[Primer] Nic Fit

[Echelon]

On a sidenote...

SDEMATT, EMPTY YOUR INBOX DAMMIT

[Brael]

https://www.channelfireball.com/vide...ultai-nic-fit/

Andrea Mengucci playing Nic Fit again, a list we were discussing recently here.

Like usual for his videos though, I find it infuriating to watch because he's such a bad player.

Game 1 is a good example of why you need to develop your mana early.

And the whole thing is why I argue you need to be able to interact. This match is what happens when you only play 8 cards capable of interaction, and have a lack of pressure.

Edit: Got my outcomes. This week is looking bad for Legacy, but I'll try to get a couple games in. I still think Outcome is a card that's worth considering. The most obvious alternative is Jace, but Outcome provides cards quicker, and perhaps more importantly is much easier to cast as our tertiary color. The double blue on Jace is a big obstacle to making BUG work smoothly.

[Echelon]

Lol try watching people pilot Manaless Dredge when they have no clue what they're doing. It's excruciating.

[Brael]

Lol try watching people pilot Manaless Dredge when they have no clue what they're doing. It's excruciating.

I'm glad he makes Legay content, but I find his lines to be really bad, with basically everything. Basically, he always identifies a line (and the lines are often clever) but he pigeonholes himself into needing very specific draws for it to work.

The lines this time were especially bad. I'm not expecting much considering he's only played the deck a couple times... but the videos really show what I talk about a lot with this deck. You need a good curve, you need low mana plays, and you need to accelerate quickly.

In basically every single game he either explodes into nothing or loses to his mana.

As a sidenote, BUG faces these problems more than most other color combinations because it's greedier for blue, than red is for red or white is for white.

[lavafrogg]

I'm glad he makes Legay content, but I find his lines to be really bad, with basically everything. Basically, he always identifies a line (and the lines are often clever) but he pigeonholes himself into needing very specific draws for it to work.

The lines this time were especially bad. I'm not expecting much considering he's only played the deck a couple times... but the videos really show what I talk about a lot with this deck. You need a good curve, you need low mana plays, and you need to accelerate quickly.

In basically every single game he either explodes into nothing or loses to his mana.

As a sidenote, BUG faces these problems more than most other color combinations because it's greedier for blue, than red is for red or white is for white.

On turn 5 of the first game, couldn't he have just made a Progenitus to block the thought knot seer? Fetch for dryad arbor, play natural order? Then he could have decayed Jitte and played out his hand.... this works right? No priority gets passed between the fetch resolving and him casting NO?

[JackaBo]

My biggest problem is that he's fast to pass judgement "this deck is bad" when it's actually him. If he were more modest and acknowledged that "this deck plays out differently than what I'm used to" or "man that didnt go well, Maybe i should mulled that hand or played differently" i'd have more respect. Although, one is so starved for legacy content that even bad content is good.

[square_two]

On turn 5 of the first game, couldn't he have just made a Progenitus to block the thought knot seer? Fetch for dryad arbor, play natural order? Then he could have decayed Jitte and played out his hand.... this works right? No priority gets passed between the fetch resolving and him casting NO?

Correct (not from me watching the video, just from how priority works). It's the same thing as fetching for Dryad Arbor and immediately sacrificing it to flashback Therapy - push/swords/jitte isn't going to stop that line.

Nyx update - I've put in a few Chokes in the side and they are so far amazing. Overloads opp's enchantment hate in games 2/3, is generally nuts against all the greedy blue decks around. Finally came across a couple elves players online (my history seeing them before this week was like, 1 out of 60+ matches online) and we are well positioned it feels. Splendor is absolutely backbreaking for them unless they have a Nissa VF ready. Generally most opps scoop as soon as they realize that whatever non-mana, non-loyalty abilities they were banking on are shut off.

Right now I'm trying out foregoing the singleton Lost Legacy in my side to bring back in Sigarda, although I'm seeing the argument for something faster like Titania. Choke plan makes sense to also go with a topend GSZ threat. Combo decks generally play out with turns 1-3 disruption, turns 3-5 rector activation and so far haven't really used Lost Legacy except for one game against Ruby Storm. Teeg has been nice to bring in.

So far liking the Mirri's Guile just as additional early action. Currently tempted to maindeck 2 Thoughtseize and sideboard the 2 Deeds...or maybe swap only 1 just so that game 1 Rector for Deed is possible (yah never know). Probably incorrect to make that sort of swap though.

