Nice Play: Hetrick casts turn-two Snapcaster

I think it's widely known that turn-two Snapcaster should be played more often, but I don't think many people know when to do it. Here's when to do it.

"Yeah, I think I'm on the Snap plan."

M1G2 of these videos, stuck on two lands, Michael Hetrick plays his 2/1 flash creature on his Scapeshift opponent's EOT. It's a chance to rule the board against a nearly-creatureless deck, and it's a potential third land via Path to Exile. Good play.


In M3G2, Hetrick makes another nice play by waiting to use Tectonic Edge on his opponent's upkeep.

The opponent was playing the "Sharfman version" of Scapeshift, with Peer Through Depths and no Primeval Titans. On Hetrick's turn, he played a Tectonic Edge and considered the opponent's open mana.

"I'm sure he has, like, Peer Through Depths, so it's not entirely an extra tun [gained by land destruction]. I think it's worth it.

"We're gonna pass, though, and do it on his upkeep, depending on if he Peers."

[Pass turn. Opponent plays nothing. Opponent's upkeep, use Tectonic Edge.]

"He didn't Peer. I just wanted him to not know if we were gonna do it, if he did cast the Peer."

Nice Play: Michael Hetrick versus Centaur Healer

From M2G2 of this Domri Naya event, Michael Hetrick has to pick a turn three play against a Prime Speaker Bant deck:

I wouldn't mind playing Reckoner, but I still think I would rather have Domri in this situation.... Actually, that's not 100% true. If I Domri +1, we're getting a long game advantage, but he already has the advantage in the long game.

We could Mortars his guy and play Experiment One and attack for three. That also prevents him from Resto-ing the Healer.... Yeah, I guess that's true. Then we could play around the Resto next turn with Rampager.

If we just Domri'ed, we'd be playing a control role, which I don't think we should really be doing. Yeah, we're not gonna do that.

There is a slight downside [to Mortars + Experiment One]. We could save [Mortars] -- but I don't think it's that significant, especially since pretty soon we're gonna have Domri and our Reckoner, which can suffice as removal.

Hetrick should be relieved that it was a Healer instead of a brick-wall Loxodon Smiter, but I like his decision to play Mortars and Experiment One, and I like the logic behind it.

(He's also completely bottle-necked at three mana, so playing Domri to find extra creatures probably won't
do much to win him the game.)

The one other thing I'd consider is just attacking first to see if the opponent cares about Flinthoof Boar. We could do Rampager + Experiment One on a block (since that signals no Restoration Angel) or just deal 3 and cast Reckoner otherwise.

Video: Highlights from Sam Pardee playing Junk Aristocrats

(Working through a backlog of CFB videos.)

Here are some highlights from this recorded 8-man of Sam Pardee playing Junk Aristocrats.

M1G1 -- Sideboarding vs. Naya Aggro

To make room for more removal and Unflinching Courage, Pardee takes out all the Blood Artist and all the Sorin from his deck.

I like Abrupt Decay. I typically like cutting Blood Artist, because -- Blood Artist is really good when we're trading resources, which is what we want to be doing in this matchup, but it doesn't actually make us any ... It makes trading resources better for us, but it doesn't help us successfully trade resources, if that makes sense.

Cartel Aristocrat helps us successfully trade resources -- we're trading a Spirit token to give it protection to hopefully trade for one of his guys. So that's a trade we're willing to do. Blood Artist makes that trade more profitable for us, but we don't need those trades to be more profitable; we just need them to be happening. So I like shaving Blood Artist out.

I think Unflinching Courage is good. I think Sorin's also not very good in this matchup, because he's very slow, especially on the draw. I like Garruk because he can kill -- if they have Fiend Hunter, if they have Avacyn's Pilgrim -- there's just a lot of little guys he can kill.

This seems like a great plan for on the draw versus Naya aggro -- if you make the entire deck about 1-for-1 trades, something like Lingering Souls ends up taking over.

Blood Artist is sort of a combo card in a deck that often wants to scrape card advantage instead of making a combo kill. Making a lot of creatures and pumping them with Sorin and Gavony Township is the "real plan," and Blood Artist just speeds up the kill by one turn when that plan is working. It creates the illusion of a lower creature curve (since it's technically a 2-drop), but I wonder if Selesnya Charm or something would just be more effective.

