[Deck] Pox

I am currently working on this list:
Maindeck
//Lands: 20
12 Swamp
4 Wasteland
4 Mishra’s Factory

//Spells: 24
4 Dark Ritual
4 Duress
4 Hymn to Tourach
4 Sinkhole
4 Smallpox
4 Pox

//Artifacts: 15
4 Mox Diamond
4 The Rack
1 Cursed Scroll
2 Phyrexian Totem
3 Crucible of Worlds

//Creatures: 2
1 Nether Spirit
1 Undead Gladiator

Sideboard (quite sure slots)
3 Tormod’s Crypt
3 Pithing Needle
4 Engineered Plague
(completely debatable slots)
2 Zuran Orb
2 Perish
1 Darkblast

I'd like to ask your experience on a few points:
1) are 20 lands enough for 4 Mox Diamond?
2) how many Crucible of Worlds: 3 or 2?
3) how many Phyrexian Totem: 2 or 3?
4) The Rack: hot or not?
5) Cursed Scroll: hot or not?
6) Nether Spirit: 1, 2 or 3?
7) any idea to draw a bit? (I am going to try Undead Gladiator)

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Originally Posted by erdjinn

I'd like to ask your experience on a few points:
1) are 20 lands enough for 4 Mox Diamond?
2) how many Crucible of Worlds: 3 or 2?
3) how many Phyrexian Totem: 2 or 3?
4) The Rack: hot or not?
5) Cursed Scroll: hot or not?
6) Nether Spirit: 1, 2 or 3?
7) any idea to draw a bit? (I am going to try Undead Gladiator)

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1. No, but in addition, why 4 Diamonds and 4 Rituals?
2. Three
3. None
4. Not
5. Not
6. If you are going this route run 3 or 4.
7. Phyrexian Arena if you feel you need it.

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Originally Posted by erdjinn

I'd like to ask your experience on a few points:
1) are 20 lands enough for 4 Mox Diamond?
2) how many Crucible of Worlds: 3 or 2?
3) how many Phyrexian Totem: 2 or 3?
4) The Rack: hot or not?
5) Cursed Scroll: hot or not?
6) Nether Spirit: 1, 2 or 3?
7) any idea to draw a bit? (I am going to try Undead Gladiator)

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1) No. Try at least 23-24 lands if yo want to adequately support Mox Diamond.
2) I'd say 3 in the absence of draw, 2 with it. Drawing multiples sucks but you want to draw at least one per game.
3) 3. This card is the nutz.
4) Depends on your build and how reliably you can keep your opponent within Rack damage range. However, I am generally of the opinion that the Rack is not synergistic with this deck due to the amount of resource denial - specifically mana denial - that you run. When your oppenent has no mana, they can't typically play spells. If they can't spells, the cards they draw tend to build up in their hand. This does not work well with the Rack.
5) I think Phyrexian Totem is generally better because it does more damage and isn't totally dead if they drop a Needle naming it.
6) 2-3. I've been happy with both numbers, but one is too few to reliably draw it in a game.
7) This is one of the main problems of this deck. Most of black's good card draw makes you lose some amount of life. Once upon a time, I ran a build with Zuran Orb and Phyrexian Arena with Crucible in it, the idea being that you could sacrifice lands if you needed to make up for the life loss from Pox and Arena. This build had a number of problems, though - mostly that Orb sucks, and it sucks even more when they Pithing Needle it. Pox generally tries to be a proactive control deck, actively doing stuff on its turn to advance its game. Zuran Orb doesn't advance the deck's game, isn't terribly proactive, and a good Pox build shouldn't need craptastic lifegain anyway. If you're that desperate for life, play Vicious Hunger or something like that and have it actually be useful. Anyway...because Pox decks tend to lose life pretty quickly, most of black's card draw is out. I'm not a big fan of Gladiator, just because I've never liked the card.

We could keep the opp's handsize down for The Rack if we replace Sinkhole with Wrench Mind (or Gerrards Verdict) .. if we then play more Totems like 3-4 the deck will sure kill faster. I don't know if it is the right direction. but it seems worth thinking about.

