With the upcoming eternal event of the year, Legacy Grand Prix Madrid, many players are seeking the best deck to play at it. In the following article I’d like to analyze some possibilities for those of you who like to play combo decks.
First of all, we must understand what kind of tournament a Grand Prix is. A GP isn’t at all like any other eternal tournaments. Ok, there’s some big events around the world that gather from 100 to 400 players. That’s big, but nothing compared to what predictions for GP Madrid attendance. Spain is, with no doubts, the country that has the biggest tradition on eternal formats, both Legacy and Vintage. Spain hosts the biggest weekly/monthly leagues, so we can expect GP Madrid to be a tournament with an attendance between 1000 and 2000 players. I believe the attendance will actually be closer to 2K than 1K.

So, we better forget of playing 5, 6 or 7 rounds + top8, and start thinking of a 2 day event with a total of 15-16 rounds followed by a top8.

Knowing this, my question is very clear. Is ANT the best combo deck to play?

Assuming you don’t have any tournament byes (1,2 or even 3), you gotta ask yourself if you are capable of keeping the same play level during 9 straight rounds. Combo decks usually have the advantage over other decks of being a fast winner. Some rounds could be actually solved in less than 20 mins if your hands are spectacular. Those rounds actually give you some free time to either scout or relax. But, imho, you can’t actually rely on that fact to choose a deck.

Even tho you can win rounds fast, you have to be sure and confident on your game-play. Playing combo ain’t easy, no matter what deck you play (Mmm…. maybe we can exclude Flash xD), and you can get easily mentally tired.  Let’s now assume that ain’t an issue coz you are a well prepared player who knows your deck perfectly.

Next thing you need to know is what kind of metagame is expected for a tournament like Grand Prix Madrid. It’s really hard to predict an exact metagame but, right now this is my bet:

• 15% – Combo decks (ANT, Iggy, Dream Halls, Entomb, Painters, Dredge, etc…)
• 15% – Control decks (CounterTop, Supreme Blue, Landstill, etc…)
• 30% – Aggro decks (RG, Burn, Naya, Goblins, Merfolks, Affinity, etc…)
• 25% – Aggro-control decks (Survi-Bant, Canadian Threshold, Threshold, Team America, etc…)
• 5% – Lock decks (Staxx, Enchantress, Aggro-Loam, Eternal Garden, etc…)
• 10% – Rogue decks and others (Survival, Mono Black, Pikula, etc…)

I actually believe that any of the decks listed above (and others not listed) have chances to make a good performance in a big tournament. It all depends on what your pairings are and how good of a player you are.

So let’s focus on ANT now.

First of all, the list:

ANT 1.0, by piZZero

2 Ad Nauseam
3 Infernal Tutor
4 Lion’s Eye Diamond
4 Lotus Petal
3 Chrome Mox
4 Dark Ritual
3 Cabal Ritual
2 Sensei’s Divining Top
4 Brainstorm
2 Ponder
3 Mystical Tutor
2 Tendrils of Agony
1 Ill-Gotten Gains
4 Duress
4 Orim’s Chant
1 Wipe Away
3 Polluted Delta
3 Flooded Strand
3 Underground Sea
2 Island
1 Swamp
1 Scrubland
1 Tundra

Sideboard:
4 Dark Confidant
3 Serenity
2 Echoing Truth
2 Angel’s Grace
1 Slaughter Pact
1 Desfigure
1 Ill-Gotten Gains
1 Plains

With the nonstop growth of Aggro decks like burn, Naya Burn, RG’s, etc… I believe this might be a serious issue for a 15 round tournament. Average speaking, you should face these decks in 4 or 5 rounds during the swiss and then again, if lucky, once again in the Top8. Nowadays aggro decks they’ve got 3 ways to hurt you:

1. They drop fast creatures supported by burn spells (Naya Burn, RG, etc…)
2. They drop fast creatures supported by disruption spells (Merfolks, Slivers, etc…)
3. They drop fast creatures (Goblins, Elves, Affinity, etc…)

Game one is a total race against their clock. If you are able to setup your hand fast enough then you might have a chance of winning. If your hand suffers from lack of speed or is over-protected then they might reduce your life fast enough to make it very difficult for you to combo.

Games two and three are the key games. Even if you win G1, your sideboard should be prepared for what’s comming: Gaddock Teeg, Aether Canonist, Pyrostatic Pyllar, Thorn of Amethyst, etc… If your chances on winning G1 vs aggro decks were around 50-55%, chances you win 2nd and 3rd games are heavily reduced. I wouldn’t bet you are over 50% against all those decks that are heavily packed with hate on their sideboards.

