The basic idea:
Cast Ad Nauseam as fast as possible, (T3 if you're lucky).
Your entire deck after you cast Ad Nauseam cost a maximum of 17...
...Cast most everything in your deck at once and use Mox Opal > Mox Opal > Grapeshot as a wincon..................
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Sigh *
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I mean Zurgo Bellstriker -> Mox Amber -> Mox Amber -> Grapeshot... Yay -_-
We are really missing a 1-cost blue legend so we can play Thassa's Oracle...
Being a "One Card Combo" the deck is pretty consistent in a vacuum. However, the more damage you take, the more inconsistent it gets.
If you have 18+ life, you can go off no sweat, but anything less and you're in danger.
Therefore this deck is gonna have a bad matchup against most aggro decks
Our way of combatting this, is playing with a ridiculous amount of Lifelands, as well as Chalice of the Void.
We have 2 alternative win-cons, but they're dumb. Stonecoil Serpent can be a huge threat, way too early. It's normally meant to block, but it can become an attacker if you somehow can't combo. I have won games with it before, but it's an unlikely event. (Like Sigil of Distinction is Cheeri0s, but worse.) Other than that there is Walking Ballista, which, though smaller, has the added benefit of getting passed Ensnaring Bridge and killing trouble creatures, like Thalia, Guardian of Thraben.
Sideboarding:
So the first game is over, and our ridiculous game plan either somehow worked once, and our opponent now knows exactly what we're up to. Or it didn't work at all, and the person in front of us probably has no clue whats going on, except for the fact that we play an artifact deck.
If we lost, (in all likelyhood the case), all we have to do is consider which cards are good against our opponent and be mentally ready for Stony Silence, and ofc. Be on the play.
Pretty simple. We have Tormod's Crypt vs. grave-decks, Pact of Negation and Boseiju, Who Shelters All vs. Counter Heavy decks. And Slaughter Pact against trouble creatures.
Also, about that Stony Silence. Since we are on the play in this scenario, our best bet is to win before they hit it, (and hoping they don't mull after it), but it doesn't hurt to be prepared for a long game against that card as well. Be ready to first go off T7-8 from time to time. Other than that, we'll add Repeal.
If, on the other hand, we won game one, we have to also consider what our opponent could board in against us, and know that we'll be on the draw.
Zombie Infestation (+ Mass Hysteria in some cases) is our anti-Leyline strategy. It replaces our targeting Grapeshot so that we don't have to worry about the pesky enchantment. Note that this doesn't work against cards such as Slaughter Games and Nevermore because they are always gonna name Ad Nauseam... Great tech, right... Auible sniff *... Yeah, well it's gone... No opal = No alternative win-con. Again. We're really missing a blue 1-cost legend, so we can play Thassa's Oracle.
Slaughter Pact is "still" there for Thalia, Guardian of Thraben, Gaddock Teeg, Collector Ouphe, and both spell hatin' eidolons.
