Thawing Gleichers – David Gleicher's magic blog

Duress

Duress is a staple of black in Premodern. This is the era long before Wizards of the Coast R&D decided that every powerful ability should be stapled to a creature. There are so many important non-creature spells that I won’t even attempt to list them all. In addition to giving Moneyball the time to execute its gameplan, Duress works incredibly well at providing information for Cabal Therapy, another staple of black discard. Although there are a few decks where it has a high chance of whiffing (Gobins, Elves), and therefore copies could be boarded out, it’s hard to conceive of Premodern changing such that you wouldn’t want 4 Duress maindeck.

Cabal Therapy

At first, I only had one Therapy maindeck and was trying to use Blackmail as my supplementary discard spell. However, after losing enough times to a key card my opponent was able to protect by not showing it to me, I was forced to admit that I had a problem and needed Therapy. There are specific cards in many circumstances that you need to take out, some of them creatures, and this is the only card that can do it efficiently. It is, in general, the most powerful discard spell in the format and one of the most powerful in the history of Magic. But the Cabal is demanding, and there is a serious cost. You must have enough creatures to sacrifice at the altar of darkest insight. A non-combo deck that just plays regular creatures that don’t accrue an advantage when they die or come into play alongside this card won’t find it to be very good. Whiffing the first time and sacrificing your Sarcomancy token to flash this back is not a winning strategy. Fortunately, this deck has other options (see the next entry on Ravenous Rats). While I initially played three main and one in the sideboard, I have seen the light and am generally on 4 maindeck copies now. I think the format has “tightened up” under the fearsome gauntlet that is modo, and there is just no room to mess around. When you need this card, you need it, and it is worth the cost of sometimes having a dead draw later on.

Ravenous Rats

If this deck is the 2004 Detroit Pistons, fully committing to Ravenous Rats and Cabal Therapy was like the midseason trade for Rasheed Wallace – the final piece of the puzzle that pushed it to the next level. Rats is probably the weakest card in the deck in a vacuum. I started out only playing two, but after realizing I needed more Therapies, it was just as clear that I needed more copies of creatures with an enter or leave the battlefield ability to feed the flashback cost. In Premodern, below three mana, Rats is basically the only game in town. But the more I played it, the more I actually started to like the card itself in the deck. It combines well with all the other discard and is quite good against Sligh, helping to make that matchup winnable when it is basically impossible for all other fair black decks. Though not a recurring source of advantage, it is at least technically a 2 for 1 (or maybe the ratio is more like 1.5 for 1, given the diminutive stats involved). In any case, this card wouldn’t be worth it if not for Cabal Therapy, but Therapy also wouldn’t be playable in the deck without this card. So even though Therapy is much better, I consider their overall contribution a package deal.

5.1.2 – Removal

Smother

This is still overall probably the best removal spell Black has available. But it’s closer than it used to be in the metagame of February, 2026. While I started with three, in my most recent list, I’m down to just two.

The list of important targets Smother hits is quite large, and includes: Terravore, Goblin Warchief/Piledriver/Lackey, all the creatures in Sligh, Meddling Mage, most of the creatures in Elves, Phyrexian Dreadnought, Psychatog, Hermit Druid, Wild Mongrel, morphed Exalted Angel, Call of the Herd tokens, manlands, many of the creatures in Survival decks, and probably more I’m forgetting about. Some of these creatures cost 1 mana, so you’re down on mana on the exchange, but at least it gets the job done.

The reason I have cut down on Smother in favor of more Edict effects is that it does not answer these notable creatures in the format: Argothian Enchantress, Mystic Enforcer, Graveborn Muse, Masticore, Phyrexian Devourer, the creatures in reanimator (Akroma, Angel of Wrath, Phantom Nishoba, Multani) and unmorphed Exalted Angel.

Diabolic Edict

Diabolic Edict is overall more limited than Smother, but there are some key creatures that it can kill which Smother cannot. It is functionally the same against Dreadnought and Psychatog usually and the downside is typically only felt against decks with many creatures. In most games against decks with a lot of creatures, the important thing is to blunt their early assault and usually that involves killing whatever creature shows up first, in which case it is functionally equivalent to Smother. Later in the game, you’ll have more time to maneuver, perhaps with Cursed Scroll or discard spells, so the drawback can sometimes be mitigated that way. I think the deck is capable of working around the restrictions of Edict, so I like playing some to increase the flexibility and to sort of synthetically increase the size of the sideboard.

To further explain this: by making one of the maindeck removal spells you’d need to play anyway also be good against Enchantress, for example, you don’t have to sideboard that extra card against the deck, or you get an extra sideboard card for it or something else. So in that way, it’s like you have an extra sideboard card.

Chainer’s Edict

This has advantages and disadvantages vs the instant speed version. In the new post-Tide ban metagame, there are more decks trying to play a midrange game and go “bigger” than we are. These are a challenge, and I think Moneyball can beat them, but it needs as much help as it can get. The extra value from being able to flashback Chainer’s Edict could very well be the difference in these kinds of matchups, and most of the rest of the time, the difference isn’t huge. Plus, you still have a lot of other instant-speed removal in the deck to use if needed.

Snuff Out

Snuff Out is a very powerful removal spell due to the fact that it can be played for zero mana. This low mana cost makes it a great complement to Smother, which kills many creatures but costs two mana. Consulting the list from above, Snuff Out can kill nearly all of these creatures except Psychatog, Wild Mongrel, and the ones with shroud. However, 4 life is a serious cost in this deck and for this reason I hesitate to play more than one, although I think two could perhaps be fine. I definitely wouldn’t want more than that. If other black decks somehow become more popular, its utility declines, though I would still happily play one in all but the most bizarre and skewed of metagames.

Hypnotic Specter

In a deck that is made up of cards that are solid role-players, this might be the closest thing to an all-star. Especially when paired with Dark Ritual, Hippy presents a real threat against a fair number of decks in the format that want cards in their hand, and more importantly, want a specific combination of cards (Stiflenaught, Enchantress, Replenish, and other combo and control decks). But most importantly, against more aggressive decks, it’s a three drop that won’t be horrible and/or possibly lose you the game when you cast it. It has a decently high floor, and that’s what you need when investing three mana. In some ways, the Specter is here through the process of having eliminated other cards you could play at the same cost, many of which I’ll discuss later. In any case, it is one of the sources of recurring advantage that make this deck function and I wouldn’t want to play less than 4. However, I do think it can be reasonable to side one or two out if you are loading up on three mana spells post-sideboard.

Phyrexian Arena

This is a card I have found myself questioning. While there are some decks in Premodern that an early Arena is good against, most of the top decks in the format are fast and don’t allow you a ton of time to recoup the advantage lost either on board (by not playing a creature), in terms of life spent, or in terms playing this instead of doing something disruptive to the opponents plan. The cumulative life loss can make it bad to have in multiples. For this reason, I don’t really want to play more than one in the maindeck. It also can get hit by Duress or enchantment removal, sometimes before recouping itself. That said, it can still be good in the mid to late game if the early turns have gone well and the disruption plan has been effective and left both decks gasping for air. An Arena at the right time can help you pull ahead in a way few other cards can. However, I am open to the idea that there could be better alternatives to this card, including playing more Nantuko Shades, Graveborn Muse, Bane of the Living, or maybe something else entirely. It also has a little bit of anti-synergy with Cursed Scroll, which can be a bit awkward at times.

Update Februrary 2026: I have finished my questioning and decided Phyrexian Arena is not a card I want in my deck anymore. A few factors have accumulated to make me feel this way. With the Parallax Tide ban, there are fewer control decks in the format where it’s ok to just land an enchantment that damages you in exchange for cards and sit back. Decks generally tilt more aggressively now. The midrange decks are more equipped to attack your life total. It is a horrible draw against Burn/Sligh, as it always was, but that was sort of tolerable because of the other upside. I think that upside has mostly disappeared. And just in general, I’ve had too many matches where I land a Phyrexian Arena, draw a bunch of cards and still lose. Not just against decks with direct damage either. The fact that Arena doesn’t actually pressure the opponent itself is a big drawback. And it’s tough to justify a card like that when there is an alternative out there that does…

Graveborn Muse

On the face of it, this is just a Phyrexian Arena stapled to a creature for one more mana. But there are some other key differences. The Muse being a 3/3 does make it vulnerable to creature removal. But I think this disadvantage is made up for by the fact that it bashes in pretty hard (in the context of Premodern). Ultimately, this deck wants to lean aggressive and finishing the opponent off before they topdeck a powerful card or the life loss catches up with you is, I think, the theoretically superior approach. If you’re losing life every turn, you want to either gain life or kill your opponent before the life loss kills you. If there’s a creature already attached to the life loss, that part of the job is partially taken care of. It being a creature also lets you sacrifice it to Cabal Therapy if you really need the life loss to stop, although I have never actually done this. As far as creatures go, this one dodges Smother, the various two damage removal spells, and anything that can’t target black creatures.

Considering all the pros and cons, really the only major drawback it has vs. Phyrexian Arena is that it costs 4 mana, which is way more than three. It does seem slightly better to have one Arena and one Graveborn Muse in play rather than two Muses, as I could see the life loss of 4 per turn being too much (even with the 4 extra cards to go along with it). In any case, I would always play at least one copy in this deck, but the mana cost makes me hesitant to go up to two and fairly sure that three would be too many. I think a good compromise is to play one maindeck and one in the sideboard for matchups where this kind of effect is wanted. Also, keep in mind that Withered Wretch is a zombie, so it counts towards the card draw and life loss on Muse.

