Originally Posted by
Luca Grease
The consensus is pretty much not to play stifle anymore. It doesn't fit with the new cards and style of the deck (which is much more powerful than before). Stifle might get you some free wins occasionally, but it's not worth it in the grand scheme of things. It's too often a semi dead card, and even where it's good, the deck doesn't have to extend the early game that much now that it has much more raw power to go toe to toe with midrange and control in the late game.
A few more observations from testing:
- I didn't like arcanist initially and refused to test it for the longest time, but it's a house. Just make sure you're playing the fifth bolt along it to clear out those tarmogoyfs.
- although it was initially hastily dismissed because of its anti tempo, w6 vulnerable nature, hexdrinker might actually have some merit, as both tournament results and personal testing show. I wouldn't play more than 1 copy though since you don't usually want multiples. Currently slotting it in place of the fourth tarmo
With w6 filling our hand with extra lands in the grinder matchups and our slightly higher mana curve, it seems
Jtms is replacing winter orb as the new anti-control bomb of choice. Can't go wrong with that one, I guess...
- the crop package revolutionizes many matchups, giving us outs in situations where we would previously auto scoop. Depths, show and tell, lands and reanimator players will get blown out a few times before they start playing more carefully and conservatively (which is good for us no matter how you slice it)
EDIT: looking at the playoff results, the real issue seems to be a looming Wrenn and Six ban... Variety in large tournament results has always been the main criteria for bans, and Rug seems to be taking over legacy, plus the card is also present in other lists like 4c control, lands, and aggro loam. 5/8 top 8 decks are playing it, and I don't see the trend reversing anytime soon
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