dautt’s BitterBible

The Comprehensive Faerie Guide

Hello to everyone, and welcome to dautt’s BitterBible (The Comprehensive Faerie Guide). As a bit of backstory, I have been playing Faeries since the inception of Modern even back to its Extended days, and it has always been a favorite deck of mine to play. I thought I would give back in my own special way by creating a guide on how to play with the deck. 

This guide will take you through:

• Decklists from multiple different builders, each taking some different strategies
• Mainboards, and how to approach building the deck for pre-sideboard games
• Sideboards, and the cards that are best to use and explain its strengths against certain decks. They will each have a star rating depending on it’s playability against the deck as well.
• Sideboard swaps for specific matchups in the meta.

Guide Last Updated: September 7th, 2019

I AM NO LONGER PLAYING SO I WILL NOT BE UPDATING THE GUIDE ANY FURTHER.

Use it wisely and build the best you can!

Contact Me:

If you would like me to test or add anything to this list please contact me through the Faeries Discord @dautt#4142, @dauttweet on twitter, or on mtgsalvation where I also go by dautt. If you have any questions with trying to contact me, DM me on twitter or discord as it’s the easiest places to contact me.

Discord Available: https://discord.gg/aGJQ3AZ 

PLEASE ADD COMMENTS!

Adding comments not only helps me update this, but helps other players that read this! If you have suggestions, let them be heard and I’ll gladly put them in.

Categories/Quick Links

Typical UB Lists:

Yuta’s “Control” Build

Dautt’s Personal Builds

Asnook UB

Jeff Hoogland’s UB Fae

Non-Typical Lists:

Snow NinjaFae

The Musts:

Creeping Tar Pit

Mutavault

Fatal Push

Bitterblossom

Snapcaster Mage

Spellstutter Sprite

Cryptic Command

Creatures:

Faerie Seer

Nimble Obstructionist

Scion of Oona

Vendilion Clique

Mistbind Clique

Tasigur, the Golden Fang

Draw Spells:

Ancestral Vision

Opt

Serum Visions

Fact or Fiction

Kill Spells:

Slaughter Pact

Disfigure

Go for the Throat

Dismember

Murderous Cut

Cast Down

Liliana’s Triumph

Tyrant’s Scorn

Counterspells:

Spell Pierce

Spell Snare

Mana Leak

Remand

Archmages Charm

Force of Negation

Discard Spells:

Inquisition of Kozilek

Thoughtseize

Artifacts:

Planeswalkers:

Liliana of the Veil

Liliana, the Last Hope

Narset, Parter of Veils

Jace The Mind Sculptor

Lands:

Field of Ruin

Sideboard Stuff:

Instants:

Ceremonious Rejection

Dispel

Flusterstorm

Surgical Extraction

Countersquall and Negate

Disdainful Stroke

Echoing Truth

Hurkyl's Recall

Flashfreeze

Shadow of Doubt

Force of Despair

Hero's Downfall

Sorceries:

Liliana’s Defeat

Collective Brutality

Drown in Sorrow/Flaying Tendrils

Rain of Tears

Unmoored Ego

Damnation

Languish

Artifacts:

Engineered Explosives

Grafdigger's Cage

Nihil Spellbomb / Relic of Progenitus / Tormod's Crypt

Pithing Needle

Damping Sphere

Ratchet Bomb

Creatures:

Gifted Aetherborn

Spellskite

Fulminator Mage

Plague Engineer

Hostage Taker

Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet

Batterskull

The Scarab God

Planeswalkers:

Ashiok, Dream Render

Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver

Enchantments:

Enchant Land Auras

Search for Azcanta // Azcanta, the Sunken Ruin

Leyline of the Void

Things to add:

Building the Side:

Aggro:

Phoenix

Humans

The Rock

Death’s Shadow

Hardened Scales/Affinity

Control:

UWx Control

Tron

Grixis Control

Whir Prison

Mardu

Decklists:

These are the simplified lists that are currently seeing play for Faeries!

Typical UB Lists:

Yuta’s “Control” Build

As of May 7th, 2019

Ref:

https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/1847756#paper

• https://twitter.com/Vendilion/status/1125924879683936258

Yuta’s list is THE control Faeries list. A large majority of the playerbase of Faeries follows this dude religiously and copies what he does for their own style.

I (dautt) personally spoke with Yuta at GP Las Vegas during my time there and asked him if there were any changes he would make to this list since this was his most recent list since then. He recommended that 3 Narset, Parter of Veils be added to the deck but didn’t comment on Force of Negation or Plague Engineer out of the side. I would be inclined to believe that he would advocate for Negation as he has been playing several in the UW lists that he has been on lately.

Dautt’s Personal Builds

Personal “Traditional” Faeries - post MH1

Personal “Ninja” Faeries - post Stoneforge Unban

Asnook UB

Post SFM Unban

https://mtgdecks.net/Modern/ub-faeries-decklist-by-asnook-818796

Jeff Hoogland’s UB Fae

I don’t want to take away from visiting Jeff’s personal webpage, so go check out the link to his VODs and current list here:

https://www.jeffhoogland.com/decklists/ub-fae/

Jeff does a lot for exposing the deck to new players, and I’m very thankful that he continues to play the deck and try out new things that I can add here as time goes on.

Non-Typical Lists:

Snow NinjaFae

This is the most controversial list, but it’s picking up a lot of traction right now so it’s worth mentioning as a lot of people in the discord see Ninja+Faeries being a viable thing in the future. This was a 5-0 list on MTGO that did well, with some faeries and ninja strategies being present in it.
I personally think that this was a great list and a lot of people are interested in both this and the straight-UB version, but this one definitely feels the most unique. Hopefully it continues to pick up traction!

Noteable cards in this list that aren’t normally in regular Faeries lists:

Mainboard Stuff:

Please note that if you do not see a card listed in the mainboard section, it might be more primarily used in the sideboard. Check and see if it’s in that section before suggesting I move it here!

The Musts:

These are cards that should be in your 75, and are agreed upon in each of the decklists already shown.

Creeping Tar Pit

Creeping Tar Pit is probably one of the strongest creatures in the entire deck, and it’s not even a creature. I’m sure most would agree that this card alone wins a huge amount of games and the fact that it is unblockable will make your opponents fear it for a good reason. Its 3/2 body can really provide some great damage and makes it a good blocker at points in the game as well, which has made it a staple in this deck for quite some time.

Most people would agree that you should run at least 2, but never 4 Tar Pit. Lands coming into play tapped too often can hurt this deck significantly, so keep that in mind!

Mutavault

Man-lands are pretty important to the deck as well, and Mutavault is a shining example of just that. It’s commonly one of the few colorless lands in the deck, and commonly one of the biggest threats. Once your opponent’s board state is clear, you can use this card to bash in for 2 life a turn, and it can provide your chip damage to put you over your opponent just enough to kill them off. It also makes a great blocker in a pinch, and is commonly forgotten about in the late-game as most would probably agree.

Decks usually run around 3-4, with some exceptions due to Field of Ruin needs in the more controlling versions of the deck.

Never forget that you can tap it to activate itself in order to up your Faerie count for Spellstutter Sprite, as it’s one of the most useful interactions in the deck and can really help you catch your opponent off-guard.

It’s also a good emergency target for a Mistbind champion target if someone tries to snipe your Champion ‘target’ out in response to the enter the battlefield ability.

Fatal Push

Hands-down the best removal black has. There’s no other card that really compares to it, and that’s the reason why we see it present in every list. It’s super easy to recast with Snapcaster Mage, easy to fire-off in the early game, and relevant as long as your opponent isn’t playing giant 4+cmc creatures.

Play this as a 3-4 of. If you run 3 in the main, expect to hold a sideboard space for the last one.

Bitterblossom

Bitterblossom is another card behind the name of the deck, and is seen as a 4 of in practically all decks. This thing is a two mana card that can win you the game on it’s own, which is the reason why it’s so good. It can provide you with chump blockers for pesky big creatures without trample, and potentially just give you enough flyers to win the game. It’s best friends with Spellstutter Sprite and can help you close out games in a matter of turns.

