I don't expect to lose against them. It's just another thing that helps. It's really the Worm harvest that worries me if anything.Quote:
Originally Posted by SMR0079
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I don't expect to lose against them. It's just another thing that helps. It's really the Worm harvest that worries me if anything.Quote:
Originally Posted by SMR0079
I should have been more specific - the deck needs to be 2.5 colors - adding too much of the 3rd color or splashing 2 colors is incorect.Quote:
Originally Posted by pippo84
Perish is really good agaisnt all of those decks - but even in those matchups you often cannot affrod to wait for them to drop the 2nd green creature, and a good Zoo/Horizons opponent will play around it. The other issue is you only have so many slots to dedicate to aggro. Even though Path is one for one I prefer it becsaue it keeps you alive long enough vs all aggro long enough to resolve and protect Moat or get the combo rolling. The Merfolk match itself is enough to push me toward having 3 Path in the SB.
The other isse is the mirror. While Extirpating the Sword is a good move, I would rather have Grip to hit counterblance. I have found that the mirror usually involves a counterbalance war, followed by who can get Jace going. Crucible and Clique are two 3 drops that will also help you get there. The combo itself is actually pretty low on my lines of play in the mirror.
Now, if the meta shifts again toward more combo and control then having black for Bob or Dark Tutelage and Perish in the board makes sense, at which point I would have to reevaluate the Grips.
I've been looking into :w::u::r: lately, with the red just being a small splash. However, there are a couple of nice things it gives you:
- Firespout: just as effective against Zoo as Perish, but also good against tribal when combined with lots of Plow effects.
- Ajani Vengeant: owns control HARD. You can't always count on Jace to get there for you since they'll have Jaces of their own, and Ajani V. blowing up all of their lands is just a total, well, blowout.
I should mention that I run 4 Swords main and 3 PtE, 3 Firepout side. Against Zoo, I drop my counters for the extra removal and just overload them. You can stop almost all of their burn spells with Counterbalance on one, and you just one-for-one their guys until you get Humility or Thopter Foundry going.
Current List:
1 Academy Ruins
1 Seat of the Synod
3 Tundra
1 Tropical Island
4 Flooded Strand
2 Misty Rainforest
2 Celestial Colonnade *
5 Island
3 Plains
4 Force of Will
4 Brainstorm
4 Swords to Plowshares
4 Enlightened Tutor
3 Counterspell
3 Daze *
4 Counterbalance
4 Sensei's Divining top
2 Thopter Foundry
1 Sword of the Meek
1 Humility
1 Moat
1 Ensnaring Bridge
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
Sideboard:
1 Declaration of Naught
1 Back to Basics
3 Kitchen Finks
4 Path to Exile
2 Tormod's crypt
1 Relic of Progenitus
1 Oblivion ring
1 Pithing needle
1 ??????
The ***'s are stuff I'm unsure of. Colonnade is there for another dual, but also a manland. Factories were hurting my colors, but this might be a bad replacement. Daze is useful, as keeping things off the board initially is worth the land drop. Need help, especially with the sideboard. Not a fan of firespout tbh. Would like to fit in trinket mage if possible and/or needle, but a second Jace comes first
I do love me some firespout, and have played in the past. However, I don't think that you can really afford to devote 6 spots to aggro in a devloped metagame that includes countertop and combo. That being said, I think it would be useful for people to post their boards and indicate what they are facing. You comments against Zoo are spot on and thats how I play the match, but would add that needling priodemage is important.Quote:
Originally Posted by Aggro_zombies
On another note, I don't think we need to spam the thread with full decklists anymore, especially when the core of the deck is a given now. Choosing the tutor targets, extra counters, and what color to splash are where we can tweak the deck.
Here's my board for a developed metagame with all players present:
1 Tsabo's Web
1 Canonist
1 CoP Red
1 Wheel Sun & Moon
1 Crypt
1 Relic
3 Grip
3 Path
3 Spell Peirce
Maindeck: Moat, Humility, EE, Needle, Crucible, 1 Oblivion Ring. 2 Counterspell, 1 Vendillion Clique. The Oring and the Relic move back and fourth between the maindeck and board. We have several control players who run something that resembles the mirror and Clique is really good in those matches. We have also seen an emergence of Emarkul decks whcih make ORing alot better.
