Countdown to Regionals: Replenish Part 2
**It's no accident that I saved all the hard choices for part two. Discussing them earlier would have been premature. On a more practical level, it's harder to justify these decisions and explore the alternatives. Not counting a certain number of basic lands, there's only one card left that's always in the deck. The question there is one of multiples.
With four Enlightened Tutors it would be crazy not to use at least one. The question is how many. Being an enchantment gives it advantages in this deck, both coming back and being a 2/2. It fills an otherwise shallow slot in your mana curve as a two drop. As always, it's good, cheap enchantment and artifact removal. The problem is that in some matchups it's next to useless, and as Replenish becomes a more popular deck more people will begin to construct around this card. Of course, space is also very tight. Seals are pure gold against Accelerated Blue and Bargain , which for now are your main opposition, as well as in the mirror. But for a tournament like Regionals, you always need to make your way through players using more basic decks, even if playing them doesn't make objective sense. At any rate, the instinctive answer is that you don't run four of a card like this in such a varied metagame.
Conclusion: I run three right now, I understand four and I wouldn't condemn two either.
Advantages: Helps against Bargain , since it costs an extra five mana to go off against it. Needed after boarding, so starting it saves sideboard slots. Helps the deck survive during the first few turns against a creature rush, until it can use its more expensive spells. It's an enchantment.
Disadvantages: This 'doesn't do anything.' As a creature it's just a 1/1, and by the time you Replenish this shouldn't make much difference. It may buy you time, but it's going to be a net loss of a card most of the time. In short, it's not a threat card very often. Your ability to crush blue decks is based on having almost no non-threats. The important question is whether or not you need the speed boost enough to be willing to trade off this much power for it. I don't think you do. The engine is good enough to deal with a rush on its own.
Conclusion: You don't need it, so don't run it. The loss of sideboard slots is a small price to pay, and you probably don't lose all four. You can run one, but in practice you don't tutor for it very often. A big signal for me is it takes some of the 'good stuff' feeling away from the deck for me, and some of the sense of inevitability. On the other hand, if beatdown somehow makes a comeback and starts to give you trouble these could be added back.
Counterspell and Miscalculation
Advantages: Gives the deck something to do on turn two. Gives it a real counter to stop threats to the engine or to force through Replenish later on. Adds stability to the deck, and reinforces the controlling nature of the deck. Helps protect your first lands against land destruction so you can get enough out to operate properly. Accelerated Blue will normally tap out for its Stroke/ Opportunity and will signal that it is coming, letting you stop it. Great at buying time to get out Wave or Tide against Bargain.
Disadvantages: You plan to start tapping out after the first two turns, making these useless. They're not enchantments. Counterspell costs two blue mana, making it hard to protect a Parallax Tide and making it likely that you won't have the right mana on turn two. Miscalculation loses its effectiveness later on, which is often when you need it most to protect Replenish . You don't have room for one of these and Lilting Refrain.
Conclusion: I think you need one or the other more than the other cards that could go here. Which is better? I'm leaning toward Counterspell right now, but I can also see a mix of the two or using just Miscalculation . It having cycling is actually important, since one of the important things for Replenish is to plow through the deck as fast as possible. Right now I have three, but again that number is flexible.
Advantages: Devastating against blue. It's the enchantment counterspell, which seems like a natural for this deck. A solid turn two play, without having to worry about having nothing worth countering. Because it's not a spell, you can't counter the effect back. If they counter or kill it, they can't kill your other enchantments.
Disadvantages: Often this is still worth removing. If you draw it late, it could be a long time before it can counter anything. It doesn't stop them from blowing up your second land. Most important, you beat blue anyway if the deck is built and played correctly. Bargain should be able to work around this mana cost without that much trouble. Conclusion: At least for now, you don't need this card. It's overkill against a deck you can crush anyway.
Advantages: Allows you to discard additional cards for Replenish . Allows you to escape from Rishadan Port locks on your lands. Lets you get a second white mana off a single Plains or Painland. Gets you two cards deeper into the deck and closer to your key cards. The deck will normally have cards it doesn't need to hold onto when not playing against blue. Increases the chance of winning the game on turn four.
Disadvantages: You do end up with one less card in your hand. It's bad against blue, unless you're combating Ports. If you're also using Attunement and are starting to get low on cards this becomes inefficient, and with Enlightened Tutor you normally have Attunement . Often ends up forcing you into the graveyard mode when you would otherwise have a choice. Won't help you get to three lands, since you can't cast it without them. If you're using the depletion lands, you need to have three others to avoid wasting resources. In general, makes the deck less solid.
Conclusion: Frantic Search makes the deck a little more explosive, but at a cost that isn't worth paying. Replenish is a really strong deck right now, and you shouldn't need the kind of gambles involved with this card. If Replenish was a weak deck you might need to make this sacrifice. But right now it's really good, and you don't. If you're not in graveyard mode this card is often worse than useless, and in modern Replenish you want to be able to work without the graveyard as much as possible. Don't use Frantic Search.
Advantages: Thins the deck. Except for Seal of Removal you have nothing else to do on turn one. If you Brainstorm on turn two and then Enlightened Tutor , it's amazing. You often find the Tutor or Attunement that way as well. Increases the effective amount of mana in the deck. With holes in the mana curve like the one at five mana, it's normally possible to use up this card without trouble. As long as you can cast it without slowing you down it can only help. On occasion you can hide cards from Duress or Unmask.
