I don't even...

So, here's a photo of me locking stonethorn out of the game. Because I was not paying attention, I cut off the left side where it would show that I have two Sphere of Safety in play, stunting any possibility for an attack. He cannot pay 20 mana per creature to attack me, which is good because he easily has enough end the game otherwise.

The problem is, I cannot find a win condition. I just need one, and the game is over. Many turns later, stonethorn draws a Austere Command and the game is over.

Now, the good part is that my deck held off a more aggressive one for quite some time. Stalling a red-white deck with a fortress deck is always a positive. Not drawing one of seven ways to win, however, was a drag. The other drag: Mana Cylix. It's great on turns 1-3 but after that it is a dead card. I have eight ways to produce extra mana and with some intelligent mulliganing decisions, I generally find myself doing pretty well on mana. Copy Enchantment did fantastic work as the extra copies of Verdant Haven or Fertile Ground, but also extra curses as needed.

Still, because this deck is weak(er) to combo decks ensuring I have a great game against creature decks is paramount. This means being ruthless about what will or won't help. In this instance, I have to concede that Opalescence and Curse of Inertia aren't useful because by the time I get the fortress set up, my opponent has more creatures than I could break through using the Opalescence/Inertia combo.

So I have some choices: 1) remove those cards 2) add in mass creature kill or 3) add in some extra card drawing effect. A combination of 1+2 or 1+3 would probably be best.

My first instinct is to add in some creature kill in order to allow the Opalescence plan to come online. However, I have never, not once in the games I have played, found the Opalescence plan to be a viable one. Opalescence comes down and I don't suddenly have an assortment of scary creatures: I have a bunch of vanilla creatures waiting to be Terminated. Why should I dilute my deck more to try and get my plan B to work?

Mostly I am tired of putting my time into schemes that do not provide me with a reward. Opalescence and Curse of Inertia come out. Card draw; in. I am going to ramp up, fortress up, draw cards, find my win condition and win, damnit. No more fucking around with an idea half-assedly.

At least for now.