I. Introduction
Team Meandeck recently developed a devastatingly fast Type One Tendrils of Agony deck and it got me thinking, could this deck be viable in Extended? Why not? Every other deck seems to have a decent shot at winning in that format. But what about Online Extended? Couldn't be good...or could it? I made it my mission to find out. After hours of play testing and tweaking, I would like to present you with a guide to an exciting new Online Extended deck along with a Premiere Event tournament report (Top 4).

Before presenting my adapted version of the deck, I would like to give credit to Team Meandeck for developing Meandeck Tendrils on which my list is based. I would recommend reading the excellent articles written by Stephen Menendian and Justin Walters if you have not already because they will explain many of the intricacies involved in correctly building and playing the deck. Now while this deck is nowhere near as fast as Meandeck Tendrils - in fact it generally goes off on turn 4 - it is extremely consistent, and since you don't have to kill people on turn one in Online Extended, you generally will have a chance in most matches.

Online Extended Tendrils
Mana/Acceleration/Fixing:
4 Polluted Delta
4 Island
3 Swamp
2 Underground River
3 Chrome Mox
4 Cabal Ritual
4 Seething Song
4 Chromatic Sphere
4 Darkwater Egg
4 Shadowblood Egg

Manipulation/Card Draw:
4 Serum Visions
4 Sleight of Hand
4 Spoils of the Vault
4 Night's Whisper
4 Words of Wisdom

Win:
4 Tendrils of Agony

Sideboard:
4 Duress
4 Engineered Plague
3 Furnace Dragon
2 Psychatog
2 Burning Wish

II. Card Choices
The goal is quite simple; cast nine spells and then play a lethal Tendrils of Agony for the win. Actually achieving the goal however, is not that simple. In fact much like Meandeck Tendrils, games you play will be filled with several crucial decisions each of which can make or break you. Luckily for you this deck is very redundant and turns play out very similarly over the course of many games. Lets review the card choices.

13 lands and 3 Chrome Mox makes up the mana base which is particularly light, mainly because you seldom want to draw more than three of these mana sources. You only need three mana sources on the board to execute your combo, sometimes two! Most of the spells in the deck are cantrips since you want to get a large enough storm count for the kill.

Serum Visions/Sleight of Hand/Night's Whisper:
These cards are crucial to finding additional lands since your opening draw will often contain only one or two. They also assist in setting up your hand and helping with threshold for your Cabal Rituals. These are cheap and effective methods of manipulation ensure you draw the combo pieces before it's too late.

Chromatic Sphere/Darkwater Egg/Shadowblood Egg:
These are primarily used to fix the mana and allow you to cast Seething Song and draw cards.

Cabal Ritual/Seething Song:
These cards are extremely crucial to going off, in fact without them you just plain can't. By accelerating the decks mana into the stratosphere you will be able to cast the necessary 10 spells in a single turn.

Words of Wisdom
I separated this from the rest of the card drawing because it merits a more lengthy explanation. Words of Wisdom was proposed to me by Gotikiller (an avid Online Extended player who assisted me in tuning an early version of the deck). These basically serve as Night's Whisper 5-8 with a different drawback. For the most part giving your opponent a free card is sometimes negligible since it will often be during their end of turn step and they will never get the chance to use it. The redundancy on Night's Whisper is why this makes the cut. Menendian explains in his article that "Decks that want to significantly impact the game on turn 1 or 2 are heavily reliant upon their opening hand. As a result, deck construction, not fixers, is the first step toward consistency. Such decks need to follow the "7-9" rule to be consistent. What this means is that you need a multiple of seven to nine copies of any critical effect. Most combo decks follow this scheme..." This deck is extremely hungry for extra cards because of the need for a high storm count, making Words of Wisdom a good fit.

