Matchup Analysis

> Creativity ✅

> 5C Zoo ✅

> 4C Control ✅

Pre board

This is a very technically demanding matchup and they have a lot of really powerful threats against us but I think grixis has the tools to beat this deck game 1. We are still the control deck in the matchup since we have many more reactive spells than they do and their proactive plays are significantly more powerful than ours. Their main sequences vs control are to play flash creatures like Ice-Fang Coatl and Endurance alongside Eternal witness and use them to pressure our life. The tricky thing about these creatures is that they are phenomenal with Ephemerate. Ephemerate will protect their creature from removal while also generating a ton of card advantage. They will almost never be able to proactively cast Ephemerate as long as I have mana up so patience is key. Some key cards to have are permission (Counterspell and Archmage's Charm) and discard (Kolaghan's Command and Thoughtsieze). They have quite a few suboptimal cards vs us pre board so keeping Omnath, Locus of Creation and Teferi, Time Raveler off the board and countering their 2-1's in Expressive Iteration are the primary objectives. Their weakest turn is T3 when they have 3 lands because they can't untap and Omnath with Fetch. This is why Jace is so powerful T4 on the play they don't have a lot of ways of interacting directly with Jace and tend to rely on flash threats especially game 2. Then it becomes a game of protect the queen which is favourable for us. There are quite a few robust and low resource combinations in Wrenn and Six & Sokenzan and Eternal Witness + Ephermete which can end the game fairly quickly. Beware of these combinations.

Postboard

Key Cards (Prioritized)

1. Veil of Summer
2. Magus of the Moon
3. Mystical Dispute
4. Flusterstorm
5. Emrakul, the Promised End

Postboard we want to increase our threat density so we can turn the corner a bit quicker in place of our weaker removal and smoothing spells. Tourach is a very powerful threat but is best saved for last when both players have exhausted their resources. They have few ways of answering it in Lightning bolt and Ice Fang Coatl. Between tourach and Creeping Tar Pit we can actually present a pretty robust clock against them if they aren't prepared. Be careful when initiating a race since they have a ton of life gain in their deck between solitude and Omnath Locus of Creation. Flusterstorm is in to fight Veil of Summer, Expressive Iteration, Counterspell, Eladamri's Call and backup my permission.

> UR Delver ✅

Preboard

Keeping Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer from connecting and life total management is the crux of the gameplan. A sticky ragavan with cheap permission can easily end the game. I am packing quite a few clean answers to Murktide Regent so the main goal is to keep the board clear and grind them to dust. Typically I win games via damage races with Creeping Tar Pit and Snapcaster Mage. Often if the opponent is holding cards and not being proactive it means they either have permission of damage based removal. It's relatively easy to probe permission by playing a proactive spell like Expressive Iteration or Thoughtseize and to some extent Snapcaster Mage. On the other hand its a bit more difficult to gauge how much removal they are holding. Avoid animating Creeping Tar Pit until it is safe to do so. It is good to always consider attacking with a Snapcaster Mage even if the threat of a dashed Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer exists.

Postboard

Key Cards (Prioritized)

1. Jace, the Mind Sculptor
2. Blood Moon / Magus of the Moon
3. Relic of Progenitus
4. Mystical Dispute
5. Flusterstorm

There are a ton of cards out of their sideboard that are slam dunks against grixis control. After sideboard they can pack up to 15 permission spells many of which are twice as efficient as Counterspell. It is difficult for this iteration to fetch around a Blood Moon due to the lack of basics and the demanding mana requirements so just keep the threat of it in the back of your mind before giving them the opportunity to resolve a 3 mana spell. Relic is also not easy to play around so this one we will have to fight this one head on. While I generally like Engineered Explosives game 1 I think the deck has a diverse enough set of threats post board to limit the value of that effect.

I am still undecided on how to approach the sideboard games. On one hand the overwhelming permission in the UR Murktide deck post board makes me lean towards a creature gameplan with Dauthi Voidwalker and Tourach, Dread Cantor which play very well against a deck that's poised to beat me at counterspell wars on the stack over blue or non-creature spells. On the other hand I don't think there are enough good cuts post board to justify the transformational sideboard. One option is to cut Kolaghan's Command entirely but I think its an important non-blue way to grind out murktide.

