I find it insanely difficult to discuss the meta without discussing decks...mainly because some decks are so narrow, but I wonder how much those decks will show up this next round?

Looking through the released spoilers...Dromoka Captain seems to have potential...Door may like Illusory Gains

Sidisi's Faithful does a good Seal of Removal impersonation...but is also a chump blocker.

For Alt Rounds:
Well...Living Lore needs some serious consideration...so close to 3 CMC...
Silumgar Sorcerer

Knowledge Pool no longer seems good because it seems like a big ole Emrakul/Ulamog slug-fest that can just use your opponents threat as a wincon if they can somehow remove either without the other.

Basically, 0 CMC cards become lands that produce infinite mana.

Effectively, Knowledge pool requires you to figure out a deck that can both win AND not tie with itself. More realistically, it's a format where lands.dek is stupidly powerful compared to everything else.

I really don't want Knowledge Pool to win because it will take four weeks just to grade.

This is why I shouldnt do this 5 minutes after waking up:

It triggers on the cast, therefore Gut Shot should probably be banned in the round. Otherwise Draw Step Gut Shut brings down Emmy and I think Gut Shot Ulamog is the only thing that threatens it.

If you ban Gut Shot I think more interesting things can happen, but I think it would really just lead to a bunch of 3-3s. Correct me if I'm wrong...but if you build a deck that can beat the opponent...then the opponent can just play your deck on their turn. If you build a deck with no threats...then you tie. Discard doesnt seem viable anymore, counterspells are still semi-relevant as long as everyone doesnt play uncounterable threats. Manlands are free 6's against anyone that plays FreeSpell.dec.

I'm probably thinking too shallowly though...

I think the key to making a deck with threat(s) that can't be used against you it to incorporate land dependencies that your deck will be able to satisfy but if your opponent takes your spell, the opponent will be unable to. A most-simple example being Rogue Elephant. Your opponent can Knowledge Pool the **** out of your Rogue Elephant, but the fact is, if you cast it you'll have the forest to sac to it to keep it in play as a threat, while if your opponent casts it, the opponent likely will not.

Yeah, but once the exiled Elephant is cast...it's gone. So all an opponent has to do if the Elephant will win is...cast the Elephant and let it die. I guess you could get over that with a second Elephant, but that doesn't really give you an edge over anything I can think of...they'll either have better threats (emmy) or worse 3xMemnite (which it ties).

Double Chrono, City seems viable along those lines of thought since it at least beats those timid Memnite thieves. Karakas is an interesting game.

Sooo, I guess after these discussions I find Knowledge Pool to not really be an upside, more of a downside, like Jack originally insinuated. It seems to limit the number of viable decks rather than expand them.

Ban Gut Shot I've already mentioned Gut Shot since it's a first turn "steal all the things".

3xGut Shot isn't a legal deck.

Good point.

I do think the format is interesting though, even if Gut Shot seems to be the most format defining card in it.

Sure it is. Jim turfed the 'decks must be able to beat a goldfish' rule partway through season 2. Now he allows such decks but double checks win-incapable decks with the submitters to avoid accidental oversights.

huh, good to know.
Maybe I should read the rules.

My opinion is that anything that obviously makes the game a lot harder to play is a downside, while anything that gives you more options is an upside.

Thus, something like Sloppy Work or Knowledge pool rates as a downside to me, due to the problem caused by countering your own cards if you don't have excess mana, the problems caused by non-land using decks not being able to really win anymore, etc.

Knowledge Pool gives me more options. It lets me play Emrakul double Gut Shot, for example. I'm not sure what the metric for "harder to play" is.

A) Please show me a viable way to summon Emrakul with an opponent's deck in a knowledge pool format. And then tell me why that person would play that deck.

B) Knowledge pool directly throws out any deck that ties itself. You basically NEED to be able to beat the non-land parts of your deck or you can't ever really win, which throws out A LOT of your options immediately.

I'm not sure what you're asking for here. Why would I summon it with my opponent's deck? What does that imply? I play Gut Shot and cast Emrakul for free.
3x Gut Shot > 2x Gut Shot/Emrakul > Gut Shot/Keldon Megaliths/Karoo > 3xGut Shot
I already made a rock/paper/scissor meta for you with 4 cards. I'm sure you can do other things with it.


Memnite/Memnite/Wasteland ties itself but would go 6-0 against Chancellor/Storage Land/Path of Exile, so that is demonstrably wrong.

How does Gut Shot summon Emrakul?

Knowledge pool lets you cast a spell exiled with knowledge pool for free every time you cast a spell.

2 x Black Lotus as your deck will only get you to 12 mana. And as far as I know, that's the max right there.

Knowledge Pool exiles a copy of each deck, including your two gut shots and emrakul. You cast Gut Shot from your own hand, it gets exiled by Knowledge Pool, you choose Emrakul to cast from the Knowledge Pool pool.