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1 year ago ::
Jan 30, 2012 - 9:48AM
#11
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Date Joined:
May 29, 2007
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I wasn't sure for a while, but since Tracker's Instincts  reveals the cards, you can't simply choose to "not find" any creature card among them as you would be able to when searching libraries.. Which means that you have to put that one single creature card that you reveal most of the time into your hand and that you have to put only non-creature cards into the graveyard! 
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1 year ago ::
Jan 30, 2012 - 9:51AM
#12
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I guess you have to look at Tracker's Instincts as a mill 3. If that makes any sense.
And with flashback that's not to bad.
Still love my mulch though.
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1 year ago ::
Jan 30, 2012 - 9:54AM
#13
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Date Joined:
May 29, 2007
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However, it fails at milling creatures cards, you have to hope that you're hitting your few copies of Gnaw To The Bone  + Unburial Rites  , otherwise it doesn't really help you..
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1 year ago ::
Jan 31, 2012 - 3:02PM
#14
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Date Joined:
Sep 22, 2009
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Hm, I dunno. I much prefer Tracker's Instincts to Mulch  . First of all, it doesn't seem quite right to assume you'll only be revealing only one creature out of those four cards. Statistically speaking, that's just not how it's going to work. Second, you don't want to mill every creature anyway, so it's nice you can choose to keep the best and drop the others when you do reveal more than one creature. And third, if you do get stuck with an unwanted creature in your hand, well that's what Merfolk Looter  and/or Civilized Scholar  are there for. But what makes Tracker's Instincts card truly better in a deck like this is the flashback. So many cards are getting milled straight into your graveyard, and a milled instant or sorcery without flashback is useless to you. Flashback, of course, at least allows you to get one use out of the card.
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1 year ago ::
Jan 31, 2012 - 3:47PM
#15
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Mulch is the better card. Mulch itself is the only card that isn't a creature or flashback spell. You mill everything except lands, which is exactly what you want. It really helps you with land drops. When playing the deck you will immediately find it to be an MVP.
Tracker's Instincts isn't unplayable. But I don't know how to mix it in. I guess I'll do some testing when Dark Ascension hits MTGO.
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1 year ago ::
Feb 01, 2012 - 12:53AM
#16
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Date Joined:
May 29, 2007
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Let's have fun with math: The probability of revealing more than just one creature card is (not exactly, but almost!) 1.0 - (0.66 * 0.66 * 0.66 * 0.66) - 4 (0.33 * 0.66 * 0.66 * 0.66) = 1.0 - 0.19 - 4 * 0.10 = 0.41, so this happens twice when playing Tracker's Instincts five times.. However, the probability of revealing zero creature cards is (not exactly, but almost!) 0.66 * 0.66 * 0.66 * 0.66 = 0.19, so this happens once when playing Tracker's Instincts five times.. Which means that flashback doesn't really help you here, it just compensates for playing Tracker's Instincts without anything happening (without putting any creature card into your hand ~or~ into your graveyard) every once in a while.. There's a probability of revealing more than two creature cards, but it's only (0.33 * 0.33 * 0.33 * 0.33) + 4 (0.66 * 0.33 * 0.33 * 0.33) = 0.012 + 0.025 = 0.037 and you'll have to play Tracker's Instincts 27-28 times to see that happen once.. So, if you play Tracker's Instincts five times, these things happen: - You'll reveal two creature cards and put one of them into your hand and one of them into your graveyard. - You'll reveal one creature card and put that card into your hand. - You won't reveal creature cards. - You'll reveal one creature card and put that card into your hand. - You'll reveal two creature cards and put one of them into your hand and one of them into your graveyard.
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1 year ago ::
Feb 01, 2012 - 1:00AM
#17
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Date Joined:
Sep 22, 2009
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I guess I'll just have to wait until Dark Ascension is released so I can test Tracker's Instincts out. But after having played with a deck pretty similar to this one for about a month now, nine times out of ten I've just found Mulch to be a big disappointment.
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1 year ago ::
Feb 01, 2012 - 1:07AM
#18
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Date Joined:
May 29, 2007
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Yeah, it's not very good at putting creature cards into the graveyard, but allows you to run fewer land cards and that way more creature cards! Mulch allows you to find your 4th or 5th land faster, and when you play it five times you'll reveal more than just one land card twice..
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1 year ago ::
Feb 02, 2012 - 1:58PM
#19
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My friend plays a similar deck. I don't think anyone mentioned Jace's Archivist  yet, so I thought I'd mention it. We mainly play multiplayer, so that card might be a bit more effective there. I thought it was worth mentioning though.
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1 year ago ::
Feb 02, 2012 - 2:17PM
#20
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The instincts are nice, but I feel that I need to put in more land in place of mulches and also to have mana to pour into the flashback..
Which means fewer creatures. I don't know. I gotta make more tests with my three copies.
One of my games they managed to either mill no creatures or fetch me frights everytime.
Also Evolving Wilds will now allow me to go Spider Spawning without paying for g/b dual lands.
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