Quote Originally Posted by laststepdown View Post
This feels like a trick question. There's too many variables. Am I on the play or draw? On the play g1 t1 vs an unknown opponent (which is what I'm assuming you're asking) I'll cast Putrid Imp. On the draw, it depends what you drew as much as what you saw from the opponent. Say you draw (best case scenario) LED. You can go all in vs t1 Forest -> Elf card (i.e. cast the Careful Study+hold priority LED), or Mountain -> Goblin Guide, and should-you're running a race at this point and need to start sprinting. On the draw vs say, an uncracked Flooded Strand, you could be setting yourself up for disaster just trying to resolve your first Study and should adjust your plays appropriately. What if this opponent is Miracles? Imp could possibly do 6-10 points of damage unanswered, dual functioning as your discard outlet while they look for interaction. What if they're on Storm, and you didn't topdeck the LED (we're not all perfect)? Careful Study without LED t1 (dredge 4-6 t2) is never going to be as explosive as Imp t1 into Study t2 (dredge anywhere from 12-18). It's not like Careful Study has flashback. So, usually Putrid Imp.
Not a trick question. And I'm sorry yeah I meant you're on the play T1 against an unknown opponent. It makes sense that you would want to cast Putrid Imp T1 especially with the limitation I gave which was you only have 1 land and like you said you will usually dredge more if you wait to cast your draw spell on turn 2 assuming it resolves.


Now onto the reason I asked that in the first place. And i'm sure there are math wizzes out there that can determine the odds of the following happening, but in my experience leading with Putrid Imp has left me dredging less (the opposite of what you're saying) because my opponent's turn 1 was either a Wasteland or a Duress/Thoughtseize to take said Draw Spell. After that you're left slow dredging every turn which in today's meta is not good enough. The reason I cast the draw spell first is to either draw more Careful Study/Faithless Looting, an LED, a Cephalid Coliseum, or another land in the chance the existing one does get wasted. I feel like you get more options that way rather than just sulking after the realization that the only land/draw spell you had going for you just got wrenched. Also if you did only have that one land then I would still want to fire off the draw spell because if you go turn 1 Putrid Imp with the hopes of casting a careful study on your turn 2 you also now leave yourself open to soft permission like Daze as well as Spell Pierce.

With all that in mind I just decided to not really run it. I do have Street Wraith's in my build which provides that extra food for Ichorid as well as having Prized Amalgams added to the count. Just my little opinion on our friend PImp.