[Deck] Nic Fit (GBx Explorer Zenith Control)

[Ralf]

Thoughts on the current iteration of the deck:

I never used From the Ashes outside of vs my 43 lands opponent. That matchup, however, proved to me that Ashes is a viable option for Scapewish. Most of the time you're playing towards basics anyway, so Ashes doesn't actually kill that many of your lands. Usually like a Bayou and 1-2 mountain duals. Then, you get 1 basic Mountain with Ashes usually, which means you have ~8-9 mountains left in deck. Unless you get really unlucky, that should be enough. Just make sure you're fetching basics where possible.

I'm unconvinced Ashes is the correct card for that sideboard slot, though, at the same time. I mean, obviously it did a ton of work in the lands matchup, but that isn't really something that I'm worried about sideboarding for. It suffers from the Haunting Echoes problem, namely, that if you would ever wish for it you usually would rather just wish for Scapeshift and kill them dead.

The more I think about it, the more I want to cut Primeval Titan. It's not like in Punishing where he gets your engines rolling / turbo'd. Not sure what I want to put in this slot yet.

I haven't missed Phyrexian Tower even once, and my previous sporadic manabase problems have all but completely evaporated since going up to 4 fetches. Top feels stronger than ever, as well. I still obsess about not having that 12th mountain, but I can live with it. Even if it's scary at times, I think that 11 mountains is correct and a good trade-off for the increased consistency.

Maindeck Laughter Games have continued to be acceptable. It feels good to not be dead to combo game one, and the sideboard space that it opened up is greatly appreciated. Furthermore, it makes it much more likely that you're going to win game 1 against Miracles, which is usually important since a 1-0-1 result is still a win for the round. Just remember to sideboard them out vs fair matchups =.=

I'll update the link in my sig with the most recent Scapewish list.

If anyone has any thoughts on what that open slot (Primeval) should be, now's the time to express them. I'm expecting a meta composed primarily of the following 8 decks at the GP:

Miracles
Sneak
Storm
Jund
Death and Taxes
UWx Blade
UWR Delver
RUG Delver

I consider Scapewish favored against everything on that list except Storm. I also don't think that Storm is fixable with 1 slot, so I'm willing to accept that as a throw-away where I just need to get lucky. Obviously there's a high chance of other decks besides those 8, because GP and people will play whatever they can get their hands on / whatever they want. But, yeah.

EDIT: Oh yeah, and Carpet of Flowers is DA BOMB. Seriously.
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@Tao, I had some weird logic in my head where the Wood Elves was better to leave in than the Veteran because of Stifle or Submerge or something, but the more I thought it through while trying to argue the point, the more I realized I was just wrong. You're right -- one of the Wood Elves should be the 5th board-out.

I replaced a Huntmaster with an Ooze for the BOM main event.
It did win me a couple of games on its own.

I know that by the past you dismissed him but it is really a MVP against certain bad MU not to say "Storm", "Dregde" and "Reanimator".

You might want to use him in place of Primeval !

[pfiremc13]

pfire, go for it and try it a few games. I am confident that you will eventually completely dismiss the card. 3WW do nothing is simply not playable. It can't be green sun'd and it is a sorcery (that does not scale like green sun, ie 2 through 6 mana) that will possibly eat a dead daze or spell pierce. Baneslayer beats most other creatures like humility does, gives you as much life as batterskull would and nether void is irrelevant. 3WW pass the turn against combo (I assume?) and not die again, don't get hit by a duress/cabal/thoughtseize or silence/chant, resolve nether void, go... seems unlikely.

I'll try it out. I wasn't expecting it to be good, but it was just an idea. However, I am not replacing my current (working) sideboard with idyllic tutors - humility is for sneak and show, and batterskull is better than BSA because it has vigilance and works with humility.

[Arianrhod]

I replaced a Huntmaster with an Ooze for the BOM main event.
It did win me a couple of games on its own.

I know that by the past you dismissed him but it is really a MVP against certain bad MU not to say "Storm", "Dregde" and "Reanimator".

You might want to use him in place of Primeval !

My biggest single issue with Ooze is that he's a 2-drop. Seriously.

I know Reanimator has hands where it just has discard and cantrips. I know that Dredge sometimes plays a long con. I know that Storm sometimes needs to use Past in Flames to win.