Sure. I've been looking at this for the GP:
3 Firespout
3 Path to Exile
1 Ajani Vengeant
1 Tormod's Crypt
1 Wheel of Sun and Moon
2 Aura of Silence
3 Spell Pierce
1 ???
The Pierces can't be optimal, but I wanted something extra for combo. I don't want to add a fourth color for Grip. I'm thinking the last spot should be Blood Moon, but we'll see.
You should have a Back to Basics or a Blood Moon (probably a Back to Basics so you can fetch and hit your basics and your Islands) to beat Lands.
Splashing green for Grip is perfectly fine. You only need it once, and you don't need to do it against decks with Wasteland. A single Tropical Island will do it.
I don't know where to start to comment on your list. There's so many stuff i would approach in a completely different way. Let's start with the manabase.Quote:
Originally Posted by Tammit67
Celestial Colonnade
Yeah it works with Humility and Moat. It doesn't work with Ensnaring Bridge, because you don't want to keep 4 cards in your hand to have your manland attacking. I would cut it, because you don't want an enters the battlefield tapped land in your opening seven. It's horrible when you face combo or fast aggro decks, because you need those turn 1 plays. And when i look at your list, you have 16 of them. That means you'll have always something to do on turn 1. Playing this land on your first turn is a timewalk for your opponent. It's also horrible with Daze, because you need to ramp to 6 mana to be able to effectively use this card. Yeah i know this is a control deck, but still using 6 mana every turn just to attack is bad. Other manlands are also bad, since they wont fix your mana and weaken your mana base against Wasteland and Moon effects.
-> Play more basics. They are awesome.
Don't play Daze
You aren't a tempo deck. You can't make use of the effect. Good opponents will play around Daze anyway, if they realize you play this card. You need every freakin landdrop to stay on the table, because this deck is as manahungry as it gets. Against fast aggro decks, you need to have 4 mana by turn 4 to drop one of your bombs.
Ensnaring Bridge vs. Counters
I'm not saying Ensnaring Bridge is a bad card in this deck. The card just doesn't work well with Counters. You don't want Counters staying in your hand with a Bridge on the table, since a clever opponent will simply attack and won't cast any spells. When the game goes in this direction against an aggro deck your best play is most likely to counter your own Brainstorm to get a better use out of the bridge. So you have to decide: Counters or Bridge.
Moat vs. Humility
Both are awesome. But they don't quite work together. If you have both of em on the table your only win option is Jace. Against most decks Humility is good enough on is own. It stops so many critters from working as they should and slows aggro decks down. I personally would cut Moat and put it in the board against stuff like Merfolk, where Moat is simply better than Humility.
Counterbalance
When building a deck around Counterbalance you need to take a look at the converted mana costs your cards have. To sum up your deck, you have:
1x cc0
16x cc1
13x cc2
1x cc3
3x cc4
4x cc5
The common problem i had when building this deck was that i never had enough cc2 spells. Playing more counters does solve this, but your cc3 couldn't get any weaker. The meta shifted. So many important cards are in the cc3 spots these days. So you should really up the cc3 spot a bit. Also Krosan Grip is a cc3 card and your only answer to this card is Counterbalance.
Enlightened Tutor
I recommend using a toolbox for this card. Like this you have more options to win preboard games. Good cards for a toolbox is stuff like Journey to Nowhere, more Engineered Explosives, Relic of Progenitus (even if you don't face any graveyard based strategy it's "Draw a card" for 2 mana), Oblivion Ring, Runed Halo and Back to Basics. I realized that this deck doesn't need any more counters than 4 Force of Will, because you can react to most of the stuff an opponent does to you, because you can tutor up anything from your deck. And you still have the Counterbalance softlock.
I really like this deck. You are beating your opponents face with softlocks until he can't do anything anymore. If you play this deck straight UW you should play as much basics as you can. I would splash red for Firespout, but i guess that's a meta choice. I would also play a third Foundry and a second Jace, to find my win conditions faster. Also opponents will use their artifact/enchantment destruction in game 2 against Foundry, so you really don't want to draw your whole library before you can win, if 1 gets destroyed.
