[Primer] Nic Fit

[Echelon]

Thanks. I enjoy seeing the thoughts laid out here.

Question - what's the average number of fetches that you run? Do you also run Arbor as a fetch? Maybe we play with a significant difference in shuffle effects. Lot of the time, I spend my fetches to necessarily play things that turn and don't have the time to spend checking with Library/Guile. I see shuffle effects as a potential bonus when they line up that way. Mid-to-late game I will definitely hold fetches up for that effect though. Top was such a huge loss to us, it allowed us to just go crazy with consistency at just about any point in the game - any point in the TURN for that matter.

Is there a significant difference between Library and Guile in reference to card selection? Getting a shuffle at end of opp's turn is the same for both enchantments - you see 3 different cards. Guile lets you have a shuffle effect between the check/order top 3 and drawing which allows you to draw a random card as opposed to a known bad 3. Library means you are stuck with a single enhanced draw (though I guess you could shuffle in response to its trigger too? I don't think I've ever seen anyone do that in order to see 2 different cards).

IMO, Guile has zero card advantage. You play the card, and you get no cards back. It is -only- selection. This is the key difference which I think makes Library quite a bit better. When you exhaust your shuffle effects and are at a board stall/need pressure, then Library CAN dig you deeper all on its own.

I do think Leovold is an issue with Library though - a bug heavy meta would influence my decision on running it.

Agreed about toning down cmc - I love the lower to the ground bug fit lists. I like those backed up by a ton of card advantage in order to keep up pressure though. Guile being one cheaper isn't a key factor in considering the list as lower cmc though - to me, that is doing stuff like cutting 6-drops, limiting the number of 5's, etc. Having a buttload of 1-drops does make you weaker to chalice and I've noticed a drop in matches against those decks when I do try to run more and more 1 drops.

My own background is either with bug lists or combo-centric lists. I feel that Library/Guile effects simply aren't needed when you are running 4 Strix, 3-4 Tracker, 3 Jace, x Brainstorm, etc. Sneak fit wants the ability of Library to draw multiple things and suddenly combo out. Nyx fit likewise wants that ability (think I'm trying my next league with libraries back in).

I always run 10 fetches. 4 Catacombs, 4 Heath and 2 Flats. And Dryad Arbor's a staple in my list as well. I rely very heavily on my fetches the first few turns. I fetch basics as much as possible. I don't run them specifically to interact w/ Guile though, I run them b/c it allows me to run only 21 lands (counting Arbor as a creature here, not a land) and still have 14 initial mana sources of every colour. Now here's the thing - if I know I'm running this many shuffle effects (10 fetch, 4 GSZ and 4 Explorers), why not create some synergy and get some extra value out of them? Whether you run Guile or Library, it allows you to be on par w/ blue in the card selection department without interfering w/ your gameplan. You get value from them simply by doing what you always do - fetch and GSZ like a madman.

On the quality of the card selection of Guile or Library - it doesn't matter all that much. If for some reason you can shuffle between Guile and Library triggers, it's probably b/c you set it up and chose not to shuffle at an earlier moment.

As for 1-drops vs. Chalice decks - that's more of a question of whether they have it or not (they'll only have it in hand about 40% of the time, and they'll also need a Sol-land to go with it), of whether or not you'll revert back to running a number of Abrupt Decay or of whether or not you'll try to get creative and either ignore it and execute your plan via GSZ or GSZ for Qasali Pridemage or something similar to deal with it.

Optimally, you want to be spending 3 mana on turn 2 and then 4-5 mana on turn 5. However I don't know if this is necessarily a situation to be concerned about.

If you have 3 mana on turn two, one of three things happened:

- you Zenithed for Dryad Arbor. In this situation you probably have another Zenith in hand (so you can find Teeg now) or you need 3 mana for another specific piece of hate you're casting. Otherwise you would have waited with Zenith to make a Teeg on turn three. If you have Zenith and follow it up spending mana on library/guile, you are probably better off not casting the Zenith and holding it for X=2. In this situation, having Guile over Library does not help you.

- you cast Deathrite Shaman on turn one. In this situation, you still don't want to be spending mana on Guile or Library turn two. If you have disruption in hand you're casting it, or you're holding mana up to use Deathrite if you don't have anything else. Guile does have an advantage here (you can cast it while keeping a mana open to use Deathrite as graveyard hate) but I don't think that situation is going to be one that comes up frequently - or rather, casting Guile rather than holding up Library doesn't make that much difference to your game plan. You'd rather be casting disruption than either of them, still.

- you cast Explorer and Therapy, so now you have 3 mana available. In this situation you are probably happy to play either card, since you just cast two Cabal Therapies and your opponent is unlikely to go off and kill you immediately if you just flashbacked therapy, so you have a turn to dig for more disruption either way, and Library is better at actually getting you enough disruption to keep the opponent locked for long enough to actually kill them before they go off. You might be happier going explorer - therapy - guile + threat than you are going explorer - therapy - library/threat - pass turn - library/threat, but I'm not sure what I would prefer between a one turn faster clock and 2+ more cards in hand to disrupt / pressure with.

Actually, in your second case having Guile out over having Library in hand makes a lot of difference. The chance of you getting your next hate card just got 3 times bigger, seeing as next turn you'll see 3 new cards instead of 1. Even if you don't have a single shuffle effect, you now have access to cards 2 turns earlier than you would have otherwise. Continuing that line into Lost Legacy b/c you dug it up early w/ Guile is considerably better than drawing into something that doesn't interact w/ your opponent for 1/2 turns and then drawing into Lost Legacy. You might have gotten Library out the turn after you dropped Guile, but that still means you would've waited for that Legacy an extra turn.

As for your last case - Paying 8 life to draw 2 w/ Library vs. ANT/TES seems like a rather dangerous proposition. You're now dead at stormcount 5. 4 if you've played 2 fetches.