Quote Originally Posted by TLK View Post
Well any deck can run Surgical. Extirpate is definitely more niche, which is good since we can't really do anything about it. All a deck has to do is Waste Depths or Swords our token after we make one then Surgical us out of the game. Slaughter Games is game over as well but hopefully we win by turn 4, as Jund is typically the only deck running that in the board, and we have access to discard.
after looking at the numbers an overwhelming 21.3% of decks have it in their sideboard, with an average of 2 being run. Accordingly i have adjusted the numbers to reflect it as an appropriate threat.

how would you use the data I gathered?



This suggestion might be off the walls, but meddling mage might be worth a look. Naming swords it gets the primary removal spell we are concerned with and abrupt decay for when opponent hits our pithing needles. Furthermore, it is proactive against combo decks and fast enough to be considered.

Also considering abrupt decay just because it is uncounterable, and serves almost the same purpose as pyroblast. Doesn't hit shot and tell / omni decks but hits many targets REB doesn't.