> Yawgmoth ✅

Preboard

I originally thought this matchup would be poor due to the threat of a combo kill (mainly griselbrand mode) and a high amount of redundancy of recurring creatures. Yawgmoth needs at least 2 undying creatures and a Yawgmoth, Thran Physician to present a potentially lethal combo. In practice, Yawgmoth is quite difficult for them to stick and Grist is a bit too slow to have meaningful impact and is always weak to Creeping Tar Pit. This deck has no creature removal outside their core engine cards in Grist, the Hunger Tide and Yawgmoth, Thran Physician which are prime targets for our counter spells anyways. We can exploit this fact by stealing their mana creatures especially on the play providing both a tempo and card advantage. We have so much removal to keep them from having a large mana advantage and out creature top end in Kess Dissident Mage or Tasigur the Golden Fang are hard for them to kill and pull me further ahead while stabilizing the board effectively. Most games we can be pretty passive about answering their undying creatures and dig for our finishers. Always be aware of the possibility of Magus of the Moon on any search resolution.

Yawgmoth is a deck that has a high emphasis on life advantage to leverage the strength of their namesake card. Finding the right opportunity to initiate a race will typcially favour us especially with Creeping Tar Pit since it almost unkillable outside of Boseiju. Again our creature threats are very reliable.

Postboard

Key Cards (Prioritized)

1. Veil of Summer
2. Endurance
3. Thoughtseize

On the draw it is critical to have a one mana removal spell for their T1 mana creature since they can easily play Grist the Hunger Tide on T2. Dauthi Voidwalker is our strongest card out of the board because it invalidates the combo kill and the redundant beatdown plan. Be cautious about muling too low for specific cards since they are typically boarding a set of Thoughtseize. Our goal is to find our stun cards in Dauthi Voidwalker and Ashiok, Dream Renderer and eventually sweep away the board and take over quickly with our top end. Postboard the matchup becomes significantly more midrange focused which favours us.

> Living End ✅

Preboard

Living End is extremely fatal against us so we must revolve our whole strategy around countering it. Some of their strongest openings will involve . Therefore I think it's wrong to counter a creature for the sole benefit of it being a tempo positive play. Snapcaster mage can be a liability against Endurance so flashing back a counterspell should not be relied on.

Postboard

Key Cards (Prioritized)

1. Endurance
2. Mystical Dispute
3. Leyline of Sanctity
4. Leyline of the Void

Our sideboard packs a ton of hate for graveyard strategies like Living End. Due to the density of hate its not unlikely that the gameplan for them revolves around sneaking in Endurance to race and pressure the planeswalkers. We naturally board out a number of creature removal spells but this is why I keep 2 fatal push in the maindeck over cards like Kolaghan's Command. Leyline of Sanctity has some play against Ashiok, Dream Renderer and thoughtseize so I included it in the cards to look out for even though it will not warrant removing these absolute bombs.

> Temur Cascade ✅

Preboard

This grixis list has interaction that generally lines up well against the primary Crashing Footfalls gameplan Temur Cascade tries to enact (Archmage's Charm). The tempo shell however is actually quite strong and can tussle with grixis control given the right combination of cards. Focus on countering crashing footfalls and managing your life total against the flash chip damage. This deck has a fair bit of reach in 4 Fire // Ice and 2 Bonecrusher Giant in addition to evasive flash threats like Brazen Borrower so be cognisant of falling to low multiples of 2 such as 4. It plays 24 lands pitch spells and no way to acrue card advantage so the deck can run out of steam fairly quickly. Once they are low on resources grixis control should have no problem taking over the game.

Postboard

Key Cards (Prioritized)

1. Blood Moon
2. Mystical Dispute
3. Endurance

Blood Moon is difficult to play around in this version of grixis but be conscious of it. Endurance beats is the way I have lost this matchup in the past so keeping all of the fatal pushes and removing cards that don't line up against a Rhino, Fury, Bonecrusher Giant or Endurance do not make the cut. It will certainly cost me percentage points for leaving up permission for Magus of the Moon and taking hits from their creatures. I need to be constantly reassessing whether continuing to play around Magus makes sense.

