Erebos, God of the Dead: Danse Macabre

[MrBloo]

Can you guys give me a quick primer on what to pitch to stack effects first and in smokestack's case, how many soots I should keep it at in order to use these effectively? I have very little experience playing with smokestack effects so I'm curious. Like how to effectively break symmetry with them out.

[TheGildedGoose]

Can you guys give me a quick primer on what to pitch to stack effects first and in smokestack's case, how many soots I should keep it at in order to use these effectively? I have very little experience playing with smokestack effects so I'm curious. Like how to effectively break symmetry with them out.

My rule of thumb is to never go above one soot counter. I have, on occasion, gone to two for a turn cycle or two to accelerate the destabilization process for my opponents but it's a little risky. Breaking parity can be hard enough, there's no need to risk setting yourself back farther than necessary. Generally I'm content to sacrifice an extra disruption piece (Words of Waste, Tainted Aether), then a mana rock.

[MrBloo]

My rule of thumb is to never go above one soot counter. I have, on occasion, gone to two for a turn cycle or two to accelerate the destabilization process for my opponents but it's a little risky. Breaking parity can be hard enough, there's no need to risk setting yourself back farther than necessary. Generally I'm content to sacrifice an extra disruption piece (Words of Waste, Tainted Aether), then a mana rock.

Thank you! When I was goldfishing the stax version I also felt the same way, where with one soot counter I felt more comfortable just pitching an extra piece or a land to crucible back every turn whereas with 2 counters things looked little dicey and I felt like I was hamstringing myself from trying to inch ahead while everyone is losing stuff. Makes perfect sense. The key of preferring to lose an extra disruption piece rather than a mana source is also what I needed to hear.

[TheAmericanSpirit]

How does everyone feel about Throne of Eldraine? It is one big rock, but it churns out a ton of mana and even has some emergency draw stapled to it?

[TheGildedGoose]

How does everyone feel about Throne of Eldraine? It is one big rock, but it churns out a ton of mana and even has some emergency draw stapled to it?

I've been thinking of adding that, Gilded Lotus, and maybe Thran Dynamo to help mana production if a doubler isn't available. Throne looks to be the strongest of the bunch, obviously, but I can't decide what to cut for them.

[MrBloo]

If you are looking to also add Gilded Lotus or Thran Dynamo I suggest adding Sceptre of Eternal Glory first since it's just gonna be better than either of them in almost all cases for the deck. Throne is not bad for sure. The fact that it pays back 4 of the 5 mana right away is real nice. I assume the color restriction won't be an issue as long as we don't get stuck trying to use it to cast artifacts or activate abilities.

[Gorillajay]

How does everyone feel about Throne of Eldraine? It is one big rock, but it churns out a ton of mana and even has some emergency draw stapled to it?

I considered Throne for my mono white deck, however i ended up deciding against it since that deck plays a lot of equipment and that card doesn't let you use the mana towards colorless spells or activate abilities which is kind of a bummer. You can probably gain a lot of tempo if you cast it and then tap it to cast a 4 mana spell, but if you don't have any colored spells it's a big L. You also can't activate the draw effect with colorless lands or mana sources like rocks/sol ring.