5.2.2 – Mana sinks and recurring (extra) damage

Mishra’s Factory

One of the best cards in this deck is not a black card – it is this land. The jealousy I felt when seeing this in play on my opponents side and knowing I had none to draw was the main impetus to start building this deck. Being able to play a land that also turns into a creature is an extremely powerful feature for a deck that is interested in accruing multiple small advantages over the game. Besides having better mana in general, it is the thing that, in my opinion, makes this deck superior to BW and BG decks of a similar style. This deck gets to play Mishra’s Factory and those other decks don’t. It is also a big advantage it has over other Monoblack aggressive decks, which generally don’t play Factory because they just want a lower land count. This deck has ample mana in the midgame and many ways to kill opposing blockers, so Factory is very good at attacking in this deck. Of course, Factory is a house on defense, which is less relevant in this deck since it has so much removal. But it can still come up. The ability to have a land you can sacrifice to flashback Therapy is also extremely relevant. This card, in addition to Ravenous Rats, is one of the main reasons why the matchup against Sligh is much better than that of a traditional black aggro deck. The card just does it all, and any other colorless lands you’d think of playing need to get in line behind the 4th copy of Factory. In case it needs to be explicitly stated: don’t cut any of them. Thank you for your attention to this matter!

Nantuko Shade

I think I can clear up a lot of confusion about this card by describing it this way: It serves the same function in the deck that Phyrexian Negator would serve, except that if you play this instead of Negator, you won’t have retroactively mulliganed if your opponent plays a Mountain. In other scenarios, the comparison graph of the two over the course of the game could be described as: Shade is slightly better very early just by virtue of being cheaper and being able to attack and block without losing your early permanents. Then it gets worse than Negator in the early-mid to mid game due to the efficiency of Negator and the need to pump mana into Shade. But then in the late game it gets better again as you have enough extra Swamps to make it a repeatable Fireball. One could argue it works better with Dark Ritual insofar as it lets you play a Duress and itself off Ritual, instead of just having to jam a Negator and hoping things work out (which, to be fair, they sometimes do). It may not hit quite as hard, but it still hits hard enough to put the screws to combo and control players and I have used it to kill plenty of them with idiosyncratic aggro draws. If I had to compare the two cards overall, I would say Shade is about 85% as good averaging across all non-red scenarios. That is well over my line to play it if it means I won’t basically auto-lose to an entire color (Note: there are only 5 colors in Magic). As mentioned before, its quality weirdly dips in the very middle portion of the game when would want to use your mana to do other stuff. And against aggro, it isn’t particularly strong in the very early game either. Because of these pros and cons, I have oscillated between two and three copies and I think three is correct.

Update February 2026: Life is, in many ways, very uncertain. So it is nice to be able to be sure about a few things. One thing that I am now sure of, after playing Nantuko Shade in many more events, is that it is a complete monster. If you think it is bad because it sometimes dies to a Mogg Fanatic or a Lightning Bolt, then we have fundamentally different ideas about what makes a card good or bad. The number of people I have crushed with this vile insect, when no other card would have done so, grows monthly. Many of these players would have beaten me if I had a 4 drop like Phyrexian Scuta or Grinning Demon sitting in my hand (I’ll talk more about these later). The key aspect of it is its modularity – being able to sneak it into play and pump it however much is appropriate when your deck also contains mana sinks like Cursed Scroll, Mishra’s Factory, and whatever other spells you might want to cast. And once the maneuvering is over, it shears life totals in half like a demonic lawnmower. In very skewed metagames, I suppose I can understand trimming on these for Masticore. But I can’t, in good conscience, recommend any less than two copies, and I will be playing at least three.

Cursed Scroll

This is another card that I was unhappy to not be taking full advantage of in the black aggressive decks I tried (though not as unhappy as with Factory). It really fits perfectly in this particular deck for a variety of reasons. This deck is pretty adept at emptying its hand, which is obviously key to making Scroll work. But unlike other aggressive black decks, it also has enough lands to activate the Scroll somewhat early-on and keep doing so while also playing its other cards for the rest of the game (because more of them will be lands). In the mid to late game, this card is great against decks with creatures (assuming you didn’t already get run over) since it can kill them if they’re presented and otherwise deal two to the opponent. But the thing that surprised me was how good it was against control. Its cheap cost makes it easy to slip in under counter-magic, and the fact that it is an artifact but that the deck has few other targets for artifact/enchantment destruction (plus discard to break it up sometimes) makes it very awkward to play against. Basically, the list of cards that can deal with both artifacts and creatures is pretty small, you can punch a hole in that sometimes with discard (or maybe they just drew the wrong answer for what you have). Even something like Powder Keg isn’t that amazing, because your mana costs are fairly well distributed, and Cursed Scroll costing one is a key part of that. This source of repeatable advantage complements all the other ones extremely well by being cheap, modular, and a card type that the others aren’t. If the set of cards that aren’t hyper-efficient but can always do something needed a mascot, Cursed Scroll would be it.

Update February 2026: I am still an emphatic Scroll enjoyer. That said, the post-Tide metagame has become a little less favorable for the card. Slow control and creature decks are less prevalent, fast combo and Dreadnought are more prevalent. In an environment like this, Scroll is not as good. That said, I’m still rolling with three maindeck. I’ll try to explain my logic.

In the matchups where it is good, it remains amazing – a repeatable damage source that can single-handedly take over the game. But unlike the case of Phyrexian Arena against burn/Sligh, where the games are razor thin and a single dead card pretty much means you will lose, the matchups where Scroll is bad are not like this. Removal is also usually bad in these matchups. But I am fine playing removal and Scroll because these matchups tend to revolve around having discard plus a clock (and often drawing Withered Wretch). In these matchups, it is ok to draw some dead cards as long as you draw the right non-dead ones at the right time. You can afford it. And, to state the obvious, even in its worst application, the Scroll can still sometimes deal two damage. This low downside/high upside comparison hopefully explains why I still like playing the Scrolls.

Spawning Pool

Spawning Pool really seems to put people on tilt. Look, I know this isn’t the best of the cycle, to put it mildly. The best way to explain this card is to go back and read what I said about how good Mishra’s Factory is, then ask yourself if you’d be willing to play a 5th copy if it was only 40% as good. Personally, I would. I think the deck can afford exactly one tapland without too much anguish. I have both blocked some non-tramplers with this and snuck in for one damage at times. But, to be honest, the best use it has is being the sacrificial location of a flashbacked Cabal Therapy. The worst part about it is that makes the deck more vulnerable to Tsabo’s Web. But on balance, I think it’s worth having. If you don’t, I won’t disagree that strenuously. However, before considering cutting it for another Wasteland, I urge you to consider the value of being able to cast your spells on time. Keep reading for more on this topic.

Update February 2026: Spawning Pool remains juuuuust barely good enough for me to keep playing. Every time I am on the verge of cutting it for a Swamp, I have a game where it does something. Now does this thing actually end up determining who wins or loses? Maybe, maybe not. It is really hard to say. But ties go to the incumbent, and for that reason, the Pool remains…

Masticore

I had one of these in my sideboard for a while and it’s now quite popular as a maindeck inclusion, often alongside more Phyrexian Arenas to try and take a more controlling approach. While it’s a good card in general, I think it is not right for this deck. Masticore is at its best in a deck with card draw and excess mana production. We have these, but only sort-of. Dark Ritual is extra mana but only one time – Masticore is best when this extra mana is recurring. Phyrexian Arena can get you extra cards but I think there are good reasons why you don’t want to play very many of them. The matchups where it is safe to do so also aren’t the ones where Masticore would be good. Without an Arena, only in the very late game do we really end up with a ton of extra cards to keep in hand to feed the Masticore. And I don’t think this deck should really be trying to play for the very late game. I kept finding that games I won and drew Masticore, I could have won with any number of other cards, and games I lost with it, it was too slow and cumbersome to help me stabilize when I needed to. Ultimately, the specialty of Masticore is killing creatures. If there’s anything the color black is well equipped to do, it is kill creatures. We have a plethora of other cards that synergize better with the deck and are more efficient at doing what Masticore does. It’s not the worst card, but I just think it doesn’t really belong.

Update February 2026: This card was originally in my “cards I would never play” section. But after Gabrielli won Spanish Nationals with two copies and seeing them appear all over in other decklists, I feel like I am forced to move it here. And to be fair, it does qualify as a mana sink and recurring extra damage. That said, I personally feel exactly the same as I did when I wrote the paragraph above (actually even moreso now, since I’m so down on Arena).

But, to try and make the positive case – There are decks where it can be nice to have Masticore around. Burn, Elves and Goblins are the decks where I would say it most clearly shines. It can be good in the mirror and against other mid-range creature decks as well, though moreso later on in the game (and in the mirror, there is risk you lose it if they force you to discard your cards). Among these, the only decks where I would say it is clearly better than other possible options is against Goblins. Against Sligh/Burn, it makes you want to play more Arenas, which are very bad there (though I suppose you are allowed to board them out for games 2 and 3). Against Elves, you need to control their explosive starts and Masticore is too slow to really do that. Once you have done that, it can help put the game away. It is most relevant against Goblins because the way you control their early burst is by blocking, which it is pretty good at doing, and they are less able to go over it all in one turn, so it has multiple turns to accrue an advantage.

Withered Wretch

I just started off playing a few copies of the Wretch, assuming it would just be ok. But as I continued playing the deck, I kept increasing the number because of its overperformance until I got to the full 4. Premodern just happens to be a format where the graveyard is extremely relevant, which makes Wretch way better than it might initially seem. To recap quickly its relevance against cards in the top decks: Terrageddon [Terravore, Call of the Herd], Oath Spec [those two plus all other flashback targets and Quiet Speculation], Replenish [Replenish], Enchantress [Replenish], Stiflenaught [Flash of Insight and/or Accumulated Knowledge], Control decks [Accumulated Knowledge, sometimes Psychatog], Elves [Squee, Anger], Survival [Squee, Genesis, Recurring Nightmare], Sligh [Grim Lavamancer, Barbarian Ring], Angry Hermit/Iggy Pop/Rector/Reanimator/FEB Combo decks [everything].

