"Help me cut a card" thread

[OCPunisher]

Hello friends,

Since cutting cards is arguably the hardest part of deck construction, I wanted to start a thread where people could ask for help cutting that one last card from their list, or fitting that one new card into their existing list. This was inspired by a similar thread for cubes, which you can find here.

Simple ground rules that should probably go without saying:
- Try to respond to a previous post before making a new one
- Try to link a deck list or at least provide some context to your question
- Try not to list too many options to choose from

Hopefully this helps all of you out at some point in the future.

[OCPunisher]

I'll start:
- I want to add the hot new land Field of the Dead into Lord Windgrace.
- My current list has the following colorless lands:

SPOILER

Show

Hide

Blast Zone
Cabal Stronghold
Dark Depths
Dust Bowl
Ghost Quarter
Glacial Chasm
Thespian's Stage
Vesuva
Volrath's Stronghold

Which one, if any, should I cut for Field of the Dead?

[xeroxedfool]

I'll start:
- I want to add the hot new land Field of the Dead into Lord Windgrace.
- My current list has the following colorless lands:

SPOILER

Show

Hide

Blast Zone
Cabal Stronghold
Dark Depths
Dust Bowl
Ghost Quarter
Glacial Chasm
Thespian's Stage
Vesuva
Volrath's Stronghold

Which one, if any, should I cut for Field of the Dead?

I would go with Ghost Quarter. Its hard to pick in a vacuum.

[OCPunisher]

I would go with Ghost Quarter. Its hard to pick in a vacuum.

Off to a good start! My full list is available in my signature.

[pokken]

I'll start:
- I want to add the hot new land Field of the Dead into Lord Windgrace.
- My current list has the following colorless lands:

SPOILER

Show

Hide

Blast Zone
Cabal Stronghold
Dark Depths
Dust Bowl
Ghost Quarter
Glacial Chasm
Thespian's Stage
Vesuva
Volrath's Stronghold

Which one, if any, should I cut for Field of the Dead?

Depths and it's not close.

..ok I missed quarter. yeah I don't play quarter in a 3c deck but since you don't have wasteland I would keep it.

Cabal Stronghold would be my second choice. That card seems really bad in 3c even with the urborg+basics interaction.

Then dust bowl after that.

[WizardMN]

My first thought was Cabal Stronghold. I think Ghost Quarter can be good in Windgrace and if you are not running any of the other Strip Mine variants (or, just Strip Mine) I would keep it.

Stronghold, without seeing the rest of your mana base (ie, how many basics you have and whether you play Urborg) seems like the outlier. And even with enough basics, plus Urborg, it probably still isn't good enough. Nykthos might honestly be better and I don't think most 3 color decks should that either.

Depths is another I thought of but you seem to be using the Stage-Depths combo so if that works for you, you might as well keep it. If you do cut Depths, I might go as far as to say to cut Stage too. I think it is a land that too often doesn't do much. But, your experience with it may vary of course; I just don't run it much anymore.

[OCPunisher]

Thanks for all the feedback. I ended up going with Stronghold because it really needs Urborg to be effective, and I can make enough mana without it.

More to the point, hopefully others will be able to use this thread for similar questions.

[pokken]

I'll go next. I want to go no context cos I'd rather not prejudice anyone:

My Gitrog list:
https://deckbox.org/sets/1368747

What would you cut for Scheming Symmetry?

[xeroxedfool]

I'll go next. I want to go no context cos I'd rather not prejudice anyone:

My Gitrog list:
https://deckbox.org/sets/1368747

What would you cut for Scheming Symmetry?

Underrealm Lich or Bolas's Citadel.

[OCPunisher]

I'll go next. I want to go no context cos I'd rather not prejudice anyone:

My Gitrog list:
https://deckbox.org/sets/1368747

What would you cut for Scheming Symmetry?

Normally, I'd say Carpet of Flowers, but based on the power level of some of these cards, I'd wager there's a fair amount of blue in your meta, so I'll say Underrealm Lich as well. Bolas's Citadel seems like it could do the kind of broken vintage-y things you would want in a powered-up deck like this one.

[pokken]

Underrealm Lich or Bolas's Citadel.

I think this thread is going to be a great thing.

Underrealm is always on the bubble for me. I am gonna actually draw it before I cut it but I think you might be right.

Citadel -- with all the extra land drops, it's absolutely insane. I was pretty cold on that card until I realized you could play lands with it.

Normally, I'd say Carpet of Flowers, but based on the power level of some of these cards, I'd wager there's a fair amount of blue in your meta, so I'll say Underrealm Lich as well. Bolas's Citadel seems like it could do the kind of broken vintage-y things you would want in a powered-up deck like this one.

Yea I'd guess 2/3rds of the decks I run into are blue even though it's not *that* powerful of a meta.

My gut instinct overall is either Lich like you guys say, or to start cutting into the Cultivate stuff. Really, cultivate and Kodama's are fluff in this deck--would most likely be better as almost anything else. But I resist cutting them because 1) they help hit land drops so I can keep more crappy hands, 2) they give me emergency cuts in case they ever print a new version of Exploration "fixed" for standard

I think almost anything other than Lich becomes transformative -- I could cut stuff like the Eldrazi package entirely and go into combo or just planning to win with a huge Torment or Finale, or stuff like that.


Thanks fellas

[Rumpy5897]

Yeah, I think the eldrazos are debatable. Also, what's the LED doing in there? Also also, are you sure you want to give someone else a free Vampiric Tutor?

[xeroxedfool]

I thought you couldn't play lands with Citadel, thats pretty awesome.

[pokken]

Yeah, I think the eldrazos are debatable. Also, what's the LED doing in there? Also also, are you sure you want to give someone else a free Vampiric Tutor?

