The Evolution of AnkhSligh: part 2

[MolotDET]

Matt - I'm not sure what Ed is doing but...

     It depends on what I'm playing against.  I have a higher creature count than Ed so in some situations I am taking out the creatures that are less effective and the Incins.  In some situations the Incins and the Chains and in others the Incins and the Cursed Scrolls.  I guess it is what you are most comfortable with.  A friend said Ankhs might come out for Blasts at some point, but I don't think so.
     Against GAT, I think that Incins and Scrolls would be the way to go but some people think that less targeted spells would be best.  I think that is silly because you are still bringing in targeted spells.  I think the Scrolls can go here because you often need the damage before you can afford to Scroll and it doesn't do enough damage to boot.  Besides, GAT is not going to be bringing COP:red to the frey anyway...

[Legend]

Well, I've not faced a GAT deck in tournament play since I've been utilizing the 8 Blast plan, but I have played a few practice games against it. I think that the procedure for that matchup should be:

-4 Gorilla Shaman, -4 Goblin Cadets
+4 Pyroblast, +4 Red Elemental Blast

At first I thought that Price of Progress might be a candidate for being boarded out, since the returning of two islands is part of the casting cost of Gush and is therefore unstoppable even with a Blast in hand, but after playing a few games I saw that there will still be oppportunities to use POP effectively. Furthermore, POP is unmisdirectable, which is extremely significant. Nevertheless, I think the sideboarding procedure against GAT is still up for discussion.

As for the matchups I have actually faced in tournaments or practiced more extensively against, I have found the following procedures to be correct:

VS. KEEPER: -4 Chain Lightning, -4 Incinerate
                 +4 Pyroblast, +4 Red Elemental Blast

VS. ACADEMY: Same

VS. TRIX: Same
          
VS. FISH: -4 Ankh of Mishra, -4 Price of Progress, -4 Goblin
               Cadets
              +4 Pyroblast, +4 Red Elemental Blast, +4 Mogg
               Fanatic

While Fish does have quite a few nonbasics, you will want to be destroying them as soon as possible, not allowing them to hang around, hence Price of Progress is out after boarding.\n\n

[disrupting sPECter]

ok, I have long abandoned Ankh Sligh for being aggro-controllish with Lackey Sligh taking its place. I'm examining this decision after seeing it do pretty well at TMD champs. I can say one thing:

After facing 4 TNT/artifact/creature decks at TMD champs, I can't see how cadets don't BLOW. I'm working on a version of Lackey sligh without them and possibly cut pups from my build. I know it makes it slower and loses more to control but I don't remember when was the last time I faced a control deck.

[Os-Vegeta]

Fever - As I mentioned to you in a PM, I was playing around with the idea of Maze of Ith, and I thought about Ensnaring Bridge, but I eventually abandoned them, going for the 8 blast plan like Legend and Molot have.

As far as Ensnaring Bridge goes, it really won't work against Tog decks very well unless you can keep an empty hand, or near-empty hand if you can draw up some pump from a Tog each turn with a burn spell.  Also, it's just too vulnerable to removal, as both Grow-A-Tog and Hulk Smash pack Naturalize in the sideboard to be wished for.  (This was all discussed earlier in this thread, but I doubt it will hurt to bring it up again, since Ensnaring Bridge was brought up again.)  

For a little while, I thought Maze of Ith could help Sligh out with its matchups, but after discussing it with fellow players (props to Dandan and ShadowLotus) and meditating on it for a while, I came to the conclusion that such a card is not only too difficult to fit into Sligh, but also just won't have THAT much of an impact.  To quote Dandan from our discussion, "it won't be smashing any skulls in," as it really is a reactionary card that has to be out before the threat is out, whether it be a Tog, Dryad, Naught, or TnT fattie.  I really wouldn't want to be praying to topdeck a card, especially a reactionary one that counts as a land drop, against any deck.  Speaking of land drops, that was a big reason why I chose not to use Maze of Ith.  It's just not worth it to try and screw with your already light manabase, or to try and just add on a few land drops.  In my testing, I found I would get land flooded when I ran maze in addition to my manabase, and I also found that I would be wanting more red mana when I traded 4 Mountains for 4 Maze of Ith.  All in all, Maze of Ith is not the solution that Sligh is looking for.  

The 8 blast plan really seems as if it will work, as that is basically 4 un-misdirectable "Red StP's" you have against the Tog, and 4 that can be mis-directed.  This, in addition to something along the lines of Scald (even though siding out 12 cards is a stretch, so even then that might not be the best idea to add Scald onto the anti-Tog measures list), are ample tools for Sligh to use against Tog.  This doesn't make the match a walk in the park, but at least it becomes somewhat winnable.  