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Originally Posted by erdjinn

I am currently working on this list:
Maindeck
//Lands: 20
12 Swamp
4 Wasteland
4 Mishra’s Factory

//Spells: 24
4 Dark Ritual
4 Duress
4 Hymn to Tourach
4 Sinkhole
4 Smallpox
4 Pox

//Artifacts: 15
4 Mox Diamond
4 The Rack
1 Cursed Scroll
2 Phyrexian Totem
3 Crucible of Worlds

//Creatures: 2
1 Nether Spirit
1 Undead Gladiator

Sideboard (quite sure slots)
3 Tormod’s Crypt
3 Pithing Needle
4 Engineered Plague
(completely debatable slots)
2 Zuran Orb
2 Perish
1 Darkblast

I'd like to ask your experience on a few points:
1) are 20 lands enough for 4 Mox Diamond?
2) how many Crucible of Worlds: 3 or 2?
3) how many Phyrexian Totem: 2 or 3?
4) The Rack: hot or not?
5) Cursed Scroll: hot or not?
6) Nether Spirit: 1, 2 or 3?
7) any idea to draw a bit? (I am going to try Undead Gladiator)

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Here is my opinion based on my pox testing.
1) None. Drawing Mox mid-late game losses you the game. You dont have card draw or selection. Besides if you dont have crucible its shitty since you lose card advantage in a deck that already makes itself discard cards. Stick to ritual.
2) Three. These get countered and blown up constantly. Extras can be discarded to pox effects.
3) 2-3 Totem. As good as it is its a needle target.
4) This is based on your own preference. It also depends on wether or not your playing Duress as additional discard. More discard or more removal? Adapt to your meta.
5) Not too hot but effective. Id run 2 at most.
6) If your not playing three you shouldnt be playing any at all. The fourth should be played in the board against anything playing swords to plowshares. I side him out against solidarity and thresh for Phyrexian Negator alot though so Im beginning to question his role in the deck. Especially when crucible is incorperated.
7) Dark Confidant if your meta is light on goblins. Phyrexian Arena otherwise. You shouldnt be caught without one or other imo. You need card draw or the deck just dies off late game no matter how busted a start it gets.

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Originally Posted by bane_of_the_living

Here is my opinion based on my pox testing.
1) None. Drawing Mox mid-late game losses you the game. You dont have card draw or selection. Besides if you dont have crucible its shitty since you lose card advantage in a deck that already makes itself discard cards. Stick to ritual.
2) Three. These get countered and blown up constantly. Extras can be discarded to pox effects.
3) 2-3 Totem. As good as it is its a needle target.
4) This is based on your own preference. It also depends on wether or not your playing Duress as additional discard. More discard or more removal? Adapt to your meta.
5) Not too hot but effective. Id run 2 at most.
6) If your not playing three you shouldnt be playing any at all. The fourth should be played in the board against anything playing swords to plowshares. I side him out against solidarity and thresh for Phyrexian Negator alot though so Im beginning to question his role in the deck. Especially when crucible is incorperated.
7) Dark Confidant if your meta is light on goblins. Phyrexian Arena otherwise. You shouldnt be caught without one or other imo. You need card draw or the deck just dies off late game no matter how busted a start it gets.

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Do you have a list, bane? I'd be interested to see what you're testing.

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Originally Posted by Complete_Jank

1. No, but in addition, why 4 Diamonds and 4 Rituals?

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Diamond has a good sinergy with the deck core: Pox and Crucible.
Rituals are so good I haven't considered taking them out.
The problem is that 20 lands + 4 Moxes + 4 Rituals = 28 dead draws in the late game.
I'll try taking a couple Moxes out.

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Originally Posted by Aggro_zombies

3) 3. This card is the nutz.
4) Depends on your build and how reliably you can keep your opponent within Rack damage range. However, I am generally of the opinion that the Rack is not synergistic with this deck due to the amount of resource denial - specifically mana denial - that you run. When your oppenent has no mana, they can't typically play spells. If they can't spells, the cards they draw tend to build up in their hand. This does not work well with the Rack.
5) I think Phyrexian Totem is generally better because it does more damage and isn't totally dead if they drop a Needle naming it.
6) 2-3. I've been happy with both numbers, but one is too few to reliably draw it in a game.
7) This is one of the main problems of this deck. Most of black's good card draw makes you lose some amount of life. Once upon a time, I ran a build with Zuran Orb and Phyrexian Arena with Crucible in it, the idea being that you could sacrifice lands if you needed to make up for the life loss from Pox and Arena. This build had a number of problems, though - mostly that Orb sucks, and it sucks even more when they Pithing Needle it. Pox generally tries to be a proactive control deck, actively doing stuff on its turn to advance its game. Zuran Orb doesn't advance the deck's game, isn't terribly proactive, and a good Pox build shouldn't need craptastic lifegain anyway. If you're that desperate for life, play Vicious Hunger or something like that and have it actually be useful. Anyway...because Pox decks tend to lose life pretty quickly, most of black's card draw is out. I'm not a big fan of Gladiator, just because I've never liked the card.

