This hand is actually not that great. The old adage of, “the odds are in our favor, go for it.”, is no longer true when our opponent has up to six free hard counters between Force of Will and Force of Negation. This puts their odds at about 60 percent, which is a losing bet at the casino.
While our hand has a lot of mana and a Veil of Summer, Veil of Summer doesn’t do anything in game one due to no discard, meaning this hand doesn’t do anything.
Unlike Infernal Tutor, Wishclaw Talisman does not require you to be hellbent, meaning anything that can generate a mana in the next few turns leads to casting Ad Nauseam.
Hand No. 5: (on the play)
Mulligan
This hand is just far too slow. Burning Wish also has very few good targets in this matchup.
Post-board
Recommended sideboarding:
IN
OUT
Hand No. 6: (on the draw — mulliganed once)
Mulligan
While we have Ad Nauseam and Chain of Vapor, this hand is just too clunky. My biggest fear here is that post-board Elves contains a number of discard spells ranging from Cabal Therapy to Thoughtseize. I don’t think this hand can really afford to be disrupted.
Hand No. 7: (on the play)
Keep
As weird as it is, Veil of Summer can actually be fairly good post-board to stop the discard spells that I previously mentioned. While this hand can be a little slow, it also has an answer to whatever permanent-based hate our opponent is trying to do such as Collector Ouphe. I expect this hand to be a turn-three win.
Hand No. 8: (on the draw)
Keep
This is a low-end keep, but it has lands and spells that can meaningfully interact. Especially against a hand that likely contains discard spells.
Hand No. 9: (on the play)
Keep
This hand could lose to a Leyline of the Void, which I’ve seen out of Elves, but I would risk the first turn Echo of Eons with starting the game with a land in play already.
Hand No. 10: (on the draw — mulliganed twice)
Stay tuned for the next article!
I’ll provide my answer in the next article, but for now, make sure to post your thoughts!