But in Kevin-land, Reanimator always has t1 Entomb t2 [reanimation spell]. Dredge always goes City of Brass -> LED -> Faithless Looting. Storm always just goes Ad Nauseum -> kill you.

A 2-drop isn't going to help in these matchups -- especially not when it's more like a 4-drop: you frequently need to Zenith it up, and then have a G immediately available for it to do anything.

I understand in paper how Ooze looks phenomenal -- but in my experience, it's never done actual anything. And yeah, other people have other experiences, but it's not like I haven't tried Ooze in the past. Hell, I've had Ooze in my opening hand against Reanimator, as he proceeds to make a Griselbrand on t1 via Lotus Petal. Maybe that's just my rotten luck, but if that's how my luck in these matchups goes, hedging them seems like a rather poor decision.

I COULD be convinced to try a singleton Deathrite Shaman, as he's orders of magnitude faster. I'll have to tank on that one.

[Esper3k]

Just a new reader to this thread (yes, I know the deck's been around for awhile, but I only recently got interested in my continuing quest to find a new interesting deck to play) with a couple of questions:

1) When does Veteran Explorer get boarded out? Clearly it's not as good when your opponent is playing basics, but how many basics are we talking about? Ie, would we still keep him in if you're up against a deck that plays only like 2 basics?

2) Carpet of Flowers vs Veteran Explorer: This one is mostly for the Scapeshift builds, but do you ever find any problems ramping to enough lands when you board out Veteran Explorer for Carpet of Flowers against the blue decks?

@Arianrhod: I really like the feel of your list a lot and was wondering if you ever regret only having 3 Scapeshift in your 75? Also, I notice you feel like the Sneaky Show matchup is favorable - can you elaborate on why that is? It seems that if they resolve Show & Tell with any sort of protection, we're fairly dead. Our only real hand disruption post-board is 4 Therapy + 2 Thoughtseize as well as the Slaughter Games (I assume the 3rd stays in the board as a Wish target?), but given how consistently T3-4 they are, there's a good chance you won't get to cast Slaughter Games before they go off.

Obviously my viewpoint is not an experienced one, but I'd second a vote for the 1-of Scavenging Ooze. Gives you another way to control Tarmogoyfs and small amount of graveyard hate and plays well with the massive amounts of mana the deck generates.

[pfiremc13]

I COULD be convinced to try a singleton Deathrite Shaman, as he's orders of magnitude faster. I'll have to tank on that one.

Having tried DRS in thune fit a little, he is awesome vs. dredge. The life gain is quite relevant too.

[MrIggins]

Game three: I adjust my board correctly, and shuffle up. I'm sick, though, and I forget to take out the Pyroclasm that I wished for last game -- as made immediately apparent when I draw it in my opening hand. I say fuck it and keep -- it's a 1-lander (mono Stomping Grounds) with Explorer, Pyroclasm, and a bunch of good stuff. My deck decides to be gracious and doesn't punish me -- I draw a Carpet of Flowers. He makes a Delver and a Deathrite Shaman. I draw a land, play it, play that Pyroclasm that I didn't board out, setting off Explorer and wrathing him. From there it's the Huntmaster and Thragtusk show again. Pretty sure I won this game because I forgot to board out that Pyroclasm. How fucking awkward is that.

I've won a game against Sneak/Show because I forgot to board my Reverent Silence back out, drew it, and nuked his Leyline with it when i didn't have a wish. Very tilting for both of us. Just know that it is probably worse for them.

RE: what do with Prime Time?

I could be convinced of a 3rd Thragtusk so our huge monster count doesn't drop, and it helps us grind out the fair decks you listed. However, I think I would be happier with something that we can use to beat TNN, or at least something that isn't brick walled by it. Not because I think it's a huge problem for our deck, but mostly because it's the new big thing and I expect to see a fair amount of it in DC, so having something like a Kodama of the North Tree or somesuch might be where we want to be- of course it could also just be the 4th copy of Scapeshift for the 76. I could definitely get behind a Deathrite, that card did a lot of work when I was still on GB and I wouldn't expect it to be much different here. Ooze is reasonable, though I do understand your concerns about it. We've got options- which doesn't answer the question much.

Really pleased to hear that you've had fewer mana issues with this configuration. I'm with you on feeling a little uneasy about 11 mountains, but I've also had it come up only once so far, so I'll take the consistency.

