[Deck] Nic Fit (GBx Explorer Zenith Control)

I feel like Maverick is just going to Wasteland your Maze and laugh at you. I mean, yeah, you can always Loam it back (if they don't eat it with Ooze), but it still seems suboptimal.

Otherwise, fair points. Keep us posted on how your testing progresses and your list evolves =)

@Qweerios, I also tested a bunch of games against maverick and I never really had a situation where I was like, well a maze would have been nice. I feel like Maze is more of a cute trick that you can do against aggro and grizzel based decks. Playing Baleful Strix does solve that a problem a bit against grizzel strats, but with Maverick, I found that my games were usually playing veteran explorer, cabal, and play defensively until I start gifting out of the game. Having pernicious deed in your deck should force your opponent to drag the game out, which is better for us; Our late game is one of the best, if not the best. Of course, worrying about gaddock teeg and pridemage against your pernicious deed can be an issue, but you have other measures to deal with it (being ghastly demises and whatever black target removal of your choice). Your ideas on Volrath's Stronghold has lead me to think that would be a good backup plan, alongside loam as GY hate could appear in games 2 & 3 (Even though we don't need the yard to win exactly).

After looking at your thoughts, I'll try out this list, incorporating stronghold and loam, while keeping the core intact




4 Veteran Explorer
2 Eternal Witness
1 Fierce Empath
2 Baleful Strix
1 Consecrated Sphinx
1 Grave Titan
3 Coiling Oracle
1 Kokusho, the Evening Star


1 Fact or Fiction
2 Gifts Ungiven
4 Brainstorm
1 Ghastly Demise
1 Smother

2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
1 Karn Liberated

3 Pernicious Deed
1 Recurring Nightmare

1 Maelstrom Pulse
1 Green Sun's Zenith
4 Cabal Therapy
1 Regrowth
1 Life from the Loam

3 Forest
2 Swamp
2 Island
1 Phyrexian Tower
3 Tropical Island
2 Bayou
1 Underground Sea
3 Misty Rainforest
3 Verdant Catacombs
1 Volrath's Stronghold


SB: 4 Daze
SB: 4 Extirpate
SB: 2 Kitchen Finks
SB: 3 Leyline of the Void
SB: 2 Engineered Explosives


Of course, my sideboard is relatively unfinished as I am not quite sure what the correct sideboard is for a nic fit blue list. Of course, sideboards are meta dependant, but I am wondering as to which cards are preferred over others (Daze vs Mana leak, etc...)

Edit: I'm looking at the Primer Post and it really needs to be updated :(

I'm planning to write a new primer post after Ghent -- I want to allow Ghent time to happen, though, in case any Nic Fit deck does well there and thus needs to be included/discussed.

Also, Daze is useless here. Mana Leak is still a strong early play that can catch people off guard later on, but Daze is awful. It sets us back a turn (kind of), and isn't going to do anything to anyone except like Canadian Thresh (if that). I'm definitely a plan of the 2-of Force of Will plan -- they're handy to have, but you don't want more than that. And 2 isn't taxing on your blue count at all.

@arianrhod I agree. Daze has been been underwhelming, like snapcaster mage was. I will probably go 2x Force of Wills and 2x Mana leaks as a test, then go from there.

I will post my input after Gent as I will be going running Arianrhods list (mostly)
I hope I don't mess up because I haven't had time to test in at least a month ;)

I expect a meta similar to Atlanta but more Griselbrand decks.
Our group will be there somewhere on friday hoping to score some byes.
I will be bringing both the white list (for the main event) as well as the blue list (for side events if I scrub out). And since I'm expecting more Griselbrand I will be running Ooze maindeck (only 1 though). Ooze has been really great for me for as long as I've been playing this deck. He's saved my ass so many times.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Arianrhod

This might get long.