> UW Hammer ✅

Preboard

This is probably our strongest matchup. A pile of removal and powerful 2 for 1's in Kolaghan's Command and Archmage Charm is more than enough to disrupt the synergy driven deck and allow the card advantage spells to take over. Fatal Push and Snapcaster Mage are among the strongest cards in the opener. Often play snap caster Kaldra Compleat can be difficult to answer but options are available in Sudden Edict, Archmage's Charm and Jace, the Mind Sculptor. Reality Chip is a way this deck can claw back into a game so if given the opportunity it is a high priority counter spell target

Postboard

Key Cards (Prioritized)

1. Teferi, Time Raveler
2. Spell Pierce
3. Relic of Progenitus
4. Mana Leak
5. Blacksmith's Skill

I originally thought the hammer decks would want to keep a range of slower hands with Storeforge Mystic and Urza's Saga but the longer the game goes the better it is for us. We do not need a lot of top end to win this matchup in the post boarded games. Therefore it is critical to mulligan aggressively to ensure we have enough cheap removal to defend against a fast hammer kill. Being down resources in this matchup is for the most part inconsequential since so many of our spells provide large swings in card advantage. Sorcery speed removal is considerably weaker than instant speed removal. For this reason, Anger of the Gods does not make the cut. With instant speed ways to protect their creatures its very difficult to commit 3 mana at sorcery speed to wipe their board. Contrast that with Engineered Explosives which is a very low mana investment. Always commit to wiping the board while they are tapped out to play around instant speed tricks.

Some lists can have Teferi, Time Raveler so be careful about representing counterspell mana on T2/3

> UW Control ✅

Preboard

Name of the game is keeping little Teferi, Time Raveler off the battlefield. Always value tempo positive plays and play at instant speed and this matchup is as good as it gets. It's quite easy to grind UW to dust. Be conscious of instant speed wandering emperor.

Postboard

Key Cards (Prioritized)

1. Rest in Peace
2. Dovin's Veto
3. Mystical Dispute

Note that fluster storm and test of talents do not counter Teferi, Time Raveler or Rest in Piece which are their 2 best cards in the matchup. I can forecast some sequences where they play Teferi, Time Raveler with Dovin's Veto backup against my Counterspell with Flusterstorm or Test of Talents backup. They will win this exchange so I need to be very careful about using cards like Archmage's charm as a draw 2 post board. Tourach is one of my strongest cards in the matchup and can only be trumped by Hall of the Storm Giants which is the main reason for keeping in Sudden Edict post board.

> Jund ✅

Preboard

Jund is all about jockeying for a resource advantage and both decks will typically be reduced to playing off the top of the library. Newer versions of Jund have reduced their curve and are interested in having efficient ways to leverage card advantage in Urza's Saga Wrenn and Six and Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer. While grixis is good at answering creature threats the planeswalkers can single handedly run away with a game. An early discard spell into Liliana of the Veil, Grist, the Hunger Tide or Wrenn and Six is the strongest opening they can have against us. Removing resolved planeswalkers is particularly hard in my build because I rely on direct damage spells like Unholy Heat and Kolaghan's Command which will typically only do 2 damage by the time the planeswalkers come down. Dreadbore will certainly pull weight in this matchup. Another significant issue is Urza's Saga. In the absence of Kolaghan's Command I will typically have to trade a removal spell for 1/3 or an Urza's Saga which is undesirable in a resource battle. Newer iterations of jund demand playing to the board early so big creatures like Tasigur, the Golden Fang and Kess, Dissident Mage are key. They also provide pressure to their planeswalkers and Tasigur, the Golden Fang in particular is hard to kill without Liliana the Veil or Grist, the Hunger Tide.

With the introduction of Riveteers Charm traditional Jund decks are resurging. They are tending towards playing a higher density of creatures and planeswalkers in place of removal.

Postboard

Key Cards (Prioritized)

1. Nihil Spellbomb (MD)
2. Boil
3. Endurance

The strategy does not change after sideboard. Both of our decks are micro-optimizing for the matchup but executing the same gameplan. We want to increase our threat density while improving our removal against permanents. Despite the jund strategy being built on the back of targeted discard, I don't advocate taking boarding out any permission since they have a high density of powerful threats which can only be cleanly answered with permission. Sudden edict is considerably weaker against strategies with a high density of creatures (especially with Urza's Saga) spells that are single purpose are worse than multi-purpose here. Kolaghan's Command is not common in Jund so playing a naked Engineered Explosives for mana efficiency is reasonable.

