My friend Larry came by to do some testing this afternoon, and we got in 13 games against a variety of decks. The list I was using was: (All games presideboard)
4x:
Preordain
Gitaxian Probe
Treasure Hunt
Tezzeret's Gambit
Lightning Bolt
Arc Trail
Staggershock
Volt Charge
Pyromancer Ascension
1x
Red Sun's Zenith
Into the Roil
4xIsland
4xScalding Tarn
3x Halimar Depths
8x Mountain
3x Tectonic Edge
The first set was against RG Valakut, a deck the pre-NPH version of this could not beat.
I took this set 3-2. I was able to kill the first PT played in every game. However, if I had to use two cards to kill it, without a PA out, it resulted in a loss for me, "running out of gas". One other game, their deck blanked on them for three turns in a row, with me at 1, while I was trying to find mana to spend all the cards in my hand.
I noticed during these games that the land was moderately light in the PA deck, even with Gitaxian Probe, and HD + TH. I often got "stuck" at 3-5 land, which didn't allow me to cast multiple spells in a turn.
All the games ended fairly early, too early for them to "natural" Valakut me after I burned out their first one. I drew alot of early PA's, and charging them was never a problem.
I Tech Edged a grand total of 1 land in the 5 games, which was in the third game, a game where the Valakut deck choked for 3 turns. It was a potential answer to a huge (5/5, going to 7/7) Raging Ravine, but Lightning Bolt (doubled) worked there.
UW Caw-Blade: I went 1-4 in this set.
The game I won, Caw Blade mulliganed to 4.
The R/W sword was an absolute beating. I was often (always) two-shot from near-full life by a sword hit for 9-15.
I underestimated the ability of pretty much anything to kill me via the RW sword. At least one of the games, I needed to Arc Trail away a mortarpod germ in order to not take a million from the sword.
Again, in this series, I ascended almost at will. The three-mana spells, and Gitaxian Probe (to draw/add counters for free) were extremely reliable in charging PA whenever I drew it. Into the Roil was just a 1 turn delay, even with as few as 2 cards in my hand. When there are ~4 different spells that can relatively reliably charge PA on their own, charging up the quest was quite trivial.
I was able to keep their creatures/planeswalkers under control until around turn 6 or 7, when a Hawk or Gideon would grab a R/W sword, and I would be on a 0-1 turn clock.
Without Into the Roil (x4) I was super-reliant on red burn spells to take care of their creatures, so if a creature got equipped, it was almost invulnerable. The one game I won, it was on the back of my singleton Into the Roil on a sword, then killing all their creatures, then winning at 2 life. (On their mull to 4...)
Against Aggro, Vampires got crushed 3-0, even though multiple Bloodghasts.
General conclusions:
Treasure Hunt was never great. Sometimes it drew alot of lands, and I had to discard them. Sometimes it drew me one card. I should have kept track, but I only assembled TH + HD perhaps 3 times across the 13 games. I often had to play HD turn one, just so I could cast all my spells. I had no Deprive to pick the land back up.
I activated Tectonic Edge one time total, as I said. I got my Halimar Depths Tec Edged three times. I had minor mana problems with the edge perhaps twice. (often lack of blue)
I only cast RSZ once, and never to remove Bloodghast, etc.
I cast ITR once to win against Caw Blade, and it was irrelevant for all the other matchups.
I'm not really sold on Gitaxian Probe.
So, we'll have to make some changes for V2.
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