Here’s some Bitterblossom math, courtesy of mtgsalvation:

Let's say you cast it on turn 2, and neither player has lost any life so far.

Turn 3 you lose 1 life. (you 19, opp 20)

Turn 4 you lose 1 life. Attack for 1. (you 18, opp 19)

Turn 5 you lose 1 life. Attack for 2. (you 17, opp 17; life totals are even)

Turn 6 you lose 1 life. Attack for 3. (you 16, opp 14)

Turn 7 you lose 1 life. Attack for 4. (you 15, opp 10)

Turn 8 you lose 1 life. Attack for 5. (you 14, opp 5)

Turn 9 you lose 1 life. Attack for 6 (you 13, opp dead)

Snapcaster Mage

It should go without saying that Snapcaster Mage is one of the - if not - THE best blue card in Modern. He’s our honorary Faerie and we use him to recast anything and everything in this deck. He’s widely accepted as a 3-4 of in most lists, and gets extensive use as he can easily recast any of our low-cost cards in the early game, as well as get some huge pay-offs in the late-game with recasting some of our bigger spells. In a pickle, he’s always a 2/1 flash beater and can make for some decent trades as well, if you need to stay alive. He’s tried and tested and will always be a part of this deck unless they print something incredibly more broken than he already is.

Spellstutter Sprite

Spellstutter Sprite, coupled with Bitterblossom, is the reason why this deck is Faeries. This 2 mana 1/1 is the absolute nuts and should be treated as such. Early game it can eat pesky low-cost spells completely out of the game, and is a little more difficult for your opponents to interact with. Late game, when coupled with bitterblossom tokens and mutavault, this thing can hard counter nearly anything in the game (with the exception of maybe some tron cards).

This card should be played as a 3-4 of.

Important to note, Yuta has used a version of the deck without Spellstutter where he went on to quote: https://twitter.com/Vendilion/status/1121877947621752832

Remember:

Bitterblossom is a Faerie too! Don’t forget that it counts towards the Faeries you control, as it makes a huge difference when trying to counter things with Spellstutter.

You can always tap mutavault to activate it and make it a Faerie to up your Faerie count for Spellstutter Sprite’s ETB ability.

Cryptic Command

Primarily a counterspell, but can be used for so much more. Cryptic Command sees use in each deck usually as a 2-3 of, simply because its uses are so diverse.

Ways of use:

Creatures:

Faerie Seer

Faerie Seer is a new addition to the deck that was recently given to us in Modern Horizons. Most people are very optimistic about this card for the consistency it brings to the deck, similar to Serum Visions.

Most people are planning to play this in the non-planeswalker version of the deck in what used to be the Opt or Serum Visions slot in the deck.

This seems to be, in testing, primarily a 3 or 4 of in the deck.

Think of this card very similarly to Serum Visions. With Serum Visions, we draw a blind card and get the big bonus of the scry 2 following it. What this does is essentially gives us a body instead of the blind draw, which in the early game is extremely valuable for our Spellstutter Sprites. More testing will have to be done as this card comes out, but it will see play in the non-PW version where the PW version would rather have Serum Visions.

Nimble Obstructionist

Nimble Obstructionist is a newer addition, brought mainly to our attention through the discord and by Jeff Hoogland’s use of it in his lists very regularly. There are obvious comparisons to be made here to Vendilion Clique, seeing as this can sometimes be a great 3/1 for pressure, but the real utility comes in the fact that it has flash, and the cycling ability.
Flash is even more important in a meta that contains cards as fast as Assassin’s Trophy, and having this as a back-up beater is super important to get in those last points of damage if need be.

This creature also doubles up as insane utility with it’s cycling ability, when going against decks that use a lot of activated or triggered abilities like:
Tron

Storm (Stifle the storm trigger)

Misc Affinity triggers

Realistically, just picture this card as stifle when you need it to be, and at other times, it’s a vendilion clique body. There’s a lot of people still actively testing this card and it’s utility will shine once we get a good grasp on how it fits into the deck, if it should.

If you are playing any - most lists are playing at minimum 2, but I could see going anywhere up to 4 as this doesn’t have the legendary clause that Clique does. We do lose out on Faerie typing though, which can be tough.

Scion of Oona

There’s a lot to be said about Scion of Oona, but it’s very typical that he gets brought up when asking about whether or not he should be in competitive builds. I personally ran this card as a 2-of for several months, but found the lack of draws with him to be a bit drastic and sometimes win more. I instead upped my count to 3, and feel like this is a great fit for him if you want to be playing some in your Faeries list.

He acts as a pseudo-counter to removal spells and can also swing a game HEAVILY in your favor with correct timing on an unblocked attack. I think your best bet with him is to hold him back as insurance until your opponent is either tapped out, or playing a removal spell on one of your creatures and then deploy him for some sweet, sweet value.

I would say if you’re playing any, play at least 3. You’ll want to draw him consistently because he provides a unique effect to your overall game plan, and having any less than that would potentially make his usefulness inconsistent.

Vendilion Clique

Vendilion Clique is yet another Faerie that sees a high amount of play throughout most of the deck builders. It’s a 3/1 body which can help close out the game a lot faster, and has an amazing ETB ability, even if it gets immediately killed.

Abuse its ability by playing it in your opponent’s draw-step, after they have drawn a card, so that they can’t move to main phase and hold priority to play a card before you can tuck it.

Use it in combat as well to tuck a card mid-combat, and possibly get in a trade with Clique since it’s got a large power.

Use it at end of turn as well and do the same as mentioned before, you can really surprise your opponent at any time with the card.

You can also use its ability to target yourself, choose and reveal a single card from your hand (as long as it’s not a land) and effectively redraw off of it.

You can use this card to pressure planeswalkers pretty well as well, since Jace, Teferi, and other cards similar are running rampant in control lately.

Use however many feels right, but most people run around 2+ if they are playing any.

Mistbind Clique

After seeing a downtick in play for a while, Mistbind Clique has come back and has certainly made itself a home again in the deck. Championing a Faerie isn’t incredibly difficult to handle with the deck as long as you build with it in mind, and the ability of tapping all the lands of a player is really strong, especially against the bigger mana decks like Scapeshift, or even tapping out your Tron opponent for a turn to slam a 4/4. The body isn’t something to scoff at either, and can really help you pull ahead against your opponents.

This card can sometimes be a soft-lock with JTMS, but is more cute than it is practical. I would suggest just playing this card as a pure value as most of the time it’s going to time-walk your opponent or eat a creature in combat as removal.

With a large amount of 4 drops starting to gum up the deck, I don’t think there will be much room for anything more than 2 or 3 in this deck at any point.

Tasigur, the Golden Fang 

The delve creatures are a lot worse with Teferi TR, Big Teferi and JTMS in the format, but they’re still solid bodies:

Draw Spells:

Ancestral Vision

Primarily, this card is used in control builds in order to out-tempo your opponent by drawing an extra few cards after slamming this turn 1. If you look at a majority of the decks that play this currently, it’s usually paired with Liliana of the Veil so that you can pitch extra copies to her +1.

Run this if you’re looking for more of a control build, usually 3-4 as with most of the other drawing spells.

Opt

A more recent addition to the deck, but has quickly taken the spot of Serum Visions in a lot of lists. Opt is a quick draw, at instant speed, so you can snapcaster mage it, and it can feel really consistent and great. The scry 1 is obviously smaller than Serum Visions in comparison, but this ensures the top card you draw isn’t something you don’t need, since you can scry it away. If you want to draw cards, this usually is one of your better options because it’s just a little faster than Serum Visions and for those that don’t want to Thought Scour themself, this is the choice for you.

Again, usually run as a 3-4 of or as you see fit.

Serum Visions

Previously the premiere draw spell of the deck, Serum Visions has been moved to the side to make way for Opt in a lot of lists. This doesn’t mean Serum Visions is bad, though. It allows you to dig deeper and can set up good draws for yourself, to make sure you don’t draw into anything bad over the next two turns.