Spoils of the Vault
This card often comes under heavy fire from opponents. People often ask me "Why do you play that card, doesn't it kill you?" My answer is quite simple. Any game in which Spoils of the Vault kills you is a game you would have lost anyway. This is because failing to draw a key card for your combo is tantamount to losing assuming you play Spoils of the Vault correctly. This card was won far more games for me than it has lost. Compared to other tutoring available in online extended this is easily the most cost effective, which is quite important in this deck, not to mention it counts as Storm 2. This card will frequently find you the missing piece of the combo, and as you become accustomed to using the card you will see how it can win you games you could not have possibly won. It is extremely useful in helping the deck follow the 7-9 rule since it often serves as Tendrils of Agony, Cabal Ritual, or Seething Song 5-8.

Duress
To state the obvious, this is useful against other combo decks such as Mind's Desire and Cephalid Breakfast (yes it is actually good online too). It can also help against permission based decks.

Furnace Dragon
No, they didn't ban Affinity in Extended.

Engineered Plague
Helps keeps those little Green men under control, somewhat. I would come to find out that this is not the optimal sideboard card against Goblins, more on that later.

Psychatog
This can come in against control decks that may not be expecting you to play creatures. It is also an alternate win condition against decks packing Cranial Extraction. I was never quite satisfied with this card, and it should be replaced by something else.

Burning Wish
This is strictly for decks packing Cranial Extraction. You have three outs against that card, this is one, Duress is another, and killing them before they cast it is usually the best way to go. It's always good to have options.

III. Matchups
Some common matchups you will find in an Online Extended tournament are Goblins (splashing either Black for disruption, or Green for Naturalize), Affinity, R/G beats, Tooth and Nail and Rock. Each matchup is very winnable but you must understand what your specific strategy is against each one.

Goblins
Mono Red or R/g Goblins are both favorable matchups since they don't feature any disruption. It's usually a good old-fashioned race that they cannot win barring any insane draws. Against Mono Red or R/g Goblins you don't have to sideboard at all. R/b Goblins on the other hand is much trickier if they draw Cabal Therapy, in fact that card can single handedly sway the outcome of a game. For those versions you should do this.

OUT: 1 Spoils of the Vault, 1 Chrome Mox, 1 Darkwater Egg, 1 Words of Wisdom
IN: 4 Engineered Plague

Note: If you suspect Cranial Extractions, bring in 2 Burning Wish for a Tendrils of Agony and a Night's Whisper.

Games 2 and 3 they know what you are up to they may have brought in Duress and Cranial Extraction to disrupt your combo. Your goal now is to slow them down with Plague then combo them out.

Affinity
Game one is a coin flip since they can win just as fast as you. If they have spent 38293 tix to play the Canali version that features Meddling Mage, you are in trouble. Usually you can race as long as they don't get the God draw.

OUT: 1 Spoils of the Vault, 1 Words of Wisdom, 1 Darkwater Egg
IN: 3 Furnace Dragon

Now you have two options, combo or dragon. Depending on how your opponent plays you will have to choose one or the other. If they start over committing to try for a quick kill before you combo them out, just wreck them with Furnace Dragon. If they try to play around Furnace Dragon wrecking them, then just combo them out. If they are packing Cabal Therapy you may have a rough time, just hope they don't draw it. A lot of the versions I have seen tend to be more towards the aggro side with Shrapnel Blast and Ornithopter. You are a lot better off against these players.

Rock
Get ready for a loooong match. They will rip apart your hand. Next, you will recover. The problem Rock has is that it often can't seal the deal. They don't put enough pressure on you thus giving you time to recover from all the discard and win. Be patient, but don't get greedy. You want to build up a hand that can win, but you don't want to let them draw into more discard. It's a fine line but after a few matches you will understand when to go off and when to wait a turn or two.

OUT: 1 Spoils of the Vault, 1 Tendrils of Agony
IN: 2 Burning Wish

Well, you need way around Extraction and this is it. Just be careful not to wish for Tendrils until the turn you are going to kill them.

R/G Beats and Tooth and Nail:
I have grouped these together because they are your most favorable matchups and there is not much of an explanation needed. Neither deck has disruption or the capability to race you. You hope to face these guys in any given round. Don't side anything in against R/G but bring in 4 Duress against T&N and take out 1 Spoils of the Vault, 1 Chrome Mox, 1 Darkwater Egg, 1 Words of Wisdom. You don't want to be on the wrong side of a Mindslaver...they might cast Spoils for, well, the win.

