Minor Deckbuilding Questions

There's a few questions I always ask myself when I build a deck but often are of little strategic significance. I decided to share my reflection with you. Should I play Red Elemental Blast or Pyroblast? How should I split my fetchlands? Should I play Snow-Covered lands or not? Should I play functional reprints or not? Those questions aren't only relevant to Vintage but also to other formats so I have included examples from other formats since most of the differences are pretty small. My conclusions are made with Eternal formats in mind. There might be some differences between Vintage and Legacy but they're pretty minor. I've underlined the factors I thought were the most relevant for normal Vintage play.

Let's start with the easiest one: Should I run functional reprints or not?

It might not applies that much to vintage since most cards played have no functional reprint but since there's some almost identical cards played like the aforementioned Red Elemental Blast, Snow-Covered Lands and Fetchlands it will be a good introduction. Some rarely played decks contain functional reprints namely Elves with Fyndhorn Elves, Llanowar Elves and Elvish Mystic. Some examples from Legacy are Armageddon and Ravages of War. Obviously, if you play more than 4 copies you need to play both but you still need to ask yourselves how you split them. I'll try to list the pros and the cons of playing a mix of the two compared to only one.

Pro:
You've less chances to be 2 for 1 by Cabal Therapy.
You'll be less impacted by Meddling Mage (and Nevermore).
The card will be more resilient to Surgical Extraction, Extirpate, Echoing Truth and to a lesser extent Izzet Staticaster, Maelstrom Pulse, Detention Sphere (and the Urza cycle of Sowing Salt, etc.).
It improves Tainted Pact and Gifts Ungiven if you play them.
You might bluff that you play Tainted Pact or Gifts Ungiven.
Pithing Needle and Phyrexian Revoker will impact you less.
You might bluff that you play more than 4 copies of the card.

Con:
Your opponent may get to know that you play more than 1 copy of the card.
Some information can be randomly given to your opponent. (If your opponent know cards in your hand and you then discard the functional copy to an Hymn to Tourach, some information about your hand will be revealed.)
You can't get rid of both copies with a Cabal Therapy if you need to get Hellbent with Infernal Tutor or Ensnaring Bridge.

There's still some consideration for 3-1, 2-1, 3-2 or 4-1 split. If you play more of the lesser well known card or the most expensive one, e.g. Fyndhorn Elves or Ravages of War, your opponent should name the most common one with Cabal Therapy or Meddling Mage. Playing the less played card is good for blind call but not if your opponent has seen some before. Your opponent will most likely name the card he has seen the more often thus playing uncommon card won't help you. If you keep a split close to even, your opponent will see both cards pretty equally and won't be able to name the card he has seen the more often for a major gain. If he has seen both cards equally he might name the most common card because he's more familiar with it or he thinks your not crazy enough to buy Ravages of War just to beat Cabal Therapy.

There's some considerations to what your opponent will think, if he assumes you have an even split you can mislead him if you don't. If you've 2 Fyndhorn Elves and 1 Llanowar Elves in your graveyard, he might extirpate Llanowar Elves by assuming you probably have 1 more Llanowar Elves than Fyndhorn Elves remaining in your deck or an equal number at worst. This could give some arguments for unequal split but I'm unsure it's a big enough edge.

It should also be noted that if you play cards from different editions or languages, highly damaged or altered cards you lose all the advantages from playing all identical cards but with all the disadvantages.

Cards to consider in current metagame: Surgical Extraction, Extirpate, Cabal Therapy, Gifts Ungiven, Phyrexian Revoker, Pithing Needle, Echoing Truth
Other cards to consider: Meddling Mage, Tainted Pact, Hymn to Tourach, Izzet Staticaster, Maelstrom Pulse, Detention Sphere

Conclusion: With all the cards currently played favoring a diversity of cards, you should play an even split of reprints with the less known card as the extra if you play an odd number.

Now let's consider a more interesting case: Should I run Pyroblast or Red Elemental Blast?

This is the case that comes the more often but it's the same as Hydroblast or Blue Elemental Blast. Let's look at the pros and cons of Pyroblast and Hydroblast.

Pro:
You can play it on any spell or permanent to increase storm count. Relevant to Flusterstorm, Tendrils of Agony, Empty the Warrens and Brainfreeze.
You can play it to increase your graveyard size. Relevant to Tombstalker, Grim Lavamancer, Psychatog, Barbarian Ring, Cabal Ritual, Cephalid Coliseum, Nimble Mongoose and Putrid Imp
You can play it to reduce your hand size. Relevant to Library of Alexandria and getting Hellbent with Infernal Tutor.
You can play it to have it available in your graveyard after a Memory Jar activation. Relevant to Yawgmoth's Will, Past in Flames and Snapcaster Mage.
You can play it to trigger a Quirion Dryad or a Young Pyromancer.
You can play it to avoids having it exiled with Necropotence when you discard.
You can play it to prevent your opponent using it against you when he uses Mindslaver. Relevant if you've blue spells in hand or blue permanents in play.
You can play it to pump Tarmogoyf if there's no instant in the graveyard.
You can target Phantasmal Image even if it copies a non-blue creature.

Con:
You can't keep it in your hand after your opponent has used Mindslaver on you if you've no blue spell or permanent.
Your opponent can play it from your hand as a target for all the counterspells in your hand if you only have counterspells when he uses Mindslaver on you.
Your opponent can redirect pyroblast to an innocuous target if you play it against one of his permanents. Relevant to Misdirection and Divert.

