All About Opt

The above was spoiled today.  Take it in.  Opt, again.  Scry 1.  Draw a card.

Despite this card's incredible simplicity, it is quite the complex card;  Opt is probably the most complex mediocre card in any given Limited environment.  Casting it is easy, playing with it is pretty easy too, but building your deck with Opt in it is not.  Its been a common theme on this blog to look at incentives whenever we're trying to figure something out, and with Opt we'll make no exceptions.

Why Opt?

The primary function of Opt is to increase consistency, just like in Constructed.  When you actually value the increased consistency of Opt is a lot muddier.  Generally, you want cards like Opt in Sealed, especially in above average Sealed decks, as consistency is harder to come by when you're not drafting cards.  Primarily you want Opt in decks with a large gulf between powerful cards and weak cards.  Opt comes at the opportunity cost of playing a spell that's effective on its own, so you don't want to play Opt in your deck of somewhat synergistic C's and B's.  Once you have powerful rares and Mythics, Opt gets a lot more powerful, as you'll find them more often but also stumble on mana or early plays less often when bridging the gap.

Opt is also the perfect 23rd card, as it has a very high floor as long as you can cast it reliably.

Mana Constraints

The most important metric to keep in mind when deciding to include Opt is the mana cost of U.  As you'll generally want to cast Opt as soon as you draw it, your deck must be blue heavy to play with Opt.  I would recommend 9 Blue sources and above, but with 8 Opt is still acceptable.  Any less and this is not a card worth playing with.  There are a couple three mana ramp artifacts in Throne of Eldraine that produce Blue, which go pretty well with Opt, a 1 mana spell.

Shaving Lands

My general rule would be +2 Opt, -1 Land, once again as long as you have 9+ Blue sources.  As Opt helps you find lands early and better spells later on, I am pretty happy to count 2 of them as my 17th land.  Don't get too aggressive cutting Opts for land, as the diminishing returns add up quickly, and you still must maintain 9+ Blue sources.  If you wanted to cut 2 lands for instance, you'd want 3 Opt and at least one other cheap cantrip or 4th Opt, and I'd bump up the required Blue count to 10+, meaning I'd want to be nearly mono Blue before I'd consider going to 15 land and playing a pile of Opt.

Casting Opt

By far the easiest part of playing with Opt is actually casting it.  Just cast it early, don't hold onto it unless you have cards that care about drawing cards or casting Instants.  I would only hold Opt for later if I absolutely didn't know what I needed, and only if I didn't expect to get gated on mana in the future as a result.  For instance, if I wasn't sure if I needed a creature or my 6th land, I might wait to cast Opt for a turn to gain more information.  Generally bias toward casting Opt on your own turn during your main phase, as the vast majority of things to find off it are creatures and Land (we're playing Limited, after all).  If you're casting Opt on turn 1, I would wait until my opponent's end step, but that's much less common than casting it on your own turn.

In Summary:

• Play Opt with 9+ Blue.
• Shave a land with multiple Opts.
• Don't play Opt without good cards to find unless it's your 23rd card.
• Cast Opt on your own turn, during your first main phase.
• Don't wait on Opt.

Until next time,
Kevin
@sealedawaymtg on Twitter