Originally Posted by
caseyc
Ok, I'll base this guide off my paper list (below). My online list is a little different, for budget and paper versus online meta reasons--but both contain the Rite plan.
4x Dark Depths
4x Thespian's Stage
3x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
4x Verdant Catacombs
2x Bayou
1x Llanowar Wastes
1x Snow-Covered Forest
1x Snow-Coverered Swamp
1x Sejiri Steppe
1x Ghost Quarter
1x Bojuka Bog
4x Lotus Petal
3x Pithing Needle
1x Expedition Map
4x Elvish Spirit Guide
2x Sylvan Safekeeper
4x Vampire Hexmage
4x Thoughtseize
2x Duress
1x Collective Brutality
4x Crop Rotation
4x Sylvan Scrying
2x Into The North
2x Gitaxian Probe
SB:
3x Rite of Consumption
1x Boseiju, Who Shelters All
1x Karakas
1x Collective Brutality
2x Abrupt Decay
1x Krosan Grip
1x Grafdigger's Cage
1x Ground Seal
1x Surgical Extraction
2x Sylvan Library
1x Murderous Cut (though I think this is more of a flex slot in general)
Post-board games against Lands:
Side in: 3x Rite of Consumption, 2x Abrupt Decay, 1x Karakas, 1x Ground Seal, 1x Surgical Extraction, 2x Sylvan Library
Side out: 1x Dark Depths, 2x Into The North, 2x Elvish Spirit Guide, 2x Lotus Petal, 2x Gitaxian Probe, 1x Collective Brutality
Opening hand-- high priority cards: Sylvan Library, Pithing Needle moderate priority: Ground Seal/Surgical low priority: combo pieces, except stages are nice in the early-mid game.
Great hand example: Verdant Catacombs, Thespian's Stage, Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth, Sylvan Library, Pithing Needle, Ground Seal, Thoughtseize. This hand is the nuts--it does everything we want to do in the early game.
Keepable hand example: Verdant Catacombs, Thespian's Stage, Expedition Map, Crop Rotation, Surgical Extraction, Bayou, Abrupt Decay. This hand can combo--but is weak to mana disruption. However, having Surgical will bide it time to develop into a better hand, as the loam engine will be offline.
Unkeepable hand example: Thespian's Stage, Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth, Dark Depths, Thoughtseize, Crop Rotation, Sylvan Safekeeper. This is a great hand in a lot of matchups. Not this one. High likelihood you get severely punished if you keep this hand.
Basic strategy: Needle Wasteland and Ghost Quarter as fast as possible (assuming they run it, which they almost always do now), land Library, develop your mana, check out their hand with discard, interrupt their loam engine if possible. Use Karakas to deter a quick combo from them. Once you have done the above, the only thing you really have to worry about is Glacial Chasm, which many Lands players side out--though I'm not sure why. Save a discard spell for the turn you go off just to make sure they can't rotate for Chasm. The way this doesn't work against Lands is if we just get Wastelanded out of the game--hence, why Needle is such a priority. And if we don't have Needle--we need to stop the loam engine as soon as possible. Unlike some matchups, don't hold onto your Needle for the possibility of Needling Karakas or Maze of Ith--proactively stop their mana disruption. We keep Safekeeper in just in case we have the chance to attack for the win. The Decays are primarily for Trackers and the Ramunap Excavators/Crucibles I see popping up more often now. Sometimes it is correct to Decay Exploration or Manabond if you can't disrupt the loam engine.
Post-board games against Miracles:
Side in: 3x Rite of Consumption, 1x Boseiju, Who Shelters All, 2x Sylvan Library, 1x Ground Seal, 2x Decay, 1x Krosan Grip
Side out: 4x Lotus Petal, 2x Gitaxian Probe, 2x Into The North, 1x Collective Brutality, 1x Crop Rotation
Opening hand: high priority cards-Sylvan Library, Sylvan Scrying, Expedition Map. Moderate priority: Duress, Rite of Consumption, Decay (for Blood Moon, Back to Basics, and Mentor). Low priority: Combo pieces. Having tutors is more flexible as your hand develops.
Great hand example: Verdant Catacombs, Verdant Catacombs, Sylvan Scrying, Elvish Spirit Guide, Sylvan Library, Thespian's Stage, Rite of Consumption.
Basic strategy: We want to develop our mana and land a Sylvan Library. Secondarily, we want to discard a couple of their high-impact cards (i.e. Jace, Search for Azcanta, Back to Basics, Blood Moon, Mentor, Entreat). Our first (and probably second) Needle target is almost always Jace. Then maybe Azcanta, The Sunken Ruin--but that is far less important than Jace. Our first land tutor ALWAYS gets Boseiju. That is very important. This land is a one of--and it's possible we'll never see if it we don't grab it first. Also, it helps your other Scryings resolve. Additionally, it can get locked under a Back to Basics if it comes down too late. Another thing we want to be doing in the early game is playing out annoying threats. You'll notice I leave all 4 of the Elvish Spirit Guides in. Unless it is an emergency, don't ever use those for mana in this matchup. Play these out as soon as you are able and start clocking the Miracles player. This puts a slight but significant pressure on the Miracles player to deal with them to be able to stick Jace, or have time to disrupt you in other ways. Also, they will have to spend a turn Terminus-ing or something, rather than cantripping for mentor or Entreat. Finally, these guys are important because they trade with Snapcasters. Almost always take that trade, especially if your opponent is close to 20 life. You don't want them STPing their own Snapcaster to avoid lethal from Rite. You also don't want them clocking you with Snapcaster. A couple hits from our ESG and Swordsing their own guy is no longer an out to Rite. Safekeepers can also protect your dorks from targeted removal, making the Miracles player's life even more annoying. Which, other than being kind of fun, is important in buying us time to Rite them. Discard targets depend on the board state, but usually we are discarding their high impact cards (mentioned above), Disenchents/CJs, and sometimes counter magic. We usually don't need to discard Jace because we can stick a Needle. This is a matchup where you ALMOST NEVER will be attacking for lethal post-board. That means you do everything above to set up for a lethal Rite. Most common secondary win condition is beatdown from little guys, and sometimes Rite sacrificing a Hexmage or something. Remember Hexmage is also an answer to Jace if you haven't found a Needle. You can also Rite of Consumption them with a little guy and redirect to Jace if you really need to. Though sometimes Jace really doesn't matter unless he is close to ultimate. Remember, we can out-grind Miracles with this plan. However, the trump cards they have are Mentor and Entreat. You can save a Decay for Mentor. But Entreat is tougher to deal with. Sometimes you can catch them with it in their hand early--it's almost always correct to discard it so you don't have to worry about it 10 turns later.
I'll follow up later with a section on Death and Taxes and some other less common matchups where Rite comes in. But I gotta take a break :-)