Now if all it did was simply attack the graveyard, like a Phyrexian Furnace, it wouldn’t be that great. But the fact that it is a grizzly bear that also furthers the aggro-control plan makes it basically perfect. It doesn’t need to do a lot, it just needs to contribute to the overall plan of disrupting slightly and attacking/blocking reasonably. The fact that you can get this value on a maindeck-worthy creature frees up space in the sideboard, increasing the coverage and ultimately the win percentage you can achieve. Even against decks where the advantage of attacking the graveyard is marginal, this is the kind of deck where that marginal advantage often ends up mattering. And, as I’ll get to later, a lot of the other cards one might consider playing instead also have drawbacks that make them unsuitable for one reason or another. I guess if you’re really sure no one is using the graveyard in your metagame, you could cut Wretches for something else. But A: I don’t know what that would be, and B: I don’t believe you.

Dark Ritual

One of the most powerful cards in the history of magic – often used to win the game on the first turn or at least help contribute to an overwhelming combo turn at some point in early on in the game. In fact, there are other decks in this very format that use it for this purpose. But this is not one of them. So it is somewhat understandable to wonder, “Why is this card here?” It is in the deck, quite simply, because it has to be. Premodern is a format full of powerful cards. Although decks can’t really win on turn one or two, they can produce something that will create an insurmountable advantage if not answered or matched in some way. It’s common knowledge that black is, overall, the weakest color in Premodern. In order to compete with the power of early plays of other decks in this format, your deck must also have early plays, including enough plays that cost one mana. And evaluating the black cards you can play at one mana, there simply aren’t enough of them that are good enough against enough different decks in the format to warrant playing, at least in this strategy. So we must jump up the mana curve, and this is how the color black does it. Whether it’s a turn one Hippy, Duress plus Shade or Wretch, Therapy into Rats, or a Duress turn one into 4 mana worth of stuff turn two. The point is, you need enough cards that cost one to make sure you are doing something. The cards in this deck aren’t that powerful, so you need to make sure you play them on time or, better yet, ahead of schedule.

Now it is true that this creates card disadvantage. We strive to make up for the card disadvantage with all the other recurring advantages from the cards listed above. We do our best to mitigate it, but not playing at least some Dark Rituals to keep up with the speed of the rest of the format simply isn’t an option, in my opinion. Because Dark Ritual is not a key combo piece, but rather another role player, this is one of the only decks I’ve ever played where I think it might be fine to play three Dark Rituals. But everyone I mention this to tells me I am crazy, so I’m sticking with 4 until further notice.

Update February 2026: I continue to stick with 4 Dark Rituals. I do kind of sympathize with the idea that, in theory, this deck could work with no Rituals and another land and a few more early plays. I keep planning to try out a version without them. But I just can’t find the motivation. It works so well with Ritual, and there are other decks that are more interesting to me to try to work on than Moneyball without Rituals. I have seen Youtube videos where people try it and it doesn’t look great, or at least not any better than the version with them. I think it would be especially painful post-sideboard when there are so many good three drops we want to accelerate out in certain matchups.

With that said, there are also matchups where I think boarding out some number of Rituals is actually good. This is an argument towards playing 24 lands, so that this board-out Ritual plan is more feasible without messing up your essential mana sources too much.

If someone wins a large tournament with Ritual-less Moneyball, I’ll make another update. Until then, I will continue to channel the darkness.

Swamp

Ah, Swamp. Provider of black mana. As a deck interested in playing cards that cost black mana, we need some number of these. But what number is it? This question isn’t as easy to answer as one might think. For example, if you were to just copy the manabase from another monoblack deck, like this one, you might assume we can play 13 Swamps and devote the rest of our land slots to cool utility lands. But that would be a catastrophic mistake. As you can see when you compare this deck and that one, the cards are different, the plan is different, and the number of black mana symbols contained in the upper right portion of the cards are very different. The Contamination deck has far fewer double-black cards, and in general wants to slow the game down, giving it time to work out its mana (or establish a lock, at which point black mana won’t be a problem). This deck, on the other hand, wants to come out of the gate fast and both disrupt the opponent and start the clock as quickly as possible. The clocks we are using cost double black. And if the knock against Moneyball is that its cards are “6 out of 10s”, imagine what that number becomes when you are delayed in playing those cards even a little bit because your mana didn’t allow it? There are no Replenishes or Fireblasts in this deck to bail you out if you stumble. Because the majority of our cards get appreciably worse when delayed, you absolutely must be able to play them on time. That’s why I play 17 black mana producing lands and I will not go below this number. I’ll admit, I got to this number using vibes, not math. But, if we do look at some math in the form of Frank Karsten’s analysis, we see that even 17 sources is pushing it a bit. Looking at playing a BB card on turn 2 (the most stringent requirement we have), a 20 land deck would require 18 black sources and a 25 land deck would require 21. Interpolating this to a value of 19.5 (for our 23 lands), we are short, but if we include the Dark Rituals as half a source each (which Karsten suggests doing for Birds of Paradise type cards), we get to 19. Since a Dark Ritual can’t die like a Birds of Paradise, one could argue this percentage should be a bit higher. Either way you slice it, we’re right on the edge and we’re probably just slightly deficient on black mana if anything. So, my recommendation is to play the lands you need to cast your spells on time. If you got through all this and still decide to cut the Spawning Pool for a Wasteland rather than a Swamp, don’t say you weren’t warned.

Engineered Plague

One thing black does have going for it in Premodern is its incredibly powerful sideboard cards. As an anecdote, the Fall Brawl top 8 played best 3/5 matches. I went 2-4 in the preboard games and 7-0 in the postboard games.

In my opinion, Engineered Plague is at the top of the list of primo sideboard options. In addition to its obvious application against tribal strategies (the best of these being Goblins and Elves), it is also randomly good against Phyrexian Devourer combo and passable against Sligh naming whatever creature type they have at the time (or you’re most afraid of them drawing). It can also kill an Argothian Enchantress, which not that many cards can do. It hilariously and randomly negates Cavern Harpy out of Aluren as well. Sure, it can be answered, but until it is, it essentially shuts down the main strategies you would be bringing it in against. Even if it is answered, it’s often bought you enough time to win the game. I would play 3 or 4 of these.

Dystopia

This format is full of powerful green permanents, some of which are enchantments. You would think black should be powerless against this, but they made some really good color hosers back in the day. The prime targets for this include Enchantress, Survival, Oath, and Elves (though it is less effective here because of the speed of the elves deck and their ability to flood the board). If you play against White Weenie or Stompy or something, throw it in the deck as well.

Update February 2026: Dystopia stock has risen (literally) with the rise of this deck, and also the rise of Reanimator, where the fatties are mostly green and white and they board into Oath of Druids. Enchantress remains popular, as do dedicated Oath strategies. There’s also a new GW “little kid” deck that plays a bunch of… green and white creatures. Unfortunately for your wallet if you play this deck, it’s probably right to play at least three copies nowadays.

Plague Spitter

I respect the tribal matchups enough to want a little bit of extra juice. When an enchantment version of the plague isn’t enough, this little freak can keep the party going (or maybe stop the party from starting). This card is a little awkward with Ravenous Rats, and to a lesser extent Naktuko Shade, though you should be able to work around it most of the time I think (you can pump Shade with the upkeep trigger on the stack so it doesn’t die). You would never want to bring it in against a deck that can kill your Plague Spitter with damage, so an unforeseen chain reaction is unlikely.

It is also weirdly a nice threat against Stasis, since it doesn’t need to tap to deal damage. I also think it’s passable against UW control just as a thing you can take removal out for, and to clean up their soldier tokens. I’m unsure how I feel about it against Sligh but I think it might be ok [Edit: ehhhh…maybe not a great idea actually]. I’d also bring it in against decks with Birds of Paradise. It’s not a card that is always a slam-dunk, but given its broad range of applications, I’m listing it here because I really do think I would always play at least one in my sideboard.

Update February 2026: Well, Premodern has a way of making fools of us all. It seems like tribal decks have really died down, so I have cut all the Spitters from my board. But they remain ready in case such things get popular again.

Gloom

Update February 2026: The previous entry on Gloom was dated enough that starting anew is warranted. This is a powerful card but its applications are limited. The main decks it is good against are Enchantress, where it slows down Parallax Wave mightily, and Replenish (somehow still a deck even post-Tide ban) where it…also slows down Parallax Wave mightily. Besides these, it’s pretty good against White Weenie, which doesn’t see much play and…that’s about it. I don’t think it’s particularly great vs UW control, since they often lean more blue and some of their white cards get around the tax. I’ve sort of kept two in my sideboard at all times by default. But I do wonder if it’s ultimately worth it at times.

Phyrexian Negator

This card has a special place in my heart and it’s one of my favorite cards ever. I remember playing it in Urza’s-Masques era standard, a great format where basic Mountains were as elusive as the gorillas in the mist. It pains me to relegate it to the sideboard. And yet, I’m duty-bound to tell the harsh truth. I covered why I don’t play Negator maindeck in the section on Nantuko Shade. It’s still a fearsome monster in matchups where you want the extra threat and their removal isn’t damage based. So, mainly against control and combo decks. The issue is that our matchup against these decks is already good. And some of them still have creatures, so cutting all the removal for other stuff isn’t a strict necessity. It can also be pretty good against other decks with just a few creatures that you can pick off with removal. It’s still really good when it’s good, but space is tight and times are tough. I still think it’s probably worth having one or two but I can’t say it’s a must-have in all situations.