LED I have yet to try, I just wanted to see if it worked. still haven't drawn it. My thought was cast Gitrog with it then start dredging or playing lands from the yard or whatever. Pretty explosive turns of like...exploration, land, land, untap land land LED Gitrog.

So the thing about Gitrog with imperial seal effects is he allows drawing the card very easily so the odds of it just being demonic tutor for B are pretty high. Also I have so many ways to play lands off the top too that I could say, seal for salvage, play salvage off the top, wasteland it, then start comboing.

But no I'm not 100% sure I want it, just feels like it'd be worth trying

I thought you couldn't play lands with Citadel, thats pretty awesome.

yep...I was pretty blown away by that too. Oracle of Mul Daya is one of the few cards I would play like 15 of if they had the relentless rats text, so any way to play lands off the top is big in my book.

My record lands off the top plays was 6 in one turn with azusa, oracle, exploration and gitrog and a scroll rack

[OCPunisher]

Kykar deck here!

Looking to add in both Frantic Search and Faithless Looting. One cut will be Serum Visions, not sure what the other one should be. This deck is basically trying to mimic Talrand or the UB Faeries deck from way back in Lorwyn standard: lots of cheap fast spells, which make lots of small flyers, which can either fuel more cheap spells or attack for value.

[pokken]

Kykar deck here!

Looking to add in both Frantic Search and Faithless Looting. One cut will be Serum Visions, not sure what the other one should be. This deck is basically trying to mimic Talrand or the UB Faeries deck from way back in Lorwyn standard: lots of cheap fast spells, which make lots of small flyers, which can either fuel more cheap spells or attack for value.

Do you think this deck really needs chromatic lantern? The mana seems great and frantic search and looting will help you fix mana. So does Serum Visions for that matter (which I am a pretty big fan of).

My second cut would be long term plans as it just doesn't seem all that fun or interesting despite being strong. Molten Disaster seems kinda iffy to me too.

I would consider Summary Dismissal over counterflux as a sidenote. I've found that card to be pure gold. Get wrecked Ulamog.

[xeroxedfool]

Kykar deck here!

Looking to add in both Frantic Search and Faithless Looting. One cut will be Serum Visions, not sure what the other one should be. This deck is basically trying to mimic Talrand or the UB Faeries deck from way back in Lorwyn standard: lots of cheap fast spells, which make lots of small flyers, which can either fuel more cheap spells or attack for value.

I dont like Ral or Insidious Will

[OCPunisher]

Kykar deck here!

Looking to add in both Frantic Search and Faithless Looting. One cut will be Serum Visions, not sure what the other one should be. This deck is basically trying to mimic Talrand or the UB Faeries deck from way back in Lorwyn standard: lots of cheap fast spells, which make lots of small flyers, which can either fuel more cheap spells or attack for value.

Do you think this deck really needs chromatic lantern? The mana seems great and frantic search and looting will help you fix mana. So does Serum Visions for that matter (which I am a pretty big fan of).

My second cut would be long term plans as it just doesn't seem all that fun or interesting despite being strong. Molten Disaster seems kinda iffy to me too.

This is exactly the kind of outside perspective I was looking for!
- Hadn't considered the Lantern as unnecessary, but now that you mention it, I can probably get away without it.
- Long-Term Plans was a concession to not having access to many tutors, but it can probably be replaced.
- Molten Disaster fits with other Earthquake-type effects that clear most of the board but leave all my flyers intact. Haven't actually tried these out yet, but on paper they seem like they would give me a specific advantage. More will be revealed.

[PrimevalCommander]

I dont like Ral or Insidious Will

I am not the OP, but I personally love Insidious Will for a 75% list. Its a 2 for 1 against removal spells and can hard counter many game winning plays. 4 cmc is steep for a counter, but I like the card.

I also like Mystic Confluence for its ability to scale with the game and answer many situations. Mana Leak plus Draw 2 is not even a rare occurrence with this card.

[xeroxedfool]

Meh, I like Mystic Confluence but I dont like Insidious Will. I think its mostly fine and versatile. But I don't see why I would really want to do any of its options for 4 mana. Maybe I'm thinking too "100% optimized" but I would rather have a more unique card or cheaper card.

In the context of that Kykar deck, I would rather have Lightning Greaves than Insidious Will. It still triggers the commander but protects it more permanently. Its also a different form of protection.

[OCPunisher]

I was really hoping that this might become a more popular thread for others to utilize as well, but oh well.

I love Mystic Confluence...Mana Leak plus draw 2 is very common as mentioned above, and any combination of the three modes is usually worth the mana. Insidious Will might get cut because only one mode can happen at a time.

Ended up cutting Chromatic Lantern and Long-Term Plans for Faithless Looting and Frantic Search, and I picked up Kindred Discovery, so Molten Disaster went out for it.

Also, I just picked up a copy of Ajani, Strength of the Pride for my Trostani deck here. It has a pretty heavy emphasis on lands, and it's pretty resilient to removal.

[Rumpy5897]

Regna, the Redeemer? Six mana to poop out 2-4 1/1s in a typical turn cycle seems relatively low impact given the CMC. Compare to Tendershoot Dryad to further put this into perspective.

[xeroxedfool]

[mention]OCPunisher[/mention]
Maybe you could cut Dawn of Hope for mana efficiency?
I like Regna as a cut as well.

[xeroxedfool]

I picked up a Contamination in a trade last night and I was wondering if anyone had any advice for me.

Here is the list.

[Dragonlover]

Err... I've just looked at the list, and I've got nothing. On a different note that you've probably already thought of, you'll probably want to swap that Star Compass for Arcane Signet when the Brawl decks drop.

Dragonlover