Hand Examples
Written on June 4th, 2024 by Roughmar
The first two examples will have the ideas I’d try to convey to someone first playing the deck. The other examples further down the line will be a quick thought process over the ideas discussed in the primer.
Standard Examples
Classic hand that needs to be shipped but might seem ok at first.
You have a Phoenix in hand, but there’s a way to bin it.
The mana base has an awkward sequencing, but its manageable.
You have absolutely no agency with this, however.
Let’s quickly think through our first turns:
Assuming we’re on the play, we play the tapped land, pass. On the next turn we get 1 extra card, play Spirebluff, and we have the following options
- kill whatever creature they played with a removal that might be necessary later on and enter topdeck mode
- pass and enter topdeck mode
when will you realistically cast Treasure Cruise? Are you thinking of binning the Phoenix to Axe or the redundant cruise?
What about the argument of “just sandbagging it out and forking the Lightning Axe on 2 creatures opponent plays and bring back the phoenix?” That argument is advocating for a turn 4 play, where you completely tap out, and are banking in top decking either a perfect sequence of 2 land drops and a cantrip, without having any kind of control over it. The exact opposite of what you want to do.
If you think over it, this hand is a pseudo mulligan to 4, and a really bad one at it.
If we’re on the draw, the hand still has to be shipped. You get to see an extra card, but not having any kind of control over what is coming, or being able to shape out your hand, is a recipe for scooping when the lands don’t come, or the cantrips don’t appear.
I can’t think of a single matchup where I’d keep this hand.
Although it looks extremely similar to the first hand, this is a keep. You still have the Phoenix/Axe combo, and the Delve card, but this time you are no longer dependant on your oponent, and are actually able to create a proactive plan with both Ledger Shredder and Picklock Prankster.
The reasons are sort of nuanced, but hopefully they’ll make sense.
You have a way to remove a high priority threat with Axe (just like the previous case), but you also have a way to send it away, in case it’s a match where it has no relevance with connive triggers. Although there’s no Air ready, you can prepare it with Free the Fae.
Bear in mind, however, that this is a hand that can still go sort of wrong, but you still have some agency in the game if that happens.
How can this go wrong?
- Opponent counters your Free the Fae. You still have Shredder, but no way to trigger connive and keep weaving cards. You’re on topdeck mode.
- Free the Fae only sees removal. You’re still sort of ok in this situation, as Cruise is closer to being online (3 cards in the grave +2 from potential Lightning Axe), but you are banking on being able to use the removal, else it’s topdeck mode.
- You’re Thoughtseized and they Fatal Push the Ledger Shredder. Still not horrible, depends on what they Thoughtseized. If they take the Treasure Cruise, there’s still game. If they take the Picklock, you’re kinda banking on topdeck mode, but can potentially rebuild with Treasure Cruise.
How can this go right?
- First 2 draws are Land/Cantrip in no particular order. Game is absolutely on.
Sequencing Alert
Lands
Thinking through our first turns, the land sequencing is actually important here and can send signals to your opponent. If you play Spirebluff on turn 1, and don’t draw an untapped land, you will be forced to shock the Steam Vents to either cast Ledger Shredder, or go for Free the Fae. If the choice turns out to be Free the Fae at the opponent’s end step, you are signaling that you are potentially going to cast something 1 entire turn rotation ahead of time.
The usual choice would be to play Steam Vents on turn 1, play Spirebluff turn 2, and leave the opponent in the dark about your intentions.
However, you might want to force mental games in this situation, especially with a hand that isn’t that fast, as is the case of this one. You can shock the Steam Vents on turn 1 to represent something. If the opponent drops a creature and you don’t kill it, and then passes the turn and you don’t cantrip, you just manifested a Spell Pierce in their head that doesn’t exist.
Spells
Assuming you get the best case scenario of Land/Cantrip discussed previously, you are now actually playing the deck. There’s some options to consider for turn 2:
- Cantrip, (assuming that was our draw) to make sure we get the 3rd land
- Shredder, so next turn we can connive and start growing it
- Free the Fae on our turn
- Free the Fae on opponent's turn
The highest risk/reward option is the shredder. If it doesn’t get removed on sight, we can start having a growing threat while filling the grave. We’ll be able to keep rolling in spells and be proactive. Notice that you are able to connive both in your turn and attack for 2, or wait for theirs, effectively representing a range of possibilities from your hand to your opponent for the measly cost of 1 damage.
