Wrong And Overrated

Nothing is working.

Razaketh's Rite is too slow to really get me where I need to go. Turn five is a bit late to be digging for something.

Nimble Obstructionist though, has been great. Better than I thought it would be. There are plenty of targets in Magic for the Obstructionist but when there aren't, it can just swing for three in the air.

Both Matt and Caitlin pushed me towards something I'd been resisting: Adding in cycling lands. They recognized that my mana seemed fine-and it was, even occasionally finding myself flooded. I was always surprised at this, since I had so much card draw.

"So why not Polluted Mire. Why not cut a land?" Matt said.

This made me really nervous: 23 lands is low for a controlling deck, 22 lands seems like an invitation to mana screw. But sitting there with three lands in hand and no responses feels worse.

OK. Let's do this. Cut a land. Add in a Gravedigger, because it helps reinforce the themes of the deck. Polluted Mire, Drifting Meadow, Remote Isle swap for a Swamp, Plains, Island, respectively. Matt pointed out that if I don't cycle these lands initially, the opportunity to do so later with a Dromar's Cavern is available and that's some wise gameplay to remember.

Get rid of the Rites: Turn five is too late for me. I'm already running four copies of the cards I want to show up so the card draw should give me what I want. Or, I have to find a cheaper tutor effect. Something has to give.

Because it's not the losing that is getting to me. It's the lack of data about where to go next. "I'm drawing a lot of cards but still losing. MORE CARD DRAW."

Doesn't that sound crazy?

The other problem I've been having with Everything Ends is one of splash damage.

Since the soft lock for Everything Ends exists as a function of graveyard recursion, cards that squash such an interaction make things difficult. Fortunately, there aren't many of those that people use!

Oh. Right.

Now, that doesn't mean I need to give up on this deck; just because Humility or Moat or Terminus exist that doesn't mean creature strategies are completely invalid now. It just means playing smarter. It's not easy-one of the grindier games I played was against Matt playing a control mono-W deck and Rest In Peace shut me out of the first game.

I won the second on the back of Nimble Obstructionist and lost the third. Graveyard hate is a thing and in the sideboard I'd have to look for a way to address it.

How radical will I have to get to get this deck to work consistently?