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3) It seems really good on paper.
4) Duress + Pox + Smallpox + Hymn = 16 discard spells. I think they're many. 8 of them are also land destruction spells, with Wasteland and Sinkhole you have 16 total. With Pox opponent can't keep lands in their hand, with the Rack they can't drop them.
5) I'd still run one because at worst it will trade 1 for 1 with the opponent's Needle/Disenchant.
6) I have to try this. But I'd hate playing Pox/Smallpox with both a Spirit in hand and one in play.
7) .. continues from point 6) ... So I decided to take one Spirit out for 1 Gladiator. Have to try him also.

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Originally Posted by Aggro_zombies

Do you have a list, bane? I'd be interested to see what you're testing.

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I'd be interested too.

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Originally Posted by erdjinn

4) Duress + Pox + Smallpox + Hymn = 16 discard spells. I think they're many. 8 of them are also land destruction spells, with Wasteland and Sinkhole you have 16 total. With Pox opponent can't keep lands in their hand, with the Rack they can't drop them.

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...and if they can't drop them, where do those spells go? To a retirement home in Miami? Here's a little theory behind the game: in most cases, if your opponent does not have lands or mana, they can't play spells. Those spells stay in their hand, since they can't get them out by playing them. While this is going on, said opponent is drawing at least one card per turn. This means that, since they have a +1 input and no output, they have a net +1 increase in cards in hand per turn. You need a lot more than 16 discard spells to reliably keep your opponent below three cards every turn - they have a 100% chance of increasing their hand size every turn, while you have a 16/60=26.67% chance of drawing a solution to that. There's a bit of discrepancy there.

That said, here's my latest list. Yes, I tinker with it quite a bit, but I'm trying to make it competitive...any idea on how to fit card draw in there? I refuse to add Undead Gladiator.

13 Swamp
4 Wasteland
3 Polluted Delta
3 Mishra's Factory

4 Dark Ritual
3 Innocent Blood
3 Funeral Charm
4 Hymn to Tourach
4 Sinkhole
3 Smallpox
4 Pox
4 Infest
3 Phyrexian Totem
3 Chimeric Idol
3 Crucible of Worlds

SB:
4 Duress
3 Powder Keg
3 Oppression
1 Phyrexian Totem
4 Leyline of the Void

Here is our latest incarnation.

12 Swamp
4 Wasteland
2 Bloodstained Mire
2 Polluted Delta
3 Mishra's Factory

4 Dark Ritual
4 Innocent Blood
4 Hymn to Tourach
4 Sinkhole
3 Smallpox
4 Pox
3 Infest
3 Phyrexian Totem
3 Nether Spirit
3 Crucible of Worlds
2 Sensei's Divining Top

SB:
3 Duress
2 Sudden Death
3 Oppression
3 Engineered Plague
4 Leyline of the Void

Very close to your build. I've been trying Top as a method of card draw/selection. Fetchlands and Crucible are nice with it.

What are you running Oppression for?
Isn't Contamination better?

BTW, you don't want to play the top, it does nothing and eats your mana.
I also don't understand people who doesn't play 4 Smallpox, this card is awesome.
I am not an big fan of innocent blood, funeral charm can do more things and spinning darkness does the same thing as innocent blood in 80% cases, plus you gain 3 life, which is very important in this deck, and it let you get rid of an extra Nether Spirit.

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Originally Posted by Aggro_zombies

...and if they can't drop them, where do those spells go? To a retirement home in Miami? Here's a little theory behind the game: in most cases, if your opponent does not have lands or mana, they can't play spells. Those spells stay in their hand, since they can't get them out by playing them. While this is going on, said opponent is drawing at least one card per turn. This means that, since they have a +1 input and no output, they have a net +1 increase in cards in hand per turn. You need a lot more than 16 discard spells to reliably keep your opponent below three cards every turn - they have a 100% chance of increasing their hand size every turn, while you have a 16/60=26.67% chance of drawing a solution to that. There's a bit of discrepancy there.