Drain Life

If Negator is the card that everyone loves and wants to add, Drain Life is the card everyone hates and cuts right away. To be honest, I don’t even like it that much. But it keeps pulling its weight. It is mainly here for Sligh. And I do think it’s pretty good there – a removal spell that gains some life, and if no creatures are present, can be pointed at the dome to swing a race in your favor. But there are other good cards you could play in that matchup. The reason this card remains is that it can be brought in against other things and it will never be too horrible. Which is sort of this deck’s operating principle. The deck has some cards which aren’t great in certain matchups (usually the removal). The Drain Life functions as an anti-Sligh card which also isn’t dead in other matchups where you really want to replace certain cards after sideboarding. For example, at a recent tournament I played against a bunch of other black decks and was happy to have enough cards I could bring in when I wanted to remove my removal spells that can’t target black creatures. I’ll admit, this is a very low-power use of a sideboard slot. But, because our other sideboard cards are so powerful, I think we can afford one of these low-power but ultra-flexible cards. If you want to cut this, I wouldn’t fault you for it. But I’ve yet to find something else that quite fills this role, and it’s a role I think is valuable in a deck like this one.

Update September 2026: I think Drain life stock has risen somewhat for two reasons. One, there is a new build of the red deck, an actual burn deck that plays Flame Rift and Pyrostatic Pillar. Drain Life is kind of nuts here if you can fire it off for X=2 or higher, since it gets around the Pillar trigger and a 2 point life swing is usually enough to determine the matchup, since it is often very close.

The second reason is there are more sort of midrangey black pseudo-mirror decks running around. These matchups can grind on for a while, so it is kind of nice to have a card that can be a random pseudo-fireball to finish off the opponent you can draw off the top even if they’ve got control of the game.

Tormod’s Crypt

There’s not a ton to say about this one. If you want a little bit of extra insurance against decks where the graveyard is important, this is the best card to play. I think it’s better than Phyrexian Furnace because you have 4 Withered Wretch to do that kind of surgical removal already. This is for the games where that is too slow, so you want a cannon that costs 0, not another scalpel that costs 1. Replenish, Iggy Pop, various Ghoul combo decks. Maybe Terravore? The list isn’t long, but I do think one extra piece of disruption can be quite valuable against these decks, especially if it is literally free to play. But I can easily see there being metagames where this wouldn’t be worth it.

Funeral Charm

This card could also be played maindeck instead of Spinning Darkness. It’s a way to interact at one mana against decks with X/1s. Most X/1s aren’t that scary, but Goblin Lackey is. And the first one drop out of Elves or Sligh also can be. Charm also has some other modes which aren’t very good, but could theoretically do something, sometimes. It can randomly be a blow-out against other decks with Cursed Scroll. I’m not super high on this card because of how narrow its uses are (despite having 3 modes) but it might be ok. I’m trying it out at the moment.

Update February 2026: I continue to usually have one of these in my sideboard as a flexible early anti-aggro/tribal card. Our other powerful sideboard cards are so good, I think there is some value in making sure we don’t just get punked out early. And this card can do that and then still have some utility later on. It is a card you can board in if literally all your removal is bad and you want a card that does something, anything at all, which it technically does. Very unexciting but effective – perhaps the ultimate Moneyball player.

Bane of the Living

I’ve played Bane once it it seems like it is pretty solid, but I do need to try it some more. It is slow, but a board sweeper is something that can be very useful. It also seems a lot more likely to impact the game in a timely way in a deck with Dark Ritual than one without. Also, once unmorphed, a 4/3 is actually kind of large in this format. The thing that makes me hesitate a bit is its negative synergy with Rats, Shade, and, to a lesser degree, the other x/2s. However, I think it could be worked around in a similar way that we do with Plague Spitter. Arguably, this gives you even more control than the Spitter. It definitely seems promising. I also think you could play one of these in the maindeck and it would be fine as well.

Update February 2026: I do like this card, but as I said earlier, the metagame seems to have shifted away from one where you’d want a lot of this effect. Something to keep in mind in case things change though.

Spinning Darkness

This card is a bit different from the rest of the removal suite. It is a lot more limited in what it can kill and also in when it can be cast. It requires having three black cards in the graveyard, which isn’t guaranteed early on in the game, which is often when you would prefer to play this card. It also doesn’t kill some creatures since it only deals three damage (and can’t even target black creatures at all). This is why I cut down the numbers from two to one early on when playing the deck. As of now, I no longer play this card at all. The finnicky nature of getting it to work right was too much for me. Additionally, there is a new build of Sligh (which is really more like actual burn) that plays fewer creatures and Pyrostatic Pillar and Flame Rift. I don’t really want my anti-burn/Sligh card to end up sitting in my hand with no targets while I get burned out. My move away from Phyrexian Arena also removes some of the motivation to play a card that can gain life back.

If you still love Phyrexian Arena, and/or you still anticipate playing against Sligh/burn decks with more creatures, this is a reasonable card to play.

Powder Keg

Update February 2026: This is the other main card that I’ve had to change my stance on. I had this listed as a card I’d never play originally. It is quite slow, can be answered by artifact destruction, and is quite awkward if the situation demands ticking it up to two, given the presence of many two-drops in our own deck.

However, it is a unique answer to a couple of very specific cards that the deck otherwise has no way to deal with once they’re in play. The first is Cursed Scroll, which we play ourselves. The second is The Rack. These two artifacts are nearly impossible to beat for us if they remain in play, so I think it is justified to play Keg in order to have some way to answer them. Once it’s there in the sideboard, it has some utility against decks with Mox Diamonds and creature-lands, Phyrexian Dreadnought, Altar of Dementia, Sphere of Resistance, and various other non-creature, non-enchantment permanents. I still think it’s generally quite inefficient and it would not be my first choice as a sideboard card against a lot of decks. But its ability to answer a few specific problem cards combined with its flexibility means I can now understand wanting to include a few.

Skeletal Scrying

This would be an alternative to Phyrexian Arena. There are pros and cons to each.

Pros for Arena: Arena can be Ritualed out turn one (or early in general) whereas you wouldn’t really want to cast Scrying before turn 4 at the earliest. Arena will always draw you a card every turn (if it survives) whereas there could be situations where Scrying won’t have enough fuel to do what you want (though this seems somewhat unlikely). Arena doesn’t interact negatively with Cabal Therapy or Spinning Darkness, while Scrying sort of does. Arena is more mana efficient once you draw more than two cards with it than Scrying is.

Pros for Scrying: It allows you to be more selective in terms of how much life you want to lose, which can be useful, especially against Sligh/Burn. Unlike Arena, it can’t be disenchanted or deeded away. It also allows you to refill a lot all at once, which could be better.

Stromgald Cabal

This would be an alternative to Gloom. It seems a bit less powerful in the abstract, but maybe it would actually be better in practice. The downsides are that your opponent could overload it by playing more than one key spell in a turn, and they could use creature removal on it. The upside is that it can attack if that situation presents itself. And it also counters the spell instead of just taxing it. Ultimately, I think Gloom is better for doing what you want this type of card to do.

Rotlung Reanimator

I’ve played the Clerics aggro deck a bit and this card always impressed me. This would only be as a 1-of supplemental three drop threat on top of the 4 Hippies. It has great synergy with Cabal Therapy, and you do have some other Clerics in the form of Withered Wretch. It would be a good additional generic “value” card to play. The problem is, I am not sure there is room for such a card in the deck, even if it makes sense in theory. One other awkward thing about adding a 3-drop is that the deck has so many three mana sideboard cards, it would often just get boarded out. While I like it in theory, there is just too much competition at the three slot for me to actually include it.

Rotting Giant

This has been suggested as an alternative 2-drop. If someone played this, they’d probably want some number of fetchlands (which would hurt against red decks), and it would synergize negatively with Spinning Darkness and Skeletal Scrying, so I probably wouldn’t play those. It also has the potential to interact negatively with Cabal Therapy. And I wouldn’t want to play more than one copy of the Giant to avoid the disastrous scenario of having two and not being able to attack or block with one of them. All that said, if you can fulfill all those requirements at every point, a two mana 3/3 isn’t a bad rate. Playing one might be OK if you wanted something on top of those other 2-drops already present because it has the advantage of not having a double black casting cost.

Plaguebearer

I’ve seen this played in a few decks, primarily as a way to kill Phyrexian Dreadnought and manlands. It is pretty cool, but I am not sure it warrants a spot in this deck, as I think our deck is already pretty well positioned against these things between all the removal for Dreadnought and Wasteland plus removal against manlands. I could see maybe finding room for one though, probably as a sideboard card.

Skittering Skirge

A pretty good card that has some stringent deckbuilding requirements. It is not great in a deck with even a moderate amount of other creatures, since you will often be faced with the decision of either further developing your board or sacrificing the Skirge. Or, if you do have a lot of creatures, you at least want to be a pure aggro deck rather than an aggro-control deck. I had one in an earlier version of the deck and I concluded we simply play too many creatures while not being aggressive enough for this card to work here. The upside of a 3/2 flyer is not worth the downside risk. We have a lot of removal, so the flying is not that important. Wretch and Shade are just better, and I think there is really no need to take on the risk of the drawback of this card by putting it in the deck.

Grinning Demon

I don’t love the union of this card being pretty one-dimensional and also costing 4 mana. While you can play it as a morph for three and flip it up later, this is a very inefficient use of mana. At least if you do this with Bane of the Living, you can remove opposing creatures. While this does sort of fit the general game plan of the deck, I just ultimately think it’s too expensive. If you’re against a non-red deck, Negator does the job better. If you’re against a red deck, I don’t think you want to be taking 2 every turn (and spending 4 or 7 mana to do it). I’ll allow for the possibility that maybe I’m wrong and this card is good, since I haven’t tested it. But I’m very skeptical. Even if you did play it, there’s probably not room for more than one, so it would be competing with Bane and/or Graveborn Muse.

