[Tech for Sligh] Equipment

[Mr. Safety]

So my purpose for this discussion is to see if equipments are worth playing in a sligh deck. :rolleyes:I've been working on a Naya Sligh version for several months now, and I feel of all the sligh variants, Naya brings the best options to the table. Wild Nacatl and Steppe Lynx are the best aggressive 1-drop creatures in the game, giving the potential for a really fast clock. Goblin Guide is only marginally less effective because of the 'bonus' it gives your opponents at the expense of hasty damage. Many Naya Sligh decks are using Reckless Charge to make an impressive turn 2 attack (somewhere in the ballpark of 8-10 damage, and on the play it's backbreaking). Finish up with burn.

I've come to the conclusion that even with it's somewhat 'finicky' nature, Steppe Lynx is probably the best threat in a zoo or naya sligh decklist. The abilty to swing for 4 with a fetchland turn 2 is pretty awesome. Goyf on turn 2 often isn't this big, and it doesn't have haste, so it takes another turn to give Goyf the green light to go into combat. The option of Plated Geopede in legacy is a little 'meh'...mostly because of the 2 mana cost. Turn 2, you want to be swinging big with zoo/sligh, not playing a sub-par threat. If Geopede cost only R, done deal, auto include. But it doesn't. That 1 mana makes it very clunky for a sligh/fast zoo variant.

The first one I want to mention is Adventuring Gear

Some of the potential benefits:

1) It can double up Lynx's bonus, making even a single land drop accomplishing the same as a fetchland. With a fetchland, he's a 8/9 monster, easily outweighing Goyfs and early Knight of the Reliquerys.

2) It can make any threat you have on the table into a Steppe Lynx, like Goblin Guide (which conveniently has built in haste) or Wild Nacatl (which is already starting at 3/3 most likely)

3) It turns Grim Lavamancer into a viable attacking threat. This is probably not the optimal use of Grims, but if you have an empty graveyard it's nice to know you can swing for more than 1 damage with an empty board.

4) Goyf/Knights are already big, and making them bigger to outweith opposing Goyfs/Knights for cheap seems like a good plan.

5) It can make cards like Woolly Thoctar and Burning-Tree Shaman playable. I may get some flak for this line because Knight is the obviously superior choice, but again it's the starting p/t (like with Nacatl) of Woolly Thoctar and the added damage from Shaman that makes them solid options. Starting at 5/4 or 3/4 and getting a 5/6 - 9/8 creature will make sure it can keep pace with the other big threats in the format. I really want to emphasize that these cards become MORE playable with Adventuring Gear, but are not neccessarily recommendations from me to play. It's just a discussion point.

6) Gear can work with Path to Exile to offset removal while still boosting your own creatures. In some matchups, Path to Exile is a dead card (I'm looking at you TES and ANT) it would be nice to be able to actually use your Paths to actually SPEED UP your clock in order to race by providing a land-drop to feed Gear. Example: equip Gear to Nacatl, play your land for the turn (5/5), activate Grim Lavamancer to deal 2 damage to your opponent, Path your tapped Grim (Nacatl is 7/7) and swing with the Nacatl. That's a potential for 9 damage (most likely, combo doesn't typically have anything around to block) and against the matchups where Path is useless (combo) it actually just turned into a Shock that conveniently gives you more land to burn face FTW. If you are actually lucky enough to have a Fireblast in hand, the recently path-fetched land can be a mountain that can be sacked for Fireblast. Nice. That's a potential of 13 damage in one turn. This obviously can't happen turn 2, but turn 3 isn't too far-fetched. Turn 3 is the typical win-zone for sligh anyways.

Now, I know I haven't hit on all of the potential benefits of the card, but it's a start. I also want to make sure I cover the risks as well.

1) It costs 1 mana, meaning Chalice of the Void just got more cards it can hose. Chalice @ 1 is by far the WORST sight a sligh player can see across the table. Sligh can work around a few Dazes/Forces, but a solid lock like Chalice iis a sight worthy of potty-mouth activity.

2) CounterTop, ditto. One more easily dealt with card of a converted cost of 1. Even worse, as long as they can continue to counter your burn spells/cheap dudes, they can ignore Adventuring Gear indefinately. Now it's worse than useless...because you have mana tied up that might have been used to activate Grim Lavamancer or Qasali Pridemage.