I'm still on the 2x Pyroclasm sideboard plan, particularly since we now have Toxic Deluge. So in matchups where it's good we can bring in 2x Pyroclasm, and still have a Wish-able sweeper. It's possible this changes before DC, but at this point I'm pretty set on it.

EDIT:

When does Veteran Explorer get boarded out? Clearly it's not as good when your opponent is playing basics, but how many basics are we talking about? Ie, would we still keep him in if you're up against a deck that plays only like 2 basics?

Against a deck like Maverick, I would not consider boarding him out. He comes out for me when the opponent can make as good a use of the mana as we can. This is mostly Jace decks with a lot of basics. Ramping them into a turn 2 Jace is bad news bears, and certainly not where you want to be. Otherwise I rarely board them out. They can ramp combo towards killing us, sure, but since we control the ramp, we get to set it off and immediately Slaughter Games them, or something. It helps that setting him off also involves flashing back a Therapy in those matchups, which makes it a bit safer.

2) Carpet of Flowers vs Veteran Explorer: This one is mostly for the Scapeshift builds, but do you ever find any problems ramping to enough lands when you board out Veteran Explorer for Carpet of Flowers against the blue decks?

Again in my experience, you're only doing this against decks like Miracles, maybe Stoneblade, where they have Jaces. Those decks are trying to play long games. It's pretty unusual that you'll have a hard time getting your lands in those games.

@Arianrhod: I really like the feel of your list a lot and was wondering if you ever regret only having 3 Scapeshift in your 75? Also, I notice you feel like the Sneaky Show matchup is favorable - can you elaborate on why that is? It seems that if they resolve Show & Tell with any sort of protection, we're fairly dead. Our only real hand disruption post-board is 4 Therapy + 2 Thoughtseize as well as the Slaughter Games (I assume the 3rd stays in the board as a Wish target?), but given how consistently T3-4 they are, there's a good chance you won't get to cast Slaughter Games before they go off.

I haven't been playing the deck as long as Kevin has obviously, but I think we're likely to lose game 1 (maindeck Slaughter Games helps this a lot though). Game 2 and 3 we get to load up on disruption and the goal becomes stalling to Slaughter Games, which often cripples them enough to either let us steal the game with Huntmasters or angry mountains, or resolve the second Slaughter Games, which WILL end the game. I'm currently something like 3-2 lifetime against the deck in competitive events, which is partly luck, but not entirely I'm sure. They are consistently T3-T4, but we can pretty easily T3 a Slaughter Games and seriously mess that up.

[pfiremc13]

1) When does Veteran Explorer get boarded out? Clearly it's not as good when your opponent is playing basics, but how many basics are we talking about? Ie, would we still keep him in if you're up against a deck that plays only like 2 basics?

Only against non-mana-denial blue decks, and even then you're just boarding in carpet. It's worse against deck with basics, but it's certainly better for you as your opponent doesn't have thragtusk and scapeshifts to ramp into.

[Arianrhod]

Just a new reader to this thread (yes, I know the deck's been around for awhile, but I only recently got interested in my continuing quest to find a new interesting deck to play) with a couple of questions:

1) When does Veteran Explorer get boarded out? Clearly it's not as good when your opponent is playing basics, but how many basics are we talking about? Ie, would we still keep him in if you're up against a deck that plays only like 2 basics?

2) Carpet of Flowers vs Veteran Explorer: This one is mostly for the Scapeshift builds, but do you ever find any problems ramping to enough lands when you board out Veteran Explorer for Carpet of Flowers against the blue decks?

@Arianrhod: I really like the feel of your list a lot and was wondering if you ever regret only having 3 Scapeshift in your 75? Also, I notice you feel like the Sneaky Show matchup is favorable - can you elaborate on why that is? It seems that if they resolve Show & Tell with any sort of protection, we're fairly dead. Our only real hand disruption post-board is 4 Therapy + 2 Thoughtseize as well as the Slaughter Games (I assume the 3rd stays in the board as a Wish target?), but given how consistently T3-4 they are, there's a good chance you won't get to cast Slaughter Games before they go off.

Obviously my viewpoint is not an experienced one, but I'd second a vote for the 1-of Scavenging Ooze. Gives you another way to control Tarmogoyfs and small amount of graveyard hate and plays well with the massive amounts of mana the deck generates.

