Went 1-2 in my local LGS modern tourny last night but had a great time seeing the looks on peoples faces as I locked them out. I have a very old list and fell away from magic while I got married and bought a place with my wife but grabbed 4 Legion Warboss and foiled out the basics with some Sunday showdown Rebbecca Guay.
G1 Infect - wasn't even close but my hands were godlike. T1 Blood mooned them both games, chalice on 1 and 2 the first game, 1 rabble t2, another t3, dead to a million damage t4 the second game. 1-0
G2 Infect (again but different guy), he got the OTK turn 5 when i was digging for a lock. I got greedy on the t1 rabble and it cost me but its worked before so i still think it was the right play at the time. G2 i had t1 blood moon and chalice on 1 t3 but topdecked EIGHT lands in a row and they drew their basics before I found a bridge or a kill condition. This one felt bad because variance is what got me. Oh well, good with the bad right? 1 - 1
G3 - UR Phoenix - Let me be clear, I hate this deck in that it is as consistent as Tron with a much quicker clock. This deck feels like what burn used to feel like 3 years ago. It is SO DAMN FAST and it counters, and it storms off, and it plays everything too fast and you have to pick which lock you're going with and hopefully it works out. blood moon t2 is what i went with (which is the wrong move as this deck functions perfectly fine without Blue mana) off a mulligan and it slows them down but thing in the ice into manamorphose into manamorphose into remand into another manamorphose into , dumping 2 phoenix and a fiery temper for like 16 damage t4 is just awful lol. I don't remember the specifics of what happened game 2 other than variance really got me (first hand, 6 lands and a Chandra. Second hand, no lands. Third hand, 2 lands, a chalice 2 rabble. I took that because going to 4 might as well be a forfeit but I was dead on t4 with -6 life so at least the beating was swift. 1 - 2
Any ideas on what to sideboard in against this? I brought in 2 Grafdigger's Cage, 1 spellskite, and 2 abrade but didn't hit a single one so they might have helped if I drew any of them.
Feels great to be back
Chalice is excellent against this deck. I don't know what your list is but I shave 4 moons, 3 koths, and a legion warboss (I'm on 4 rabble 2 boss) for 2 Abrade, 2 Tormod's Crypt, 2 Damping Sphere, and 2 Anger (1 anger, 1 slag main to start). I haven't been having issues with this deck, as a matter of fact it's one of the reasons I've gone back to both PYro Prison AND Skred Dragons. Especially in the online metagame.
Hey all, been awhile since I checked in but I've been playing a lot of Pyro Prison online. I know burn shouldn't be that bad of a matchup for us but I've been struggling against it a lot lately. A lot of burn decks bringing in 4x Rakdos charm out of the board. Any thoughts on ways to get around this or do we just need to chalk it up to a bad matchup?
Do you run just the 4 of DR or throw in an extra PR?
Reasons? Thoughts?
No reason not to run the Desperates as a higher priority for those few times where the splice matters. Just add as many pyretics as you want to get to the total you like. Most people run 4-5 rituals. I'm kinda liking this 6-7 with Sarkhan/Avaricious Dragon being able to pitch any extras you draw. Gives you more outs for a turn one/two three drop and with the rummaging abilities on those cards you're more often able to do something with extra rituals so they aren't dead in your hand. Also in a pinch you can just cast them to lower your count for Ensnaring bridge.
Hi there! This was brought to my attention by a friend. I was your round 4 opponent, and if i may be blunt, you have fabricated a large portion of our match.
I was not salty- i was fully aware of the match up, and i know it’s bad. At no point was “PREMIUM SALT MINING” ever remotely close to occurring. You also didn’t mulligan to 4, it was 5. the sequencing when turn 1 moon, turn 2 koth, turn 3 chandra, turn 4 bridge. i have no outs to that, so it is what it is.
I never came up to you after the match and apologized- ironically, we spoke very casually throughout the match. There was no reason to apologize, and this statement you made is a complete lie.
I conceded game 2 to drawing 7 of my 19 land after a mulligan, and my only spells were hierarch, thalia, and spellskite. i conceded to you having rabblemaster and double chandra, all under a moon (which you did not play turn 1, as you tapped 4 to cast it). at no point did you ever play a sweeper.
While you did beat me fair and square, i most certainly do not appreciate the falsified report here that indicts my character. If you would like to discuss more in-depth, i will be back at the store tuesday.
I deserved this call out. I'm full of *****. My apologies. This is scumbag behavior. I don't know why I felt the need to embellish. Legit have not done anything like this before it was a mistake. Guess I just got overexcited and didn't expect people to ever know who you were (I didn't use a name or description).
This was really stupid and I'm sufficiently embarassed. It's sad that I felt the need to approval that badly and I'm honestly not sure why I'd even do this.
As for the details you recalled more accurately than I did.
PM me let's quash this, I was a jerk.
I'll see my way out.
I hope this doesn't stop you from posting on here. I like your posts and we've all posted stupid ***** we had to walk back. I know the player in question and he's a pretty cool dude. Wouldn't surprise me if you guys worked it out and became friends after this.
If you have a way to get in touch with him could you direct him here? I PM'd him and all but haven't heard back yet, this is eating at me. Never thought I'd become something I loathe so much. Please let him know I'd like to sort this out. I need to own this.
I also want to know how good trinisphere is. Let us know your thoughts.
Cage is not a nonbo. Oftentimes cage comes in when chalice cones out.
I only played it against Burn last night and it's great at allowing you to race them or buy you time to set up as it limits them to one spell per turn. Since most of our stuff starts at 3 (besides rituals which you're often using to play it) it makes a lot of sense in matchups where you want to limit their pace. Bogles, Burn, Storm, KCI, Death's Shadow. Anything that plays a ton of one drops. It is worse on the draw but against those decks I bring it in regardless.
Hi there! This was brought to my attention by a friend. I was your round 4 opponent, and if i may be blunt, you have fabricated a large portion of our match.
I was not salty- i was fully aware of the match up, and i know it’s bad. At no point was “PREMIUM SALT MINING” ever remotely close to occurring. You also didn’t mulligan to 4, it was 5. the sequencing when turn 1 moon, turn 2 koth, turn 3 chandra, turn 4 bridge. i have no outs to that, so it is what it is.
I never came up to you after the match and apologized- ironically, we spoke very casually throughout the match. There was no reason to apologize, and this statement you made is a complete lie.