@Zand -- welcome to the jungle! Here's my thoughts:

-) If Finks is serving a purpose for local meta, that's fine.
-) Ooze is pretty unexciting, but I haven't found anything better yet.
-) You don't need 2 Towers if you aren't running Rector. They allow for more explosive starts, but Rector builds are the only ones that actually need the extra sac outlet. You can safely cut the 2nd Tower and make your mana base better.
-) I'm assuming you just forgot to put GSZ, since your main deck is 34 cards (and there's 0 Zeniths, which is clearly wrong).
-) Dryad Arbor is almost always wrong. We're a Pernicious Deed deck. for every 25% value you get out of Arbor, there's 75% where you'll either miss a useable land drop because of it, or it'll just get Deeded away without doing anything. I'd recommend cutting Arbor, and adding either another basic and a Savannah, or a Savannah and a Scrubland. I like the 8th basic a lot, but your mileage will vary.
-) 2 Hymn feels like a horrible number. In my experience you either want Hymn early or not at all. It doesn't help that it forces you into double black. Consider the following: Swamp, Therapy, go. Bayou, Veteran Explorer, flashback, fetch Swamp and X, Hymn. This isn't a bad sequence at all. But there's a problem with it: your mana. No matter what basic you get with X, you're in a precarious position. If you get a plains, they might Waste your Bayou and lock you off of green. If you get a forest, you don't have access to white, but have double green for Witness. Having to fetch a 2nd swamp with Explorer early is really not preferable unless you're straight g/b. I'd just drop the Hymns completely.
-) 2 Tops isn't enough. Top is a critical card selection engine for a deck that can't play Brainstorm. Bump this up one, to 3 total. If you draw extra, we play enough shuffles that you can cantrip it away. Also don't forget that you can activate a draw off Top, hold priority, and in response crack Deed for whatever, drawing you a card off of Top and letting it go to the graveyard.
-) I'd add a Vindicate. Pulse is better 85% of the time, but that other 15%, you're going to want a source of land destruction. Maze of Ith, Glacial Chasm, Academy Ruins, Volrath's Stronghold, and Gaea's Cradle are all problematic, and Vindicate will sometimes randomly win you a game by knocking your opponent off of a color and then coming back with Witness to make it worse. It also gives you another out to problem permanents, which you're missing due to not running Rector -> Fetters/O-Ring.
-) I don't like Liliana in this deck, but since you're running a full 3 copies, I'm guessing that you do, so you can keep her =)

To summarize:
-2 Hymn
-1 Tower
-1 Arbor
+1 Top
+1 Vindicate
+1 Savannah
+1 Scrubland

This actually gives you an extra dual compared to most versions of the deck, including mine, but I feel that the 2nd Scrubland is important if you want to run Liliana alongside the white splash. Your deck needs GG for Witness, BB for Liliana, and WW for Sigarda/Baneslayer/Titan, in that order of importance (IMO). Green shouldn't be a problem, but having an extra bridge between Liliana and your 5s-6s is important. I'd also look into investing a slot into a Recurring Nightmare -- probably the Qasali, because he's less than exciting right now. You don't have means of tutoring it up, but in a decently long game, you should be able to find it with moderate Top/shuffling. And it will definitely win you games -- just looping two Eternal Witnesses is sufficient incentive IMO, let alone with Thragtusk. Additionally, Nightmare will give you a small number of games where you just play Solar Flare -- discarding something fat to Lily, then bringing it back with Nightmare. That doesn't seem like a bad line of play.
-) What's your board look like? I'm guessing some number of Leyline of Sanctity, since that demolishes both Pox and Burn, which you said you had present in your meta.

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Thanks for replying. Yeah, I'm definitely running 4x GSZ, that was a mistake haha. The Liliana's and the Hymns were leftover from when I was running a G/B version of the deck. I liked being able to use the Dryad Arbor to flashback Cabal Therapy in a pinch, or occasionally fetching one end of turn and using a Phyrexian Tower to get an extra 2 mana when necessary. After playing a bit more I've mostly found it irritating and have decided to drop it for another dual.

Here is the list I want to try now:

4 Veteran Explorer
1 Qasali Pridemage
2 Scavenging Ooze
2 Eternal Witness
2 Kitchen Finks
1 Thrun, the Last Troll
2 Thragtusk
1 Sigarda, Host of Herons
1 Sun Titan

4 Green's Sun Zenith
4 Cabal Therapy
3 Pernicious Deed
2 Maelstrom Pulse
2 Swords to Plowshares
2 Inquisition of Kozilek/Thoughtseize
3 Sensei's Divining Top
2 Recurring Nightmare


4 Verdant Catacombs
3 Windswept Heath
3 Bayou
2 Savannah
1 Scrublands
2 Phyrexian Tower
3 Forest
2 Swamp
2 Plains


A few notes, I like the explosive starts Phyrexian Tower can facilitate so I'm going to try to keep the number at 2 for now, although if it ends up being bad I'll swap it out for a basic. I put in a second Thragtusk instead of a Baneslayer because I think it has better synergy with the deck (is fetchable via GSZ and works really well with Recurring Nightmare). I kind of want room for a Fleshbag Marauder but am not sure what to take out. My sideboard is all over the place at this stage. It's something like

4 Leyeline of Sanctity
2 Extirpate
1 Surgical Extraction
2 Choke
1 Swords to Plowshares
1 Kitchen Finks
1 Damnation
2 Thalia, Gaudian of Thraben
1 Gaddock Teeg

I still don't get it...

