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"You," said Dr. Yavitch, "are a middle-road liberal, and you
haven't the slightest idea what you want. I, being a revolutionist, know exactly what I want - and what I want right now is a drink" ~~ Sinclair Lewis ~~
"I believe Culling of the Weak to be ridiculously broken"
~Stephen Menendian By now. Everyone who plays magic has probably heard of Meandeck Tendrils. Those of you who who read the articles here have probably read the Justin Walters article, "Playing Meandeck Tendrils". And you diehards with Premium access have probably read Stephen Menendian's pair of articles, "" and "". If you notice my quote above, you'll see that indeed, I do have premium access, and I have read all the articles. Now, I'm here to tell you that "Meandeck Tendrils" aint the only game in town when it comes to "Storm Solitare". In fact, it may not even be the best storm solitare deck for you to play. But that is for you to judge. Personally, I prefer the deck list below. Submitted for your amusement, is another Storm Solitaire deck. I call this one, Subversive Tendrils. Username: Subversity, Deck: Tendrils ... Subversive Tendrils ... get it? Thanx! The proponents of Meandeck Tendrils claim a 70% success rate with first turn kills. This deck is currently running a first turn kill about 55% (on play, not on the draw). And, for contrast, Goblin Charbelcher is currently running at about 30% first turn kills. If percentage is the measure, how could this deck be better? The difference is in the 'skill level' required to play the deck. Meandeck Tendrils will give you 70% if you dont make any mistakes, but mistakes are common when you play Meandeck Tendrils. You may know of it as the "damn, I played that wrong" syndrome. We've all done it. It sucks. Do you really want to spend ten or more hours at a tournament playing a deck that demands your complete attention on every card choice? Seriously, read the primers and the other articles about the deck. If the deck doesn't get banned, it will only be because it is too hard to play correctly. Wouldn't you prefer a deck that had built in redundency, more mana, better tutors ( They wont kill you ), at least one open slot (so you can insert your favorite black surprise), doesn't require a PhD to operate, goldfishes greater than 50%, and manages to cast (break) no fewer than three previously underutilized cards? (Diabolic Intent, Culling the Weak and Infernal Contract) Oh Yeah. You know you would. And the next time you hear a player say "Oh damn, I played that wrong", you can smile and keep on trucking toward your lethal storm count. This deck is the Dodge Hemi to their finely tuned Porshe. This deck is more forgiving than Meandeck Tendrils, and it shifts the fulcrum of weakness onto a card which is less likely to get hit with a Force of Will. Okay, that's a bit of an over sell, and I'm getting ahead of myself, you still need to know why this is better, and why you should play this. To do that, you need to know a little bit about Meandeck Tendrils, and how it came to be. "How would I go about building a deck designed to play exactly nine spells and then Tendrils of Agony?" ~ Stephen Menendian Meandeck Tendrils started with an idea, a good one, and yet, it was an idea which dominated the deck and predetermined its linear complexity. Exactly nine spells. Meandeck Tendrils is designed to take small steps from the time you draw your hand to the time you play your nineth spell. You cant get more finely tuned than that. The idea took over, became refined, caused certain cards to get included in their deck and caused other cards to be rejected from their deck. For example, Chromatic Sphere and Darkwater Egg are integral to their deck. As Stephan says, "Drawing a card and fixing your mana is worth the cost", but at what cost? The deck requires constant monitoring, like a patient on life support. It is constantly needing to have its mana tweaked, its cards replaced, one at at time, and its accelerants used judiciously. The deck uses all of the little spells, put together to build a staircase which reaches ten steps. My hat is off to the Meandeck crew. They made it work and they created a great deck. But, as Jonny Depp would say, "its good, but not my favorite". It's not only not my favorite, it's boring. I dont like taking halting steps toward the tenth spell like a nervous bride to the altar. I like big spells and big effects, I like power. I like knowing that I can spill my whole deck onto the table on the first turn. I like drawing two, three, even four cards at a time. I like having seemingly inoccous objects like ornithopters and turning them into piles of mana or demonic tutors. It may look like that makes my deck more vulnerable, but that is incorrect. There are so many of them that it almost feels like cheating. This deck has the equivalent of seven Demonic Tutors, and eleven Dark Rituals. I like having eleven mana artifacts, eleven Dark Rituals, seven Demonic Tutors, eleven 0cc artifact critters and seven draw spells. Its mine, all of it and I dont have to put two cards back, like brainstorm, or put one on the bottom of my deck. It is fun to tap them and then cast Retract and play them again. I can do the same thing with my zero casting cost artifacts critters, remember, there are eleven of them, you can litterally hear the storm count go up when they hit the table again and again. Its fun. It's mindless, it's mega-storm-count and it only costs one mana! Why take baby steps when you can go HUGE! Go for it, cast Tendrils with a storm count of 100. Don't settle for 20 damage when you can do 200. I cant make it to Star Cities P9 in Syracuse this Month, and I believe that there is a chance that either Dark Ritual or Cabal Ritual will get banned in March. If that happenes, then I'll never get a chance to play this deck at a P9, so, by publishing, I hope one of you readers will get a chance to give it a shot and tell me how you do. The numbers to the right are the probability of getting the card in your first hand of seven, and then within your first 10 cards. ---------------------------------------- By ten cards, you should have enough mana and a Tutor to search for the Tendrils of agony. Cast it for the kill as the tenth card. A regular kill can be achieved via this sequence. You will recognize it from Long Death. 