I board out Veteran immediately vs Miracles, and usually they come out vs Esperblade, as well. General principles for boarding out Veterans:

1-) opponent has at least 3 or 4 basics. 2 is not enough to care.
2-) opponent is doing something with those basics that we can't readily solve.

2 is the more important one. Examples include High Tide (combo off, island count for high-tide-the-card), Esperblade (planeswalkers, batterskull + stoneforge bullshit, snapcasting force of wills), Miracles (planeswalkers, RIP + Helm in the same turn combo, huge Entreats).

When siding out Veterans, side out 3. Sometimes you still want one to Zenith for.

Other basic-heavy decks, like Merfolk and Death and taxes, we tend not to care -- they don't pass the 2) test. What they're doing, we can easily fix via Deed or Burning Wish. Just keep in mind the consideration of "what are they going to do with these lands" vs "what am I going to do with these lands." In game 1 situations vs these decks its often still correct to fire off an Explorer trigger if you have something meaningful to do.

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I haven't had problems getting a sufficient land count with Explorers out of the deck. Most of the decks that you're boarding Explorer out against are slower control decks where you'll get to 7 lands naturally half the time, and even without, you can still use Carpet mana to Zenith up Sakura-Tribes and Wood Elves and ramp that way.

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I actually used to run the 3rd maindeck Scapeshift (with the 4th in the board for wish, obviously). I tried it for a few months, and decided that 2 maindeck + 1 wishable is the best number. You don't generally need or want to see multiples, and at 3 I was getting clogged a bit. There were a few games where I just powered through countermagic with the 3rd copy (run the first into FoW, then resolve the 2nd), which was nice, but it didn't feel necessary.

Sneak and Show can't actually beat Slaughter Games, and they struggle with Therapy. Oftentimes they can just Force of Will a Thoughtseize or a Hymn or something, and then casually go off. Therapy is extremely disadvantageous to Force, because it'll be coming back anyway. Sometimes they nut out, and sometimes they're running a list that still has the sideboard Leyline of Sanctity, which is extremely bad for us, but generally speaking I've won a lot more against Sneak than I've lost. It's not a FUN matchup, by any stretch -- you're sweating bullets the whole time, but it's generally winnable. REB also goes a long way in the matchup, since it stops their "quick threat" of Show and Tell, and sometimes you can "gotcha" them by REBing a Brainstorm in response to Therapy.

Also, this is a matchup where you don't board out Explorers despite them having basics and doing powerful things with them. You also board in the Carpets. This leaves you with a shitton of ramp that gets you to 4 mana on turn 2-turn 3, meaning that we can consistently unload a Slaughter before they're ready to do anything -- usually with some hand disruption and/or REB protection on the way. Keep in mind that Sneak and Show is a very, VERY inconsistent deck, and oftentimes they're struggling to find one of the 3 parts of their combo (mana, enabler, monster). Sometimes all the gears fire and we die, but if they stumble even slightly, we're there to punish them, and punish them hard.

Also also, you board in the 3rd Slaughter Games in this matchup. You want it in your opening hand, and Burning Wish priority in the matchup is Reverent Silence (if Leyline) followed by Innocent Blood (if Show Emrakul) followed by Scapeshift. Your aggro plan ceases to exist (Thrags board out) -- this becomes a straight combo mirror. You have two combos to their one, though: you can Shift kill them, or you can kill them by hitting multiple Slaughter Games via drawing/topping/E.Wit, and exiling all of their monsters.

Hope that helps -- if you have any other questions, just fire away.

[Ralf]

My biggest single issue with Ooze is that he's a 2-drop. Seriously.

I know Reanimator has hands where it just has discard and cantrips. I know that Dredge sometimes plays a long con. I know that Storm sometimes needs to use Past in Flames to win.

But in Kevin-land, Reanimator always has t1 Entomb t2 [reanimation spell]. Dredge always goes City of Brass -> LED -> Faithless Looting. Storm always just goes Ad Nauseum -> kill you.

A 2-drop isn't going to help in these matchups -- especially not when it's more like a 4-drop: you frequently need to Zenith it up, and then have a G immediately available for it to do anything.