Other than that, I'd say I'm going with the same sideboarding theory that Legend is for the time being - Mogg Fanatic and Pyrokinesis for opposing aggro decks (especially the Sligh mirror), Rack and Ruin if TnT and Mask are in the area, and Scald for decks like Keeper and URPhid, etc...

(Edit: Mistake with Pyroblast fixed.  Thanks Penny Lane.   )

[PennyLane]

@Os-Vegeta

Just a note about the 8 blast plan. Although REB cannot be misdirected, Pyroblast can infact be misdirected to a land.  Also consider that the Red Blasts can't hit a Dryad either. I'm not saying that this plan isn't affective vs GAT, but it does have its weak points.

[Lava]

I have been playing around with this deck for a little while now I am settling my own build which has a few diffrences to Legend and MolotDET ones, so...

Creatures 14
2 Goblin Welder
4 Goblin Cadet
4 Gorilla Shaman
4 Jackal Pup

Burn 21
2 Fireblast
2 Incinerate
1 Price of Progress
4 Ankh of Mishra
4 Chain Lightning
4 Lightning Bolt
1 Black Vice
3 Cursed Scroll

Other 3
1 Wheel of Fortune
1 Fork
1 Winter Orb

Mana 22
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Ruby
1 Strip Mine
4 Wasteland
15 Mountain

Goblin Welder is quite effective in my meta game, as artefact removal\disruption which is why its in the deck, the tricks it lets you pull off are just a bonus. I tried to make more of this card but at the moment I cannot see how to do that effectively in this deck.

Fireblast I recon this should be in the deck, the effect on your opponents play of being able to do something when tapped out for me is invaluable. Having two in the deck means I don’t lose this effect.

Winter Orb this has great synergy with Ankh, but I recon one is the right number since: its not good in multiples, it does no damage, there are already 4 two mana artefacts, it has great shock value.

Wasteland vs PoP - PoP used to be much better in my meta game but those fetch lands have made PoP in my opinion now worse than wastes, still close though.

EDITED
My version has continued to evolve...

changes to above
-1 Black Vise
-1 Wheel of Fortune
-1 Winter Orb
+3 Price of Progress

[Os-Vegeta]

PennyLane - You brought up a good point about the 8 blast plan. As I mentioned, using the 8 blast plan isn't a walk in the park - it's still going to be tough, especially if you're up against a very skilled player.

One of my biggest reasons for considering Maze of Ith and even thinking about Ensnaring Bridge was the Dryad.  However, since these two really don't provide an answer, the 8 blasts will have to do until another, better plan emerges.  

For the time being, Sligh will just have to rely on burning the Dryad to death (which is no easy task, either).  However, it is easier for Sligh to kill a Dryad than to kill a Tog, so there is some hope there.

[Tamer]

Withouth rack and ruin or any artifact hate in the sideboard, the mask and TnT mathcup look a lot worst
Mask was almost an auto-loss even with 4 rack and ruins

My last tourney with ankh sligh was very horible facing too many combo decks (thormod's crypt would have been golden)

I Will be switching back to suicide as my deck because sligh has too many bad matchups

Sligh basicly loses to creatures with 4+ toughness and combo

[Legend]

That's funny, I've been beating combo decks left and right recently, including an Academy and a Worldgorger at my last tournament.

Ankh Sligh has all the tools to beat most decks out there. It is a versatile weapon of choice - if you know what you are doing. True, it is harder than it used to be to win with Sligh, simply because you really have to know how to play the deck, build the deck, and sideboard with the deck. But if you do know how to wield it, the rewards will be great.

Also, if you are having a problem with artifact decks, just play the Rack and Ruins! I had them in my board for quite some time, but I've not seen many artifact decks recently, so I removed them for the time being to my reserve sideboard. Its simple really, if your metagame calls for it, play the Rack and Ruins. Fine, the Mask matchup is awful, but TNT can be made into a very winnable matchup. Be the master of your metagame. If you are losing with Sligh, then reconsider your approach first.