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If my opponent always keeps the card he draws in hand I win, regardless of my deck. :wink:
Just kidding, I have tested much Pox deck before the rotation and I had less discard since I run Diabolic Edict in Smallpox's place. (The deck run also Hypnotic Specter and Mindstab Trulls that got constantly removed by my opponent, so I decided to cut both). The Rack was very useful then, so I think it could be useful also now.

@ Aggro_zombies and bane_of_the_living: thank you both for the lists.
One problem I was thinking of is Pithing Needle. Almost every deck packs 2-4 copies maindeck and/or sideboard. You have almost no way to take a Needle out when in play and only 2-3 win condition, 2 of which Needleable. Isn't that too few?

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Originally Posted by Sea R Hill

What are you running Oppression for?
Isn't Contamination better?

BTW, you don't want to play the top, it does nothing and eats your mana.
I also don't understand people who doesn't play 4 Smallpox, this card is awesome.
I am not an big fan of innocent blood, funeral charm can do more things and spinning darkness does the same thing as innocent blood in 80% cases, plus you gain 3 life, which is very important in this deck, and it let you get rid of an extra Nether Spirit.

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Oppression doesn't require you to sacrifice a creature every turn, and it gives you something to do with lands you draw. It's also useful against black-based storm decks or storm decks that don't rely on having a lot of lands in play (IGGY Pop, for example). The only real reason to run Contamination over Oppression is that the former totally screws Solidarity if you can maintain it and they don't counter it.

Innocent Blood is better in the Threshold matchup / X Stompy matchup than either of the cards you listed. In a more Goblin-oriented meta, however, I would generally agree with you. However, Innocent blood can deal with a threshed Werebear, a Mongoose or Mystic Enforcer in any state, an equiped E-Angel, etc.

Every deck in Legacy (well, all the top-tier ones, anyway) has some way to generate card advantage or at least control to some extent how good its draws are. Goblins has Matron and Ringleader, Thresh has Chain-o'-Cantrips (tm), Solidarity has their whole deck minus the lands and Brain Freezes, IGG has Intuition and Brainstorm, and so on. Pox has...nada. Really, it has jack shit when it comes to the "improving card quality" department. You can devastated your opponent, but all your hard work will be wasted when they drop that next Ringleader or Predict and start pulling ahead of you. Top allows you a certain ability to influence your draws (ie, helps you to not topdeck lots of lands late-game) as well as drawing you cards in a pinch. Sure, it eats mana and does nothing by itself, but the ability to save you from drawing your fifth straight land by bringing a Pox to the top is priceless, as Visa would say.

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Originally Posted by erdjinn

One problem I was thinking of is Pithing Needle. Almost every deck packs 2-4 copies maindeck and/or sideboard. You have almost no way to take a Needle out when in play and only 2-3 win condition, 2 of which Needleable. Isn't that too few?

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I run Powder Keg in my board for just that scenario. It isn't maindeck so most opponents who don't know your list ahead of time (I hate when they do know that...cheating bastards) won't anticipate it. If they Needle your Totem, say, drop this and bring it to one counter, then blow it up and attack. If they Needle Keg, well, that's one Needle they didn't use on a victory condition. Either way, you're happy. Also, discard helps root Needles out of their hand before they see the light of day. If you're really paranoid about losing to Needles, either maindeck or side in Duress or Therapies and try ripping Needles with them.

A lot of opponents tend to side out Needles if they have them maindeck, though. Most people worry about stopping themselves from getting hit by LD + Pox + discard, and since Needles don't really help with that, they'll usually go for more counters or something to keep themselves from rolling over and dying to your disruption. That's how it's tended to work in my experience, anyway.

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Originally Posted by Aggro_zombies

Oppression doesn't require you to sacrifice a creature every turn, and it gives you something to do with lands you draw. It's also useful against black-based storm decks or storm decks that don't rely on having a lot of lands in play (IGGY Pop, for example). The only real reason to run Contamination over Oppression is that the former totally screws Solidarity if you can maintain it and they don't counter it.

Innocent Blood is better in the Threshold matchup / X Stompy matchup than either of the cards you listed. In a more Goblin-oriented meta, however, I would generally agree with you. However, Innocent blood can deal with a threshed Werebear, a Mongoose or Mystic Enforcer in any state, an equiped E-Angel, etc.

