4th Amulet Titan Matchup Guide - Karn PDF

26/07/2019 4th Amulet Titan Matchup Guide: Karn - Google Docs
Karn-Amulet Titan Matchup Guide and Sideboarding:

By Francisco Pawluszek (fpawlusz)
Introduction:
Welcome to another installment of my sideboard guide! Thanks so much for subscribing

to my Twitch channel, I really appreciate the support! Hopefully this guide will help you
in your Primeval Titan casting affairs. If you are new to the deck, I did an almost 3 hour
video primer talking about the basic interactions, card choices and all of that good stuff.
Even though I made it a while ago, everything still remains relevant today. You can find
it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2fR2ZYdMe4&t=6s
War of the Spark was the most impactful set for Modern in recent memory, and it
brought a card to the table that was game changing for Amulet: Karn, the Great Creator.
The Planeswalker has drastically changed the way I have been building the deck, and
presents us with new possibilities and play patterns, as well as challenges. Karn
encourages us to build our sideboard in order to maximize its -2 ability by creating yet
another toolbox. This is not without a cost, which is a) using up multiple sideboard slots,
and well as b) not playing some cards in our main deck, meaning we are unable to
Stirrings/Transmute for them. I also see a lot of people that as soon as they resolve
Karn they go ahead and activate the minus ability to go look for a Lattice, and more
often than not this is simply a mistake. In order to get Karn’s full potential you want to
plan a couple of turns ahead, and make sure you are getting value from him even if he
gets answered. So far my experience with this build of the deck has been very positive,
but I do not think it should be considered as a “strict upgrade” over the previous
versions that do not run the 4 mana pantless walker. Originally I started playing with 3
Karns, but I liked him so much that I moved up to 4. With the recent uptick in aggressive
strategies, I have chosen to bring the Ballista back to the main deck. This not only
allows us to Transmute for Ballista in game 1 (when Karn is not particularly good,) but
also makes room in the board for the 3rd copy of Engineered Explosives (also very
good against the HogVine deck that broke Modern.)
From my previous list, I have been removed the 2nd and 3rd Coalition Relic and 2 Hive
Minds in order to make room for Karn. I am still very much a fan of Relic, but something
had to give in order to make room for the Karn package, and I wanted to make sure I
had access to 3 copies of Explosives in the 75. I’m not 100% convinced this is the best
possible configuration, but overall is has felt smooth and very powerful. The guide that I
present today is written using a White splash in the sideboard, but I have also
experimented with playing a straight UG version of the deck (running Dismember as the
removal spell of choice.) A version splashing Red is also possible (for Abrade and
Firespout.) In the current metagame, Rest in Peace is quite literally the best it’s ever
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1sse-TFlVJu1zzPrr4MGnyZ8TzZY8Y6U155XzlemIFmc/edit# 1/49
been in the format, and running a couple of copies is what I will be doing moving
forward (until the eventual and inevitable banning of some card from the HogVine deck.)
In order to help add another white source, I went back to the 3 Forest/1 Horizon Canopy
split. If any card from that deck were to be banned, I would immediately take out the 2
Rest in Peace from the board and play a Crucible of Worlds and an Obstinate Baloth
instead. As I always say, this guide should be used as a reference. It isn’t meant to be
treated as gospel: YOU SHOULD make adjustments for your expected metagame, and
which will help improve your win percentage.
I am not the biggest fan of sideboard guides, and I don’t really use them personally
(though that is in big part because I change my list around so often.) However, I wanted
to go over most of the top Modern decks and explain my approach to each matchup.
Amulet Titan is interesting in that even though your goal is more often than not simply to
resolve a Primeval Titan and win from there, the way that we want to position ourselves
in order to get there will vary from matchup to matchup. It’s important to identify whether
we are the “beatdown” or the “control” deck. Yes, sometimes you will simply have
multiple Amulets and resolve a Titan on turn 3, but in all the matches where you don’t is
where true mastery of the deck will really show. You must know what the key cards in
each matchup are, and what are the key interactions you need to be aware of in order
to put yourself in the most favorable position. As I said earlier, the addition of Karn gives
us new possibilities. However, remember we are still first and foremost a Primeval Titan
deck.
Throughout this guide I will assume you have a basic understanding of how the deck
operates. Hope this is useful to you. If you have any questions you can find me here:
- Twitter: @fpawluszmtg
- If you want to watch Amulet Titan content you can go to my Youtube channel:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8OaQSYgZnFdoHJODvcT2sg?view_as=su
bscriber
- You can catch my stream live at http://twitch.tv/fpawlusz
This is the list we will be using:

4 Selesnya Sanctuary
Main Deck (60)
4 Simic Growth Chamber
Planeswalkers (3) 1 Slayers' Stronghold
1 Sunhome, Fortress of the Legion
3 Karn, the Great Creator
3 Tolaria West
Creatures (13) 1 Vesuva
1 Walking Ballsta 60 Cards
4 Sakura-Tribe Scout
Sideboard (15)
4 Azusa, Lost but Seeking
4 Primeval Titan 1 Engineered Explosives
1 Mycosynth Lattice
Sorcery (4) 1 Tormod’s Crypt
4 Ancient Stirrings 1 Pithing Needle
1 Wurmcoil Engine
Instant (5) 2 Rest in Peace
1 Pact of Negation 2 Negate
4 Summoner's Pact 3 Path to Exile
1 Hornet Queen
Artifact (7)
1 Reclamation Sage
2 Engineered Explosives
1 Force of Vigor
1 Coalition Relic
4 Amulet of Vigor
Land (28)
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Boros Garrison
1 Cavern of Souls
3 Forest
1 Horizon Canopy
4 Gemstone Mine
1 Ghost Quarter
1 Kabira Crossroads
1 Khalni Garden
Aggro decks:
In these matchups usually what we are looking to do is to stay alive, and we will usually be
playing catch up. We will mostly be playing as the control deck, and in the mid to late game our
superior threats will take over after we have stabilized and will give us the game. Against these
decks you will consistently see me take out Pact of Negation and multiple Explores. The reason
for that is that we want our early plays to interact with the board so we don’t die, and Pact is
simply too slow (with some exceptions that I will point out.)
Here you will find:

- Humans
- Dredge
- Burn
- Bant/UW Spirits
- Hollow One
- BridgeVine
- Hardened Scales
- Affinity
- Bogles
- Merfolk
- UR Phoenix
- Mono R Phoenix
- Mill
- 8-Whack
- Naya/Zoo
- Humans (Slightly unfavorable):

IN: +1 Hornet Queen, +3 Path to Exile, +1 Engineered Explosives, +1 Reclamation Sage
OUT: -3 Karn, the Great Creator, -1 Bojuka Bog, -1 Pact of Negation, -1 Summoner’s Pact
This is the trickiest Aggro deck to play against, by a fair amount. This is because they not only
have aggro draws that will quickly put us on the back foot, but they have very disruptive
creatures. Engineered Explosives is going to be the MVP, but it will often be the first thing
Meddling Mage will name after Primeval Titan. This is a matchups where Karn is at his worst,
and playing it is making our matchup worse than with other versions of the deck. He will very
often just act as a tutor for your sideboard EE or Ballista and if you’re lucky it will gain you a
couple of life in the process. The most important cards on their side are Meddling Mage (which
will usually name Primeval Titan or some sweeper effect) and Kitesail Freebooter, and in some
boardstates Thalia or Reflector Mage. This means that EE on 2 is going to be the go-to, though
it’s not uncommon to find yourself casting it for 3 to blow up Mantis Riders and Reflector Mages
(Thalia’s tax doesn’t effectively make EE more expensive: you can pay UG to play an EE for
X=1, but with Sunburst = 2.) Often times it’s correct to preemptively play the EE in order to play
around your opponent dealing with it beforehand (they have 4 Meddling Mage + 4 Freebooter to
do this, while only 2-3 Knights of Autumn after sideboard to destroy it while it’s in play.) An
important interaction to be aware of is that you can use the activated abilities of Sunhome and
Stronghold to target your opponent’s Phantasmal Images and kill them due to the phantasm’s
ability.
Post board we add removal and ways to help us get to the late game. Path to Exile is of course
amazing, and we bring in extra Explosives. Hornet Queen is your way to stabilize after your
opponent goes wide, but try to aggressively trade the Queen itself away as soon as possible, to
prevent your opponent from copying it with Phantasmal Image. The printing of Deputy of
Detention has definitely made the Queen plan considerably worse, but it’s never more than a 2
of in Humans lists. Reclamation Sage is there as a nod to Damping Sphere, which can be brutal
coming from this deck. Worst case scenario it can destroy an Aether Vial. If for whatever reason
they are not playing Sphere, bring in Wurmcoil Engine instead. I like siding out a Summoner’s
Pact to hinder the effect of Thalia and Kitesail Freebooters. You can do the same with Primeval
Titans if you have a different sideboard configuration.
- Dredge (Favorable):
IN: +2 Negate, +2 Rest in Peace
OUT: -1 Pact of Negation, -1 Coalition Relic, -1 Walking Ballista, -1 Engineered Explosives
This used to be our absolute best matchup, but the printing of Creeping Chill made the affair
much closer (though it’s still very good anyway.) The key card is, of course, Bojuka Bog. You
truly have no idea of how good that card is until you play it, then bounce it with a bounceland
and replay it. And you can even do so at instant speed with the help of Scout! This is especially
useful in response to a spell like Cathartic Reunion to prevent them from Dredging, or to a
triggered ability like Narcomoeba’s or Creeping Chill’s. The name of the game is to survive until
we resolve a Titan, because the late game favors us immensely thanks to Bojuka Bog.
Transmuting for Bog is a very real play that happens often to help slow our opponent down. I
think Explosives is not great here, but lately I have seen Dredge decks running Damping
Sphere, and I want to make sure I have at least 1 answer to the troublesome hate card. One key
interaction is that after your opponent Dredges in their draw step, you get priority before they
move onto their main phase. This is important in case they manage to Dredge a Conflagrate
and you want to make sure you exile it with Bog/Crypt before your opponent moves onto their
main phase as is able to cast it. Karn basically reads “4 mana, play a Tormod’s Crypt, gain 3
life,” which is actually really good, since, again, it helps with our plan or survival. The only
games I see myself losing against Dredge is when they have a nut draw and are able to put 7+
power in play on turn 2 or 3.
Negate is there mostly to try to stop an early Cathartic Reunion to help slow them down.
Conflagrate can help them steal a game, since the damage from it and Creeping Chill adds up
quickly, so it’s also a good Negate target. Gaining life with Kabira Crossroads and chump
blocking with Khalni Garden tokens can help you keep your head above water. Post board
Darkblast makes your Scouts worse, but I still think that the upside of getting ahead is worth the
risk of them dying (they usually only run a single Darkblast or 2 at most.) If you suspect your
opponent might have a Darkblast in play it’s sometimes correct to not play a Khalni or Scout on
turn 1 in order to prevent them from getting a dredger in the graveyard to get their engine going.
One side effect of adding Rest in Peace to the sideboard is the fact that we have even more
tools for this matchup, so you should be
- Burn (Slightly Favorable to Even):

