[Free Article] So Many Insane Plays - Meandeck Gifts 2015

[Commandant]

If you don't one for one you'll end up having to two for one or just end up dead. I think Tom Martell had a very similar thought process in the first season of the VSL because like you he also had not played Vintage for years. It didn't end up well for him. Its silly for you to dismiss a lot of the cards on that list, particually Grafdigger's.

[oshkoshhaitsyosh]

I whole heartedly think that 4 misstep is terribly wrong...2 or maybe 3 seems more accurate IMO. But after all we each build our decks to our own likings. I personally am on 2 Mental Misstep in my control gifts build as I don't care about most 1 drops outside of recall because my list doesn't crutch on the graveyard

[diopter]

I, too, once thought MM's could be avoided. Then I realized how horrible it was to keep having to spend mana to try and defend myself while the Delvers of the world kept being able to Preordain their way to infi Gushes, Forces, Red Blasts and Missteps. Missteps are at least part of the equation to fighting that.

3 is an excellent number since MM only has conditional utility, so a starting hand of 2 in any matchup has a chance of screwing you.

The idea that there's only a subset of really broken cards that impact the game is antiquated thinking. It IS true that you always want a way to go over the top of other strategies, but if Delver has shown us anything it is that the setup to the big plays is important and valuable to disrupt, and that the ability to draw your whole deck is in itself a big play. MM easily helps for free there.

[The Atog Lord]

I've been consistently playing four mental misstep since 2011. I have trouble imagining playing a lower number.

[tribet]

I think there are some benefits in building decks that don't rely on MM to either protect their own cards/threats/Disrupts or to combat opposing MM.

This list below (Top4 in a 23 players sanctioned events a couple of weeks ago) is interesting in that regard. I was on UWMentor/Remora myself and I lost badly against it. Too often I found myself playing around opposing MM that never existed! (My deck here with 3 Misstep). It must also be noted that historically this event has be swamped by MUD decks, so there was most certainly some smart metagaming as well in cutting MM altogether.

3-4) James 'Jimbo' Dowling - UW landstill
4 Wasteland
4 Mishra's Factory
4 Flooded Strand
1 Underground Sea
3 Tundra
2 Island
1 Polluted Delta
1 Scalding Tarn
1 Plains
1 Strip Mine
1 Library of Alexandria

1 Mox Sapphire
1 Black Lotus

2 Steel Sabotage
4 Mana Drain
4 Force of Will
2 Spell Snare
2 Mindbreak Trap
1 Flusterstorm
1 Spell Pierce
3 Swords to Plowshares
2 Stony Silence
1 Meddling Mage

3 Standstill
3 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
2 Crucible of Worlds
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Treasure Cruise
1 Dig Through Time
1 Tamiyo the Moon Sage
1 Snapcaster Mage

Sideboard:
3 Disenchant
3 Containment Priest
1 Engineered Plague
2 Supreme Verdict
1 Notion Thief
2 Kataki, War's Wage
1 Swords to plowshares
2 Rest in Peace

[desolutionist]

2011 feels like last weekend

[diopter]

That said, I def agree with desolutionists other point about this deck drawing dead turn after turn. I took another look at the ratios and it reminded me of every single awkward blue deck I tried to build without 4 Bob in the pre-Dack, pre-Cruise era (that is a three year period at least). It's always A or F with those decks, whereas I prefer a bit more consistency just for the sake of my sanity.

This deck really needs like Preordain or NW to dig deep when the mull to 6 is a marginal keep, or after fizzled Gifts.

If either is played, then Tasigur might become an option as well as a response to a mediocre first two turns or fizzled big turn, that can soak up a bunch of big mana. That option is obviously out there, but you get the picture - a deck designed to win big that can also win small on a synergistic but hard-to-hate way is a very rare and powerful beast indeed.