[Brael]

Made one difference to the BUG build I'm playing with. I threw a Mystic Remora into the deck as another mid-late game manasink (also plays nice with Outcome to just reset the culmulative upkeep).

My biggest problem is that he's fast to pass judgement "this deck is bad" when it's actually him. If he were more modest and acknowledged that "this deck plays out differently than what I'm used to" or "man that didnt go well, Maybe i should mulled that hand or played differently" i'd have more respect. Although, one is so starved for legacy content that even bad content is good.

Ya, that's an issue with his decks. Basically, the only thing he knows how to play is the cantrip shell, and even that he's not that great at. I don't want to slam him too much, but I just don't think highly of him as a constructed player because he has the habit of forcing himself into narrow lines. I think he's a much better limited player.

Regardless, it's some videos to watch and if nothing else I think it's a good example of why you should do a lot of things more experienced players with this deck recommend in construction, hand keeps, etc. These videos have a lot of bad plays and sketchy hands, but they still seem worth discussing.

[Brael]

On turn 5 of the first game, couldn't he have just made a Progenitus to block the thought knot seer? Fetch for dryad arbor, play natural order? Then he could have decayed Jitte and played out his hand.... this works right? No priority gets passed between the fetch resolving and him casting NO?

This is correct.

[Kobra_D]

So, I watched through the entirety of the Mengucci video and decided to take notes on the plays. Sure, we can say that he didn't play optimally, but if we don't learn from mistakes (ours or others) then we aren't really progressing the deck forward either.

All in all I took about 3 pages of notes, so I think the short cut off is encapsulated in his statement at the end "The deck didn't feel that good." With this I agree, I think it reflects the sentiments myself and others shared a page ago on Natural Order BUG.

Aside from that, he did take plenty or agreeable lines. Plays that were more or less correct plays that lead to a


//Lands
1 x Swamp
2 x Island
2 x Forest
1 x Bayou
1 x Dryad Arbor
4 x Misty Rainforest
2 x Tropical Island
1 x Underground Sea
1 x Wasteland
4 x Verdant Catacombs
1 x Phyrexian Tower

//Creatures
1 x Deathrite Shaman
2 x Leovold, Emissary of Trest
1 x Meren of Clan Nel Toth
1 x Keeper of Progenitus
1 x Tireless Tracker
1 x Titania, Protector of Argoth
3 x Veteran Explorer
1 x Scavenging Ooze
1 x Eternal Witness
3 x Baleful Strix

//Spells
2 x Pernicious Deed
4 x Gitaxian Probe
4 x Brainstorm
3 x Natural Order
2 x Abrupt Decay
4 x Green Sun's Zenith
4 x Cabal Therapy
2 x Jace, the Mind Sculptor
//Sideboard
1 x Abrupt Decay
2 x To the Slaughter
1 x Pithing Needle
1 x Reclamation Sage
4 x Force of Will
3 x Flusterstorm
1 x Toxic Deluge
2 x Surgical Extraction

____________________________
Round 1(0-0): Eldrazi Stompy (0-2 )
G1 OTD-
4:32 Keep Wasteland, swamp, misty rainforest, scooze, E. wit., tracker, and vet.
4:35 Opponent leads on ancient tomb jitte. This should scream chalice deck, probably eldrazi, but could always be soldier stompy or something a little more obscure. The option presents itself to either play t1 vet or waste the tomb. Since, opp. lead on jitte is it understandable to say that they don't have chalice in hand but wasting here is a greedy play. If they have no more lands, then yes, we "time walk" them. If they have a land, then they are up a jitte and we time walk ourselves, and worst case scenario, they are able to play chalice on 1 next turn. They play chalice on 1 and Mengucci is more or less locked out. For a similar reason, I often find people leading on vet. over therapy in the blind because we can cast a therapy into chalice, but not a vet into chalice.
6:40 E. wit for wasteland. We have already wasted from behind once and it didn't pay off. I would've (and he comments on this) fetched for a land, and then E. wit for the fetch to continue to develop the mana. Dual lands>wasteland here.
8:26 Tracker then land for clue with active jitte. Land, decay jitte, play tracker. This isn't a good spot to be in but provides an out. Where the line taken leads to an immediate concession.
SB- I love To the Slaughter in Eldrazi match ups. It isn't the best removal but it is removal and enough to help us stabilize.
G2 OTP-
9:59 2x Cabal therapy, NO, Decay, Forest, GSZ, Probe.
This was a greedy keep. It's already a mull to 6 with the NO but without a scry. He keeps, probes, sees a TKS and then lets GSZ be taken by it. I probably would have gsz'd for a dryad arbor to hit a second land.
He loses with just a forest in play.
____________________________
Round 2(0-1): Elves (2-1)
G1 OTP-
12:42 Ver. Cat, Misty, Forest, Brainstorm, E. Wit., NO, Jace
14:10 Not blocking the Sentinel with vet on their turn was right imo, but not attacking with vet to offer the trade on our turn is almost definitely wrong. Yes, it still ramps the elves, but gives us the first access to the lands which allows for a T3 Jace or Progenitus. Might be the best position to hope for.
15:11 E. wit for brainstorm. Brainstorm does nothing at the moment, I again would have attacked with vet. If they took it then I would have played jace, DRS, otherwise waste one of their lands and play DRS.

