Yeah, this is rough. I had been working on the deck for something like three months at this point and up until the event i played this list in, always ran with four Tendrils main and an Infernal Tutor / Ad Nauseam / Chrome Mox package in the sideboard. I did try out new things every time i took the deck to tournaments though, so this time around, i was going to try a Burning Wish + Doomsday package.
I hated Doomsday, but i liked Burning Wish. Meditate was a card that i had played once or twice before incorporating Doomsday and i figured it was not as risky a card to run maindeck as Ideas Unbound. I never used Meditate and not having access to Ideas Unbound cost me game three in a match against Lands. I won a game with turn one Shelldock → Emrakul against Nic Fit of all decks though. I don’t think i cast Doomsday in any other games. There never were any good opportunities as it simply didn’t fit the deck’s needs very well.
The deck was naturally well set up to beat Stoneblade, Canadian Threshold and Maverick, which were the most popular decks at the time by a wide margin. What Grinding Station was lacking was a fast mode against decks like Dredge, Lands or Storm opponents. I wasn’t sure before the tournament, but i learned that Doomsday was no fast mode.
Burning Wish replacing the maindeck Empty, Grapeshot and the fourth Tendrils from my earlier lists was pretty good though and i stuck with that choice until i abandoned the deck alltogether after Avacyn Restored’s release.
One thing that i find noteworthy is how often i changed up the deck’s manabase – i always played at least one Island, two Underground Seas, four copies each of Polluted Delta and Scalding Tarn and at least one red dual. But the remaining three land slots have been filled with pretty much any possible combination of another blue fetchland, Bloodstained Mire, another red source (i’m fairly sure there was a mountain in there at some point), the second Island, basic Swamp (which i didn’t always play) and a third Underground Sea.
The maindeck spells did not change much after this tournament – i ended up cutting the third Thoughtseize for Duress and dropped Meditate to make room for the eleventh ritual or tenth cantrip.
theweeklywars 