CURRENT LIST:
CHANGES:
In the main deck there is only one change and that is adding the 4th Opt over the 3rd Remand. This was due to wanting to be a bit more malleable so that land drops would be easier, Especially now with the gigadrowse being the main game plan against blue control. Also, I had long been happy wit 3 remand effects in the deck and now after having gone up to 4 with the addition of Unsubstantiate it was feeling a bit to clunky for a general metagame.
MATCHUPS:
In my previous posts I have covered the main hate cards and game plans for the following matchups (there are a couple exceptions for which the boarding game plan has changed which I will address in this post) so here I will just list the In and Out baseline sideboarding. After this section I will list some new matchups but they will also include both game plans as well as main hate cards that we will face.
TITAN SHIFT
In: 1 Wipe Away, 1 Echoing Truth
Out: 1 Opt, 1 grapeshot
GRIXIS SHADOW
In: Everything except 2 spree and 1 Echoing Truth
Out: 4 gifts, 4 baral, 2 electromancer, 1 Past in Flames, 1 remand
ELDRAZI TRON
In: 2 spree, 1 wipe away, 2 empty, 4 pieces
Out: 4 gifts, 1 noxious, 3 opt, 1 grapeshot
COCO DECKS
In: 1 wipe away, 1 Echoing Truth, 3 Bolt
Out: 3 opt, 1 remand, 1 grapeshot
BURN
In: 3 bolt, 2 Empty, 1 Echoing Truth
Out: 2 Opt, 1 Noxious Revival, 2 remand, 1 Goblin Electromancer
Abzan
In: 4 Pieces of the Puzzle, 2 Empty the Warrens, 1 Echoing Truth, 2 Lightning Bolt
Out: 2 Gifts Ungiven, 1 Noxious Revival, 2 Goblin Electromancer, 1 PiF, 1 Unsubstantiate, 1 Grapeshot, 1 Opt
Jeskai Control
In: 4 Pieces of the Puzzle, 2 Empty the Warrens, 1 wipe away, 2 Gigadrowse
Out: 2 gifts, 1 noxious, 2 electromancer, 1 grapeshot, 1 PiF, 1 Unsubstantiate, 1 Pyretic ritual
New board game plan: Here we are now relying heavily on gigadrowse to do work for us as we are just trying to dig for and set up a great turn where they are basically tapped out by us. Note that when we need to do this is very much determined by when we are unable to keep making land drops as well as how many fetches they are able to keep uncracked.
Jeskai Tempo
In: 2 Pieces of the Puzzle, 2 Empty the Warrens, 1 Wipe Away, 2 Gigadrowse, 2 Bolt
Out: 2 gifts, 1 noxious, 2 electromancer, 1 grapeshot, 1 PiF, 1 Unsubstantiate, 1 Pyretic ritual
Mirror
In: 3 bolt, 1 gigadrowse
Out: 2 opt, 1 grapeshot, 1 gifts
Taxes
In: 4 Pieces of the Puzzle, 2 Empty, 1 Echoing Truth, 3 bolt, 1 wipe away
Out: 4 gifts, 2 electromancer, 1 noxious, 1 PiF, 2 Remand, 1 Grapeshot
AD NAUSEUM
In: 1 wipe away, 1 empty, 4 pieces,
Out: 4 gifts, 1 noxious, 1 grapeshot
AFFINITY
In: 2 spree, 3 bolt, 1 echoing Truth
Out: 2 remand, 4 Opt
ELVES
In: 3 bolt, 1 Echoing Truth, 1 wipe away
Out: 2 remand, 3 opt
JUND
In: 4 Pieces of the Puzzle, 2 Empty the Warrens, 1 Echoing Truth, 2 Lightning Bolt
Out: 2 Gifts Ungiven, 1 Noxious Revival, 2 Goblin Electromancer, 1 PiF, 1 Unsubstantiate, 1 Grapeshot, 1 Opt
5C SHADOW
In: Everything but 2 Spree and 1 Wipe Away
Out: 4 gifts, 4 baral, 2 electromancer, 1 Past in Flames, 1 remand
LIVING END (Traditional)
In: 4 Pieces of the Puzzle, 1 wipe away, 1 echoing truth
Out: 4 gifts, 1 noxious, 1 opt
5C HUMANS
In: 3 bolt, 1 echoing truth
Out: 2 opt, 2 remand
WHIR LANTERN CONTROL
In: 4 Pieces of the Puzzle, 2 spree, 2 Empty, 1 wipe away, 1 echoing truth
Out: 4 gifts, 1 Grapeshot, 2 remand, 1 Goblin Electromancer, 1 Unsubstantiate, 1 Noxious Revival
TRON
In: 4 Pieces of the Puzzle, 2 spree, 1 empty
Out: 2 gifts, 1 noxious, 1 PiF, 1 electromancer, 2 Opt
New board game plan: Now after board we treat this as a more controlling match due to them diluting their deck a lot now to combat us, especially the GB version.