On an unrelated note: Sorry for my bad english
Here's my current sideboard:
3 Pyroblast
3 Path to Exile
2 Meddling Mage
1 Ethersworn Canonist
1 Humility (may switch this with mainboard Moat)
1 Relic of Progenitus
1 Tormod's Crypt
1 Back to Basics (debating switching this with Blood Moon; Moon turns off our Fetches but Back to Basics turns off our duals :/)
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Serenity
I am running 2 Spell Snares main and love them to death. It's a great solution to a ton of Turn 2 cards on the draw. Obviously, a lot of the best cards in the format are 2cc so it's natural to build around this idea.
I've found that loading up on Pyroblast and Paths against Fish makes the match a cakewalk. The Pyroblasts also pull double duty in the Countertop matchups; 1 mana to counter Force, Balance, Thopter Foundry makes them an extra 3 counters, and it hits Rhox War Monk and more importantly, Trygon Predator.
I've also altered my fetchland base to accommodate the red splash (consisting of one basic Mountain and a Volcanic Island; I may drop the Volcanic Island for a regular one):
4 Flooded Strand
3 Scalding Tarn
1 Arid Mesa
With Counterbalance, Islands are more important than Plains. I've had no issues with 4 Flooded Strand 4 Scalding Tarn 1 Mountain 1 Volcanic Island.
I agree with most things flrn says, but I don't like running a toolbox for Enlightened Tutor. It's an invitation to get Krosan Gripped.
I'm also now convinced that Moat is better than Humility because it shines in basically every matchup. You need Needle on Pridemage, but that's it.
If you don't mind the absence of Grips, the red spalsh is awesome. I would cut -1 Path, -1 REB, -1 EE for 3 Firespout if I was you. What's up withy Serenity? I've seen it in a few boards, but outside of Stax or something, when do need it? It's probaly not going to resolve in the mirror if they have CounterbalanceTop. I also question MMage because he doesn't really stop Storm all that well anymore now that they have both Empty and Tendrils, not to mention you want a way to intereact when they go off turn 2 on the play. I choose Spell Pierce for those reasons.Quote:
Originally Posted by dorkogoyf
I'm with you on Snare. I was running a 2/2 split with Counterspell for awhile, and it's much better then Daze in this deck.
The Mesa is worth it becasue you run so many islands and need to be able to fetch basic plains on turn 1-2 if necassary.Quote:
With Counterbalance, Islands are more important than Plains. I've had no issues with 4 Flooded Strand 4 Scalding Tarn 1 Mountain 1 Volcanic Island.
I agree with most things flrn says, but I don't like running a toolbox for Enlightened Tutor. It's an invitation to get Krosan Gripped.
I'm also now convinced that Moat is better than Humility because it shines in basically every matchup. You need Needle on Pridemage, but that's it.
Moat is superior overall, but Humility comes in vs everything but Storm, LAnds, and the mirror. There's really no reason not to run both. Your curve is short on 3s which makes Bridge so attractive, but it's fairly easy to accomadate both Maot and Humility main with all of the tutuor search.
Maybe we have different understandings of tool box but this deck definitly has one, you allude to as much when mentioing Needle. I think we just need to be very conservative about the "bullets" that are included. Moat/Humilty/Bridge are no brainers, EE, Needle as well, and sometimes Relic follow. I agree that maindecking Back to Basics is bad. Crucible is one that I'm on the fence about. If you start seeing the mirror along with wasetlands decks ever event then I think it can be justified.
We have tried both Back to Basics and Tsabo's web. I prefer the later becsaue it comes down a turn sooner, doesn't tap down your duals (nor theirs which is the trade off), and cantrips. Back to Basics is nore versatile, but we decided we didn't really want to bring it in vs Horizons, so it it became a single bomb , along with Wheel against Lands.
I asked in another forum, they said that Serenity is in the board for Prison decks (DragonStompy, Enchantress, Stax).Quote:
Originally Posted by SMR0079
I forgot to mention, I'm also running the Wasteland/Crucible of Worlds 'combo.'
That is the way I was leaning. It was cute, but not worth the slot.Quote:
Originally Posted by flrn
I don't like going for a turn 2 CB, only to have it countered, and then get something nasty dropped on me. It too, after some testing, has lost it's value.Quote:
Don't play Daze
You aren't a tempo deck. You can't make use of the effect. Good opponents will play around Daze anyway, if they realize you play this card. You need every freakin landdrop to stay on the table, because this deck is as manahungry as it gets. Against fast aggro decks, you need to have 4 mana by turn 4 to drop one of your bombs.