Cards in your deck making Pyroblast better: Tarmogoyf, Flusterstorm, Tendrils of Agony, Empty the Warrens, Grim Lavamancer, Barbarian Ring, Cabal Ritual, Young Pyromancer
Cards in your opponents deck making Red Elemental Blast better: Misdirection, Mindslaver if you don't play blue
Cards in your opponents deck making Pyroblast better: Phantasmal Image, Mindslaver if you play blue

Conclusion: With Misdirection not being commonly played and Mindslaver only rarely, it seems that if you play a card that makes Pyroblast better you should play it over Red Elemental Blast. You also need to consider if you want a split of both, those reasons were discussed in the functional reprint part. There's no fast rules for that since you need to consider the impact of the cards you play and the cards your opponents play.

Let's now consider the Snow-Covered lands.

This one is pretty easy since they're functional reprints for almost all purpose since they're basic lands. From the list of cards caring about functional reprints only Gifts Ungiven, Tainted Pact and Hymn to Tourach cares about them. Let's do a quick pro and con of playing Snow-Covered Lands.

Pro:
It makes your opponent wonders if you play a card that cares about them. Relevant to Gifts Ungiven, Tainted Pact and the farfetched Mouth of Ronom, Extraplanar Lens, Scrying Sheets, Skred.
It improves Gifts Ungiven if you want to get basic lands with it.
It improves Tainted Pact if you play more than 1 basic land of a given type.
You might get some slight boost from your opponent cards if you play Nightveil Specter.

Con:
It might gives free information to your opponent about how many basic lands you play.
If you play Tainted Pact and Gifts Ungiven, it might gives hint to your opponent that you play the card.
It interacts negatively with Demonic Consultation if you need to get a basic land.
You might get hit by a scarcely played card that cares about snow-covered lands, e.g. Icequake and Thermokarst.
You can get destroyed by a hoser in a really inbred metagame. Relevant cards are Cold Snap and Freyalise's Radiance.

I would consider playing snow-covered land to make your opponent wonder if you play Gifts Ungiven or Tainted Pact but I wouldn't play the split unless I play Tainted Pact. I would definitely play the split with Tainted Pact but I don't think you'll ever put snow-covered lands in a Gifts Ungiven. I should disclose that I didn't play when the card was frequently seen. In other situations I think the split is no good because of the potential to divulge information about the basic lands you play. In a small group, playing a mono-colored deck full of snow-covered land might open yourself to hosers but I wonder if they're even good enough for people to use those against you.

The Snow-Covered lands are played much less than their normal counterparts but I don't see why it is the case.

Conclusion: Play all Snow-Covered lands to mess with your opponents unless you play Tainted Pact. In this case, you play an even split with priority to the non snow-covered land to try to hide that you play Tainted Pact. Similar Considerations might be given to Gifts Ungiven if you really think that you could play it for basic. This is probably the choice with the less impact out of all the points I discuss.

Now, the toughest nut to cracks. What fetchlands split should I use?

I'm not talking about building a manabase. I'm talking about the case where multiple lands will be able to get the same set of lands. An example would be a deck with only Islands or a combination of dual lands that can all be fetched by multiple fetchlands. Let's consider different possibilities.

First, there's the arguments for the functional cards that need to be considered. Playing all the same fetchlands makes you weaker to cards like Pithing Needle and Tainted Pact but decrease the chance of divulging information about your exact manabase. If your opponents know your deck but not your exact decklist you can switch your fetchlands from tournaments to tournaments to reduce even more the efficiency of Pithing Needle. It can also take more time for your opponents to realize it when you'll eventually switch deck since you'll have a fetchland combination they'll have already seen.

Second, fetchlands aren't all identically functional even if they the same function for your deck. There's no better way to tell your opponent that you've no basic Island in you RUG Delver deck than playing a Wooded Foothills, but if you only play Scalding Tarn and Misty Rainforest they'll wonder whether you play basic lands or not. If you play Polluted Delta or Flooded Strand they'll know you only have basic Island at most but it might take them more time to know if you're UWR, RUG, UR or UBR Delver. Different decks play different lands and your opponents might play differently depending on the fetchlands you play. When you try to disguise your deck you should preferably have a manabase similar to an existing deck; if this deck requires a different style of play to play against than yours it's even better. It's good to hide your manabase but it shouldn't be taken so far as changing your plays to do so. This mind game gives a slight vaporous edge that's not worth sacrificing anything concrete for it. I've lost a game before trying to impersonate a Countertop deck when I was playing Sneak and Show. This mistake shouldn't be repeated.

There's a big opposition between the concrete game and the mind game behind it. The answer isn't clear cut either. If you always play the same deck and your opponents know it, or if the decklists are shared, there is no need in bluffing and you should hedge yourself against Pithing Needle and information divulgation via random discard. If your deck almost immediately cracks fetchlands and makes easily identifiable play what is the point to have a manabase bluffing another deck?

Conclusion: You need to consider 3 factors. How much Pithing Needle is played in your metagame, how much you want to hide whether or not you play basic lands and how much can you hide the deck you play from your opponents?

I probably have missed many things and I would be glad if you could help me answer those stupid questions I always think about when I build a deck. If there's other things that often happen to you during deckbuilding I would like to hear about them.