I agree, and I've changed it for a basic swamp. The logic was that after AdN making B is easy, whereas making U (for Brainstorm) is more difficult, so being able to Veteran Explorer into U could be useful. In practice it rarely comes up, and seeing Island in your opening 7 is no fun at all.Originally Posted by ESG
I have 2 Chrome Mox at the moment, and I could see pushing that up to 3. I'm not sure I would want a full set, though. You never want to see more than one in your opening hand because AdN is your only source of card advantage.Originally Posted by Final Fortune
The GSZ kill condition is randomly good, and lets me keep hands that I might otherwise throw back. So far it has not been a problem with AdN, but it is worth keeping an eye on. I feel like the random Veteran Explorer is good when I draw it, but I never GSZ for it. Unlike Summoner's Pact, GSZ into Veteran Explorer is not +1 mana. As I said in the opening post, I feel like Veteran Explorer was forcing Vacrix into some difficult design space, and so far I've not felt like it was justified. A possible drop for that Chrome Mox.
Actually, I'd never seen that thread before; thank you for linking it. While I can just about manage to fake deck design for a card as linear as AdN, I don't delude myself that I could build a reasonable Doomsday Deck, even building on the work that Vacrix has done.Originally Posted by pettdan
I found this comment of his particularly interesting.
This looks like fun. I've tinkered with GSZ in SI and Belcher builds. I like Thrun as an alternate threat, just because he can't be swords'd. I was using Chancellor of the Tangle as well. Not sure how good it was, I was just messing around.
Hope is the first step on the road to disappointment.
What I'm trying to do is build a consistent turn 2 combo deck that uses CtW as one of its main rituals. GSZ seemed like a good way to do that. The more I play it, though, the less certain I am of GSZ.
On turn 1, GSZ > Arbor is a great acceleration play. However, that means that if you want to go off on turn 2 (and you probably can) then you are doing so completely unprotected. If you want Xantid, and have not drawn it naturally, then you have to wait until turn 2 to GSZ, unless you burn some other resources (Lotus Petal, the imprint for Chrome Mox, etc) to do so. That pretty much sucks.
If, however, we were instead running the standard 7 discard package (which, via Cabal Therapy, still has very good synergy with the creatures that we are running) then we could play out our discard on turn 1 and still go off protected on turn 2. However, because we cannot GSZ for Arbor on turn 1 (or, presumably, cast the Xantid Swarms we took out) our creature density is probably not high enough to sustain both CtW and Diabolic Intentions. That brings our threat density down.
Right now I'm taking the view that the option to go off faster by sacrificing protection is worth something, and you can always play more conservatively if appropriate. But it does mean that GSZ has to demonstrate that it is worth keeping as compared to the more well explored options.
The problem with the Cabal Therapy route is that you have too many cards that require you to sacrifice a creature and any green creature other than Xantid Swarm has no actual impact on the deck. Even searching for the Dryad Arbor is largely a goldfish play vs aggro decks, otherwise you're better off waiting on a 2 mana Xantid Swarm most of the time - which is why I think Chrome Mox is probably necessary at 3 or so, they also enable Empty the Warrens for what it's worth.
Has anyone tried cutting the dryad arbors and green sun zeniths for 0 mana artifact creatures + mox opal?
Maybe with a few tweaks thoughtcast could be added in versions not running ad nauseum.
I actually got a chance to do some testing yesterday, with mixed results. I was facing a bunch of Wasteland decks and I really found the three colour requirements - green & blue to set up, black to go off - quite difficult to pull off. I really, really want to drop the blue so that I'm just dealing with two colours. Mirri's Guile? Might as well test it.
I've not tried it in this build, but that is certainly at the core of a very solid version of Spanish Inquisition.
The downside is that even with 4x Lotus Petal, Chrome Mox and LED, you still want about 10+ 'tallmen', or 0 cc artifact creatures. That's actually quite a high number, and while you do want to see one or two for Culling or Therapy, they really suck in multiples. The idea behind using things like Veteran Explorer, Xantid Swarm and Timber Wall is to try and get functionality out of your creatures even when you don't need them as fuel. That said, in an Ad Nauseam version they are essentially invisible, as you just draw right through them, and having more initial mana sources after Ad Nauseam seems really strong.
I'm not sure cutting blue is possible without Senseis Divining Top, but if you do cut blue then I think you should play Gitaxian Probe, Chrome Mox and Cabal Ritual and maybe try Nights Whispers?
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