3) It isn't a threat on it's own. In aggro decks, if it isn't a threat that does damage, it needs a VERY GOOD reason to be included. Cards like Lightning Bolt are fine, and removal like Path/Swords allow your threats to attack your opponent. Adventuring Gear sitting in your hand post-Engineered Explosives/Perish/Wrath of God will suck. Not to mention you can equip and then get your creature hosed with Smother/Path/Swords etc. Bummer, just lost some speed off of that clock you need to win.

I'd love to hear other thoughts on this. Some other equipments I'd like to discuss are these:

Basilisk Collar
Umezawa's Jitte
Darksteel Axe
Infiltration Lens
Obsidian Battle-Axe
Quietus Spike
Whispersilk Cloak
Sword of Feast and Famine
Sword of Fire and Ice
Sword of Light and Shadow
Sword of Body and Mind
Rancor
Loxodon Warhammer


I know some of them will be obviously bad for legacy, but I'd still like to say WHY they are bad for legacy. At the very least it will get some discussion around card efficiency and power level, which some intuitively spot but others (such as myself) sometimes need a more 'talk it out' approach to evaluating cards. Hope to get some good banter going.

[GGoober]

I personally prefer Rancor. It's basically an equipment with very little mana investment, trample is a big deal with the +2/+0 on big creatures.

[Mr. Safety]

I almost added in Rancor for that reason...but it isn't 'technically' an equipment.

I find the +2/+0 fairly marginal when a fetchland makes Adventuring Gear give +4/+4. Reckless Charge is even better, as turns 1-2 are KEY to a sligh decks strategy. You're essentially playing Shock when you should be playing Lightning Bolt.

[troopatroop]

Removal in response to the Equip is devastating. Adventuring Gear is bad for the reasons you stated, and because it can't do anything for a turn 1 Steppe Lynx on turn 2. Reckless Charge is only good because you can play a Steppe Lynx before your land for the turn, and get extra value. Only that makes the card worth playing in such a removal filled format. Rancor suffers the same basic problem, but the 2 for 1 hurts even more.

[bruizar]

Removal in response to the Equip is devastating. Adventuring Gear is bad for the reasons you stated, and because it can't do anything for a turn 1 Steppe Lynx on turn 2. Reckless Charge is only good because you can play a Steppe Lynx before your land for the turn, and get extra value. Only that makes the card worth playing in such a removal filled format. Rancor suffers the same basic problem, but the 2 for 1 hurts even more.

Lol? How is losing 1 colorless mana for the equip devastating? Sword of Fire and Ice, Jitte and Sword of light and shadow cost more and see play / win games. That loss of 1 colorless mana is completely outweighed by the fact that you outmuscle every other creature deck

[Mr. Safety]

So the question is not whether it has merit (I think it does) but rather 'how many is considered smart?' I am going to playtest 2 and see what happens...and if it's good, I'll playtest 3. I think 4, intuitively, would be too many as you only want to see 1 a game. I'm looking for mid-late game having something that helps you out-beef the mid-range beaters (Goyf, Knight, etc.) Getting one active in the mid-game on a Nacatl (possibly fueled by Sylvan Library to feed you lands) or other threat can give you some much needed gas in combat.

@troopatroop: if you go by straight #'s, the pros vastly outweigh the cons. The potential is currently (mathematically speaking) outweighing the risk. It's an experiment...and I think equipment is a possibility for giving sligh decks late game reach.

[TsumiBand]

First of all I have this hatred of Steppe Lynx because it has never, ever worked for me. I suppose the Law of Very Large Numbers applies not to the individual but the population; lots of people love it, I fucken hate it. Would rather have had a Loam Lion or Goblin Guide or or or Isamaru damn near every time. So this probably sways my opinion a lot.

Sligh really depends on its redundancy to the point that throwing Equipment in just represents too big a variable. The reason losing a man in response to the equip cost is "Devastating" is because the X mana you lost trying to attach an equipment probably should have been used to just Bolt/Chain/otherwise burn things in their stupid faces. Sligh does not want to hurry up and wait for equips to connect. The reason SoFI and SoLS win games are because they are silver bullets in mid-range aggro control decks which want to be able to make any one of their aggro-control creatures - protection bears, Tidehollow Sculler, Aven Mindcensor - anything which is a creature that disrupts the other guy's plans - and turn it into a beefier version of itself, such that it is a "soft lock", a silver bullet and a clock all at the same time.

