 2 life hurts.

Chain of Vapor is a pretty obvious choice. Bounce that annoying fish/chalice for 0, then win. Hurkyl’s Recall is a real star here though. Not only can he bounce a LOT of the most popular threats to your deck (Canonist, Chalice for 0 or 1), but it can also be used to put a major damper should you opponent play affinity, and it can be used to increase your storm count by a LOT. Play out all your Chrome Moxes (empty), Lotus Petals and LEDs and then return them all to your hand, only to play them all out again. You can sometimes get all the storm count you need getting the mana to play Ad Nauseam just by playing out all your artifacts and then recalling them back to your hand.

Some cards I didn’t go with – Angel’s Grace. Cute trick, but the problem is that Angel’s Grace is only good if you play it before you play Ad Nauseam. Once you are revealing cards, it’s too late for Angel’s Grace. You can’t reveal it, play it, and keep revealing. Because of this, I am not prepared to stretch my mana base into white to ensure I can play it, nor do I want to push my mana total to a requirement of 6. Playing Ad Nauseam with two Dark Rituals is much too handy to have to find a white mana source to play Grace before it. Orim’s Chant/Abeyance are much more useful after you’ve played Ad Nauseam, but again, I didn’t want to rely on a Lotus Petal or mix up the mana base just to stretch into white. Quite honestly, I’m much more worried about fishy creatures preventing me from targeting them or playing spells than I am about counterspell/stifle - hence the single Badlands and the Pyroclasms. Gorilla Shaman is in the sideboard specifically to deal with Chalice of the Void. And this is a bit of a stretch and something I’m not too sure will work out, but I have the feeling that Chalice for 0 will be a popular play. Chalice for 1 will still hurt, but with Chrome Mox, LED, Lotus Petal and a single Mana Crypt, this deck is actually more reliant on 0-mana cards than it is 1 mana cards. There are 17 cards of each (Pact of Negation is 0) – but the type of deck that runs Chalice for 0 will be the same one that plays Wild Nacatyl and then Tarmogoyf. The deck that plays chalice for 1 is probably going to give me some time to set up. And of course, if I get the chance to play Shaman first, it doesn’t matter what they lay down Chalice for.

Mana
There isn’t too much to say about the mana. Chrome Mox is the bomb in this deck because you seriously don’t care about the card disadvantage. If it’s gets me playing my Ad Nauseam faster, that’s great. If I already have 15 cards or something obscene in my hand, I don’t card about losing one to Mox. Dark Ritual and Cabal Ritual are obviously inclusions, but Cabal is often the really strong card after you’ve played Ad Nauseam since you’ve very often have the requisite 7 cards in your graveyard at some point. Lotus Petal is not only a star, but don’t forget it can be used to play out some of those red cards – you don’t have to find badlands.

As for cards I didn’t include, Rite of Flame was a no go. There were too many situations where I wished the card was blue or black to let me play the gas in the deck. Rite of Flame was simply in the way of getting more protection and tutors into the deck, and it doesn’t let me play any of the cards I need to actually win the game. Manamorphose was an early cut as well – not because it wasn’t useful (it was) but because I almost never wanted to see it pre-Nauseam – it doesn’t help you get to 5 mana.

You could run 4, but you can only use 1.

Burning Wish was never a consideration for me, even though the mana base could possibly be made to support it’s inclusion. It can’t find Nauseam, and I want tutors that can find Nauseam.

And we’re done here...

So there you have it. I won’t pretend this is a full-out primer for an Ad Nauseam deck because it doesn’t include any matchups, but in time I think that work will be done. Goldfishing this deck generally gets you a turn 2/3 win. The odd time you’ll go longer, with any luck you have maybe double duressed or chained away a hate card – if not you are probably dead, as either your life counter is spinning too far down to draw many cards off of Ad Nauseam or they’ve set up an impenetrable block of protection against you. Essentially, if you can resolve Ad Nauseam quick, you’ll probably win, and playing the deck should gear toward that goal.   I hope this little article prepared you either way to play with or against such a deck. With Lotus Petal on it’s way, you are sure to see it.

Have fun out there!

Dangerlinto.