Winter, Misanthropic Guide

$0.33

Winter makes each player draw two cards at the beginning of your upkeep, which looks generous until delirium turns on. With four or more card types in your graveyard, each opponent's maximum hand size becomes seven minus the number of types, so four types means three cards and more types push it lower. Opponents draw extra and then discard at their own cleanup. The deck self-mills and plays a spread of card types to switch delirium on early, and Ward {2} makes Winter annoying to remove.

In the recorded games, the hand size squeeze was the part that mattered most, forcing opponents to discard and leaving them few answers. Say Its Name showed up as a way to mill, rebuy lands and eventually put Altanak, the Thrice-Called onto the battlefield as a big trampler. Prosper, Tome-Bound added treasure and card flow, and Bloodchief Ascension or Liliana's Caress turned all the forced discards into life loss. The plan stalled when opponents exiled graveyards, since that turned delirium off. The extra draws also fed the other players, and Winter's pilot had to watch their own life total while the table sped up.