M2G1 -- Picking a turn two creature

So here's the tricky spot -- whether you play Aristocat or Voice. If they have access to Pillar of Flame (I guess he could still be Jund), it's typically better to play the Aristocrat first, because you don't want to get your Voice killed, so that's why I'm doing that here. The other, secondary, reason is that they're going to hit for the same amount this turn, so it doesn't really matter.

[The opponent plays another GB land and passes.] I guess if I'd played Voice, he would have had to main-phase his [spell] -- I'm guessing he's going to cast a Grisly Salvage here.

This was just a sensible play and good reasoning. Aristocrat before Voice to guarantee you'll get the Elemental.

M3G1 -- What to do with Sorin

The two Searing Spears in the graveyard are, of course, for the Voice of Resurgence in graveyard and the Elemental it made. Pardee untaps and plays Sorin on turn 4 here:

I'm just going to play it and plus it. He could kill it, potentially, with a Warleader's Helix, in which case I'd rather have minus'ed it, but it's not that likely that he has it -- they usually only run 1 or 2 Helixes -- and even in that case, I think I'll be in good shape.

Basically I think it's much more likely that he has something like a Snapcaster for his Searing Spear to kill Sorin, but maybe that just doesn't matter that much and I should just do it anyway. No, I'm gonna plus. I can always minus next turn, unless he has the Warleader's Helix, which I don't think he does. I don't think he would have snap-killed that Voice token if he had a Warleader's Helix.

He goes back and forth on this one before deciding to +1 and make a token. I think the decision is very clear -- even with a power boost, his small army will not be much pressure for a UWR deck with 17 life and 5 cards. Generating a second army of Vampires should be done as quickly as possible.

The +1 is better against the Snapcaster turn that he sniffs out, but it's also better against most other possibilities: Supreme Verdict, Restoration Angel, or just Azorius Charm.

Other notes
- Pardee says that the deck's biggest problem is mana-flood. He plays 22 mana lands + 3 Gavony Township
- He boards out the Skirsdag High Priests against UW decks -- the logic being that sacrificing a Doomed Traveler to trigger Morbid is walking into Supreme Verdict.

Nice Play: Simon Goertzen casts Give

In M1G2 of his latest draft video, Simon Goertzen hits land on turn 6 and chooses to pump his Centaur token instead of drawing three cards:

(clarity: this is before playing land for the turn)

The opponent's deck has shown mostly Unleash creatures in the first game. My plan, watching, was to try and win by drawing some good spells.

Goertzen's plan, it turns out, is to use Give un-fused make a 6/6 and knock the opponent to 6 life, forcing a tough block next turn, and leaving himself the spare mana to play a Disciple of the Old Ways.

"Playing Give on the Spire Tracer doesn't make a lot of sense, because we know he has the Horror now. So we could put it on the Centaur and get in for 7, bringing our opponent down to 6, forcing him to block the Centaur next turn or have an immediate answer to it. I think that's our best line.

"The alternative would be to try to draw some additional cards here, but I don't think that's getting us very far. If we draw three here, then everything we have is basically dominated by his board, and we only bring him down to 12, so I kind of like being more aggressive here."

It's a gamble that the opponent doesn't have removal -- we haven't seen removal yet, but it hasn't really been necessary yet. We have seen a Thrill-Kill Assassin (so far uncastable) from the opponent, as well as a Psychic Strike (which might be in hand, since the opponent played no spell on turn 4).

Give + attack plays around the Psychic Strike, and by letting the Centaur get past the 3/4 blocker, it does 6 points of damage even if the Centaur doesn't live. Considering the board and the opponent's 4 cards, we don't have the best odds of winning in any case, but Goertzen makes a bold risk here to try and steal the game.

Nice Play: LSV blocks a Wasteland Viper

In M1G2 of this draft, Luis Scott-Vargas uses a 3/3 Centaur to block a 1/2 deathtouch creature and stay at 17 life:

He says, "I think rather than taking a bunch of damage and then trading for it, I should just trade for it. The Centaur's not getting in there anyway, so no reason not to."

I would never have thought of this block. I don't know if it's right, but it's clever. It's also tough to read why the opponent would be attacking with just Wasteland Viper.

Video Rec: Paul Cheon, Battalion vs. Lavinia

Match 1, Game 2 of this draft on Channel Fireball is pretty satisfying. Cheon finds marginal value every turn with his army of 1- and 2-power creatures.

A screenshot:

Paul's creatures are all detained in a Voidwalk + Lavinia loop.