I conceded game 2 to drawing 7 of my 19 land after a mulligan, and my only spells were hierarch, thalia, and spellskite. i conceded to you having rabblemaster and double chandra, all under a moon (which you did not play turn 1, as you tapped 4 to cast it). at no point did you ever play a sweeper.
While you did beat me fair and square, i most certainly do not appreciate the falsified report here that indicts my character. If you would like to discuss more in-depth, i will be back at the store tuesday.
I deserved this call out. I'm full of *****. My apologies. This is scumbag behavior. I don't know why I felt the need to embellish. Legit have not done anything like this before it was a mistake. Guess I just got overexcited and didn't expect people to ever know who you were (I didn't use a name or description).
This was really stupid and I'm sufficiently embarassed. It's sad that I felt the need to approval that badly and I'm honestly not sure why I'd even do this.
As for the details you recalled more accurately than I did.
Round 1: UW Spirits 2-1, he won game one on a mull to 5 from me that didn't have a turn 1 play but did have a turn 2 moon, he just happened to have his basics and we were more or less toast. Game 2 was a back and forth battle that broke when I slagstormed into his tapped out board from playing a supreme phantom, he sacs the Wanderer to make me pay two more and... double spirit guide (I'd ripped them back to back turns). Savage beating. Game 3 I turn one moon'd him on the draw and he didn't have basics. GG I don't think this matchup is as bad as I initially thought as long as we know what to look for (BRIDGE). Just cast your stuff on time and they have a really tough time if they're having to sac stuff to counter since it reduces their clock.
Round 2: Burn 0-2, He had a ridiculous draw in game one and I had no bridge or slagstorm at any point, game two I mull to 5, keep land, land, guide, slagstorm, ritual, I figure I'm probably not going to see much better and maybe we'll hit a swiftspears + guide start or something, I scry a land to the bottom, was another land on top after that that guide got out of the way but then another and he only played the guide + dome spells. I finally found a bridge and he just had the revelry in hand, after game he showed me another revelry. Likely weren't going to win this one unless we spiked a moon which I shaved. I come from a ponza background and I know moon is actually good against burn but I got rekt trying something different out here.
Round 3: Burn 2-0, We play a slugfest of a game one in which he gets me to 1 while he's at 23 and we managed to win. I ripped PnK, Chalice, Chalice in that order and he top decked bolt after I'd chalice'd on one, and hit helix after I chaliced on two. Pretty bad beat for him but Sarkhan was able to help us dig to find them. Game two I hit Chalice on one off a gemstone hand, played a moon on turn 2 and he only had guide to sift through my draws. Eventually we drop a Dragon, pitch hand, next turn drew into another chalice. He actually almsot got me because he was running 3x Exquisite firecraft and I saw two of them but we stabalized at around 6 life with double chalice's and we were golden. Won that game with a Sarkhan ult.
Round 4: Humans 2-0, This guy had been watching my matches off and on during the night so he knew what I was about but I actually wasn't sure what he was on. Game one I can already tell the dude is just mega tilted cuz he's like sighing and such before we even start and isn't talking despite my friendly efforts. We both go to six, I ended up going to 4 on the draw (the 6 and 5 had no lands and the 7 was just too slow). I ended up keeping my 4 of Gemstone Mine, Ritual, Ritual Bloodmoon. Scry'd I think it was Koth or some 4 drop to the bottom. I pregame the gemstone and the dude looked like he was going to hulk out, PREMIUM SALT MINING INCOMING!. He plays a hierarch off a Zigg turn one (what's he complaining about?). I rip the land off the top, turn one moon him. He plays a non-basic and Thalia. I'm already hellbent, I ripped land next turn and pass, land pass again, next turn I ripped anger for a 3 for 1 and the dude just rage quit. Legit like I didn't even have a clock on him. He actually eventually came back into the shop maybe 10 minutes later when I was out front and apologized for being that way which I thought was really a stand up move and I thanked him for that.
Sideboard:
3 Eidolon
2 Anger of the Gods
3 Trinisphere
2 Grafdigger's Cage (I know I know, non-bo, didn't bring my Tormod's crypts/sideboard tech box with me)
1 Damping Matrix
1 Torpor Orb
1 Sorcerous Spyglass
1 Spellskite
1 Boil
Takeaways:
Sarkhan and Av Dragon are the truth! I got my copies of both last week and this was my first non-MTGO experience playing them and they were both good to me. I even got to ult Sarkhan! The rummage effect on Sarkhan is just unbelievable for us, I almost think it's exactly what we've wanted. It's not a turn one type of play to me but that repeatable card selection is just so good. He's also borderline ignorable by our opponents because his ult takes awhile and it's a relatively harmless effect. The spirit player was like "I didn't want you to keep filtering but I just had to get you dead, I didn't see it being profitable to attack him" which is kind of a neat wrinkle. Av dragon was sweet the one time I got it online too. Just Bottled Cloister on a body. I had some experience running Cloister in RB Planeswalkers and it's good for similar reasons but having it on a 4/4 body and Sarkhan potentially being able to cast it is pretty cool.
TL:DR - When so many of our cards are just bonafied haymakers we just need to see more of them. I'm in on Sarkhan now for sure. Dude's a monster.
Matt really loves that esper list. You playing at Comic Book Store? I'm fairly certain I know you now. I would have been there on Pyro as well today but had to work How's Top 8 going?
Second, a couple corrections. Gelati wrote: "...two classic "free win red" type hands spiking blood moon and early rabble." Free Win Red does not play rabblemaster - just planeswalkers for their win. We are goblinized. Also, you asked about keeping hands vs. mulliganning. Always a tough call. And, it depends.
Don't have time for a big writeup just wanted to share results.
Round 1: vs Mardu Pyromancer, 2-1 win
Round 2: vs BR Vengevine (new kid on the block), 1-2 loss but game 3 came down to him ripping a walking balista for 2 when I was at 3. I had a moon + bridge lock on him and he was playing as if he didn't have any answers. I was unable to find an answer for it, he upticked it and that was game next turn. Didn't see a sideboard card in 2 or 3.
Round 3: vs Scapeshift, 2-1 win, long grindy game one followed immediately by two classic "free win red" type hands spiking blood moon and early rabble.
Round 4: vs Thopter Sword Combo, 2-1 win. Lost game one, chalice on 1 did good work in the next two games.