Some thinking lead me to the same conclusion, even if it hasn't yet shown itself. Had already cut it for the second Jace. Was originally a solution to the quicker aggro decks that the extra mana for moat was too much.Quote:
Ensnaring Bridge vs. Counters
I'm not saying Ensnaring Bridge is a bad card in this deck. The card just doesn't work well with Counters. You don't want Counters staying in your hand with a Bridge on the table, since a clever opponent will simply attack and won't cast any spells. When the game goes in this direction against an aggro deck your best play is most likely to counter your own Brainstorm to get a better use out of the bridge. So you have to decide: Counters or Bridge.
Sure I only have one way to win, without academy recursion. But they probably dont have anything at all. Not entirely sold on this oneQuote:
Moat vs. Humility
Both are awesome. But they don't quite work together. If you have both of em on the table your only win option is Jace. Against most decks Humility is good enough on is own. It stops so many critters from working as they should and slows aggro decks down. I personally would cut Moat and put it in the board against stuff like Merfolk, where Moat is simply better than Humility.
The fact I can't really respond to Grip and that they only are going to have it post board is really what I care about. Sure I can float a three on top, but Grip will come down when I am forced to draw it or rearrange it so i don't draw it. What else at 3 do I really not like?Quote:
Counterbalance
When building a deck around Counterbalance you need to take a look at the converted mana costs your cards have. To sum up your deck, you have:
1x cc0
16x cc1
13x cc2
1x cc3
3x cc4
4x cc5
The common problem i had when building this deck was that i never had enough cc2 spells. Playing more counters does solve this, but your cc3 couldn't get any weaker. The meta shifted. So many important cards are in the cc3 spots these days. So you should really up the cc3 spot a bit. Also Krosan Grip is a cc3 card and your only answer to this card is Counterbalance.
The 2 slow is terrible, hence the choice of counters. I don't like the idea of journey to nowhere though, and am hard pressed for something other than more combo pieces. The counterspell comes in handy so often though, especially against slower decks. It's nice to interactQuote:
Enlightened Tutor
I recommend using a toolbox for this card. Like this you have more options to win preboard games. Good cards for a toolbox is stuff like Journey to Nowhere, more Engineered Explosives, Relic of Progenitus (even if you don't face any graveyard based strategy it's "Draw a card" for 2 mana), Oblivion Ring, Runed Halo and Back to Basics. I realized that this deck doesn't need any more counters than 4 Force of Will, because you can react to most of the stuff an opponent does to you, because you can tutor up anything from your deck. And you still have the Counterbalance softlock.
Your english is more than fine. Thanks for the feedback.Quote:
I really like this deck. You are beating your opponents face with softlocks until he can't do anything anymore. If you play this deck straight UW you should play as much basics as you can. I would splash red for Firespout, but i guess that's a meta choice. I would also play a third Foundry and a second Jace, to find my win conditions faster. Also opponents will use their artifact/enchantment destruction in game 2 against Foundry, so you really don't want to draw your whole library before you can win, if 1 gets destroyed.
On an unrelated note: Sorry for my bad english
Another thing worth mentioning about the red splash, is the fact, that you are able to set Engineered Explosives to 3. I even have another offcolour dual in my list to be able to set Explosives on 4, if needed. I will post my last list, so you can get a clue what I'm talking about.
//Mana (23)
1 Academy Ruins
4 Flooded Strand
6 Island
2 Plains
3 Scalding Tarn
1 Seat of the Synod
1 Tropical Island
3 Tundra
2 Volcanic Island
//Instants (16)
4 Brainstorm
4 Enlightened Tutor
4 Force of Will
4 Swords to Plowshares
//Sorcery (2)
2 Firespout
//Enchantment (6)
4 Counterbalance
1 Humility
1 Oblivion Ring
//Artifacts (11)
1 Crucible of Worlds
2 Engineered Explosives
4 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Sword of the Meek
3 Thopter Foundry
//Planeswalker (2)
2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
//Sideboard (15)
2 Ethersworn Canonist
4 Spell Pierce
1 Blood Moon
1 Circle of Protection: Red
1 Moat
1 Runed Halo
1 Wheel of Sun and Moon
1 Aether Spellbomb
1 Pithing Needle
1 Relic of Progenitus
1 Vedalken Shackles
The red splash also allows us to play a Blood Moon in the Sideboard. If you don't splash red, you really should have Back to Basics in that Sideboard slot. On the first look Crucible of Worlds seem bad, but the card allows us to break through a Wasteland-Lock or to use our Fetchlands multiple times. But the most important thing about Crucible is, that even without Sword of the Meek, we can produce 1 Token a turn with Seat of the Synod. This seems really slow, but it won me games.
