X-ing or "X-it Strategy" - What're's the best spell(s) to pair with Unbound Flourishing?
Here's my logic:
4xRosheen Meanderer - this was a tough decision but I believe it will be valuable enough that opponents will remove it and therefore 4x slots won't be wasted on it. At worst, it can always chump swing/block if we have more in hand, I guess.
We have 4x wincons: Exsanguinate and Villainous Wealth. Other 'X' spells are supportive. We also have Banefire in the sideboard in the event we really need it's evasion. Exsanguinate is an efficient multiplayer killer that can also be played early in a longevity effort and Villainous Wealth can take from one opponent to kill another as a flavor win-con. It's worth noting that both Exsanguinate and Villainous Wealth were chosen because this deck (like pretty much all my decks) is intended to be a Multiplayer deck. If I were to gear it toward 1v1 matchups, I'd definitely mainboard Banefire.
Unbound Flourishing is a must 4x. It stacks (x2, x4, x8), allowing for some huge boosts to all our 'X' spells, even enabling Magus of the Candelabra to ramp like wild.
Goldvein Hydra is a perfect 1st 'X' spell to cast because it doubles our mana if it's removed and it hits the same turn it drops. And if an opponent does happen to get caught unawares, then this could be an early wincon in it's own right.
Hydroid Krasis is a great utility as it draws us cards and replenishes our life while coming with a big booty, but when we really want cards,
Mind Spring nets us a huge amount of cards and that equates to a huge advantage.
We especially want lands that tap for more than one mana, so Utopia Sprawl and Fertile Ground are no brainers, but Mana Reflection gets us all the way there and then some for some seriously massive mana ramping.
There's not much room left over for interaction, but I did manage to squeeze in a couple Fog's and a Heroic Intervention, with all the draw card, there's a chance those spells could flip the tide in close matches. It's possible that after playtesting, I change out these spells.
I would love to carve out an additional 3 slots for more interaction - namely for removal, of which we have none. Eep! Alas, I see no place to take those slots from at the moment, but I'm open to sensible suggestions and might find it easier after I run it through some paces.
Mana ramp? More like a mana vertical incline! Consider: 2x lands, each with a Fertile Ground or Utopia Sprawl - alone, they tap for 4. Now add 1xMagus of the Candelabra. Pay Magas 2x and untap both lands and we now have 6 mana. Add 1xUnbound Flourishing and we only pay 1 now to Magus to untap 2 lands so we generate 7 mana instead of 6. Now we play an 'X' spell and Unbound Flourishing doubles it, so it's as if we had 12-14 mana. In my solo playtesting here on TappedOut.net (I just draw and play lands and cast spells and look at how many turns it takes to reach a "win" scenario and tweak cards based on that) so far, I was able to cast a Goldvein Hydra that entered with over 50 +1/+1 counters on Turn 5. !!
If you're still reading, then I'll present you with these thoughts on stacking lands with ramp enchantments vs spreading the enchantments around. With arbor, it's obvious that stacking enchantments on a single land is going to generate a lot more mana than spreading them around. But, when it comes to Mana Reflection, since it double all mana sources (Note, Mana Reflection doubles mana from Rosheen Meanderer !! and would also work on Llanowar Elves, Elvish Druid, etc) then Magus of the Candelabre can untap all the lands for a good gain. The risk with the classic Arbor Elf & Utopia Sprawl combo is just as classic: an opponent removes that land and the unstable tower of mana collapses. While opponents can remove Mana Reflection, they are less likely to be able to remove multiple lands that have been each enchanted once. So while it's less efficient with Arbor Elf, it still generates heaps of mana and in a way that's harder to disable.