I understand in paper how Ooze looks phenomenal -- but in my experience, it's never done actual anything. And yeah, other people have other experiences, but it's not like I haven't tried Ooze in the past. Hell, I've had Ooze in my opening hand against Reanimator, as he proceeds to make a Griselbrand on t1 via Lotus Petal. Maybe that's just my rotten luck, but if that's how my luck in these matchups goes, hedging them seems like a rather poor decision.

I COULD be convinced to try a singleton Deathrite Shaman, as he's orders of magnitude faster. I'll have to tank on that one.

Seriously, a 2-drop is not THAT bad.

I met 4 combo during the BOM main event:
- Dredge piloted by one of the french top player
- Next level Reanimator (instant reanimation a bit like Tinfins)
- ANT
- Omnishow

I guess we could spend hours talking about our own experience but I cannot see any other card which could help you against a turn 1 Griselbrand. Really. This is a game you are bound to lose anyway...

For me playing these MU could be simply reduced to this sentence: "Who won the f. toss ?".

I won the toss and so game 1 against Dredge with Ooze
I lost game 2.
I won game 3 naming LED with therapy on turn 1, followed by a turn 3 GSZ for Ooze and started winning from there.

Same could go for the other combo/unfair MU I faced that day.
ANT - > I won the Toss and won the match (won 2 - 1).
Reanimator -> I lost the Toss and lost the match (lost 1 - 2)
Omnishow -> I won the Toss but I lost the match (lost 0 - 2, worst MU for NicFit...)

Go for DRS if you feel like it. But in these MU I would rather have Ooze than DRS.

Our meta are different I guess. Every big event I attempted I have to be prepared to face a lot of unfair MU and I am often kicked out of top 16 or top 8 because of those unfair decks.

Ooze was my revenge on that day and I won't attempt another event with a scapeshift list without him, until we find another good hate against these MU.
Don't get me wrong, Ooze will not turn a losing game into a winning one. But if by any means, I'm not dead by turn 3/4 against these decks, they will have a very hard time to deal with him.

Not to mention that Ooze will slow the game speed down in game 2/3. Dregde / ANT / Reanimator have both sided accordingly to deal with him. And just because of that, it was priceless.

[nedleeds]

3WW pass the turn against combo (I assume?) and not die again, don't get hit by a duress/cabal/thoughtseize or silence/chant, resolve nether void, go... seems unlikely.

If I'm tapping 3WW in this deck I am slamming a Russian Baneslayer with a look of anger on my face. Or perhaps a Blinding Angel which laughs at Bolt, Punishing Fire, Abrupt Decay and TNN.

[Arianrhod]

Pretty much what nedleeeds said. Or, an Archangel of Thune to go wombocombo.

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I think I'm leaning towards Kalonian Hydra at this point to replace Primeval.

[MrIggins]

I'd be interested to hear you elaborate on that a bit. What makes it better than our other options? It seems very similar to the Chameleon Colossus slot that ended up not doing much, though obviously trample makes it a bit stronger.

[GtF]

Just want to add a 3rd vote for Scavenging Oooze. Scavenging Ooze is really great and a worthwhile target in a deck packing GSZ. Yeah, the hands where they god-draw you, it will not help, but in any situation where you are able to slow them down, it will dominate the game. It is a much better as a 1 of tutor target than Deathrite Shaman, since its impact is immediate and is also just more powerful once you reach that stage in the game.

[pfiremc13]

Pretty much what nedleeeds said. Or, an Archangel of Thune to go wombocombo.

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I think I'm leaning towards Kalonian Hydra at this point to replace Primeval.

What do you think gbw can do to make its g1 combo matchup better?

[Arianrhod]

I can still be persuaded to run Ooze.

That being said, in the heavyweight category, I boiled it down to these options:


Kalonian Hydra
Gurzigost
Broodmate Dragon
Kodama of the North Tree


All of them have some sort of evasion (trample, flying, other) to get around / punch through True-Name Nemesis. They each also have individual strengths:

Hydra is a FAST clock.
Gurzigost enables recursion of used GSZ targets and useful spells.
Broooooooooooodmate Dragon brings two bodies, so even if they answer one, you still get a 4/4 flyer out of the deal.
Kodama has shroud.