Serum Visions, as with most draw spells, are primarily used as 3-4 of, but it can be used really depending on how your deck might want to use it.

This is used now with Jace to also help set up your top decks just a little bit further as well.

Fact or Fiction

Fact or Fiction is one of those timeless cards that a lot of magic players equate to a different time in magic history where this was an extremely powerful card. It still is - but there’s just a difference in playing it this time around. 4 mana can be a lot to commit, and as our 4 drop slot is getting more packed with Mistbind Cliques and Cryptic Commands, you can only really make room for maybe 1 to 2 of these if you really would like to play them.

I think this card is very powerful in the non-PW version of the deck to refill your hand. Late-game, coupled with Snapcaster Mage interaction, can make the graveyard chosen cards relevant and choosing your proper pile will be as much of an important choice as your opponent trying to make it.

Kill Spells:

Let me begin this section by stating that If you do not run a full set of Fatal Push somewhere in your deck between the main and side, you really should do so. It will make your life easier.

Slaughter Pact

Disfigure

Go for the Throat

Dismember

Murderous Cut

Cast Down

Our primary non-fatal push kill spell in our deck going forward. It has more live hits in the meta currently than go for the throat, but also pairs well with it if you want to split between the two.

https://www.reddit.com/r/ModernMagic/comments/86297z/dom_fade_into_obscurity/dw1td6s/

Check out the link above for a meta evaluation from March 21st, 2018. This shows the most played legends that are misses with this card, but also shows the cards we can hit with this now that we couldn’t hit with Go for the Throat!

Liliana’s Triumph

Liliana’s Triumph is being seen as a very good removal option going forward. Most lists I’ve seen considering it run it as at least a 2 of, but have a solid amount of LIliana in their deck as well.

No word yet from Yuta if this is going in his list, but with 4 Liliana of the Veil i feel like it might be a consideration against some of the other removal.

With diabolic edict being a card now printed into the meta, people have brought up this card vs it. I think this card is better, even if you do not have Lilianas in your deck. It gets around the hexproofing from Leyline of Sanctity which is huge in the bogles matchup where this card would shine.

Tyrant’s Scorn

Tyrant’s Scorn is a little bit redundant in a similar way to Fatal Push for us. It can work out pretty well and gives us the opportunity to not only bounce our opponent’s creatures, but our own as well in a pinch.

With the release of Force of Negation and Force of Despair, a flex removal spot dedicated to this can up your blue or black count while still giving you access to a near fatal push or creature bounce in a rough spot.

Counterspells:

Spell Pierce

This card is in a weird spot right now, simply because it can be great in certain matchups but terrible in other ones. With recent meta changes, it has been seeing a lot of play in the control builds that Yuta has put together.

I would suggest maybe 1-2 in the main if you plan on playing any at all. This is also a very good sideboard choice.

Spell Snare

Spell Snare gets a lot of crap now that Fatal Push is a card, but there is definitely still argument to be able to use it. There’s a few decks that are very commonly using a lot of 2 drops, like burn, which this card excels in. There are only a few decks where this might not be super relevant, but when it’s bad, it’s easily sided out for other counters or other spells that might be relevant for your matchup.

I’d recommend possibly playing somewhere around 1-2, but not to go too far above that. Fatal Push can do the same job as this with creatures, so you can keep the numbers low on this since it’s more niche.

Mana Leak

Mana Leak is one of our primary counterspells and is a primary choice for a lot of builders. It’s relevant in the early game to counter some higher cost stuff, or just stuff we have a hard time dealing with, and can really help us to ensure we don’t have to worry about specific cards anymore if they are cast on curve by our opponent.

In the later game though, this can become more difficult to use. There’s use to making your opponent pay the extra 3 for a spell in the late game, especially if you want to ensure your opponent isn’t casting too many things at once.

Play however many feels right, but usually you should at least have a few.

Remand

Remand is primarily a tempo play. You’re only delaying the inevitable with this, but if you have maindeck discard or Liliana of the Veil, this card can be a house.

It’s hard to argue whether or not you should be running this or Mana Leak, but I’m sure most people would tell you to be on Mana Leak right now, unless you feel comfortable with your meta enough to where you want to run Remand.

Note that this card is very good against delve threats, and can also really punish your opponent’s flashbacks by not allowing them to get the card back to hand.

It also can really set back an opponent’s suspend spells. Primarily we are going to run into suspended Rift Bolts, and Search for Tomorrow. Remanding the Search is absolutely insane and will help you pace yourself with your GRx opponent.

Again, play however many feels right. You’ll usually want 2+.

Archmages Charm

Archmages Charm is awkward. It in a way feels like it competes with the idea of playing Cryptic Command, where this can kind of do parts of what Cryptic was already doing for us.

Countering a spell is obviously a good thing to have in general.

Instant speed divination can be strong, but this is also coupled with the fact that you (if you haven’t scryed to know your top cards or used Jace) are blind drawing 2 cards. Compare this to Cryptic’s blind draw 1 but choice of counter, bounce, and tap ability and I feel Cryptic offers a decent bit more utility in this end.

Gaining control of a permanent that is <1 CMC is a pretty big thing. Important to note, you can steal a lot of the low cost creatures from Humans, and very important in some matches, you can just outright steal an Aether Vial to potentially REALLY slow down a deck that is trying to abuse it on low land counts.

With Cryptic Command, we see late-game utility and by the time we make it to 4 lands, we usually have 3 + 1 colorless/black source planned out for the casting cost. With Archmage’s Charm, it makes having the colorless lands much more difficult. Playing this on turn 3 is a bit difficult, which means this card will sometimes sit in your hand until your turn 4 onward, which in that case maybe feels like you’d still potentially want the utility from Cryptic.

I feel like more testing needs to be done, but supporting Archmage’s Charm in my own opinion would need a slight tweak to the manabase to ensure hitting the triple blue on turn 3 is possible when you are using this card.

Force of Negation

Force of Negation is by far one of the strongest cards printed in recent times for our deck. I would argue this is a mainboard card in both versions of the deck - but testing will tell with time as to see what really will happen with this card.

I think of this as a fair insurance to make sure you can safely tap out for your sorcery speed planeswalkers in the PW version of the deck, while in the more flash/instant speed version of the deck, there is a lot of power in having force up to protect an impactful creature such as Vendilion Clique or Mistbind Clique.

In my own opinion, this card feels like a minimum of 2 of in the deck, but time will tell if there should be any more than the two slots dedicated to this card.

Discard Spells:

Inquisition of Kozilek

Inquisition of Kozilek, while less relevant in the late game, is great in the early game and can take away small spells and creatures from your opponents in order to just keep stuff out of their hand. The obvious limitations with this is the cards must be CMC 3 or less, which makes snagging important CMC 4+ spells a lot more difficult, which is where our deck tends to struggle with interacting (especially with creatures).

There’s a LOT of lists that play this, but remember it’s a little redundant with Fatal Push just like Spell Snare. I personally would recommend Thoughtseize over this, but running them together is always fun.

Thoughtseize

I’m sure everyone would agree that this is technically the best counterspell in modern (sarcasm heavy on this one). One mana to steal anything from your opponent’s hand at the cost of 2 life is so relevant at every point in the game. This is a little worse against decks that can pressure or dump their hand quickly, but at worst you could trade it to reduce the amount of life you would have lost from the card you take, or prevent your opponent from being able to build up towards combos and other things.

There’s not too much more to say besides that you can grab literally EVERYTHING with this card at the cost of just 2 life, and you shouldn’t be afraid to use it.

I would recommend a few of these at least, whether or not they’re in main or side. They’re the best discard we have in modern and it’s going to stay the best unless Wizards makes some crazy mistake somewhere along the line.

Artifacts:

None currently are mainboard-able in an effective manner. This could change though!

