[Single Card Discussion] Street Wraith

[Scyther]

I think SW is just awfull in Fastbond based decks, especially Grow. Arguments are obvious imo...
It perfectly fits in Ichorid and maybe Long-Variants, but in most other decks I see definetly way better options for cheap card drawing.

Except that the arguments are not obvious at all. Street Wraith isn't card-drawing - it's a way to run less cards in your deck, increasing the odds of pulling any one card off the top. Since Fastbond decks really like their singletons (like, Fastbond), Street Wraith is actually really good.

I think Methusalahn just hit it.


For explanation of my first post: Fastbond based decks allready takes alot of damage (ok, its life)  and take another 2 for replacing a handcard with an (mostly) unknown card from the deck seems to me just awfull.
I allready tested it in GAT and there one definetly want Opt/ Sleight of hand instead. As someone said befor: It support the gameplan in so many ways: Pitch, draw land, Grow (!). Insted of just go for an unknown card or use a topdeck tutor to get what u want now.

[diopter]

I think SW is just awfull in Fastbond based decks, especially Grow. Arguments are obvious imo...
It perfectly fits in Ichorid and maybe Long-Variants, but in most other decks I see definetly way better options for cheap card drawing.

Except that the arguments are not obvious at all. Street Wraith isn't card-drawing - it's a way to run less cards in your deck, increasing the odds of pulling any one card off the top. Since Fastbond decks really like their singletons (like, Fastbond), Street Wraith is actually really good.

I think Methusalahn just hit it.


For explanation of my first post: Fastbond based decks allready takes alot of damage (ok, its life)  and take another 2 for replacing a handcard with an (mostly) unknown card from the deck seems to me just awfull.
I allready tested it in GAT and there one definetly want Opt/ Sleight of hand instead. As someone said befor: It support the gameplan in so many ways: Pitch, draw land, Grow (!). Insted of just go for an unknown card or use a topdeck tutor to get what u want now.

I think you need to retest Wraith in GAT. Paying mana for Opt's effect is about the worst thing you can do in GAT. Sleight of Hand is a bit better as it actually gives you card selection, but it's no Brainstorm and your curve is already stuffed with one-mana spells.

You are vastly underrating the fact that Wrait's effect costs zero mana. You will have all of your mana available to play whatever you draw off Wraith, because you didn't have to pay for it. I'd rather Wraith into a Scroll/Brainstorm/Dryad/whatever and be able to play it this turn, than Sleight/Opt into those cards and have to wait until next turn to play them.

The pitch/Grow arguments don't hold water. It is a very VERY minor consideration compared to mana cost. Leviathan pitches to FoW and grows the Dryad, but nobody plays it in GAT.

[Scyther]

Leviathan does not draw cards... -.-
I know how sorious you meant this, but come on.
In Gat there are 3-4 Slots for cheap card drawing and maybe I'll test itagain but I think in fact you vastly underrate the fact that SW draws nearly always an unknown card.(even Opt has mor 'selection')
And come on: Why do you play Grow if the Grow argument is not necessary?
Also GAT goes not quite seldom the Control route and than the extra life loss raelly hurts if it leads to nothing. Even the fact that it steel two (certanly more) additional land drops in the combo-fastbond turn makes it drastically unattractive for me.
Maybe it's also personal preference but I want to support more the gameplan than draw a card "for free"...

Also: I think the SW phenomenon is somehow simmilar to the one that the Fetchlands brought up years ago. The thinning effect is sooo marginal imo and even with enough fetchies the lifeloss does not justify its thinning/ drawing effect.

But just my 2 cents ^^

[diopter]

Leviathan does not draw cards... -.-
I know how sorious you meant this, but come on.
In Gat there are 3-4 Slots for cheap card drawing and maybe I'll test itagain but I think in fact you vastly underrate the fact that SW draws nearly always an unknown card.(even Opt has mor 'selection')
And come on: Why do you play Grow if the Grow argument is not necessary?
Also GAT goes not quite seldom the Control route and than the extra life loss raelly hurts if it leads to nothing. Even the fact that it steel two (certanly more) additional land drops in the combo-fastbond turn makes it drastically unattractive for me.
Maybe it's also personal preference but I want to support more the gameplan than draw a card "for free"...