Finally, I don't believe that Suicide is a better choice than Sligh right now. Take it from me, I used to be a huge proponent of Suicide, but right now, Sligh is the deck to play, as it is more versatile and harder to shut down than Suicide.\n\n

[MarkPharaoh]

Quote (Os-Vegeta @ Mar. 25 2003,22:54)For a little while, I thought Maze of Ith could help Sligh out with its matchups, but after discussing it with fellow players (props to Dandan and ShadowLotus) and meditating on it for a while, I came to the conclusion that such a card is not only too difficult to fit into Sligh, but also just won't have THAT much of an impact.  To quote Dandan from our discussion, "it won't be smashing any skulls in," as it really is a reactionary card that has to be out before the threat is out, whether it be a Tog, Dryad, Naught, or TnT fattie.  I really wouldn't want to be praying to topdeck a card, especially a reactionary one that counts as a land drop, against any deck.  Speaking of land drops, that was a big reason why I chose not to use Maze of Ith.  It's just not worth it to try and screw with your already light manabase, or to try and just add on a few land drops.  In my testing, I found I would get land flooded when I ran maze in addition to my manabase, and I also found that I would be wanting more red mana when I traded 4 Mountains for 4 Maze of Ith.  All in all, Maze of Ith is not the solution that Sligh is looking for.

I agree with this, 4 Maze of Ith's is not the answer against GAT.  GAT runs 8 creatures while you'll have 4 Mazes, also GAT has so much card drawing, by the time you find 1 Maze, the have fount a way to win or have fount their Strip Mine already.

Quote Sligh basicly loses to creatures with 4+ toughness and combo

I have had my fair share of winnings against TnT and don't do that bad against combo either.  What makes Sligh good is it's sideboard in my opinion, it can be changed to fit just about any meta.  Scrubby aggro meta, elves and OSS, pack Bridges and Fanatics, lots of TnT and Mask, pack Racks Fanatics  Pyros and maybe even Bridges, combo and control, 8Blast or Scald setup works.  Usually my match against TnT is that I lose first game, second and third game my Pyro's and burn to keep there fat off the board long enough to find a Bridge and a Scroll and mill them down.

[Tamer]

Winning with ankh sligh against combo is almost impossible

The deck is too slow to really race, you must be playing against scrubs if your winning against such decks as dragon and academy

maybe the dragon matchup will be better come april 1st but its still gonna bel a very bad matchup

I think ankh sligh excels at beating control, however it lacks something to beat aggro and combo

Pyrokenesis is card disadvantage, why play it?
The only time it turns into card advantage is when you knock 3 creatures, but that will rarely happen

[Legend]

You are lost. You clearly have a lot to learn about playing Sligh properly as evidenced by the complete ignorance that you have displayed thus far in this thread. Don't even bother posting if you are going to just ignorantly rant about Ankh Sligh. Your last two posts have just been complaints about how you did badly with Ankh Sligh. Don't come here to complain about how you had a bad tournament with Ankh Sligh because you didn't metagame properly. Or maybe you just had a bad tournament, thats all. Get over it. Everyone has bad tournaments.

Don't insult me by questioning my competition. Don't ever question the veracity of my results and testing. I don't like that, so don't do it. No, I wasn't playing scrubs - did it it ever occur to you that I just outplayed my opponents, or that I had a good strategy?

Against Academy, the blast plan was huge, and allowed me to win the match. Against Worldgorger, it was a combination of the Ankhs, sideboarded Pyrokinesis, and some luck. Yes, combo is generally a bad matchup for Ankh Sligh, but if you are a great player, you can tip things a bit more towards your advantage through solid play and overall strategy. Worldgorger is an especially bad matchup, but I made it happen, what can I say? Sure, Ankh Sligh is at its best when facing control (and beating control is a big part of doing well in Type I), but you should be able to win other matchups as well, especially against aggro.

Indeed, I have no idea what you are referring to when you say that you are having trouble against aggro decks. Pyrokinesis is a great card because it impacts the board position at no mana cost. Are you one of these people who thinks Force of Will is bad? The game is about more than card-advantage. In fact, I am not a very big subscriber to absolute theories of card-advantage. To me, the most important element of the game is board-position - and that is what Pyrokinesis is all about. Try and understand this. You should not be having such difficulties against aggro. Ankh Sligh should be a dangerous weapon in the hands of the right player. Maybe you ought to play a different deck if it has not been working for you.\n\n

[MarkPharaoh]

Quote (Tamer @ Mar. 27 2003,02:00)Winning with ankh sligh against combo is almost impossible

The deck is too slow to really race, you must be playing against scrubs if your winning against such decks as dragon and academy

maybe the dragon matchup will be better come april 1st but its still gonna bel a very bad matchup

I think ankh sligh excels at beating control, however it lacks something to beat aggro and combo