[SpikeyMikey]

Lol? How is losing 1 colorless mana for the equip devastating? Sword of Fire and Ice, Jitte and Sword of light and shadow cost more and see play / win games. That loss of 1 colorless mana is completely outweighed by the fact that you outmuscle every other creature deck

So why not play Geopede over Steppe Lynx as it's in your main color and has first strike and a natural power greater than 0? Because that 1 mana is everything to you. Decks that play equipment are slower decks because fast decks can't spare the tempo. You'd get as much effect out of Songs of Blood typically and not get rofltempo'd by stp...

[kicks_422]

Sligh thrives on tempo. Equipment are tempo sinks.

Instead of casting and equipping equipment for cute tricks, why not just bash in with your creatures and sling burn? Is that formula not working anymore?

[Mr. Safety]

Sligh thrives on tempo. Equipment are tempo sinks.

Instead of casting and equipping equipment for cute tricks, why not just bash in with your creatures and sling burn? Is that formula not working anymore?

Sure it's working, and working fine. This is an experiment, one I hope to get good information on before I actually playtest. I understand that equipment is a tempo sink. The conversations so far are bringing me to understand that Adventuring Gear is NOT an early game option...but rather a mid-late game option. Remember: the whole point of the thread is to see if equipment can give sligh decks, specifically naya sligh, late game reach. Mid-range aggro decks end up with superior threats and it would be nice if sligh had a way to outmuscle those threats, but do it with less mana. I'm sure if I replaced all references of 'Adventuring Gear' with 'Umezawa's Jitte', there would be much less opposition.

STILL, the whole point is to evaluate a card that isn't being used and to say WHY...it isn't an attempt to 'validate' Adventuring Gear, but more along the lines of finding out why it isn't valid. This will help myself (and maybe others) when evaluating equipment that is seemingly 'efficient' to use and could possibly be a way to make their threats better. Adventuring Gear only costs 1 to play and 1 to equip. Mid-late game for sligh decks, that isn't even a speedbump when you have 3-4 lands on the table. Umezawa's Jitte (for example) costs 2 to play, 2 to equip. The Swords are 3 to play, 2 to equip. The potential for squeezing more mileage out of a late game topdeck of a 1-drop can mean the difference between winning and losing.

I welcome more thoughts on this, PLEASE. This is how I operate, I talk things out.

@SpikeyMikey: Song of Blood? Seriously? Accorder Paladin and Goblin Wardriver are about 1,000 times better. If I'm spending 2 mana on an enchantment, it has to be BETTER than Sylvan Library

[TsumiBand]

Here's the thing; if you're building a Sligh deck with a back-up plan, you know, just in case things get hairy in the late game, then you will be finding yourself in that mid-late game more often than you want your Sligh deck to be.

Some decks can 'fall back' on plans when Plan A is crap, but I really don't feel like the nature of Sligh allows for that. You basically are like Burn.dec with some guys, and there's a deck that is dependent on its redundancy to a fault. All that deck wants to do is cast like 6 - 7 spells that are 3 dmg for R. That's it. You put some late game shit in there and then you end up drawing it, and you're all "oh snap it's turn 2 and I have my turn 7 card in hand, and I can't do piss with it because it's turn 2 and I'm not playing any cards that can enable this jank".

By its nature, Sligh is an all-in "guys and burn spells" deck. It has to be, otherwise its clock is less relevant and its focus drifts too much to be that intense onslaught that it needs to be to be the deck that it is. In simpler Magic terms - there are no combo decks with aggro "back-up" plans.

[perm]

I could only ever see basilisk collar and maybe jitte. But tbh it's a stretch. it gives opponents virtual CA with artifact cartypes, and sligh has a VERY crowded low curve the first few turns. Not sure I can see this being outweighed

[C-Aleric]

I personally prefer Rancor. It's basically an equipment with very little mana investment, trample is a big deal with the +2/+0 on big creatures.

I'm with Rancor over cheap equipment in Sligh for sure.

The downside to Rancor, is that 2 for 1's are awful. Just awful.

However, the fact that it impacts the game for just :g: is crucial in Sligh.

Scenario
Turn 1 - Land - Steppe Lynx
Turn 2 - Fetch - Goblin Guide - Rancor - Take 8? Ouch. (even without the guide it's still 6, plus maybe a Wild Nacatl, or some Burn, w/e)
Turn 3 - If your hand wasn't terrible, the game very well could end right now. Your opponent could have to answer 2-3 consecutive threats in order save themselves.