IN: +3 Path to Exile, +1 Reclamation Sage, +1 Wurmcoil Engine
OUT: -3 Karn, The Great Creator, -1 Bojuka Bog, -1 Walking Ballista
This version of Amulet is much worse than usual against Burn specifically, since some
concessions needed to be made in sideboarding. The good thing is that still they have no ways
of removing a Primeval Titan once it hits play, and once you get the Titan value going it’s
impossible for them to come back. You just need to do everything in your power to stay alive.
Kabira Crossroads does a ton of work here, but be careful to time it while your opponent cannot
Skullcrack you. Karn can sometimes do work and be a real threat (fetching Wurmcoil or Lattice,
if you feel really safe,) but more often than not it’s just slow and clunky, which is why I take them
out post board. You definitely want to draw the Titan part of your deck in this matchup.
There are people who like countermagic in the matchup, but I’m not a fan. I have found that I
tend to lose more often to Burn’s creature draws than their spell heavy draws, and my
sideboarding reflects that. I bring in Reclamation Sage, since Burn opponents LOVE bringing in
Ensnaring Bridge against us (even though it’s completely unplayable) and it also kills Eidolon of
the Great Revel (while trading with a Goblin Guide!) A play that I think is not considered enough
is to post board hold on to your Amulets if you’re not going off, so you can blank your
opponent’s Destructive Revelries or Smash to Smithereens. Pact of Negation stays in the deck
so you can counter Deflecting Palm. If your opponent is playing a version of Burn that doesn’t
splash White then feel free to take out the pact and bring the Walking Ballista instead. Try to
never attack with a Titan if your opponent has R and W mana until you have Transmuted for it.
Also post board your opponents are very likely to bring in Path to Exile (which I also think is a
mistake on their side,) so you’ll probably be fetching Tolaria West more often than in game 1s.
- Bant/UW Spirits (Even-Unfavorable):

IN: +1 Hornet Queen, +1 Engineered Explosives, +3 Path to Exile, +1 Reclamation Sage
OUT: -3 Karn, the Great Creator, -1 Bojuka Bog, -1 Pact of Negation, -1 Summoner’s Pact
Another Aggro/disruptive matchup. Spirits has a lot of tools, and it’s very tricky to play against.
Spell Queller is the main problem. It can be absolutely insane against us, since we don’t play a
lot of removal in the main and it’s very likely to be a hard counter. Also, it’s straight up
counterspell with upside if they happen to get a Ballista or Explosives, since even if we deal with
the Queller our spell will be cast with X=0. A trick with Explosives is to play it for 5 mana, while
being careful of only tapping enough sources of the colors you need for Sunburst. This way, if
you pay GGUUR EE’s Converted Mana Cost will be 5 and won’t be exiled by Spell Queller, but
once it hits play it will have 3 counters, since you only used mana of 3 different colors. If your
opponent has a taxing effect (like Thalia or Damping Sphere) then you will need to pay more in
order to make the X=5, but the Sunburst will work in the same fashion. Speaking of EE, the key
number in this matchup will more often than not be 3, since they play Quellers, Drogskol
Captains and Geist of Saint Traft, which can present a very fast clock. Another interesting card
you need to watch out for is Mausoleum Wanderer, since it can counter your Pacts and cantrips.
Selfless Spirits can be very good in some boardstates, since it messes up our Explosives or
allows them to profitably attack into a Hornet Queen, so I always try to deal with it first. Ballista
is sometimes insane, and sometimes it just does nothing in the face of double Drogskol Captain.
Don’t feel bad to play it for 2 in order to kill any of the x/1s, we simply need to stop their
aggression and make it to the late game. Karn is not particularly good in this matchup, and it’s
extremely hard to protect because all of their threats are evasive, so you will basically never go
for Lattice: make sure you go get whatever card will be the most impactful (usually Ballista, EE
or Wurmcoil) and make sure you get your guaranteed value.
I don’t mind siding out Summoner’s Pact, since we would rather draw the actual threats so Spell
Queller doesn’t blow us out (and we brought in an additional threat in Hornet Queen.) Post
board our removal suite gets much better thanks to all the Paths and the extra Explosives. Bant
lists have stopped playing as many Damping Spheres, but if you happen to see any of these (or
Worship) feel free to bring in the Reclamation Sage in place of another Coalition Relic, though I
don’t love it. Also Cavern becomes much better post board, since Unified Will and Disdainful
Stroke are cards they will bring in from their sideboard. Khalni Garden does sometimes work in
helping you make Unified Will a bad card.
- Hollow One (Even):

