PWND
Personally I say use gifts in Extended or Vintage with Crucible of Worlds in play to search your library for 3 land and another Gifts Ungiven, particularlly a couple fetchlands and another important land from your deck. Deck thinning at it's finest, imo.
BTW, I proxied the U/R Fish up last night, and beat down my friend's Stax deck left and right. Because of Crucible of Worlds, Wasteland & Stripmine, and Rack and Ruin, often times he had no land left and I had him in a lock down. At first I had to get used to playing competetively and making sure I made the right plays, since every wrong play could be my last. One example is when he laid a Masticore one game and I had 2x Grim Lavamancers in play. I should have pinged off the Masticore but didn't (that was the 2nd game we played). Often times after that once I got used to playing it, games started out where whoever laid a land first laid a Stripmine or Wasteland, as well as the other, so it really ended up that Turn 1 was basically just an extra draw But all went well as I usually mulliganed unless I could get a turn one Lavamancer or had a Null Rod in my hand. Keep in mind, he's running Stax. He was really frustrated at the end of the night, but it felt really good. I hate to say that, but in a way I don't, because he always wins at Magic and the majority of cards in his deck come from trades he didn't deserve (ie. the other person was idiotic, someone traded him a Mana Crypt for 2x Mirari's Wake, for example). I can't wait to get this deck built He's going down. Bigtime.
Here's what I'm running:
4x Volcanic Island
4x Polluted Delta
1x Bloodstained Mire
4x Wasteland
1x Stripmine
4x Mishra's Factory
2x Faerie Conclave
3x Island
2x Mountain
4x Grim Lavamancer
4x Cloud of Faeries
4x Spiketail Hatchling
4x Brainstorm
4x Standstill <- I understand the goodness of this now
3x Daze
3x Rack and Ruin
4x Force of Will
3x Null Rod
2x Crucible of Worlds
BTW, I proxied the U/R Fish up last night, and beat down my friend's Stax deck left and right. Because of Crucible of Worlds, Wasteland & Stripmine, and Rack and Ruin, often times he had no land left and I had him in a lock down. At first I had to get used to playing competetively and making sure I made the right plays, since every wrong play could be my last. One example is when he laid a Masticore one game and I had 2x Grim Lavamancers in play. I should have pinged off the Masticore but didn't (that was the 2nd game we played). Often times after that once I got used to playing it, games started out where whoever laid a land first laid a Stripmine or Wasteland, as well as the other, so it really ended up that Turn 1 was basically just an extra draw But all went well as I usually mulliganed unless I could get a turn one Lavamancer or had a Null Rod in my hand. Keep in mind, he's running Stax. He was really frustrated at the end of the night, but it felt really good. I hate to say that, but in a way I don't, because he always wins at Magic and the majority of cards in his deck come from trades he didn't deserve (ie. the other person was idiotic, someone traded him a Mana Crypt for 2x Mirari's Wake, for example). I can't wait to get this deck built He's going down. Bigtime.
Here's what I'm running:
4x Volcanic Island
4x Polluted Delta
1x Bloodstained Mire
4x Wasteland
1x Stripmine
4x Mishra's Factory
2x Faerie Conclave
3x Island
2x Mountain
4x Grim Lavamancer
4x Cloud of Faeries
4x Spiketail Hatchling
4x Brainstorm
4x Standstill <- I understand the goodness of this now
3x Daze
3x Rack and Ruin
4x Force of Will
3x Null Rod
2x Crucible of Worlds