Other decks you might face will fall into the three main categories of combo, control and beatdown. You should easily race other beatdown decks like U/G Madness or Threshold, White Weenie, or Red Deck Wins since they don't have access to disruption like Goblins and Affinity (U/G has circular logic so bring in Duress). Other combo decks are not as consistently fast as you and after boarding you have the distinct advantage with 4 Duress. Control decks that have a lot of permission spells will likely beat you. You can bring in Duress and pray but for the most part they will counter your mana acceleration and you will lose.

IV. Premiere Events Tournament Report
So after thorough testing in the practice room I decided to take the deck to a premiere event and see if I could hold my own. It was a small tournament with 5 rounds cutting to Top 8.

Round 1 vs. Psychatog
As I had mentioned before, permission is this deck's worst enemy. These are not the good old days when you had Duress and Force of Will to make sure your combo went off. Over the first few turns he does the usual land go thing and I play cantrips trying to sculpt the perfect hand to go off through his permission. He has four land in play and I figure he can counter twice at best. I have double Cabal Ritual, Seething Song and other assorted goodies, and decide if he only has one counter that I will be able to go off and if he has two then I will just go off again next turn. It turns out that he either had no counters, or just decided not to counter my Rituals because I cast nine spells and then Tendrils him for the win without any responses.

In: 4 Duress
Out: 1 Chrome Mox 1 Darkwater Egg 1 Spoils of the Vault 1 Words of Wisdom

Game two seems like much of the same but when I Duress him I find out that it is actually quite different as I see four counters and a couple of Togs grinning back at me. I take a counter and figure that my only shot is to Duress him again, then bait him with a Cabal Ritual, then go off. He laid his Tog the next turn and passed. I Duress to see that he has drawn yet another counter, then his Tog finishes me off the next turn with exactly enough damage. Game 3 I go first and start setting up my hand. He plays a Compulsion allowing me to fire off a Duress which takes his only counter. I figure I have to try to go off next turn and just hope he does not draw a counter or Compulsion into one. He doesn't.

1-0, 2-1

Round 2 vs. R/G/b Beats
This is one of my favorite matchups since their deck just is not fast enough to race you. Unfortunately for me this guy was splashing Black for Duress and that could give him the time he needed to finish me off. Game 1 was a typical turn 4 victory. Game 2 I go off on turn 4 but only hit him for 18. Luckily for me I drew another Tendrils of Agony the next turn.

2-0, 4-1

Round 3 vs. R/b Goblins
Well here is a matchup is very dependent on their draw. Sometimes it's as simple as Therapy or no? In this particular match it would be Cabal Therapy again and again. I win game one as he does not draw Cabal Therapy. Game 2 I bring in Engineered Plague, but he has Dralnu's Crusade to answer, and I can't finish him off in time. Game 3 I make the critical mistake of not attempting to go off when he taps out for Goblin Warchief. I should have attempted because it was my best shot at winning, since if he untaps chances are that he will do something nasty. I decide that unless he has double Goblin Piledriver or Cabal Therapy I will get another turn to go off. He has Cabal Therapy to decimates my hand plus Goblin Piledriver to make sure I don't have enough time to recover.

2-1, 5-3

Round 4 vs. R/G Beats
How lucky to face my best matchup in a critical round. Game one he gets mana screwed but I don't know that it would have mattered. Game 2 is over on my 4th turn and I have the best tiebreaker of the 3-1's so I figure I may be able to draw in.

3-1, 7-3

Round 5 vs. Affinity
Draw

3-1-1, 7-3-1

Top 8
Mono Red Goblins
R/G Land Destruction
2 Affinity
R/b Goblins
Tendrils.dec
Ponza
Red Rock

Round 6 vs. R/G LD
Well this is not a matchup I am looking forward to seeing that I only play 13 lands. My plan is to hold a land and Chrome Mox then once I have threshold and probably no permanents in play, go land, Chrome Mox, Cabal Ritual etc. His draw is rather slow and he kills one land then I go off the following turn. Game 2 is much of the same as he doesn't have the second turn LD but turn 3 and 4 he blows up my lands. Then I untap (nothing), play land, Chrome Mox, Cabal Ritual and you know the rest.