Phyrexian Scuta

Everything I just said about Grinning Demon basically applies to Scuta. I think it might be even worse though, because it is smaller and instead of being able to play it as a Grey Ogre, you have to play it as a Hill Giant and then can’t change your mind later. Big guys are nice against Sligh, but the idea of kicking this against Sligh and giving your opponent a free Lightning Bolt sounds extremely frightening. I guess big beefers like this could be good in the mirror match and other black midrange kinds of matchups. But even then, could they really be better than Graveborn Muse at the same cost? If you can get over the indignity of your creature getting bolted, I think you will be better served by Nantuko Shade 95% of the time. If you want the flavor and nostalgia, by all means include. Otherwise, I would avoid.

Rejuvenation Chamber

I’ve seen black decks running this as a way to beat Sligh if the matchup is otherwise totally abysmal. A big draw of this deck is that the Sligh matchup is actually winnable without resorting to playing cards like this. So I wouldn’t play it.

Zuran Orb

Although this card is more mana-efficient than Rejuvenation Chamber and just kind of better, I feel mostly the same way about it. Yes, it can work if the draws line up right. But the Burn/Sligh matchup is mostly about racing, so I vastly prefer my lifegain spells to actually deal some damage to something. It can also be quite awkward against Pyrostatic Pillar. I have seen people running this, but I think there are other, better ways to skin the red cat, as it were.

Vicious Hunger

This fulfills my preference for a life gain card that deals damage. It is also kind of nice that it doubles as a card you’d be fine bringing in against Goblins. The sorcery-speed aspect is quite rough though. And it does suffer the same issue as Spinning Darkness in that it can get stranded in your hand if there are no targets later on in the game. But it is at least easier to play early on, which is when creature removal is especially important.

Perish

This is one of black’s many powerful sideboard hosers. Its playability, at least in this deck, is a victim of how many other good ones exist. The decks we’d want this for are already pretty well covered by Engineered Plague and Dystopia. I think both of these are better to have against the spread of decks in Premodern than Perish. So even though I have nothing against the card in theory, it’s hard for me to imagine devoting a sideboard spot to it when we have those other options already.

6.1 – Sligh

As I’ve mentioned, one of the big draws to this build of monoblack is that can actually beat Sligh a decent percentage of the time. There are a few cards that are particularly good against Sligh, but an equal factor in why we can beat them has to do with the cards we are not playing. Playing a lot of generic 2/2 creatures, especially ones that damage you themselves, is not a good recipe for beating the Sligh deck, which is full of cards that can deal 2 damage. Generally, the more aggro black decks play a low amount of removal, so they can’t always kill the Grim Lavamancer that repeatedly kills their 2/2s. And of course, they can’t destroy a Cursed Scroll either (the one drawback Moneyball shares). Additionally, many black aggro decks can’t resist playing Phyrexian Negator, which is unfortunately a guarantee you will have a terrible matchup against Mountains (I believe Phyrexian Arena also fits this bill). I probably don’t need to explain why this is, but very briefly: If you draw Negator early and play it, it will die and you will lose a bunch of permanents, setting you back, likely to a lethal degree. If you don’t play it, you have a brick in your hand that cannot help you defend against Sligh’s goal of dealing you damage, nor can it help you race. If any deck is built to punish you for not playing the cards you draw, it is Sligh. So even though it won’t lose you the game as dramatically as if you played it, it basically does still make you lose the game, just in a different way.

Ok, so we’ve covered why black aggro decks tend to be very bad against Sligh. Why is this deck different? We have a few cards that are very good that the black aggro decks don’t generally play many of. The best one is Ravenous Rats. This card is nuts because the Sligh deck is composed of burn spells, lands, and x/1 creatures. An early Ravenous Rats is almost always going to be a two for one in a way that matters. They’ll always discard a card and have to either trade an x/1 with it or spend a burn spell to clear the way for their x/1 to attack. Any of these outcomes are fantastic, even them discarding a land, as the lands in the Sligh deck, especially early, are important. A discarded land can lead to them not being able to play Sulfuric Vortex, multiple burn spells, or activate Cursed Scroll on time. That can cascade into a future discard spell being live when it otherwise wouldn’t have been. All of their resources matter, so Rats is incredible. And when it comes time to race, it attacks for one.

The second great card is Cursed Scroll. The decks tend to annihilate each others resources early, and if you end up with a Scroll and some lands after the dust settles, you will have a good chance of winning the ensuing topdeck war, since it can kill all their creatures and hit them on turns they don’t draw any. They also have Cursed Scroll and it is also one of their best cards against us, but at least we have a chance of hitting theirs with discard. They also play fewer lands, so occasionally their Scrolls are unusable, especially if a Rats has messed things up for them.

The third is Mishra’s Factory (with an honorable mention to Spawning Pool). Having a land that attacks is great in the context of the mutual elimination of resources I mentioned before. The fact that multiples can pump one out of range of two-damage spells is a nice bonus.

Finally, we also have more removal than the average black aggro deck, which can help ensure Grim Lavamancer (and the other creatures) die before getting to do much damage.

The plan is basically the same pre and post board. Reduce early damage taken as much as possible while shredding their hand and killing creatures (especially repeatable targeted damage like Grim Lavamancer). Then turn the corner and attack them with the “extra” virtual cards you have in the form of Scroll, Rats, and Factory (plus regular creatures like Shade, Specter and Wretch). Wretch has some minor upside of shrinking their graveyard against Barbarian Ring and Lavamancer. Shade will most likely just die and that’s ok. But sometimes in the late game you can have enough mana left over to save it from one burn spell and then it either deals a ton of damage or forces them to 2 for 1 themselves to get rid of it. Their key cards are the ones that do repeatable damage, but since there’s so many ways to kill creatures, the non-creature forms of this are the most important – Cursed Scroll and Sulfuric Vortex. I could see Vortex being scary for them to play since we do have creatures that can race back against it. But I still think it would favor them in general to have one in play. It is possible to get bricked out by a random Ball Lightning plus a bunch of burn, but we have so much discard and removal that it’s somewhat unlikely. If you can prevent this from happening without sacrificing too much, you probably should try.

To sideboard, I tend to cut Phyrexian Arena, Snuff Out, and some or all Cabal Therapies for the Drain Life, a few Engineered Plagues, and Funeral Charm if you have it. I think leaving in Graveborn Muse is ok since it’s generally a racing situation – it will either attack for three or eat a bolt, either of which is good. I think Plague Spitter might also be ok but I am kind of afraid to board it in. Bane of the Living would be better since it doesn’t damage you and a 4/3 is just kind of large – I would board it in if I had it in the board. They tend to bring in Overload so the Duresses won’t be as dead in the mid to late game as you might expect, and I like keeping all 4 in. The information it provides can also be extremely important for things like Engineered Plague and knowing whether you need to account for a Ball Lightning. They might bring in Price of Progress, which I think is just ok against us, but definitely something to be aware of. None of the other sideboard cards Sligh usually plays seem particularly relevant.

Overall I think this matchup is close to even, which again, is a dramatic improvement compared to most monoblack aggro(ish) decks.

6.2 – Burn

Update February 2026: I’ve always been annoyingly vocal that the traditional red aggro deck in Premodern was Sligh, not Burn. My justification was that it played Cursed Scroll to control the board and often some extra Goblin Patrols to attack with over multiple turns. And that it didn’t play Flame Rift.

I feel very vindicated, because now there is an actual Burn deck running around that does play Flame Rift. And Pyrostatic Pillar maindeck. And Black Vise, in case those previous cards weren’t enough to convince you that it’s Burn.

This matchup isn’t dramatically different from Sligh, but I do think it is overall better for Moneyball, because these burn decks don’t generally play Cursed Scroll. We have creatures that we can race with, so Pillar and Flame Rift can definitely be a liability for them. It is not unusual for them to get Pillar-locked and fall behind because they had to use their burn spells on our creatures. This deck is also why I like Drain Life, as it can be played with a CMC above 3 to avoid Pillar, and it can also be sent to the face, and these decks play fewer creatures to target than traditional Sligh.

6.3 – Stiflenought

Stiflenought is probably the best deck in the format, and a perfect draw from them will beat us just like it will beat any other deck. That said, I think structurally this deck is about as favored against Dreadnought as any deck that isn’t a pure hate deck could be. We have a ton of discard to punch a hole in their combo (or their protection if a shrimp is in play already), a bunch of removal spells to kill a Dreadnought, and a relatively fast clock, including a creature that makes them discard at random repeatedly. Out of all our cards, only Cursed Scroll is really suboptimal here (or Masticore if you play that). Withered Wretch also isn’t amazing, but it does disrupt Flash of Insight and Accumulated Knowledge.

The game plan isn’t particularly complicated. Try to disrupt them early and get a clock down and kill them before they can recover. What to blind name with Therapy depends on the rest of the contents of your hand. If you’re really exposed, you probably have to name Dreadnought. If you have a removal spell and another creature to play to get another Therapy flashback, it might make sense to name something else. If I can work in hitting a Gush early, I really like to do that. One nice thing is if the game goes long, Therapy stays pretty live throughout. Other tips: Try to kill a Dreadnought if they’re tapped out – especially early, they sometimes just go for it without protection. If they aren’t tapped out, it could make sense to try to kill the Nought in their upkeep so that if they save it with Vision Charm, you get another turn without having taken 12. How to approach it is often a judgment call, but since we see their hand so much, we can make these calls with a lot of information.