Planeswalkers:

Liliana of the Veil

Arguably one of the most powerful planeswalkers ever printed. This thing sees a lot of play, and can be very useful in this deck. Its abilities are usually pretty relevant, so I’ll cover each one individually so that we can get an idea of how or why we should be playing her:

+1: Each player discards a card:

There are decks that obviously can benefit a little from this, but against a majority of decks, this can be backbreaking. Let’s imagine you’ve got an extra Bitterblossom in your hand or AV that’s just burning away and isn’t going to be relevant this game. Discard it, you might get something relevant out of your opponent’s hand as well which can get you towards the ultimate or -2 for Lili which are usually must-answers.

-2: Target player sacrifices a creature:

3 mana edict is sometimes about as good as this card can get, but if you can use this twice sometimes it can pull you ahead pretty quickly. Thankfully, we have bitterblossom tokens and other stuff we can use to protect her to ensure a few uses out of this ability, as it can really turn the tides against decks that are on a low creature count as they struggle to recover from this ability.

-6: Sacrifice a pile:

This is absurd and if your opponent lets you do this, you’re probably already winning the game. It’s mean to do, but eh, your opponent didn’t stop you, did they?

Let’s just hope your piles are good enough to entice your opponent to choose poorly and then not be able to recover from this. Just think about the rest of your cards in your deck when making the piles. Do you have answers to certain cards? If you do, can you justify placing it in a more-enticing pile for your opponent to take? Try and mind-game your opponent a little here and it will work wonders if this is your only out to winning.

Liliana, the Last Hope

This card slaughters lingering souls, and is insanely good in the mirror match. Can be played in main or sideboard, and usually pretty great against UW control decks because they have a hard time killing it. The ultimate is near impossible for them to win through unless they have some nutty draws.

Good against decks with lots of x/1 creatures. There's not too much more to this card, it's minus is occasionally relevant but is definitely better in more creature-heavy lists rather than the control heavy lists.

Bring this in against: (if in the sideboard)

Elves

Tokens

Mana dorks

Infect

Affinity

UW Control (if not interacted with, they cannot beat the ultimate)

Narset, Parter of Veils

This card has been the talk of the town lately so it’s definitely worth mentioning. It can replace itself and still keep your opponent from getting massive card advantage over you. I feel like this could see/work it’s way into lists somehow with the more Yuta styled builds simply because of it’s -2 being able to grab everything but the non-lands and creatures (which you have very little creatures).

There is a neat interaction with this card and Vendilion Clique in that you can V Clique a card away after your opponent has drawn their card for the turn in their draw step, which gives you a chance to strip them of a card and they cannot draw off of the ability.

Jace The Mind Sculptor

Let me start off by saying that you shouldn’t regularly be playing this card on turn 4 just because you have the mana for it OR if you have Force of Negation as back-up protection. This card is extremely powerful but you should protect it if you’re basing your win around resolving it.

+2 Fateseal: This is a pretty useful ability on occasion if your opponent is empty handed, but can also just be used to help build up towards an ultimate to win the game. Nothing too spectacular here but at worst you can help filter your own draws.

+0 Brainstorm: Probably the most useful ability on the planeswalker. Drawing essentially 3, tucking away any bad cards for the turn, is extremely extremely powerful and the reason why this card is good. Brainstorming a few times usually can set yourself up for an easy win since it generates just way too much value.

-1 Bounce: Honestly this is a pretty “cute” ability. It’s nothing insane, honestly. If you’re bouncing your own creatures you’re getting a little too cute with it. If you’re bouncing your opponent’s 1-2 creatures, then this card is a house. It helped to push delve threats out of the format, which is nice for us too because it helped make fatal push even better.

-12 You win: I shouldn’t even have to type anything about this

Lands:

Field of Ruin

Field of Ruin has been seeing some discussion as of lately, so I feel it is important to mention here. You can definitely support 1-2 of these in the manabase if you’d like, but it will come at a cost. You can’t reliably run 1-2 and 4 Mutavault, so you should cut at least 1 Mutavault to be able to slot in this if you are using it. As for the last slot, there usually is a free spot for an extra land outside of what is generally typical of the deck, so you could slot the 2nd Field of Ruin in there if you’d like it.

This card is mainly good where Ghost Quarter was good, but it also doesn’t have us lose a land. It’s a bit slower which is obvious, but this still helps us keep on track to be able to cast stuff with UU or BB costs if we need to be searching up a basic with it, which we can feasibly do with this deck.

Note that Yuta uses several of these in his list but has only 1 mutavault because of that.

Sideboard Stuff:

Instants:

Ceremonious Rejection

• Eldrazi

• Depending on if they are on cavern of souls, try and run this out quickly. Cavern of Souls makes this a really hard card to use, but focus on using it against threats that are harder to deal with like Reality Smasher or larger creatures.

• Tron

• Best played against the big mana stuff. Don't waste this early on a search unless you're sure it will let you win the game in an extremely quick manner. They topdeck WAY better than us.

• Affinity

• Best played against Cranial Plating and Etched Champion, but can be used for just value against this deck since it hits practically everything.

Dispel

• UW Control ★★★★☆

• This card allows for cheap interaction, but will make you wish you had negate if they slam a planeswalker.

• Storm ★★★★☆

• This card allows interaction on all of the building up cards, but not Grapeshot, Past in Flames, or their draw spells like Serum Visions and Sleight of Hand. Save your big counters for the important sorceries and you’ll pull ahead.

• Burn ★★★★☆

• Similarly to storm, this card hits several good cards, but misses on Lava Spike and Rift Bolt which are usually ran out ahead of other burn spells.

Flusterstorm

Let me start by saying that this is probably a strict upgrade from Dispel in the current metagame, but it is worth noting that the only really really good reason for having this card currently is that the decks that can abuse the storm mechanic will also play this card. This means, by default, we also kinda have to run this card to combat their use of it otherwise we will just watch our weak counterspells lose to the storm count of their flusterstorms.

Surgical Extraction

• Storm (Gifts Storm) ★★★☆☆

• Playing a surgical on a storm player should help you almost always win the game if played correctly. The fact that it can be played for 2 life is also relevant in that you can essentially snag 2 things for 2 mana with a Snapcaster Mage as well. Be wary though as they sometimes can go off without Past In Flames.

• Reanimator (Goryo's) ★★★★★

• Play this in response to a reanimation and blow them out. Snapcaster is good here as well to ensure no shenanigans happen.

• Scapeshift ★★★☆☆

• This is where the card is situationally good depending on what you are hitting. You can take them off of a huge piece of their deck depending on what you hit, but your best targets are Primeval Titan, Scapeshift, and Valakut itself. If you are playing against the Bring to Light version, sometimes it is safe to hit BTL due to them running a smaller number of scapeshift in the deck. Keep in mind though, they have to have the card in the graveyard. This makes this card a lot more situational which means you can only play it best after you have countered it or removed it from their hand.

Countersquall and Negate

• Control Mirror ★★★★★/★★★★☆

• I’m grouping all the control decks into one here because this card honestly is a house against all of them. Looking at mtgtop8’s statistics, the situation where this might be at it’s worst would be against a deck that is more midrange than control. Usually this card will be a 5 or a 4 out of 5 in this matchup though.

• Tron (NOT ELDRAZI) ★★★★☆

• It’s important to note that this card is great against Tron, but not the Eldrazi Tron decks. Against Tron, this will hit a multitude of cards, but will lose against their creatures heavily. If your meta is calling for a lot of Tron hate, you are probably better off playing Disdainful Stroke.

• Storm ★★★★☆

• This card hits everything but their creatures in this matchup. If you’re casting it on their Grapeshot, you are casting it too late. Try and be disruptive and prevent them from going off outside of using a flashback Past in Flames, and then watch in agony as they get it negated. Be wary of Remand and Dispel coming from their sideboard.

*Important note, I grouped Countersquall with negate here because they fill the same role. Both do the same thing, but obviously Countersquall will deal the extra damage and is a little more difficult to cast. Keep this in mind when you are building around playing it over Negate, and make sure your mana-base supports you playing it over Negate.

