DAVE FEINSTEIN... DESTROYER OF WORLDS! *SCG Report- 3rd Day 2*

[kirdape3]

You know, I'd consider myself at least not a complete idiot.  It's a reasoned move to board out Force of Will against the mirror.  Here's why.

Name the card that Force of Will HAS TO stop in the mirror.  You know, the card that if it resolves you lose immediately.  The only card that I can reasonably think of is Umezawa's Jitte.  Jitte is actually pretty easily contained in all of my versions of the deck, between all the tappers and my own Jittes to 187 theirs.  With that in mind, why would I want to continually two for one myself over their spells that aren't worth the time?

I've certainly had people board out both Mana Drains and Forces of Will against me, to bring in strong board control elements.  I obv died horribly.

[Gaagooch]

You know, I'd consider myself at least not a complete idiot.  It's a reasoned move to board out Force of Will against the mirror.  Here's why.

Name the card that Force of Will HAS TO stop in the mirror.  You know, the card that if it resolves you lose immediately.  The only card that I can reasonably think of is Umezawa's Jitte.  Jitte is actually pretty easily contained in all of my versions of the deck, between all the tappers and my own Jittes to 187 theirs.  With that in mind, why would I want to continually two for one myself over their spells that aren't worth the time?

I've certainly had people board out both Mana Drains and Forces of Will against me, to bring in strong board control elements.  I obv died horribly.

I know that it is completely resonable, and also a very strong sideboarding strategy.  I just take every chance I get to make fun of kowal.

[Hi-Val]

I now see why MisD would be strong against Stax, but I still have to wonder about REB. My understanding is that REB is a modal spell, meaning that you choose whether it will be hitting a perm or a spell and that doesn't change. That means you can't MisD a REB targeting Chris into REBing the MisD instead. It's definitely strong against Plow, I'll give ya that. I personally think I'd keep Stifle in since Stax's gameplan seems to be winning the permanent war or getting Titan into play, both of which Stifle helps a bunch against. It probably ends up as a nuisance more often than not, but I think I'd be casting it more than I would MisD against Stax.

And FOW is ass against Fish. My Meddling Mage nabbing 2 of your cards is the best thing that it can do. To back Kowal up, I remember even back in 2003 cutting FOWs against UR Fish when playing Tog, which was the correct move.

[Pathian]

What is your opinion on Sword of Fire and Ice in the aggro mirror as opposed to Jitte? I know it costs 1 more mana to cast initially, but I think the effect can be significantly more powerful as it makes your clocks bigger, gives them a psuedo evasion, and when it hits a player, it knocks out anything in fish short of a Grunt.

[SonataOfTheCathedral]

Jitte is far more powerful then Sword Of Fire and Ice. You can double block a 4/3 Savannah Lion. A 2/1 Savannah Lion with Jitte counters makes your next dude a potential 6/6 or 6/5 or kills dudes. Very different.

[Dxfiler]

I prefer Jitte to Sword of F/I because Jitte comes down quicker and gets immediate results.  While Sword is a beating if unchecked, jitte doesn't have to be unchecked.  They block, you get counters.  They don't block, you still get counters.  The counters go a looooong way in establishing and maintaining creature superiority, which is a big deal when talking about the mirror match.  That's pretty much all there is to it.

- Dave Feinstein