Every deck in Legacy (well, all the top-tier ones, anyway) has some way to generate card advantage or at least control to some extent how good its draws are. Goblins has Matron and Ringleader, Thresh has Chain-o'-Cantrips (tm), Solidarity has their whole deck minus the lands and Brain Freezes, IGG has Intuition and Brainstorm, and so on. Pox has...nada. Really, it has jack shit when it comes to the "improving card quality" department. You can devastated your opponent, but all your hard work will be wasted when they drop that next Ringleader or Predict and start pulling ahead of you. Top allows you a certain ability to influence your draws (ie, helps you to not topdeck lots of lands late-game) as well as drawing you cards in a pinch. Sure, it eats mana and does nothing by itself, but the ability to save you from drawing your fifth straight land by bringing a Pox to the top is priceless, as Visa would say.


I run Powder Keg in my board for just that scenario. It isn't maindeck so most opponents who don't know your list ahead of time (I hate when they do know that...cheating bastards) won't anticipate it. If they Needle your Totem, say, drop this and bring it to one counter, then blow it up and attack. If they Needle Keg, well, that's one Needle they didn't use on a victory condition. Either way, you're happy. Also, discard helps root Needles out of their hand before they see the light of day. If you're really paranoid about losing to Needles, either maindeck or side in Duress or Therapies and try ripping Needles with them.

A lot of opponents tend to side out Needles if they have them maindeck, though. Most people worry about stopping themselves from getting hit by LD + Pox + discard, and since Needles don't really help with that, they'll usually go for more counters or something to keep themselves from rolling over and dying to your disruption. That's how it's tended to work in my experience, anyway.

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QFT

Try out the tops and let me know what you think. The only other option I really see is Phyrexian Arena and its just so expensive.

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Originally Posted by Aggro_zombies

I run Powder Keg in my board for just that scenario. It isn't maindeck so most opponents who don't know your list ahead of time (I hate when they do know that...cheating bastards) won't anticipate it. If they Needle your Totem, say, drop this and bring it to one counter, then blow it up and attack. If they Needle Keg, well, that's one Needle they didn't use on a victory condition. Either way, you're happy. Also, discard helps root Needles out of their hand before they see the light of day. If you're really paranoid about losing to Needles, either maindeck or side in Duress or Therapies and try ripping Needles with them.

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Do you ever charge the Keg for more than 1?
Because if you use it only against Needles I would choose Engineered Explosives instead, or maybe a split Keg/EE (so they can't Needle it).

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Originally Posted by erdjinn

Do you ever charge the Keg for more than 1?
Because if you use it only against Needles I would choose Engineered Explosives instead, or maybe a split Keg/EE (so they can't Needle it).

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I use it for a variety of things, but mostly for Chalice, Aether Vial, and Needles. I've occassionally brought it to three before to nuke Faerie Stompy boards (especially if I only have lands in play), but other than that, it usually stays at none or one counters. I only use Kegs because, well, I have no EE and never bothered to proxy them for testing.

Erdjinn:

Powder Keg just need to be tapped. In most cases, you will break it with one counter on it, but in some cases (more often than you think) you can get rid of 2-mana drops, which are heavily played in legacy, like Werebear, meddling mage, Jitte, chalice,... and don't forgot than it can ruin affinity as soon as it comes in play (even if affinity is very rare in 1.5).

Aggro zombie:

Contamination upkeep cost can be paid either with Nether Spirit or with Mishra+Crucible. The problem of Oppression is that it makes you win against already easy MU. With 4 Hymn + 4 Duress MD combo just can't do anything (not to mention the 8 Poxes). The advantage of contamination is that it is usefull against way more decks than oppression.
I personnaly don't run innocent blood. I can deal with mongeese and bears with Powder kegs, Poxes and Mishras.

I will test Top, but I'm not sure of its effectiveness. Its seems to be a waste of mana, tempo and slots. It is great with fechlands though.

And have you thought about running SMokestack?

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Originally Posted by Sea R Hill

And have you thought about running SMokestack?

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4cc spells are hard to cast when playing pox AND smallpox.

However, $t@x and Pox here have similar goal : depleting opponent's ressources. I think I've read a topic about Black Stax running Pox somewhere in these pages, if it can be of any help for you.