G2 OTP-
19:10 mulligan [Trop, Island, vet, 2 GSZ, Titania] scry probe to top. The keep at 6 is fine, but we need early interaction. Probe doesn't let us do that immediately with our mana available. I would have scried (sp?) probe to the bottom but that is being nit picky (as opposed to nic fity XD).
26:21 I would have fetched dryad arbor to block here. Our mana is already more or less developed and it would just keep the opp. off of any realistic board state.

G3 OTD-
Keep Force, Fluster, misty, island, probe, decay, vet.
32:16 Knowing our opponent can dump their hand otherwise, he doesn't force heritage druid here. Sure, force is used for craterhoof in a turn, but the mana wouldn't have been available for craterhoof is heritage was forced. I admit my line is easily debatable.
37:13 Flusterstorm and island in hand, he doesn't fluster a thoughtseize. The net result is the same, and maybe they don't pay for it and don't lose 2 life. But letting them know that we have nothing is not worth it in my mind. I would rather force them to pay 2 for the otherwise free information.
____________________________
Round 3 (1-1): Jund (2-0)
G1 OTP-
Keep 2 Misty, vet, decay, Jace, NO, tracker.
46:46 He doesn't NO because of wasteland? He shouldn't NO because of Lili. But that is more of a clarification rather than a debate on the play.
48:57 Crack a clue then Jace, I would recommend Jace first and then the clue (minor contention here).
G2 OTD-
mull to 6 [2 misty, island, dryad, trop, gsz] scry NO top.
There is again no interaction here, I would have bottomed NO.
51:50 There is a mainphase abrupt decay, which seems unnecessary but still leads to a win.
____________________________
Round 4 (2-1): NU Miracles (0-2)
G1 OTD-
Keep Vet, GSZ, NO, Probe, Jace, Bayou, Misty
1:01:12 Naming swords with therapy. They would either tuck swords or cast in response. Brainstorm, ponder, jace, predict, are all better names.
1:03:06 Playing Jace off of a wasteland.
1:04:03 Jace 0 leaves : GSZ, NO, 3 BS, Decay, Tower, Leo, and Swamp with 2 to put back. I would have put back NO and tower. He put back decay and swamp. He follows this up with playing tower to get rid of strix for black mana to play leo. He could have played the swamp to play leo. He mentioned something about playing around terminus, but sacrificing strix doesn't help play around terminus. They would still pop a terminus if just leo were around.
1:06:30-1:09:00 He continues to brainstorm, and jace, and dig for deed after an entreat the angels. This play loses to force of will. Instead, had he decayed an angel, bounced an angel, and then played strix. If there is a force of will (or swords) in hand we buy 2 turns, if there is not we get 3 more turns. If we dig for deed and find one, we win are in a good spot if there is no force of will, we lose to force of will. We lost to force of will.
G2 OTP-
Mulligan to 6 [misty, force, gsz, leo, strix, fluster] scry tracker to the top.
1: 13:45 I would gsz @0 for dryad to have access to next turn Leo. He drew a swamp which let him run out Leo anyways, but having a Leo, and hoping for a Leo are a bit of a different position to be in.
____________________________
Round 5 (2-2): Jund Elves (0-2)
G1 OTP-
Keep Mull to 5 [Bs, 2 Ver. Cat., GSZ, Island] Scry probe top.
1:19:39 Jace bounce DRS? Um, ok?
G2 OTD-
Keep Force, fluster, 2 GSZ, Dryad, Forest, Ver. Cat.
1:34:26 Double blocking the Scooze with DRS and Leo instead of running out deed the last turn. This was a blow out of golgari charm.
1:36:44 Playing a fetch land instead of holding+hoping for brainstorm. It is not necessarily wrong, but he took the line of holding lands previously in the video. I guess I would just want a little more consistency. That's not to say it is always right/wrong, but he had mana and didn't need the land drop that turn.
1:37:27 Waiting to crack deed let opp. NO. He had a force, but that is so many resources used when cracking deed mainphase vould have prevented a lot.
1:41:15 Playing the fetch land with Ranger up to hit bayou doesn't do much, but stops us from shuffling the lands off the top of the deck. It's arguably an unwinnable spot, but this didn't help.
____________________________

