Nah, storage land-Eldrazi works because Eldrazi reshuffle trigger. The trick is the third cards needs to be not a kill spell.

For some reason I was still thinking about Pox instead of Smallpox, so in my mind Hawk could Tithe Pox (which would have to be held until after the Hawk came down).

Also for some reason I didn't think about the time lag between Hideaway and drawing LED.

Right. But the third card does need to be something that stops the Nether Spirit from killing you while you build up those storage counters on the storage land, though, right?

If they nuke your storage land and make you pitch your Eldrazi, you're going to need something to stop a 2/2 from killing you in ten swings while you redraw and load up your storage land.

Yeah, but Path works, as would any creature with more than 2 toughness, or moat.

for reference, in order to get 1st place you usually need a per-match score of 3.5-4, sometimes higher. thus any matchup where you do less than 4-1 drags your chance of winning down. sometimes, especially in alt rounds, there's a deck that can almost always at least 3-3, and that's sometimes a good call especially if it has the potential to do better, but a 3-3 match in and of itself is not all that good for you. if your deck 3-3s a lot, it's not a great deck.

Fountain Oring Ulamog seems to do it.

I don't get this game at all.

in what way?

The mana production, mostly. Can I only make as much mana as I have land? It just feels weird, I can't put my finger on it.

yes: your three cards need to produce the mana you need. this can be accomplished with things like black lotus to make lots of mana, shrieking affliction for cheap threats, pyrokinesis for alternate resource streams, or dryad arbor for free win cons.

or Storage lands if you think you have the time. It takes getting used to, but you learn to ignore 4 and 5 mana spells eventually. (Unless you are playing Black Lotus-Leonin Squire-4 drop)

Other iterations of this game sometimes include a 'Land Rule', which is to say that each player is allowed to play (create from nowhere) any basic land whenever they could play a land (and according banlist to neuter Fastbond et al). This allows the entire content of the deck to be 'payload' cards because the format allows for mana production as needed (but paced to usually not exceed the usual rate of land drops in a Magic game).

That tends not to be played here unless it's somehow incorporated into an alt round; here, mana is generally always part of the deck.



This does cause most decks to fall into one of several archetypes:

Mana-Threat-Defense/Disrupt is the most typical. One card is the mana producer, one card is the victory condition, and one card exists to prevent the opponent's victory condition. We've seen many examples in this thread so far: Mox Pearl / Glint Hawk / Mana Tithe is one. Mishra's Workshop / Scalding Tongs / Ensnaring Bridge is one. Black Lotus / Nether Spirit / Smallpox.

Mana-Mana-Threat is possible but dangerous. Can usually mount a much bigger threat because of the extra mana available. Black Lotus / Black Lotus / Grave Titan goes here.

Mana-Threat-Threat is also possible. Hickory Woodlot / Mayor of Avabruck / Mayor of Avabruck is potent, as is City of Traitors / Chronomaton / Chronomaton.

Then there are decks that hybridize two of the above:

A manland can be both mana *and* threat. Dryad Arbor is both and doesn't even need any other support. Inkmoth Nexus needs a second mana source to be usefully activated, but provides more mana along the way to being the wincon threat. Chancellor of the Tangle gives you first turn mana and can eventually land later as your wincon threat (be it via a storage land or, say, Aether Vial. Or Hypergenesis)

Meddling Mage, Brain Maggot, Lodestone Golem, Thalia, Guardian of Thraben are examples of threats that also act as disruption.


Then there's manaless decks. It's viable to play a deck that plays no mana producers at all and casts all its spells via life-payment (Gut Shot) or discard/hand-exile (Unmask, Pyrokinesis), or automatic start-of-game abilities (Chancellor of the Forge, Leyline of the Meek) or simply that are free (Memnite).

Asking confirmation on the Storage/Eldrazi/ExileRemoval vs. Lotus/Smallpox matchup led to a 2 hour meta gaming discussion with my friends the other day. Also some math.

I love this format so much. Why on earth did I stop playing it.

Most of the real fun with this format comes from working out the optimal lines of play in each matchup.

Unless it involves Bitterblossom, that is literally the worst.

dragon broodmother can get way worse than blossom. so many trees. so. many. trees.

True, but a lot of the time it just straight up wins. The problem with Bitterblossom is that it gets in a lot of close races where you have to work out every line of play. Dragon may go deeper, but Bitterblossom is a pain more often.

yeah, Rush made me walk through that with him even though I wasn't playing at that point.

the loser gets to ban stuff, so you should be good

DOOR SLAMMED

Literally.

lite rally