Fortunately this isn't the hardest deck to mulligan with. We ideally want 2-3 land, 1-2 pieces of ramp/acceleration, 0-2 pieces of interaction and 1-2 pieces of card advantage/selection. For the sake of being a bit more comprehensive than that, we’ll break down a handful of hands from the tappedout playtest and talk through the thinking.
Hand 1:
Polluted Delta, Carpet of Flowers, Deathrite Shaman, Orcish Lumberjack, Curse of Opulence, Goblin Bombardment, Lion's Eye Diamond.
This is a 1-lander. Fortunately, its a 1-lander with a ton of 1-drops in it. Any hand with potential for turn 1 carpet is a consideration, so let's break it down. This hand is full of mana, packed with it. If the carpet is live on turn one, you could easily go Delta → crack for Bayou → cast Carpet → move to main 2 → cast DRS or Lumberjack. Even without a second land, that's a pretty potent start, and a turn 2 Korvold. If Korvold gets countered, we don’t have much going on, we’re looking quite reliant on our card advantage coming from Korvold and Curse. I’d keep this hand, but then again, perhaps I’m too greedy for my own good.
Hand 2:
Badlands, Mana Confluence, Culling the Weak, Carpet of Flowers, Bloom Tender, Plunge into Darkness, Food Chain.
Another turn 1 carpet hand, so not the most interesting follow up to the previous hand, but a good example of a good hand. We’ve got carpet, we’ve got a dork, we’ve got a card selection spell and we’ve got Food Chain already in hand. Keep for sure.
Hand 3:
Bloodstained Mire, Marsh Flats, Lotus Petal, Sol Ring, Birds of Paradise, Arbor Elf, Wheel of Fortune.
Fetch → Sol Ring → Lotus Petal → Crack for R → Wheel of Fortune. That sounds like a great turn 1 when nobody is representing blatant countermagic. If wheel gets countered, we still have turn 3 Korvold and two dorks coming down on turn 2, so the failstate is salvageable. I’d keep this hand.
Hand 4:
Stomping Ground, Fyndhorn Elves, Demonic Consultation, Culling the Weak, Demonic Tutor, Goblin Bombardment, Praetor's Grasp.
No black source, only one land, no action, and no gas until we find black mana. I don’t think I’m keeping this one, greedlord that I am and all. If the first two draws don't find black mana, we’re dead. Not worth the risk, mull.
Hand 5:
Scalding Tarn, Mana Confluence, Llanowar Elves, Orcish Lumberjack, Priest of Titania, Ad Nauseam, Lion's Eye Diamond.
Two lands, three dorks, and a Naus. The LED is looking like it’ll be pretty much completely dead unless we’re cracking it after holding priority on our own Naus, which means discarding the priest if we go for the turn 2 Naus option. It's very important to note that we can’t protect this Naus in any way if we go that early, and forcing interaction out of the other players this early in the game is dangerous in a world full of Flash players. If you force interaction out of the only player presenting it, you need to be sure the next player in turn order isn't going to slam an unprotected win using the window of safety you’ve given them.
If we keep this hand, cast our turn 2 Naus in our main, hold priority on it and make (G)(G)(G), the other players at the table are going to be keenly aware that you stand a very good chance of winning if your Naus finds Food Chain. They also know your hand is empty, so countering your Naus will send you to the stone age.
Its equally important to recognise that if you go for the instant speed Naus, it means passing the turn with 5 mana available when you could have cast Korvold. This clearly telegraphs your line to the other players, almost unmistakably. They’ll know you have Naus, and plan and play accordingly, greatly weakening the instant speed Naus. This could be enough incentive to go for the turn 2 Korvold, in a blue heavy pod.
All things considered, I’m keeping this hand in most pods, but the way I’m playing the hand will vary a little depending on both pod composition, and where I am in the turn order.
Final hand:
City of Brass, Bayou, Vampiric Tutor, Goblin Bombardment, Doomsday, Fire Covenant, Temur Sabertooth.
This is an interesting one. Two lands, good colour access, vamp in hand with one half of Dockside Cat already available. Goblin Bombardment isn’t much of a rattlesnake without dorks, but can act as our payload in this situation, and Fire Covenant gives us decent board control if someone has an explosive start or everyone goes shields down at an opportune time.
If Dockside Cat doesn’t have the right density of artifacts/enchantments to go off, or you suspect there are faster players at the table, Vampiric Tutor enables the rest of your deck to find whatever you need. Having Doomsday in hand means any turn where you have access to Korvold could turn into an immediate win, depending on the pod. In this situation, preliminary ideas for Vamp targets could be Carpet of Flowers if there's a heavy blue deck, or Dockside Extortionist if you want to try for the early win with Dockside Cat. Failing either of those situations, protection for a Doomsday pile could be an option, but is likely to be too slow given the lack of ramp in the hand. Either half of the Food Chain combo could be an option too, Squee could be good with the Goblin Bombardment, but it's probably better to opt for Food Chain in case we draw Entomb.
This hand is likely a keep, but it's awkward. There’s two gas pieces in Sabertooth and Doomsday, but no ramp, no dorks for Bombardment, and our only interaction is Covenant. Vampiric Tutor saves the hand in terms of keepability, but the efficacy of your Vamp will very likely decide the outcome of the game for you. If you Vamp for Carpet of Flowers, and the Carpet count never gets above 1, the game is basically over for you. If you Vamp for Dockside and nobody plays any rocks, pulling off a win is going to be difficult. I wouldn’t Vamp for any of the Food Chain pieces unless the pod was looking quite slow. If it were me, I’m very likely to Vamp for Dockside. If Dockside doesn’t make enough treasures to combo out, it will still likely ramp us enough to stick a Korvold, and that’s all we could really ask for in a failstate.