Final record, 2-3. Again, a lot of the plays were not bad plays, but I definitely see why people say legacy is about playing the deck you know the best. These were some of the lines I saw that I would have diverged from. If anyone else has an opinion on the matter I would appreciate feedback as well. Although, I think this furthers my lack of wanting to play a NO version, a lot of lines were generally about sideboarding/brainstorm/jace/gsz which is good across a variety of builds.

[Brael]

I didn't take notes like you did, I just noticed several lines I didn't like. I think a lot of it was that I'm just not a fan of NO in this deck, nor do I think a cantrip shell is where you want to be.

The thing I noticed was how Mengucci would often times after boarding take out the Nic Fit elements and just try to play a BUG midrange deck that's low on threat density. I disagreed a lot with his sideboard choices, because I think you want the mana acceleration no matter what. When you take out Veteran Explorers you should be bringing in some other type of acceleration.

Final record, 2-3. Again, a lot of the plays were not bad plays, but I definitely see why people say legacy is about playing the deck you know the best. These were some of the lines I saw that I would have diverged from. If anyone else has an opinion on the matter I would appreciate feedback as well. Although, I think this furthers my lack of wanting to play a NO version, a lot of lines were generally about sideboarding/brainstorm/jace/gsz which is good across a variety of builds.

That's just how he plays any deck. Cantrip shell threat light decks are his preferred decks (he made/popularized czech pile) but he doesn't really play those any different than he plays this.

[Kobra_D]

I didn't take notes like you did, I just noticed several lines I didn't like. I think a lot of it was that I'm just not a fan of NO in this deck, nor do I think a cantrip shell is where you want to be.

The thing I noticed was how Mengucci would often times after boarding take out the Nic Fit elements and just try to play a BUG midrange deck that's low on threat density. I disagreed a lot with his sideboard choices, because I think you want the mana acceleration no matter what. When you take out Veteran Explorers you should be bringing in some other type of acceleration.



That's just how he plays any deck. Cantrip shell threat light decks are his preferred decks (he made/popularized czech pile) but he doesn't really play those any different than he plays this.

I am much more comfortable now with my statement of natural order doesn't help in in any match up where we need help. It was either a dead card or a slow card, I similarly feel that birthing pod fits into this category (for the time being).

I've often enough seen the rock style shell built into the deck, but Nic Fit is a greedy deck. I've lent it out several times to people and the first thing I try to warn them about is, as you said Brael, develop your mana base. Veteran Explorer in the 75 doesn't guarantee that we will have 12 mana on turn 2 to work with. It does take a conscientious effort to gain access to the colors and total mana count needed to make the big plays that can win us the game.

[Paranoid__Android]

There's a big legacy torunament coming up at the end of the month and I'm going with Rhino plan. Since there is unknown metagame there I'm thiking of making maindeck good against aggro & control, and good against combo decks, sideboard.
Is there any decklist here from which I can start planning and testing my Rhino Fit for that tournament?

TnQ in advance! :)

[square_two]

There's a big legacy torunament coming up at the end of the month and I'm going with Rhino plan. Since there is unknown metagame there I'm thiking of making maindeck good against aggro & control, and good against combo decks, sideboard.
Is there any decklist here from which I can start planning and testing my Rhino Fit for that tournament?

TnQ in advance! :)

See Navsi's post where this comes from (click on the arrow next to his bolded name right below), he fleshes out a basic list. Should be plenty of others around here that you can tweak from.

With Abzan you have three real options right now depending on what threats you use to finish the game:

- Siege Rhinos. Great against aggro, mediocre against control, pretty awful against combo.

- Planeswalkers. Mediocre against aggro, great against control, varies against combo (Kaya and 3-mana Gideon are great, most of the rest really aren't)

- Stoneforge. Solid against aggro, solid against control, mediocre against combo (SOFAF helps), but get horribly wrecked by Kolaghan's Command.

