How would you play this hand?

[Onslaught]

Game one on the play, unknown opponent (he did not mulligan), and you are a Gush deck. Your opening hand is:

Misty Rainforest, Mox Pearl, Polluted Delta, Demonic Tutor, Mystical Tutor, Mind's Desire, Talrand

Some notable things: you don't have Tinker in the deck, you do have a Timetwister available, and the storm kill is Brain Freeze. Other than that it's just basic Gush stuff with Repeals and a Regrowth.

Is there any circumstance in which you wouldn't keep this hand against an unknown opponent? What would your opening tactic be, and what would be the long term strategy you were aiming for? After some votes I'll say what I ended up doing and what the opponent's opening play was.

[A.-1.]

The first thing that immediately came to mind was play a fetch getting U Sea, play Pearl, and D Tutor for FoW. On turn two, I'd upkeep Mystical for Ancestral, play the other fetch getting Trop, and cast Ancestral.

After giving it some more thought, I don't think there is any circumstance I would not keep this hand versus an unknown. I haven't played Gush in several months, and I very rarely play a truly unknown opponent these days. That said, the line of play I listed is rather conservative for those reasons. I feel like it's solid versus just about anything except Dredge. My long-term goal would be to survive the first few turns, so I could get into the later stages of the game with Talrand and ride that to victory.

[brokenbacon]

I agree entirely with A-1 - I was literally just about to post that line of play when I got the "new post" warning.

[Onslaught]

I did indeed end up going Delta for Sea, Pearl, DT for FOW, pass, with the plan being to Mystical for Recall on my upkeep, then play the Misty and cast Recall with FOW backup. He ended up being BUG Fish and opened with Duress, which I let resolve (and he took Mystical).

Had the Ancestral resolved, the obvious plan from there was to get ahead on cards/mana and play a protected Talrand, with a backup plan of building a reasonably sized midgame Mind's Desire. In retrospect I am positive that this is the optimal line of play, I guess the real question is whether or not there is anyone out there who wouldn't keep a hand like this in the first place.

[xouman]

I've never played gush, and it seems I still shouldn't. I was thinking about DT for Gush or lotus, but never Fow, and if I chose Lotus my question was if I should play it right then or wait until next turn. Then play mystical upkeep for ancestral and see what happens...

I see gush as a combo deck, more aggresive than control, so fetching for FOW was not in my radar...

I would keep the hand against ANY pairing, probably. You have to be very lucky to draw 6-cards hands better than this one...

[A.-1.]

How did that game/match go? Would you have done anything differently if you knew your opponent was on BUG Fish?

The turn one Duress may have thrown me off a bit. That's not a card choice I would not have expected to see in Fish.

[Grand Inquisitor]

In retrospect I am positive that this is the optimal line of play

I'm surprised everyone is converging so quickly on this as being so obvious.  It seems that many opposing plays turn the DT>FoW>MT>AR chain into a waste of resources.  A mental misstep turns this into an even trade (MT, draw, FoW + Blue = -4 + 3 cards for AR = -1 for the misstep).  If they have misstep + FoW, you're behind, same thing if they have flusterstorm.

Why not hold up fetch + mox and get some information first?  You can still Mystical on their end step and then DT>FoW before playing Ancestral on your turn.  This seems strictly better.

If they show blue mana up, you can always not play anything, DT for Lotus on your turn and then plan a Mystical>Gush>Lotus>Desire or something similar on turn 3.

Trying to FoW thru an early ancestral seems to be too much resources with too much risk without any synergy with Talrand or MDesire.

[Onslaught]

How did that game/match go? Would you have done anything differently if you knew your opponent was on BUG Fish?

The turn one Duress may have thrown me off a bit. That's not a card choice I would not have expected to see in Fish.

After the Duress took my Mystical, he played a Revoker on Pearl and eventually Vamped for a Recall. He Flusterstormed my FOW, Thoughtseized Talrand, and eventually resolved a Trygon. I was drawing junk and used Regrowth for Mystical, which got Recall, which resolved. Off the Recall I got a Vamp, which I used for Gush. Just kept drawing empty and the attacking for 4 a turn finally got me. If I had known he was something aggroish, I probably would have done the same thing. MAYBE something like DT for Lotus to get Talrand down T2, but thats just with the hindsight of knowing he had a T1 Duress.

Games two and three went smoother, mainly just using Repeal on Tarm, Bob, Null Rod, etc. bought me ebough time to bully through some sizable Mind's Desire kills.

I'm surprised everyone is converging so quickly on this as being so obvious.

I think your plan is thoughtful, but too conservative (especially for a Gush deck). Even if I had to FOW a Misstep, I'd still do that original line of play. In terms of raw card advantage it isn't that amazing, but getting three cards deeper is worth it IMO. I want lands to develop a board/be able to Gush if his deck has Wastelands (which it did), I want a fourth mana source to be able to even cast Talrand, I want to dig for something that leads to getting Fastbond up and running, and so on and so forth. At the same time, the FoW you DT for can be used defensively too. Imagine if he was Workshops, and you simply passed the turn without any using any mana to wait and see? The game would be fairly close to over at that point if he had a Wasteland + Sphere effect.

