Miracles, Sneak and Show and the like… the meta I used to play in surely has evolved. While Cockatrice initiated me to some of these match-ups, I wasn’t prepared to face friends around a kitchen table with their brand new weapons. Armed with my dusty paper TES deck, with an admittedly outdated sideboard, I struggled to give them any kind of challenge. I also forgot how much it was rewarding to play for improvement instead of winnings. Playing with friends really allowed me to slow the game down, think and theory craft about certain plays occurring live. I missed that so much! I sincerely hope all of those reading, have your own play test group and ask question around the table. If that happens and leaves you with related TES questions, you can always submit a comment below so our own Infernal Tutors can answer them in a future article!

Here are some situations recreated on Cockatrice and that had us arguing for hours in the night.

Stay tuned and enjoy!

For these situations, I used what I had in my deck box at the moment. You’ll notice a good amount of artifact hate, those who read my previous series will understand why. However, it seems the meta shifted a lot, thus this should be reworked soon.

Situation #1 – Miracles

Game 3, on the play, against Miracles. This is one of the hardest decision I’ve had to make yet as a Magic player, despite the match being just for fun.

Sideboarding: -3 Chrome Mox, -1 Empty the Warrens, -1 Ponder, +2 Xantid Swarm, +3 Abrupt Decay.

My first hand is Rite of Flame, Polluted Delta, Infernal Tutor, Infernal Tutor, Burning Wish, Abrupt Decay, Cabal Therapy. This seems unkeepable and I shuffle down to six cards: Gitaxian Probe, Bloodstained Mire, Cabal Therapy, Lion’s Eye Diamond, Abrupt Decay, Xantid Swarm. While not optimal, it feels much better, as I can play while searching for business – instead of hoping for a land and more rituals.

I open the game with a Gitaxian Probe, drawing Brainstorm and this is what is revealed:

Electrickery, Counterbalance, Force of Will, Vendilion Clique, Sensei’s Divining Top, Volcanic Island, Flooded Strand.

I start thinking about the possibilities as I lay down my land. If I take Sensei’s Divining Top with Cabal Therapy, Xantid Swarm loses some utility by not having to prevent the top deck draw or will most likely die anyway. If I take the Counterbalance, Abrupt Decay becomes a dead card in my hand, but again I have a Brainstorm. If I take Electrikery, I will most likely lose Xantid Swarm to Force of Will and let my opponent resolves his full combo of Sensei’s Divining Top and Counterbalance. If I take the Force of Will out, I will lose Xantid Swarm to Electrikery before I can use it.

Yet to play anything, we need our only land to sacrifice a color from a card in our hand: either we go without blue, so no Brainstorm, or without green, for no Abrupt Decay and Xantid Swarm. Do you play anything on that turn and if so, what land do you search for?

Situation #2: Shardless BUG

The introduction touched the subject of stopping a game state and wonder ”what would happen if…?”. I hope you like to theory craft, because this situation is all about it. Below is the board state:

We have Burning Wish, Infernal Tutor, Lion’s Eye Diamond, a pair of Lotus Petal and a pair of Dark Ritual in hand. There’s also an Underground Sea and a Volcanic Island on the field untapped. Our opponent is at 18 life.

The actual game was rather easy to win with a tutor chain because the Force of Will couldn’t be cast due to a lack of blue cards and I didn’t fear the Deathrite Shaman as it was summoning sicknesss. But what if?

What would be the best winning sequence to play…

-Against a Force of Will, without a blue card to support it, but with an active Deathrite Shaman and untapped lands?

-Against a Force of Will, with a blue card and with an active Deathrite Shaman with untapped lands?

Situation #3: Sneak and Show

Time is running out! Playing against Sneak and Show, I managed to keep the opponent on their toes, but not for long: they’re only missing a creature to cheat into play via a resolved Sneak Attack and they’re now playing in top deck mode.

After a Gitaxian Probe (draw: Brainstorm), I see Force of Will, Force of Will, Pyroclasm ahead of me. Brainstorm from Underground Sea sculpts the following hand:

Burning Wish, Chrome Mox, Ad Nauseam, Dark Ritual, Dark Ritual, Infernal Tutor, Lotus Petal, Lotus Petal, with two cards still to put on top.

Emrakul, the Aeon’s Torn and Griselbrand are too close, is it possible to win before they comes into play?

Thanks again for your viewership!