I unfortunately agree here - we've been going hard on lots of different lands strategies for a long time - we re-introduced Gitrog maybe a year ago and gave it a decent run. We just found 5 to be too much, and that there were cheaper ways to pay off looping fetches, etc. However if you try it and it ends up working for you please share here b/c I'd love an excuse to drop it back in.
I think the reasons people are mentioning why it's unlikely to work make sense, but I've wanted to try it for a while, you've convinced me to give it a spin - thanks for pinging the thread!
I'm glad you pinged this one - I remember being curious about it when it came out. We never ran it b/c we went with Otharri, Suns' Glory instead, which has been pretty solid - folks feel like this guy is better?
I think what you're both saying is probably correct, but Steve's original post inspired me to give this a try and we've really enjoyed it. Thanks for posting the idea!
It 3-0'd the first draft it was in (in a deck w/o Urza). We play all the welders/engineers, which I think helps the sword in particular not be quite as dumpy as it might be otherwise. I agree the lack of redundancy in the draft is a problem & no one is running sword of the meek in their deck unless they also have exactly thopter foundry, which is kinda a bummer. That said, it's only 2 slots, so what the hell, why not.
It's been in & out of our cube for a while (currently in) - also was turned onto it via some legacy lands lists.
Recently we've been going all-in on some of the more questionable extra land drop effects: Azusa, scapeshift, sakura-tribe scout etc. along w/ a few bouncelands to support some of the fringier lands-based strategies and it's been performing pretty well (Jund lands w/ Valakut Awakening got a 3-0 this weekend).
It 3-0'd the first draft it was in (in a deck w/o Urza). We play all the welders/engineers, which I think helps the sword in particular not be quite as dumpy as it might be otherwise. I agree the lack of redundancy in the draft is a problem & no one is running sword of the meek in their deck unless they also have exactly thopter foundry, which is kinda a bummer. That said, it's only 2 slots, so what the hell, why not.
Recently we've been going all-in on some of the more questionable extra land drop effects: Azusa, scapeshift, sakura-tribe scout etc. along w/ a few bouncelands to support some of the fringier lands-based strategies and it's been performing pretty well (Jund lands w/ Valakut Awakening got a 3-0 this weekend).
agree - we've been loving it, and I hope we continue getting more interesting G disruptive tools like this against unfair strategies