Why does everyone still run Sword to Plowshares in place of Path to Exile? You're already giving your opponents extra land with Veteran Explorer. Most Legacy decks can't take advantage of the extra land, and you're hurting your clock when it matters by giving them extra life.

Moreso, against Griselbrand you'd rather they have an extra land than a free 7 cards.

@koby, Swords is better at a catch-all solution than Path is. Not many decks can take advantage of the extra lands, Yes. however, Nic Fit is not designed to simply race their opponents down to 0, like Zoo or RUG is. We are a control deck that attempts to take board position and control the game through our sheer lategame advantage, through sun titans, baneslayers, sigarda, etc. Lets say that we are playing Maverick. I would rather give them extra life than a land since I am already giving lands to them from the veteran explorer cabal therapy combo. Against Grizel decks, Id rather give them the life than the extra land, because we are not a clock deck. Legacy decks in general can be defined by their mana-base. If you give them access to more lands than what Veteran explorer does, then you are helping them that much more. 1 land can make the difference, especially if your opponent is mana-screwed in some way, shape or form. With Veteran Explorer giving them lands, we are cabal therapying in the first place, so we get to rip their hands from the get-go. What would their lands do for them if they don't have a strong hand to begin with? If we just path a creature without ripping their hand with cabal therapy, then that is stricting helping them. We really don't care about their life-gain since we don't race in the first place.

That's the point that I would like to make. We really do not have a clock. Our clock is practically how much cards are in our library, because when we get to late game, our deck is so strong there that most decks would not want to fight it, nor have the capabilities to fight it. Swords is more of a early game defensive plan until we get our recurring nightmare engines rolling. In that situation would the lifegain matter? No. However, What if they could have won with the extra land because we were forced to path them? That makes a difference.

I would prefer to think of mana as a more important aspect of play to care for than life, because if you say have 40 life, but no way to win, what does that 40 life do for you? help you dig? By that time, we already are in so much control of the game it doesn't matter what you try to do.

Against Zoo, would you rather give them lands or life, knowing that your late game is way better than theirs? I'd go with the life gain than the lands.
Do you want to give Elves an extra land to help them combo? Dear god I hope not.
If your answers to Griselbrand is swordsing him, then you might want to rethink your strategy against the grisel decks

Pretty much what XKCD said. We aren't an aggro deck (despite Salvation's laughable classifications). We're very rarely racing, and when we are, it's almost never vs other creatures. Our win conditions are sufficiently large that Swordsing like a 9/9 KotR or some such isn't really going to set us back. When we win, it's because we have full control of the board state. I'd rather have the ability to Swords one of my own guys to gain life in a pinch than to have them not gain life.

On the other side of the equation, our deck doesn't always "go off" with Explorer. Sure, when it does, Path is going to be better -- but what about the hands where we don't have an Explorer? Then Path is suddenly much worse....worse IMO than Swords is in the same situation.

So why don't we use Counterspells at all? With Jace requiring UU, why not have a couple of counterspells of our own? I am not saying FoW, Spell Snare, or Spell Pierce (any taxing counterspell for that matter) but Counterspell and Voidslime are both powerful spells on their own.

Voidslime is amusing. I actually forgot that thing existed. That and Counterspell both seem perfectly fine to me as options, but the question is one of mana stability. How has it been getting UU early / maintaining it vs wasteland? I'll confess to not actually testing them, but assuming instead that something like Leak would be better because of the 1U cost. If the mana could handle it, I'd definitely prefer Counterspell or Voidslime.

Not gonna lie, I really want Voidslime to actually work. The look on our opponents' faces would be PRICELESS.

@Qweerios, thats because its in our sideboard :).

But seriously, We really don't need counterspells with cabal therapies, and with our massive ability to control the board state. Just leave the counterspells in the sideboard.