And individual weaknesses:

Hydra has absolutely 0 protection, and is awful on defense (just a 4/4).
Gurzigost requires you to be drawing blanks to feed to it in order to keep it "unblockable."
Broooooooooooodmate Dragon is a 6-drop, and the individual halves are both pretty weak.
Kodama loses to 8/10 Tarmogoyfs.

Of these, Gurzigost and Kodama are obviously the weakest. Scape doesn't really have blanks, per se, and you don't generally want to be discarding business to make him nasty. Also, sometimes your graveyard just isn't that big, and he might randomly have trouble sticking around. Kodama loses to Tarmogoyf, which is not a good place to be in the metagame right now -- especially since I foresee a lot of Goyf + True-Name being in the same deck(s) (obv exception being UWR and UWx blade).

Hydra's biggest flaws (dies to removal and awful on D) are both fixable inherent to the deck: you can Therapy on removal before playing it (if you know that Hydra is your line) and also most Swords to Plowshares decks are....strained already vs us because they HAVE to deal with Hunts and Thrag; and, speaking of Thrag, if you're looking for a defensive option at the 5-spot, we already run a pair of him. Hydra doesn't NEED to play defense, so it's okay that it's bad at it.

Broodmate's biggest flaw isn't really fixable, per se -- a pair of 4/4s is still not as good as an 8/8 trample that can become 16/16 if left unchecked. I also remember running Broodmate in the past, and he didn't make the cut -- as also with our Punishing brethren, who I remember also used to run him, but no longer do.

So, of these options, I consider Kalonian Hydra the winner. Now, for Hydra vs Ooze -- that's a trickier debate, and one that I am probably ill-advised to complete due to my (in)famous dislike of Scavenging Ooze as a card.

[Arianrhod]

What do you think gbw can do to make its g1 combo matchup better?

Maindeck Gaddock Teeg. Or, if in Rectors, maindeck Nether Void. Or, run more "Rock"-styled with Hymns and/or targeted discard. Or, try some wackiness with like Fauna Shaman or Eladamri's Call. Or, put in a combo of some variety and pray to your deity that you assemble it before they do.

Of these, Teeg is probably the strongest -- it just requires you to not go deep with planeswalkers and big spells, and accept that sometimes your Zeniths might be shut down. It's not "fun," but there isn't much else GBW can do vs combo pre-board, realistically. I definitely don't think that Golden Wish is the answer -- as others have pointed out, it's just too damned expensive. You'd need a Tower draw to actually resolve the Wish on turn 2, and even then you're not resolving your target until turn 3 (maybe later, depending on the cost of the subject of the wish). Like, Golden Wish -> Nether Void is strong against Storm until you realize that there is NO way you're not just dead by the time you attempt to cast Void. Wishing for a Batterskull is stronger, but at that point, why not just run Stoneforge? You can easily incorporate Stoneforge and Rector into a Pod shell, and get all the benefits of Golden Wish without the durdles. Well, without most of the durdles.

Glittering Wish is more realistically-costed, and there is the potential for something there if someone wanted to look for it. Wish->Teeg is a solid option, and obv you have like Decay, Pulse/Vindicate, and so forth. The problem is how to make Glittering Wish into an engine, I feel. You need it to do something -- to assemble some engine or combo. It can't just be an answer card.

And, of course, there's Living Wish, which still exists and can still get a variety of hatebears (someone of you can get with Golden, ie Canonist) as well as hateful lanes, like Tabernacle and Karakas.

I've considered Death Wish in the past, but found the life cost to just be too extravagant. If it was like a flat, "pay 5 life," or something, then maybe we could talk. But "half rounded up" is just a beating.

[pfiremc13]

I think gaddock teeg a good idea; it will also free up more sideboard space. The only problem I have is what to cut for it. How has your varolz been working for you?

The problem I have with that choice is show and tell, which is the only other combo deck I'm mainly worried about. Reanimator is also a problem, but this deck has maindeck grave hate to deal with dredge and deed to deal with elves. But game 1 vs sneak and show is almost unwinnable unless you get lucky with therapies.

[Tao]

I would vote for keeping Primeval Titan in.

In the Sideboard I don't think the Carpets are good:
- they are only good in a minority of matchups: only good against fair, blue, decks that are not Shardless. Additional Red Blasts would be good in these matchups too but also great against Combo.
- the deck already plays 32 mana sources in the maindeck
- they have no synergy with Scapewish and anti-synergy with Deed

[Arianrhod]

I would vote for keeping Primeval Titan in.