Pyrokenesis is card disadvantage, why play it?
The only time it turns into card advantage is when you knock 3 creatures, but that will rarely happen

Tamer, do you even know how to play Sligh correctly?  You can beat Combo if you sideboard for it, Whats so hard with holding REB's and Pyros until they cast there Stroke, and a lot of times I win before they can go off, you must be doing something wrong.  How is Pyrokinesis card disadvantage, half the time it's a 2 for 2 trade, sometimes 3 for 2 in your favor, creating card advantage, I don't see what you are trying to say?  Pyro can kill a Jugg and a Welder or Quirion against TnT, 2-3 dorks in the mirror, 2-4 dorks against Red Stompy, and so on, only time it may be card disadvantage is you use it against a sole Su-Chi or Trisk.

[MoreFling]

And what mark forgot to say, is that then it's worth the carddisadvantage.
We aren't playing Keeper you know, the world doesn't spin around on card-advantage alone.

[Tamer]

ok ill stfu i guess sligh aint the deck for me

Your all acting like ankh sligh is a perfect deck that should win all the time

Well it doesnt and the deck complety sucks sometimes

I dont think that pointing the bad points is irrevelant
Its defenitly a good thing to know about the deck when playing it

Legend: you are contradictin yourself

on the dragon matchup previously you said the matchup was a bye for dragon,

before you was sayin that scald is so much better the REB
and That REB didnt really affect the board, etc...

Look at you now sayin the opposite....

About Pyrokenesis : The deck doesnt draw cards, so topdecking pyrokenesis with an empty sure must be a good thing  
Ill admit that it does the job at clearin the way your pups and cadets, but it that really worth it? losing 2 cards to kill 1 creature most of the time IS NOT GOOD FOR ME
The diference with keeper and force of will is that keeper will draw cards to negate the card disadvantage

Ok thats all, Ill just let this deck rest for a couple of weeks until I feel like burnin my opponents

You are boardering on incomprehensible\n\n

[dandan]

Tamer - Card advantage is an opponent on 2 with a fistfull of land and solutions that cost 1 mana more than they have!

Sligh runs on virtual card advantage, it doesn't count the cards drawn, just the cards that have an effect. If you kill an opponent their cards are useless, if you get them low on life their choices are severely limited  (go ahead, spend 2 life on a tutor, use a fetchland, use that CoB, etc).

Killing an opponents (potential) blocker with Pyrokinesis will probably result in 2-4 damage for them as well as the loss of a creature, I'll trade that for 2 cards. Your idea is 'straight' card advantage is also misleading as killing a Negator or a Worldgorger Dragon will result in massive card advantage.

[Clown of Tresserhorn]

I agree that pyrokenesis is a good card vs. weenie decks, although I agree with Tamer that Ankh sligh is not the right deck to play in some metagames. Yes it is a dangerous deck in the hands of a good sligh player, but there are certain matchups where ankh sligh can't do jack shit. if the sligh player doesn't have a REB in hand, what the hell is he suppose to do when a 25/x tog is looking down at him? A lot of it is luck. My friend Drew recently ran an exact copy of LAS in the MHC tourney and went 3-3. we discussed later and agreed that ankh sligh might not be a good deck to play in that metagame. Although LAS does EXTREMELY well vs. control decks, and some aggro decks, it simply gets rolled over by certain decks (TnT, GAT, combo, and to a lesser extent, Mask). Although sligh does have a "just win" factor, sometimes it just isn't enough. In that tournament, Drew faced Oath, WW, Zoo, and other aggro decks. While sligh can win these matchups, the first game might not be so good for LAS. Ankhs are pretty much useless in fast aggro (meaning, they can operate on 3 lands or less), and your creatures are shit. gorilla shaman becomes a generic 1/1 for R, and cadets just sit there after awhile. This means you end up relying on burn and scrolls, which shouldn't be the stragety of Sligh. Granted the 4 shamans come out after 1st turn, your still at a slight disadvantage game 1. Don't flame me for this, but I think Ankh sligh can only be truly successful in a powered metagame. Sure, many people report winning results, but some of that might have to do with the fact that they got lucky pairings. Look at Legend. although he has a winning record w/ most decks, he does best vs. control (correct me if I'm wrong). In certain metagames, I think it would be better to run a traditional sligh deck, as opposed to an Ankh sligh deck.