DREDGE
In: 4 Pieces of the Puzzle, 1 empty, 1 Echoing Truth
Out: 4 gifts, 1 Opt, 1 PiF
UR Breach
In: 2 Pieces of the Puzzle, 2 Empty, 1 gigadrowse, 1 dispel, 1 wipe away
Out: 2 gifts, 1 noxious, 1 PiF, 2 electromancer, 1 Grapeshot
UR KIKI
In: 2 Pieces of the Puzzle, 2 empty, 2 gigadrowse, 1 wipe away, 1 bolt
Out: 2 gifts, 1 noxious,1 grapeshot, 2 electromancer, 1 PiF, 1 opt
Merfolk
In: 4 Pieces of the Puzzle, 3 bolt, 1 wipe away, 2 empty, 1 Echoing Truth
Out: 4 gifts, 1 noxious, 1 PiF, 2 remand, 1 grapeshot, 2 Opt
BR Hollow One
In: 4 Pieces, 2 Empty, 3 bolt
Out: 4 gifts, 2 remand, 1 PiF, 1 Noxious, 1 Opt
UW Control
In: 4 Pieces of the Puzzle, 1 Empty, 2 gigadrowse, 1 wipe away, 1 Echoing Truth
Out: 2 gifts, 1 PiF, 1 Noxious, 1 Grapeshot, 1 Electromancer, 1 pyretic ritual, 1 Opt, 1 Unsubstantiate
8 RACK
IN: 4 Pieces of the Puzzle, 2 empty
Out: 1 Unsubstantiate, 3 remand, 2 electromancer
LIVING END (Mono Blue)
IN: 4 Pieces of the Puzzle, 1 Wipe Away, 1 Gigadrowse
OUT: 4 Gifts, 1 Noxious, 1 PiF
PONZA
IN: 1 Wipe Away, 1 Echoing Truth, 1 Spree, 1 Empty
OUT: 1 grapeshot, 1 PiF, 1 remand, 1 opt
SAHEELI EVOLUTION
IN: 3 Lightning Bolt, 1 wipe away, 1 echoing truth
OUT: 1 remand, 3 opt, 1 Past in Flames
NEW MATCHUPS:
MARDU PYROMANCER
Hate: Leyline of the Void, Nihil Spellbomb, Surgical Extraction, Kambal Consul of Allocation
IN: 2 Lightning Bolt, 4 Pieces of the Puzzle, 2 Empty the Warrens, 1 Echoing Truth
OUT: 4 Gifts Ungiven, 1 Past in Flames, 1 Noxious Revival, 2 Goblin Electromancer, 1 Opt
Game 1: Here they have no direct hate for us but do still have discard and burn for disruption. Our main plan of action here is to treat this as a matchup similar to Jund except that they have a much worse clock in the form of Young Pyromancerand also lack any form of graveyard interaction. The main way we lose game 1 are to a bunch of discard backed up by Liliana or aggression (exactly like Jund/Abzan). One thing to note though is they do play lots of Kolaghan’s Command which can get us my making us discard our last card in hand when going off.
Post Board Games: Here they bring in lots of graveyard based hate so we have to switch off of the gifts engine as well as a couple Kombul to function as Eidolons against us. Luckily this still means we can approach these games similarly to post board Jund games only with again a slower clock but now also has a couple hate based permanents we need to answer.