In my games with my blue list, I was tapping out almost every turn in the early game. FoW would be nice, but It's only neccessary against combo decks, hence the sideboards.

Voidslime would be hilarious, but again, that would cut into the black aspect of nic fit. Or we just run more duals, which then cuts into mainboard.

Edit: Just realized something. It is better for us to have it in sideboard as a surprise tactic against Combo decks. They would assume that our anti-combo pieces are not FoW or CS based, and when we use those pieces, it'll throw them off.

So far Team America and RUG are taking a hot steamy dump on my early game with their Delvers and Wastelands...

I tested the counterspells and they don't belong in there, they are really win-more because we can't leave mana open for them comfortably until the mid-late game.

I have also reincluded Recurring Nightmare instead of Regrowth. Regrowth is never part of my Gift piles anymore and it isn't that great of a card to begin with when compared to Eternal Witness.

Here is my current list:


Creatures (14)
4 Veteran Explorer
4 Coiling Oracle
2 Eternal Witness
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Thragtusk
1 Shriekmaw
1 Kokusho, the Evening Star

Spells (23)
4 Brainstorm
2 Gifts Ungiven

4 Cabal Therapy
2 Green Sun's Zenith
1 Life from the Loam
1 Maelstrom Pulse

1 Recurring Nightmare
3 Pernicious Deed

2 Liliana of the Veil
2 Jace, the Mind Sculptor
1 Garruk Relentless

Lands (23)
1 Wasteland
1 Volrath's Stronghold
1 Phyrexian Tower
1 Cabal Pit
4 Verdant Catacombs
4 Misty Rainforest
2 Forest
2 Swamp
2 Island
2 Bayou
2 Tropical Island
1 Underground Sea

Sideboard (15)
3 Flusterstorm
3 Extirpate
4 Thoughtseize
1 Raven's Crime
1 Darkblast
1 Karakas
1 Maze of Ith
1 Gilded Drake

Quick minute report from Jupiter today...will embellish with details later.

Sadly small turnout today (32), although the skill level was much more concentrated as a result. I finally top 8'd a Jupiter, getting 6th place after losing to Eli Kassis on Sneak/Show.

Beat Merfolk (r1), Counterslivers (y'heard, r2--he also did really well on the day, btw), RUG in a feature match (r3), ID, ID, lost to Sneak (Eli).

Merfolk was easymode, Baneslayer + Deed = win.

Counterslivers was randomly fairly scary, although Moat locked him out both games while he couldn't find a Winged Sliver.

RUG was hilarious. I did to RUG what I usually did to RUG, with the exception that I got to loop Thragtusk and Nightmare on camera game two. It was glorious. Also, Carpet of Flowers as a free black lotus every turn is prettttty good.

Links to coverage (quality isn't that great, and the audio is pathetically out of sync):
http://www.twitch.tv/jupitergames/b/324895288
http://www.twitch.tv/jupitergames/b/324896133
http://www.twitch.tv/jupitergames/b/324896944

The judge call was because my opponent didn't know the can-activate-carpet-during-second-main-phase trick, so he needed to see Oracle on Carpet.

I somehow beat Eli game one, after he flooded out. He tried to Sneak Emrakul on me, but I got to use the instant speed Rector trick to Fetters before attacks.

Game two I Extirpated his Griselbrands, then dropped Carpet -> Memoricide. He had nothing but lands in hand, but had ripped Spell Pierce off the top. I had Witness in hand, so I was like whatever -- I'll have 7 mana next turn, so I can do it again. He rips Emrakul off the top and kills me. Sick life. Game three I thought I had a slight window where I could ET for Humility and drop that while I knew he had Breach/Emrakul assembled....he just needed to find a mana. I knew his hand, and had to run it out there.....and of course he'd drawn a Force in the one card I didn't know about for his turn.

Kind of sad about that, but even getting that close to beating Eli -- on a bad matchup, nonetheless, was perfectly fine with me. Plus I finally top 8'd an event at Jupiter Games, which I'm pretty stoked about. Feel very confident about my list at the moment....both the list, and my ability to play it well, finally.

Here's the link to the top 8 deck lists because I'm exhausted and don't feel like writing out my decklist.

http://www.jupitergamesonline.com/20...nelc-decklists

Again, I'll embellish with more details later or answer questions or whatever. Bed for now.

