Suck it up and move your elitist whining somewhere else please. For every one of you there's 10 more who don't have your collection so try to be a little less obnoxious. Thanks.
You wanna see "elitist", go to the pimp deck thread over at The Source. Those guys could care less, this doesn't affect them, they all have playsets of German foil ONS fetches, those aren't taking a hit. And they already have Beta Power, they don't need to leverage their $40 lands to buy into white bordered Moxes like I do. Those of us in the "middle class" of MTG, we're the ones who lost money tonight, it wasn't the elites at all.
I think the main gripe here is that whoever actually owns playsets of onslaught fetches probably never planned on selling them in the first place if they're still holding on to them, therefore they're just being overly dramatic. Ya didn't hear it from me though
I think this spoil might be foreshadowing a push towards draw-go strategies in this color, this card screams draw-go. It's close to the same power level as esper charm imo, but I could be wrong
I really like vraska in this type of deck. The walkers themselves can be win cons but provide impact on the board at the same time, they all have some type of removal with them which I'm digging. You probably know more than me in regards to bug, but I'm sticking with her until I learn the hard way
I believe that geths verdict is an all around better card than terminate even if I do run into situations where I can't kill the creature I want to due to 2 or more being on board. Even if I'd rather have terminate against aggressive decks, geths verdict has these pros
. Hexproof/eldrazi/infect as you mentioned
. The damage dealt by it is relevant making it never dead. Subpar against a storm or 8rack deck but I would take subpar over dead always. It basically is more cohesive with our backup tempo/counterburn strategy
Damnation over aotg is going to help a lot since it's way better, aotg is practically a t6 spell since we're typically only playing red for less mana intensive spells, you need 19 red sources to consistently cast aotg on t3. If you're not running the same mana base then just go for terminate instead of g verdict since verdict is pretty mana intensive itself. If you want to consistently see something at least once per game then play 3 copies. I'd run 3 terminate for sure.
Ratchet bomb over engineered explosives since ee won't really be able to pop a blood moon if you draw it after moon resolves or don't even have both a basic island and swamp. R bomb also frees up some mana and can pop Permanents over 3cmc. Ee is a better topdeck and definitely a better choice against affinity for example, but I'm not worried about that matchup, we already do well against aggressive strategies imo so I'm prioritizing the blood moon/choke problem. For these reasons I place r bomb higher in the scale of cross
applicability
As for sowing salt, it won't be consistently cast on t4 without 18 red sources and a t4 land destruction spell is too slow against the nut draw. Maybe i shouldn't be playing a full set of stone rain since it might not be necessary considering seize and squall but it's definitely better than sowing salt imho. As sideboard cards I would entertain dissolve, dissipate, counterflux, and or hero's downfall since any of these are more cross applicable than stone rain. Leaning towards dissolve since it pulls its weight against tron, and it's the best counterspell against burn; the other matchup we need to truly worry about while giving another edge against other unfair decks as a hard counter with free library manipulation attached
The only reason I don't play anything else over cruel ultimatum as a "big finisher" is because it doesn't matter what your matchup is when using it. Do you want to drop a nicol bolas against tron when they could possibly just drop a karn and exile him the next turn? A titan when uwr can just field wipe? Olivia when a combo deck doesn't care about her at all (or oven worse just getting pathed by a zoo deck)? Cruel ultimatum bypasses all of these situations and is more likely to not only get you out of a bind regardless of your opponent, but it disrupts them enough while putting you at a much better place than any other finisher would on average. Outside of thoughtseize and countermagic, ultimatum itself is the most difficult to interact with on the stack and on resolve. Control decks want to maximize their interactive options while minimizing their opponent's.
The other win cons
Burn: Between Lighting Bolt, Electrolyze, and possibly geth's verdict(if you're willing to optimize your mana base for it), they immediately threaten to impact your opponent's life total. At the same time they're great removal spells, which means they're really flexible in the formulation of your gameplan according to the matchup/situation. Once again opposing removal can't interact with them and they have an immediate impact on the board.
Snapcaster Beats: This guy in conjunction with burn is where the crazy card advantage/utility/flexibility is at. Opens up more options for you while restricting the options of your opponent. Between snapcaster beats with eot burn spells being flash backed (and add in the spot discard) is another reason why uw/x control decks shouldn't be winning against cruel control. They have to generally overextend into dealing with your pressure and tempo backed up by spot discard, opening up opportunities to land an ultimatum and basically win the game
Tar Pit Beats: Backed by spot discard/ultimatum to bypass removal while providing free reach and mana fixing, another card that's difficult to interact with in the right hands and furthers the gameplan.
In regards to frank karsten's article and the mana base, here is what I did with his information
14 t1 red sources for lightning bolt
14 t1 black sources for IOK
20 blue sources for cc (falls a little short but sunken ruins helps to up the consistency) on t4 and higher than 90% consistent for mana leak ect on t2
19 Black sources for t2 geth's verdict (falls short by one black source but helped by sunken ruins and urborg for higher consistency) and over 90% consistent with a t4 damnation
Why is this important?