Quite honestly I mulligan'd A TON tonight. Deck was not too kind to me and I was still able to pull wins out. A lot of games where I had no turn one play. Like all but 3 games. In a shop with a lot of UWx Control, mardu pyromancer, hollow one, and BR vengevine (3 people out of 25 on it tonight, I know it's new but still). I wonder what you guys think would be the best metagame considerations for the list/sideboard.
I ran a fairly stock list with notable exceptions.
With my winnings I picked up a couple Sarkan's to try. Flame of Kelds and Avaricous Dragons in the mail.
How would you slant your list to accomodate for a meta with the decks I listed above? Also how aggressively do you guys mulligan for lock pieces? What is the breaking point for keeps when in a blind situation? Like game one are there hands you'd keep without a turn one play? Some examples would be sweet.
Excuse the wall of text if this isn't your sort of thing but I like to dive deep when I'm first learning a deck and my memory is rather poor so I like to have written evidence to go back on decisions.
[b] Round 1 vs TraucoSpain (Madcap Experiment Monsters or Ponza we didn't see Blood Moon or Stone Rain effects so I'm not sure [/b]
Won the die roll
Opponent mulligans to 6, we open with mountain pass, they show forest Noble Hierarch, we T2 Chainwhirler, they T2 windswept heath into Scavenging Ooze, we drop Chandra, kill the Ooze. Chandra gets bolted. Either way good start for us but he ends up resolving a Madcap experiment but we rip into an Abrade before even taking a hit. Over the next couple turns he attempts to rebuild with trackers and elves, I 3 for 2d, and 2 for 1d with Slagstorms (1 of mine one of his). We actually flooded out really bad in this game but after our fast start and our opponent getting to 3 we drew our second Slagstorm to win.
G2 Opener (6 cards): Mountain x2, Anger of the Gods, Rabblemaster, Chandra x2 (very slow hand but the anger seemed great against the dork/tracker starts and we didn't see stone rains in game one) On the play I probably wouldn't have kept this but we get to see a draw and a Spirit Guide or Ritual makes this hand gas.)
Opponent keeps 7 opens with elf, we rip the ritual on the first draw, we mountain pass hoping to get to see a 3rd creature which could make our anger a 3 for 1. This was greedy because he could bloodbraid into a stone rain or just acid moss or something like that. He does infact BBE into a Utopia Sprawl giving us the 3 for 1 on our anger. We end up stuck on 2 lands so his Stormbreath is able to finish the game. We had 2 bridges in hand just never got that 3rd land or a ritual.
G3 Opener: Mountain x2, Gemstone Caverns, Ritual, Bridge, Rabblemaster, Anger of the Gods
Opponent mulligans to 6 and doesn't play a dork or sprawl on turn 1. We play a Rabblemaster off our ritual that gets bolted the next turn. We drop bridge to use our mana up which I know exposes us to ancient grudge blowout but if they have it they have it. We flood our pretty bad here drawing lands and Spirit Guide but we get a 2 for 1 with Anger of the Gods killing Tracker and a 3/3 Ooze. We play out spirit guide and are in top deck mode against 4 cards in the opponents hand. He eventually finds an Ancient Grudge but on a creatureless board. Primal Commands a land to blank draw step but he has no pressure on us. He eventually drops a Thrun, I find a Chainwhirler and play it putting him to 9 while we're at 14. He Anger of the Gods and proceeds to just beat us with Thrun while we keep drawing lands.
[b] LOSS 1-2 [/b]
[b] Total Record: 0-1 [/b]
[b] Round 2 vs Bambur (Affinity) [/b]
Won the die roll
Opponent mulligans to 6 opens with Inkmoth, Drum, Opal, Memnite, Signal Pest. We Chalice for 0 on Turn 2. I'm not sure if this is a PUNT or not what do you guys think? Do I just put it on 1 at that point or is it worth blanking his future opals and ornithopters and such to make him spend at least one mana on things? I think it was the right decision but let me know. Anyway our draw for turn 2 was a Chainwhirler which looks MIGHTY JUICY if we can get to red mana or cast our blood moon to turn our cavern into a mountain without getting run over by a plating. He plays a vault skirge as his only turn 2 play and we draw a mountain for T3 and drop Blood Moon. No turn 3 play, we play Chainwhirler on 4, he responds to trigger with galvanic blast but still gets effectively 1 for 4'd. From here we played out our rabble and Chandra and at some point ripped a bridge for security. Opponent made a weird play blocking a rabble token with ravager, saccing his drum which just seemed wrong to me. It's not like he was gonna get there on that but he was top decking at that point more or less so who knows.
G2 Opener: Mountain x2, Ritual, Spirit Guide, Moon, Chalice, Damping Matrix (borderline nut draw vs this deck)
Opponent kept 7 plays signal pest memnite ornithoper on turn 1. We play Chalice on 1 off of spirit guide. It might have been right ot just Chalice 0 and ritual into blood moon especially since we drew a 3rd land on our first draw but after seeing a few zero's on his turn one I figured his hand would be empty of them and most of them are less threatening outside the opener. Again I'm not sure what you guys prefer to do I'd like some input! He turn 2's a ravager. We draw a Chainwhirler but Ritual into Damping Matrix. Opponent doesn't sac anything to the Ravager making me think maybe he has an Ancient Grudge or something. T3 he drops Steel Overseer and Ornithopter after an attack. Damping Matrix doing mad work here. This game would've been over without it. Our draw is Ensnaring Bridge. T3 we drop Blood Moon to make sure we have the red mana for Chainwhirler (one of our lands is a gemstone). We take attack down to 4. We T4 a Chainwhirler to 4 for 1 leaving him with 2 Ornithopters one of which is a 1/3 off modular. STart beating with Chainwhirler drop bridge with one card in hand at 3 life. He attacksdown to 2, plays vault skirge, We draw ritual and play our next chainwhirler to go down to 0 in hand. We would be dead to galvanic blast but we have Chalice on one. WE rip a rabble master and then another one a turn or two later and eventually hold in hand, swing with like 10 tokens, play land, rinse and repeat next turn for the game.
[b] WIN 2-0 [/b]
[b] Total Record: 1-1 [/b]
[b] Round 3 vs Saitrick (BW Eldrazi and Taxes) [/b]
Won the die roll
G1 Opener: Mountain x2, Ritual, Spirit Guide, Bridge x2, Slagstorm (fairly slow but blind I think I like the fast emptying hand into bridge)
We open Mountain and pass. I want to see some more information and if our opponent does have a discard effect I'm ok with losing anything since we have 2 bridges. They open with Concealed Courtyard and Vial. Likely BW Eldrazi and Taxes which means both Bridge, and Blood Moon are backbreakers for them. We draw Walking Ballista. We drop Ballista on 1 to deal with Thalia if we see it on turn 2. He drops E Temple into Displacer. We drop Bridge #1 and pass. My replay keeps bugging out on this one but what eventually happened was he was between Vial, Flickerwisp and Displacer he was able to flicker both bridges a few turns in a row and get in for lethal over a few turns.
