Lots of cards that could be discussed that leave the feeling of hearing only half a story here, but I realize we need to respect your time. Can you at least comment why you don't recommend splashing for another color(s)? - Ramunap, Confidant, Queller are all enticing options with supplemental reasons in those colors to boot. Obviously the Wasteland package might take a hit, so it's a question of gains and losses in card evaluations. How much is the loss of 2-4 Wastelands to the strategy?

@hierarchnoble Not really, the deck is still too much in flux to be worth a guide. Just try to remember why each card was included in the first place. Try to remember when certain cards are weaker in certain situations and see if they apply also calculate the need vs. the penalty of using spells instead of creatures (like StP - MAYBE critical vs. Tinker, MAYBE a dead draw that is taxed). The maindeck is more metagamed against blue, the sideboard against artifacts. I'm not sure that matches the actual state of the meta, but the anti-artifact cards typically have less maindeck application so it's probably forced.

I took Ramunap to a 3-1 in a daily with many outs to a 4-2 in the Challenge (that had other deckbuilding issues) so I can give some preliminary thoughts to the card. I played it in a hatebears deck powered by 4 Ancient Tomb, some Elvish Spirit Guides, and on-color Moxen/ManaCrypt. In hatebears, 3 feels like the right number: it felt marginal against blue, given artifact mana, blue's access to basics, and a propensity for the PO versions to combo out early. It felt very good against Shops, both defensively and proactively on the Wasteland axis; ditto for Dredge, but assuming a Wasteland and less margin-for-error.

In the end, I don't think it has sufficient value to justify a second color all by itself. If the hatebears base color is white, I'm not sure a blue (black?) splash wouldn't be better in the long run. The only other green cards I ran was Deathrite Shaman which I wasn't a big fan of for being slow and lacking punch as a graveyard management tool, and 3-4 sideboarded Manglehorns, which were fine but not as devastating as hoped (better against Shops than PO which will default to the Tinker game plan). If Gush had been unrestricted, I also would have played Gaddock Teegs.

In retrospect, compared to hatebears, I think it might be best suited for the (B)UG-still decks previously mentioned earlier in the thread. Having just one Wasteland source makes the card far more powerful so a good draw engine is indicated to increase the likelihood of finding one. He can attack, of course, under the Landstill soft-lock, and blue decks offer better filtering when his effect would only be marginal. Hatebears or Eldrazi wouldn't want to play GSZ, because of the taxing issues and the lack of targets. I have no opinion of the card in other shells.

Last thought, and don't underestimate it: he makes the value of Jitte go up for deckbuilding purposes.

Dryad Militant is a house against the Mentor draw engine - shaming JaceVP, Snapcaster, and the delve spells. Not sure it's worth Misstep exposure, but I think so, since if not, Blue has plenty of ways to pitch Misstep without problem.

@wappla Please see arguments rehashed in thread above.

@wappla Great, my job is to play Shops, Mentor, enjoy losing, or quit Vintage. That makes me feel better. Why would you want to encourage people to play a linear, "lotus"-infested anti-spells deck? From a success standpoint, that makes sense, but not my particular cup of tea.

Today's the six-week pre-inclusion anniversary for Monastery Mentor! :)

Is Moat good against Shops? I usually don't play the draw decks, but I'd suspect it would, more often than not, be a dead card in hand. Zero Dredge in the field, and still blue decks did poorly (compared to their nemesis) - maybe they overcompensated against a ghost?

As always, thanks for the superb write-up, sir!

Kevin's name got in the link it looks like.

[http://www.eternalcentral.com/so-many-insane-plays-podcast-episode-68-hour-of-devastation/](link url)

If you were a world-famous ethicist and WotC was willing to pay you to advise them on how to make tournament structures more ethical (preferably by changing as little as possible), what would you advise?