I get more annoyed by someone that takes five minutes to resolve a demonic tutor than I do someone who can resolve thawing glaciers in thirty seconds every other turn an entire game.
Seriously. Why would you ever tutor without knowing exactly what you're going for? Maybe their deck is new, or they're borrowing it, or they're a new player, whatever, that I get. But I see otherwise competent players committing this sin all the damn time and it drives me nuts.
I think that's a little unfair. Depends on how many decks you run. We used to print out deck lists, but you end up making changes every week, and printing out new lists soon didn't happen.
Certainly we can't do it because we literally choose random decks from a pool of all our decks (over 70 now), so remembering them all is impossible. But even if I was just playing my own builds, there are so many of them and I'm making changes all the time, that having to search through them is often needed to refresh exactly what I have.
I feel if you have one or two builds, then yeah you should make a conscious effort to really know in advance what you want, but some peoples memory is just better than others. Plus we are drinking and smoking during games, so yeah, not the best for memory...lol.
I mean the thing is that it's normally once per every other turn, and you're doing it on other players turns most of the time. So it's just so easy to setup shortcuts.
Like just say "I'm going to to use it unless I need the mana to interact or somebody does a discard effect, etc."
Then while it's other people turns, you search your library for a basic land that you think you need, set it aside, and then you can just flip it over and return the Thawing Glaciers before your turn and nobody should have to be waiting at all.
If for any reason you'd end up not wanting to use it, then you can just stick the basic land back into the deck you set aside and do a quick shuffle again.
Of course you can't do this sort of thing if knowledge of the order of cards in your library is a large factor. If you have been using a Sensei's Divining Top or Sylvan Library for example, then you can just put the top three cards aside and search through the rest.
If you've been scrying to the bottom, as long as it's not effecting the game that much, then your bound to shuffle your library before that becomes a factor, so nobody should care. It's about being realistic about speeding up the game and just trusting in the people you are playing with.
But it sounds like he has configured the deck to use it multiple times in his own turn? You should still be able figure out how many times you can use it and search for the basics all at once.
I mean when we use fetch lands, we normally just first decide exactly which one it's going to be, announce what it's going to be and cast spells announcing that you are going to tap it for mana, then pass the turn. Then you search for it, so that people are not waiting for you.
At the end of the day, it's just going to be a big difference between how slick your play group is at making shortcuts, and everybody understanding what these are and agreeing to them.
Because we are often playing decks that we didn't create, we are allowed to look through the decks at any stage, but mainly do this during other peoples turns. If you have ANY type of tutoring effect that you might want to cast, then it's OK to search through the deck, and potentially set aside some cards while it's not during resolving anything to do with you specifically.
For example say if you've got a Vampiric Tutor in hand, and you may or may not cast it, but it's fine to search through the deck and put some cards aside that you might potentially want to speed things up while other people are playing their turns. Sure it gives away that you've probably got some tutoring effect, but most of the time people are not paying attention to you putting a card or cards aside. Then you can just cast the tutor and flip the card over. If you end up not wanting to cast the card then just shuffle the card(s) you put aside back in.
It's soooo much better than waiting 5 minutes for somebody to search through their library, and takes the pressure off the player who is doing it as well. Trying to figure out cards to get while people are waiting can be stressful.
Sure it doesn't always work out this way, you have to search on the fly as this can only happen while it's your priority, or you might be literally searching to respond to the stack, or you might just prefer to have as much knowledge about the game state before you search, but the idea is to make as many shortcuts for your playgroup when you can.
Certainly we can't do it because we literally choose random decks from a pool of all our decks (over 70 now), so remembering them all is impossible. But even if I was just playing my own builds, there are so many of them and I'm making changes all the time, that having to search through them is often needed to refresh exactly what I have.
I feel if you have one or two builds, then yeah you should make a conscious effort to really know in advance what you want, but some peoples memory is just better than others. Plus we are drinking and smoking during games, so yeah, not the best for memory...lol.
Niv-Mizzet Reborn
Feather, the Redeemed
Estrid, the Masked
Teshar
Tymna/Ravos
Najeela, Blade-Blossom
Firesong & Sunspeaker
Zur the Enchanter
Lazav, the Multifarious
Ishai+Reyhan
Click images for decks->
-Prime Speaker Vannifar
---------------------Will & Rowan Kenrith
Like just say "I'm going to to use it unless I need the mana to interact or somebody does a discard effect, etc."
Then while it's other people turns, you search your library for a basic land that you think you need, set it aside, and then you can just flip it over and return the Thawing Glaciers before your turn and nobody should have to be waiting at all.
If for any reason you'd end up not wanting to use it, then you can just stick the basic land back into the deck you set aside and do a quick shuffle again.
Of course you can't do this sort of thing if knowledge of the order of cards in your library is a large factor. If you have been using a Sensei's Divining Top or Sylvan Library for example, then you can just put the top three cards aside and search through the rest.
If you've been scrying to the bottom, as long as it's not effecting the game that much, then your bound to shuffle your library before that becomes a factor, so nobody should care. It's about being realistic about speeding up the game and just trusting in the people you are playing with.
But it sounds like he has configured the deck to use it multiple times in his own turn? You should still be able figure out how many times you can use it and search for the basics all at once.
I mean when we use fetch lands, we normally just first decide exactly which one it's going to be, announce what it's going to be and cast spells announcing that you are going to tap it for mana, then pass the turn. Then you search for it, so that people are not waiting for you.
At the end of the day, it's just going to be a big difference between how slick your play group is at making shortcuts, and everybody understanding what these are and agreeing to them.
Because we are often playing decks that we didn't create, we are allowed to look through the decks at any stage, but mainly do this during other peoples turns. If you have ANY type of tutoring effect that you might want to cast, then it's OK to search through the deck, and potentially set aside some cards while it's not during resolving anything to do with you specifically.
For example say if you've got a Vampiric Tutor in hand, and you may or may not cast it, but it's fine to search through the deck and put some cards aside that you might potentially want to speed things up while other people are playing their turns. Sure it gives away that you've probably got some tutoring effect, but most of the time people are not paying attention to you putting a card or cards aside. Then you can just cast the tutor and flip the card over. If you end up not wanting to cast the card then just shuffle the card(s) you put aside back in.
It's soooo much better than waiting 5 minutes for somebody to search through their library, and takes the pressure off the player who is doing it as well. Trying to figure out cards to get while people are waiting can be stressful.
Sure it doesn't always work out this way, you have to search on the fly as this can only happen while it's your priority, or you might be literally searching to respond to the stack, or you might just prefer to have as much knowledge about the game state before you search, but the idea is to make as many shortcuts for your playgroup when you can.
Niv-Mizzet Reborn
Feather, the Redeemed
Estrid, the Masked
Teshar
Tymna/Ravos
Najeela, Blade-Blossom
Firesong & Sunspeaker
Zur the Enchanter
Lazav, the Multifarious
Ishai+Reyhan
Click images for decks->
-Prime Speaker Vannifar
---------------------Will & Rowan Kenrith
Thawing Glaciers + Burgeoning + Amulet of Vigor.
It still took me 5 mins to get 16 lands into play, but yeah auto shuffler and alphabetical card selection makes playing a pleasure.
Niv-Mizzet Reborn
Feather, the Redeemed
Estrid, the Masked
Teshar
Tymna/Ravos
Najeela, Blade-Blossom
Firesong & Sunspeaker
Zur the Enchanter
Lazav, the Multifarious
Ishai+Reyhan
Click images for decks->
-Prime Speaker Vannifar
---------------------Will & Rowan Kenrith