Hands to Keep I think it is important to view the deck in four components enablers (eight in total Entomb and Faithless Looting with eight creatures to discard), reanimation spells (twelve in total Reanimate, Animate Dead and Exhume), disruption (ten in total Thoughtseize, Unmask and Grief) and mana (twenty-two in total Lotus Petal, Dark Ritual and fourteen lands) The ideal hand in pre-board games is one that has a route to the combo (Entomb or Faithless Looting plus Creature, and a reanimation spell), a disruption spell (Thoughtseize, Unmask or Grief) and enough mana to make it all happen
Also check out Idle Champions of the Forgotten Realms , or bring them to life in your D&D game with character sheets for these three and their other companions
Youre making plenty of land drops to stay ahead of your opponents, but that wont matter if you never use the extra mana youre producing
Note that there's no timing or per turn limit on the sacrifice ability, so you can make tons of counters, but you only get one Food per combat