For sideboarding, extra discard, extra removal, bigger creatures, and card draw are all good if you have them. I would take out any cards that aren’t these things (usually this means Cursed Scroll and removal like Contagion that doesn’t kill Dreadnought). But leaving in a Scroll or two isn’t the end of the world. One nice thing is that they also don’t have any particularly effective sideboard options against us. [They could board into Tide, but the great thing about discard spells is they can also discard Parallax Tide. Update February 2026: Never mind!] Essence Flare isn’t particularly effective against our creatures. Putting it on a Shade is especially awkward, as a single pump on upkeep with the flare trigger on the stack means they are taking a minimum of 5 damage before it dies at the end of the turn. Powder Keg is probably their best card, but we are capable of powering through it (and is another reason why leaving in a Scroll or two isn’t that bad, as it diversifies mana costs). Control magic effects are also reasonable against us, but Dominate is a bit expensive and Legacy’s Allure is quite narrow.

The black or white versions of Stiflenought are worse against us because they are more vulnerable to Wasteland, and none of the cards they could add in these colors really matter. Leaving in Cursed Scroll to kill Meddling Mage gets much more appealing against UW.

I sincerely believe this is a favorable matchup. How many decks can honestly say that about Stiflenought?

6.4 – Enchantress

This is among the harder matchups. This makes some sense, since it is very good at drawing extra cards, negating the discard that is Moneyball’s bread and butter. These extra draw effects come in the form of green permanents that our deck mostly can’t remove game one.

If you have the ability to snag a Mirri’s Guile with a discard spell, it can be good to do so, since it is a very good card against us, as it can help the opponent float cards on top of their library in the appropriate order to protect them from discard. However, that can be tough as they have many other good targets, including both enchantress effects, Swords to Plowshares, and sometimes Parallax Wave. Many other of their cards like Sterling Grove and Solitary Confinement can also be good depending on the situation, which is part of what makes this matchup hard. And it is tough to effectively race them before they recover, given the big mana jumps they can make with Wild Growth, Serra’s Sanctum, and Exploration, which are hard cards to stop since they cost either one or a land drop.

Nevertheless, this is our only plan – discard their key cards and try to race before they can recover. Wretch can disrupt a potential Replenish sometimes, and Shade can be a large attacker. However, it is still an uphill fight because in addition to them having so many bangers, we have a lot of dead cards in the form of all the removal and Cursed Scroll, which is quite slow in this matchup. One silver lining is these decks don’t tend to play Elephant Grass anymore, which would be basically unbeatable for us. Update February 2026: They seem to have started to play Elephant Grass more. I think this is at least somewhat due to the success of this very deck, so we can take it as a complement. But it is still not something we want to see.

Game one is tough, but we do get to board out all our non-edict removal and Cursed Scroll to fit in Dystopia, Gloom, and some number of Engineered Plague to name druid. I would also bring in Negator and the 4th Therapy if it’s not maindeck. You could also consider Plague Spitter as an extra answer to Argothian, though I think E. Plague is probably still better since it takes effect immediately. This gives us many more answers post-board, although at the cost of increasing the mana curve a fair amount. It may be good to trim a Hippy, even though it is good, just to keep the curve reasonable. Or just not bring in as many E. Plague. I’ve talked to other players and Gloom is maybe even better than Dystopia, since there can be a lot of fodder lying around to feed to a Dystopia before it starts to hit the important cards. But both cards are good and I think you want as many as possible.

Postboard configurations like this, which increase the quantity of 3-drops and the importance of landing them early, are a big part of the reason I wouldn’t cut Dark Ritual from the deck.

For their part, they typically don’t have a ton to bring in, just some Tsabo’s Webs, which can definitely be punishing, depending on our draw. There are a few cards they could play which would be really hard to beat, like the aforementioned Elephant Grass and Spiritual Focus. But one benefit of playing a “rogue” deck like this is people will not generally be packing these cards. Update February 2026: Rogue no longer, and these cards are no longer that uncommon. Yet somehow, I think the fundamental matchup does not really change that much with them. The key is still almost always about whether they pull ahead with enchantress effects or not.

This matchup is unfavorable, but still winnable. You will have to get a bit lucky though.

6.5 – Terravore Oath (all forms)

Unlike the previous green/white deck, our matchup against Terravore decks of all stripes is great. They generally have far fewer cards we need to actually worry about. Swords to Plowshares is good, and an early Oath can be backbreaking, but many of the other cards they play are very manageable.

The strategy should be to try and stop an early Oath of Druids from hitting the battlefield. Sylvan Library is also good for them, but definitely not as big of a problem as Oath, both because it doesn’t give them such a high impact early play and because we actually pressure their life total, so drawing extra cards off it is not trivial. If we are able to prevent an early Oath, we get a lot more time to operate and the ensuing hand disruption and removal can put us in a favorable position where the opponent may not be able to profitably cast a Cataclysm or Armageddon. Which is not to say we don’t usually want to discard a Geddon or Cataclysm – it’s still preferable not to lose our lands, I’m just saying it’s not always a game-losing proposition.

Withered Wretch is absolutely insane in the matchup, as it answers the back half of Call of the Herd and has the ability to kill any number of Terravores. Even if you can’t kill it in one turn, without an Oath to dump tons of lands in the gaveyard, the Terravore can often just be a speedbump that uses up some of our mana before it dies. Later on in the game, Oath is less of an issue because we either might have drawn some removal spells that can kill the first creature or two, a Wretch and a bunch of mana to control the graveyard, and/or just have enough creatures to power through it.

Postboard, the Dystopias really shine as an answer to all of their good permanents. I also like bringing in the Tormod’s Crypt if you have it. I think Phyrexian Negator is probably also good, as they don’t have that many creatures and we are bringing in more cards that kill them. Powder Keg is, I suppose, worth bringing in to hit Moxes or creature-lands. I’m on the fence about whether bringing in the last Cabal Therapy is worthwhile, since their deck has such a low spell count relative to most. As for what to take out, Cursed Scroll isn’t that bad but I think it is our worst card. Funeral Charm could also be cut if you play it main. The games tend to go kind of long, so I think trimming Dark Rituals is also acceptable. Trimming on Ravenous Rats also seems fine.

Although the games often feel pretty close, I can’t help but think we’re at a pretty big advantage, based on how things have played out and my overall record against the deck.

If they are playing the Quiet Speculation version, it should be even better in theory, since they have even more cards that get hosed by Wretch.

The RG Ponza Oath version is probably the best version against us, since Pyroclasm is a very efficient answer to all our creatures. Even Nantuko Shade is hard to insulate against a Pyroclasm in the context of land destruction and Rishadan Ports. Also, the combination of Sphere of Resistance plus individual land destruction spells is harder to disrupt than just sniping an individual Armageddon or Cataclysm with discard, and Sphere comes down faster than those cards.

The white version can sometimes have additional threats, typically Exalted Angel, which can be good, but fortunately can be answered by Smother if morphed and Dystopia, Snuff out, and Edicts if not.

If they are playing a version with additional creatures like Wayfarer, Mongoose, and/or Meddling Mage rather than Oath, not that much changes. But I think the matchup is easier because it eliminates one of their strongest lines of dropping a turn two Oath and makes our Cursed Scrolls better.

6.6 – Replenish

Update February 2026: I’m revamping this entire matchup overview in light of the banning of Parallax Tide. This matchup was not actually as difficult as I thought originally, because they have fewer high impact cards and more “churn,” and unlike Enchantress, they don’t really net extra cards, so if you can whittle their hand down while taking the key cards, they won’t have a lot extra left to deal with your stuff. They have fewer high impact cards now due to the lack of Parallax Tide. Decree of Silence costing so much more mana than Tide did is a huge advantage for us. If they play Angels or Meddling Mages instead, that just turns on removal that would have otherwise been dead.

The plan should be to try to take cards that interact with what you’re doing, namely Wave, Tide, and Swords to Plowshares with early discard and hopefully use Wretch to mitigate any potential Replenishes drawn. Due to their ability to generate extra mana with Sol-lands and Frantic Search, you sometimes you have no choice but to cross your fingers and hope that they whiff on a few key turns. It’s also possible for them to get a Wave or Tide Decree of Silence but not be able to combine it with something that ends the game like a Seal of Cleansing or Opalescence. It will buy them some time, but the more pressure you have put on them, the less time it will buy.

We improve post-sideboard as usual by boarding in Glooms, Dystopias, Negator, Therapy, and Tormod’s Crypt. Because they play Mage and Angel now, Scroll and removal are not even too bad anymore. So I really don’t know what to take out. Some of the removal I guess. This is also partially why I feel like Negator is not that necessary in the sideboard anymore. There is a potential for a blow-out if you Funeral Charm them when they are trying to Attunement with just one other card in hand. But it may ultimately be too low-impact. With the banning of Tide and the way the deck reconfigured itself in response, I believe this matchup is favorable for us now, as long as you keep packing the Glooms.

6.7 – Elves

This matchup revolves around having an answer for their engines – Survival of the Fittest and Wirewood Symbiote + other elves (especially Multani’s Acolyte). Usually the games you win involve dealing with whichever of these cards they draw and them flooding out/drawing Elves that don’t do much, and you can take over with Cursed Scroll and/or force them into the Abyss with Nantuko Shade. Hypnotic Specter is also good here as an early play that pressures their hand while also putting a clock on them. Withered Wretch can do something to mitigate the effectiveness of a Survival of the Fittest by dealing with Anger or Squee. However, they can still maneuver with it depending on how much of a board presence they already have. Playing Funeral Charm or Bane of the Living maindeck would be helpful in this matchup.