[EDIT]It wasn't Pox but Smallpox and it can be found HERE

I know that the topic of card draw in pox has been talked over....
And i know someone (instert name here) already suggested P.Arena...
Ive been testing them out as a two of and have had success with the loan two as well as mainboard spinning darkness to help with life loss...
Any thoughts?

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Originally Posted by Sea R Hill

Erdjinn:

Powder Keg just need to be tapped. In most cases, you will break it with one counter on it, but in some cases (more often than you think) you can get rid of 2-mana drops, which are heavily played in legacy, like Werebear, meddling mage, Jitte, chalice,... and don't forgot than it can ruin affinity as soon as it comes in play (even if affinity is very rare in 1.5).

Aggro zombie:

Contamination upkeep cost can be paid either with Nether Spirit or with Mishra+Crucible. The problem of Oppression is that it makes you win against already easy MU. With 4 Hymn + 4 Duress MD combo just can't do anything (not to mention the 8 Poxes). The advantage of contamination is that it is usefull against way more decks than oppression.
I personnaly don't run innocent blood. I can deal with mongeese and bears with Powder kegs, Poxes and Mishras.

I will test Top, but I'm not sure of its effectiveness. Its seems to be a waste of mana, tempo and slots. It is great with fechlands though.

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Chalice isn't a two-drop. Once it's off the stack, it has a CMC of zero, due to the fact that it has double X in its mana cost and X=0 anytime the card is not on the stack. ^___^

As for the Contamination issue, look at my list. I have no Duress maindeck. I also wouldn't use Contamination maindeck. As I said at some point earlier in this thread (or maybe on another site, who knows anymore), my sidebaord is a transformational one, or was at one point, at any rate. The problem with the card is that it doesn't significantly improve any matchups that aren't already good or can be dealt with sufficiently by Oppression. Against control, you have a favorable matchup sans either Oppression or Contamination because your deck is predicated on resource denial, which most control decks cant stomach. Against aggro, you have a ton of removal, so this card is not significant. And there are some aggro decks (mostly Vial Goblins) that don't actually need lands to play their men, making Contamination downright bad. Other decks it sucks against are black decks or decks with a significant black component (Suicide Black, Red Death, and Homebrew, to name a few on these boards), combo decks that don't need very many lands (Iggy), combo decks that don't need lands to go off because they rely on artifact mana sources (Salvagers Game)...and those are just the decks I can think of off the top of my head.

Another problem with Contamination is the timeframe you'll be playing it in. Against Solidarity (or other combo, for that matter), you can drop Oppression turn one via Ritual. This is important because at that point, the only answer the Solidarity player has is Force of Will. Contamination, on the other hand, requires either a Nether Spirit or the Ritual/Factory combo in play. This means that playing it turn one via Ritual is really, really dumb. Playing it turn two is also dumb unless you went Ritual, Spirt or Ritual, Crucible on turn one (and the latter requires you play a Factory on turn two) and you have another Ritual in hand. You could play Smallpox on turn two and discard a Spirit, I suppose, but you'll still need a Ritual in hand to play this on turn three if Solidarity didn't counter the Smallpox. By turn three, if you're on the draw, Solidarity is more than capable of going off in response to Contamination unless you spend your first several turns destroying thier hand, in which case you probably don't have the necessary "infrastructure," for lack of a better word, to support your Contamination anyway. If you wait until turn four...heaven help you then. I'll concede that if Contamination can hit play and stick, it's an absolute bomb against some decks. The problem is it has to hit play and stick. Sticking requires a significant investment ahead of time in the form of expending either lots of acceleration or otherwise compromising your gameplan. Oppression, by contrast, just needs to hit play. By the time the other deck can deal with the "sticking" part, you will have either set them far enough back in life or in resources that their ability to remove Oppression doesn't matter. Keep in mind that most of these decks will have to dig for bounce or a Cunning Wish to fetch bounce, both of which entail them incurring card disadvantage with Oppression.

And no, I don't think you should run Smokestack unless you take this deck in much more of a Stax direction, but that is another beast entirely. Keep in mind that this deck is built to abuse Dark Ritual. You will notice that almost every list in this thread consists entirely of cards that can be cast for three mana or less. If you have an opening hand of Swamp, Ritual, stuff, you can conceivably make every play in your deck turn one depending on what you get in "stuff."