Allows us to fetch any green creature, which, depending on the creatures you run, gives access to:
- Card Draw (Blex, Vexing Pest
)
- More Mana (Elvish Spirit Guide and Tinder Wall)
- Creature to sacrifice to Culling the Weak (Gilded Goose and Ravenous Squirrel)
- Black mana to imprint under a Chrome Mox (Ravenous Squirrel)
In general I try to keep the Summoner's Pact package as small as possible, as you want to access to these cards, but they may not all be great draws. There are many other creatures that you could add to the deck, but that would lead to more dead draws, something that I've been trying to reduce. With the introduction of Beseech the Mirror, the list has seen quite a few changes, so I'm not sure if the current package can be made smaller or not.
This is the main reason to run the Summoner's Pact package. Running a single copy gives the deck access to 5 more draw spells. I prefer to cast this card first over Infernal Contract and Cruel Bargain, as it sees more cards (5 vs 4), but also tends to cost more life, which makes casting Infernal Contracts or Cruel Bargains afterwards better, rather than casting the draw 4 spells first and Search for Blex afterwards. Casting the front half (Blex, Vexing Pest
) is technically possible and the gain life effect can relevant, but I don't think you ever want to be actively doing it.
It may not look like it, but the main function Ravenous Squirrel has is generating mana. It can do so by providing black or green mana by exiling it under a Chrome Mox or as sacrifice fodder for Culling the Weak. It doesn't come up very often, but Ravenous Squirrel can also draw a card and gain a life. Suffice it to say, but you probably aren't in a good position if you have to use this ability.
The deck doesn't require a lot of green mana, but you need access to it. Being able to Summoner's Pact for it is simply very useful. You can also use Elvish Spirit Guide to just gain extra mana for casting more expensive spells.
The perfect card for casting Burning Wish or to simply get ahead on mana. The green casting cost can sometimes make it difficult to play, but usually it's doable.
Because we run 4 Culling the Weaks and 3 Burnt Offerings, we need to have enough creatures to sacrifice. Running a single Vine Dryad gives us access to a creature we can play for free and makes 4 mana with Burnt Offering. It is certainly the card I Summoner's Pact for the least.
Gilded Goose is in the deck because of its interaction with Beseech the Mirror. You can sacrifice it to a Culling the Weak (EXO and also use the Food Token it creates to Bargain Beseech the Mirror. In addition to this, though unlikely to come up often, you can cast Gilded Goose to use it's ability the following turn for extra mana.
