C · Positioning & Configuration · §17
What is locked, what the real package decision is, and the three changes worth testing before anything else.
21 lands sit outside the curve. A land has no mana value to spend, and stacking a third of the deck at zero would flatten every other bar.
Card types
60 cards in the main deck.
Colour identity
Colour identity across all 60 listed cards. A card of two colours counts under both, so these do not sum to the deck size.
Mana value, type and colour identity are printed card values from Scryfall, joined against this guide’s list.
＋ Bring in (tap to add copies)
− Take out
19 shuffled units.
From the guide . §17 Flex Slots & Tuning
Four , four , four , four , four , three , two , and twenty-one lands. Thirty-nine cards that are not up for discussion.
The principal choice is between a high-velocity Archaeologist and Gaze package, which is what this list plays, and a fairer Mending and Riddler package. Other recent successful lists have gone four , four , no , no Archaeologist, no Gaze and no Spider-Man. Another moved further the other way with four Archaeologist, three Inquisition of Kozilek and no main-deck Riddler.◆src
The open field carries substantial Goryo, Grixis Reanimator and Living End. The first sideboard experiment is one out, one Ghost Vacuum in.
Make that change when Goryo and Grixis Reanimator are overrepresented, when Living End is common, and when Affinity, Broodscale, Devoted and Eldrazi artifact engines are less so. Keep both Clarions in a genuinely open field.
One out, one in. This improves Boros, control and hate-heavy post-board games, and it improves natural threat density. It weakens the raw Goryo ceiling, the fast combo turns, and the chance of binning a premium target.
Only make it after testing shows the second is repeatedly stranded or unsafe.
One out, one in, moving toward the other successful configuration. Better early board presence, mill density, Goryo and selection, and blocking. Worse late-game card advantage, post-hate threat quality, and warped Riddler lines.
Keep in an open field. The life loss is real against Boros and prowess, and Thoughtseize is what reaches Eldrazi, , , Primeval Titan, the large Neoform pieces, and the expensive interaction and hate. Inquisition is preferable only in a local field concentrated on low-curve decks.