[Wagner]

and eventually Vamped for a Recall.
Off the Recall I got a Vamp,

Nice 

[Onslaught]

He played Vamp for Recall. I played Regrowth for Mystical for Recall, and drew into Vamp off that. Was that unclear?

[Grand Inquisitor]

too conservative (especially for a Gush deck). Even if I had to FOW a Misstep

My line of play allows exactly the same options of yours, except by reversing the order of MT/DT, you give yourself more information.  The only card you're hurt by more is Spell Pierce, which seems a small risk.

Re: sphere effects, you can still respond to a sphere by going Mystical>Ancestral.  With Land + Mox, you can even do this through a first sphere (in case they have the mana to go Sphere, Chalice@1) to get something else like Hurkyls.  It's even resilient to wasteland (tho without FoW backup if they play something like Thalia).  This line even avoids the play you got hit by, duress.

I see no reason to limit options so early.  Perhaps I'm still missing something?

[Wagner]

He played Vamp for Recall. I played Regrowth for Mystical for Recall, and drew into Vamp off that. Was that unclear?

Ahhh, my bad, I got the players confused apparently.

[PeAcH]

I would go:

Fetch, Pearl go. Wait for my opponent to play.

If nothing relevant is on his side: i.e. no bazaar or no shop no Bob or anything really menacing, I would crack fetch for Usea, EOT Mistycal for FOW. If he Missteps/Flusters, you have the path clean for DT into Recall. I would rather have the options open until EOT as you don´t know what you are facing so maybe you can go from defensive to offensive switching gears up.

Fetch, Sea, Demonic tutor for Black Lotus, play Lotus, Talrand.

It´s an hyperaggressive play, and if they don´t Fluster the tutor, you have the wincon on the table (protected with FOW for countermagic or to protect Talrand and produce a Drake) already to start pushing.

[serracollector]

fetch, mox, pass
EOT mystical for Twister
DT for Lotus, Lotus>Twister, with 1land up, and pray u get an awesome 7.
That is so easy to discover that it suggests conspicuousness or little need for perspicacity in the observer.

[Onslaught]

To those of you passing the turn without playing DT, I think you are underestimating the power of maximizing your mana on that opening turn and having a FoW as a defensive option. What if they have a bomb on their first turn? You can't do anything but sit and watch, and if it's something that needs to be answered then you have to be playing a 1 mana answer to it or hope that they don't have a counter (EOT Mystical for the answer, untap and DT for FOW to protect the answer). If you had DTed before passing, you still have the flexibility of Mystical for an answer (but it can be a 2 mana answer), as well as the option to FOW their potential first turn bomb, and of course still maintaining the ability to play a protected Ancestral on turn 2.

Fetch, Sea, Demonic tutor for Black Lotus, play Lotus, Talrand.

If I had any other spell in my hand (especially a Repeal), I would consider this. But I think you have to develop some resources with Recall first, otherwise Talrand is just sitting there not doing anything with a Mind's Desire in hand until you topdeck into something (while also being vulnerable if you used the FOW from Mystical in order to resolve him).

fetch, mox, pass
EOT mystical for Twister
DT for Lotus, Lotus>Twister, with 1land up, and pray u get an awesome 7.

If Twister gets countered, you pretty much just lost with this line of play.

[serracollector]

High risk, high reward.  Not always the correct play style, but just because its different doesn't mean its wrong. If you were playing dredge this would of been the most optimal play I would think?  Unless you got some maindeck hate to DT/Mystical for other than Twister into awesomeness? 

[Cruel Ultimatum]

The first thing that immediately came to mind was play a fetch getting U Sea, play Pearl, and D Tutor for FoW. On turn two, I'd upkeep Mystical for Ancestral, play the other fetch getting Trop, and cast Ancestral.

I am really surprised that this is the general consensus in this thread. I don't even think this even an acceptable line of play. Even if the don't have the blowout flusterstorm, mental misstep, chalice 1, island mox sapphire drain, force of will, misdirection, sphere effect, or a wasteland, you still burned two tutors to see two cards and bin our ancestral.

[Wagner]

The first thing that immediately came to mind was play a fetch getting U Sea, play Pearl, and D Tutor for FoW. On turn two, I'd upkeep Mystical for Ancestral, play the other fetch getting Trop, and cast Ancestral.

I am really surprised that this is the general consensus in this thread. I don't even think this even an acceptable line of play. Even if the don't have the blowout flusterstorm, mental misstep, chalice 1, island mox sapphire drain, force of will, misdirection, sphere effect, or a wasteland, you still burned two tutors to see two cards and bin our ancestral.

Agreed, if the opponent does have 1 bomb on turn 1, you lose your first 2 turns just trading all your good resources to not come off ahead. If he does have another relevant play on turn 2, you're way behind.

I'd either go reactive by waiting with mana up or go all in, especially blindly. Getting a Force would not have crossed my mind execept if I know my opponent is on combo.