My deck has the following converted manacosts: 2x cc0, 16x cc1, 8x cc2, 4x cc3, 3x cc4, 4x cc5. I'm a bit short on the cc2 spot, but since i play 23 lands i always had the mana to be able to juggle the second Counterbalance or a win option for some time on top of my library with my Sensei's Divining Top.
Other than that i always wanted Humility preboard, since it stops so many creatures from working as they should. And I'm not only talking about Qasali Pridemage. There's also Dark Confidant, Grim Lavamancer, Noble Hierarch, Mother of Runes, Siege-Gang Commander, Weathered Wayfarer and it beats random flying critters an opponents deck might play. Moat might be better against Goblins and Merfolk, but i can easily board it in and Humility also quite destroys their strategy.
As I already mentioned the offcolour Tropical is there, to set Explosives on 4 and to be able to use Firespout to its fullest, if needed.
Did some Ponder-ing on this deck at the store tonight between matches at FNM.
Does <card>Intuition</card> have a place in this deck? If we go up to 3x Thopter Foundry, we have a high chance of drawing it every game. Then our Intuition pile is Sword of the Meek and 2x 0-Cost Artifacts (Explosives/ Seat of the Synod/Tormod's Crypt). It helps pad our 3-cost for flipping to Counterbalance.
Just a thought...
Hi all.
I'm probably asking for a huge favor here, but I thought I could give it a shot anyway. I have a tournament tomorrow (in like...13 hours I guess?) and decided to try out CB-thopters. I normally play ANT (decklist nuked by mystical banning, and I need some time to get to know the new DD-fueled list), Quinn (given the expected meta, not a good call) or UBg Faeries (little bored of it atm), but given the reasons I listed I'm willing to dive into something new. Since I haven't had a lot of time to test, I sticking to the list which won latest SCG 5k. Seems reasonable, I guess. For reference:
Maindeck:
//Artifacts
1 Crucible Of Worlds
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Pithing Needle
4 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Sword of the Meek
2 Thopter Foundry
1 Tormod's Crypt
//Enchantments
4 Counterbalance
1 Oblivion Ring
1 Moat > There's a pretty good chance I'll have to play Humility here, due to card availability. Or would Teferi's Moat (I know...) be a better replacement?
//Instants
4 Brainstorm
3 Counterspell
4 Enlightened Tutor
4 Force of Will
4 Swords to Plowshares
//Planeswalkers
2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
//Artifact Lands
1 Seat of the Synod
//Basic Lands
6 Island
2 Plains
//Lands
4 Flooded Strand
1 Misty Rainforest
3 Polluted Delta
1 Scalding Tarn
2 Tundra
1 Underground Sea
//Legendary Lands
1 Academy Ruins
Sideboard:
1 Engineered Explosives
2 Relic of Progenitus
1 Tormod's Crypt
4 Ethersworn Canonist
1 Back to Basics
1 Circle of Protection: Red
1 Humility
1 Serenity
1 Extirpate
2 Hydroblast
First some quick blurbs before I get to the favor-asking:
- Expected field, in order of importance: Bant (CB or survival), Merfolks, Goblins, Zoo, Combo (NLS/TES/DDFT), Faeries (UBr), Rock and Ichorid. Notably missing should be Loam, Belcher, Thopters en Landstill, other archtypes show up sporadically but mostly as 1-2 offs.
- Given this field and lack of Moat: should I try to squeeze in some firespouts? If so, what do I cut?
- Since most ppl will side out their creature-removal, would adding baneslayer angels to the sideboard be a good idea? I'd cut 1 Serenity, 1 Canonist and maybe the 1 EE (unless someone can convince me otherwise?
