We'll Take On Anyone

It was in the next series of games that I realized I had forgotten to take into account one thing: Planeswalkers.

1/1s versus Oko, Thief of Crowns is not going to cut it. That card is so cheap and does so much, that a turn two Tarmogoyf followed by an Oko is tough to deal with, no matter how many tokens I get on board.

So what does this mean?

First, it means Oko is a terrible card. We knew that, but it bears repeating.

The second thing is: I'm not sure what the future holds for Ready To Die now. I was never under any illusions that this deck was going to be a serious contender, but the disparity in power level is fairly significant. I understand why: RtD wants to ignore what the opponent does, getting enough chip damage in via 1/1s in the early game, direct damage where it can, and close a midgame with either chained Mirari spells or an Overrun.

I think it does the first part pretty well. But the drawback to Mirari was on full display in the Oko matchup, where spending 5 mana to do something that didn't alter the board state was the waste of a turn.

What I'm not certain of at this point is: Do I fix this with a sideboard-Red Elemental Blast, Choke, etc? Do I give up? Do I tweak the deck? At what point is this not fun?

It occurs to me that perhaps I'm approaching this the wrong way: what if my dead cards are Impact Tremors and Cavalcade of Calamity?  I already know what the central theme of the deck is: Mirari makes extra spells.

Impact Tremors and Cavalcade of Calamity are the only two spells in the deck that Mirari cannot bolster and do not have an immediate impact on the board. Perhaps it's just better to run some awesome spells and double up on them.

Of the two spells in question, Impact Tremors works better, since creatures don't have to live long for them to do damage. So that's the spell I'll be looking to cut, and hoping to find some good instants or sorceries to replace it with.