G2 Opener: Mountain, Gemstone, Ritual, Abrade, Blood Moon, Anger of the Gods, Koth
Opponent mulliganed to 5. We mountain pass. They Vial. We turn 2 Blood Moon. Turn 3 we Abrade the Vial and eventually get the mana to play Koth/Chandra. Their deck runs probably like 2-4 basics in most lists so the turn 2 moon was just backbreaking.
This hand is a tad soft to discard if they get the moon but I think the opportunity to turn 1 moon against a deck with so few basics is just too good to pass up. We also have abrade to buy some time and spyglass for vial/displacer. Opponent plays tapped land, we turn 1 moon. Game is effectively over from here but we also ripped a Torpor orb just in case.
[b] WIN 2-0 [/b]
[b] Total Record: 2-1 [/b]
[b] Round 4 vs TheIvanHoe (Black White Tokens) [/b]
Lost the die roll
Opponent opens with Shambling Vent. We rip a Spirit Guide on our first draw which gives us a turn one Chainwhirler if we want it but I want to see more so we just pass. Turn 2 opponent drops Ghost Quarter and Bitterblossom. Black White Tokens it is! Our T2 draw is a Chalice which I promptly put down on 1. I'm gonna get a lot of value out of this Chanwhirler and don't want it taken out of my hand. I think you guys can already see where this is going but eventually they played a second bitterblossom but no intangible virtue and we just Chainwhirlered for like a 7 or 8 for one and then sat behind our bridge until they died.
I punted this really hard by accidentally clicking both Gemstones into play pregame. Ended up losing the moon to a thoughtseize as well. Just a huge punt.
On the play Chalice on 1 into Turn 2 blood moon. This game was more or less over from there. Eventually found a clock with Chandra for the win. Another "Free Win Red" feeling hand. We salt minin' boiz!
Opponent mulligans to 5 and plays a Blackcleave cliffs but nothing else. We draw ritual on our first draw giving us turn 1 blood moon. I figured even if this is Pyro or Hollow One it's a stronger play than Rabblemaster. They end step cycle Carybid. Living death! They play a land pass, cycle some more on end step, rip their basic forest on turn 3 and living death. Game was over shortly after that.
This was my worst keep of the day. I should have taken the mulligan to 4 for another chance at a Chalice on zero. We didn't see a single chalice or moon in our 7, 6, or 5. I know most living end lists run very few basics like 1-2 of each so I think we're justified in being this aggressive with the mulligan but I wasn't aggressive enough. I think I should have gone to 4. Either way we didn't hit any lock pieces this game and they just did the living end thing. Double street wraith, carybid, ingot chewer then outburst into living end.
[b] LOSS 0-2 [/b]
[b] Total Record: 3-2 [/b]
[b] Round 6 vs Thunderstriker7 (Jeskai Control) [/b]
Lost the die roll
I pitched a bridge to the pregame Gemstone. Opponent opens on Scalding Tarn to vents to serum visions. Likely Jeskai control. Our first draw is a second rabblemaster. We play ritual into Rabble. On his turn he bolts it. l missed my 3rd land drop for 3 turns and by then he had a full grip and cryptic etc.
Game 2 Opener: Mountain x2 Gemstone, Eidolon of the Great Revel, Rabblemaster, Chainwhirler (not sure if this was really that keepable in this specific matchup. I feel like we need a Chalice or a Moon early and I should have mulliganed this one away. Thoughts?)
He just had answers to every threat I played and then we flooded out. This matchup I've beaten before but it's almost always on the back of an early blood moon or poor play from the opponent. Any thoughts on matchup breakers for this? I was running Scab Clan Berserkers last week and liked them quite a bit as another potential turn 1 out. Currently my board plan is to take out bridges and slagstorms and bring in spyglass x2, boil, and Eidolon x3.
[b] LOSS 0-2 [/b]
[b] Total Record: 3-3 [/b]
[b] Round 7 vs L_Herne (Abzan Midrange?) [/b]
Lost the die roll
Opponent opens on Blooming Marsh into Thoughtseize and takes Rabblemaster. We rip mountain off the top, exile Spirit guide and play Ballista on 1. They play untapped Godless shrine and Scavenging Ooze. Top decked a blood moon, ritual into it to take them off all mana. He scoops the next turn.
We didn't see much except an abzan shell and scavenging ooze plus thoughtseize so I put them on some sort of Abzan midrange/value list. I figure between stuff like Scavenging Ooze, Mana dorks, and Tireless Tracker (was well as the clue tokens), combined with a few of our main deck cards being soft like Rabblemaster I cut those for Matrix, Spellskite, Torpor Orb (for Rhino's or Reclamation sages post board).
He must have F6'd his first turn after my pregame Gemstone cavern because he just didn't land drop and passed the turn. We got to play Chalice on 1 and basically stole this game off that so not much to say here.
[b] WIN 2-0 [/b]
[b] Total Record: 4-3 [/b]
[b] Takeaways [b]
1) Goblin Chainwhirler solves so many problems for us. I didn't face pyromancer today but between Ponza, Pyromancer, Token strategies, and Affinity having a pseudo board wipe on a first striking body that stone walls a lot of creatures in the format to play defense for your walkers or until you can land a bridge is just so important and fills multiple roles in one card. I'm not sure it's worth having more than 2 yet but it's been a superstar so far.
2) Jeskai seems unwinnable without an early Chalice or Blood Moon. How have you all been handling this matchup? It's extremely popular right now and quite powerful so I wan't to have some game against it besides relying entirely on Moon.
3) I think I mostly had good mulligan deceisions besides the two that I highlighted. Anybody think I kept a bad 7 or 6 that I didn't say was bad above?
4) I'm getting better at the sequencing and knowing when to be aggressive vs when to deploy defense but I made the one Gemstone misclick which was just mechanical error.
Hope this helps and hope to get some feedback! Any of it would be greatly appreciated as I'm relatively new to the deck.
