Originally Posted by
Begle1
"Punisher" cards are easy to over-estimate, but it's interesting here at least since how often this deck goes into top-deck wars.
Usually I have three/ four mana, which is all most builds really need, and I then usually drop a lock piece on the first turn, only not to find enough threats (or the right lock piece) to win.
Lets go through the scenarios:
Sin Prodder is played after first your lock piece, and there's some low-cost mana spell you don't have a use for (Mox or Land) on top of your library: regardless of whether your opponent mills it or lets it go to your hand (if they're trying to attack through your Bridge maybe?), you at least get to draw the card under it too. In effect, if your top card is a land or a Mox, you get the card under it. Since the deck is 1/3rd mana, this is going to happen a lot.
You land a Sin Prodder and you are trying to find a threat to win the game; most of your threats cost 3-5 mana. If they have an answer for the threat, you get it for free and whatever is under it. If they don't have an answer for it, then they bin it and Sin Prodder deals 3-5 damage to them. Best case is they pay life to remove the threat and you draw another threat, but most-likely case is they just deal with the threat in the way that's most efficient for them at the time. This isn't really a good thing... Even dealing 3-5 damage a turn I still don't think he out-races Rabblemaster.
You land a Sin Prodder and desperately need to find the right lock piece. If the lock piece you seek is on top of your library, you will never get it. Yes, the odds are such that the piece you need is as likely second from the top as on the top, but this still reduces your chances of getting that one card you seek. So in this situation the card is actively bad.
You are stuck on three mana (or two, with a Moon turning a Sol land into a mountain), and you need to draw another mana card. Sin Prodder makes it harder to draw the mana, but in a deck with 50% mana sources, your odds aren't terrible. So it's only a little bad here.
I started writing this post wanting to play Prodder, writing it out I think he kinda sucks. He'll win the games you would've won anyways, but he'll actively lose you some games where most other three-drops would've been okay.