In the Sideboard I don't think the Carpets are good:
- they are only good in a minority of matchups: only good against fair, blue, decks that are not Shardless. Additional Red Blasts would be good in these matchups too but also great against Combo.
- the deck already plays 32 mana sources in the maindeck
- they have no synergy with Scapewish and anti-synergy with Deed

I wouldn't call fair blue decks a minority of matchups, and Shardless doesn't even count because that's barely a deck anymore (at least, over here -- maybe it's still a think in Europe / online, I dunno).

They're also useful against more than just fair blue decks, though -- Carpet has been instrumental in getting Slaughter Games out on time against blue combo. You could easily enough argue here that if they were just additional discard / REBs, one could slow down the game enough to get Games online later in the match, but my experience has been that this just doesn't work. We're not really a "hold up instant speed permission" deck. REB does nothing to Hymn to Tourach, Tarmogoyf, Young Pyromaster, Stoneforge Mystic, Liliana of the Veil, Tombstalker, or a resolved True-Name Nemesis -- or, indeed, any of the other non-Delver non-Stifle threats that tempo decks present.

If [person X] doesn't want to play Carpet of Flowers in their build, I won't give them a hard time -- assuming, of course, that I hear a solid argument for why not. But it's gonna be a while before it leaves my list. I like having a good matchup against anything running Islands, stretching from RUG Delver to Miracles to Sneak and Show. A free Black Lotus every turn is nothing to sneeze at.

Also, Carpet has some weird synergy with Deed and Scapeshift. As I said in the report for Mythic, I actually used a Carpet to get to the 8 mana necessary to Deed away a Tombstalker which I otherwise had no answer to. Yes, it dies to Deed on basically anything. But it can be used to both force a Deed through Pierce/Daze/etc, and to hit higher Deed numbers than are traditionally needed, which is relevant vs Reanimator, BUG Delver, and Sneak/Show. With Scapeshift, you can use floating mana to cast the Shift, leaving all of the mana you float from your lands for effects/spells post-shift: ie, float a bunch, cast Shift, use floating mana to spin top, find something, pop it, etc.

I'm really never unhappy to have Carpet in my list, and ESPECIALLY not now, with the storm of True-Name Nemesis and tempo decks I'm expecting to face at GPDC. In fact, I would recommend Carpet of Flowers to virtually any deck that's running green -- not just Nic Fit.

[nedleeds]

Glittering Wish is more realistically-costed, and there is the potential for something there if someone wanted to look for it. Wish->Teeg is a solid option, and obv you have like Decay, Pulse/Vindicate, and so forth. The problem is how to make Glittering Wish into an engine, I feel. You need it to do something -- to assemble some engine or combo. It can't just be an answer card.

I've played a ton of glittering rock in modern. I think in BWg or BGw Explorer rock I'm not sure I'd rather have it than Living Wish; mostly because with Living Wish you can use it as Rampant Growth in a pinch.

That being said here's some "useful" stuff Glittering gets that Living Wish can't:

Zealous Persecution / Golgari Charm / Deed / Crime//Punishment (vs. empty / TNN / elves or goblins that get off to a fast start)
Abrupt Decay (also goes against the mantra of not countering the wish / tutor)
Sorin, Lord of Innistrad / Vraska
Vindicate / Maelstrom Pulse
Life // Death
Wheel of Sun and Moon
Far // Away (as bad edict)
Treasured Find
Gerrard's Verdict
Fracturing Gust ... should you be so fortunate to encounter Affinity which should already be a blowout
all the other gold charms, some of which aren't awful
a ton of things that can gain you life that aren't men (Overgrown Estate / Behemoth Sledge)

In addition to the insane dudes:

Gaddock Teeg
Tidehollow Sculler / Sin Collector
Wilt-Leaf Liege vs. active Liliana
Loxodon Hierarch / Finks / other life gain bodies
Sigarda
Dryad Militant
Ashen Rider / Angel of Despair decent to preemptively wish for vs. Show and Tell
Orzhov Pontiff
several other idiotic legends and insane 6+ mana enchantments ...

Omnitell can't beat Iona off a show and tell, they might not be able to beat Ruric Thar either but that's really reaching ...