IN: +3 Path to Exile, +1 Reclamation Sage, +1 Wurmcoil Engine, +2 Rest in Peace
OUT: -1 Pact of Negation, -3 Karn, the Great Creator, -1 Ghost Quarter, -1 Walking Ballista, -1
Engineered Explosives
This matchup can be rough. They can go wide with Adepts, Ghasts and Phoenixes, or tall with
Hollow Ones and Anglers. In my experience, I tend to lose to their go wide play way more often
than their go big plan. If you manage to resolve a Titan you might be able to stabilize more often
than not, since they have no ways of dealing with it in their 75 besides double Bolt, but they
might still find a way through with their evasive threats or reach (Bolts and Collective Brutality.)
You can still end up dying to their early multiple Hollow One draws, but there is not much you
can do about those anyway. The key cards in the matchup are Bojuka Bog, which can slow
down their development and exile their recurring threats, and Khalni which can generate chump
blockers for their bigger dudes. Rec Sage has times where it’s very good, representing an
answer for a Hollow One and a chump blocker, though other times it’ll feel awful when your
opponent doesn’t play one and you’re casting a 3 mana 2/1. As it is in most aggro matchups,
Karn doesn’t really shine here. I find myself more often than not wishing for a Tormod’s Crypt,
Engineered Explosives or Wurmcoil Engine, which is remarkably good against them.
Path to Exile is a house, answering everything from them for a single white mana. Because
Flameblade Adept is such a troublesome card for us, I leave in a single EE in order to have a
tutorable way of dealing with them. I used to bring in Hornet Queen, but it’s very hard to close
the game with it, since your opponent will start throwing Phoenixes and Ghasts your way until
you’re forced to chump with your tokens. Rest in Peace is a fine card since it stops their
recursive threats and Gurmag Angler, so I like it a lot on the play. On the draw I bring in the
second EE instead of the second RiP. These lists sometimes splash Green for Ancient Grudge,
so we can take out Coalition Relics (instead of Ghost Quarter) if you see Stomping Ground.
However, if you see they are on the old lists that run Blood Moon (or they’re straight RB) make
sure to bring it back.
- BridgeVine (Unfavorable):
IN: +2 Rest in Peace, +1 Engineered Explosives, +1 Tormod’s Crypt, +1 Reclamation Sage, +1
Pithing Needle
OUT: -1 Pact of Negation, -3 Karn, the Great Creator, -1 Coalition Relic, -1 Ghost Quarter
The current Modern boogeyman. This deck got a massive boost from Modern Horizons, to the
point of making the deck arguably “broken.” In fact, it’s so strong that this deck is the sole
reason why I’m running 2 Rest in Peace in my current sideboard. As with any graveyard deck,
Bojuka Bog in the main is a huge deal, but thanks to Altar of Dementia they can get their engine
going again super quickly. A key interaction you need to know is that with Ballista, you can exile
your opponent’s Bridges From Below at your leisure (and you can even play it for X=0 to
achieve this even with no mana available.) Also, Khalni Garden tokens dying DO exile Bridges
as well (even though their tokens dying doesn’t give them tokens… Bridge is a really weird
card…) Karn is quite flexible in this matchup in game 1, since it can give you access to Tormod’s
Crypt if it’s early enough, or simply find EE to swipe your opponent’s Zombie Tokens. It also
blanks Altar of Dementia, which can be important. However, it is super slow, so I like to side
them out for post board games. Even if you are able to manage their board, they also have a
combo kill with Altar + Hogaak that can mill you immediately. This match will basically be
decided by turn 2 or 3, so make sure you mulligan aggressively to a good hand.
As of right now, there’s no consensus build, so they might have Damping Sphere, which you can
answer with Engineered Explosives (which is also good at wiping all of their Zombie tokens.)
Path is medium, since they can sacrifice their creatures in response and get a ton of value
anyway. Because of this I don’t like bringing them in. Their answer to your hate pieces will
Wispmare/Ingot Chewer (if they’re splashing White) or Nature’s Claim/Assasin’s Trophy (if
they’re splashing Green.) If you see Godless Shrine or Overgrown Tomb in game 1 that should
give you a ton of info for post board games. I believe currently the preferred plan is the first one,
so it’s a good idea to have a split of Artifacts and Enchantments as hate pieces in order to force
them to having the right answer. Pithing Needle is there mostly for Altar and Carrion Feeder.
- Hardened Scales (Unfavorable):
IN: +3 Path to Exile, +1 Hornet Queen, +1 Reclamation Sage, +2 Rest in Peace, +1 Force of
Vigor
OUT: -1 Pact of Negation, -4 Sakura-Tribe Scout, -1 Bojuka Bog, -2 Summoner’s Pact
This deck is really explosive, and can kill out of nowhere. The moment they have a Ravager or
Hardened Scales in play, there is a lot of math you need to do. And always be extra careful
when they have an Inkmoth amongst their lands, since that means they need much less artifacts
in order to lethal you with Infect. Explosives will be great on either 0, 1 or 2 depending on the
board state (2 for Overseers/Metallic Mimics, Ravagers and Damping Spheres, 1 for Hardened
Scales and Animation Modules and 0 for Mox Opals, Ballistas, Hangarback Walkers and
Thopter/Servo Tokens.) Welding Jar can be quite annoying, so always make sure you’re taking
it into account when choosing your lines of play. This is one of the few matchups where
regeneration will come up, but it will be very important for you to understand how it works: When
they regenerate an artifact, it will TAP IT and REMOVE IT FROM COMBAT. That means that if
you kill a lethal threat while it’s attacking you and they regen it, then you will not take the
damage, and their threat will not be untapped to block your attack on the coming turn. It might
not come up frequently, but if you attack with a Titan and your opponent blocks with a big
Inkmoth, if you manage to destroy the Inkmoth, even if they regenerate it all your Trample
damage will go through, and the land will deal no damage, so the Titan will end up with no -1/-1
counters on it. Speaking of Inkmoth, since it is the quickest clock and a tough one to deal with
outside of Ghost Quarter, always remember that getting Vesuva to copy your opponent’s
Inkmoth in order to block is a very real play. Note that Animation Module can Proliferate the
poison counters you might have gotten from an Inkmoth earlier in the game, so it’s not as safe
to go up to 9 Poison as it is against Infect or regular Affinity. Karn is, of course, really good here.
Not only is the Stony Silence effect game breaking, but also we have a ton of powerful options
in the sideboard to “wish” for. Still, because their deck can be so fast, Karn often comes down at
a point where it’s too late, so it’s not like it makes the matchup favorable or anything like that.
Hornet Queen is not as good as it is against Affinity or Spirits, but it will still be able to stabilize
the board in most situations not involving a Walking Ballista on their side. Because of Ballista is
also why I take out a couple of Scouts, since it’s so bad to have them die to the powerful
creature. They play 3-4 Damping Sphere, so Summoner’s Pact is much worse than usual. Rest
in Peace comes in because it deals with Hangarback Walker’s death clause, as well as stopping
the Modular ability in Arcbound Ravager and Worker. Force of Vigor is, of course, just bonkers,
and against this deck in particular which tends to “go for it” and go all in on a single creature, it’s
completely absurd and will often be game winning.
- Affinity (Even-Slightly Favorable):

IN: +3 Path to Exile, +1 Reclamation Sage +1 Hornet Queen, +1 Force of Vigor
OUT: -1 Bojuka Bog, -1 Pact of Negation, -2 Sakura-Tribe Scout, -2 Summoner’s Pact
Another aggro matchup where Karn is actually good (obviously.) However, protecting it won’t be
easy since most of their threats have evasion. Make sure you get guaranteed value from it while
you can, unless you suspect your opponent might be holding a Galvanic Blast. Here the X mana
artifacts are going to be your MVPs. Ballista in particular is excellent at blowing up all the
differently costed X/1s (Overseer, Signal Pest, Skirge,) while also blocking Etched Champion.
With Explosives, X=2 is going to be the go to, since it blows up most of their good threats
(particularly Cranial Plating, which is tough to deal with game 1.) Again the trick of using Vesuva
to copy one of their creature lands will become useful in some scenarios. Ravager math is
always a pain, so make sure you take your time to go through all the possible scenarios when
making your blocks. The new Affinity lists have been running Experimental Frenzy, so the late
game is not as good for us as it used to be. Don’t feel bad taking more risks if it means that you
will be able to potentially kill them faster.
Post board they might bring in Blood Moon (and/or Damping Sphere,) so make sure you play
around that when Pacting for a Titan (try to fetch a couple of basics if you can afford to do so.)
Hornet Queen is again your stabilization tool, and outside of some maniac bringing in Whipflare
against you, it will be a full 5 for 1 and make your opponent’s attacks a headache. It’s not very
common, but from time to time you might see some lists running Stain the Mind. If you see this,
consider diversifying your threats if you want to play around that card (bring in Wurmcoil in place
of a Titan, for example.) Force of Vigor is, again, the best card in your sideboard, since you can
even cast it under Moon.
- UR Phoenix (Even):
IN: +3 Path to Exile, +1 Hornet Queen, +1 Reclamation Sage, +1 Force of Vigor, +1 Rest in
Peace
OUT: -1 Pact of Negation, -2 Sakura-Tribe Scout, -1 Ghost Quarter, -1 Summoner’s Pact, -1
Walking Ballista, -1 Karn, the Great Creator
This is a tricky matchup. Usually it plays in a couple different axis: They either try to aggro you
out by playing some early Phoenixes or they try to leverage Thing in the Ice. Newer lists might
attempt to quickly turn on a Pyromancer Ascension and value you out of the game, or burn you
out with Aria of Flame. We have ways to slow them down in every way, but we need our
answers to line up correctly. Bojuka Bog is your best ally against the Phoenix side of things, so
make sure you leverage it properly by being aware of how likely they are to “combo off,” which
they can sometimes do out of nowhere thanks to Faithless Looting and Manamorphose. Scout
is both great and awful in the matchup, because being able to flash in Bog to stop their
Phoenixes is extremely valuable, but they will more often than not die to a Lightning Bolt or,
even worse, Gut Shot. Still, if Scout gets to survive the value is amazing, and they won’t have
the Gut Shot every single game. Now that we’re running Coalition Relic it allows us to side some
Scouts and still have enough pieces of ramp.
Against Thing in the Ice, Engineered Explosives is your best friend. The plan is to try to
minimize the effect of your opponent flipping a TITI by playing in such a way that won’t leave
you completely out of contention after they bounce your board (meaning you won’t have Pacts
to pay that will Time Walk you on the turn after.) In fact, it might sometimes be correct to simply
pass the turn instead of Pacting and casting a Titan if it means you can do that on the turn after
they have flipped Thing instead, since it will allow your Titan to fetch and potentially replay
Khalni to generate multiple blockers for the Horror, and setup a Transmute for EE down the line.
Path to Exile is incredible in this matchup, answering their Phoenixes for good, not caring
whether the TITI is flipped or not and how large a Crackling Drake is. The Ascension part of
things can also get answered by EE on 2 (same as Thing in the Ice,) and Bojuka Bog can slow
down this plan quite effectively. Another angle of attack I’ve seen from Phoenix players is to
attempt to cheese you out of the game by targeting you with Thought Scout and hoping to
discard a Titan from the top 2 cards of your deck. These decks are currently running multiple
Surgical Extraction in the main deck, and will attempt to get all your Titans this way. Lately I
have seen lists experimenting with Aria of Flame, a new card from Modern Horizons. This one is
pretty awkward because the CMC of 3 is pretty important for us (kills our Azusas and Relics,)
but it is for sure one that you will want to destroy immediately if given the chance, even if it
means you’ll 2 for 1 yourself with EE.
Karn fills an interesting role in the matchup. In game 1, it will be able to answer their TiTis and
Ascensions through Explosives, and their Phoenixes thanks to Tormod’s Crypt. However, unless
we are able to play it very early, it’s quite possible that it will simply be too slow. In post board
games, it’s possible your opponent will lean on Blood Moon, and Karn is very good at giving you
a shot at beating the powerful enchantment. As always, don’t go for the Lattice lock unless you
know you are safe to do so, since they will very likely have access to Abrades and Bolts to stop
it.
Current Phoenix lists will run either Blood Moon or Molten Rain out of the board, and sometimes
Alpine Moon. In any case we will be bringing Rec Sage post board because it’s a fine bullet to
be able to Pact for in case of Moon, and worst case scenario it will simply kill an Ascension or
Aria. In fact, because of this new tech, I also like bringing in the Force of Vigor. Some lists might
run Disdainful Stroke, but they will most likely have Dispel. This is important because you might
want to be smart about choosing the best time to cast your Summoner’s Pact in post board
games.
- Mono R Phoenix/Mono R Prowess (Unfavorable):

