Ponder vs Preordain

[beta]

Not sure if this topic was discussed before but I can't help but notice more lists (fair decks especially) are trying out preordains:

Thomas Enevoldsen Czech Pile list:
http://mtgtop8.com/event?e=18737&d=317155&f=LE

Anurag's miracles:
https://magic.wizards.com/en/article...nge-2018-03-19

While it is probably true that ponder is better in combo as it allows you to dig one card deeper, why do fair decks play preordain? One case i think is it can filter off two useless cards off the top and draw a new one but with ponder it gets a bit awkward if you want one out of the 3 cards badly.

[Whitefaces]

Thomas got his list from teammate Andreas Petersen, he touches on the decision to play Preordain here - https://snapcardster.com/blog/tag/leovold/

The relevant part is

'This is fairly controversial, and those who follow my stream will know how I feel about this. Ponder is better in a deck where you are looking for specific cards and in decks where you play a low number of lands. However, in a deck with 20 or more lands like this one, I’m mostly looking to keep the engine running not looking for anything specific most of the time. The trade off is that you avoid the awkward situations where Ponder reveals one card you want and two cards you don’t want which leads to shuffling a lot of the time unless you have an uncracked fetch land at the ready. With Preordain you lose some potential upside, but you’re getting a much more consistent cantrip for your control deck. Needless to say, I suggest at least giving Preordain a try in this archetype.'

The reasoning for Preordain in Miracles is mitigating flood (weird to say in a control deck with a low land count already, I know, but Turbo Xerox is a hell of a thing). The two Preordains are taking the place of a spell slot and a land slot, giving the impression of enough lands while maximising the chance to draw cantrips as the game progresses. It's nowhere near the power level of Brainstorm and Ponder in the deck (obviously), but can be situationally better than Portent.

[slave]

For me, I think this conversation has a lot more to do with how many shuffle effects you have built into a given deck.