[MarkPharaoh]

lol Tamer, you look at things so wrong, I dunno where this came from:

Quote Your all acting like ankh sligh is a perfect deck that should win all the time

What we have been saying is that Sligh can do good against pretty much any deck out there if you metagame it right, we never acted like Ankh Sligh is the god of all decks and all other decks will be wrecked by it.  Sligh is adaptive and can be transformed to compete with almost every kind of deck out there, just because it can do "good" doesn't mean it will win everytime.

[Legend]

Tamer, it is clear that you are a scrub. You present your thoughts without any coherent organization or thought behind them. You've got a lot to learn about Type I.

When did I say that Dragon wasn't a bad machup for LAS? Never. The matchup sucks for LAS. But I DID say that I beat Dragon by playing well and enjoying a little luck. When you are a great player, you know how to tip the scales towards your advantage. Sure, if Dragon gets an amazing draw, you are going to lose. But if you are a great Sligh player, you will know what to do when the opportunity presents itself to steal the match. If such an opportunity presented itself for you, I am sure that you would blow it.

Also, Red Elemental Blast and Pyroblast are good cards, depending on the metagame. What are you talking about here? In the past, there have been times where I didn't like the blast plan, but there have been other times (like now) when I do. The blasts are clearly a good choice right now. What the hell is so hard to understand about that for you?

Finally, this is addressed to no one in particular, but where did this idea that Sligh does badly against TNT come from? This should be a close matchup if you've got the right sideboard to fight TNT. Also, are people forgetting about Price of Progress here? Remember, Sligh is a very customizable deck that can be tuned to fight almost any challenge, if you know how to metagame.\n\n

[kirdape3]

Ahem.

Alright guys, keep it down.  Tamer, this forum is for good players.  The people you are challenging not only built the deck and can win with it, but have a long track record of building good to great decks.  Legend and others, remember that Big Brother in fact does occasionally come down on the side of good.  So yelling once publicly is okay, but any other stuff should be PMed to a mod.\n\n

[Clown of Tresserhorn]

Quote Finally, this is addressed to no one in particular, but where did this idea that Sligh does badly against TNT come from? This should be a close matchup if you've got the right sideboard to fight TNT. Also, are people forgetting about Price of Progress here? Remember, Sligh is a very customizable deck that can be tuned to fight almost any challenge, if you know how to metagame.

I feel like this was directed toward me (although it doesn't say so) mainly cause I mentioned that TnT was a hard matchup for sligh in my previous post. I am by no means saying that sligh can't win against TnT, I'm just saying that TnT does tend to give sligh fits (from what I have seen so far in my area). Although sigh does have many weapons vs. sligh, TnT is still a tough match. Recently, TnT has made a change over to R/G, so the mana base is more effective, thus alomst negating PoP. Also, from what I have seen in other posts, the introduction of tangle wire to TnT has greatly improved TnT's chances vs. sligh. Ofcourse luck, skill, and general knowledge of decks play a huge role in any match, so a skilled sligh player can win vs. mediocre TnT players frequently. Again, I am not saying that sligh auto-loses to TnT, I'm just saying that it is one of the decks in the current metagame that sligh has trouble with.

[MolotDET]

Once again, an Appeal: please guys lets try to keep this civil.  Ed, understandably some people won’t know as much as we do, about a deck we have worked so hard on.  And Tamer, if several people in one thread are telling you, that you are wrong, perhaps you should rethink your position.  Basically, aggro decks work from a different theory of card advantage than control decks.  All together what I’m trying to say here is, “this is a good thread, don’t fuck it up.”

     No one is saying that AnkhSligh has a better than bad match-up against Combo.  With the REB plan that we have been forced back into, the deck does stand a chance against Combo, but that is it.
     The simple fact remains that AnkhSligh is a great choice to play in a powered meta-game, simply because it is good against decks with land in them and therefore, can be customized to master any limited meta-game and hold its own in a diverse one.\n\n

[Legend]

I have revised my sideboarding procedure against GAT. After further testing, it became clear that Price of Progress just wasn't getting the job done because of Gush. Also, I realized even more the importance of an early rush, because if you wait, you are finished. So Cursed Scroll is out after boarding as well, since the games will never last very long and I was never getting a chance to use it. This leaves us with:

-4 Price of Progress, -4 Cursed Scroll, -4 Gorilla Shaman, +4 Red Elemental Blast, +4 Pyroblast, +4 Mogg Fanatic