> G Tron ✅

Preboard

Permission is of upmost importance. Outside of Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger, Tron has no direct way of circumventing permission. Relic of Progenitus is the best way they can mitigate the recursion of permission effects. This iteration of grixis control does not provide a fast way to close the game so focus on countering the payoffs rather than the combo assembly (Expedition Map, Sylvan Scrying) and run them out of resources. Tron does not have great mulligan flexibility and so often they will keep a hand that assembles Tron and any number of payoffs.

Note 2-3 Warping Wail's float in the main deck which can tag a Dreadbore.

Post Board

Key Cards (Prioritized)

1. Relic of Progenitus

Tron typically uses the Karn, the Great Creator sideboard package which means they will likely board very little. The only card which interacts favourably against this strategy is 4 Relic of Progenitus which they will likely have up to 4 copies of post board. Sideboard plan involves taking out cards with functionally no text in the matchup for cards that enact the proactive control strategy.

> Burn ✅

Pre Board

The grixis mana base is the biggest pitfall when fighting burn since the spells often demand all 3 colours early. Take special care to preserve life total when getting mana into play. Always forecast whether fetching is a requirement or can be postponed. Prioritize playing spells that play to the board such as removal or even flashing in naked Snapcaster Mage's to provide bodies to block. Kolaghan's Command and Archmage's Charm are the powerful cards I am looking for in the matchup since they both play well to the board and yield card advantage.

Post Board

Key Cards (Prioritized)

1. Rest in Peace
2. Roiling Vortex
3. Sanctifier en-Vec

Playing to the board is critical for a decisive victory so the sideboard plan will involve removing most of the card advantage spells that don't play to the board well in place of fairly anemic creatures. Permission while maintaining an onboard advantage will give this iteration the best chance of beating burn without dedicated sideboard slots. This iteration of grixis has no answers to onboard enchantments like Rest In Peace and Roiling Vortex. Rest In Peace is the greatest threat out of the sideboard since it reduces our ability to play to the board. Based on the sideboard plan of boarding in a higher density of creatures I don't consider Roiling Vortex to be a significant threat unless the forecasted damage output is greater than 4 while losing the damage race. Snapcaster Mage and Sudden Edict line up well against Sanctifier en-Vec. Considering it is a 2/2 for 2 mana it is not a serious permission consideration most of the time.

> Dimir & Grixis Shadow ✅

Preboard

Shadow tends to play like a paced tempo strategy. They can go long pick a spot and win critical battles purely on the efficiency of the spells. Since their deck has a low curve they have a higher spell density meaning on a 1 for 1 basis our deck will tend to flood often resulting in a loss so resource management is critical. At about 5 mana grixis can operate comfortably and keep pace with the efficiency from the shadow decks.

Post Board

Key Cards (Prioritized)

1. Mystical Dispute
2. Spell Pierce
3. Nihil Spellbomb

Grixis

Grixis death shadow strategies are shifting to midrange shells with The Royal Scions and Kaito Shizuki. They still pack Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer and Dragon's Rage Channeler so all cheap removal is still required post board. Grixis generally has 4-6 discard spells in Thoughtseize and Inquisiton of Kozilek and 5-6 permission spells in Drown in the Loch and Spell Pierce. Due to the high volume of hand disruption, permission spells lose value. Not sure on Engineered Explosives since taking their 1 drops with Archmage's Charm is quite strong. But having them pace their 1 mana creatures one at a time plays well into Archmage's Charm.

Dimir

Dimir shadow focuses on threat quality over density with Ledger Shredder and Murktide Reagent. Dimir shadow plays a whooping 12 permission effects in Archmage's Charm, Drown in the Loch and Counterspell. Unholy Heat lines is unreliable against this strategies creature threats. Sideboard plan focuses on adding more efficient permission spells to fight large counterspell battles. A resolved Jace, the Mind Sculptor is very difficult for dimir to pressure. Unholy Heat comes out since it only has value when delirium is online which is less likely in post board games due to graveyard disruption out of the sideboard.