Anticipate in UR Twin?
Modern forum
Posted on May 14, 2015, 2:10 p.m. by TheAnnihilator
Title says it all. What are your thoughts on Anticipate in 
Twin, potentially removing Peek and/or Gitaxian Probe?
TheAnnihilator says... #3
Interestingly enough, glancing through MTGTop8, none of the recent UR lists run either Peek or Gitaxian Probe.
May 14, 2015 2:18 p.m.
Strategic Planning is already a card. If Anticipate were good,
we would have already seen Strategic Planning see play as a delve enabling Impulse effect.
I'm guessing the 2cmc is too much when there is so much can trip at 1cmc.
Is Strategic Planning not modern legal?
May 14, 2015 2:18 p.m. Edited.
Hjaltrohir says... #5
Behgz No it isn't.
I am a big fan of Anticipate, I would definitely run it.
May 14, 2015 2:22 p.m.
I would love to run 4x Strategic Planning alongside 4x Treasure Cruise and 4x Snapcaster Mage
May 14, 2015 2:23 p.m.
TheAnnihilator says... #7
I'm currently testing Anticipate as a 2-of. Not too bad, very sweet to Snap back for value. Helps dig for sideboard cards. Seems good in theory, haven't had enough experience with it on paper.
May 14, 2015 2:24 p.m.
TheAnnihilator says... #8
Also, Behgz, Planning would be a non-bo if you ended up looking at a copy of Splinter Twin when it wasn't safe to go for it. You don't want to pick it, but you don't want to put it in the graveyard.
May 14, 2015 2:26 p.m.
rorofat that's a pretty good point, missed that one. Anticipate is pretty good, especially because it's actually modern legal lol
May 14, 2015 2:36 p.m.
Also this is modern and TC is banned, as is strategic planning, I believe.
Behgz beat me to it.
May 14, 2015 2:40 p.m. Edited.
ducttapedeckbox says... #12
If you run Anticipate, it's worth testing Telling Time. Both are good in certain circumstances but you have to see which is helpful more often.
May 14, 2015 2:46 p.m.
Anticipate is just better. In a combo deck you're often looking for the one card you need to finish the game. The second best card you want on the bottom, not the top of your library most of the time.
May 14, 2015 2:47 p.m.
Anticipate just isn't good enough. I'd much rather play peek or an extra spell snare or something.
May 14, 2015 3:21 p.m.
KrosanTusker says... #16
Telling Time is almost strictly better than Anticipate. Whichever one you cast, you'll put the card you want most in your hand and the card you want least on the bottom. Telling Time is obviously better in the situations where you want two of the cards, and Anticipate is better when you only want one of them and two of them are duds.
Telling Time is better because it's very easy to get rid of a card on top of your deck that you don't want to draw (just crack a fetch!), but you can't get back a card you do want once you've put it on the bottom, which Anticipate will force you to do.
May 14, 2015 3:50 p.m.
That's just not true though. I've tested Twin a lot, and I know others have as well, and have not once preferred Telling Time over Anticipate. I understand in certain situations it could be better, but Telling Time will often leave you a useless card on top and Anticipate won't. In the situations where you don't have a fetch to crack (which will often be the case in UR twin), you're left in a worse situation than if you had just used the other. In a combo deck, Anticipate is mostly better.
I get that there are certain situations where Telling Time COULD be better, but there also many situations where it COULD be worse.
EDIT: I tested the same twin deck with anticipate. And then with telling time. Noted down the number of times I wanted the other card every time I played a game. I almost never wanted telling time.
May 14, 2015 3:56 p.m. Edited.
KrosanTusker says... #18
If we assume equal frequency of wanting 1/3 cards and wanting 2/3 cards, then Telling Time is better. Deck-specifically, that might not always be the case, eg. a straight-up combo deck or some control decks. I'm not sure this is the case for Twin, but if you've tested it then fair enough. I don't think in Twin you actually want either.
May 14, 2015 3:59 p.m.
Well you've completely hit the nail on the head; it's all about what you want to do with the 'second best card'. In combo decks it's usually the case that you only want one card to finish, so there's not a ton of arguing to be done there. In something like control it's debatable. I would argue that Anticipate is likely still better because if you leave a card you don't want on top you have to physically do something to get it to the bottom, whereas if you're forced to put it on the bottom it may not actually make a difference because, like milling; you don't know what the next card is anyway. Could be the same one. Could be different.
May 14, 2015 4:03 p.m.
Forcing you to keep a card you don't want on top of your deck is much worse than having to put a 2nd card you want on the bottom of your deck. If your issue is that you have too many good cards on top of your deck then you're already in magical christmas land and it doesn't really matter.
May 14, 2015 4:05 p.m.
KrosanTusker says... #21
I guess that's true. If you're looking for something very specific, you'd rather have one less blank draw step to look for it.
May 14, 2015 4:06 p.m.
Anticipate is actually a reasonably strong card, for real.
May 14, 2015 4:08 p.m.
KrosanTusker says... #23
In a deck with a lot of redundancy, I think you'd often be happier putting the land to the bottom, drawing your spell and ensuring a spell next turn. In a deck with a lot of silver bullets, or combo pieces, you'd rather get the air out of the way. With Twin specifically, it bears testing (which I haven't done).
ChiefBell is it worth the CMC 
in modern!?
May 14, 2015 4:10 p.m.
There just isn't a spot for it in twin. There are just better cards to play.
May 14, 2015 4:12 p.m.
Yeah, I mean I bothered testing just to see what it could do. Not because I would love to run 4 copies in Twin necessarily. I don't think there are many slots for it, and twin isn't my main deck; I only wanted some idea of its power level. It's not low. I mean, god, you see Think Twice, run so why not this? I just wanted to have a little look at it.
