Hello and welcome to What’s the Play! Here’s how it works: I provide a scenario and you try to determine the correct solution. Once you do, vote your choice in the poll and check back later in the week to see if it agrees with mine.
For all mulligan rules, we’re going to use the regular mulligan. That is, you mulligan to 6 or 5 or 4 and then scry.
What’s the Play?
Situation 1
You’re playing Izzet Phoenix against Titanshift. It’s game 3, and you’re on the play. This is your opening hand:
For reference, this is how you sideboarded.
Out:
-2 Gut Shot
In:
+2 Blood Moon
+1 Alpine Moon
+1 Beacon Bolt
+2 Spell Pierce
+1 Abrade
Situation 2
You’re playing Red against Gruul, post-board. You boarded this:
Out:
-2 Shock
In:
+4 Lava Coil
You believe they board out Domri, Llanowar Elves and Legion Warboss (you can’t know for sure; they’ve boarded similarly to this in the past against an identical deck, but they were on the draw and now they’re on the play, so they could have mixed things up).
This is your turn two and you’ve just connected with Fanatical Firebrand.
Situation 3
You’re playing the same matchup. You both board the same way. It’s game 2 and you’re on the draw. This is your opening hand.
Situation 4
You’re playing the same matchup, and it’s the middle of game 2. Your opponent’s last turn was just playing Gruul Spellbreaker with 2 mana up, and they didn’t kill your Runaway Steam-Kin, so you believe that, at least last turn, they didn’t have a Lightning Strike or Lava Coil in hand (though they could conceivably have had Shock and not wanted to use it). They draw and attack with everything.
Situation 5
You’re playing Brian Boss’s Feather deck that made Top 8 of GP Kansas City (you can read Brian’s tournament report here).
You’re on the draw against an unknown opponent. You mulligan and this is your hand:
You Scry and see a Plains. Do you keep the plains on top or scry it to the bottom?
Make sure you vote and then tune in tomorrow for my answers–I’m looking forward to seeing if you agree with me!
– PV
