aww1979 explaining a tendrils deck with examples...

[aww1979]

In a couple other threads I've seen people ask how to play some of the tougher decks people used in challenge modes. I took my 'theperfectstorm' tendrils challenge deck and attempted that challenge again with it, and made some screenshots and notes explaining some of my thinking.

The decklist:

.457 1 Mox Diamond
.165 1 Mox Emerald
.166 1 Mox Jet
.167 1 Mox Pearl
.168 1 Mox Ruby
.169 1 Mox Sapphire
.1 1 Ancestral Recall
.499 1 Brainstorm
.1910 1 Yawgmoth's Will*
.17 1 Black Lotus
.230 1 Sol Ring
.1734 4 Cabal Ritual
.55 4 Dark Ritual
.1848 4 Tendrils of Agony
.62 1 Demonic Tutor
.202 1 Regrowth
.250 1 Timetwister
.309 1 Windfall
.157 1 Mana Vault
.894 1 Mana Crypt
.1696 4 Manamorphose
.1424 1 Lotus Petal
.252 1 Tropical Island
.12 1 Bayou
.317 1 Tolarian Academy
.1487 4 Polluted Delta
.1890 1 Demonic Consultation
.1502 4 Infernal Contract
.587 4 Meditate
.1898 1 Lion's Eye Diamond
.327 4 Grim Tutor
.502 1 Hurkyl's Recall
.258 4 Underground Sea

The zip file has a bunch of jpg screenshots, which should be viewed either in alphabetical or date order to make sense (both the same in this case). For the turn in game 1 where I win, the topdeck card was Mana Crypt, which I didn't mention. You can figure it out, but on all the other turns I explicitly stated what the draw card was. I explain my thinking for each of the moves I did, and yes in game 1 I did work out that turn in advance, which was possible because no card draw was involved, just tutors and play and planning. Using LED might have been more efficient, but since I knew I didn't need it, I didn't bother.

Game 2 didn't go so well :p But I still explained what I did, and I think I got as far as possible, and if I'd been lucky (well, ok, *REALLY* lucky) on some of the draw spells, it could have still been won.

I'll do a few more games tonight and upload those later, too. I'll do other decks or challenges if people actually have interest in it, otherwise this will be the only one I do.

Feel free to ask questions, or criticize if you caught me in a bad play.

With regards to deck construction, Time Walk was left out because in theperfectstorm challenge, you'll never get the extra turn, and 4x Tendrils were used so that I had a better chance of getting one and so I could use Demonic Consultation on it with minimal risk. In a 'real' tendrils deck, I'd probably only run 1 tendrils and 0 consultation, but I felt this style was better for this challenge, since you have to win all at once.

Tinker and/or Memory Jar would be good cards to use, too. I think I cut those to make room for more tendrils, but I don't remember why anymore for sure.

[aww1979]

Game 1 of the second attempt at ThePerfectStorm. This time, I did the comments as I went instead of all at the end, whereas the first time I took the screenshots and then commented after the game ended. That's how I'll do the rest of them.

This game was very lucky in that I had just about the best hand possible and topdecked well just to rub it in!

I'll continue the challenge in a little while. I'm going to take a break right now.

[aww1979]

The next game... oodles of mana but a little shorter on the card draw. However, it turned out I got enough. The ending was a little anticlimactic with a lucky topdeck, but it was looking pretty good anyway. I just expected it to take a few more screenshots is all.

edit: Game 3, everything was good, but I misplayed (I counted the cabal ritual towards storm but then never actually cast it!) so I left the AI at 2 life and lost the game. A good example of what *not* to do!

[aww1979]

Attempt 3... won the first game. Tried to see just how much damage I could do that game, but when I started getting the errors about how a card might not perform as expected, I whipped out a single tendrils and ended it before anything could happen. The one from Yawgmoth's Will failed due to that, but the one from hand worked and I had 102 life, and had two more tendrils in hand plus the one that didn't work, so I'd have been at roughly 400 life.

Game 2... Proof that you should never give up with this deck :p I thought I was done like dinner, but came through in the end.

Game 3... Turn one kill. I skipped the ending after explaining what to do, but the funny thing was I drew Tendrils off the manamorphose, so it was even easier, as I didn't have to use the grim tutor. The draw could have been anything, though, and tutor/tendrils would have won.