4-1-1, 9-3

Round 7 vs. Mono Red Goblins
Now this matchup should be in my favor since there will be no Therapies involved, but I sometimes forget that goblins can go turn 2 Goblin Warchief, turn 3 double Goblin Piledriver, guy attack for 17. Game one went my way with little opposition, but game 2 he got the God draw and mauled me.

So it all came down to game three and my opening grip is: Spoils, 2 Seething Song, Cabal Ritual, Island, Chromatic Sphere, Words of Wisdom, which to the untrained eye looks like complete garbage. I take about five good minutes going through the possibilities in my head and decide that there are about 23 cards I can draw to help me pull through into more mana and an easy win. Worst comes to worst I can Spoils of the Vault on turn 2 for a Polluted Delta and hope not to lose too much life. It turned out that I should have had a bit more faith in my decks mulliganing capabilities. He had sided in Overload and took out my turn 1 Chromatic Sphere, dashing my hopes of winning. I didn't peel land, Chrome Mox, Sleight of Hand, or Serum Visions until turn 3 by which time he was bashing my head in. I finally drew a Chrome Mox off of a Sleight of Hand but it was a turn too late. Had he not blown up my Sphere I would have gone off without incident on turn 4 - oh well, live and learn.

4-2-1, 10-5

V. Tweaking the Deck
Overall I was happy with the deck's performance. My two questionable calls cost me matches that I could have otherwise won. As for changes to the deck I would suggest taking out the Engineered Plagues as they are far to slow against Goblins and they often answer it with discard or Dralnu's Crusade. I would suggest a shoring up this matchup (and others) with Ghastly Demise. Goblins is similar to a combo deck in that it needs a few specific cards to beat you, usually some combination of Goblin Warchief, Goblin Matron, and/or Goblin Piledriver plus Cabal Therapy. Ghastly Demise allows you to pick off a crucial part of their damage engine while only costing you one black so it doesn't slow you down. It also incidentally deals with Meddling Mage, Platinum Angel, True Believer, Cephalid Illusionist and other annoying critters. Psychatog can also be removed for a third Burning Wish and a Mountain. The Furnace Dragons are somewhat slow against Affinity when you don't draw seething song with them they are dead weight. Overload would be a good replacement since it can often buy you the extra turn or two you need against them.

As for the maindeck, I would also like to replace two Swamps and an Island with two copies of Bloodstained Mire and a Mountain. Not only to have more access to Red mana, but also to increase your odds on getting threshold and decrease your odds of drawing more than three or four land throughout the game. I could even see changing an Underground River into City of Brass (or Shivan Reef), but this would need further testing.

There is still a lot of room for improvement and I believe there deck could easily change by four or five cards, but only time and testing will tell. If I had to play the deck in another event I would run this:

Online Extended Tendrils v2
Mana/Acceleration/Fixing:
4 Polluted Delta
2 Bloodstained Mire
3 Island
1 Mountain
1 Swamp
2 Underground River
3 Chrome Mox
4 Cabal Ritual
4 Seething Song
4 Chromatic Sphere
4 Darkwater Egg
4 Shadowblood Egg

Manipulation/Card Draw:
4 Serum Visions
4 Sleight of Hand
4 Spoils of the Vault
4 Night's Whisper
4 Words of Wisdom

Win:
4 Tendrils of Agony

Sideboard:
4 Duress
4 Ghastly Demise
3 Overload
1 Mountain
3 Burning Wish

A final word about the deck: If you are going to play this in a tournament, make sure you have practiced quite a bit. You need to be very familiar with this deck to have any chance of winning. A single mistake can often be extremely subtle yet extremely costly so beware, you are your own worst enemy (or maybe Cabal Therapy is; I'm not sure). Once you understand how the deck works it's a blast to play and you will enjoy watching a baffled opponent complain about losing to a deck with eggs and Words of Wisdom.

Thanks for reading and may you never die to Spoils of the Vault.

Luke Chirayath
donate_illusions on MODO