Defending DSF/FOD from SW/WW

> The DSF/FOD Problem -- can S/W face it without losing initiative?

We'll take as a basic premise that we want to defend it from SW/WW, as other second turn options are weak against other offenses, and give your opponent plenty of time to change to a different offense.

Our standard defense forces antispell through, lets disease hit, then defends it with DPP/PDWP. This avoids FOD and cures disease at 100% efficiency. However, if the opponent meets DPP/PDWP correctly it leaves you open to a nasty fork with the potential for eating a bolt or dying on your end:

SWWWSDPPDWP
WWSPFPDW

DSFFF-DFF
PWPFS-WPP

There is a little room for wagering -- if you don't complete the antispell, you get much better disease defenses (that can actually net you initiative), but you have to surrender if they don't clap disease:

SWWWSPFPS
WWSPFWDFPW

No fun. Let's look at other options. SWDSF/WWSPFP is worse, as they can accept the DSF, paralyze you, and still cast disease. SWFFF/WWSPFP is essentially the same as SWWWS, but leaves you worse off if the FOD is aborted. SWFFF/WWSPPFD is awful, with a 50-50 survival rate.

At first glance, blindness seems to work better:

SWDFWFD
WWFFFFD

They may see it coming and shift to WPFD/disease, which leaves you down 2 life but with a great initiative advantage:

DSFFFCC
PWPFDC

However, if they're savvy, they'll instead go

DSFFF
PWPFDPP

Netting themselves a 2+ life advantage AND Invis Delay if you go through with the blindness. Since this means aborting the FOD, you can abort blindness on turn 6, but you will still end up down 2 life and slightly behind in initiative.

The best option I can find is as follows:

SWSWDF
WWSPFP

DSFFF
PWPFD

Assuming the disruptions bounce on turn 6: If they clap disease, you have a cure handy and come out way ahead. If they don't, initiative is fairly even, but you've still eaten 3 damage. The strength of this position against disease may be enough to dissuade your opponent from casting it, in which case you can follow fear with D instead of F. If successful you come out a tiny bit ahead. And if they do cast disease, you can fall back on DPP/PDWP, which sucks but is at least no worse than the non-SWS options.

If the disruptions don't bounce, S/W can continue DP on his left hand, which more or less forces the following situation:

SWSWDPPP
WWSPFCxx

DSFFFWxx
PWPFDPPP

So spellflow has been equalized, but a cost of 3 life. Meh.

This makes the whole encounter a toss-up. Unfortunately, if both players choose the safe option, the result favors D/P, so I'm inclined to say D/P still comes out ahead.

The SW/WF defense

I considered SW/WF. This works fine against DSF/PSD as you just replace the WWP with a WFP, and it works okay against DSF/FOD:

SWDPPS
WFFFSD

DSFWWW
PWPSDD

It seems to have trouble versus DPP/PSD, but Taliesin has given us:

DPPSDFW
PSDPPSDD

WFFFFFFP
SWPPWPPS

It's not great but it doesn't seem particularly worse than WW/SW is against DP/PS. That may make SW/WF the way to play S/W against D/P, since it handles DS/PS fine and DS/PW passably.

Slartucker