Have you guys tested Disciple of Bolas in this deck yet? It's been pretty good in the small amount of testing I've done.

Dominate the swiss then get kicked out of the top by Sneak? Sounds like every one of my tournaments!

Really though, that match with RUG was just hilarious. I can definitely see the power of carpet flowers or w/e now, and that second main trick is quite useful. It's almost like flowers gives the deck the redundant mana acceleration that is feels like it needs. I saw the double Stifle he was holding but apparently it was no match for the Explorer plus double GSZ, haha.

Is there anything that would severely hamper our sideboard or even main to get around the sneak problem? Seems like other decks have managed to hate it out relatively well, or at least rug has. I did find that Gaddock can stop Sneak attack and Through the Breach...

There's also Willow Satyr, which may or may not be too slow

Today was our sunday legacy tourney, and I planned to play Maverick since I know that deck inside out, but waking up really drunk I saw Arianrhod's list and decided to sleeve it up.

Unfortunately we were 1 player short of 5 Rounds, so only 4 rounds, which is a little short.

R1: Sneak Show: 0:2, slaughter, games were over in 10 Minutes
R2: Bye
R3: Merfolk: 2:0, easy win
R4: Lands: I've got the game pretty much locked up with Elspeth ultimate and Moat out, but since my Kokusho had been removed with Bog before I wasn't able to win through Chasm in time, so after 50 grindy minutes and extra turns I concede to him, which he rewards with a split of the price. So after all I get roughly my entry fee back.

Funny deck. I know you're not a fan, but still I think Ooze belongs somewhere in your 75.

Wednesday it's gonna be BUG Nic Fit time :)

Sideboard Ooze then? It seems to have lost its luster in the main, but I can definitely see bringing in Ooze for certain matchups even if we can't fully fuel its green mana hunger.

I'm finding that if the Satyr can come down pre-Sneak Attack/Through the Breach then its basically game over (outside of bounce of course). It is a tremendous Show and Tell play, allowing you to capitalize off of almost anything they put down outside of Showing Sneak Attack followed by fast mana into death. However, with how fast this deck combos out this can be a high order.

I'm also finding that 2 mainboard Fleshbag Marauders give me a decent chance at outplaying their Show and Tell even game 1 (though Griselbrand still can cause a game loss), and I'm starting to lean towards Oblivion Ring over Faith's Fetters mainboard to always give me a relevant play in Show and Tell situations. The Marauders also help with killing Mongoose as well as being a sac outlet for our Rectors or Explorers.

The deck i took to a tournament last week did include 2 Fleshbag Marauder and i have to say, they were good. I never thought like, man, i wish they were Innocent Bloods or any other removal spell.

I am however wondering if we need any instant speed removal mainboard, i'm atm running 3 deed, 3 rector, 2 pulse, 2 marauder as removal (aswell as 1 faith's fetters), and 2 StP sideboard, but i do sometimes feel instant speed removal would be nice in the mainboard.
What do you guys think?

After playing vs a pro-caliber player wielding Sneak/Show (Eli Kassis) in the top 8 on Saturday, I feel like the concerns over Sneak/Show are highly overrated, and can be greatly improved by both having the appropriate sideboard options and by playing the matchup correctly. Now, I'll grant that it was a top 8, so we had each other's decklists. But Eli very carefully avoided casting Show and Tell vs me, due to the high density of ludicrous things that I could drop off of it. Depending on how much of our deck your Sneak opponent sees/their knowledge of the archetype, your mileage may vary -- but I feel that we shouldn't be worrying about Show and Tell as much as Sneak Attack. Fleshbag's a good card...but I'm not sure he's worth the slots considering how many good cards we're capable of playing.

I'll say again, the only reason I lost to Sneak/Show was because he drew exactly the right card two turns in a row...and even g3, he had a (larger) window to draw what he needed, but he still needed to draw it. I've said before and I'll say again, vs combo, you're a prison deck. You just need to stop them from winning, you don't have to win yourself. If you Extirpate/Memoricide their Griselbrands and their Emrakuls, they literally cannot win. Humility is often gg. Maybe it was just my list particularly, but Eli was under the impression that this is a bad matchup...FOR SNEAK. He seemed very relieved to get there. Just don't keep hands without hate and/or discard, and don't develop your board state like you would vs other decks. G1 I literally beat him to death with like a Explorer, a Rector, and an Eternal Witness. That's because I was focusing on Therapying him, repeatedly (with Witness as a regrow). Then when he finally assembled Sneak + Emrakul, I had Rector + Tower -> Fetters ready for him. If you play carefully it should be winnable. Postboard especially -- so many ways it can go badly for them. I mean, yeah they'll have some hands where they just win. That's what we get for being a non-blue control deck. Hell, sometimes RUG has hands we can't beat, and that's an overwhelmingly positive mathcup.

