diff --git a/third_party/retries/retries.py b/third_party/retries/retries.py
index 1d7131d5..da7fa488 100644
--- a/third_party/retries/retries.py
+++ b/third_party/retries/retries.py
@@ -61,8 +61,7 @@ def retries(max_tries, delay=1, backoff=2, exceptions=(Exception,), hook=None):
     def dec(func):
         def f2(*args, **kwargs):
             mydelay = delay
-            tries = range(max_tries)
-            tries.reverse()
+            tries = reversed(range(max_tries))
             for tries_remaining in tries:
                 try:
                    return func(*args, **kwargs)