IN: +3 Path to Exile, +1 Reclamation Sage, +1 Force of Vigor, +1 Rest in Peace
OUT: -1 Pact of Negation, -4 Sakura-Tribe Scout, -1 Walking Ballista
This deck has a very quick clock with Swiftspears and Soul-Scar Mage, backed up with burn
spells and Bedlam Reveler and Light up the Stage to refuel. There are also versions of the deck
that focus even more on 1 drops, playing a couple of Blistercoil Weird. Bojuka Bog is very good
at slowing down their Revelers and dealing with their recursive Phoenixes, but they tend to be
very good at keeping our Scouts off the battlefield. Explosives on 1 is very good at stopping their
early aggression. I usually try to get the most possible value I can from the EE, but you need to
figure out how the game is going to play out, and in some scenarios just trading 1 for 1 might be
good enough to help you get to the mid-late game. The addition of Relic has been fantastic for
this matchup, since it allows us to take out Scouts (which are awful, especially now that their
deck has added Lava Dart) and still have an ok amount of ramp in our deck. All of this while
helping cast our spells through a resolved Moon. Both Force of Vigor and Rest in Peace are not
stellar in the matchup, but we have so many bad cards that I want to side out that these come in
as cards 59 and 60.
- Bogles (Very Favorable):

IN: +1 Engineered Explosives, +1 Reclamation Sage, +2 Path to Exile, +1 Force of Vigor
OUT: -1 Walking Ballista, -1 Bojuka Bog, -1 Pact of Negation, -3 Karn, the Great Creator
I consider this to be one of Amulet’s best matchups. Being able to have access to Engineered
Explosives (which is one of the absolute best cards in the format against the archetype) as well
as multiple ways to tutor for them puts us very far ahead. They don’t really have a good way of
stopping our plan once we resolve our first Titan besides Path to Exile. One key interaction is
that if your opponent has a Bogle equipped with a Daybreak Coronet and only a single other
enchantment, if you manage to kill the non-Coronet enchantment, the Coronet itself will have no
longer a legal target and it will be destroyed as well, giving you a clean 2 for 1.
You might be surprised that I am bringing in Path to Exile post board. After all, the whole point of
the deck is that their dudes have Hexproof, right? In my experience, the only way I find myself
losing to Bogles is if they play a Kor Spiritdancer and start suiting it up and it gets out of hand.
Because of this, I want to have access to multiple ways of removing that creature. Post board
they will often bring in Gaddock Teeg as well to stop us from casting Explosives, and they might
even bring in Damping Sphere, so Path will find a target anyway (even if it’s your own dudes in
order to ramp and have access to G mana under Sphere.) Force of Vigor is obviously a slam
dunk as well.
An interesting interaction is that of the Umbras and Engineered Explosives. Unlike what we
talked about earlier with Regeneration, the Umbras won’t remove their creatures from combat.
Because of this, you can often setup situations where you have an Explosives on 1 on board,
your opponent might attack into your Azusa. You can block their Bogle, and blow up Engineered
Explosives. Because it’s a replacement effect, your opponent will choose to use their Umbra’s
ability so their Bogle doesn’t die. Still, the Umbras and other enchantments will fall off anyway,
and their tiny Bogle will be chump attacking into your mighty ½ Azusa. You can use similar
examples whenever you are attacking your own Prime Times into their suited up Bogles. You
can preemptively play your Explosives and then blow them up in combat in order to allow your
Titan profitable attacks.
- Merfolk (Very Favorable):

IN: +1 Engineered Explosives, +3 Path to Exile, +1 Reclamation Sage, +1 Hornet Queen
OUT: -1 Bojuka Bog, -3 Karn, the Great Creator, -1 Pact of Negation, -1 Azusa, Lost but Seeking
A very positive matchup. Explosives is a house against them. You will often be setting it on 2,
which will blow up the vast majority of their threats and Lords, as well as Spreading Seas.
Merfolk Trickster and Harbinger of the Tides are the 2 things you need to play around, but it’s
usually not very hard to do (especially cause Stronghold giving Vigilance blanks the Harbinger.)
The way that I find myself losing to Merfolk is when they have a draw with 3 or more Lords and I
never find an Explosives. Spreading Seas can sometimes be rough, since they will usually
target your bouncelands in order to put you behind on tempo. You can flash in bouncelands with
Scout in response to Spreading Seas to return the targeted land in response and deny your
opponent of drawing a card. Be sure to use your Khalni Garden tokens to chump if given the
opportunity, since Spreading Seas + any 2 mana Lord will make blocking impossible. Kabira
Crossroads should also help you keep your head above water (hehe, see what I did there?) The
newer lists have been running Benthic Biomancer in place of Cursecatcher, alongside main
deck countermagic like Deprive or Force of Negation, so be mindful of this.
This is one of the few matchups where I side out one Azusa, and the reason for this is that a)
they don’t really have an answer to neither Tribe Scout nor Amulet and b) this matchup is not so
much about ramping as it is about board control. They might bring in Damping Sphere, and
that’s the main reason why Rec Sage comes in. Worst case scenario you will be destroying a
Spreading Seas or Aether Vial. Expect extra countermagic post board in the form of Unified Will
(which Khalni Garden helps a lot against) and Disdainful Stroke.
- Mill (Very Unfavorable):

IN: +2 Negate, +1 Reclamation Sage, +1 Force of Vigor
OUT: -2 Summoner’s Pact
This might be weird to list as an aggro deck, but the way I see it it’s basically a Burn deck,
where instead of going after your life total they go after your Library. Unfortunately, this is also a
terrible matchup. Archive Trap is an absolute beating for a deck that relies on searching it’s deck
basically every single turn, and we are a deck that heavily relies on having specific cards IN our
library in order to go off. The whole untapping trigger that Amulet does is also not great in the
face of Mesmeric Orb… However, Karn has helped the matchup considerably, since it’s possible
to lock them out with Lattice and win without needing to search our deck. Also they have very
few ways of pressuring him (it’s rare, but they might play Jace’s Phantasm.)
You will notice that after board we bring in more cards that we take out, and that is on purpose.
We are bringing in all the cards that could be playable in the matchup, since our land to spells
ratio should still remain solid. In any case, Summoner’s Pacts are awful, so them coming out is
kind of necessary. My experience against Mill is limited since the deck is not that popular
(fortunately,) but this strategy has been reasonable for me, allowing to steal a match here and
there. Against this deck was the first time I ever actively declined Primeval Titan triggers! If you
suspect your opponent might have Archive Traps in hand, simply choose to not search your
deck with the triggers and bash them down with a glorified Colossal Dreadmaw. Another weird
play I was forced into once was, with an Amulet in play, to stack my triggers with the bounce one
going on the stack last (and resolving first.) This way I returned the land to my hand before it
untapped with Amulet, preventing some triggers from Mesmeric Orb.
- 8 Whack (Favorable):
IN: +1 Engineered Explosives, +1 Wurmcoil Engine, +3 Path to Exile, +1 Reclamation Sage (If
they have Blood Moon)
OUT: -1 Pact of Negation, -3 Karn, the Great Creator, -1 Bojuka Bog, -1 Sakura-Tribe Scout (If
they have Blood Moon)
This matchup is all about surviving the early aggression. Take every trade you can, and if you
can get your Khalni Garden tokens to gain you 2 life make sure you do so ASAP, because
Legion Loyalist will quickly turn your tokens obsolete. As you might expect, you want to draw
and replay Kabira Crossroads as much as you can. The key number in this matchup is 6. If you
can stabilize at 6 or more life you should be good, but 5 is a tricky number because of Goblin
Grenade. They do play very small amounts of interaction, which means that you should be able
to execute your gameplan pretty unimpeded, but do make sure that you use your dudes to
chump block aggressively. Walking Ballista and Explosives (usually on 1) can be amazing, and
post board we bring in extra Explosives and Path to help keep the board clear. Hornet Queen is
sometimes amazing, but if they have a Loyalist it is effectively a 7 mana 2/2, so always make
sure you take this into account, especially if you are Pacting for her. Because it’s too risky, I tend
to hedge towards not bringing it in. Wurmcoil can be a solid threat, though it can be easy for
them to play around it, so try to not rely on it if at all possible. Sometimes they do have Blood
Moons post board, so you can hedge against it by bringing in the 1 of Sage and taking out a
Sakura-Tribe Scout.
- RG/Naya Zoo (Favorable):

