Quote Originally Posted by Noman Peopled View Post
You seem to be going in two directions here. You say you play 3sphere as a full set 'cause you want it t1-t2; but then you say that it's really bad when you have an inferior board position - which is the same for multiples of 3sphere which you can cast just a turn earlier. I'd strive to put Smokestack into action as early as possible - but after Chalice/3sphere obviously.
Smokestack is, after all, one of the things that make Trinisphere so good. 3sphere buys a few turns over the course of the game, but followed with Smokes it's basically a Time Vault combo. T13sphere, t2 Smokes is one of the strongest plays of the deck, whether or not it was followed by Crucible (as long as you didn't have CoT so you can actually cast your topdecks).
If you get it out when your opponent has seven permanents, it still gives him the wiggle room to draw into something and be able to cast it. In other words, the later in the game, the slower Smokes is relative to the tempo development - which seems antithetical to the Angels plan.
Apart from that, Smokes is another Geddon effect, that, while slow, has the benefit of killing nonlands. Granted, it's not like you choose if your opponent sacks land, but that's just an argument for casting it early - just a Smokes and nothing else on the board will force your opponent to play a suboptimal Deed or EE; but only if they have few lands.
Before reading your comments i didn't like stack so much...i wondered the purpose of the card.
Trini + stack sounds good. The problem to me is that if you cast too fast stack probably you'll kill your own permanents plus your opponent's. I don't get if it's really good or it's really dependent on your opening hand and topdecks. I think that to make your "time walk" combo you must run a set of both trini and smoke...right??