UR Delver Hand Answer
Hand 10: (on the draw)
Keep
Most people correctly answered this scenario. With a scry and being on the draw, your odds of finding a red source are much better than your odds of winning the game on five cards. It’s difficult to ask for more than a first turn discard spell into ten Goblins in most match-ups. You can’t be afraid to keep hands without lands.
UW Stoneblade
Pre-board
Hand 1: (on the draw)
Mulligan
This is a great hand in so many match-ups, but ten Goblins on the draw just doesn’t beat Stoneforge Mystic into Batterskull. It’s understandable to keep if a hand like this was backed by a discard spell.
Hand 2: (on the play)
Keep
If you visit the data page of the website, you’ll see that ten Goblins on the play will outrace a Stoneforge Mystic and a Batterskull, this hand can make fourteen with Dark Petition into the main deck Empty the Warrens. Now you have to consider countermagic, but we all know the math on Force of Will and a blue card (38-40%) — you go for it.
Hand 3: (on the draw)
Keep
Don’t be afraid to keep slower hands in the match-up, Stoneblade decks have a very slow clock and don’t have cards such as Counterbalance to lock you out of the game. Sculpt to your game plan and execute, Batterskull can’t even start attacking you until turn 3 — you’ll have plenty of time to win.
Hand 4: (on the play)
Keep
If you were willing to keep hand two with fourteen Goblins, there’s no reason you should be concerned casting Ad Nauseam with mana floating.
Hand 5: (on the draw)
Mulligan
These sorts of hands are tough, I don’t expect everyone to agree with me on this, but it just doesn’t do anything. You can send your first few turns shredding their hands, but then you’re left with no resources and your action spells can’t do anything. By the time they can, your opponent’s hand has recovered.
Post-board
Recommended sideboarding:
Hand 6: (on the play)
Keep
While this hand is very similar to hand five (lots of protection, but missing an item), it’s almost always better to need an action spell rather than mana. Going off requires multiple pieces of accelerants, while you only need one “tutor effect.” You also have your most valuable protection spell in Hope of Ghirapur that is able to negate multiple counterspells.
Hand 7: (on the draw)
Mulligan
In hand 10 from UR Delver I said, “You can’t be afraid to keep hands without lands.” This isn’t one of those times. This hand doesn’t do anything even if you do draw two lands in a row, Empty the Warrens for ten to twelve Goblins on turn three definitely will not beat a Batterskull.
Hand 8: (on the play)
Mulligan
I’m testing you, you cannot keep hands that the data doesn’t support. You need ten Goblins on the play, it’s that simple.
Hand 9: (on the draw)
Keep
I love these types of hands, but the risk here is that Hope of Ghirapur has a much higher chance of being answered — mostly due to our hand being so far away from winning the game. Because of this, I would hold Hope of Ghirapur for a little while until I had progressed my game plan. This allows time for Stoneforge Mystic to search up Batterskull instead of Umezawa’s Jitte or for the opponent to Brainstorm away possible Swords to Plowshares or Disenchant.
Hand 10: (on the play)
Stay tuned for the next article!
I’ll provide my answer in the next article, but for now, make sure to post your thoughts!
