Ratchet Bomb's ability works such that the sacrifice effect happens as part of the cost, not the ability itself. This means that when you would Ancient Grudge in response to activation, there is no longer an eligible target. And then, if you try to preemptively destroy it, then they can activate the ability and sacrifice the bomb in response. The best case that Ancient Grudge could get is making them use their ability early.Post #12 covers this pretty well: http://tappedout.net/mtg-questions/clarification-on-ratchet-bombs-precise-effect/It works in the same way that in Aristocrats the sac effect is part of the cost so kill spells are less effective as you can always sac in response after target has been declared.Yeah, Lay of the Land does seem to do what you would want. I guess I'm just disappointed in the card; it seems to be so subpar comparatively to what there has been.
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Assemble the Legion seems good for the control matchup yeah; nice against board wipes that get through, and there is the added bonus that Manaweft Sliver will sometimes ramp into it.Growing Ranks doesn't feel right for this deck though. Against aggro, it comes in too late by cost and the effect for full value takes too long. Against control, it fails after board wipe. Maybe there's something I'm missing?Thanks for the suggestions!
Any artifact destruction actually has no effect on ratchet bomb- the ability is done at instant speed and the effect goes on the stack. Most players will hold the bomb in their hand until the tokens reach a dangerous mass or they draw a second!I didn't have a decklist, but I decided to make a post rotation deck. Note that both Krenko's Command and Gather the Townsfolk are leaving! The current options are Hive Stirrings and Molten Birth. While the potential to replay the card is nice, the restrictive cost on Molten Birth post-rotation is too much. For this reason, I went with Manaweft Sliver over Lay of the Land.Something else to consider is Gruul War Chant- could make for a great finisher.
Hey, I was brainstorming something like this! As good as the deck looks, it looks like it gets hosed really badly by ratchet bomb, which will be coming in... To alleviate this, I think either Boros Charm in the sideboard or even mainboard would make an excellent inclusion- it has finishing power, saves your stuff from board wipe/ratchet bomb, and giving archangel of thune double strike feels good- maybe replace rootborn defenses with it? The other thing I noticed was Blind Obedience- Imposing Sovereign feels like a better fit for the beats.