hisuian zoroark vstar pokemon card V & Lost Origin PSA 9 - Pokemon Card

Gwenom opens the door to some dirty plays

Despite scaling very very well into the late game Counterspell is usually weaker than Mana Leak, Remand, Memory Lapse and Arcane Denial in the early game

X Empoleon LV

Each of those mechanics explored a new space, doing things we hadn't done before

Having this extra card filtering for the lategame, where we might be slightly flooding or for the turns where we want to plot, is just a nice small advantage to gain from an early play

You lose out on gaining life for everyone elses creatures entering, but you more than make up for that in being able to turn your otherwise walled-off utility creatures and curve-outs into actual threats