Disadvantages: Takes up space in the deck you could use for other cards, including single cards you can use Enlightened Tutor to get. When using Attunement without many cards, you end up discarding Brainstorm a lot because you have more cards worth keeping than you can hang onto, and Brainstorm in the graveyard does nothing for you. Enlightened Tutor is your only shuffler. If you draw all white mana you can't use this to get your blue. Creates agonizing mulligan decisions.
Conclusion: The space is there, because you don't use Frantic Search , and this has a very positive effect on the deck. They come highly recommended. It comes down to a decision between this and Frantic Search.
Advantages: Helps a lot against many major deck types, including Bargain and most versions of Accelerated Blue. All the advantages of an enchantment, and first game all the added flexibility of a single copy if you run one. If you don't use depletion lands, you probably have only Painlands that this shuts down, and might not even have them. Saves a sideboard slot.
Disadvantages: Does hit some of your lands, unless you give up your otherwise worthwhile Painlands for it. Useless against some decks or in some particular games. Not cumulative.
Conclusion: One is worth it if you use four or less non-basics. More than one is probably overkill right now, but two is not unreasonable. If you do use multiples, all the Painlands should probably leave. If you don't start more than one, you will sideboard more.
Advantages: Prevents Bargain from going off unless it gets removed, and Bargain will probably have at most one way to kill it game one. There isn't much else that you can do to stall them until turn four unless you have a Counterspell , and you can tutor for it. Can work wonders at random against other decks, especially rouge combination decks. Normally, this will have very little effect on your deck, since it only plans to cast one spell a turn most of the time.
Disadvantages: There will be times you want to cast more than one spell a turn later on, especially spells like Brainstorm and Frantic Search , or to Counterspell a counter. You have no real bounce, except maybe Seal of Removal. The majority of decks will ignore this after the first few turns. You will normally have to tutor for it to have it when you need it, and you need to have Attunement most of the time.
Conclusion: It's basically a sliver bullet for one deck, Bargain , and I'm not even sure getting it is that much better than getting Attunement all the time. Stopping and using two cards to get down the Lab can let them slowplay the match if you're not doing anything and the Parallax cards start to wind down. If Bargain is huge then I guess one should be in the deck, but in general I don't feel nervous putting the Laboratory in the sideboard. I'd end up cutting a Seal of Cleansing to fit it anyway.
Advantages: Protects your lands, often single handedly defeating a Ponza or other land destruction strategy. If drawn randomly, lets you cycle extra lands or untap nonbasics under Back to Basics . Can get one land around Rishadan Port if you don't need your land play. Can get back depletion land counters. Can get you the second white or blue mana.
Disadvantages: Land destruction still slows you down, and tutoring for it can leave you without Attunement and takes away a shot to draw land. Won't help you get more land than you already have. Rarely worthwhile if you're not facing land destruction or serious Port problems. You need both colors of mana to go get it and then cast it.
Conclusion: You do need one mana card to Tutor for, but I think there's a better one, and it's:
Advantages: Allows you to Tutor for an additional land, and for blue mana if all you have is white or need a second blue. This is especially good if you need the blue to cast Attunement on turn three, and even better when you don't have the third land either. Instead of slowing your mana development like Trade Routes , it speeds it up. Creates a blue source that Rishadan Port cannot tap and land destruction cannot kill (barring Pillage ). If drawn randomly early on, it's often quite good, allowing you to get four mana on turn three. You can sometimes tutor for it against Bargain to get that effect.
Disadvantages: You won't have the mana to play it if you're in the period of the game where you're tapping out for a new enchantment every turn. Frantic Search cannot untap it if you use it. It's the only artifact in the deck, so cards like an Uktabi suddenly have a target to hit. Casting it with depletion lands can get ugly if you use them.
Conclusion: I found that this was definitely worth it. For a long time, I've been putting single Diamonds in decks with Enlightened Tutor bases. It's a very overlooked strategy.
Advantages/Disadvantages: Similar to Sky Diamond , except that you already have the Sky as another option first, leaving this for situations where your white mana is being killed off or you need to cast a double white spell and couldn't get Attunement to find a Plains . Conclusion: This is an interesting sideboard card, but not worthy of the maindeck. Sky Diamond definitely comes first.
Saprazzan Skerry (and Remote Farm)
Advantages: Under ideal conditions, the deck gets started a turn faster. Makes turn three wins very possible. Makes it easier to get double white and blue. Makes it a lot easier to back up a key spell with a Counterspell.
Disadvantages: Without the right hand these just make your land base unstable. They make you more vulnerable to Back to Basics . Because you'll have to replay more lands to retain your mana base, they let blue decks back into the long game to some extent. If you start Attuning and using these you can throw card economy out the window. Coming in tapped can be really annoying at the wrong time. They reduce the deck's stability.
Conclusion: The Skerry is a tradeoff, sacrificing the mana bases' reliability and the use of Back to Basics in order to get some more explosive starts and sometimes get counter backup for a spell. Again, it comes down to a question of whether you need to take that kind of risk, and I don't think you do. Like Frantic Search , drawing these at the wrong time forces you into a premature graveyard game and leads to random losses. I think these should be avoided.
Advantages: Ties down other Ports; two color decks in MM/NE constructed often use Ports for this reason, or should. Helps stall the game until you can cast your spells. They may help in the mirror?
Disadvantages: You don't seriously think your mana base will survive colorless lands, do you?
Conclusion: I don't think so, at least not without adding more lands to the deck, which you don't want to do. There is a critical mass of Ports where you must follow suit, however, so keep that in mind.
So that covers the maindeck. Obviously, I'm not done yet..
Zvi Mowshowitz
All questions, comments, and responses welcomed at
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