As far as sideboarding, I know the cards we want to bring in include Dystopia, Engineered Plague, Plague Spitter, Powder Keg, and Funeral Charm if it’s in the board. I think I’ve settled on the plan of removing all Duress. Even though Survival is their most powerful card, they have very few other targets for it. A copy of Therapy could also go, although I think I like leaving in a few just to keep the mana curve reasonable. You can always name Survival with Therapy if your hand doesn’t match up well. Ravenous Rats isn’t particularly great, especially without Therapy, but it is something you can play for less than three mana. Withered Wretch is also not great if they don’t have Survival, which it is still a big priority to prevent them from getting. However, it can be good if they have found it but are being pressured with a Plague or Dystopia to also have Wretch around to cut into the effectiveness of Survival. Shade is a nice clock, but if they do have Symbiote + block and bounce an elf going, it won’t do a ton. It’s possible Shade does not belong and the priority should be entirely focused on playing hate cards and winning with whatever is around (like a Cursed Scroll or Specter). It is also slightly awkward that Shade is an insect and you might conceivably want to name that type with Engineered Plague to deal with fellow insect Wirewood Symbiote. Removal like Smother is nice because it can answer anything, but also kind of bad because of its inefficiency. At the same time, we are boarding in a lot of three mana spells, so we need to have some kind of interaction before we cast them (assuming we won’t always draw Dark Ritual every time). Cursed Scroll is great at cleaning up the game once control has been established but it is very slow, and not necessarily a card you want to draw a lot of early.

Given all of these conflicting factors, I think we can cut the Duresses and trim a few of each of these other cards to make room for the sideboard cards we want.

Overall, I do think this matchup is good – but it is important to have enough early interaction as they can set up to play around various things if given enough time/early mana, such as by going to get Caller of the Claw with Survival, for example.

6.8 – Goblins

This is a very fun and dynamic matchup. It is winnable but challenging. There are many “checks” that need to be passed in order to win. The first thing is to put up some resistance to a Goblin Lackey if they have it. Like many decks in the format, being hit by a Lackey early will often result in a loss soon afterwards. Obviously being on the play dramatically increases our chances of being able to deal with a turn one Lackey, but even on the draw, we still have a decent chance thanks to Dark Ritual (and Funeral Charm and Snuff Out). Note: Just because a hand can’t answer a turn 1 Lackey doesn’t mean I will always mulligan it. You have to use your best judgment and play the percentages. #that’smoneyball

Once you’ve passed the Lackey check, your focus should be on putting pressure on the opponents hand with Cabal Therapy and Hypnotic Specter (unfortunately, Duress is typically a total blank game one, though it can provide info for Therapy). All else equal, the key cards to name with Therapy are Goblin Ringleader and Goblin Warchief. But it’s context-dependent. Sometimes you might want to name Gempalm Incinerator if you are, for example, relying on a Hippy to keep connecting. Or if you Ritualed into a two-drop to block and want to make sure you don’t get it killed, you may need to name Fanatic or Incinerator. Warchief is easier to deal with in play since it dies to Smother, but if you don’t have one of those, you may have to adjust. If at all possible, I like to ignore Goblin Piledriver. By this I mean, focus on eliminating the surrounding goblins so that it is not attacking for very much. Turning it into a Squire is the key to winning. Even though Shade and Wretch are not great in this matchup, they at least have the benefit of trading with a Piledriver or Warchief. Shade is probably at its worst in this matchup since it dies so easily to Mogg Fanatic and Incinerator, and the consequences of it dying at the wrong time can be very bad.

Once you’ve hopefully blunted the early assault, you can try to turn the corner and attack them with your creatures and/or hit them or their goblins with Cursed Scroll over the course of several turns (or Masticore if you’re doing that instead). Goblins has a really nice high-end threat in the form of Siege-Gang Commander. If they are able to get this in play early, you will be in a lot of trouble, but if you have a big board advantage late with a Scroll/Masticore, the Commander can be manageable. Goblins also has the ability to win the lategame by drawing Ringleader or Matroning and flooding the board, so it is important to know when to “turn the corner” and try to finish the game before they can do this. This deck usually plays like an aggro-control deck but against Goblins and Elves, we need to invert to more of a “control-aggro” deck.

It is a very nice feeling to be able to bring in 4 Engineered Plagues and at least one Plague Spitter against this deck, and I highly recommend it. Funeral Charm is also a card you’d want to board in as an answer to Lackey, even though it kind of sucks against everything else. I think you probably want three Therapies to tag Ringleader, but possibly not all 4. In terms of what to take out, Duress has to go, even if they are splashing to board into Naturalize or that black/red goblin anthem. If monored, they also probably will board Pyrokinesis, which is good against us. Nevertheless, the dearth of targets means you gotta cut all the Duresses. Past that, Arena is probably too slow and I also think it’s reasonable to shave a Diabolic Edict and/or a Nantuko Shade. I think Drain Life might even be reasonable as a way to kill Goblins that aren’t in Smother range. But that’s a bit speculative.

Overall I think the matchup is about even, although the games can tend to be quite lopsided one way or the other.

6.9 – Blue Control decks

We’re at a big advantage against these decks since our discard stays live long into the game, and also because it gives us extremely valuable information about how to play. We’re also well-equipped to fight a Standstill with Wastelands and Factories of our own, plus the option to take it with discard if needed.

I have played against these decks a lot, so I can offer some general rules of thumb. Typically the best approach is to take their cheapest interaction with discard to force in a threat, both because it puts pressure on them and because it gives you a few more turns to draw additional discard for the higher-cost spells. If you get around turn 4 or later and they haven’t cast Fact or Fiction, it’s a decent card to name with Cabal Therapy, since it kind of stinks to cast one in response to a Therapy. Do not forget about the option to animate a manland and sacrifice it to Cabal Therapy. Cursed Scroll and the removal are actually both still good against most of the control decks, as Scroll is a damage source that can’t be hit by Swords to Plowshares and our removal deals with Mishra’s Factory, which they often have no choice but to try and block with even without protection.

[Update February 2026: Another paragraph devoted to Parallax Tide. I will cross it out and leave it here for posterity. In terms of the different flavors, our best matchup is probably regular UW control without the Tide combo. Tide is an angle they have to execute a combo-like play that can undo our incremental advantages, and any version that doesn’t have it is worse off against us. UW with Tide and Mono U Tide should be slightly better, but still are not favored, since the discard is still good at breaking up the combo. The Powder Kegs and Quicksands out of Mono U are pretty annoying to deal with. Playing all the colorless lands they do can come at a cost though – on more than one occasion I’ve played against a U Tide deck that couldn’t assemble two blue sources to play Tide on time. Keep in mind that Withered Wretch can be useful if they are playing Accumulated Knowledge in either version.]

The Psychatog deck is also a great matchup. They have don’t have manlands generally but sometimes have Tsabo’s Web, which is usually not that big of a deal but can occasionally be a blowout if our lands line up poorly. Between our discard and removal, it can be hard for them to have Psychatog stay in play, and there is also sometimes Withered Wretch to shrink it down enough that you don’t have to be forced into the Abyss blocking it.

Out of the sideboard, we want the Therapy and Negator, and if you are playing any of these, extra card draw, Wasteland, and possibly Drain Life depending on how much you want to take out. Control decks are now more likely to lean on Exalted Angel, so I don’t hate leaving in more removal and maybe bringing Dystopia for that and/or Humility. I also don’t hate bringing in a Plague Spitter as another threat and as a way to deal with Decree of Justice tokens (but I wouldn’t against Psychatog since the risk of it being Smothered and killing your other creatures is too great). I don’t like bringing in Gloom against the white control decks, since they actually have a small number of total cards that are affected by it – just Swords and a few Wraths/Humilities and some Disenchants. Exalted Angel and Decree of Justice aren’t intended to be cast. Plus, the games tend to go on for quite a while, so casting their cards late game could be quite possible even under Gloom. By the same logic, I actually like to board out a few Dark Rituals against UW, as the games tend to be extremely grindy affairs and we don’t need to be ultra-fast. I think it is not right to take them out against U Tide since they threaten a fast virtually game-ending combo that we need to maneuver around, plus it could be nice to be able to jump mana after getting Tided. Against UW with Tide, I’m not sure what is best, since they have the combo but are less dedicated to making it happen. Other cards to trim include Spinning Darkness or Funeral Charm if playing them and some of the other removal. I do like leaving in a decent amount of removal against all of these decks to deal with manlands and Exalted Angel, which most will board in. Diabolic Edict and Snuff out are best against UW. Obviously, take out Snuff Out and Spinning Darkness against Psychatog.

These decks are all very good matchups, as they let us take the aggro-control role, which is just where we want to be.

6.10 – Midrange Survival decks

I am mainly thinking of the GB “Survival-Rock” deck here, although there are any number of other permutations. These are kind of bad matchups since they could have discard to disrupt our plan and they have an extremely game-breaking card in Survival. If this sticks around for a turn cycle without a Wretch to disrupt Squee, it is very hard to beat. The fact that they have other random value creatures in the deck can also be very good at countering our other sources of advantage. It is also awkward that they have a lot of creature spells and one-ofs, which are good against Duress and Cabal Therapy respectively.

Post-board we will want Dystopia and probably Plague Spitter since they’ll be playing Birds of Paradise. If they are an extreme madness build, Engineered Plague could be useful against Basking Rootwalla. You could cut a Ravenous Rats or two here. The Diabolic Edict is also likely to be not great.

Despite all my doom and gloom, I do think these matchups are still quite winnable with the right draws. But I can’t really say we’re favored.

