Quote Originally Posted by Julian23 View Post
Notion Thief doesn't die to Abrupt Decay. It's the uncontested king of all mirror matches and a great card to drop off Show and Tell. I agree that 4 mana is a bit rough at times but it's got Flash for a reason. You never want to, but having access to a single one is incredibly good.
I would have to contend that it does not in fact win mirror matches. I have had multiple mirrors where an opponent has dropped Thief in response to a Jace brainstorm, or a resolving Vision. I have won all of these matches. The simple fact that cards in hand do not directly equate to board state is the key concept here. In both situations, I had a superior board state, and the opponent was quickly forced to block with their thief in order to remain alive. If you are in a behind position, Thief does little to bring you forward. It's itty-bitty butt does nothing for blocking, and it's a bad attacker (no evasion). Drawing all of the cards is amazing, but if you can't bring them onto the table before you die, it's irreverent.

That said, the situations where I would want to draw all these cards, are ones where I already had a good board state, or was at least in parity with the other side. In these situations, you want to be expanding your board state consistently. Holding up 4 mana for durdly 3/1 when you could be playing Agent, or attacking with Tar Pit is just bad...