Disdainful Stroke

• Tron ★★★★★

• Great against all of their finishers. This literally will hit anything you care about except for Oblivion Stone

• Eldrazi Tron ★★★★☆/★★★☆☆

• Bad against Cavern of Souls, but otherwise this is strong to get rid of Thought-Knot Seer or Reality Smasher, which are harder to deal with.

• Scapeshift / BTL Scapeshift ★★★★☆

• This card hits the cards you care about against Scapeshift, usually. Make sure they aren’t casting Scapeshift itself, Primetime, and any annoying big creatures or things they have out of their sideboard. Against BTL, make sure to prioritize their BTL, as it’s difficult for them to filter for the perfect cards without it.

• UW Control ★★☆☆☆

• This card hits most planeswalkers in this deck, as well as their cryptic commands. The one thing that worries me though is with the rise of baby Teferi and Narset that you probably would just be better off playing Negate/Countersquall in this match-up because it will hit nearly everything with no limitations as Disdainful Stroke does.

Echoing Truth 

• Lantern Control ★★★★★

• This card is an all star in this match-up. Build up a boardstate, and then bounce all their bridges if they overcommit (which they will because you have a lot of 1 power creatures) to win on the spot. It’s also good to slow them down depending how all-in on certain cards they are.

• Death’s Shadow ★★★★☆

• Treat this card as bounce a creature in this matchup. You almost always want to spend it on their Death Shadow’s to avoid dying quickly if they play multiples out, but really where this shines is against their delve creatures. Punish them for playing a Tasigur early by bouncing it back to their hand and then watch them struggle to put it back out after a huge loss of resources.

• Ad Nauseam ★★★★☆

• Think of this card as a time walk. You want to bounce your opponent off of mana rocks and make sure that they do not go crazy too quickly. Interacting with Angel’s Grace is impossible, so make sure to play smart. This can also bounce timely Phyrexian Unlife if they HAVE to have it to go off, which is pretty neat. Obviously always be aware of Pact of Negation in this matchup.

• Reanimator (Goryo’s) ★★★★☆

• This card will devastate your opponent when played. Keep them off of Jace, Vryn’s Prodigy and ensure that if they do get a fatty into play, it doesn’t do much of anything for them.

• Token Decks ★★★☆☆/★★★★☆

• This card is solid against token strats as long as they are on a majority of the same token at once. If they aren’t, then Engineered Explosives is your better choice in the matchup.

• BR Hollow One ★★★☆☆/★★★★☆

• I think this card is solid here, but not a game-ender. You really need to prioritize their cheap big cost creatures because it’s more difficult for them to consistently drop them for cheap.

Hurkyl's Recall

• Affinity ★★★★★

• Treat this like a semi-board wipe in this matchup. It will ensure wins if played at the correct timing and you can use it to put yourself ahead for a turn or so depending on their board state.
• As per Oona from discord, “Often times Recalling the opponent for a deck like Faeries is more of a fog than anything since Fae doesn't really put up a clock to punish the tempo loss in most cases.”

• Lantern Control ★★★★★

• Again, treat this like a board wipe in this matchup. It will mean they have to replay a lot of their cards which means you might be able to get in with a few creatures before they can land an Ensnaring Bridge again.

Flashfreeze

• Scapeshift ★★★★★

• This card literally will hit this entire deck. There is not one card in the Scapeshift list that can survive through a Flashfreeze unless it’s an artifact or a land.

• Ponza ★★★★★

• Similarly to scapeshift, this card hits the entire deck. It misses on artifacts but you can probably already deal with those, as they’re typically 1-2 drops.

• Burn ★★★★★

• Yet another card situation where this card will hit the entire deck. Use it to deal with anything that will cause the most damage to you.

• Elves ★★★★★

• Who can complain? A hate card is good against a deck with all green things. Prioritize using this on Ezuri, Renegade Leader, Elvish Archdruid, Collected Company, and Chord. If they are on the new GW lists, you will have to play around Cavern and the Devoted Druid combo so be wary of that.

• UR Kiki/Through the Breach ★★★★☆

• This card counters usually the cards we really care about in the match-up, like Blood Moon, Kiki, or if they are on the Through the Breach version, Through the Breach.

• Jund ★★★★☆

• This card hits so much stuff against the BBE Jund decks, it’s hard to not make notice of it. Only 4 stars because it misses Liliana and Bob in this matchup.

Shadow of Doubt

• Scapeshift / Bring To Light Scapeshift ★★★★☆

• This card can be really strong in this matchup and can essentially act as a counterspell to Scapeshift or Bring to Light. You can also “stifle” Primeval Titan’s ability. At worst, this card ends up being a cantrip.

• Tron ★★★☆☆

• I’m sure some would argue with my ranking of this card in this match-up, but it is situational. If they start off already having tron, you are in trouble. If they start on Ancient Stirrings and find their pieces, you will be in trouble. This is best played when you are on the play so you can hold it up on turn 2 to prevent an Expedition Map or Sylvan Scrying. At worst, this becomes a lategame cantrip for you.

• Chord of Calling decks ★★★★☆/★★★☆☆

• Depending on if the deck is playing Collected Company, this card can be situationally good. If they are, then this card becomes a little niche and should be treated more often as a cantrip if you have nothing else to side into. If the deck runs off of Chord and Chord alone, then this is an all star. Some of these decks also play Eldritch Evolution which is an even bigger blowout in this situation.

*Another important thing to note is that this card can be a good filler if you don’t really have much to side in but you know cards are awful in a matchup. At worst, this becomes a cantrip. In matchups where there is a lot of fetching, you can even time walk your opponent out of a land drop which could help you swing tempo in your favor.

Force of Despair

Force of Despair feels like a card that wants to be brought in against matchups where swarming the field is very common. Think decks like Elves, Humans, Affinity, etc. All of these decks really like to swarm the field in one turn or in multiples, so having this come in from the side can technically be either a 2 for 2 at worst, or a 1 (if hard-cast) for 2 at minimum.

I don’t think this is better than sweepers entirely, but it’s definitely worth a shot if decks where creatures swarm the battlefield start to pick up in play. It’s good insurance against things like Phoenix at well, but it is more-so a delay than a permanent answer.

Hero's Downfall 

Before getting into specifics, if you run Go for the Throat in the main, ALWAYS swap this in replacing it against Affinity or any other artifact creature deck. There should be no reason for you to keep Go for the Throat in, just replace it with any card of value if you’re not running this card or other removal out of the side.

• UWx Control ★★★★★

• With UW Control moving towards planeswalkers and Celestial Colonnade as finishers, this card becomes an all-star. Anything they care about you can hit for 3 mana and punish them quite easily.

• The “Fair” Decks (Jund, Junk, Goodstuff.deck) ★★★★☆

• Usually this card will be good against any type of fair deck that is just running creatures that are good creatures. This has the added bonus of dealing with planeswalkers when it’s relevant in these matchups too, so you can kill Liliana of the Veil or Liliana, the Last Hope if they’re being played against you.

• Tron
• Eldrazi
• Big Creature Strats

Sorceries:

Liliana’s Defeat

This card is widely considered to be one of the best responses to the Death Shadow matchup that we have. This will hit all of their Lilianas, as well as any Tasigur the Golden Fang, Gurmag Angler, or Death Shadow cards that we could run into.

It’s a little niche so I personally would be a little hesitant to run anything more than 1 out of the side.

Collective Brutality

Using Brutality:

• Burn ★★★★★

• If I could give this card 6 stars, I would. It is INSANE against burn and can flat out win the game upon resolution depending on their board state. You sacrifice 2 cards for it, but you topdeck a bit better in this situation. This is also an easy swap on curve for Bitterblossoms out of the maindeck.

• Infect ★★★★☆/★★★★★

• Infect is still kind of around, this card is really strong to take pump and a creature out of the game.