[aww1979]

Attempt 3 Game 4... Watch Demonic Consultation shine! :p

Looking up, it seems that someone downloaded these a few times, so it looks like people are at least somewhat interested. I'll finish the run on this challenge attempt and then call it quits for tonight.

Game 5... Zombies again. I've sure seen a lot of vampires and zombies tonight. Slivers and Merfolk would be the worst matchups for this deck, due to the force of will and daze they use, and I havent seen them once tonight.

Game 6... This was a really interesting one in terms of the plays to choose from. I also saw a couple cards in the AI deck that I didn't know were in that deck... library of alexandria and timetwister.

[aww1979]

Game 7... Defeated turbofog again.

Game 8... Defeated vampires again. Probably could have won a lot earlier than I did, but I played it almost paranoidally safe (is that a word? paranoidally?) and waited until I had drawn a few more cards as insurance.

Game 9... The mirror match! A bit of a pushover, seeing as the AI doesn't know how to play tendrils at all. I'm pretty sure that was the last match, but I didn't actually check, and just quit the game, so if there were 10 in this challenge, I didn't bother with the next one.

Good thing I don't have to work tomorrow...

[sandman423]

Nice Idea thank you, but would it be possible for you make a video with doing the Challenge - The Perfect Storm

What ends up happening to me is I get stuck with either a lot of Cards, but no mana or a TON of Mana but no cards.

[aww1979]

I don't have any software I can do that with, unless magic is using directX, in which case FRAPS should work; I'd just have to download it, since it is free, or at least a demo is. I actually wanted to do it with a video, but the slideshow style was the next best thing.

What you describe though (all mana no cards or all cards no mana) is a tough thing to overcome. You have to design the deck just right and play it very well. The tendrils deck is one of the trickiest to play I've seen, but it is one of the few that will work with The Perfect Storm. Another that could do it (though I consider it a weaker deck than tendrils) is a Goblin Charbelcher deck, where you set up a 20+ damage charbelcher against the opponent, by having few or no lands in the deck. I find it harder to build a good deck with charbelcher, though the skill level in play is about the same.

If you know any free programs that can record what I'm doing off my screen, let me know and I can give it a try.

[grinnin]

I'm probably the stupidest guy around but I somehow figured out how to play tendrils pretty well (can usually go off turn 2 about 9 times in a row in my fav. deck) but I have no clue how to play dredge. Any thoughts on a sequel, oh knowledgeable one?

[aww1979]

Hmm, I haven't played dredge much, but I can probably give it a try. I'm definitely smarter with tendrils than dredge, though, because of the similarity tendrils had to some older decks, like the old academy decks in the Urza's Block. (ugh!)

Designing a dredge deck seems rather tricky, too. I might start the thread with that.

[Gocho]

For those having troubles with tendrils I would advice trying belcher out it's a fair amount simpler and "almost" as good for the challenges.

Sadly you have to unlock it but tendrils will not help you in that challenge.

[stassy]

I put belcher just a bit ahead from dredge in term of difficulty, the win condition only depend on how deep is the land in your library that you pick up (and also on the hardcast of belch) but tendril is way too high for me in term of calculation and on the 1st hand unreliability (though it's pretty rewarding when you can kill the AI in turn 1 )

[aww1979]

I would rank those decks in skill to play as Tendrils=Hardest, Belcher=Tough, and Dredge=Medium. I'd probably rate them in quality as tendrils=best, dredge=middle, belcher=weakest. My belcher decks seem to fizzle quite often, but I don't think I quite have the hang of designing a belcher deck properly just yet. (I seem to be able to play it alright, though)

[Gocho]

I've had good luck with my belcher deck chewing through the challenges as I find the time. My problem with tendrils (and I expect most people who have trouble with the deck) is the all or nothing nature of it. With the win conditions in belcher you can often win with a second activation or much more common twelvish goblin swarm so it tends to be a bit more forgiving.

[stassy]

I suggest using Camstudio 2.0 as video recorder software, it's free and can be used with a decent computer to make ML recording, here is one of mine on a dredge duel, it's ugly but watch-able and done with a 7 years old laptop :

http://rapidshare.com/files/342742739/2.avi.html

It's only 3 mio for 5 min, the end is a bit confusing since some steps are missing from the record (using divx4 codecs) but I think with a recent computer it will be better and most important dredge steps are covered.