So, what’s the solution? There’s plenty of cards ANT can play to face all that hate. Angel’s Grace, Serenity, Smother, Slaughter Pact, Desfigure, Echoing Truth, Hurkyl’s Recall and many more. But, are all those cards effective? Let’s check out an standard ANT sideboard:

• 4 Dark Confidant
• 3 Serenity
• 2 Angel’s Grance
• 2 Echoing Truth
• 1 Slaughter Pact
• 1 Desfigure
• 1 Ill-Gotten Gains
• 1 Plains

First problem this sideboard has is that it’s 100% predictable by your opponents. It’s one of the most standard sideboard choices lately. So, he’ll play games 2 and 3 around them. He’ll probably know you’ll pack the 2nd Ill-Gotten Gains to be less Nauseam dependant; he’ll know you’ll have 1-2 creature killers, and he’ll know you’ll play Angel’s Grace.

Those sideboard cards are all good and effective. I’m not going to analyze them, and their choice over other cards. I’ve played them in many tournaments with great success, but personally believe NOW they ain’t the best choice for a 15 round tournament. Actually, I believe ANT isn’t the best combo deck choice for a 15 round tournament.

If predictions are right, I’d suggest you play a more solid, less life-dependent combo deck. An example of this, is the last month new hype  deck that’s been rising around the Legacy scene: Dream Halls! The new reborn Dream Halls deck has been achieving excellent results at some big events lately, like Jonas Harbili who won the German Magic with a very innovative list.

Dream Halls, by Jonas Harbili

4 Flooded Strand
2 Scalding Tarn
5 Island
1 Polluted Delta
3 Ancient Tomb
2 Underground Sea
1 Bogardan Hellkite
4 Progenitus
4 Dream Halls
4 Show and Tell
4 Brainstorm
4 Ponder
4 Force of Will
3 Cruel Ultimatum
4 Conflux
3 Lotus Petal
4 Thoughtseize
4 Lim-Dul’s Vault

Sideboard:

1 Hydroblast
2 Pithing Needle
1 Rushing River
3 Propaganda
2 Duress
2 Meditate
4 Spell Pierce

Dream Halls is a good choice. Solid rock, good mana base, hard to disrupt, well protected and hardly suffers from Countertop.

But if you are an storm passionate and would like to play Tendrils, this is the list I suggest for you:

Iggy Reloaded, by Jordi Amat
As a competitive deck for Grand Prix Madrid.

4 Leyline of the Void
3 Ill-Gotten Gains
3 Infernal Tutor
4 Lion’s Eye Diamond
4 Lotus Petal
4 Dark Ritual
3 Cabal Ritual
4 Dark Confidant
2 Sensei’s Divining Top
4 Brainstorm
3 Ponder
2 Mystical Tutor
2 Tendrils of Agony
4 Duress
1 Wipe Away
3 Polluted Delta
3 Flooded Strand
3 Underground Sea
2 Island
2 Swamp

Sideboard:
4 Tombstalker
4 Extract
2 Thrashing Wumpus
2 Echoing Truth
2 Desfigure
1 Ill-Gotten Gains

If we look at the decklist, we can observe that this version lacks Ad Nauseam. Yes, that’s the 1st biggest step forward towards a metagame packed with Aggro decks. Historically, Iggy Pop has always defeated aggro decks in the past. Even with the speed raise of aggro decks, the fact that we aren’t HP dependent gives us those 2-3 or even 4 turns we need to prepare the 2 Lion’s Eye Diamond + Infernal Tutor Setup. We have 4 Brainstorm, 4 Ponder, 2 Sensei’s Divining Top + 3 Infernal Tutor and 4 Lion’s Eye Diamond. It shouldn’t be that hard to find the combo, seriously.

Next thing we observe is the presence of 4 Leyline of the void. This card is a Game 1 silver bullet that will alone defeat some decks that abuse of their graveyard or from cards like Life from the Loam. If you are lucky enough to get your LotV game 1 and face a random Ichorid player, you should check out his face. Even if you don’t start G1 with LotV in play and never reveal it to your opponent, it’s always one of the strongest sideboard choices vs decks like Next Level Dredge, Aggro Loam or Eternal Garden.

But Leyline of the Void isn’t just there for that reason. It’s actually the half piece you need to resolve your 1st turn Mind Twist, named Ill-Gotten Gains. Against Aggro decks without any counter magic, 1st or 2nd turn Ill-Gotten gains with LotV in play equals GG. The 4th Ill-Gotten Gains has been added to the sideboard in order to improve and reinforce this strategy in the aggro matchup.

If we compare this deck with ANT, there’s an aspect that might seem weaker: protection. I agree, but not at 100%. Our weaknesses aren’t the same as are in ANT. We aren’t forced to combo that fast. We have more turns to sculpt our hand and find the combo pieces and a Duress. Against control we’ve added 4 Dark Confidant which work as both game breakers or Force of Will magnets. It’s important in combo decks to have “fake bombs”. That’s what allows you to reduce the amount of protection. First turn Confidant grabs his Force of Will, 2nd turn Duress grabs his Daze/Snare/whatever, and then you are good to go.