INFECT
Hate: Grafdigger’s Cage, Relic of Progenitus, counterspells
IN: 3 Lightning Bolt, 1 Wipe Away, 1 Echoing Truth
OUT: 1 Past in Flames, 2 Remand, 2 Opt
Game 1: This is a pure race except they are at least half a turn faster than us and we have minimal interaction for them. We can hope for either a fast goldfish or draw that lets us stall with a grapeshot and/or remand.
Post Board Games: Now we have some tools to interact with their creatures at instant speed but they are also now able to attack our graveyard as well as on the stack. The games are still about racing so we have to keep the gifts plan but with 5 bounce/removal spells we can craft a longer game. Note that even though we have instant speed removal we do generally use it on our turn or their end step as killing an infect creature is super important (it’s usually a time walk as they then have to cast another and wait a whole to attack with it) and we do not want to get blown out via more pump or hexproof. Plus even if they manage to save a creature with this plan we might even still get another turn as they have less pump spells then. Last thing to note is wipe away is able to work around these rules due to split second.
BOGLES
Hate: Leyline of Sanctity, Rest in Peace
IN: 4 Pieces of the Puzzle, 1 Wipe Away, 1 echoing Truth, 1 Empty the Warrens
Out: 4 Gifts Ungiven, 1 Unsubstantiate, 1 Noxious Revival, 1 Past in Flames
Game 1: Here it is a pure race where we have basically no interaction and they might just beat us in the mulligan phase by opening on a leyline.
Game 2: This is exactly the same as game one only now they can attack our graveyard with Rest in Peace but we can also now much more easily beat leyline. An important thing to note though is that our bounce spells can still work on their auras so they can also by us time.
AMULET TITAN
Hate: Relic of Progenitus, Bojuka Bog, counterspells
IN: 1 Wipe Away, 3 Lightning Bolt, 1 Shattering Spree
OUT: 1 Past in Flames, 1 Grapeshot, 3 Opt
Game 1: Another pure race matchup but luckily we are both about the same speed and we can profitably interact with their explosive draws due to Akura Tribe Scout and Azuza being easy grapeshot targets. We do have to be wary of the blue and black pacts though.
Post Board Games: Here not much changes other than our graveyard being less reliable. By boarding in these answers to their early creatures and amulet we can stop their fast draws thus making the matchup function similar to Titan Shift except with way fewer “I win right now” cards mid game.
MONO BLUE TRON
Hate: Counterspells, Relic of Progenitus, Graf Digger’s Cage Surgical Extraction, Chalice of the Void
IN: 4 Pieces of the Puzzle, 1 Gigadrowse, 1 Shattering Spree, 1 Wipe Away, 1 Empty the Warrens
OUT: 2 Gifts Ungiven, 1 Past in Flames, 1 Grapeshot, 1 Goblin Electromancer, 2 Opt
Game 1: Here we are basically playing against a clunky control deck that randomly gets to slam big things at us. Here we want to get a bear into play as early as possible but we need to respect counterspells. Here after getting a bear in play the matchup plays similar to jeskai tempo (minus creature removal) in that when they hold up mana we generally can wait but they will have to tap down for something to present a threat giving us a great remand or just go off opportunity. Another thing that is nice for us is that they have to assemble tron as well as blue sources in the early game to beat us, so even more windows to go off could present themselves.
Post Board Games: Here They are going to bring similar amounts of graveyard hate to normal tron by also more stack based interaction. We pretty much treat this the same as post board normal tron except they are super slow and we need to respect counters.
Just wondering why no blood moon anymore? Don’t know if you covered it in a previous post or not. Also For match ups that are a race, do you bring in pieces over gifts because its faster? With a lot of GBx/bogle decks coming around is it ok to run empty in mainboard or still stick with 3 grapes?
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I have covered it previously but it’s basically a super remand that has no synergy with the rest of our deck and is only really good on turn 2-3 which then just loses to them respecting it or drawing basics. I would still keep 3 Grapeshot though as empty is just too unreliable and now that we have repeal we don’t have to concede to leyline from bogles
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