@Phillip -- you couldn't find the Vindicate, I'm guessing? Or had that been removed too? If both Vindicate and Kokusho were removed, that would have been really awkward and probably impossible to win. Thankfully that doesn't really ever happen.

RE Willow Satyr -- it's a hilarious old card that nobody knows what it does, which gets it points in my book. But it loses out on two other points: it's really slow (same as Humility, but can't be ET or Rectord into play), which means it's a 5-drop, not a 4-drop; and it's fragile. I know Eli boarded in Fire/Ices, and I think most Sneak decks have like Pyroclasm or some such in their board. Considering that if we're winning, it's through a weenie rush as opposed to our usual over-the-top excess, they'll be bringing that stuff in anyway, which means Satyr would just die.

RE Disciple of Bolas -- I feel like there's a build that would want him, but the big problem is having things to sac. I mean, if you're just using him as an outlet for Explorer or Rector, that's pretty terrible. Fleshbag or even like Deranged Outcast would be better...

That said, it's possible that a Restoration Angel build would like him. Under each section of the primer I'm writing, I'm including the experimental/theoretical ideas as sample lists...one of which is an Angel build. If he sees play anywhere in this archetype, it'll be there.

RE Ooze -- There are definitely times when you'll want Ooze, I'm not going to lie. My stance is not that Ooze isn't a good card, it's that Ooze isn't a good enough card. There are better things to be done with that slot. I mean, we rickroll dredge already. Reanimator probably isn't terrible? Lands is usually in our favor unless something weird happens....etc. Ooze is basically really good in a lot of corner cases, but it's almost never good in mainstream circumstances. That's the issue I have with it. Vs Maverick/RUG/Sneak/Stoneblade it's either never going to do anything at all, or it's never going to do enough. Hell, at that point we could put Willow Satyr or Ichneumon Druid main -- it'd have the same effect (amazing in cornercases, mediocre everywhere else). That suggests that it's sideboard material, but then we run into the question of whether it's better than traditional graveyard hate, ie Extirpate/Nihil/Tormod/Leyline/etc. I don't think that it is.

@Claymore -- Be careful if switching O-Ring in for Fetters. Fetters does a lot more than is commonly realized....the 4 life vs aggro, burn, and Tendrils is relevant, it reocups 4 turns of Phyrexian Arena ticks, and it shuts down problematic lands like Maze of Ith and Academy Ruins, while making planeswalkers look really, really stupid. O-Ring also dies to our Deeds vs Maverick. If you have a -lot- of Sneak (>30% of the meta), then O-Ring is probably better. But if your meta is anything close to balanced, I'd leave the Fetters in. It's just a better tool for the deck, and CMC 4 instead of CMC 3 is incredibly huge when Deed is concerned.

@Viridia -- I run 1x Swords to Plowshares main, as my only form of instant removal aside from cracking Deed in resp. to something. That's actually been enough for me historically -- whenever I try to put in more instant removal, it blows up in my face, so I've learned to just shrug and go with it. Deed is our workhorse, and while it can be disrupted, it's okay to lean on it because the deck is usually synergistic enough that it can "revive" Deed if Needle or Revoker happens. Needle can be Vindicated or Pulsed, and Revoker can be be shut down via spot removal, or via Curse of Death's Hold or Humility if there's a Mother floating around.

In my experience, the best way to think of it is that the deck wants more "powerful" effects with some "efficient" effects running support duty. Since we have the mana to use the truly powerful cards, like running Curse of Death's Hold over Night of Souls' Betrayal, we should. We don't want to tip too far towards the power, though, or we'll get too clunky and we're just die before we get there. So we do still need some "efficient" answers that have weaker effects, but are also cheap to cast. It's just a matter of finding that balance. For me, that balance is 1, or maybe 2 instant speed removal spells. My power plays and my discard will carry me the rest of the way.