For draft I'd cast creatures. The possibility, that opponent plays counters and has them in hand is a lot lower than in constructed.

Well, it's not just the counterspell. If I tap the Druid of the Cowl, opponent gets to attack. That's four damage that can be prevented by holding up Essence Scatter.

That's a rough call to me. Your op could be playing an aggressive artifact creature deck so you would want ES ready to go... then again they might just want to slam an artifact down ES can't touch so getting up on them with the Drake would be the play.
It's an either or honestly. Both ways have their possible value.

Do you keep?
I did. Got a second Plains on draw. Third one on the third draw.
Risky. I was sweatin'



Turned out just fine

Probably would not have kept that. You need to hit twice in the first say 3 turns for the hand to really work, which is less likely that getting a 2 lander on the mull and then drawing one land in the first 3. I'm assuming you have a fair amount of 1 and 2 drops so you're quite likely to get them on a mulligan. It worked out though for sure, but note that your hand is full of cards that you don't need so losing one to a mulligan seems ok. It feels so nice when an aggro deck curves out strongly for sure.

Don't think keeping is wrong mind, you're very likely to hit one land in 3 and the curve is really solid.

I definitely would not have kept that. You need too much to go your way. You need two draws to find a land or you're busted (this itself is a shaky proposition - about 25% chance of not happening). After that you need to draw another land or you're probably busted anyway. If I had scry 1 I'd keep, but without it it's just too risky.

You guys got the answer right and I'm just crazy! I normally would not have kept that but I really wanted that hand to work.

Mull!

That’s a mull
Result doesn’t matter

True.



Double true.

I actually wholeheartedly agree with that.

I'm playing monoblue against a Selenesya deck. The early game went like this:

T1: him land go, me land Siren Stormtamer
T2: him land Saproling Migration, me attack for 1, Nightveil Sprite
T3: him tapped land go.

It's my turn, and I'm holding a third land, Essence Scatter, Exclusion Mage, Curious Obsession, Spell Pierce, and Nightveil Sprite. Obviously I'm casting Curious Obsession. The Obsession draws a Siren Stormtamer. What do I play post-combat?

I'm definitely not casting Nightveil Sprite since I just played Obsession and really should hold mana up to defend the enchanted creature. But casting Siren is a possibility. If I play it, I don't have Essence Scatter anymore, although I still have Spell Pierce to deal with History of Benalia. I can also sacrifice a Stormtamer in response to Kraul Harpooner. If I don't play it, my board is relatively weak, and I would be practically forced to counter whatever he plays or I'd be too far behind on tempo. What's the play?



It sure feels like playing monoblue makes me a better player. Especially on the draw, every mana is precious, and the decision whether or not to leave up mana is usually very hard.

Yes, you definitely get better when you play different decks. Blue is especially tricky because it's so unique to Magic and always feels bad to play against. Know your enemies

Regarding your play, I didn't think of Shalai but of Leonin Warleader as a potential 4cmc creature threat and with the Exclusion Mage in hand you had an out to get rid of it (and know you'll have to counter it later). So improving your board with another 1-power flier (putting you at 3-2 power overall) while keeping the option to Spell Pierce sounds defendable to me.

I would have held my mana, UU reads- do you feel lucky?
You had your T1 Siren to protect your T2 Nightveil so that pretty much was a safe play.
him - Creature- Essence scatter
him removal- sac the Siren

In hindsight that looks good but that could also mean using the Essence Scatter ... since I only had one copy, what if I Scatter his Shalai and then the turn after he plays an unbeatable card like Lyra?

Ben Stark says that you should not care about winning you should care about giving yourself the best chance to win in every play, if you do that then your win percentage will increase in the long run. Do you think you increase your chances of winning that match by letting Shalai resolve in order to counter a possible Lira?

Well yes because Shalai is beatable - I did beat it after all - and Lyra is literally unbeatable if it resolves.

Of course it's also possible that opponent doesn't have Lyra (or Shalai) in their deck, that they haven't drawn it, that their turn 4 play is Leonin Warleader instead of Shalai, etc ... that's why playing monoblue makes me a better player

Now for the million dollar question on what did you end up using that Essence scatter?
-Either way if you have a counter and your opponent cast Shalai, you rather miss your counter and lose that open mana in order to save it for a better target?-

So I should not care about winning; I should focus on winning?

Exactly.