Mulligan

What does this hand do? You’re not even remotely close to casting [[Ad Nauseam]], you don’t have the mana to cast either [[Thoughtseize]] or [[Veil of Summer]] to protect yourself, and even if you somehow aren’t discarded on the opponent’s turn, you have to be fortunate enough to draw a second mana source to put [[Echo of Eons]] on the stack. There’s so many cascading unlikely scenarios here where the London Mulligan is just so much more appealing.

Keep

It’s important to note that Lands does not play any instant-speed interaction in game-one scenarios! This means we’re free to try a win attempt.

Cast [[Lotus Petal]], [[Lion’s Eye Diamond]], and then [[Mox Opal]]. At this point, [[Dark Ritual]] and then [[Infernal Tutor]] revealing [[Rite of Flame]] — play the pair of [[Rite of Flame]], [[Infernal Tutor]], [[Burning Wish]], and then [[Tendrils of Agony]]!

Mulligan

This hand is really interesting to me! When you look at the majority of recent successful lists they all contain four copies of [[Sphere of Resistance]] in the main deck, which used to only be a sideboard choice. If I knew my opponent didn’t have [[Sphere of Resistance]], I would keep this hand as a turn-two [[Galvanic Relay]] for at least four while redrawing two cards off of the pair of [[Urza’s Bauble]] is very tempting. Especially given the fact we have two permanent mana sources! With the current metagame, we’re likely going to be facing a [[Sphere of Resistance]] and that this turn-three hand isn’t likely fast enough against the current builds.

Keep

The power of [[Brainstorm]]! While [[Veil of Summer]] may not be desirable, we can cast [[Brainstorm]] off of the [[Mox Opal]] and then put the pair of green cards back into our library. At this point, activate [[Bloodstained Mire]] and then draw a card off of [[Mishra’s Bauble]] providing us with five looks at a pay-off spell for a turn-two win. That should be more than enough!

The lesson here is to analyze hands and not dismiss them too quickly due to having “dead” cards in them.

Mulligan

In Hand No. 2, I spoke to the difference in the types of hands you can keep against builds that do contain and do not contain main deck copies of [[Sphere of Resistance]]. This hand is too slow against both variants. While lands is a slow deck, you can’t completely disrespect with them hands like this. They are still capable of creating a [[Marit Lage Token]] within the initial turns of the game.

Mulligan

The old 34 percent to draw an action spell isn’t really true anymore, and it’s best that we move on from that thinking. We have four copies of [[Brainstorm]], [[Infernal Tutor]], and [[Burning Wish]] as live draws. We also have four copies of each of [[Mishra’s Bauble]] and [[Urza’s Bauble]], three [[Galvanic Relay]], and then an [[Ad Nauseam]] that we’re unable to cast. With roughly half of our “action” spells taking an additional turn, I can’t see why we would take the chance on this hand in the face of [[Sphere of Resistance]].

In reality, we have a dozen hits, and [[Brainstorm]] isn’t even a real guarantee. Just mulligan this hand for something with an actual game plan!

Mulligan

These sorts of hands are often big traps, but look like keepable hands. The reality is, you disrupt your opponent for a bit with [[Thoughtseize]] and then they attack your mana while you don’t have any ideal acceleration or any payoffs. If you don’t believe me on this one, keep a few of these and then play the games. You might win 3-5 of them, but we have so many hands that are a higher win percentage, especially in this matchup.

Mulligan

The opposite problem of Hand No. 5! We have a lot of action, but our mana is extremely shaky. One of the easiest ways for Lands to beat you is [[Wasteland]]. I wouldn’t give them the opportunity to do it so easily. Even if you draw a second land, there’s no real pay-off. What are you going to do? [[Galvanic Relay]] out of the sideboard? I believe we can do better.

Keep

A card we haven’t mentioned yet is [[Force of Vigor]], which tends to be very popular. While this hand is risky, the reward is high enough in my opinion. Assuming we draw a black source you could check to see if the coast is clear of a [[Force of Vigor]] or discard a [[Sphere of Resistance]] with [[Thoughtseize]]. You also have the choice to just got for it and then accept the risk. If you don’t draw the land, you have the ability to disrupt them with a mana source in play that can’t be destroyed by [[Wasteland]]. These are all reasonable enough avenues that I wouldn’t send this hand back into the deck.

Keep

The way I often choose to view these hands is that I’m opting to view them as starting the game with a few Storm, a permanent mana source in play ([[Volcanic Island]]), and an additional draw off of the [[Mishra’s Bauble]] post-[[Echo of Eons]]. There’s always the potential to win on the first turn, but I don’t expect to with no floating mana. The real goal here is to start up on the opponent in terms of cards, while giving them a random hand that likely doesn’t contain [[Sphere of Resistance]] or to a lesser extent [[Force of Vigor]].

Stay tuned for the next article!

I’ll provide my answer in the next article.