1. I wouldn't say there's so much priority of a certain threat/lock piece that I'm looking for in the opener. I want either an aggressive hand, a 'prison' hand or a mixture of both. In game one against an unknown opponent, we have no way to identify what is the 'correct' play turn 1 or 2 until we see our opponents board develop.
2. I definitely feel myself mulliganing a good amount with this deck. I don't know what it is, but I feel like I have a lot of do nothing openers with lands and rituals or threat heavy hands with no lands. I personally run 22 lands and 4 Desperate Ritual and no Pyretic Ritual. I cannot stand missing early land drops with this deck as I see it as a death sentence. It may or may not be greedy, but I will typically mulligan any hand with 5+ lands or 1 or less (obviously). However, depending on the contents of my hand, I may keep a 1 lander with a ritual or SSG if I know the rest of my cards will be effecting against my opponent. This deck simply cannot afford to durdle because its not very good at drawing cards and we can quickly be buried by our opponents pressure.
3. The only deck I would personally consider aggressively mulliganing against is Tron because we can't beat any resolved threats they bring our way. Then again, I'm playing 2 Magus of the Moon so I have a higher chance of hitting a moon effect. Generally, I don't think its correct to aggressively mulligan against any deck. There is absolutely no point in mulling to that 1 lock piece or threat because your opponent could just as easily remove it. Just evaluate if the contents of your hand will be effective against your opponent and go from there. I'd keep a very aggressive hand VS Tron even without a Blood Moon or Magus of the Moon because there is the chance they simply don't get T3 Tron.
Hope this helps!
I guess I just need to keep it up and get more reps to recognize what keepable hands look like. Thanks for the advice Bludlust
Hey guys, I wanted to know how eidolon works for you? because for me it does not work. I still can not see how a machine up until now I thought of removing it from the deck, today most decks have fatal push, lightning, path and other ways to remove it easy. Would it be the case that I would be swapping a slot that could be availed with something else by a creature that will enter cause 2 and leave?
My concern today is against mardu pyromancer, jund and abzan, they are hard decks to play against and eidolon has no way to help against these decks. I start to think that taking the chalice is not good because chalice for 1 or 2 slows the game a bit and the removal they would spend on the bridge or blood spent in the chalice. One problem is the discards, so chalice to 1.
My experience with it has been that it's a lightning rod for removal and can potentially clear the way for a Rabblemaster or Chainwhirler while dealing 2 to them. To me the only other option would be just a burn spell like lightning strike/magma spray or the like or perhaps something more specific but the strength of Eidolon is in leverage. It's a MUST KILL for a lot of decks and while they often have what they need it creates situations where they need to deal with that before doing other things. Making them spend a mana or two or path to ramp you a land and take 2 damage is often a combination of mana/life positive effect and while it seems small I'm not sure what else we'd be doing in that situation that doesn't get answered by the same things. Perhaps Mind Stone for ramp? (which I've seen in a couple lists)
Chalice is excellent against this deck. I don't know what your list is but I shave 4 moons, 3 koths, and a legion warboss (I'm on 4 rabble 2 boss) for 2 Abrade, 2 Tormod's Crypt, 2 Damping Sphere, and 2 Anger (1 anger, 1 slag main to start). I haven't been having issues with this deck, as a matter of fact it's one of the reasons I've gone back to both PYro Prison AND Skred Dragons. Especially in the online metagame.
No reason not to run the Desperates as a higher priority for those few times where the splice matters. Just add as many pyretics as you want to get to the total you like. Most people run 4-5 rituals. I'm kinda liking this 6-7 with Sarkhan/Avaricious Dragon being able to pitch any extras you draw. Gives you more outs for a turn one/two three drop and with the rummaging abilities on those cards you're more often able to do something with extra rituals so they aren't dead in your hand. Also in a pinch you can just cast them to lower your count for Ensnaring bridge.
<3
If you have a way to get in touch with him could you direct him here? I PM'd him and all but haven't heard back yet, this is eating at me. Never thought I'd become something I loathe so much. Please let him know I'd like to sort this out. I need to own this.
I only played it against Burn last night and it's great at allowing you to race them or buy you time to set up as it limits them to one spell per turn. Since most of our stuff starts at 3 (besides rituals which you're often using to play it) it makes a lot of sense in matchups where you want to limit their pace. Bogles, Burn, Storm, KCI, Death's Shadow. Anything that plays a ton of one drops. It is worse on the draw but against those decks I bring it in regardless.
I deserved this call out. I'm full of *****. My apologies. This is scumbag behavior. I don't know why I felt the need to embellish. Legit have not done anything like this before it was a mistake. Guess I just got overexcited and didn't expect people to ever know who you were (I didn't use a name or description).
This was really stupid and I'm sufficiently embarassed. It's sad that I felt the need to approval that badly and I'm honestly not sure why I'd even do this.
As for the details you recalled more accurately than I did.
PM me let's quash this, I was a jerk.
I'll see my way out.
Round 1: UW Spirits 2-1, he won game one on a mull to 5 from me that didn't have a turn 1 play but did have a turn 2 moon, he just happened to have his basics and we were more or less toast. Game 2 was a back and forth battle that broke when I slagstormed into his tapped out board from playing a supreme phantom, he sacs the Wanderer to make me pay two more and... double spirit guide (I'd ripped them back to back turns). Savage beating. Game 3 I turn one moon'd him on the draw and he didn't have basics. GG I don't think this matchup is as bad as I initially thought as long as we know what to look for (BRIDGE). Just cast your stuff on time and they have a really tough time if they're having to sac stuff to counter since it reduces their clock.
Round 2: Burn 0-2, He had a ridiculous draw in game one and I had no bridge or slagstorm at any point, game two I mull to 5, keep land, land, guide, slagstorm, ritual, I figure I'm probably not going to see much better and maybe we'll hit a swiftspears + guide start or something, I scry a land to the bottom, was another land on top after that that guide got out of the way but then another and he only played the guide + dome spells. I finally found a bridge and he just had the revelry in hand, after game he showed me another revelry. Likely weren't going to win this one unless we spiked a moon which I shaved. I come from a ponza background and I know moon is actually good against burn but I got rekt trying something different out here.