IN: +3 Path to Exile, +1 Engineered Explosives, +1 Wurmcoil Engine, +1 Reclamation Sage
OUT: -1 Walking Ballista, -3 Karn, the Great Creator, -1 Bojuka Bog, -1 Coalition Relic (if they’re
not playing Blood Moon/Magus of the Moon) / Sakura-Tribe Scout (If they are playing Moon
effects)
Here I’m talking about the RG based deck you see sometimes with Goblin Guides, Kird Apes
and Experiment Ones, backed up by Atarka’s Command and Reckless Bushwackers. New lists
have been showing up with Squadron Hawk and Force of Virtue. Explosives on 1 will be big
game in this matchup, and being able to cast them early is paramount. We don’t have much in
the form of interaction, so the plan is to hope that our sweepers are enough and we are able to
resolve a Titan which should win the game on its own in most situations. Make sure you get the
most value out of Khalni and Kabira Crossroads to help you stay alive. If your opponent is
smart, they will only extend a little bit, while trying to make sure they still have a Bushwacker
turn setup down the line. They do play Path to Exile, so make sure you play around that. If they
are playing white and you can afford it, also try to play around Deflecting Palm by fetching a
Pact of Negation before going on the offensive with a Prime Time in post board games. You will
notice that I am not bringing in Hornet Queen, and the reason is that it’s VERY BAD against
Legion Loyalist. Sometimes they also run Blood Moons and/or Magus of the Moon, and having a
GGG card in your deck is not ideal.
Midrange:
These matches are usually very interesting slugfests. There are tons of decisions every turn,
and you always need to know what your opponent’s possible plays are in the subsequent turns
and try to be 1 step ahead of them. Here is where Primeval Titan truly shines as a value
machine, and more often than not every Titan you play will be finding more Titans while making
you have absurd amounts of mana.
Here you will find:
- BGx
- Mardu Pyromancer
- Grixis Shadow
- Jund/4c Shadow
- Skred Red
- Ponza (RG Land Destruction
- GW Value Town/GWx Company
- Eldrazi Tron
- Martyr Proc
- Death & Taxes, Eldrazi & Taxes, GW Hatebears
- BW Eldrazi
- RG Eldrazi
- Green Devotion
- BGx (Slightly Favorable):

IN: +3 Path to Exile, +1 Hornet Queen
OUT: Against BG Rock/Abzan: -1 Pact of Negation, -1 Sakura-Tribe Scout, -1 Summoner’s
Pact, -1 Amulet of Vigor
Against Jund: -1 Pact of Negation, -1 Summoner’s Pact, -2 Amulet of Vigor
This used to be a quite positive matchup, but the printing of Assassin’s Trophy gave them
access to an answer to Primeval Titan, Amulet of Vigor and a way to downgrade our
bouncelands. I used to take out all 4 Amulets in this matchup since we will often end up in a
topdeck war, and Amulet is an awful card to draw while your opponent is drawing Tarmogoyfs
and Dark Confidants. However, in post sideboard configurations your opponents will
aggressively try to go after your lands with Fulminator, Field of Ruin (out of BG) and Trophy, so I
don’t cut them all anymore and want to leave some of them in as a way to help me ramp. We
have a smaller amount of impactful cards than they do, but when we do manage to resolve one
of our business spells then things will quickly snowball in our favor. Discard spells can be rough,
and that’s the reason why I don’t really want to see threats in my opening hand, just as much
ramp and lands as possible. Azusa is bar none your best card, since it’s the most reliable way to
ramp, so make sure you do your best to sequence your lands properly in order to maximize the
value you get from her. This is one of the matchups where I miss Explore the most, which was
the best ramp effect since it doesn’t cost a card, it progresses our game plan and it cannot be
stopped by a removal spell. If you manage to resolve a Titan, it’s almost always correct for you
to try to search for Tolaria West and try to setup your next one until you eventually run them out
of removal. Khalni Garden is a house, allowing you to chump big Goyfs and be sacrificed to
Liliana of the Veil’s minus ability. Bojuka Bog is also very good at making Goyf smaller and
making their Kolaghan’s Commands and Liliana, The Last Hope minus ability worse. Vesuva will
also be key at giving you access to these effects multiple times in a turn. Having access to
Explosives in the main deck and being able to tutor for it is huge, since most of their creatures
have a CMC of 2. The most problematic creature is always Dark Confidant, so don’t be afraid to
trade 1 for 1 with it with either Explosives or Ballista.
Karn adds a whole other dynamic to the matchup. It’s very important for you to make sure you
are maximizing the value you get from him, because they will have access to multiple answers
to it (Trophy, Pulse, Bolt in the case of Jund, or simply attacking it.) A very common play patter
is to resolve Karn and immediately minus to go get Wurmcoil Engine, which is a card that can
win the game on its own against these kind of strategies. However, getting Pithing Needle (for
Liliana of the Veil) and Explosives are also very common plays. After at least 10 matches
against BGx decks, I have yet to use Karn in order to get Lattice.
Post sideboard, my experience is that I lose to these decks only in two situations: when they
stop me from getting to 6 mana or when they discard all of my threats and I fail to find another
one before they kill me. You can’t really do much about the second one, so you want to try to
make sure to play to beat the first case. The cards to play around are Fulminator Mage,
Damping Sphere, Alpine Moon and (very rarely) Blood Moon. Fulminator is the big one (and by
far the most common one out of all variants.) To play around it always try to sandbag your
bouncelands earlier in the game if at all possible. Once you draw an Azusa you can play them
all in the same turn and not fall behind if your opponent Fulminates you. You should use your
the same logic when sequencing your ETB tapped and untapped lands, since not falling behind
on land drops is the main objective. If you see a lot of basics and no creature lands against Jund
you might need to worry about Blood Moon, but that is not common at all, and that’s why I don’t
like bringing in Reclamation Sage (though, of course, bring it in if you see a Moon game 2.)
Cavern of Souls is our worst land, but I want to keep my land count high because of all the land
destruction I expect to face (I still take one out against Jund because they won’t attack our lands
as consistently as straight BG, which also has access to Field of Ruin and Assassin’s Trophy.)
Both Scout and Amulet are very bad in the matchup, but I usually leave more Scouts against
Jund and leave in more Amulets against BG. The reason is that against Jund you should expect
to see plenty of Ancient Grudges and Kolaghan’s Command, which make Amulet a liability.
Against BG or Abzan, they will be forced to use a real card in order to destroy your Amulets, and
they will always be trading down on mana. Hornet Queen is an absolute house, and it has
gotten even better since Assassin’s Trophy was printed because people are skimping on
Maelstrom Pulses.
- Mardu Pyromancer (Slightly Unfavorable):

IN: +2 Path to Exile, +1 Reclamation Sage, +2 Rest in Peace (if they’re playing Bedlam Reveler.
If they’re playing Yawgmoth instead then don’t bring them in)
OUT: -1 Pact of Negation, -1 Summoner’s Pact, -1 Cavern of Souls, -1 Sakura-Tribe Scout, -1
Amulet of Vigor (only bring out the 2 last cards if you are bringing in Rest in Peace)
This matchup is basically the same as Jund… except they have Blood Moons, which single
handedly makes the matchup much, much worse. This one is all about grinding, which we can
do better than them unless they have a Moon. Their clock is usually slow, but the card you need
to watch out for the most is Young Pyromancer, which can get out of hand quickly. It’s often
correct to play Ballista for 1 on turn 2 and trade 1 for 1 with Pyro if at all possible. Kolaghan’s
Command can be a beating, both because it’s a 2 for 1 and because it can rebuy dead Pyros.
Bojuka Bog is excellent at making their Revelers cost a million, and exiling Lingering Souls and
Faithless Looting to stop their engine. Sometimes it can be correct to hold extra lands or bad
cards in your hand if you can afford to do so, in order to play around them making you discard in
your draw step with Command. Once you resolve a Titan, their only instant speed answers are 1
or 2 Terminates, so be mindful of this when deciding whether to go for an attack or for a Titan
chain with Simic and Tolaria. New lists have been trying out Seasoned Pyromancer and
Yawgmoth instead of Bedlam Reveler, so play around this stuff appropriately according to what
you see. Karn will fill a role similar to the one it does against BGx: make sure you extract as
much value from him as possible, and don’t be sad if it gets destroyed.
Post board Coalition Relic should help your mana situation, though Command really does a
number on it. Because of Blood Moon I do consider it to be a necessary evil. Since we’re
bringing in bullets it might seem weird for me to take out Pacts, but the truth is that the tempo hit
from the pacts can be a death sentence, and they have plenty of ways of interacting with your
lands with Moons, Fulminators and Molten Rains, so it’s not very reliable. As I said earlier, the
main threat I’m afraid of is Young Pyromancer, and that’s why I bring in some Paths to stop it, as
well as Engineered Explosives to clean up the tokens afterwards. Revelers are much easier to
handle with Bog and Khalni Garden tokens. Hornet Queen stays in the board mostly cause it’s
uncastable under Moon (also it’s not really good against 1/1 Elementals and Lingering Souls…)
- Grixis/Esper Shadow (Unfavorable):