If you aren't playing against instant speed removal, it pretty much is around forever too. Which can be nice. Oh you tapped out? Rancor!

I'm not 100% sure if it's better than a simple old +4/+4 pump though. Though if Tarmogoyf is in the picture, and he grabs a Rancor... I think :1::g::g: would be reasonable for a +2/+0 Trampling Goyf monster.

Meh. I'd probably just play another burn spell realistically.

[Mr. Safety]

In simpler Magic terms - there are no combo decks with aggro "back-up" plans.

I beg to differ...I play Combo Elves, and it's a combo main win condition with an aggro secondary. STILL, I hear your points. I was just 'nit-picking' on that one point.

I'm not really trying to offset the consistency of a sligh deck...I'm just trying to make sure that the non-burn damageh as late game value, rather than ONLY early game value. Most naya sligh versions play at least 1 Sylvan Library, and that's for good reason: to re-fill your hand with MORE burn in order to get there. When you are only putting in 1-2 utility slots, the consistency of sligh isn't really affected too much, and the benefits outweitgh the risks.

I would only challenge what you said slightly by saying that Grim Lavamancer is somewhat of a 'fall back' plan, in that it is a re-usable source of damage other than early dudes. Turn 1 Grim is kind of a lousy play, but turn 3 Grim isn't lousy at all. After you beat with some dudes turn 1 and sling a Bolt or two turn 2, grim on turn 3 to make your graveyard turn into damage is pretty good. Grim Lavamancer definately gives a sligh deck some mid-late game reach, but it doesn't fall into the category of early beef or a burn spell that gives you 3 damage for R.

I can safely say that Adventuring Gear is pretty well useless in sligh. It's just far too conditional for practical purposes. Sifting through the posts, I see basically 4 options for Naya sligh as far as creature pump spells:

Rancor
Reckless Charge
Umezawa's Jitte
Might of Old Krosa


Rancor seems to be the one that popped up the most in the posts, so lets tackle Rancor. What can Rancor do for a sligh deck?

On the surface, it looks like 2 damage for G, which isn't really efficient enough for sligh. The damage really needs to be a 3:1 or GREATER ratio. The potential of getting 2 hits with your creature, therefore getting 4 damage for G, is a better scenario. But is that too slow? I think for discussion's sake, Rancor needs to be compared to Reckless Charge, as they are both trying to accomplish the same thing (milk more damage from your dudes) I'm not really going to consider the flashback of Reckless Charge for now, because 3 mana for sligh is mid-late game territory and that's not where a non-burn source of damage wants to be. Non-burn wants to be turn 2, essentially allowing your 2nd 1-drop creature to get into the red zone the same turn you play it.

Thoughts?

[FieryBalrog]

If it's late-game reach you're looking for in Sligh, that's what the burn is for. Why use equips for late game reach? Do you want your reach to require multiple turns and depend on other cards to actually do damage? Adventuring Gear in particular is spectacularly bad as a late-game threat because it requires a creature AND a stream of lands.

[Mr. Safety]

Adventuring Gear in particular is spectacularly bad as a late-game threat because it requires a creature AND a stream of lands.

Right...I kind of established that conclusion.

The current options on the table are Rancor, Jitte, Might of Old Krosa, and Reckless Charge. The reasoning is 'how to milk more out of your early beaters?' This way your burn can be used as removal (if need be) and give your late game topdecks of Steppe Lynx/Wild Nacatl a little more potential.

[TheCramp]

Can you post your Naya Sligh list for reference?
I have been fooling with big naya zoo, which is the exact opposite direction. Nobel Hierarch, one Elspeth, 2 maindeck Cave In, sylvan library. Most significant to this discussion, I run Stoneforger Mystic, and a JItti and a SoFI. Those cards just grind out games, SoFI is so huge against counter top. Slamming down a Mystic on the play and cheating in the sword is huge. Pro firespout and Jace/repeal bounce? sold. They then have 4 main-deck outs (swords). Also, card is pretty good against merfolk and goblins. I think that if you are going to be anything other than a dog to the meta, you have to have an aggressive plan against Countertop, Merfolk, Goblins, and Junk. Sword is good against all of those save junk. (where it is still fine. chump or I'll just shoot your bob and draw a card.) SoFI is the equipment that intrigues me the most. Makes me wonder, "are their any evasion guys I can wedge into zoo?"