Round 3: Burn 2-0, We play a slugfest of a game one in which he gets me to 1 while he's at 23 and we managed to win. I ripped PnK, Chalice, Chalice in that order and he top decked bolt after I'd chalice'd on one, and hit helix after I chaliced on two. Pretty bad beat for him but Sarkhan was able to help us dig to find them. Game two I hit Chalice on one off a gemstone hand, played a moon on turn 2 and he only had guide to sift through my draws. Eventually we drop a Dragon, pitch hand, next turn drew into another chalice. He actually almsot got me because he was running 3x Exquisite firecraft and I saw two of them but we stabalized at around 6 life with double chalice's and we were golden. Won that game with a Sarkhan ult.
Round 4: Humans 2-0, This guy had been watching my matches off and on during the night so he knew what I was about but I actually wasn't sure what he was on. Game one I can already tell the dude is just mega tilted cuz he's like sighing and such before we even start and isn't talking despite my friendly efforts. We both go to six, I ended up going to 4 on the draw (the 6 and 5 had no lands and the 7 was just too slow). I ended up keeping my 4 of Gemstone Mine, Ritual, Ritual Bloodmoon. Scry'd I think it was Koth or some 4 drop to the bottom. I pregame the gemstone and the dude looked like he was going to hulk out, PREMIUM SALT MINING INCOMING!. He plays a hierarch off a Zigg turn one (what's he complaining about?). I rip the land off the top, turn one moon him. He plays a non-basic and Thalia. I'm already hellbent, I ripped land next turn and pass, land pass again, next turn I ripped anger for a 3 for 1 and the dude just rage quit. Legit like I didn't even have a clock on him. He actually eventually came back into the shop maybe 10 minutes later when I was out front and apologized for being that way which I thought was really a stand up move and I thanked him for that.
I was running the following list.
4 Chalice
4 Blood Moon
4 Ensnaring Bridge
4 Desperate Ritual
2 Pyretic Ritual
4 Simian Spirit Guide
4 Rabblemaster
2 Avaricious Dragon
1 Hazoret
1 Pia and Kiran Nalaar
2 Slagstorm
4 Chandra TOD
2 Sarkhan, Fireblood
1 Koth of the Hammer
4 Ramunap Ruins
1 Scavenger Grounds
3 Gemstone Caverns
13 Mountains
Sideboard:
3 Eidolon
2 Anger of the Gods
3 Trinisphere
2 Grafdigger's Cage (I know I know, non-bo, didn't bring my Tormod's crypts/sideboard tech box with me)
1 Damping Matrix
1 Torpor Orb
1 Sorcerous Spyglass
1 Spellskite
1 Boil
Takeaways:
Sarkhan and Av Dragon are the truth! I got my copies of both last week and this was my first non-MTGO experience playing them and they were both good to me. I even got to ult Sarkhan! The rummage effect on Sarkhan is just unbelievable for us, I almost think it's exactly what we've wanted. It's not a turn one type of play to me but that repeatable card selection is just so good. He's also borderline ignorable by our opponents because his ult takes awhile and it's a relatively harmless effect. The spirit player was like "I didn't want you to keep filtering but I just had to get you dead, I didn't see it being profitable to attack him" which is kind of a neat wrinkle. Av dragon was sweet the one time I got it online too. Just Bottled Cloister on a body. I had some experience running Cloister in RB Planeswalkers and it's good for similar reasons but having it on a 4/4 body and Sarkhan potentially being able to cast it is pretty cool.
TL:DR - When so many of our cards are just bonafied haymakers we just need to see more of them. I'm in on Sarkhan now for sure. Dude's a monster.
Sorry. I do know the difference I just slipped!
Don't have time for a big writeup just wanted to share results.
Round 1: vs Mardu Pyromancer, 2-1 win
Round 2: vs BR Vengevine (new kid on the block), 1-2 loss but game 3 came down to him ripping a walking balista for 2 when I was at 3. I had a moon + bridge lock on him and he was playing as if he didn't have any answers. I was unable to find an answer for it, he upticked it and that was game next turn. Didn't see a sideboard card in 2 or 3.
Round 3: vs Scapeshift, 2-1 win, long grindy game one followed immediately by two classic "free win red" type hands spiking blood moon and early rabble.
Round 4: vs Thopter Sword Combo, 2-1 win. Lost game one, chalice on 1 did good work in the next two games.
Quite honestly I mulligan'd A TON tonight. Deck was not too kind to me and I was still able to pull wins out. A lot of games where I had no turn one play. Like all but 3 games. In a shop with a lot of UWx Control, mardu pyromancer, hollow one, and BR vengevine (3 people out of 25 on it tonight, I know it's new but still). I wonder what you guys think would be the best metagame considerations for the list/sideboard.
I ran a fairly stock list with notable exceptions.
21 lands (3 gemstone, 3 ramunap, 1 scavenging)
1x Hazoret, 2x Walking Balista, 1x Pia and Kiran, 4x Chandra TOD, 2x Koth, 2 Abrade, 5 rituals
With my winnings I picked up a couple Sarkan's to try. Flame of Kelds and Avaricous Dragons in the mail.
How would you slant your list to accomodate for a meta with the decks I listed above? Also how aggressively do you guys mulligan for lock pieces? What is the breaking point for keeps when in a blind situation? Like game one are there hands you'd keep without a turn one play? Some examples would be sweet.
(LIST IS AT THE BOTTOM)
Excuse the wall of text if this isn't your sort of thing but I like to dive deep when I'm first learning a deck and my memory is rather poor so I like to have written evidence to go back on decisions.
[b] Round 1 vs TraucoSpain (Madcap Experiment Monsters or Ponza we didn't see Blood Moon or Stone Rain effects so I'm not sure [/b]
Won the die roll
G1 Opener: Mountain x2, Desperate Ritual x2, Chainwhirler, Slagstorm, Chandra
Opponent mulligans to 6, we open with mountain pass, they show forest Noble Hierarch, we T2 Chainwhirler, they T2 windswept heath into Scavenging Ooze, we drop Chandra, kill the Ooze. Chandra gets bolted. Either way good start for us but he ends up resolving a Madcap experiment but we rip into an Abrade before even taking a hit. Over the next couple turns he attempts to rebuild with trackers and elves, I 3 for 2d, and 2 for 1d with Slagstorms (1 of mine one of his). We actually flooded out really bad in this game but after our fast start and our opponent getting to 3 we drew our second Slagstorm to win.
G2 Opener (6 cards): Mountain x2, Anger of the Gods, Rabblemaster, Chandra x2 (very slow hand but the anger seemed great against the dork/tracker starts and we didn't see stone rains in game one) On the play I probably wouldn't have kept this but we get to see a draw and a Spirit Guide or Ritual makes this hand gas.)