IN: +3 Path to Exile, +1 Hornet Queen, +2 Rest in Peace, +1 Wurmcoil Engine (against Grixis)
OUT: -1 Pact of Negation, -1 Ghost Quarter, -1 Sakura-Tribe Scout, -3 Karn, the Great Creator,
-1 Summoner’s Pact (against Grixis)
This matchup is not pretty. They have a very quick clock (and Temur Battle Rage in the case of
Grixis, so chumping is often not an option,) as well as hand disruption and counterspells. And
Snapcasters to do it all over! Sometimes they struggle to find a threat, and can give us time to
make land drops and develop our game plan. Resolving a Primeval Titan is not necessarily
game over against them, because Death’s Shadow can become even bigger than Prime Time.
Something relevant to know about the card Death’s Shadow is how it interacts with Trample
damage: let’s say your opponent is at 10 and has a 3/3 Death’s Shadow. You attack with a 6/6
Primeval Titan and they block. If you choose to assign 3 damage to the Shadow and 3 Trample
damage to your opponent, then your opponent will go down to 7, and the Death’s Shadow WILL
NOT DIE, it will simply be a 6/6 with 3 damage on it. In this case, the correct play would be to
assign 5 damage to the Shadow, and deal your opponent 1 damage, cause this will make the
Shadow a 4/4 with 5 damage on it, making it a DEAD SHADOW (badum tss.) I try to make sure
I don’t grow my opponent’s Shadows for them, so I tend to, if given the choice, only deal
damage to my opponent when it’s either lethal or you put your opponent in a situation where
they have no outs. Karn can be very strong, but it’s extremely hard to resolve. As it usually goes
in these midrange matchups, he will very often come down and immediately minus to get a
Wurmcoil Engine or Engineered Explosives.
Path and the Explosives make this matchup much better than it used to be, though it’s still by no
means a great one. I keep the EE count at 2, because it only kills Shadows. They don’t attack
your mana base since lists have been shying away from running Fulminator Mages. However,
playing around their countermagic can be a real challenge. Try to sequence your spells around
what you suspect they might have (Stubborn Denial, Ceremonious Rejection and Disdainful
Stroke.) Cavern helps a big deal here, and if I expected a Grixis Shadow heavy metagame the
first card I’d consider adding to my board would probably be an extra copy.
- Jund/4c Shadow (Slightly Unfavorable):

IN: +1 Engineered Explosives, +3 Path to Exile, +1 Wurmcoil Engine, +1 Hornet Queen, +2 Rest
in Peace
OUT: -1 Pact of Negation, -1 Ghost Quarter, -1 Sakura-Tribe Scout, -3 Karn, the Great Creator,
-1 Walking Ballista, -1 Summoner’s Pact
The sideboarding is very similar to the Grixis variant, but the matchup plays out differently. First
of all, they don’t have Snapcaster Mages, which is good for us. They also don’t have Delve
threats, which means that Explosives can kill their things much more reliably. Finally, because
they rely on Traverse the Ulvenwald to find their threats, Bojuka Bog is much better against this
version of the deck. The downside is that they are much more aggressive and faster. They also
have more discard spells than the Grixis alternative. Path to Exile is hands down the best card
in the matchup, trading 1 for 1 for any of their threats and exiling them, so they cannot be
recurred with Kolaghan’s Command. If they are playing Blue, then you should try to play around
Stubborn Denial and, post board, Disdainful Stroke. This means casting Path in your main
phase while they are tapped out of their blue mana and such. Always consider the presence of
Assassin’s Trophy, which is their answer to both Titans and our lands. Hornet Queen is either
terrible or amazing, depending on whether they draw their Temur Battle Rages or not.
- Skred Red (Even):

OUT: -1 Pact of Negation, -1 Bojuka Bog, -2 Sakura-Tribe Scout. You can also take out some
Amulets for Paths if you want.
If they play Blood Moon, we have a tough time until we get it out of the battlefield. If they don’t
draw Blood Moon then this matchup is very easy. This deck is good at playing threats that are
hard to remove and resilient. The thing is, none of them are big enough as a Primeval Titan, so
we don’t care about them. They have a bunch of Planeswalkers (Koth and Chandra,) but we
don’t care about them much unless they get to ultimate. The card Skred can kill Primeval Titan,
but only after turn 6, and by that point if you are able to resolve a Titan (meaning you haven’t
been Mooned) then you will have probably won anyway. Ghost Quartering yourself in order to
fetch one of your basic Forests is not an uncommon play. Again, Karn steps helps this matchup
dramatically, offering a very solid win condition even if a Blood Moon has hit the battlefield.
Wurmcoil is also considerably hard for the opponent’s deck to beat (unless they draw Pia and
Kiran Nalaar, meaning they can chump with the thopter tokens and sacrifice them before
damage in order to prevent the life gain from the Wurm.)
Post board they will bring in extra land destruction, and probably Damping Sphere as well. The
Negates are very good, since they counter Moon, land destruction spells and Planeswalkers.
Scout will probably die often, but it’s worth it because the upside of blanking their Molten Rains
is so high. Ballista should also be castable under Moon and will either trade with some of their
threats and a removal spell, or sometimes flat out win the game. Rec Sage and Force of Vigor
are a must, and Explosives is good if they’re running Chalice, though I would prefer Path if they
are not (you can Path your own guys to ramp and get basics and kill Goblin Rabblemaster which
they’re likely bringing in.)
- Ponza (Very Unfavorable):

OUT: -1 Pact of Negation, -1 Summoner’s Pact, -1 Bojuka Bog, -1 Engineered Explosives
They are playing the full playset of Blood Moons in the main deck, as well as at least 6 land
destruction spells, so as you can imagine, this matchup is horrendous. Since the printing of
Bloodbraid Elf their clock has become significantly quicker, which gives us even less time for us
to find the answers we need. Should you resolve a Primeval Titan you should be fine, but more
often than not we simply won’t get to that point in the game. Karn can do some work if it
manages to come down on an empty board, but they have multiple ways of pressuring him.
Coalition Relic has helped the matchup tremendously, though, since it allows you to get
Engineered Explosives on 3, which answers Moons and opposing Trackers. Make sure you are
aggressively using cantrips to find your Basic Forests, but it’s often correct to hold them in hand
if you are not planning on using the G mana right away to protect them from land destruction. If I
have an opening to try to destroy a Blood Moon by pacting for Sage I usually take it, since we
simply cannot realistically beat 2 Blood Moons anyway. Sakura-Tribe Scout is one of the best
cards in the matchup, allowing you to use bouncelands to play around your opponent’s Stone
Rains. Sometimes you will need to choose whether you want to play around Moon or a land
destroyer. In this situation try to wager what you can beat and what you cannot, and if they have
the card that kills you then simply accept it and move onto the next game, no use in beating
yourself up too much about it.
Ghost Quarter stays in because it’s a basic Forest proxy, even though it really hurts to go for
that play in this matchup. Try to keep them down on mana by aggressively going after their
mana creatures, and Explosives on 1 can be really good on some boardstates, dealing with
Utopia Spawls and Arbor Elves. Try to make Ballista an above 3 toughness creature as soon as
possible, though post board it’s likely to die to Abrades anyway. Still, try to overload their artifact
destruction with Amulets and Coalition Relics. Sometimes simply it might not be possible, and
this is one of the few matches where I think it’s correct for your midrange opponents to bring in
Ancient Grudge against us. Leveraging your Negates to the best of your ability is also very
important, so sometimes you might need to pass with mana up even if it prevents you from
developing your game plan.
All in all, we have some chance, but if you are expecting to face a lot of Ponza I would probably
recommend that you just play a different deck. Fortunately, Ponza is a terrible deck in Modern,
so you can be happy playing Amulet to your heart’s content.
- GW Value Town/GWx Company (Favorable):

IN: +1 Hornet Queen, +3 Path to Exile, +1 Reclamation Sage, +2 Rest in Peace
OUT: -2 Summoner’s Pact, -1 Pact of Negation, -1 Azusa, Lost but Seeking, -1 Amulet of Vigor,
-1 Cavern of Souls, -1 Coalition Relic
As long as there is no infinite combo (like Vizier of Remedies+Devoted Druid,) I think this
matchup is good, but it’s tricky. Their Ghost Quarter plan is actually quite effective against us, as
you would expect, which makes Scout our best card in the matchup because of the ability to
play around it and force our opponents into awkward positions. Scout allowing for instant speed
Bojuka Bogs to make our opponent’s Knights of the Reliquary smaller is big game also (while
stopping Eternal Witness’ value if they’re running those.) Explosives on 3 will be the sweet spot,
since Courser, Tracker and Knight all die to the powerful artifact. Usually we don’t care much
about their value plan, but it comes to a point where the amount of value they accrue is just too
much and it overpowers us. Their only removal spell we need to care about is Path to Exile.
Post board expect Worship, which is a card that often people sideboard against me and I still
have no idea why… So I like bringing Sage in, since it can also deal with Damping Spheres.
This another matchup where one Azusa can come out, since they are very unlikely to deal with
Scout in the early turns, and the game will go really long and grindy, so ramping is not as
important as actually hitting your land drops. Rest in Peace is surprisingly good, since the value
engines we care the most about rely very heavily on the graveyard (namely Knight of the
Reliquary, Ramunap Excavator and Eternal Witness.)
- Eldrazi Tron (Favorable):

