Pay for Smothering Tithe?

[Morganator 2.0]

A few days back I asked how often and under what circumstances do people pay for Rhystic Study. Now I'm asking the same thing with Smothering Tithe.

[Aetherium Slinky]

This one is trickier. Lots of people drawing lots of cards - it gets very expensive very quickly. We usually don't pay for it unless there's leftover mana. As a result the Smothering Tithe player usually runs off with a lot of Treasure tokens. It's not quite as bad as drawing cards because you might have an empty hand and the tokens are just sitting there doing nothing. Cards give you land drops, more draw and more things to play so it's arguably worse than having a lot of mana. At least my decks don't usually have a problem generating mana on their own so Smothering Tithe is just a nice bonus but nothing game breaking.

[Hyedris]

I pay if the opponent might have cards like Exsanguinate, Banefire or something like that, or if there's some artifact synergy.

Last week a friend had like 30 treasure tokens with his Alesha deck and an empty hand so they were almost useless.

[ApothecaryGeist]

Smothering Tithe is an expensive card.  So it doesn't show up as much at casual tables.  (Yes, Rhystic Study is expensive too, NOW.  But it's been around a lot longer; many more people have copies.  And it started out life as a common.)  It's generally played in decks that don't have access to such good card draw and/or mana ramp.  (So, Boros.)  It's also a 2-mana tax, rather than the 1 from Rhystic Study.  Like @Hyedris said: bunches of Treasure + empty hand = almost completely useless.


While I almost always pay for Rhystic Study, I almost never pay for Smothering Tithe.  Only if I have the extra 2 mana left over.  But I won't hold back mana to specifically to pay for Smother Tithe.

[WWolfe]

I'm with the general consensus. I won't generally pay for it unless I just happen to have the mana leftover.

The biggest use I've ever seen of the treasure tokens from it was a play I made playing Finale of Glory for 58 on an opponents turn after he cast Windfall thanks to a Leyline of Anticipation and being able to swing out with them all on my turn. 

ETA- Either that or the time an opponent had Pandemonium out and I cast Finale of Glory for 15 and took out 2 of the 3 opponents.

[Aetherium Slinky]

A few days ago I played a game where the Tithe player had 90 tokens. He won the game.

[ApothecaryGeist]

A few days ago I played a game where the Tithe player had 90 tokens. He won the game.

But was it BECAUSE of the 90 Treasures?  Or were they irrelevant and that player would have won without them?

[robort]

I almost never pay for smothering tithe. Again with my type of playstyle I just play my cards and if you get a boat load of mana and win so be it. Move on to the next game and play some more. I have a friend in our play group who generates mana no matter what deck he plays. I have told him that you'd sit on a boat load of mana and do nothing then get more cards to play. He told me yep eventually I will draw into something big, One can never have to much mana and I am one who almost never am the one to stop you from getting that mana.

[Varatius]

From my experience with smother tithe once whoever has it get 10 treasure it doesn't matter. 
When it comes to paying if they are running monowhite or Boros I'll let them have the treasure unless they are playing an artifacts matter deck in those colors.

[Aetherium Slinky]

A few days ago I played a game where the Tithe player had 90 tokens. He won the game.

But was it BECAUSE of the 90 Treasures?  Or were they irrelevant and that player would have won without them?

Partly. Mostly no. He was playing a group hug deck and was mostly hanging a counterspell over our heads with all that mana. No crazy payoffs, the finish would have been to use all the mana in some convoluted combo but then things happened and he won through other means. Or was it me that one? The games from that night kinda meld together. But he wasn't doing anything important with all the mana until there was supposed to be a huge combo to use it all in.

[Slyvester12]

I usually pay and try to get others to pay if the Smothering Tithe player has a mana sink. If not, I let them have the tokens.

[terminalgeek]

I consider my need for the extra mana first before I decide on paying. Plus the threat level, if I suspect a wheel then I'm not going to pay so I can get my cards out of my hand before I end up being forced to discard and give them a bunch of treasure anyway.

[Chiru]

My group never pays.

I've asked why and they just don't care if I get the token.

As for myself, I've never faced it, but I don't think I'd pay unless they were a threat and I thought they we're building up a something.