Opponent keeps 7 opens with elf, we rip the ritual on the first draw, we mountain pass hoping to get to see a 3rd creature which could make our anger a 3 for 1. This was greedy because he could bloodbraid into a stone rain or just acid moss or something like that. He does infact BBE into a Utopia Sprawl giving us the 3 for 1 on our anger. We end up stuck on 2 lands so his Stormbreath is able to finish the game. We had 2 bridges in hand just never got that 3rd land or a ritual.
G3 Opener: Mountain x2, Gemstone Caverns, Ritual, Bridge, Rabblemaster, Anger of the Gods
Opponent mulligans to 6 and doesn't play a dork or sprawl on turn 1. We play a Rabblemaster off our ritual that gets bolted the next turn. We drop bridge to use our mana up which I know exposes us to ancient grudge blowout but if they have it they have it. We flood our pretty bad here drawing lands and Spirit Guide but we get a 2 for 1 with Anger of the Gods killing Tracker and a 3/3 Ooze. We play out spirit guide and are in top deck mode against 4 cards in the opponents hand. He eventually finds an Ancient Grudge but on a creatureless board. Primal Commands a land to blank draw step but he has no pressure on us. He eventually drops a Thrun, I find a Chainwhirler and play it putting him to 9 while we're at 14. He Anger of the Gods and proceeds to just beat us with Thrun while we keep drawing lands.
[b] LOSS 1-2 [/b]
[b] Total Record: 0-1 [/b]
[b] Round 2 vs Bambur (Affinity) [/b]
Won the die roll
G1 Opener: Mountain, Gemstone Caverns x2, Chalice, Rabblemaster, Moon, Chandra
Opponent mulligans to 6 opens with Inkmoth, Drum, Opal, Memnite, Signal Pest. We Chalice for 0 on Turn 2. I'm not sure if this is a PUNT or not what do you guys think? Do I just put it on 1 at that point or is it worth blanking his future opals and ornithopters and such to make him spend at least one mana on things? I think it was the right decision but let me know. Anyway our draw for turn 2 was a Chainwhirler which looks MIGHTY JUICY if we can get to red mana or cast our blood moon to turn our cavern into a mountain without getting run over by a plating. He plays a vault skirge as his only turn 2 play and we draw a mountain for T3 and drop Blood Moon. No turn 3 play, we play Chainwhirler on 4, he responds to trigger with galvanic blast but still gets effectively 1 for 4'd. From here we played out our rabble and Chandra and at some point ripped a bridge for security. Opponent made a weird play blocking a rabble token with ravager, saccing his drum which just seemed wrong to me. It's not like he was gonna get there on that but he was top decking at that point more or less so who knows.
G2 Opener: Mountain x2, Ritual, Spirit Guide, Moon, Chalice, Damping Matrix (borderline nut draw vs this deck)
Opponent kept 7 plays signal pest memnite ornithoper on turn 1. We play Chalice on 1 off of spirit guide. It might have been right ot just Chalice 0 and ritual into blood moon especially since we drew a 3rd land on our first draw but after seeing a few zero's on his turn one I figured his hand would be empty of them and most of them are less threatening outside the opener. Again I'm not sure what you guys prefer to do I'd like some input! He turn 2's a ravager. We draw a Chainwhirler but Ritual into Damping Matrix. Opponent doesn't sac anything to the Ravager making me think maybe he has an Ancient Grudge or something. T3 he drops Steel Overseer and Ornithopter after an attack. Damping Matrix doing mad work here. This game would've been over without it. Our draw is Ensnaring Bridge. T3 we drop Blood Moon to make sure we have the red mana for Chainwhirler (one of our lands is a gemstone). We take attack down to 4. We T4 a Chainwhirler to 4 for 1 leaving him with 2 Ornithopters one of which is a 1/3 off modular. STart beating with Chainwhirler drop bridge with one card in hand at 3 life. He attacksdown to 2, plays vault skirge, We draw ritual and play our next chainwhirler to go down to 0 in hand. We would be dead to galvanic blast but we have Chalice on one. WE rip a rabble master and then another one a turn or two later and eventually hold in hand, swing with like 10 tokens, play land, rinse and repeat next turn for the game.
[b] WIN 2-0 [/b]
[b] Total Record: 1-1 [/b]
[b] Round 3 vs Saitrick (BW Eldrazi and Taxes) [/b]
Won the die roll
G1 Opener: Mountain x2, Ritual, Spirit Guide, Bridge x2, Slagstorm (fairly slow but blind I think I like the fast emptying hand into bridge)
We open Mountain and pass. I want to see some more information and if our opponent does have a discard effect I'm ok with losing anything since we have 2 bridges. They open with Concealed Courtyard and Vial. Likely BW Eldrazi and Taxes which means both Bridge, and Blood Moon are backbreakers for them. We draw Walking Ballista. We drop Ballista on 1 to deal with Thalia if we see it on turn 2. He drops E Temple into Displacer. We drop Bridge #1 and pass. My replay keeps bugging out on this one but what eventually happened was he was between Vial, Flickerwisp and Displacer he was able to flicker both bridges a few turns in a row and get in for lethal over a few turns.
G2 Opener: Mountain, Gemstone, Ritual, Abrade, Blood Moon, Anger of the Gods, Koth
Opponent mulliganed to 5. We mountain pass. They Vial. We turn 2 Blood Moon. Turn 3 we Abrade the Vial and eventually get the mana to play Koth/Chandra. Their deck runs probably like 2-4 basics in most lists so the turn 2 moon was just backbreaking.
G3 Opener: Scavnger Grounds, Ramunap Ruins, Spirit Guide, Ritual, Blood Moon, Abrade, Spyglass
This hand is a tad soft to discard if they get the moon but I think the opportunity to turn 1 moon against a deck with so few basics is just too good to pass up. We also have abrade to buy some time and spyglass for vial/displacer. Opponent plays tapped land, we turn 1 moon. Game is effectively over from here but we also ripped a Torpor orb just in case.
[b] WIN 2-0 [/b]
[b] Total Record: 2-1 [/b]
[b] Round 4 vs TheIvanHoe (Black White Tokens) [/b]
Lost the die roll
G1 Opener: Mountain x2, Scavenger Grounds, Ritual, Chainwhirler, Bridge
Opponent opens with Shambling Vent. We rip a Spirit Guide on our first draw which gives us a turn one Chainwhirler if we want it but I want to see more so we just pass. Turn 2 opponent drops Ghost Quarter and Bitterblossom. Black White Tokens it is! Our T2 draw is a Chalice which I promptly put down on 1. I'm gonna get a lot of value out of this Chanwhirler and don't want it taken out of my hand. I think you guys can already see where this is going but eventually they played a second bitterblossom but no intangible virtue and we just Chainwhirlered for like a 7 or 8 for one and then sat behind our bridge until they died.
