![snow on the bluff steam snow on the bluff steam](https://thumbs.dreamstime.com/z/backlighted-cup-hot-steaming-coffee-drink-tea-night-snowy-background-mug-warm-beverage-snow-winter-weather-189621237.jpg)
Since I didn't want the other players at the table to have their Swamps produce twice as much mana, I played Snow-Covered Swamps instead. One of the best cards in that deck was the then format staple Extraplanar Lens. I loved my Monoblack Chainer, Dementia Master deck that played every card that doubled your mana. Gaining from your Opponent's Snow Payoffsīack before I got into competitive Magic, I was a big Commander addict. It might not be popular anymore but if you're also on Lightning Bolts and Mountains, you may be able to convince your opponent that a turn two Blood Moon is coming their way when you have zero copies of the card in your deck. Mono Red Prison uses Skred as removal and Scrying Sheets as a card advantage engine.
![snow on the bluff steam snow on the bluff steam](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/S/sgp-catalog-images/region_US/26np2-PJVJXPXG52X-Full-Image_GalleryCover-en-US-1584727356431._UY500_UX667_RI_VY6ay7gquQQ0apZqX0afIA2jBqLVmauRS_TTW_.jpg)
If you're on burn say, where you run bolts but no Skred, you still might consider snow mountains to make them think you're going to be playing tempo when you're actually much more aggressive. In Pauper, there has been a very popular Izzet Delver Deck that plays Skred because a playset of Lightning Bolt isn't enough.
Snow on the bluff steam pro#
Izzet Pyromancer, Pascal Vieren, Pro Tour Ixalan February 2018 But even after this, snow lands were a rare sight at tournaments.
Snow on the bluff steam professional#
In fact, the first time I saw a professional Magic player mention this subtle deckbuilding topic was Pascal Vieren's deck tech for his Izzet Pyromancer deck at Pro Tour Ixalan where he explained his Snow-Covered Basic Lands as a bluff to pretend to be Storm.
![snow on the bluff steam snow on the bluff steam](https://cdn.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/steam/apps/852480/ss_0cfdaab5aa9241847a07e446c1fafab6931d5c54.1920x1080.jpg)
When I realized this, I stumbled upon many more decks where snow lands can make your opponent think you're an entirely different deck and I started to wonder why I wasn't seeing snow lands far more often. However, if you incorporate Snow-Covered Islands in all your decks that start the game with a blue cantrip, all of a sudden your opponent puts you on Storm when you're playing Izzet Phoenix, Jeskai Control, Grixis Control, Blue Scapeshift, Grixis Death's Shadow, or Blue Moon, which can be a huge advantage. All of a sudden, it became a disadvantage since many Modern Decks start with Island and Serum Visions and most of them demand a different play pattern from opponents when compared to Storm. When Snow-Covered Islands became a popular inclusion in Gifts Ungiven Decks, I realized how many players would go “I see you're on Storm” when I played my snow land and cast Serum Visions. Miracles, therefore, probably doesn't want to split their basics, because it immediately tells the opponent that they aren't on Predict. If they split them between Snow-Covered and regular Plains, the chance of getting successful blind predict decreases by about 50%. Death and Taxes, for example, plays 10-12 Plains. When you're playing against a deck that runs a lot of basics of the same type, it might be correct to Predict on them and name their most common basic. Legacy Miracles plays this card and there might be a game where the Miracles player needs to blind Predict someone in order to cycle their cantrip and use up their mana. After thousands of games played with Modern Storm, I have yet to search for four untapped lands and had it matter, but it taught me a lot about snow-covered lands and I ended up thinking a lot about them.Īnother card where you need to name a card and can benefit from Snow-Covered Lands is Predict.
![snow on the bluff steam snow on the bluff steam](https://www.railpictures.net/images/d2/8/0/3/7803.1589126349.jpg)
When I started playing Storm in Modern, I quickly added one Snow-Covered Island to my decklist as Gifts Ungiven asks for four different names and when I want to tutor for an untapped land, having two islands I can get helps out at no cost to the deck.