Ad Nauseam (Now With Spoiled Fish)

Modern Combo Competitive Creatureless Primer

Baka-Mangaka

Land (20)

• 3x City of Brass
• 1x Clearwater Pathway  ^Flip
• 3x Darkslick Shores
• 4x Gemstone Mine
• 2x Plains
• 3x Seachrome Coast
• 2x Temple of Deceit
• 2x Temple of Enlightenment

Instant (16)

• 4x Ad Nauseam
• 4x Angel's Grace
• 1x Lightning Storm
• 3x Pact of Negation
• 4x Spoils of the Vault

Sorcery (5)

• 4x Serum Visions
• 1x Sleight of Hand

Creature (7)

• 4x Simian Spirit Guide
• 3x Thassa's Oracle

Artifact (8)

• 4x Lotus Bloom
• 4x Pentad Prism

Enchantment (4)

• 4x Phyrexian Unlife

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Sideboard

Instant (8)

• 1x Echoing Truth
• 1x Mystical Dispute
• 2x Path to Exile
• 1x Spell Pierce
• 2x Veil of Summer
• 1x Wear / Tear

Sorcery (3)

• 1x Bontu's Last Reckoning
• 2x Thoughtseize

Enchantment (4)

• 4x Leyline of Sanctity

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Maybeboard

Instant (5)

• 1x Desperate Ritual
• 1x Echoing Truth
• 1x Electrodominance
• 1x Silence
• 1x Veil of Summer

Creature (3)

• 1x Grave Titan
• 1x Laboratory Maniac
• 1x Sphinx of the Final Word

Sorcery (2)

• 1x Bontu's Last Reckoning
• 1x Scheming Symmetry

Planeswalker (2)

• 1x Chandra, Awakened Inferno
• 1x Jace, Wielder of Mysteries

Artifact (1)

• 1x Wishclaw Talisman

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This is just a quick breakdown of my favourite deck to play in modern, and one that I will continually test out weird cards for, from Desperate Ritual, to Scheming Symmetry and Wishclaw Talisman. I will continually add revisions to the deck as I see fit, and potentially expand on this small primer that I have written up so far.

Game Plan and The Deck

Ad Nauseam is a combo deck that wins the game by playing a two-card combo with Ad Nauseam and either Angel's Grace or Phyrexian Unlife. The latter cards do help us not to lose the game for being at negative life total. You then proceed to draw the whole deck with Ad Nauseam, and pay every cards' casting cost with life so the deck will always put you to a negative life total. From there, there are 2 outs with the deck: exiling three Simian Spirit Guide and casting Lightning Storm and discarding sufficient lands to have a lethal damage. They may respond by trying to redirect Lightning Storm or gain some life, but you can simply discard more lands or cast Pact of Negation in response to whatever it is your opponent is trying to resolve. This kill should work most of the time, but won’t work if they have too much life or too many lands. This kill also works at instant speed.

The other win condition is with the new Thassa's Oracle from Theros Beyond Death, you're able to cast it arguably much more easily than Jace, Wielder of Mysteries or Laboratory Maniac since it's less costly. The best thing about the card is you do not need to cantrip or activate any abilities that draw cards, since your win runs off it's ETB effect, and even if it dies in response to the ability resolving, you still win the game on an empty library. So the combo costs UUWB and involves Thassa's Oracle, Spoils of the Vault and Angel's Grace. The idea is that you either hold an Oracle in hand, or have it scryed to the bottom of your library, you cast a Spoils, and in response, resolve an Angel's Grace. from there, you play the fish, scry equal to your devotion to blue, and since your library is empty, you should always win the game.

To this day, Ad Nauseam has always been one of my favourite modern decks, after having tried Restore Balance and Eldrazi & Taxes. It's always been amazing to play out a kill at instant speed, and to stay alive almost indefinitely with the deck's plethora of tools.

Sideboarding

I generally tend to sideboard based on the hate cards I see depending on the particular match-up that I'm against. Your mileage may vary, and this is only intended as a loose guide. I've also included a sideboard guide for the most evergreen decks in modern (minus affinity, may that rest in peace), since decks like Golgari Yawgmoth may not stick around in the meta for too long.

Abzan/Jund (Unfavorable) Show

Although Abzan isn't as prevalent in the format as it once used to be, a lot of people still play Jund decks, especially after having it revived by Wrenn and Six. The sideboarding for both decks are fairly similar, but the different decks may carry different hate cards. You're most concerned about the multitude of hand attack spells both decks carry, and the less disruption they have on your combo, the easier it is to win.