1. play mana 2. Tutor for Yawgmoth's will 3. play mana from graveyard 4. play Tutor from graveyard (get Tendrils of Agony) 5. Play Tendrils. Analysis, and card choices. This deck can rip itself open and spill all 60 cards on the table on the first turn. I did it once and cast a Tendrils of Agony with a storm count of 99. (That's exactly 200 damage!) I hope to break 100 at some point. Think of it as solitaire. If you play every card you win. Of course, you can always end it early by playing a Tendrils of Agony. There are only three general requirements for the deck. First, it must generate as much mana as possible. Second, It must have as many Tutors as possible, and Third, it must have a way to draw cards. The Mana cards need to be able to generate six mana consistently, the Tutors need to be found consistently, and the draw cards need to maximize the ability to find those cards. The perfect hand will enable a first turn kill with the following sequence. 1. Mana 2. Tutor 3. Yawgmoth's Will 4. Graveyard Mana 5. Graveyard Tutor 6. Tendrils of Agony Requirements: 2 mana for Tutor 3 mana for Yawgmoth's Will 1 Mana to float and keep it going. 6 Total Mana Required. The statistical probabilities of the deck do support having the requirements in the first turn, be it 7 or ten cards. Note: According to the Draw Statistics, I need to add one Infernal Contract. So, if you feel the need to maximize the probabilities, feel free to remove one Retract add 1 Infernal Contract. Land Importance: High. Peril: High. Goal: Maximize the chances of drawing one land in the first seven cards and minimize the chances of drawing two lands in 10 cards. With 6 lands, I draw 75%, and 108% With 7 lands, I draw 85%, and 126% With 8 lands, I draw 98%, and 154% Statistically, 6 is perfect, but the land is needed first. So, I want to see that land in my hand when I decide to mulligan or not. Also, I want to raise my chance of drawing one and minimize my chance of drawing two. Conclusion: 7 lands it clumps on 1 more reliably. There is another seven card option which you can use instead of my seven lands. I considered adopting it, but, in all of the times I goldfished this deck, the land never got in the way of a kill and once it enabled a second turn kill. The other reason I don't use the Simister/Menendian scheme is that I don't like showing my hand to my opponent. If this is a Type One tournament, and my opponent is playing Force of Will, then they probably have enough skill to spot the best place to use it if they know the contents of my hand. But, I'll include the info here because it is an option that will work a bit better than the seven land I use. If you don't mind showing your hand, you may want to use this instead. Here is the Land Grant base from Michael Simister's "2 Land Belcher" deck. 4 Land Grant 1 Bayou 1 Tropical Island And here is Stephen Menendian's tweak. 4 Land Grant 1 Bayou 1 Tropical Island 1 Polluted Delta I mentioned above that six is the best choice statistically, but I run seven, and I would also choose Menendian's tweak if I was going to use one of the Land Grant based schemes. Remember, you want one land. One Land is as good as one Mox. You just don't want to get two Land. Retract This card is insane in this deck. With 22 0cc artifacts in this deck, it essentially says "Double your storm count for one blue mana". You could choose Chain of Vapors, or Herkyl's Recall, but Chain of Vapors will only get you two artifacts back in hand, and Herkyl's Recall costs more mana. Either one could be used on your opponent, and I davise one of each in your sideboard but I also feel that Retract is the best choice for this deck. It's just that good. Pay to Draw ... Night's Whisper This is the new standard for black draw spells. Two mana plus two life gets you two cards. R&D put this into the last block, and it works for me. This is that guy in the alley who comes up and offers to sell you a little piece of Yawgmoth's bargain. Not the who thing, just a little bit, just enough to get you hooked. Yawgmoth's Bargain This card is almost too expensive for the deck, but it will draw you enough cards for a kill. For {4}{B}{B} and 19 life, you can draw 19 cards. Look at the statistics for 10 cards and you can see that the 19 you draw off of this and the 7 you started with are statistically certain to draw you a kill. Now that I've said that, I'll tell you that I dont play it that way. I play it and immediatly draw down to 4 life. Then I look at my cards. If I get flooded with mana, and dont get a tutor, then I probably drew an Infernal Contract, maybe even Two. If so, I can still play them both and end up at one life and draw yet another 8 cards. Thats five more than I could have gotten off of the Bargain. In short, Bargain four then two then one, always checking for Contracts, if you get them and need them, play them, because they will net you more vards than the bargain when your life is low. Of course, This means you can drawn 7 + 16 + 8 = 31 cards, and you are at one life. Infernal Contract {B}{B}{B} & Half your Life, draw four cards. Half is an interesting concept, you can always divide something in half and never reach zero. That's not 100% true in Magic, but it's close enough to make this an obvious choice. If you have four life left you can still play both of the Infernal Contract's in this deck. At that point, you can pay six mana and three life to draw eight cards. That's better than Yawgmoth's Bargain. Just play the Night's Whisper early in the game, play Infernal Contract late. Statistically, there should be three copies of Infernal Contract in the deck. If you want to go with the statistics, add one Infernal Contract and remove one Retract. I can show you that three is statistically correct, but my gut feeling says go with two. And here's another gratuitous Menendian quote about Infernal Contract. "This card is hot. This is a card innovative deck designers among you should pay attention to for the future." He's right. Demonic Consultation I don't like this card. It's not as powerful as it seems, but it's much better than Spoils of the Vault. This card cost me a game once, and I will probably never forgive it for doing that, but it is a Tutor, and it does work. If I have a Tendrils in hand, I love this card, and I will use it to search for Culling the Weak, Cabal Ritual, or Black Lotus. If I don't have a Tendrils in hand, I will only use this to Search for the Tendrils, and only if it is the last option of my final play. Mind's Desire {4}{U}{U} Draw a card for every spell played before it this turn, and play them for free. Yes, FREE. Now look at the mana available in the deck. It's going to be hard to get two blue mana. But, if this shows up in your hand, I absolutely guarantee, you'll find a way to play it. This puts the big happy smile on your face that only your girlfriend can beat. I played a Mind's Desire for 22 cards once ... Okay, this card is probably a "Kill More" card. If you can play it, you probably could have played a Tendril's of Agony, but this game is supposed to be fun, and this card is fun. The rest of the deck is a serious, statistically balanced, killing machine. You need one card that will give you a break from that, let you keep playing for as long as you want, and wont harm you in any way. Play Mind's Desire, have fun. Even if you get it and cant play it, it's just one dead card in hand ... Who cares. Deck Matchups Dude, your playing solitaire! You dont need any deck matchup's. Your only problems are Force of Will and Duress. But, nobody plays those cards anymore so you really don't need to worry about it. But, just in case you are a worry wart and you just have to play around those cards, here's how you do it. If you are on the play, Duress doesn't matter, you only have to worry about Force of Will. To get around force of Will you need to be redundant. Use your draw spells first. Save your Tutors and Broken spells till you have two copies. In one way, at least, this deck is superior to Meandeck Tendrils. That deck doesn't run Culling the Weak, and the easiest way to disrupt it is to target the Mana Acceleration, the Rituals. With this deck, any creature on the board is likely to turn into a Tutor, or a Ritual. Do you really think they will throw a Force of Will at your Ornithopter? It isn't likely, but even if they do, you are very likely to have two of your zero casting cost creatures by the time you play your first draw spell. And, you also have access to a full set of both rituals. You cant attack this deck by going after the mana accelerants, unless of course, a Trinisphere hits the table. In this deck, rule number one is "Have a Backup Plan". There are numerous ways to get to the lethal Tendrils. Did they counter your Yawgmoths Will? Then Retract and cast your Culling the Weak. Rule Number Two is, If you are on the draw, and you draw the Tendrils. Take a Mulligan. Any time it is in your hand, its a liability. In your deck, it is a little bit safer. Cranial Extraction and Jesters Cap are not your opponents most likely first turn plays. Feel free to side in a Death Wish to replace the Demonic Consultation. That will allow you to have an extra Tendrils and Culling the Weak in the sideboard. If I was playing against this deck, I would use Force of Will against the first Draw Spell and use Duress to target the Tutors. Chalice for zero would be a good play. ----- Update: 11-April-2005 Hello to those of you who have just discovered this deck. Including those of you comming from the Mean-Deck group at yahoo. I notice from my log that you've been emailing each other about it, and that there is a post in your group about it. I hope you'll post a comment into the comments section, or drop me an email with any criticism you may have ... good, bad or ugly. Thanks ~Subversity (email) ----- Update: 04-October-2006 My deck apparently became known as "French Tendrils" in January of 2006. I guess I'm out of touch, but here is a links to people who swipped this deck and renamed it (eleven months after I posted the deck list) as their own ... KI.TT - Tendrils Francais Thanks ~Subversity (email)
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Zeitgeist
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About
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Subversity is one of those people who never takes anything seriously while at the same time, responds seriously to the world around him. He wants people to listen to his ideas but isn't willing to make the compromises it would take to get everyone to shut up and hear him. He explodes with passion whenever something catches his interest, dives in and gives it all he has.
~Vic |
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