From roughly August 2 to August 9, Daniel D’Amato played about ninety matches of ANT with this list:
damatoexp's ANT
| Action (4) 1 Ad Nauseam 1 Past in Flames 1 Tendrils of Agony 1 Empty the Warrens Search (5) 4 Infernal Tutor 1 Dark Petition Interaction (8) 4 Duress 4 Thoughtseize Cantrips (12) 4 Brainstorm 4 Ponder 4 Preordain Mana (16) 4 Dark Ritual 4 Cabal Ritual 4 Lion’s Eye Diamond 4 Lotus Petal | Lands (15) 4 Polluted Delta 4 Misty Rainforest 1 Island 1 Swamp 1 Bayou 2 Underground Sea 1 Tropical Island 1 Volcanic Island Sideboard (15) 2 Chain of Vapor 1 Massacre 2 Echoing Truth 1 Carpet of Flowers 1 Xantid Swarm 1 Tormod’s Crypt 2 Veil of Summer 3 Abrupt Decay 2 Flusterstorm |
Daniel seemed happy with his list which is quite stock, only trading in one of the main Past in Flames for an Empty the Warrens, which opened up a sideboard slot for Tormod’s Crypt. With Chalice decks fairly low right now, (Only about eight of the matches.) Hurkyl’s Recall can safely be replaced with Carpet of Flowers and another Abrupt Decay to help with Delver and other Wasteland matchups.
Let’s take a look at data.
| Opponent | Matches | Wins | Losses | Win Rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| RUG Delver | 15 | 11 | 4 | 73.33% |
| Goblins | 6 | 6 | 0 | 100.00% |
| TES | 6 | 4 | 2 | 66.67% |
| Mono Blue Echo Stompy | 5 | 1 | 4 | 20.00% |
| Depths | 4 | 3 | 1 | 75.00% |
| Lands | 4 | 2 | 2 | 50.00% |
| Elves | 3 | 1 | 2 | 33.33% |
| Sneak and Show | 3 | 1 | 2 | 33.33% |
| ANT | 2 | 1 | 1 | 50.00% |
| BR Reanimator | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0.00% |
| Cloudpost | 2 | 1 | 1 | 50.00% |
| Doomsday | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0.00% |
| GW Maverick | 2 | 1 | 1 | 50.00% |
| Hogaak | 2 | 2 | 0 | 100.00% |
| Moon Stompy | 2 | 1 | 1 | 50.00% |
| Poke Pile | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0.00% |
| Ruby Storm | 2 | 2 | 0 | 100.00% |
| Sharkstill | 2 | 1 | 1 | 50.00% |
| UW Miracles | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0.00% |
| 4c Loam | 1 | 1 | 0 | 100.00% |
| 4c Snow | 1 | 1 | 0 | 100.00% |
| Aluren | 1 | 1 | 0 | 100.00% |
| Blazing Infect | 1 | 1 | 0 | 100.00% |
| Burn | 1 | 1 | 0 | 100.00% |
| Deathshadow | 1 | 1 | 0 | 100.00% |
| Eldrazi | 1 | 1 | 0 | 100.00% |
| Esper Vial | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0.00% |
| Grixis Control | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0.00% |
| Grixis Delver | 1 | 1 | 0 | 100.00% |
| Mono White Stompy | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0.00% |
| Painter | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0.00% |
| Phoenix | 1 | 1 | 0 | 100.00% |
| Pox | 1 | 1 | 0 | 100.00% |
| Slivers | 1 | 1 | 0 | 100.00% |
| Sultai Control | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0.00% |
| Sultai Snow | 1 | 1 | 0 | 100.00% |
| Sylvan Plug | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0.00% |
| Titan Stompy | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0.00% |
| UB Ninjas | 1 | 1 | 0 | 100.00% |
| UW Omnitell | 1 | 1 | 0 | 100.00% |
| Overall | 89 | 52 | 37 | 58.43% |
That’s a lot of data. But what can we glean from it?
- Variety. There were forty different matchup over this week. Legacy might not be as homogenized as we may fear.
- Except for RUG Delver. There’s a lot of RUG Delver right now, and it’s not that bad of a matchup (73.33% win record).
- Chalice decks are hard. It’s always been a truth of playing ANT.
- ANT is better than TES. (Just kidding, Bryant. Don’t hurt me.) However, the combo matchups seems fairly good for ANT. Doomsday, Elves and Echo Stompy (which runs Narset) seemed to be the difficult ones.
- Pox still sucks. (Kidding. Keep it up, you crazy Pox Players. Much love.)
I’d love to see more data on matchups, particularly Esper Vial, Aluren, and Sharkstill, which seem to have increased as of late. The worrisome one is Poke Pile, also known as "Delverless RUG", which is a "good stuff" RUG deck aiming to take down the abundant RUG Delver matchups.
It should go without saying that Daniel is a very good ANT player and 90 matches isn’t everything. But as always with any combo deck, practice and a plan go a long way.