Adventuring gear is awesome. One of the best equipments ever. It is at it's worst in legacy however. The "all in" plan on a lynx or Nacatl is obviously a potential blowout. But the ability to trigger landfall, move the equipment, trigger landfall, to make blocking favorably impossible, is much less relevant in legacy.

[Mr. Safety]

My current naya sligh list may not be relevant, as it is a budgetized list. There is a thread for naya sligh in the Established Decks forum.

My current list:

4x Wild Nacatl
4x Steppe Lynx
4x Kird Ape
4x Qasali Pridemage
2x Grim Lavamancer
4x Rift Bolt
3x Path to Exile
3x Reckless Charge
4x Lightning Bolt
4x Lightning Helix
2x Sylvan Library
2x Fireblast
4x Arid Mesa
2x Verdant Catacombs
1x Marsh Flats
1x Wooded Foothills
1x Forest
4x Mountain
2x Sacred Foundry
3x Stomping Ground
1x Horizon Canopy
1x Treetop Village

This varies, as you know, greatly from traditional naya sligh/fast zoo builds by not using alpha/beta duel lands, no Goyfs, no Goblin Guides, and using more on-color fetches (Windswept Heath and more Wooded Foothills) Generally, there should be 10-12 fetchlands. I don't use Goblin Guide because I want maindeck Pridemages, which means it's slightly slower but a little more resilient to problematic artifacts (Chalice @ 1)

Here is another current no-Goyf list from the thread:

4x Goblin Guide
4x Grim Lavamancer
4x Wild Nacatl
4x Steppe Lynx

3x Sylvan Library
4x Rift Bolt
4x Chain Lightning
4x Lightning Bolt
3x Price of Progress
3x Fireblast
2x Reckless Charge

And here is a more traditional fast zoo list from the thread:

4 Wild Nacatl
4 Goblin Guide
4 Steppe Lynx
4 Qasali Pridemage
4 Tarmogoyf

3 Sylvan Library
4 Reckless Charge
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Chain Lightning
2 Rift Bolt
4 Fireblast

[HdH_Cthulhu]

The discussion about rancor in slight.deck reminds me of browbeat in burn.deck
Maybe its just not good enogh -.-

Reckless Charge - i would say its viable, kinda timmy but viable!
Umezawa's Jitte - SB
Might of Old Krosa - NO! Burn > Pump

[TsumiBand]

I've seen lists run Reckless Charge, it's sort of funny to turn your turn 2 guys into hasty beaters.

The trouble there is that this is usually only good when you're swinging for life totals - no chumping taking place, IOW. In this instance that Reckless Charge is just 3 extra damage to target creature, whereas a burn spell would have been 3 damage to wherever it needed to be. And generally by the time the Flashback cost is relevant, you're losing ground, which sucks because who doesn't want Marmogoyf to somehow swing for 8 the turn it comes into play?? So good, so magical, so crucial and yet.... so unplayable.

[troopatroop]

I've seen lists run Reckless Charge, it's sort of funny to turn your turn 2 guys into hasty beaters.

The trouble there is that this is usually only good when you're swinging for life totals - no chumping taking place, IOW. In this instance that Reckless Charge is just 3 extra damage to target creature, whereas a burn spell would have been 3 damage to wherever it needed to be. And generally by the time the Flashback cost is relevant, you're losing ground, which sucks because who doesn't want Marmogoyf to somehow swing for 8 the turn it comes into play?? So good, so magical, so crucial and yet.... so unplayable.

I think it's good. The deck runs the best burn spells by default, it has enough of those. Reckless Charge is a 7! damage R spell with Steppe Lynx. You're getting an extra attack out of the creature, use of a fetchland that never would have gotten value, + the 3 damage on the top. Reckless Charge is faaantastic against Ad Nauseam and Countertop, because they're at 9-11 life with a single land in play. You don't want to play 4, but +3/+0 haste is like a reverse time walk in Cat Sligh.