• OUT: 3 Pact of Negation, 2 Sleight of Hand, 2 Pentad Prism, 1Phyrexian Unlife

• IN: 4 Leyline of Sanctity, 4 Veil of Summer

Amulet Titan (Unfavourable) Show

Amulet Titan is honestly quite a tricky match-up to be up against, since they have access to countermagic and both ways to disrupt ways to set up the combo. Bringing in Thoughtseize to strip them of any combo pieces seems very good here. The deck is generally quite fast too, so I'm not 100% sure about the inclusion of Sphinx of the Final Word

• OUT: 4 Lotus Bloom, 2 Sleight of Hand

• IN: 1 Echoing Truth, 2 Thoughtseize, 2 Path to Exile. 1 Sphinx of the Final Word

Burn (Favourable) Show

Burn is a super good match-up for Ad Nauseam, since during Game 1 you win most of the time by having access to Angel's Grace and Phyrexian Unlife. Post-sideboard, when you bring in Leylines and such, the game becomes an uphill battle for them, since they're an ultra-tempo deck.

• OUT: 3 Pact of Negation, 1 Sleight of Hand, 1 Pentad Prism

• IN: 4 Leyline of Sanctity, 1 Echoing Truth/ 1 Bontu's Last Reckoning

Control (Fairly Favourable) Show

Just be prepared to play for the looooong game. Don't be afraid to go to time.

• OUT: 4 Lotus Bloom, 2 Serum Visions, 1 Phyrexian Unlife, 1 Spoils of the Vault

• IN: 4 Veil of Summer, 1 Echoing Truth, 2 Thoughtseize, 1 Sphinx of the Final Word

Dredge (Quite Favourable) Show

Traditionally, Dredge has never been much of an issue for Ad Nauseam. They will want to still win with either a Conflagrate so just bring in Leylines and most of the deck should be easy to beat. Leyline also stops any incidental hand attack spells they may want to run post-sideboard.

• OUT: 3 Pact of Negation, 1 Phyrexian Unlife

• IN: 4 Leyline of Sanctity

Grixis Death's Shadow (Unfavourable) Show

Game is hard. Death's Shadow is a tricky deck to be up against, since they keep up pressure in the form of a big Shadow, and being in Grixis colours gives them access to hand attack spells, countermagic... the list goes on. I think what you bring in post-sideboard is enough to give the deck a fighting chance, but if you don't see any of those pieces, it's probably a lost cause.

• OUT: 2 Phyrexian Unlife, 4 Lotus Bloom, 1 Sleight of Hand, 1 Serum Visions, 1 Pact of Negation

• IN: 4 Leyline of Sanctity, 4 Veil of Summer, 1Echoing Truth

Humans (Very Unfavourable) Show

Game is very hard. Humans has access to every toolbox effect under the sun. Meddling Mage? Check. Kitesail Freebooter? Check. Thalia, Guardian of Thraben? Check. Bontu's Last Reckoning is good here since it dodges a potential Gaddock Teeg, which they'll most likely bring in Game 2. Most of the other sideboard cards don't specifically answer humans, they're just there to play damage control with.

• OUT: 3 Pact of Negation, 1 Sleight of Hand, 2 Lotus Bloom

• In: 1 Bontu's Last Reckoning, 1 Echoing Truth, 2 Path to Exile, 2 Thoughtseize

Infect (Almost Unwinnable) Show

Remember what I said about the game being hard? Take that, and multiply it by 100. This matchup is horrible. They have a fast clock, your protection does nothing, and they have counters and artifact/enchantment hate. You need to pray that they flop a turn 1 Glistener Elf, or that they don't have a turn 2 kill, or that you manage to counter a lethal pump spell in order to secure a win.

• OUT: 3 Phyrexian Unlife, 2 Lotus Bloom

• IN: 2 Path to Exile, 1 Echoing Truth, 2 Thoughtseize

Storm Variants (Favourable) Show

I feel that storm is 50/50 in terms of being able to win. They're a combo deck, you're a combo deck. Go figure! I'm inclined to bring Leyline of Sanctity in here, since it not only prevents Grapeshot from hitting us, but also prevent Gifts Ungiven from targeting an opponent, provided they're playing Gifts Storm of course.

• OUT: 2 Phyrexian Unlife, 2 Sleight of Hand, 1 Lotus Bloom

• IN: 4 Leyline of Sanctity, 1 Echoing Truth

Taxes Variants (Very Unfavourable) Show

I think Taxes is very much an uphill battle for Ad Nauseam. Most of the sideboard options are there to play damage control with, rather than making up a solid answer against their hate pieces. I may be tempted to side in Sphinx of the Final Word here, since they're very likely to remove all of their spot removal, and aside from Flickerwisp, they don't have much in the way of fliers. This matchup may just come to blows.