• GWx Company ★★★★★

• This card is super strong in this matchup. Most, if not all, of their creatures will be x/2, and stealing a path, company, chord, or another spell from their hand is super strong. Great follow-up to a turn 1 discard spell as well.

• GRx ★★★★☆

• With BBE back in the format, I could see a bit more use here. It kills BBE, Tireless Tracker, and a lot of the other creatures in these styles of decks so I think it’s worth mentioning but it’s not always live for all of the modes.

Drown in Sorrow/Flaying Tendrils

This is going to be another wrath subject where you want to hit little creatures that go wide. These cards are less good against Humans because they have a lot of pumping abilities between Mayor of Avabruck and Thalia’s Lieutenant, and the like which can outgrow these fairly fast.

This could be a bit better as a wrath if your meta has something like:

Devoted Druid (TENDRILS ONLY)

Dredge (TENDRILS ONLY)

Elves

Spirits

Tokens

Naya Company/Value Company

I think drown in sorrow is just strictly worse than flaying tendrils. The scry isn't as relevant as the exile, since we already have relatively good card selection, but the -2/-2 is the same so I grouped them together.

Rain of Tears 

This card feels very similar in a sense to Spreading Seas, Evil Presence, and Fulminator Mage, as they all fill a very similar role. This one feels a bit bit more similar to Fulminator because the land is actually taken out of play, but there is added use to this card if you play snapcaster mage and want to recast this from the graveyard, which you cannot do with any of the other land hate cards.

See Fulminator Mage under creatures for matchups.

Unmoored Ego

This card holds a lot of promise where we previously could have been using Lost Legacy or similar Memoricide effects. It’s important to note that this can basically instant-win against certain decks, and can even name lands/artifacts which is a HUGE deal for us being able to take out combo pieces that we typically can’t interact with well.

I would bring this in against:
Tron (ON THE PLAY ONLY)
Scapeshift/Valakut

Phoenix

Storm
Lantern Control

Potentially against UW control to remove win conditions

I would play at least 1-2 in the sideboard if you are running any at all, as this can be a great addition to ensure some wins that would otherwise be tough fought.

Damnation

Instead of listing a million decks, I’m just going to write up something small here.

So this card is insanely good against any creature decks that go wide, in any way. Right now, with the rise of Eldrazi decks, Death’s Shadow, Hatebear, Junk, Jund, Humans, Bant, and creature combo decks, it’s important to look at a wrath and understand that it can be used to keep a lot at bay, but at the cost of your creatures in play as well.

If you can stabilize a board with bitterblossom after wrathing and win through manlands, then go for it. Usually this card will buy you a lot of time if your opponent over-committed to the board in any way. Punish your opponent in these cases and you’ll ensure wins.

Languish

Languish is another card where I could recommend it against the same decks that Damnation would be good in, but it is specifically good against the following decks for the fact that it gets around Indestructibility:

Elves - Ezuri can regenerate

Spirits - Watch for Selfless Spirit

Humans - I’ve seen a few lists splash for Selfless Spirit here as well and would advise to be aware of it. Side accordingly and you will be happy you did.

Devoted Druid - Same as Spirits/Humans.

If you are running Tasigur as well, it is important to note that he will live through a Languish, but not a Damnation. Consider this in your deck building and ask yourself whether or not Languish would be a better option depending on your meta. If your meta has a lot of creatures that you can wrath away with Damnation perfectly fine, then go for it. If they are manageable through a Languish, then I would HIGHLY suggest you use it instead because it will provide the same advantage and potentially let you keep a board presence.

Artifacts:

Engineered Explosives

Obviously you can only hit 0, 1, or 2 with this unless you splash a color, so here are the things you want to hit:

0 drops:

Affinity creatures

Chalice of the Void

Tokens

1 drops:

Zoo creatures

Death’s Shadow

More Affinity Creatures

Burn Creatures (This could be a risky side-in)

Lantern Control Permanents

Elves

Green Ramp (Arbor Elf, Utopia Sprawl, etc)

Humans

2 drops:

More Zoo creatures

More Affinity Creatures

Abzan-Color Creatures (Goyf, Grim Flayer, Voice of Resurgence)

Devoted Druid creatures (THIS IS HUGE)

Storm Creatures (Baral, Goblin Electromancer)

Hatebears

Merfolk (Even better since most lists are now 2 drop heavy)

More Humans

3 drops: (If you are on 3 color lists):

Blood Moon (If you have a basic island and swamp in play + a nonbasic, you can hit this on 3)

Ensnaring Bridge

Even more Humans

Grafdigger's Cage

Please for the love of god do not side this in against Living End

• Collected Company decks ★★★★☆

• This card will completely hose a Collected Company or Chord of Calling from ever resolving. It’s very important to note though, that a lot of those decks if they are GW run mainboard artifact/enchantment hate in the form of Qasali Pridemage, and they most likely will leave them in against your Bitterblossom and “accidentally” have an answer to your sideboard card.

• Dredge ★★★★☆

• This is a weird one because it’s pretty good, but the dredge deck absolutely can get around it. Be wary of Ancient Grudge, Abrupt Decay, and Engineered Explosives in this matchup as they can side into them if need be.

• Storm ★★★★☆

• This will stop them from going off using Past In Flames, but won’t completely stop them from going off. They can easily side into removal for it after seeing it so be wary, but the card will be good.

Nihil Spellbomb / Relic of Progenitus / Tormod's Crypt 

One could argue each has its uses, but I believe Nihil Spellbomb is probably the strongest for this deck. You rarely want to get rid of your own graveyard if you are playing Snapcaster Mage or Delve cards, but that’s where you can make your own selections.

• Death’s Shadow ★★★★☆

• This is especially good against the Jund versions of this deck that will capitalize off of Traverse the Ulvenwald, Delve creatures, and cards like Tarmogoyf and Grim Flayer which will benefit heavily from their own graveyard being full.

• Dredge ★★★★★

• These cards are obviously key to winning this matchup. Exiling their grave at key moments of the game will be super relevant to ensuring they do not over run you and make it impossible for you to recover.

• Living End ★★★★★

• Again, a key card to winning this match-up. You need to react to their Living End, which you’ve already got a huge advantage over since it is a 0 mana spell. This just ensures a little bit of backup incase Spellstutter doesn’t already do the trick for you.

• Graveyard Combo Decks (Instant Reanimator, old Abzan Company) ★★★★★

• This card will be key to keeping them locked down and prevent them from making any crazy plays. Use this sparingly if you are on Tormod’s Crypt or Nihil Spellbomb, because it’s a one time deal. If you are on Relic of Progenitus you usually can eat away at their yard, just always be wary of leaving a mana open.

Pithing Needle

From personal experience, if you have open slots in your sideboard and you are not sure what to put there, put in this card. It hits nearly every single deck in the format in some shape or way and that is super relevant. Always be aware this can be active on any card, no matter what it is. Please don’t forget that it cannot stop mana abilities, though. 

• Tron hits: ★★★★☆ (be wary of creatures)

• Chromatic Sphere/Star, Expedition Map, Karn Liberated, Ugin, Oblivion Stone, Walking Ballista

• Bant Humans/Knightfall ★★★★☆

• Prioritize Knight of the Reliquary if you know this is how they are going off quickly. This will require them to go and try and find Qasali Pridemage to go off which will buy you a decent amount of time to find removal. Be wary though, this deck can be very strong against you out of the side with Izzet Staticaster which is also able to be Pithing Needled.

• GWx Druid Combo ★★★★★

• Devoted Druid (this stops the -1/-1 counter ability, not the mana ability), unflipped Duskwatch Recruiter, Scavenging Ooze, Selfless Spirit, Walking Ballista, Viscera Seer, be wary of Qasali Pridemage like against Bant Humans/Knightfall

• Affinity ★★★★☆

• Manlands, Arcbound Ravager, Steel Overseer

• Ad Nauseam ★★★★☆

• Lightning Storm. They will not be able to win unless they did not side around this (bounce like Echoing Truth) or unless they go for Laboratory Maniac win.