6.11 – The Rock

Update February 2026: With the banning of Tide, the Rock is back and a deck that didn’t even warrant an entry in the previous version of the write-up is now a player. This is a hard matchup, mostly because of Pernicious Deed, which kills all our stuff. Our best chance is to punch a hole in their hand and try to race them. Their bad mana can do them in with the help of our Wastelands. Mishra’s Factory is great at surviving Deed. Nantuko Shade is good at killing them if they stumble. Eating their graveyard with Wretch can be good because of Recurring Nightmare / Skeletal Scrying / Genesis.

Postboard we can try to bring in Dystopia to fight whatever big green idiots they have. Powder Keg could also be fine as a hedge against squirrel tokens and Treetop Village. We might want to cut some Dark Rituals, as this matchup can be a serious grind. Cutting some discard spells is also reasonable, probably a mix of Duress and Therapy. But I don’t think it’s right to cut all of them.

Despite the structural disadvantage, I don’t think it’s that bad in practice. I mean, this is the Rock we’re talking about here after all.

Note: I’ll also mention there’s an uptick in BW Deadguy/control. I think this is basically a worse version of the Rock, since it doesn’t have Pernicious Deed or Treetop Village to worry about. But the plan is mostly the same.

6.12 – Graveyard Combo decks

I realize there are a lot of different types of these. Iggy pop, Hermit Druid decks, which could include Cephalid/En-Kor combo, or Shapeshifter combo, which could also be just in its own deck. There are also Academy Rector decks of various stripes. Reanimator has gotten popular recently. In any case, the combination of discard and Withered Wretch is good against them. But they are scarier than the control decks since they can be quite fast and potentially not give you the time to draw the answers that you have in the deck. The ones that utilize creatures that can be killed are likely better matchups than Full English Breakfast, which, if given time to set up, can be immune to both graveyard hate and removal.

Use your best judgment on how to sideboard. If they have a lot of X/1s, Plague Spitter could be worthwhile. If relying on Survival, you will likely want Dystopia as well. Therapy and Negator likely come in almost every time. Obviously you will want the Tormod’s Crypt if it’s there. Trimming on some combination of Rats, removal and Cursed Scroll is likely the way to go. Reanimator likes to bring back green and white creatures, and also tends to board into Oath of Druids, so Dystopia is an absolute necessity there.

I think these should generally be favorable due to all our disruption and graveyard hate. The ones containing Survival of the Fittest are likely the most difficult. I’ve also found Reanimator scary because of its pure speed – it can often do its thing before we can even get Wretch in play/active, so keeping some Edicts in is a necessity.

6.13 – The Rack

This matchup is like a weird pseudo-burn mirror match. Both players hands will get shredded and whoever is left with some good threat, or the lands to play topdecked threats, will likely win. The best card by far is Cursed Scroll, since it kills most or all of their creatures and then can kill them. The Rack can usually be worked around by trying to draw up past the damage limit, but you’ll have to use your judgment about balancing that and deploying threats. If they also get a Bottomless Pit out, you’ll have no choice, but will likely lose the race to the combo of that and The Rack.

I think it’s good to bring in Phyrexian Negator here since the most they can deal to it directly is two with Cursed Scroll and you can just sacrifice it if they get that. If they don’t have Scroll, creatures die constantly and removal is often discarded, so you have a good chance of getting in for a ton of damage with the Negator. Card draw spells and Drain Life are also good. Board in Powder Keg to kill their Scrolls/The Racks. And Funeral Charm is good and can randomly be a total blowout against an opposing Cursed Scroll (or against ours, for that matter). We can cut any removal that can’t target black creatures and trim Withered Wretch, whose ability is mostly irrelevant.

[Update February 2026: We don’t have a ton of cards that are really bad, which is another reason I don’t like having Powder Kegs in the board for a matchup like this, since it’s pretty random anyway. The metagame shifted and I’m now willing to play Keg. I leave this sentence with a strikethrough here for posterity/an example of the power of change.]

6.14 – Tinker-Devourer

This particular combo deck is harder for us than others, because it does not use the graveyard, is full of artifacts we can’t destroy, and the creature involved is not vulnerable to removal when going off. Our plan therefore must simply be to use discard and race and hope they don’t topdeck a card to complete the combo. Unfortunately, they can just play out Altar of Dementia and we cannot destroy it. Just cross your fingers and hope you don’t draw too many useless cards.

Postboard we want Therapy, Negator, card draw, and all of our Engineered Plagues, and Wasteland if you have it. Keg as a way to kill Altar is probably(?) worthwhile. They will have bounce for the Plague but it’s our best bet. They’ll also have Pyroclasm for our creatures. If you were super concerned about this matchup, Null Rod could be played as an additional card that stops their combo. Seems really narrow, but you could do it. Take out removal followed by Cursed Scroll.

Updated February 2026: I have now played the matchup a fair amount and can confirm it is difficult. The sheer redundancy of their effects makes their topdecks really good, and we can’t discard the top of the deck. They also sometimes board in or just play Oath of Druids maindeck, which is quite annoying. It also seems horrible to bring in Dystopia just for that one card. I have had many situations where I had them dead in one or two turns, had played a ton of disruption, felt pretty ahead, and then they just topdecked the win and I died. This is one of the few decks I really don’t want to play against in the format.

6.15 – Stasis

A very strange deck and the games against it tend to be pretty weird. Discard, especially random discard, is quite good against them. Other than that, you don’t really have much to interact with, and just have to hope that your pressure is enough that they can’t get set up for Stasis to work how they’d want. In terms of blind Therapy names, I like to name Stasis and Gush, as these are their most important cards by far. Chain of Vapor can also be good if you want to connect with a Hippy. Once they land the Stasis, you’re faced with the question of whether to try to play cards, especially discard spells, to try and hit a potential Chain of Vapor, or wait it out so they don’t get an opportunity to play a Daze or Thwart and reset their Islands. I suppose this decision should be informed by how many of each you’ve already seen. I think generally it’s right to just wait, but I’m not really sure. You have a couple of Wastelands to kill Forsaken City, so keep that in mind. I think trying to play Powder Keg to fight Black Vise is a trap, but I guess I haven’t played the matchup enough to be 100% sure. If you are taking damage from a vise, you can animate a Factory and Spinning Darkness it to gain life and get rid of cards in your hand. If you’re desperate enough to do this, the odds are very slim you’ll be winning anyway, but it is a legal play.

After sideboarding, we add, once again, Phyrexian Negator and Cabal Therapy. Plague Spitter is also good since it can damage them without tapping. Card draw and Funeral Charm also seem fine enough. Even Drain Life can be fine if you have a lot to take out, though it is not better than Cursed Scroll. All the removal is totally dead and can come out. After that, we can start cutting Cursed Scrolls.

Despite the fact that we can’t actually destroy a Stasis once in play, I think this matchup is in our favor since the discard is so good here and they’re so reliant on a single card.

6.16 – Miracle Gro

I think this should be a pretty good matchup for us in theory. We have a diverse set of removal spells to answer Dryad and Mage, and Mage can be killed by Cursed Scroll as well. Gro tends to have a bunch of cards in its hand thanks to Gush, so our discard should stay live for more of the game. The decks are both in the aggro-control domain but we have a more consistent manabase and access to Mishra’s Factory and Cursed Scroll – both great cards in a mid-range/aggro-control battle. Mystic Enforcer can be pretty good against us, but they usually only play a couple of them. Wretch can also do some work at keeping it a 3/3. If they are playing Nimble Mongoose and/or Accumulated Knowledge, or Psychatog, Wretch is great against those as well.

Postboard, we have Dystopia to bring in to handle Mage, Dryad, and Mystic Enforcer. If it seems like they don’t have a lot of those cards, maybe don’t bother with Dystopia. All our cards are pretty good so I am not sure what I would remove. Trimming a Rats and a Funeral Charm if playing seems reasonable. Negator could also be an upgrade over some other creature, but be aware of Pyroclasm or Fire/Ice. If it seems like they have these, I wouldn’t bring in the Negator. Other cards they might bring in include Disenchant and Winter Orb, and possibly Annul if they really got hosed by Scroll game one, though I don’t think it is a great card against us in general. This is another matchup that has white cards where I would not board in Gloom, as they don’t have nearly enough of them for it to be worth it.

6.17 – Wild Mongrel Aggro

Update February 2026: There are now basically G/x Wild Mongrel aggro decks represented in Premodern for every secondary color. G/R “Zoo,” G/W “little kid”, G/U Madness, and G/B Zombie Infestation/Mongrel. So I’m revamping this entry and grouping them all together. The plan is more or less the same vs. all of them. The priority against these is killing Wild Mongrel, as it is their best card. Excepting maybe Gr Zoo where it is sort of just another creature that attacks. Against GB and GU, they have Survival (and Zombie Infestation) that you want to tag with discard. Wretch is good against all of these decks. Arrogant Wurm is another strong card they have against us since it is so large and can’t be Smothered. The general plan is just to take the control role and kill their creatures, then turn the corner and try to win. Despite a lot of these decks having madness/flashback stuff, Rats and Hippy are not that bad. Though we still probably want to board some out. If you can withstand the initial assault, Cursed Scroll is good at cleaning up in the lategame. These are a good example of a matchup where I don’t like the Arena/Masticore approach because I think we are generally under too much pressure early to be able to play these cards effectively.

In sideboarding, you just want to make some tweaks and bring in more removal. Dystopia is probably worth it against all of these except maybe the Zombie Infestation deck. Engineered Plague can be a consideration naming human or lizard. Cutting some discard would make sense. Bringing in the extra Graveborn to facilitate the control role also seems reasonable. The hardest of these is probably Gr Zoo, since it is the most like Sligh/Burn, has the most reach, and is least affected by our graveyard hate. I think we are slightly unfavored vs GR and slightly favored vs the rest (probably most favored vs GW since Dystopia is at its best there).