Argh damnit putting all these scenarios from memory to text is too hard, I know the gist of it but missed the details somewhere. Let's just assume I didn't have the fifth land, since that is the scenario that matches what I remember.

And yeah, in hindsight, I think sixty4half was right and it was a mistake not to play the Scryland + make a food on turn 4. The Krasis can always be eaten by the Wolf later, but Nissa can win the game (heck Nissa can even make a food the turn she comes down by adding +2 mana).

On the draw vs. Gruul in BO1 ...

Turn 1 we both land-go.
On turn 2 he plays Zhur-Taa Goblin without haste. I play Fae of Wishes.
Turn 3, he plays Gruul Spellbreaker, again without haste.

My options are to play Bonecrusher Giant as a 4/3, or play Teferi and bounce the Spellbreaker. What's the play?

I haven't looked at the spoiler yet. What else is in your hand? And he doesn't need to haste the spellbreaker to kill Teferi, he can do it with the Goblin.

With Fae of Wishes on the battlefield, he can't kill Teferi with Goblin.

Other cards in hand: some lands, Fires of Invention, Cavalier of Gales.

With spellbreaker at 4/4 you cant even clarion, bouncing Spellbreaker would force him to play him at 3 and thus giving you a chance to clarion... maybe...

Ahh, my mistake

What I see most people do, and I believe it's correct, is play the Teferi into a suicide situation. It not only buys you a turn, but also draws a card and presents an alternative target for the opponent. It also positions your Fae as a better blocker since Spellbreaker will be a 3/3.

If he has Embercleave you're probably screwed anyways, unless you do get Clarion, which Teferi helps you dig for. Besides, unless it's a 6/6, playing creatures usually doesn't slow Gruul Agro down. Making them recast creatures does though.

Ikoria limited ...

My board: 2x tapped Marmoset, 1x Dranith Stinger, Reptilian Reflection, lots of lands, 11 life
Opponent's board: lots of lands, 2x Whisper Squad, 2 1/1 tokens, Bastion of Remembrance, 2 cards in hand, 6 life

In my hand I have a 2-mana cycler, Pacifism, and a land. Opponent is B/W.

On opponent's turn he attacks with everything. I basically have two options: cycle, animate the Reflection, and block two creatures; or block one only. What's the play? Bonus: on the previous turn, should I have animated the Reflection and attacked with everything except the Stinger?

No blocks, take the 4 damage? Pacify whatever threat he puts on the board, Cycle and swing for the win.

It seems like a desperation swing to me, or he's trying to activate the 2/3 that brings a 1/1 token if he attacked. Maybe he has a board wipe so he can gain 4/deal 4 but that's a problem whether you block or not (but you don't want the 4/5 raptor on the board when he does). I don't see a reason to block and give him free life.

I guess you could block one but if he has a combat trick you lose the Stinger, and your shot at lethal next turn.

I’d block with stinger, assuming opp has 5 open mana. Coordinated Strike is lethal if you don’t. Whisper squad and 1/1 tokens looks like the type of deck that would run it so I’d respect it.

I wouldn’t block with reflection because I would have swung with it the previous turn unless there’s a key piece of info you left out for why you didn’t. If opp trades entire board to kill it, I’m happy with that exchange.

Yeah I blocked one creature too thinking about Coordinated Strike (which opponent did have). I dropped to one life and he played another creature postcombat, which made me panic since it seemed like I would die before he does (I'm dead after first strike damage if he blocks Marmoset). But then I remembered I had Pacifism, removed the blocker, and won.

Not sure if I should've swung with everything the previous turn. My thought process was that he would not die anyway, so since it's lethal in two turns I might as well keep Reflection on defense (this also lets me keep up a cycler if I need to pump my Marmosets the next turn). A possible downside is that if I cycled I might've drawn into more action, idk.

Cycling introduces some interesting dilemmas into gameplay. I'm not sure if it's healthy for someone like me who is addicted to drawing more cards. That's the point of Magic right?

Let's say the board is balanced but in a stall right now, with two creatures staring at two creatures and neither player able to attack. I have a few big creatures left in my deck, as well as an active Skull Prophet, but no gas (and neither does my opponent). I still have cards left in my deck that can use the graveyard, e.g. Survivor's Bond and Back For More, but I don't have either in my hand. Should I put the top two cards of my deck into the graveyard using the Skull Prophet's ability?

In other words, I have graveyard synergies in my deck, but I haven't drawn any of them. Should I mill myself?

I don't know the answer to that, wondering if someone does.

I think the general rule is, if you think you're not in danger of milling yourself out it's better to always mill yourself in these situations.

If decking isn't a factor, then if you have any graveyard synergies milling yourself is right because of these graveyard synergies, the only downside is if you happen to flip over all your reanimation spells/bombs, but you are just as likely to have them all be at the bottom of your deck and be getting closer to them by milling yourself so it's pure upside to mill yourself generally.

Basically, it's the same chance that you're getting closer to the good cards as it is that you will throw them into the graveyard, but because you have cards that play with the graveyard it's better to use the prophet

I think it depends on what’s in your graveyard. If you have a good reanimation target (desirable one) and you’re a notable way through your deck already, I would not mill and risk turning over one or both reanimation spells. If your library isn’t getting low and you just have meh targets in the yard, mill mill mill

Ok thanks. Would you not mill if you're splashing a color and there's only one copy of the splashed basic land in the deck? I have bad impressions about cards like Excavation Mole in Ikoria limited for that reason - it means splashes need to have at least two basic lands, with collateral damage to mana base.

I wouldn’t try to build a deck that wants to self mill and employ graveyard recursions, that includes a single splash source that isn’t also recurable (through the GB mutate creature or Abzan ultimatum for example in this set). If you do, you just have to accept the risk of milling that source and eventually drawing a card you can never cast.

I def wouldn’t put mole in deck with a single splash source and no graveyard synergies - mole isn’t a strong enough card on its own (I might put it in a gruul trample deck with no graveyard synergies, but I wouldn’t also splash a 3rd color without backup sources).

Well if it's something like a UG deck that has Greater Sandwurm to cycle and I see a Back for More or Unbreakable Bond, I would be pretty interested in splashing them. But if I splash them, then I can't add Mole as an extra enabler, because it means I need at least two Swamps. Either way it's risky, which is why rating for Mole has been going down. It could easily be better as a 3/3 Trample no other abilities.

Here's something else that's been bugging me in Ikoria limited. Would you cycle the Drannith Stinger, or play it?



If it matters, the rest of the deck is:



My understanding is if the spell I'm casting does not meaningfully impact the board, I should cycle and look for something better. But in this case, the Drannith Stinger does kind of impact the board. It could either trade for the Fertilid, or do two damage (since if opponent plays a bigger creature I have Pacifism in hand). On the other hand, it's turn 4, 2-drops have gotten rather out of date, and if I cycle I do at least 1 damage anyway (via the Stinger that's already in play).

What's the play?

I'd move to combat and attack with both creatures (if Fertilid blocks the Stinger, I'd use Fight as One to save it), deferring the decision whether to play Stinger to post-combat.
Think I'd play Stinger in most cases anyway, since the Pacifism in your hand means that Stinger is worth 2 damage at least; quite possibly a lot more if you draw into Cyclers.
If Stinger was the Healer instead, I'd be a bit less inclined to cast it specifically if the Fertilid doesn't block.