@Seraphim: It looks like points 1 and 3 concerning hypnotic specter are contradictory. Specter keeps your opponents in topdeck mode after turn 4 when the might be able to refill them after your initial onslought of discard. I agree that it's better than negator in here (not sure when that was brought up, but OK...) due to its inherent strength against combo , controll, and aggro-control. I personally enjoy dropping hippy as the only creature on the board against control and making them spend some of thier already limited resources destroying that particular must-answer threat.

@ e. plague: In Pikula's tournament report, his decision to play the 2 plagues MB was something like "I only had room for 2 creature removal spells, so I decided that they ought to be really game changing creature removal spells". I'd link to the article, but I'm not sure if it was lost in the aether or whatever.

Your pre-board games against goblins sound a lot worse than mine. I generally go a little less than 50/50 (8 and 9 last test session with 2 jitte and 3 knight MB) pre-board, far better post board. As you say, it all has to do with tight play.

I like your analasys of plagues other applications. When talking to wastedlife, he's mantioned that he fears deadguy variants because they bring in plague to compliment thier disruption games 2 and 3. Having tested it a little bit recently, I think that such measures might be worthwhile, what with those belcher variants catching on.

That being said, I don't really like the 3 knight 2 jitte setup. It was dandy against goblins and all of that other stuff that plays 2 toughness creatures, but to be honest it just too much pressure on our already full 2cc slot. The way I see it, 3 knight can be cut for 3 plague, and the 2 jitte can be replaced by cursed scrolls, which I was desperately missing.

My list right now in that case:

The Staples (4 Bob, 4 Hymn, 4 Duress, 3 shade, 3 grunt, 4 dark ritual, 4 vindicate)
My Manabase (4 mire, 2 delta, 1 tomb of urami, 4 scrubland, 4 wasteland, swamps to 22 land)
3 Hippy
4 Sinkhole
2 cursed scroll
3 e. plague

And a SB, assuming 6-9 slots for thresh, 4 for goblins, 5 (thoughts for a 6th?) for solidarity, 2-6 for other combo:
3 Chalice (thresh, combo of all sorts)
2 Serenity (random decks)
3 Dystopia (survival, thresh, stampy, some enchantress stuff)
3 extirpate (combo, things that rely on 1 or 2 cards)
1 Plague (Duh)
3 Something else (ghostly prison perhaps?)

Man, I LIKE how much that frees up the SB.