• OUT: 4 Lotus Bloom, 2 Pact of Negation

• IN: 1 Bontu's Last Reckoning, 1 Echoing Truth, 2 Thoughtseize, 2 Path to Exile

Titanshift Variants (Fairly Favourable) Show

Titan without Amulet is like a hot dog without the dog. I think this match up is pretty good for Ad Nauseam, and even though Titanshift decks may have gotten a little faster over the past few months, it's not exactly a terrible time.

• OUT: 3 Pact of Negation, 1 Sleight of Hand, 1 Phyrexian Unlife, 2 Pentad Prism

• IN: 4 Leyline of Sanctity, 2 Path to Exile, 1 Echoing Truth

Tron (Fairly Favourable?) Show

Even though Karn, the Great Creator and the wishboard list is a very difficult line of play to come up against, I feel like stripping it with an early Thoughtseize, holding countermagic, or just waiting to play out enough lands is probably enough to beat it out. I've lost to Tron as often as I have beaten it, and honestly, it's down to how quickly they resolve Karn, the Great Creator and lay out their threats.

• OUT: 3 Pact of Negation

• In: 1 Echoing Truth, 2 Thoughtseize

THE MIRROR Show

Ah yes, the infamous mirror match. Honestly, I'm not sure what I would bring in against the mirror. Both players would want to side in Echoing Truth to bounce artifacts. Maybe Leyline of Sanctity could be useful here? I think above all, it depends on the individual build, and the maindeck seems to have the answers for the mirror match anyway.

Card Choices

Since this is a relatively stock-looking list for modern Ad Nauseam, instead of walking through individual card choices, it's probably better to use this space to explain the varying consistencies of cards in my deck. There is currently one of each basic because I think with Death's Shadow and Titan decks becoming more popular, Blood Moon will also rise in sideboard popularity. Alongside that, Field of Ruin is still an all-star in this format, so having a few basic lands to tutor with that is very useful. To sacrifice some room for a Swamp, the deck is running 3 copies of City of Brass as opposed to a full playset. Obviously, some testing is needed to check if this is good enough to be able to afford the potential UUWB Thassa's Oracle, Spoils of the Vault and Angel's Grace combo, but I'm fairly confident that there are enough sources that can generate rainbow mana for it not to matter too much.

The other topic of debate is my choice to run a single copy of Thassa's Oracle over 2,3 or even 4. Firstly, I think I would like to try out running just one copy replacing the previous Jace, Wielder of Mysteries as a secondary win condition first. And while having multiples of the fish makes this combo line very reliable to win with, it also takes away from the spirit of the deck and it's namesake card I feel. On top of that, while the combo with Oracle is quicker to assemble, it's also worth bearing in mind that it cannot be carried out at instant speed, whereas Ad Nauseam and Angel's Grace are both instants. There's also a lot of power behind that line of play, but with T3feri being a card that exists, it makes it harder to win at instant speed. I think it's ultimately down to the player, but ever since picking up Ad Nauseam, I've been used to winning on my opponent's turns, and I would like to continue to keep it that way.

Final Thoughts

So moving forward, this is the deck I'll be running for the time being. I have made some changes, some of which aren't worth making constant updates for. I think the argument to run >1 Oracle is still quite flimsy. I don't think it's worth sacrificing the main gameplan for a secondary win condition. It will need testing for sure however. But maybe Oracle will find a deck of its own? Ultimately, Silence also goes since Veil of Summer does the kind of things I want Silence to do, and it's better performing in an unknown meta. So with that, a 0 mana counterspell (Pact of Negation) works out better in the mainboard. Pact of Negation is a good insurance against counterspells and anything else that might stop the combo from resolving. The neat thing to do with Pact is casting an Angel's Grace in your next upkeep to avoid paying the hefty Pact cost.

Also, a small note. Since the new win condition matches up so well with both Ad Nauseam and Spoils especially, I started off by reducing the number of scry lands in the mana base, and maybe if I do add more Oracles in future, cards like Sleight of Hand can always be cut.

This deck is ultimately going to be very similar to other lists online, and is very close to the original stock list, but these are the numbers and varying consistencies of cards in my deck. The mana base is probably where the numbers differ the most, and I've found pretty good success with it. There are a few pet cards in the sideboard, namely Sphinx of the Final Word. Having a big beater once your opponent has sided out all spot removal is pretty good!

Top Ranked	Achieved #41 position overall 4 years ago Achieved #4 position in Modern 4 years ago Achieved #1 position in Modern Combo 4 years ago Achieved #1 position in Modern Competitive 4 years ago
Date added	5 years
Last updated	3 years
Legality	This deck is not Modern legal.
Rarity (main - side)	44 - 9 Rares 5 - 4 Uncommons 9 - 2 Commons
Cards	60
Avg. CMC	2.06
Folders	Reference, Decks to cry over, Modern Decks, Favorite Modern Decks, My Favourite Modern Decks