May 14, 2015 4:17 p.m.
KrosanTusker says... #26
Surely you'd only play it if you'd maxed out on Serum Visions already, and even then I can't see how you'd play it over Sleight of Hand.
I can only really see an exception to this in some mono blue control deck that's super anal about only doing stuff in the opponent's end step. Think Twice at least draws two cards, and fulfils that same role.
May 14, 2015 4:19 p.m.
KrosanTusker says... #27
Like, if you're just in / and you don't run Delver, these cards are your turn one play. You'd rather spend turn two Remanding something.
May 14, 2015 4:21 p.m.
KrosanTusker says... #29
Sure, Anticipate gets better the more toward the controlling end of the spectrum you go, but it's still much easier to fit in a 1-mana spell around your Vendilion Cliques and your Snap-Bolts and your Cryptics, or whatever you have.
May 14, 2015 4:24 p.m.
bijschjdbcd says... #30
I play two and I like it quite a lot.
Twin is weak on the two drop slot which makes it more appealing for me than the GProbe and Peek slots in the deck, I also think Grim Lavamancer is horrible in the metagame as it stands.
I just replaced the above cards as with 2 Anticipate and it works fine, You dont always have a Remand turn 2.
As for Telling Time, ChiefBell's perspective is correct.
May 14, 2015 5:55 p.m.
Twin is fine in terms of 2 drops with snapcaster and remand. I definitely wouldn't play anticipate over grim lavamancer.
May 14, 2015 6:32 p.m.
bijschjdbcd says... #32
In terms of metagaming, Grim has been underwhelming, Whilst is shines against little creature decks such as Burn and Affinity and has the potential to grind an opponent out I still find him underwhelming, he is relatively useless a large amount of the time.
As for the two drops, Snapcaster Mage is not a two drop when talking about your curve, You very rarely play out a turn 2 Snapcaster. That leaves only the 4 remands as optimal turn two plays.
May 14, 2015 6:48 p.m.
The deck doesn't need more turn 2 plays. You have spell snares and peek that you can play turn 2 as well.
May 14, 2015 7:41 p.m.
And the deck would rather have more spell snares to hit tarmogoyf or peek for information on turn 2 anyway. There's a difference between being mana efficient and playing worse cards just to have a better curve.
May 14, 2015 7:44 p.m.
There's not really good openings to be casting anticipate. You really want to be playing a remand or a spell snare on turn 2. On turn 3 ideally you want to be playing a dude or remanding something, it only actually gets good later in the game but at that point it's still probably not better than a peek.
May 14, 2015 7:46 p.m.
bijschjdbcd says... #37
Instant bro, Do it end of turn.
And Spell Snare is significantly better on the draw then on the play exclusively for the ability to counter their two drop for 1 mana. On the play its much worse.
Whilst I see where you are coming from but I still feel that there is a few slots in the deck that are subpar and I would prefer card selection to the other options.
It's preference. You don't want to play it don't, Ill continue testing it but so far it seems fine.
May 14, 2015 7:51 p.m.
TheAnnihilator says... #38
Hmm, xlaleclx. You would be right if Grim, Snare, and Peek did the same thing as Anticipate, but the function that anticipate serves is to dig for specific answers or combo pieces. Peek gives info, and Grim gives the deck a more grindy angle. It's really like playing a mini-Dig Through Time.
Also, to whoever said it, Sleight of Hand isn't necessarily better -- it's sorcery speed.
May 14, 2015 7:51 p.m.
It's really not like a mini dig through time though. It does help dig but it's just too expensive for the early game and not as powerful as other cards you could be playing. I just don't think it's good enough in current twin lists. I've played twin extensively for almost a year and have tested anticipate a fair amount. I just don't think it's good enough in tempo twin.
May 14, 2015 7:54 p.m.
TheAnnihilator says... #40
Ok, fair enough. I'll admit that I haven't yet done the testing, and I'm more of a Twin newbie. So what would you put in it's place? the 2nd Spell Snare? Keep the G-Probes? No changes to the stock list at all?
May 14, 2015 7:57 p.m.
TheAnnihilator says... #41
Oh, and opinions on Grim Lavamancer please! Info is key.
May 14, 2015 7:58 p.m.
bijschjdbcd says... #42
I have also played Twin extensively for about a year and think its fine.
But I play Twin like a control deck. and rarely T3 exarch so theres that.
May 14, 2015 7:58 p.m.
I'd definitely play peek over probe. current UR Twin decklist 2015 This is the list I'm currently on. A lot of people are dropping peek for a 2nd spell snare now which I'll probably test.
May 14, 2015 8 p.m.
If you're playing twin correctly there are a ton of scenarios where you run out a turn 3 tapper whether it's to bait out removal/counters, to put on pressure or to tap lands on their upkeep.
May 14, 2015 8:01 p.m.
TheAnnihilator says... #46
Or to untap and win when they tap out. Beware of Slaughter Pact tho.
May 14, 2015 8:04 p.m.
I didn't say it's always the best play nor did I say I always do it. There are a lot of scenarios where it definitely IS the correct line of play though. One of the best things about pestermite and exarch is that they help you keep your opponent off specific colours of mana in the early turns. You can often keep your opponent off goyfs or stop your opponent from playing a turn 3 lili
May 14, 2015 8:05 p.m.
Slaughter pact is seeing very little play right now outside of amulet bloom
May 14, 2015 8:07 p.m.
bijschjdbcd says... #50
I agree, But i still think jamming the combo Turn 4 isn't always the best play.
iLikeDirt says... #2
I wouldn't touch probe, it's too good to be replaced with Anticipate. Does Twin seriously run Peek now...? If it does I'd play Anticipate over that in a heart beat.
May 14, 2015 2:13 p.m.