IN: +1 Hornet Queen, +3 Path to Exile, +1 Reclamation Sage, +1 Force of Vigor
OUT: -2 Summoner’s Pact, -1 Pact of Negation, -2 Ancient Stirrings, -1 Sakura-Tribe Scout
This deck has risen in popularity since it is a powerful shell for Karn, the Great Creator. If they
are on Chalice (which they most likely will be) and they are smart, they will play them on 0, in
order to stop our Titan chain. The way to play around it is to play Explosives with X=1, paying for
them with a colorless land (Stronghold, Sunhome, Cavern…) This will mean that even though
the CMC is 1 (which means that Chalice won’t counter it) Sunburst will be =0, so when you
crack it all Chalices in play will be destroyed.
Their good draws include multiple Thought-Knot Seers and Reality Smashers. As I said earlier,
they also run Karn, the Great Creator. They won’t have turn 3 Tron as often as regular Tron, but
you should still expect a mana denial/disruptive game plan using Liquimetal Coating (turning
your lands into artifacts and then plussing Karn to make them 0/0 creatures, effectively killing
them. Note that if they activate Coating in your upkeep you won’t be able to use the targetted
permanent in your turn.) They used to have no answer to a resolved Amulet, but now they can
use Blast Zone, so be careful not to get blown out. Still, the minute a Primeval Titan hits play it
will outgrow all of the Creatures on their side. The only real problem card is Endbringer, so make
sure you read the card and are aware of all of its abilities, because there are a lot of them and
they are all impactful. They also run multiple Dismembers, so think of that if your opponent
makes a strange attack. All is Dust is also a card you should try to play around if you can afford
to.
Against a deck that relies so heavily on Chalice in this matchup, I like cutting on some 0 and 1
casting cost cards and have actual threats instead. Path is awesome, as you’d expect, and
makes the matchup even easier than it was in the past. Hornet Queen is amazing at stabilizing,
but it can get pinged to death by a Walking Ballista or Endbringer. If you see Crucible post
board, them locking you out with Ghost Quarter can be problematic, so Bojuka Bog should stay
in the deck. Personally I prefer to cut Stirrings and leave in actual lands, since even Cavern of
Souls has some upside in the matchup helping you cast Scouts even under Chalice.
- Martyr Proc (Very Favorable):

IN: +1 Hornet Queen, +1 Reclamation Sage, +1 Force of Vigor
OUT: -1 Coalition Relic, -1 Pact of Negation, -1 Cavern of Souls
My first recommendation is PLAY QUICKLY. Eventually you will win under most scenarios, it will
simply take you a long time to get there, so especially if you are playing in Magic Online it’s ok
for you to make suboptimal plays as long as you are doing so to get a couple of minutes ahead.
However, make sure you give yourself a reasonable amount of time to think about key turns or
decisions.
This deck grinds like no other, and surprisingly they do make a lot of use of their graveyard, with
recurring Squadron Hawks and Martyrs of Sands with Proclamation of Rebirth. Bojuka Bog is
big game here, though the more relevant part is that they do tend to run Crucible of Worlds and
both Ghost Quarters and Field of Ruins. Explosives is again an absolute house, and being able
to transmute for it is huge. Sage and Force of Vigor will do some nice work killing some
enchantment or artifact here or there like Oblivion Ring, Nevermore and Runed Halo, and Scout
will be great at helping you play around Land destruction. Sunhome is going to be crucial, since
they will do a lot of chumping and blocking and whatnot, and even dealing first strike damage
will turn a trade with a Serra’s Ascendant into them chump blocking. Try to protect the Sunhome
from Ghost Quarters as best as you can by bouncing it. Keeping their graveyard empty with Bog
is great going into the late game, turning Sun Titan into a simple 6/6 Vigilance. Make sure you
don’t get blown out by Archangel Avacyn, since making their dudes Indestructible is a great way
to prevent the effect from the First Strike damage. You can take out Coalition Relic, since your
opponent might bring in Stony Silence to stop our Explosives. However, they might also have
Damping Sphere, so try to remain flexible with this plan.
- Death & Taxes, Eldrazi & Taxes, GW Hatebears, Thalia Stompy (Even):
IN: +3 Path to Exile, +1 Hornet Queen, +1 Reclamation Sage, +1 Force of Vigor
OUT: -2 Summoner’s Pact, -1 Pact of Negation, -1 Karn, the Great Creator, -1 Amulet of Vigor,
-1 Bojuka Bog
Here I include all variants of Hatebears decks: Mono W, RW, GW and more commonly, BW, as
well as the Eldrazi variants. These decks will often go after your mana, and try to put you in the
back foot with some disruptive creatures. The key card in all of these decks is Leonin Arbiter,
which is a huge pain for our deck which wants to search the deck multiple times a turn. The
combo with Ghost Quarter and Path to Exile is, of course, nothing to scoff at either. This is
particularly bad against the mono W and GW variants, which are more likely to run Restoration
Angel, and the Eldrazi variants with Eldrazi Displacer: If you paid 2 to Arbiter’s ability and they
blink it with any of these effects, when it comes back it’s consider a new permanent, and YOU
WILL NEED TO PAY AGAIN. Make sure you play around this accordingly so you don’t get blown
out! Thalia is also another annoying card, and the main reason why in this matchup I side out so
many of the cantrips. Thalia also can make Prime Time cost 7 if you need to Pact for him, don’t
put yourself in a dicey situation by not doing your math correctly! And while we are in the topic of
pacts, let me tell that it’s one of the worst cards in the matchup. They have so many ways of
messing with your mana (Ghost Quarter, Field of Ruin and Tectonic Edge, plus Flickerwisp) that
you should only Pact when you know that there is nothing your opponent can do to prevent you
from paying on your upkeep. Karn is good at stopping their Aether Vial shenanigans, but it might
be very hard to protect, reason why I take one out in post board games. A cool trick is that if
your opponent gets an Artifact from your hand with Tidehollow Sculler, you can use Karn’s
minus ability to put it back into your hand.
The card Flickerwisp deserves it’s own paragraph. Many times you will find yourself in a
situation where you’ll say “well, if they have the Wisp I lose…” It is particularly a good card
because it can exile ANY PERMANENT. That means lands, creatures, tokens… everything! For
example, if you are on the draw, try to never play a bounceland as your second land drop,
because if your opponent plays Flickerwisp targeting your bounceland it will be exiled, then
come back, and when it does the bounce trigger will go on the stack, forcing you to return the
bounceland itself to your hand and being effectively a double Time Walk which will often times
win the game on the spot. Wisp can reset your Engineered Explosives, so it’s often not a good
move to play your artifact without having enough mana to crack it. Same thing with Walking
Ballista, since it will exile the creature, and it will then come back as a 0/0, dying immediately. If
your opponent has an Aether Vial on 3, always make sure you play around Flickerwisp the best
you can, because if they vial in the Wisp on your end step, it means that whatever they exile
won’t come back until their end step, giving them a full turn without it in play. Against the BW
variant, Flickerwisp becomes even more troublesome when combined with Wasteland Strangler,
because they can exile whatever permanent they want, and then play Strangler, targeting one of
your creatures and choosing to put the card exiled with Wisp in the graveyard. Since the card
changes zones, when the triggered ability from the Wisp resolves, it doesn’t see anything in
exile so it doesn’t bring it back, turning it into essentially a Vindicate.
BW Taxes, which usually plays Eldrazi as well, has more hand disruption in the form of
Thought-Knot Seer and Tidehollow Sculler. Sculler also combos nicely with Wasteland
Strangler, an interaction similar to the one with Flickerwisp. The good news is that their land
disruption package is usually worse because they have very steep mana requirements. Eldrazi
Displacer can blink our threats as well, so it will be a must answer threat. If your opponent
attempts to target a creature in order to bring it back tapped, remember that Amulet triggers off
any permanent entering the battlefield! I have had opponents blink my Titans and then be
surprised when I announced the Amulet trigger. Displacer does make Hornet Queen and
Walking Ballista much worse, though.
GW Taxes usually plays cards like Eternal Witness and Voice of Resurgence to accrue value.
This is the easiest one of all the variants to beat. There’s not much you need to play around
besides all the things we already talked about, except for Knight of Autumn whenever your
opponent has a Vial on 3.
RW Taxes is pretty rare, but they usually play Pia and Kiran Nalaar, Magus of the Moon and
maybe even actual Blood Moon.
Finally, there is what I consider the best version of the deck: Thalia Stompy. This deck plays
Midrange threats and Thalia/Arbiter package, but adds the full playset of Chalice of the Void and
Simian Spirit Guide to play it ahead of schedule, which makes things much more complicated
(especially if you are playing against a good player.) They usually don’t play Flickerwisp, though,
and run Dismember over Path to Exile (which is also good for us.)
Sideboarding is very similar against all of them, but the things you need to play around vary
slightly. Know what weapons their deck has, and with experience you will realize the matchup is
not as bad as it feels at first sight, you just need to play tight. Arbiter is the main reason why I
take out Summoner’s Pacts post board, as well as Chalice from the Stompy variants.
- BW Eldrazi (Favorable):
IN: +3 Path to Exile, +1 Hornet Queen, +1 Reclamation Sage
OUT: -1 Pact of Negation, -1 Summoner’s Pact, -1 Bojuka Bog, -1 Amulet of Vigor, -1
Sakura-Tribe Scout
Unlike the Taxes variant, with Arbiters and whatnot, this version of the deck will run more Reality
Smashers, main deck Relics and Lingering Souls. This means the matchup is much easier for
us, since we don’t really care about any of these cards. They do, however, have some extra
disruption in the form of discard spells and Tidehollow Sculler. Post board they might bring in
Fulminator Mages, which is something Taxes decks don’t usually run and which is obviously
quite a great card against us. I like treating this matchup a little bit more like a BGx style of deck,
so I take some of my Amulets and bring in some extra threats. Killing Displacer is a priority,
since with the help of Thought-Knot Seer they can combo to create a draw step lock. It is also
one of their more impactful cards. However, Amulet is amazing at turning it into a significantly
worse card (since it triggers for any permanent that were to come into play tapped.)
- RG Eldrazi (Favorable):
IN: +3 Path to Exile, +1 Hornet Queen, +1 Reclamation Sage
OUT: -1 Pact of Negation, -1 Summoner’s Pact, -1 Bojuka Bog, -1 Engineered Explosives, -1
Coalition Relic
This deck should probably be in the “Aggro” section. As with most Eldrazi decks, if we manage
to resolve a Primeval Titan we should be quite far ahead. The threat that this deck presents
(and the main way I find myself losing to this deck) is Eldrazi Obligator, which can steal one of
our Titans and attack us with it, not only taking out our best blocker, but presenting an extra
threat all at the same time. Bloodbraid Elf and Reality Smasher also have Haste, so you could
easily die out of nowhere if you don’t set up your defenses strongly enough. The good thing is
that their interaction is very limited: basically Lightning Bolts and Abrades, and sometimes
Dismember. If Bloodbraid cascades into Obligator, that counts as a cast, so your opponent can
pay for the Obligator’s ability! I bring in Reclamation Sage post board because they will probably
bring in multiple Damping Spheres post board, and they are likely to find them due to the 4
Stirrings and 4 Bloodbraid Elf they run. Ancient Grudge might also be a concern if they manage
to have it alongside Damping Sphere, since it will make both your Amulets and Coalition Relics
significantly less effective.
- Green Devotion/Tooth and Nail Combo/Mono G Karn (Slightly Favorable):