Say you're up against a fast deck be it fair or unfair and you have a starting hand of drowned catacomb and a steam vents on the play. You're sitting on a hand of 2 IOKS and you're actually set back a turn in this regard since you can't play IOK on turn 1. Being able to otherwise play IOK on t1 with a fetch instead of a drowned catacomb is totally worth it and actually saves you life even if you have to burn yourself. Why? Because you just stripped them of their turn 1 play or their gameplan was significantly disrupted. If it were a wild nacatl you just saved yourself a couple turns of getting beat in the face by a 3/3, I value shocking myself for 1 or even 3 to prevent that from happening, this would also free up the option to hold my mana open for a t2 mana leak (otherwise I would have to choose between one or the other by t2, potentially making IOK a dead card). Situations similar to this are proverbial if you're not playing a consistent deck against a deck that's built to maximize their efficiency. You have to fight consistency with your own consistency in this format. You trade a little bit of your life total for flexibility which in the long run preserves your life total moreso since you're not falling behind to an increasingly out of control board presence that restricts your ability to play x.
Another reason why 7-8 fetches are useful is the ability to bypass blood moon. With consistent IOK mana, I can force them to discard it (while even gathering the proper information that I'm up against a blood moon deck, which is important) while fetching basics at the same time to disregard it (being able to fetch basics also plays a role in minimizing the damage taken when playing a greedy mana base)
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You shoulda sold your playset when you had the chance
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. Hexproof/eldrazi/infect as you mentioned
. The damage dealt by it is relevant making it never dead. Subpar against a storm or 8rack deck but I would take subpar over dead always. It basically is more cohesive with our backup tempo/counterburn strategy
Might still switch to terminate though
1
Ratchet bomb over engineered explosives since ee won't really be able to pop a blood moon if you draw it after moon resolves or don't even have both a basic island and swamp. R bomb also frees up some mana and can pop Permanents over 3cmc. Ee is a better topdeck and definitely a better choice against affinity for example, but I'm not worried about that matchup, we already do well against aggressive strategies imo so I'm prioritizing the blood moon/choke problem. For these reasons I place r bomb higher in the scale of cross
applicability
As for sowing salt, it won't be consistently cast on t4 without 18 red sources and a t4 land destruction spell is too slow against the nut draw. Maybe i shouldn't be playing a full set of stone rain since it might not be necessary considering seize and squall but it's definitely better than sowing salt imho. As sideboard cards I would entertain dissolve, dissipate, counterflux, and or hero's downfall since any of these are more cross applicable than stone rain. Leaning towards dissolve since it pulls its weight against tron, and it's the best counterspell against burn; the other matchup we need to truly worry about while giving another edge against other unfair decks as a hard counter with free library manipulation attached
1
The other win cons
Burn: Between Lighting Bolt, Electrolyze, and possibly geth's verdict(if you're willing to optimize your mana base for it), they immediately threaten to impact your opponent's life total. At the same time they're great removal spells, which means they're really flexible in the formulation of your gameplan according to the matchup/situation. Once again opposing removal can't interact with them and they have an immediate impact on the board.
Snapcaster Beats: This guy in conjunction with burn is where the crazy card advantage/utility/flexibility is at. Opens up more options for you while restricting the options of your opponent. Between snapcaster beats with eot burn spells being flash backed (and add in the spot discard) is another reason why uw/x control decks shouldn't be winning against cruel control. They have to generally overextend into dealing with your pressure and tempo backed up by spot discard, opening up opportunities to land an ultimatum and basically win the game
Tar Pit Beats: Backed by spot discard/ultimatum to bypass removal while providing free reach and mana fixing, another card that's difficult to interact with in the right hands and furthers the gameplan.
In regards to frank karsten's article and the mana base, here is what I did with his information
4 Creeping Tar Pit
4 Scalding Tarn
4 Marsh Flats
4 Steam Vents
1 Blood Crypt
1 Watery Grave
1 Sunken Ruins
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
3 Swamp
2 Island
1 Mountatin
14 t1 red sources for lightning bolt
14 t1 black sources for IOK
20 blue sources for cc (falls a little short but sunken ruins helps to up the consistency) on t4 and higher than 90% consistent for mana leak ect on t2
19 Black sources for t2 geth's verdict (falls short by one black source but helped by sunken ruins and urborg for higher consistency) and over 90% consistent with a t4 damnation
Why is this important?
Say you're up against a fast deck be it fair or unfair and you have a starting hand of drowned catacomb and a steam vents on the play. You're sitting on a hand of 2 IOKS and you're actually set back a turn in this regard since you can't play IOK on turn 1. Being able to otherwise play IOK on t1 with a fetch instead of a drowned catacomb is totally worth it and actually saves you life even if you have to burn yourself. Why? Because you just stripped them of their turn 1 play or their gameplan was significantly disrupted. If it were a wild nacatl you just saved yourself a couple turns of getting beat in the face by a 3/3, I value shocking myself for 1 or even 3 to prevent that from happening, this would also free up the option to hold my mana open for a t2 mana leak (otherwise I would have to choose between one or the other by t2, potentially making IOK a dead card). Situations similar to this are proverbial if you're not playing a consistent deck against a deck that's built to maximize their efficiency. You have to fight consistency with your own consistency in this format. You trade a little bit of your life total for flexibility which in the long run preserves your life total moreso since you're not falling behind to an increasingly out of control board presence that restricts your ability to play x.
Another reason why 7-8 fetches are useful is the ability to bypass blood moon. With consistent IOK mana, I can force them to discard it (while even gathering the proper information that I'm up against a blood moon deck, which is important) while fetching basics at the same time to disregard it (being able to fetch basics also plays a role in minimizing the damage taken when playing a greedy mana base)