Also: I think the SW phenomenon is somehow simmilar to the one that the Fetchlands brought up years ago. The thinning effect is sooo marginal imo and even with enough fetchies the lifeloss does not justify its thinning/ drawing effect.

But just my 2 cents ^^

The card you draw off Street Wraith can potentially be used to grow Dryad instead of playing Sleight or Opt and have to wait a turn to play the card you drew. Wraith lets you do something with the card you drew now. Meanwhile Sleight or Opt give you an effect that is in many circumstances the same effect as Street Wraith, but you have to spend mana to do it.

Note that what I say above does not mean that Street Wraith is better than a card like Brainstorm - that lets you keep multiple cards from your library and clear dead cards from your hand, making its effect worth one mana.

This is really all there is to it:
-> Sleight/Opt give you card quality that isn't worth one mana.
-> Street Wraith gives you card quality for free.
-> Brainstorm gives you card quality that is worth one mana.

In other words, Brainstorm > Street Wraith > Sleight/Opt, and I'll play the first two as 4-ofs in almost every deck I build because they give you affordable card quality.

[Purple Hat]

also street wraith's ability is better in your worst matchup, stax, than opt because with a sphere in play you can still wraith for 0 mana while opt now costs 1U.  the life loss issue has mattered quite a bit in my testing though.  it comes up a lot against tendrils decks where they could get storm to 8 or 9 but not 9 or 10 respectively.  wraith has also been great for me in situations where my hand is keepable with out much disruption but wraith allows me to draw into disruption while keeping drain mana or draw and cast duress turn 1 or similar plays where opt would not.  I'm still torn between the two and go back and forth almost daily.  the more I test the less I like wraith but the more I'm concerned about the mana cost of opt.

[Xman]

I run 3 Wraiths in my GAT.  They do wonders, though occasionally I feel the life crunch.  But it is just to good in a deck like GAT< though I can definatly see the other side.  After all, GAT is already a pretty life intensive deck.

I think where Wraith really shines is with the Topdeck Tutors if you need an answer to something RIGHT NOW.  It does wonders allowing you to do whatever you want.  Yes, it turns into card disadvantage with the topdeck tutors, but it essentially changes Mystical into a much better tutor (already a good tutor) for jus 2 life more.  Worth it in my opinion.

[squeegee]

also street wraith's ability is better in your worst matchup, stax, than opt because with a sphere in play you can still wraith for 0 mana while opt now costs 1U.  the life loss issue has mattered quite a bit in my testing though.  it comes up a lot against tendrils decks where they could get storm to 8 or 9 but not 9 or 10 respectively.  wraith has also been great for me in situations where my hand is keepable with out much disruption but wraith allows me to draw into disruption while keeping drain mana or draw and cast duress turn 1 or similar plays where opt would not.  I'm still torn between the two and go back and forth almost daily.  the more I test the less I like wraith but the more I'm concerned about the mana cost of opt.

Not just sphere, but CoV at 1 and trinisphere.  Now, I haven't played with SW, but it does seem to have it's advantages in a deck like GAT. 

And I have alway thought that opt and sleight were bad.  Isn't that why they were in Meandeck Tendrils??  j/k

[Juice]

Letting aside the mulligan and life problems, SW can't be compared to brainstorm or opt/Sleight.
As mentionned before, its utility is to thin the deck to play like a 56 cards deck. That means that the question of replacing a card by SW (opt for example) is not the good way of thinking. the good way is to build a perfect 56 cards deck and then add the SW. So opt should remain in GAT. The wraiths will simply affect the ratios.

[Purple Hat]

Letting aside the mulligan and life problems, SW can't be compared to brainstorm or opt/Sleight.
As mentionned before, its utility is to thin the deck to play like a 56 cards deck. That means that the question of replacing a card by SW (opt for example) is not the good way of thinking. the good way is to build a perfect 56 cards deck and then add the SW. So opt should remain in GAT. The wraiths will simply affect the ratios.

well...in theory... but the problem is that in gat the 3 opts are there as cards 58,59 and 60 for essentially the exact same reason that street wraith would be...they cycle.  you can't go below 18 mana sources realistically so you can't really cut one for a wraith the way that you would with a normal 60 card deck (to get the ratios right in a 56 card deck you should cut at least 1 mana source).  so the choice in gat really is wraith or opt.