The rest of the deck is something like this:

With 3-4 Rhinos I will always recommend a couple of Painful Truths to help keep up in card advantage. Building nic fit to beat aggro/control and side for combo is well...basically every nic fit variant. We prey on fair strategies and need help against combo and dedicated blue control. (equipment/taxes control is generally fine)

Personally I'm a fan of Tireless Trackers, ~2 Collective Brutality main, and Nissa, Vital Force in most standard nic fit lists.

[sdematt]

Inbox emptied!

[Arianrhod]

4 Veteran Explorer
2 Sakura-Tribe Elder
1 Eternal Witness
1 Nissa, Vastwood Seer
2 Tireless Tracker
1 Chameleon Colossus
1 Regisaur Alpha
1 Thragtusk
1 Primeval Titan
1 Carnage Tyrant

3 Cabal Therapy
4 Green Sun's Zenith
4 Burning Wish
2 Scapeshift

2 Abrupt Decay

2 Nissa, Vital Force

2 Sylvan Library
3 Pernicious Deed

4 Badlands
4 Taiga
2 Bayou
3 Forest
2 Swamp
2 Mountain
2 Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle
3 Verdant Catacombs
2 Wooded Foothills

sb::
1 Scapeshift
1 Cabal Therapy
1 Toxic Deluge
2 Pyroclasm
1 Maelstrom Pulse
1 Painful Truths
1 Lost Legacy
2 Slaughter Games
2 Thoughtseize
3 Surgical Extraction

Those in the Discord know that I've been tinkering with this for a little while in advance of Ixalan, and I've been doing some testing with it since the cards dropped.

I am pleased to report that it's been testing very well. I've played sets vs DnT, Aggro Loam w/Merit, Deathblade, and BUG True-Names so far, and easily crushed all of them. That's obviously far from a complete meta picture -- I hope to get some games vs Delver and Czech on Friday, plus I have an event on Sunday at Mythic where I'll be playing it, and then another on Monday at locals....and then Mythic 2k next Saturday, and then Eternal Weekend on the 21st. So....lots of games with it coming up.

Chameleon has been somewhat underwhelming, but I have yet to play vs a Strix deck, which is what I'm primarily packing him for.

Regis and Captain Carnage, on the other hand, have both performed to spec or better. Don't expect the Kelly token to ever stick around -- she usually eats a stray Push or Decay or something, but Regis is much harder to get rid of -- and since he tends to stick around, he powers up the Implacable Death Lizard down the road.

Nissa, Vital Force is absolutely, crushingly bonkers in this deck. All of her modes are relevant, but ulting her is definitely a priority. Once you ult her, even if you find yourself unable to Valakut people for whatever reason, Scapeshift itself becomes a 4-mana draw-7....which draws AFTER pulling the lands from your deck, so it always draws gas. It feels impossible to lose vs a fair deck after a Nissa emblem in this particular build.

The other Nissa, VWS, has also overperformed here -- although that's not particularly surprising given the nature of the deck.

But yeah. I'm sure the list isn't 100% perfect, and I haven't played vs the entire field yet...but it's been very promising so far, and I figured it was a good time to share in advance of Eternal Weekend so everyone who used to play it before can gets some reps in with the new version before then.

We comin home, boys and girls.

[Kobra_D]

Took a slightly updated list Temur list to locals (yes, the conclusion I'm going to come to is that RUG Fit is bad) and it went well. Well, as good as 1-3 can be.

The deck actually felt strong, maintained presence, and even found lines to pull ahead. Unfortunately, the deck auto-loses to prelate on 2 (played D&T twice) and also does little against Inkwell Leviathan. I still think there is something to the RUG build, but at this point I am willing to concede the fact that it is a sub-optimal build without therapy (and deed).

That said I learned some things while playing. Perilous Research is a house. The card is typically good and sometimes the nuts high. Anyone on a BUG shell, I would recommend re-evaluating this. In a Jund/Junk build, I probably will try costly plunder in place of painful truths. The instant speed sac outlet that gets around chalice@1 and draws cards felt really powerful. It also shores up some of the issues with the deck where in the mid game we can end up in an awkward top deck mode. Strix helps, tracker helps, Nissa VF helps, and I think this card also proves worthwhile.

Other than that, I think I am going to try Jund next (I wish I had scapeshift to run the above list). If anyone has ideas feel free to let me know. After that I might try the tokens build from a page or so ago, but I also remember this was a thing once: http://mtgtop8.com/event?e=14582&d=287461&f=LE

And why play legacy if we don't play 4C dragon lords.

Cheers everyone.