Talking about control, we got a better game 1 than ANT does, thanks to our Dark Confidants. Each time confidants successfully hits the enemy equals 1 less storm we need to generate. A turn 1 Confidant will hurt your opponent, on average, for a total of 4 damage. On top of that, we have to consider that most of control decks are packed with fetchlands, so you’ll probably win one spell more thanks to the 2 damage from 2 fetchs. So, more or less, what you’ll have to generate is an storm cout of 6. If you open with Duress and he counters it, you’ve got most of it already. Follow it with a Ritual and expect it to get countered too, then Cabal Ritual and Tendrils of Agony for lethal damage. That was just an example of how you could win against control without the use of LED + Infernal, by the simple use and abuse of Dark Confidant.

To improve the control matchup I’ve added 4 Tombstalkers to the sideboard. With Tombstalker we are increasing the amount of turn 2 bombs, therefore reducing the time for the control player to find his answers. He’ll probably kept his Swords to Plowshares or Path to Exile, but we don’t care much about them. It’s just another bomb, we can still beat him by storm or by finding more bombs via Brainstorm, Ponder or Sensei’s Divining Top. Obviously Tombstalker is also a silver bullet against those decks that try to lock us down with Chalice of the Void, Thorn of Amethyst, etc… If we manage to hit our opponent twice with him, then we’ve got a very advantaged position in the game. Trust me.

Tombstalker adds the surprise factor that you need in a 15 round tournament where you can pass unnoticed all day. I wouldn’t recommend playing Tombstalkers in a 20 men tournament, coz right after 1st round, everyone knows your secret.

Another secret that can be found in the sideboard are the 4 Extract. We’ve said our deck is slightly slower than ANT, so let’s just search for a turn 1 card that can win us games for U: Extract. If you opponent is man enough, he’ll probably play the deck with only 1 Tendrils. Big mistake! I’ve always said and advised that it’s better to play 2 instead of 1, no matter what deck you play. If extract resolves, you win.

The other sideboard cards are also focused to improve your games against aggro decks. Thrashing Wumpus is, for example, an excellent win condition against absolutely all tribal decks. Merfolks, Goblins and Slivers they’ll all surrender against a turn 1-2 Thrashing Wumpus with BB mana open after that. Desfigure is excellent against Gaddock Teeg and Aether Canonist, as I’ve already stated previously. So if we are afraid of those, make sure to put them in. Finally, Echoing Truth plays a bit the “Joker” card role. You can add it against all decks that could possibly play some hate cards like Chalice of the Void or some enchantments like Ivory Mask, etc…

Let’s say you ain’t 100% convinced with my arguments and you still want to play ANT at Grand Prix Madrid. What decklist shall you play?

I’m pretty convinced that the maindeck is the strongest of all of the available choices right now. People play it without Lion’s Eye Diamond and with Ancient Tomb, people play it with red for Burning Wish, etc… In my honest opinion, who’s been debated a lot by many other excellent combo players, the best version of ANT is the one that packs Orim’s Chant main deck and Serenity + Angel’s Grace sideboard. But still, I’ve said before this wasn’t the best choice. Agree, and I think some small changes could be done at your sideboards in order to improve your performance at a 15 round tournament. If I were you, I would play this list:

ANT 2.0, by piZZero
As a competitive deck for Grand Prix Madrid.

2 Ad Nauseam
3 Infernal Tutor
4 Lion’s Eye Diamond
4 Lotus Petal
3 Chrome Mox
4 Dark Ritual
3 Cabal Ritual
2 Sensei’s Divining Top
4 Brainstorm
2 Ponder
3 Mystical Tutor
2 Tendrils of Agony
1 Ill-Gotten Gains
4 Duress
4 Orim’s Chant
1 Wipe Away
3 Polluted Delta
3 Flooded Strand
3 Underground Sea
2 Island
1 Swamp
1 Scrubland
1 Tundra

Sideboard:
4 Tombstalker
4 Dark Confidant
3 Serenity
2 Echoing Truth
1 Slaughter Pact
1 Ill-Gotten Gains

Main deck suffered no changes, but the sideboard does. This sideboard is what I believe could work best. You have a HUGE surprise factor vs CounterTop decks: 4 Tombstalker + 4 Dark Confidant. Your matchup against aggro improves thanks to the Tombstalkers as well. You don’t have many answers for the mirror of ANT but your main deck Orim’s Chants should help you out.

I hope this article helps you decide what to play if you were going to play combo. There’s still plenty of time before Grand Prix arrives so start testing and playing to become a better player. And always remember kids:

Real men play combo!

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