[Vegeta2711]

Street Wraith is excellent as a 2 or 3-of IF you can get the additional boost for Tarmogoyf (i.e. running them in the first place) otherwise you simply lose too much like to just give up 2-4 by running multiples of it. Like I would run 4 if Bomberman went back to being a non-factor, but until then I can't see running more than 1 in a normal GAT deck.

[Purple Hat]

Street Wraith is excellent as a 2 or 3-of IF you can get the additional boost for Tarmogoyf (i.e. running them in the first place) otherwise you simply lose too much like to just give up 2-4 by running multiples of it. Like I would run 4 if Bomberman went back to being a non-factor, but until then I can't see running more than 1 in a normal GAT deck.

I haven't done enough testing of the bomberman match, it's this week's project, but gat needs literally all the help it can get vs stax a lot of the time and wraith kicks the crap out of opt in that matchup and I honestly have been preferring it vs flash because it lets you draw the extra card on turn 0 even though it doesn't let you dig as deep.  also you can wraith into duress and cast it vs combo which opt can't do without a jet or sapphire.

[Juice]

Letting aside the mulligan and life problems, SW can't be compared to brainstorm or opt/Sleight.
As mentionned before, its utility is to thin the deck to play like a 56 cards deck. That means that the question of replacing a card by SW (opt for example) is not the good way of thinking. the good way is to build a perfect 56 cards deck and then add the SW. So opt should remain in GAT. The wraiths will simply affect the ratios.

well...in theory... but the problem is that in gat the 3 opts are there as cards 58,59 and 60 for essentially the exact same reason that street wraith would be...they cycle.  you can't go below 18 mana sources realistically so you can't really cut one for a wraith the way that you would with a normal 60 card deck (to get the ratios right in a 56 card deck you should cut at least 1 mana source).  so the choice in gat really is wraith or opt.

Even if brainstorm, opt, sleight, etc. try to execute the same purpose - cycle your deck to have more chances to see your bombs - the fact that the SW costs zero (mana) make all the difference with the others spells because you instantly replace it with another card without using your mana.
I think we shouldn't think to cut one for one or try to make replacements. We should just try to make a 56 cards deck and just add the SW in the end.
The final question is "is a 56 cards deck better than a 60 cards deck ?" as sometimes we wonder if adding the 61st card would be acceptable or not.

[Addolorisi]

the fact that the SW costs zero (mana) make all the difference with the others spells because you instantly replace it with another card without using your mana.

You still have to keep in mind that SW is not free. If the meta shapes to have a lot of bomberman and GAT mirror matches, the 2 life suddenly becomes relevant as your digging begins to radically shorten the opponent's clock. In a sea of combo and control the drawback really is minimal, but if you're expecting to see a fair amount of aggro SW becomes worse.

Also, to say that Opt is not comparable to SW is fallacious. People don't run Opt to dig for bombs - that's a job for cards that give a meaningful manipulation (Scrolls, Brainstorm, tutors). They justify the 1 mana cost because Opt will grow a Dryad and because it does give a modicum of card selection. Both of those are secondary bonuses to the real purpose to running Opt, not the main reasons.

[LordHomerCat]

I really like Street Wraith, and I really like free cycling, but I ended up playing Opt in my Gro lists just because it pitches to Force of Will.  At the MD Open last Sunday, I think I pitched Opt to Force or MisD more often than I even cast the thing, because I usually didn't need to try and dig really fast for anything so it was better to just sit on it.  In my testing, I found Street Wraith was rather annoying in opening hands, and although the life loss was rarely relevant, if I had to cycle 3 in a game and combo out with a suboptimal setup, I was having some life issues (with having to cast Vamp multiple times and gush/fastbond eating away as well).  Honestly, I love Street Wraith, but in Gro I'd rather have Opt because it is blue, and in most matchups I don't need to frantically dig as fast as possible because I can sit back and play a more controlling style with Drains, a robust draw engine, and more spells in my deck than everyone else anyway.

Also, Opt does grow the dryad, but I don't find myself going Dryad aggro all that often (more often just dropping one mid-late game and getting him to like 4/4 or something and attacking a few times), so that's not really all that important, since by the time I'm really getting on the offensive, I can cast gushes and scrolls anyway.