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Originally Posted by
Lemon
[*]For a win conditions is Living Wish + Thassa's Oracle or Grapeshot better? The Oracle path ignores all hate I can think of, but takes up more sideboard slots and requires 3 colors floating instead of the 1 color for grapeshot.
Grapeshot. 1 slot instead of 2. With both a transformational plan and a Wishboard, SB space is precious.
What hate does Burning Wish not answer? Eldrazi/Progenitus? Grapeshot them. Leyline of Sanctity? Wish for Reverent Silence then Brain Freeze/2nd wish for Grapeshot. Stifle? Escape Grapeshot again.
The only commonly-played problem I can think of is Glacial Chasm, but those decks probably lose to Brain Freeze (and are more likely to Crop Rotate into Bojuka Bog than Chasm, so the bigger thing to answer is Crop Rotation).
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[*]For tutors should I use Intuition or Gamble? Intuition can get any number of combo pieces, but costs much more and can be Veil of Summered.
Depends which you fear worse: losing to variance or getting outraced. Until we have some real test data, it's hard to say which affects our win % more. Turn 1 Gamble keeps Underworld Breach 83% of the time OTP, 86% OTD, but the odds get worse if you have other "must keeps" in hand (e.g. only 1 other mana source, protection). Intution is difficult to resolve through Daze and Thalia and Wasteland, something to consider.
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[*]For removal is Swords to Plowshares or Lightning Bolt better? Swords is better creature removal, but lightning bolt can be escaped in combo to make up for extra damage if things go south.
StP. I suggested Bolt before, but realistically you can hedge: 2-3 StP + 1 Bolt. You only need 1 Bolt in the deck to escape combo it.
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[*]Should I run Spell Pierce or Daze? Spell Pierce can be escaped with the remaining U from LED to counter early hate, but Daze is free from hand.
Pierce. Or Flusterstorm as AngryBacon suggested.
Daze doesn't protect you as easily when you crack LED and is easier to play around. Also undoing land drops slows us down. Good Daze decks are proactive, i.e. they Daze after playing the threat when the land is less relevant (Delver, DS, UB Reanimator). Dazing before resolving a win condition is a Time Walk for the opponent, it slows down our combo turn.
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[*]Is Echo of Eon's needed in wishboard or can I replace that with something better?
If you're tight on room and don't see yourself using it, replace.
I have it for the same reason I always played Diminishing Returns in Belcher and old TES wishboards. It was a controversial slot because it got used so rarely, but sometimes it's nice to have a reset button after everything goes wrong.
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[*]Is Green worth it for Reverent Silence? or should I cut it to ease up on the manabase?
What's your plan to answer those cards? As long as you have some other plan (e.g. ETutor/Gamble into Serenity), seems fine to cut.
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Etutor fetches 2/3 combo pieces, (which is probably ok since we're running 7 virtual copies of the 3rd). The main con of Etutor is that it's really only better than the others EOT where we'll draw it right away. However with Defense Grids MD, it's likely to not be castable EOT. This teligraphs your plan to your opponent, which may or may not matter very much.
Yeah the dissynergy with Grid is a problem. There is another way to draw the card right away, a line I use often. Upkeep ETutor. It does cost you 1 mana on the combo turn, but it puts the card immediately and has surprise factor (e.g. they can't Thoughtseize it out of you). This line is especially good if you have Grid out, as you won't need to cast Silence so you just need 2 more mana to go off. If you're on Silence instead of Grid, then you can EOT Tutor!