[Echelon]

There's a big legacy torunament coming up at the end of the month and I'm going with Rhino plan. Since there is unknown metagame there I'm thiking of making maindeck good against aggro & control, and good against combo decks, sideboard.
Is there any decklist here from which I can start planning and testing my Rhino Fit for that tournament?

TnQ in advance! :)

It kinda depends what playstyle you prefer. Do you like to go the planeswalker route, or do you prefer to stick to creatures? If you prefer the latter, I'm happy to share my current list.

As for the Junk SB - mine currently looks like this:
3 Lost Legacy
3 Duress
2 Ethersworn Canonist
2 Surgical Extraction
2 Pithing Needle
2 Golgari Charm
1 Gaddock Teeg

Game 2 vs. combo has been very, very good. G3 is still a bit iffy though.

Took a slightly updated list Temur list to locals (yes, the conclusion I'm going to come to is that RUG Fit is bad) and it went well. Well, as good as 1-3 can be.

The deck actually felt strong, maintained presence, and even found lines to pull ahead. Unfortunately, the deck auto-loses to prelate on 2 (played D&T twice) and also does little against Inkwell Leviathan. I still think there is something to the RUG build, but at this point I am willing to concede the fact that it is a sub-optimal build without therapy (and deed).

That said I learned some things while playing. Perilous Research is a house. The card is typically good and sometimes the nuts high. Anyone on a BUG shell, I would recommend re-evaluating this. In a Jund/Junk build, I probably will try costly plunder in place of painful truths. The instant speed sac outlet that gets around chalice@1 and draws cards felt really powerful. It also shores up some of the issues with the deck where in the mid game we can end up in an awkward top deck mode. Strix helps, tracker helps, Nissa VF helps, and I think this card also proves worthwhile.

Other than that, I think I am going to try Jund next (I wish I had scapeshift to run the above list). If anyone has ideas feel free to let me know. After that I might try the tokens build from a page or so ago, but I also remember this was a thing once: http://mtgtop8.com/event?e=14582&d=287461&f=LE

And why play legacy if we don't play 4C dragon lords.

Cheers everyone.

You know what also helps in topdeck mode..? Mirri's Guile/Sylvan Library (and a bunch of fetchlands and GSZ's). It's what makes Rhino, Rhino, Rhino happen .

As for 2 CMC sac outlets - Diabolic Intent is the shit. I'd rather draw the one card I need than 2 cards that might be OK (or utterly useless). The instant speed part of Plunder has very little to do w/ getting around Chalice @1.

[Kobra_D]

It kinda depends what playstyle you prefer. Do you like to go the planeswalker route, or do you prefer to stick to creatures? If you prefer the latter, I'm happy to share my current list.

As for the Junk SB - mine currently looks like this:
3 Lost Legacy
3 Duress
2 Ethersworn Canonist
2 Surgical Extraction
2 Pithing Needle
2 Golgari Charm
1 Gaddock Teeg

Game 2 vs. combo has been very, very good. G3 is still a bit iffy though.



You know what also helps in topdeck mode..? Mirri's Guile/Sylvan Library (and a bunch of fetchlands and GSZ's). It's what makes Rhino, Rhino, Rhino happen .

As for 2 CMC sac outlets - Diabolic Intent is the shit. I'd rather draw the one card I need than 2 cards that might be OK (or utterly useless). The instant speed part of Plunder has very little to do w/ getting around Chalice @1.

That sideboard is stocked full of hate :D. I have moved Gaddock Teeg to the main in Rhino Fit but that is a minor detail which is meta and build dependent.

I do love library (I'm definitely in the library>guile camp) but sometimes it just isn't there. I keep meaning to pick up diabolic intent and always forget. Being reminded of that card I would assume that it is better than costly plunder but still not sure if it is better than research.

Tutoring is good, I'm not arguing against it. But I've liked research because it is instant speed which can be relevant, it is cmc 2 to help get around chalice decks, it is good early to sac a vet. or whatever, and it is good late by sac-ing an extra fetch land, or a basic, or a wolf token, or anything irrelevant on board. I've sac-ed multiple lands when my opp. goes to wasteland me. Which, isn't ideal, but does mitigate the damage. There are options here. More than was immediately obvious.

The chalice comment was because we've always had access to an instant speed sac outlet with crop rotation and tower, this just provides a different out.

[Warden]

@Arianrhod: I'm convinced we don't need library for Scape-Fit, given the card draw options available. Costly plunder + Tracker synergize very well and that's only 1 config.