• UW Control ★★★☆☆

• All the PW, Field of Ruin, Collonade

There’s probably a ton of things from other decks that I missed, but these are ones that stood out to me on mtgtop8.

Note that you can also hit fetchlands if they do not fetch in response to the needle being cast. Once the needle is considered resolved, you name a card, and the named card cannot be activated.

Damping Sphere

Damping Sphere is a card that has seen less play lately - but I think is extremely underrated. This helps you in your Tron matchups and it significantly helps you against Storm, Phoenix, and other decks that attempt to kind of move a little too fast in the format. I would try and run a couple of these if you feel like your meta calls for it.

Ratchet Bomb

Ratchet Bomb is another card that works very similarly to Engineered Explosives, but is more of a budgeted version of it. This can kill tokens quickly, but can also eventually get up to numbers to kill high drops if you need it to.

Refer to Engineered Explosives for things you would want to be able to remove with this card, as they are practically the same, it’s just that this will take a few turns to set up which could cost you life/the game so be wary when choosing this over Explosives.

Creatures:

Gifted Aetherborn

Helps clean up the ground and adds more threats to the deck. This is just a fair card but is SUPER vulnerable to Fatal Push and Lightning Bolt (which bolt is back on the rise)

Side this in against decks that have big creatures to take advantage of the Deathtouch ability. Ideally you want it against Eldrazi, Burn, Death’s Shadow, and Hatebear style decks.

Prioritize attacking or defending:

If your opponents are on a black colored deck, make sure to play around Fatal Push and don’t be afraid to be a little more aggressive. They will use Push to get rid of this if they have relevant stuff in play they want to keep.

If your opponent is on a red deck, try and avoid getting this bolted. This card gains you the extra life to win in some of those matchups.

Against burn, be wary that they can spend a card to kill this that could cost 1 mana. You might want to be playing this with some sort of backup to avoid it being immediately killed.

Otherwise this card is just great for cleaning up the ground against anything that doesn’t have 3 power, it can just sit and block for days while gaining you life for Bitterblossom later.

This card can also just be good against fair decks, but is slightly difficult to cast off of BB costing, in comparison to the rest of the deck which can lean more blue heavy depending on your build.

Spellskite

This card was AMAZING against Bogles, Infect, and Burn. With most of these (except burn) out of the format with Gitaxian Probe being banned, I don't see much of a use for this anymore unless one of these decks comes back in a strong resurgence. If your meta calls for it, I would highly recommend it though as it is aggressively costed, blocks a lot of creatures on the ground, and can eat a bolt to the face at the cost of a blue mana or 2 life, which can REALLY help if it’s 1 less damage you are taking.

Be wary though, these decks that I listed can also deal with Spellskite pretty easily and will have sideboard slots against Bitterblossom.

Fulminator Mage 

This card in general feels very similar to our enchantment land hate, but instead takes out the lands completely.

Bring this in against:

• Tron ★★★★★

• Prioritize the Tron lands for obvious reasons. This will prevent them from “going off” sooner and make it much more difficult for them to cast their larger creatures and spells.

• Affinity ★★★☆☆

• Prioritize on the manlands over anything else. They don’t get hurt by this too much for playing their creatures, but it keeps them off of manlands to kill you at a quicker pace.

• Control Decks (Celestial Colonnade, Creeping Tar Pit, etc) ★★★★☆

• This is one of those matchups where you can either take them off of colors, or just use this to keep card advantage. Usually you want to prioritize their manlands, but you won’t always get this opportunity. If you’re holding this for too long, don’t be afraid to use it as a cantrip to take them off of a color.

I would argue that this card is a little stronger against affinity than the enchantments though, considering it can be a creature to block in niche situations when needed.

Plague Engineer

Plague Engineer is an interesting card because it not only is amazing against us, but it is extremely powerful against some of the other tribal decks in the format. To sum things up, I’ll include a post from reddit user /u/KarnSilverArchon, who I feel puts it in an extremely simple description:

“an incredible anti-tribal, anti-aggro card in general. This card slaps Humans, Elves, Merfolk, and even Spirits across the jaw in a major way, either flat out killing their creatures or slowing down their clock significantly. And against non-tribal decks, it acts as an amazing answer to specific cards as well. Plague Engineer notably shuts out Bloodghast, Narcomoeba, Glistener Elf, Blighted Agent, majority of Affinity’s creatures, Vizier of Remedies, Young Pyromancer and its tokens, Grim Lavamancer... and the list goes on. And if you get two of them out? A solid half of Modern just disappeared, including Phoenixes. And to top it all off, once the game gets late enough and the opponent starts throwing out bigger creatures, it has deathtouch. This card is absurd.”

Hostage Taker

Hostage Taker feels a lot similar to Sower of Temptation, but has some uniqueness to it. Very occasionally stealing a Chalice off of the board will be important with this card, but more often than not this can act as some temporary removal for a card.

If you have the mana for it, you can even recast the card yourself and get a slight advantage on your opponent, but at 4 mana it better be something very important and that can get you further ahead than your opponent.

Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet

Kalitas is probably one of the stronger creatures post-sideboard to run, as it will ensure that you can stabilize a bit against more wide of creature matchups.

This card used to be insanely good with Slaughter Pact, but since it has fallen a bit out of favor this moves more towards sideboard play.

It is best to bring this in against Burn (for obvious lifegain reasons) since it will prevent them usually from attacking with their creatures, and they usually will have to spend burn spells on it to prevent lifelink from stealing the game. Keep in mind though, this is a 4 drop which competes for a cryptic command cast on turn 4. Depending on how fast your opponent is going, this could be either a very safe play or not safe at all. Play it more by how the game is going and then slam this as early as you can knowing your opponent cannot instantly kill you.

Against dredge, this guy can ensure wins. Your board will VERY quickly outgrow your opponent’s if you have enough Bitterblossom tokens and/or creatures to clog up the ground to get rid of theirs. Use your creatures ideally as blockers in this matchup, and then once you get the chance to start swinging back with a huge Kalitas, do so.

A neat interaction that not many people will recognize from first glance is that you can eat a Mutavault with his activated ability. It can catch people off guard and although it sets you back a land, can ensure you a lot of lifegain coupled with a huge creature for your opponent to deal with.

Batterskull

For the record, this could be placed under artifacts, but due to it being a living weapon, I’m putting it here because functionally it acts more as a creature than an equipment card.

As someone who has actually tested and played this card, functionally it feels pretty similar to Kalitas/Wurmcoil Engine in terms of gaining life with a body. If you are looking for the lifegain alone against a burn heavy or aggressive deck, go with Kalitas because you can drop it a turn earlier.

Obviously, this card comes in a spot where it’s going to fill a niche at an inbetween slot. This card, unlike Kalitas or Wurmcoil, is actually very good against control decks (as long as they aren’t on Kolaghan’s Command). You don’t care if the germ gets pathed or pushed, because you can pick the batterskull back up for 3, and replay it. Since the game most likely is going at a slower pace in the control match-up, this card feels safer than committing a lot of mana to something like a wurmcoil or kalitas only to have it quickly removed. I would probably recommend this more than anything in a match-up where Path to Exile is more of a problem, even though Path is a little easier for our deck to get around due to spellstutter sprite.

This card can also clean up the ground a little bit due to it’s vigilance, making it more difficult for your opponents to attack in. Take advantage of that and try and outpace them if you’re moving at a quicker tempo than they are, if they are falling behind at all.

The Scarab God

Scarab God has got a high curve into it, so hopefully by the time you are able to play it, your opponent cannot immediately kill you. Granted, you’ll have a 5/5 which can block quite favorably, but tapping out to play this card can be back breaking if you play it at the wrong time.

This has neat interactions with mutavaults in order to scry your top card before you draw on your turn, and it also really helps with making your opponent be careful about what cards they throw in the graveyard, as this can make them 4/4’s and aggressive really quick.