[DukeDemonKn1ght]

Not to just come in here and be "that guy," but Equipment goes against the fundamental principles of Sligh (do damage quickly, and don't play cards that don't deal damage on their own/ are too conditional.) It's slow, it sets up 2-for-1's for your opponent, and it just generally "ain't optimal." Sligh shouldn't give a shit about setting up incremental advantage over its opponent; when it plays this game it loses to other decks that pursue this strategy better. What Sligh wants to do is win asap, and in general its creatures are seen as expendable resources, rather than things to keep around and try to improve upon.

Basically, it seems like this approach would be much more at home in a deck like Big Zoo than in Sligh (and notice that Big Zoo has never and probably will never run Adventuring Gear.)

If you really want to force through some more quick damage and you'll take the risk of setting up a 2-for-1 for your opponent, play Reckless Abandon. I think this, Reckless Charge, Shard Volley, etc. are all better cards for Sligh than Adventuring Gear. And yet, they're all really cards I would only consider if I had a couple flex slots open in my list. This thread makes my brain hurt.

[TheCramp]

At any rate, Gear fights for charges slot. Gear, in standard, thrives in decks with as many as 25 land. 16 fetches. I don't think sligh is willing to drop it's threat density so low to support both lynx and gear. In standard Lynx is a 4/5 for 1. In sligh it's more like a ball lightning for 1. Both have their place. Gear, however, has to come later in your turns. Which means you will have very likely used your fetch lands already. It is at great risk of doing nothing, at all, after turn 3. That said, test it. It seems bad on paper, but it has the right casting cost and the right equip cost. That, more than anything, warrants testing. Any deck with as many fetchlands as a deck with lynx and gear would require, should be really, seriously, looking at Knight of the Reliquary.

[dahcmai]

Call me overly-unconventional, but Flayer Husk might be what you want for Sligh. It's a quick drop that attacks (no worse than Mogg Fanatic damage) and has the added boost later on. Cheap Equipment is about the only thing you will get for Sligh that might work.

It's not a great idea, but the numbers might work out. Sligh's real problem is the efficiency of Zoo's critters anymore. The husk might add enough to help, but i think you're still falling behind in sheer mana value.

It's only a thought and you can't take my opinion on this one too much to heart as I'm a control and Combo player anyway, but I will admit, I wouldn't want to see a critter that's going to die and pump everyone else from there on out. It's too bad it's not a 2/1 and it would be stupid good.

[Aggro_zombies]

Call me overly-unconventional, but Flayer Husk might be what you want for Sligh. It's a quick drop that attacks (no worse than Mogg Fanatic damage) and has the added boost later on. Cheap Equipment is about the only thing you will get for Sligh that might work.

It's not a great idea, but the numbers might work out. Sligh's real problem is the efficiency of Zoo's critters anymore. The husk might add enough to help, but i think you're still falling behind in sheer mana value.

It's only a thought and you can't take my opinion on this one too much to heart as I'm a control and Combo player anyway, but I will admit, I wouldn't want to see a critter that's going to die and pump everyone else from there on out. It's too bad it's not a 2/1 and it would be stupid good.
I was actually thinking this same thing. The cost to re-equip it and the fact that it's only ever a 1/1 probably kills it, though; 1/1 dorks get outclassed almost immediately in creature matchups and just aren't relevant against creatureless or creature-light decks. If it cost 1 to equip it would be really tempting, but even then would probably be too weak.

Also, what's with sticking Sylvan Library in your balls-to-the-wall aggro/burn deck? That card sticks out like a sore thumb in that strategy.

[Mr. Safety]

Also, what's with sticking Sylvan Library in your balls-to-the-wall aggro/burn deck? That card sticks out like a sore thumb in that strategy.

Library converts life into cards once your hand is pissed out. I figure 2 slots in a sligh deck isn't too many. If you draw enough burn to finish off, great. If not, Library steps in to feed you more. Its especially useful post-sideboard when you need to have hate in your opening hand and you have to mulligan to get it. It isn't a turn 2 play, but it sure does help out when your hand is empty and you're looking for only 5-7 life to finish off. Just one activation of it is enough to usually put the game away.

I think we've all discounted Adventuring Gear (or at least relegated to a deck built on a glass cannon principle) and we've gotten into Rancor a little big. I'd like to open up the idea of Umezawa's Jitte, either in the maindeck or sideboard.

Getting even one hit in with it makes it all value, but the problem is getting that 1 hit in without evasion. The 4 total cost is a little crazy, but the decks that use it are usuallly really happy to draw it. Again, it's a discussion based on sligh having a bad late game and using this to bolster it.