Free the Fae on our turn only makes sense if there’s a potential for counterspells. Casting Free the Fae and getting a Thoughtseize after is a recipe to tilt (not that you wouldn’t get Thoughseize’d anyway, but at least your opponent won’t know you are tapped out, and you can make an informed decision if he still goes for it).
Free the Fae on opponent’s endstep is perfectly fine, but you need to be able to justify it if the play next turn will be Shredder into cantrip anyway (since you won’t be able to attack, and you just tapped out on your turn so you can connive).
Cantrip to get the 3rd land is the most conservative option, but the one that hinders your plan the most. You are not presenting a threat on the board and you are not advancing your plan.
Keeps
Bit too much on lands, but we can control the top. Go for opts on their endstep. Spirebluff to represent everything, into Hall.
One lander but it’s a dual and we have Air. Sequencing can be tricky here as that spell pierce can be really good or really bad. Either shock and go for Sleight of Hand to find the second land, or pass and hold pierce to counter a Thoughtseize and Consider at their endstep if the coast is clear. Issue with this is that Shredder isn’t amazing against Thoughtseize decks (as they have Fatal Push) and you are banking on drawing a land on your draw step. You can still go for the cantrip on your second turn after pierce, but the game will shape differently.
No removal but we have more than enough Air to get to it. Shredder on top and Cruise to rebuild. It’s not great if against an aggro deck and they kill Shredder outright, but if he holds, you’re golden.
Ships
Complicated hand. Not knowing the matchup I’m tending to send it away. There’s the argument to just hold the pierce and play shredder on turn 3 and triggering connive with axe if they have a threat on the board, but presently that’s the only way it connives. You can be on topdeck mode starting turn 2. I understand if people defend the keep but you have way better 6 hands.
Temporal Trespass in the starting hand always represents -1 card. The mana base isn’t fantastic and you might have a 4 hander without knowing if that removal never finds a target.
Unless I know for sure I am against Hidden Strings I really don’t feel confortable keeping 2 pierces without either removal, early board presence, or more Air. If that Phoenix or 3rd land was another cantrip, or Picklock/Shredder, I’d keep in a heartbeat.
Sneeps
3 Lands, Air, Board Present, hand shaping, card selection, removal. Can’t ask for more.
Early counter and Air. We can shape what we get. Would be better if 4th land was Air, but we can live with it. There’s no board presence, but again, we can find it.
This is the type of hand a lot of people will say is a mulligan because it does nothing. This is the type of hand people looking at you play will say you were lucky because you had nothing. This is a Quantum hand. There’s a lot of variance in it, and sometimes it’ll whiff, but you need to play for the outs.
Holy shit. You get to live the dream of playing opt on turn 1 to find the land. Draw. Shredder. Draw. Shredder, and you should have a 3rd lander by now to get 2 connive triggers and just go to town.
Controversial Keeps
Compare with the first Ship example. My first gut feeling here is to keep, despite having no board presence and one less land (and lesser quality of lands at that). Being able to sequence:
- Riverglide, pass. See info from the other side with pierce up.
- Sleight of Hand. Land drop, pass.
And effectively be able to keep pierce or removal up (although with the land issue) while shaping my future, appeals more than just slamming a Shredder and praying.
Lands are a good system. The current mulligan system is perfect. Non-games are good actually. Mulling to 2 on the play to find a land is based. pic.twitter.com/bVMxCBHiGH
— Aikado (@AikadoLoR) May 5, 2024
This one is controversial only in how some people defend keeping it. In no scenario should this hand be kept, despite the outcome that followed from the mulligans. This is one of those confirmation bias that you should really try to abstain from.
You go first and have a single colored land. If you don’t find the second land from that Sleight, game is over. If you do:
- Play land, Shredder
- let's assume you have a target for one of the Fiery Impulses
(which have no way of dealing 3 damage)
- ???
There’s absolutely no plan for this hand.
Matchup Dependant
This is an extremely shit hand that I would snap keep if I saw a Jegantha on the other side, or knew in advance my opponent was playing an aggro deck.