Now here's the favor thing: I absolutely SUCK at sideboarding. Especially when I have to reverse engineer it from a decklist full of one-offs I joinked from the net...you know, kinda like this one. So would anyone be willing to give me a quick guide on how to do this with the above decklist, for the decks I listed earlier: Bant (CB or survival), Merfolks, Goblins, Zoo, Combo (NLS/TES/DDFT), Faeries (UBr), Rock and Ichorid? It would be a real help. You can disregard the BSA-plan, although including it would be super awesome, of course :). Since offering a*s on this forum is against the rules (I think?), all I can promise in return is a nice long tournament report. But really, if anyone would be willing to help me out here, he (she)'ll have my eternal gratitude.
Thanks a lot,
Tom
Did some testing over the weekend with my list (notable differences 3/2 thopter sword split, 3 snare, 2 counterspell, no daze, moat MD, 22 land) against zoo and UGB jacestill. Snare was a standout, being useful vs more or less everything (from standstill to counterspell, to pridemage to goyf). 3/2 thopter split was also stand out vs zoo. I find that beating zoo preboard without dazes was fine, as long as you swords/force early drops and race to assemble the combo. They play 4 pridemages but you run enough answers to it. 22nd land was a bit heavy. I got flooded quite a bit so I'm cutting the 9th fetch. Counterspell was so-so but good vs landstill. I have to say, landstill was a terrible match up. I got destroyed by deeds, jace (they have 4). They simply have more bombs than us. I will also support fact that moat > humility any day in the md. I get killed by too many 1/1s while trying to assemble to combo. Moat is also golden vs manlands. Some weak cards I observed vs landstill: Enlightened tutor- god the card disadvantage hurts, STP- for obvious reasons. Insufficient Jaces. Deed is a major major problem. It stops me from assembling anything. I have to tutor for EE @ 3 first before I can do anything. I'm thinking of going -22nd land for either a 3rd jace, needle or oring to help this matchup. Which would be more appropriate?
23 lands is the absolute minimum. I would strongly consider 24.
What colors are you? If you're in black, Vindicate is better than more Jace, Needle, or ORing. Needle should be in your 75 anyway, but there are simply too many relevant targets for it against Jacestill: Deed, EE, Jace. If you Needle any one of those, the other two will get you, so...Quote:
Originally Posted by ivanpei
Tezzeret is also pretty good against control. He allows you to slowroll the Thopter combo and can allow you to kill your opponent in a single turn if you build up enough loyalty to ultimate him, then make a bunch of Thopters into 5/5 flying guys.
If you're in red, Ajani Vengeant is pretty good against control. They can't really get rid of him, he locks down Factories, and then Armageddons them, which no control deck likes. You're going to have to fight to resolve him, but if you do, he warps the game even more than Jace does.
Landstill is always going to be a bad matchup. Basically, whenever two controllish decks sit down across from each other, the more controlling deck of the two is favored heavily to win. It's why aggro-control and midrange tend to be total dogs to true control decks; the control decks can simply stop the opponent from getting anywhere, and the control deck's card advantage elements matter much more.
I was in red. Now I'm convinced that zoo isn't that terrible of a matchup, I'm considering switching my splash. I think 3 paths in the board is sufficient for stopping zoo. Just need to stall and assemble the combo. Vindicate seems good, but not tuterable. I played vindicate in UBw landstill and it seemed pretty clunky, I'd play the 2nd EE over a vindicate, being able to sweep is relevant. Tezzeret is a good idea. Anyone has tried testing it? Is it better over Jace no. 3? I'm a bit skeptical because 5 mana is very heavy, maybe in the board. So now its black vs green splash. Red for spout is overkill IMO vs aggro. Aggro should be an excellent MU already. Green gives grips, sylvan library (maybe goyfs), black has dark tutelage, perish (no-pro, zoo, bant). I think Sylvan library -> dark tutelage vs landstill. Being able to E.tutor turn one into turn 2 sylvan and dig 6 cards in the following 2 turns is huge! This has to be tested IMO. Will update on results. Grips VS deed (assuming he passes priority or doesn't have enough mana to pop) is good. the issue is Jace. However I think leading with a sylvan library and drawing a lot of counterspells is the best bet. Sylvan IMO maybe even good enough MD. It's a 2cc for counterbalance, serves as top no 5 (although a pretty bad one) and a strong CA bomb vs slow control/ landstill (which is usually a bad matchup). It also has synergy with the life gain of thopters. I disagree with 23 lands being the minimum. I'm comfortable with 21/22. I don't miss my 4th drop ever, and seldom miss my 5th drop.