Planeswalkers:

Ashiok, Dream Render

Ashiok is a newer WAR include that is seeing a decent bit of play, and has some pretty insane value in their static ability hindering searching for your opponent. Right now the general consensus seems to be running your normal graveyard hate in conjunction with 1 of these out of your sideboard as repeated exile. If your opponent is also on a graveyard plan, you can mill them out a total of 16 cards AND exile all of them while still keeping ashiok on the table if you can protect it.

Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver

• Druid Combo ★★★★☆/★★★☆☆

• This is hard to say, as I need to do more testing with it, but according to some forum posters this card does insanely well against the Druid Combo deck. Not only does it give us an extra win condition against infinite life combos, but it gives us a chance to steal their creatures away from them. This also makes it to where they can’t “stack” their deck using Viscera Seer unless it’s the end of your turn.

• Eldrazi ★★★☆☆

• This is another hard to say one, I think you would prioritize Liliana of the Veil in this slot for this matchup. It doesn’t hurt to try this a little bit further though, as it’s minus to steal a thought-knot seer or a big creature could be game changing for us versus our opponent.

Ensures win condition against infinite life

Enchantments:

Enchant Land Auras

These cards are obviously strong in matchups where you want to keep people limited on their land selection, and can be really strong against creature lands. I would recommend Seas > Presence personally, because keeping a hand at a higher count will ensure Liliana of the Veil’s plus won’t set you too far behind.

As pointed out in the discord, Contaminated Ground is also a choice for us. This allows us to tax the opponent for tapping their lands, and has a funny interaction with Mistbind Clique if you tap their lands.

Search for Azcanta // Azcanta, the Sunken Ruin

Search has been seeing a lot of play in the URx and UWx decks as of lately, which are primarily control builds. We can utilize the extra land pretty well, and I could see arguments being made for it. This does clog up our two drop slot even more though, which makes things a little awkward. I can’t see us ever playing more than 2 and that's if we are not already using Narset.

Leyline of the Void

See listings for Nihil Spellbomb and Grafdigger’s Cage.

This card should almost always be used as a 3-4 of in the side, to ensure you get it in an opener. What’s nice about this instead of a Grafdigger’s Cage, is that you don’t shut off your own snapcasters with it, while you will shut your opponent off of using their graveyard entirely.

Things to add:

Mystical Sanctuary

Fallen Shinobi

Drown in the Loch

Building the Side:

With building the sideboard, there are a few agreed upon “must-includes” which should be addressed. Usually, boards will look something like this:

1-2 Collective Brutality (Not in all builds)

2+ Sweepers (Usually in the form of Flaying Tendrils or Damnation, EE is great for Humans)

2+ Graveyard/Dredge Hate (Kalitas, Surgical, Nihil, etc)

1-2 Extra Kill Spells (refer to the list in mainboard stuff plus Hero’s Downfall)

1-2 Negate / Countersquall

2+ Colorless/Eldrazi Hate (Ceremonious Rejection, Disdainful Stroke)

Pretty much anything else is completely up to you, but this is primarily the build that most people go for. No matter what, it’s really up to you how you do this. Tailor the sideboard based around matchups in your meta if you need, which will be covered after this section.

Matchups:

Updated as of June 2nd, 2019

Aggro:

Phoenix

This matchup relies really heavily on them getting their creatures into play and going on beatdown, but they can also kind of storm off with Pyromancer’s Ascension. Keep your removal for Thing in the Ice, and try and exile Phoenix as priority. If those aren’t their play and they are trying to go Pyromancer’s Ascension kill, they should only have a couple in the deck. You could easily hold and wait for a counter on it.

Sideboard cards:

Flusterstorm

Surgical Extraction
Negate

Echoing Truth

Force of Despair

Damnation/Languish

Nihil Spellbomb

Ashiok, Dream Render

Humans

Widely considered one of our more difficult matchups. This is a matchup where you want to cut most of your counters and bring in removal as much as you can, since Vial and Cavern of Souls make counters a lot less effective.

Sideboard Cards:

Plague Engineer

Engineered Explosives

Damnation/Languish
Hero’s Downfall

The Rock

This is a very fair matchup but tends to be heavy on discard. You’ll want to probably avoid a Liliana v Liliana fight here, but most of our removal mainboard can deal with their threats. They have a lot of removal for Bitterblossom in this matchup making it difficult to gain a lot of value off of it.

Sideboard:

Hero’s Downfall

Drown/Tendrils/Cry

Damnation/Languish

Engineered Explosives

Nihil Spellbomb (depends on the build, could be good or bad)

Gifted Aetherborn

Kalitas

Ashiok, Dream Render (depends on the build, could be good or bad)

Death’s Shadow

They get low quickly and the biggest creatures they have are gurmag and street wraith (if hardcast). Most of these decks tend to stay low so removal is crucial to make sure they don’t just blow you out of the water, but you need to play around Stubborn Denial.

Sideboard:
Gifted Aetherborn

Engineered Explosives

Damnation (depends on how long the game goes on, could be good or bad)

Liliana’s Defeat

Hero’s Downfall

Shadow of Doubt (they have an extremely low land count, this could be VERY difficult for them)

Ashiok, Dream Render (again, extremely low land count so if dropped early this could be devastating)

Echoing Truth

Hardened Scales/Affinity

Both of these decks are primarily artifact based so the sideboard feels pretty close to the same for each. We have a solid mainboard against them so you mainly just want to make sure they don’t pop off and kill you unexpectedly.

Sideboard:

Ceremonious Rejection

Echoing Truth/Hurkyl’s Recall (A little bit of a reset button)

Force of Despair

Hero’s Downfall

Drown/Tendrils/Cry

Damnation/Languish

Engineered Explosives

Pithing Needle

Plague Engineer (usually on construct)

Control:

UWx Control

UW Control is one of the most represented decks in the format right now and can be relatively easy if we land a Bitterblossom as they have a very difficult time dealing with it. Focus on making sure they don’t get their PW in play, as most of their creatures are killable with push.

Sideboard:

Ashiok, Dream Render

Unmoored Ego

Pithing Needle

Nihil Spellbomb

Hero’s Downfall

Countersquall/Negate

Flusterstorm/Dispel

Tron

Probably one of our more difficult matchups, and is very well represented. This can be a pretty bad G1 but post-sideboard we should have a much cleaner matchup.

Sideboard:

Countersquall/Negate

Disdainful Stroke

Unmoored Ego

Pithing Needle

Damping Sphere

Land destruction

Grixis Control

Grixis can be a pretty fair matchup, but they have a lot of removal. Our creatures and such will suffer because of this, making our counters and discard very important to help protect our stuff. This will play very similarly to UW control in terms of what you’d prefer from the side.

Sideboard:

Ashiok, Dream Render

Nihil Spellbomb

Hero’s Downfall

Countersquall/Negate

Damnation/Languish (if lots of creatures)

Flusterstorm/Dispel

Whir Prison

This is rough due to Explosives and Chalice being cards. I’d say your most important things to counter in this matchup are Chalice, EE on 2, and Ensnaring Bridge. Everything else kind of doesn’t matter with exceptions to their sideboard choices like Aether Grid, Sai, and Tezzeret which can definitely be other counters required kind of cards.

Sideboard:

Ceremonious Rejection

Surgical Extraction

Countersquall/Negate

Echoing Truth

Hurkyl’s Recall

Unmoored Ego (take out win conditions)

Ashiok, Dream Render

Mardu

Mardu is a deck where you’re either going to do really well or it’s going to be a tough game. They run Blood Moons very typically so you have to play around that so as to not get destroyed by them. They run a TON of removal as well, making slamming a creature difficult. Granted, we have a TON of good sideboard choices against them, so pick your poison.

Sideboard:

Ashiok, Dream Render

The Scarab God (they are forced removal on this constantly if you’re ahead)

Nihil Spellbomb

Damnation/Languish

Drown/Tendrils/Cry

Collective Brutality

Force of Despair (needs more testing)

Hero’s Downfall

Echoing Truth

Engineered Explosives

Surgical Extraction

Negate/Countersquall