G2 Opener: Mountain x2, Cavern x2, Chainwhirler, Moon, Koth
I punted this really hard by accidentally clicking both Gemstones into play pregame. Ended up losing the moon to a thoughtseize as well. Just a huge punt.
G3 Opener: Mountain, Scavenger Grounds, Spirit Guide x2, Chalice, Ballista, Moon
On the play Chalice on 1 into Turn 2 blood moon. This game was more or less over from there. Eventually found a clock with Chandra for the win. Another "Free Win Red" feeling hand. We salt minin' boiz!
[b] WIN 2-1 [/b]
[b] Total Record: 3-1 [/b]
[b] Round 5 vs Jundilion [/b]
Lost the die roll
G1 Opener: Mountain x3, Spirit Guide, Moon, Rabblemaster x2
Opponent mulligans to 5 and plays a Blackcleave cliffs but nothing else. We draw ritual on our first draw giving us turn 1 blood moon. I figured even if this is Pyro or Hollow One it's a stronger play than Rabblemaster. They end step cycle Carybid. Living death! They play a land pass, cycle some more on end step, rip their basic forest on turn 3 and living death. Game was over shortly after that.
G2 Opener: Mountain, Gemstone, Ballista, Rabble, Chandra
This was my worst keep of the day. I should have taken the mulligan to 4 for another chance at a Chalice on zero. We didn't see a single chalice or moon in our 7, 6, or 5. I know most living end lists run very few basics like 1-2 of each so I think we're justified in being this aggressive with the mulligan but I wasn't aggressive enough. I think I should have gone to 4. Either way we didn't hit any lock pieces this game and they just did the living end thing. Double street wraith, carybid, ingot chewer then outburst into living end.
[b] LOSS 0-2 [/b]
[b] Total Record: 3-2 [/b]
[b] Round 6 vs Thunderstriker7 (Jeskai Control) [/b]
Lost the die roll
G1 Opener: Mountain, Gemstone, Ritual, Slagstorm, Rabblemaster, Bridge x2
I pitched a bridge to the pregame Gemstone. Opponent opens on Scalding Tarn to vents to serum visions. Likely Jeskai control. Our first draw is a second rabblemaster. We play ritual into Rabble. On his turn he bolts it. l missed my 3rd land drop for 3 turns and by then he had a full grip and cryptic etc.
Game 2 Opener: Mountain x2 Gemstone, Eidolon of the Great Revel, Rabblemaster, Chainwhirler (not sure if this was really that keepable in this specific matchup. I feel like we need a Chalice or a Moon early and I should have mulliganed this one away. Thoughts?)
He just had answers to every threat I played and then we flooded out. This matchup I've beaten before but it's almost always on the back of an early blood moon or poor play from the opponent. Any thoughts on matchup breakers for this? I was running Scab Clan Berserkers last week and liked them quite a bit as another potential turn 1 out. Currently my board plan is to take out bridges and slagstorms and bring in spyglass x2, boil, and Eidolon x3.
[b] LOSS 0-2 [/b]
[b] Total Record: 3-3 [/b]
[b] Round 7 vs L_Herne (Abzan Midrange?) [/b]
Lost the die roll
G1 Opener: Mountain x2, Ritual, Spirit Guide, Walking Ballista, Rabblemaster
Opponent opens on Blooming Marsh into Thoughtseize and takes Rabblemaster. We rip mountain off the top, exile Spirit guide and play Ballista on 1. They play untapped Godless shrine and Scavenging Ooze. Top decked a blood moon, ritual into it to take them off all mana. He scoops the next turn.
G2 Opener: Mountain, Gemstone, Ritual, Chalice, Damping Matrix, Chandra
We didn't see much except an abzan shell and scavenging ooze plus thoughtseize so I put them on some sort of Abzan midrange/value list. I figure between stuff like Scavenging Ooze, Mana dorks, and Tireless Tracker (was well as the clue tokens), combined with a few of our main deck cards being soft like Rabblemaster I cut those for Matrix, Spellskite, Torpor Orb (for Rhino's or Reclamation sages post board).
He must have F6'd his first turn after my pregame Gemstone cavern because he just didn't land drop and passed the turn. We got to play Chalice on 1 and basically stole this game off that so not much to say here.
[b] WIN 2-0 [/b]
[b] Total Record: 4-3 [/b]
[b] Takeaways [b]
1) Goblin Chainwhirler solves so many problems for us. I didn't face pyromancer today but between Ponza, Pyromancer, Token strategies, and Affinity having a pseudo board wipe on a first striking body that stone walls a lot of creatures in the format to play defense for your walkers or until you can land a bridge is just so important and fills multiple roles in one card. I'm not sure it's worth having more than 2 yet but it's been a superstar so far.
2) Jeskai seems unwinnable without an early Chalice or Blood Moon. How have you all been handling this matchup? It's extremely popular right now and quite powerful so I wan't to have some game against it besides relying entirely on Moon.
3) I think I mostly had good mulligan deceisions besides the two that I highlighted. Anybody think I kept a bad 7 or 6 that I didn't say was bad above?
4) I'm getting better at the sequencing and knowing when to be aggressive vs when to deploy defense but I made the one Gemstone misclick which was just mechanical error.
Hope this helps and hope to get some feedback! Any of it would be greatly appreciated as I'm relatively new to the deck.
I guess I just need to keep it up and get more reps to recognize what keepable hands look like. Thanks for the advice Bludlust
My experience with it has been that it's a lightning rod for removal and can potentially clear the way for a Rabblemaster or Chainwhirler while dealing 2 to them. To me the only other option would be just a burn spell like lightning strike/magma spray or the like or perhaps something more specific but the strength of Eidolon is in leverage. It's a MUST KILL for a lot of decks and while they often have what they need it creates situations where they need to deal with that before doing other things. Making them spend a mana or two or path to ramp you a land and take 2 damage is often a combination of mana/life positive effect and while it seems small I'm not sure what else we'd be doing in that situation that doesn't get answered by the same things. Perhaps Mind Stone for ramp? (which I've seen in a couple lists)