Love talking about this stuff!
1. If we're being honest, this is a holdover from when I was still running
Master of Cruelties. I should probably drop it in favor of a better utility land. If you look at the Revisions, you'll see that this deck has undergone drastic and constant changes over the last year lol!
2. Normally I'll give it to whoever's deck I know the most about and that I'm not afraid of. I play in a pretty consistent meta (read: with friends, not strangers) and will give it to somebody who doesn't typically run combos. Alternatively, giving it to somebody with the caveat that they have to use whatever they tutor against enemies instead of me is also fun. And, of course, there's always
Opposition Agent, in which case, give it to whomever you think has the best deck
3. It just feels so good, especially running 10 fetch lands and
Land Tax. This deck is super-dependent on having answers to stay alive and turn things against our opponents, so card selection is very important. Being able to throw dead cards on top of the deck and then crack a fetch to shuffle them in is amazing. Getting a virtual
Ancestral Recall every turn with
Land Tax is also amazing. Additionally, it lets us keep key cards when we want to
Wheel of Fortune.
4. Another case of "I only have 99 cards
" I ran it for a long time, and it put in lots of work. Ultimately was cut to make room for more efficient mana rocks to aid in a sped-up meta.
5. This is I was running until about a week ago - I absolutely love it. The
Underworld Breach +
Wheel of Fortune +
Smothering Tithe combo was probably my most consistent wincon. It's lots of fun, flexible, and you want to be running all of the pieces anyway. However, like all good combos, my play group got sick of it after probably my 4th time winning with it. I've since taken it out for power level reasons, which has let my in-game play focus less on "combo hunting" and more on analyzing the baord state and thinking about interesting aikido opportunities.
6. Also ran this until about a week ago. Removed because it was the most narrow interaction I had, and I really wanted to try out
Tibalt's Trickery, so I had to make room.
7. Also super powerful and used to run it. Cut it to make room for cards I consider more "fun" and have more interactions with the rest of the deck. It's a dead draw late game, and swingy and "unfun" early game.
8. Ran it for a long time as well, but it was eventually cut once I also cut the
Dark Depths combo I used to run. It made room for more flexible tutors that we have access to in black.
9. Yes! But it's super meta dependent. I've won quite a few games where everybody taps out to fill their board and then I just take it all. Definitely depends on how creature-heavy / fast your meta is.