This deck has one real goal: Resolve Ad Nauseam. This deck can win as early as turn 2 with a good draw, and can lethal multiple different ways if necessary.
Playing the Deck:
1. Use Tutor: Ramp up a bit. Any tutor for Ad Nauseam is fine. Sidisi is our backup in case we don't have any others. Sac to herself for the exploit. Don't cast most of your 0-cost spells; you will want to save these for storming off with Tendrils later.
2. Cast Ad Nauseam: Doing this during opponent's end step is fine. Draw your entire deck. You may have to leave a few cards in your library if your opponents have a way to force you to draw on the field, such as a Temple Bell.
3. Win: Win with either Sickening Dreams, Tendrils of Agony, or Exsanguinate.
3a. Sickening Dreams: Save your land drop for the turn for a Glacial Chasm to not die. If you couldn't, this method won't work very well.
3b. Tendrils of Agony: There is a pretty good storm package in here. Drop all your 0-cost things, use all of your rituals, cast Tendrils, then Yawgmoth's Will and do it all over again. You will want to playtest this a few times, to make sure you can easily get off lethal with Tendrils.
3c. Exsanguinate: Use your rituals to put out a Skirge Familiar. This card will let you use your entire hand as mana for a gigantic Exsanguinate. The best part about this route is you can still use the Skirge Familiar to power out more spells and try another time.
Protecting your Combo:
- Boseiju, Who Shelters All: An all-star, really. Try to grab this with Expedition Map, no other land is as good as this one when you fear the counterspells.
- Strip Mine: Removes unfriendly Glacial Chasms. Sometimes also removes a problem land, but that is the main one. Exsanguinate and Tendrils both get around this, however.
- Feldon's Cane: Similar to Xiahou in that you use this to attempt your combo again in the rare case of failure, but this one shuffles cards back into the library. Useful to get more uses out of a card before Yawgmoth's Will. Be careful with this one! Check your life total before using Ad Nauseam on yourself again. This card works best if you used the Skirge Familiar route.
- Imp's Mischief: I'm proud of this find. It works similarly to Misdirecting a counterspell; change the target of the counter to Imp's Mischief. Even works on counters that are normally uncounterable, such as Last Word!
Managing your Life Total:
This deck pays a lot of life for its effects. A LOT. If you can help it, try to keep track of the CMC of spells you've used or drawn before Ad Nauseam; the total possible life loss from every card in this deck from drawing off of Ad Nauseum is 36. Keep this in mind, as things such as Mana Crypt, Imp's Mischief and Boseiju all potentially cost life. You can use things such as Zuran Orb to eat some lands in order to use a Boseiju an additional time on Tendrils/Exsanguinate/Sickening Dreams.
Because of the already demanding cost of Ad Nauseam, I've cut cards like Xiahou Dun from the list in order to reduce the impact on the life total.
Changes You Can Make!
If this deck is too expensive or unwieldy for you, you can slim it down by a lot! In fact, you can replace most (if not all) of the cards you don't like with Swamps, and this deck will function essentially the same.
Potential Cuts:
Skirge Familiar/Exsanguinate Combo: Skirge + Exsanguinate is an unnecessary additional win condition that adds a 7 life cost total to Ad Nauseam. Cutting these cards makes plenty of sense, imo. Reducing the impact of Ad Nauseam lets you play around with a higher life total during your combo turn. I personally enjoy Skirge Familiar, but this combo honestly hurts the deck a little.
Mana Crypt/Mox Diamond/City of Traitors: These cards, while bonkers as mana accel, are definitely able to be cut for budget reasons. You can just replace these cards with swamps, and you'll still have access to every win condition in the deck, even Tendrils!
Brainspoil: This card is used as a nearly uncounterable tutor for Ad Nauseam, but it increases the life cost of Ad Nauseum by 5! You can cut this one if you feel unsafe casting Ad Nauseam for so much life.
Potential Adds:
Walking Atlas/Lightning Greaves: Adding these cards in (and removing some other cards to keep the life cost of Ad Nauseam low) will allow you to drop an additional land on your combo turn, such as a Lake of the Dead, Glacial Chasm or Boseiju. Remember! Use Amulet of Vigor before the tapped lands so you can use them immediately!
Forcefield: This guy would be a great addition to use in conjunction with Sickening Dreams! It's very pricey though and I can't dish out for this.
Immortal Coil: The combo of this with Sickening Dreams is awesome! Works similarly to Forcefield, and all of the fodder is provided merely by casting Sickening Dreams!