On a related note, I made it to the finals of the ICON Type I tournament at Stony Brook University, where I lost 2-1 in the finals to GAT, played by Jeremy (3libras on the manadrain) I employed the same sideboarding strategy as listed here. It was a single-elimination tournament, the finals being the fourth round. I lost the first game despite getting a first-turn Ankh, as my opponent was able to get a lethal Psychatog very quickly. I rebounded in the second game without even drawing any of the blasts, thanks to an Ankh, a rogue Jackal Pup, and just enough burn. In the deciding game, though, a Dryad just got too big, too fast, and my Jackal Pups couldn't keep up. In the semifinals I had beaten Brian (Scaldmonger), playing Fish, by a 2-1 count.\n\n

[ScaldMonger]

After watching the match between Ed, and Jeremy (3Libras) I can safely say that the blast plan although effective against combo (as proven last week at NG), Fish, and MonoU, it just doesn't seem to cut it against GAT. I'm not sure where it first started to go downhill, but being on the other side of the table during the game, it was clear that no matter what threat you could put in it's path, there were always counters, or some kind of safety card (Gush, ancestral, brainstorm) in hand. I fully got rocked by LAS in that tournament, but I'm sticking by my story that it's not a completely dead game for Fish.

And on a sidenote for Tamer, there were times in my game vs. LAS that if I had seen a Pyrokenisis, I would probably just have conceded, as it would wipe out a complete army of fish. If you take into consideration that if you pitch 1 burn spell (chain, bolt) to the Nesis, and nock out 3-4 creatures, it's easily worth it, as otherwise you need to waste a complete burn spell that does 3 damage to kill a single CoF.

[Legend]

Brian, as we discussed, I definitely see where you are coming from regarding the blasts against GAT. Its still worth it, though, since they can be fit in because POP and Scroll aren't doing much anyway. The real problem, which you hinted at, is just the overall crappiness of the matchup, which unfortunately cannot be remedied by any one card. Sometimes a matchup is just so bad from a structural point of view that there is not all that much that can be done to address the fundamental problems of the matchup.\n\n

[MisterShark]

There's a card that I have been thinking about adding to my Anhk Sligh, but the idea of card disadvantage always is a concern to factor in.  The card I'm talking about is Sonic Burst.  Before you dismiss it think about this; sometimes when you have an Ahnk or two on the board and you don't feel like playing that Mountain, Barbarian Ring, or Wasteland, your building up a hand full of cards.  This is less than optimal when you've got a scroll that your hoping to fire off consistantly.  Don't let extra lands unnecessarily encumber your Scroll hand: why not pitch em to a Sonic Burst?
4 damage for two mana and a way to optimize your Cursed Scrolls without laying down subsequent lands and taking 2 to the chin from your own Ankhs seems like a good deal to me.
I ran two last Thursday on my card night with the fellas and it helped.  Up against TnT, when my sided-in Rack and Ruins didn't feel like showing up, the Burst saved my ass against a Triskelion.
So what does everyone think?  For the record; I run two of them in the slots formerly occupied by 2 Cadets.

[BigChuck]

The problem with sonic burst, is that it is ALWAYS card disadvantage. For the same mana, incinerate does on less damage, and doesn't cost you a potentially useful card. You don't want to have to play your hand around having a bad/useless card to pitch to the burst, and you don't really want to burst if you have something good in your hand.

[MarkPharaoh]

Quote (BigChuck @ April 07 2003,22:24)The problem with sonic burst, is that it is ALWAYS card disadvantage. For the same mana, incinerate does on less damage, and doesn't cost you a potentially useful card. You don't want to have to play your hand around having a bad/useless card to pitch to the burst, and you don't really want to burst if you have something good in your hand.

I agree with Chuck on this one, I think Burst is just too situational, yes sometimes if your ENTIRE hand is land then it would be good, but outside of that there are just better options.  Also, you can almost always afford the 2 damage Ankh does to you since your more often then not winning the life race.

[dandan]

IF for some reason you wanted to dump land from your hand rather than just laying it and taking the pain, you should look at Seismic Assault rather than Sonic Burst. Personally I wouldn't touch either with a bargepole (OK Assault might be OK in a mad metagame where draw 7s fly everywhere).

[MarkPharaoh]

Quote (dandan @ April 08 2003,06:44)IF for some reason you wanted to dump land from your hand rather than just laying it and taking the pain, you should look at Seismic Assault rather than Sonic Burst. Personally I wouldn't touch either with a bargepole (OK Assault might be OK in a mad metagame where draw 7s fly everywhere).

But Dandan, if you wanted to run it, wouldn't you not for the same reasons you don't run Ball Lightnings?  Assault is RRR and is the perfect candiate for a Mana Drain.