IN: +2 Negate, +1 Reclamation Sage
OUT: -1 Bojuka Bog, -1 Walking Ballista, -1 Coalition Relic
They are a ramp deck with the Utopia Sprawl + Arbor Elf engine. Your goal is to ramp harder
than they do. We have more interaction, but their ramp is more consistent, so that’s the trade
off. Their single best card is Primal Command, which is an absolute beating for us. Putting a
bounceland on top of our deck effectively putting us 2 land drops and a draw step behind, which
is insane. Often times they will go get an Eternal Witness, in order to get back the Command
and do that thing all over again, while they get further and further ahead. The interaction with
Scout and bouncelands in order to return the targeted land to hand in response to the Primal
Command to prevent its effect is huge. Negates will be very important at countering the key
Sorcery as well as Garruk Wildspeaker. We care more about their non-creature Spells than their
creatures, but if you draw too many Negates you do run the risk of them being dead in your
hand while your opponent beats you down with random critters. If you saw Stomping Ground in
the first game, then it’s likely they might have Blood Moon in the sideboard. Explosives on 1 is
usually really good against them in the early turns, since it stops their ramp engine: Arbor Elf
and Utopia Sprawl. You might also be playing it on 2 to blow up Damping Sphere, another
reason why the Reclamation Sage is coming from the sideboard. Some lists will run Karn, the
Great Creator, as well as Trinispheres and Ensnaring Bridges. Make sure you identify which
version of the deck your opponent is on and play accordingly.
Control:
Playing against Control decks is one of my favorite things to do as an Amulet player. The
matches are usually very skill intensive, and it’s all about making correct assessments about the
relative importance and timing for every decision. In these matchups we will often go back and
forth between being a combo deck and a midrange value, and being able to switch roles
swimmingly (and setting up situations where we are able to make this switch) is how we will
beat these kind of matchups. Failure to do this will mean our opponent will eventually assemble
control of the game.
Here you will find:
- UW Control
- UWr (Jeskai) Control
- UR Control (Blue Moon)
- Grixis Control
- BUG Teachings
- Gx Tron
- Blue Tron
- Ux Whir Prison, aka Salt Stax
- Ux Urza
- Lantern
- 8-Rack
- UW Control (Even to Favorable):

IN: +2 Negate, +1 Reclamation Sage, +1 Hornet Queen (if your opponent is playing Surgical
Extraction)
OUT: -1 Amulet of Vigor, -1 Engineered Explosives, -1 Kabira Crossroads, -1 Coalition Relic
The best and most popular Control deck at the moment. A couple of years ago, this was one of
Amulet’s absolute best matchups. We would side out Amulets, make our deck complete
gasoline and then use our Cavern of Souls in order to play uncounterable threats over and over
again. 4 things changed this considerably: the printings of Teferi, Hero of Dominaria, Teferi,
Time Raveler and Field of Ruin, as well as the unbanning of Jace, the Mind Sculptor. Field of
Ruin allows our opponents to mess with our mana without costing them a land (before this,
control decks would only play Ghost Quarter and Tectonic Edge.) However, the trade off is that
now it costs them effectively 3 mana to interact with our lands, which often times means that
they will need to use their full turn in the early to mid game. The other 3 are simply massive card
advantage machines that come down and take over the game if left unchecked.
Surprisingly, Sakura-Tribe Scout is the best card in the matchup. A big part of their game plan is
to make us stumble on mana, and having an active Scout representing the ability to put a
bounceland into play at instant speed to return whichever land they target with a Field of Ruin or
Cryptic Command will force them to not use their mana efficiently while we get ahead on land
drops. In fact, if you happen to take the target away of any of these cards, the ability will be
countered for lack of legal targets, meaning your opponents won’t search their deck for a land
with Field of Ruin and will not draw a card if they were to choose “bounce and draw” with
Cryptic. The most important thing in the matchup is that if they happen to tap out to play a
Planeswalker, WE MUST PUNISH THEM on the following turn. This is made much easier with
the presence of Amulet, and it’s the main reason why I don’t want to side all of them out even
though they can be horrendous topdecks in the late game. In fact, it is often correct to sandbag
your Amulets if you can afford to do so to encourage them to tap out and then combo them
afterwards. This is made way harder today thanks to Force of Negation, though. If they manage
to untap with an uncontested walker, they will run away with the game by accruing absurd
amounts of card advantage that can keep up with our Titans. In today’s metagame, UW is
usually playing Surgical Extraction in the main, so be careful with this if your opponent uses a
sweeper like Supreme Verdict (since all their other forms or removal will exile your Titans, where
your opponent won’t be able to Surgical them away.) For this reason, also avoid running your
Titans into countermagic if at all possible, even if you have multiples in hand. They can also
Surgical your Summoner’s Pact, which can stop your engine, so be careful with this. Karn can
giving us access to an alternative win condition is huge. Also, it represents an answer to
whichever Planeswalker your opponent plays thanks to the Pithing Needle in the sideboard.
The way I like to approach the matchup is to try to put early pressure on them with a
Sakura-Tribe Scout or Azusa. This will put the ball on our opponent’s court, and force them to be
the first to make a move. Even sometimes random Azusa beats can get a large part of the job
done, and force your opponent into a position where they’re burning Cryptic Commands just to
tap and draw in order to not die. Of course, after we have landed our early advantage, we can
stay ahead by using cantrips and Transmuting for whatever we might need: a threat in
Summoner’s Pact or Ballista, a counterspell in Pact of Negation, or a way to make our threats
uncounterable with Cavern of Souls. It’s very important to hit our land drops and try to force your
opponent’s hand by dealing them chip shot damage here and there. Once you have brought
them down to a low life total, an easy way of sealing the deal is to play Cavern on Construct and
make a massive uncounterable Ballista to burn them out. One of the most important lands in the
matchup alongside Cavern is Slayers’ Stronghold, since it will allow your small guys and ramp
creatures (as well as Khalni tokens) to deal reasonable amounts of damage, which will hopefully
force your opponent to waste their Path to Exile and Cryptic Commands. Make sure you try to
protect these two lands from their Field of Ruin by bouncing them and holding them in your hand
until the turn where you are going to use them. Always keep in mind the amount of threats you
have still in the deck, since them countering and Pathing all your threats is a possibility. Try
using Bojuka Bog to stop your opponent’s Snapcasters from flashing back too many Paths and
Cryptics, which are the 2 key cards in the matchup. With both Path and Field of Ruin, running
out of basics will happen almost every game (especially with this list that is only running 3.)
Also, even with the presence of Cavern of Souls, your opponent can still counter your
Summoner’s Pact, so try to cast them whenever your opponent taps out, even if it’s on your own
end step (if you can afford to pay for it in your upkeep, of course.) Know when it’s worth to play
around your opponent tapping and drawing with Cryptic, and when it’s correct to just let them
resolve it and then for you to do stuff to stay ahead in your second main phase. Also, Vesuva
can copy your opponent’s lands as well! Copying Colonnade as an extra threat is very common,
and it even allows you to play around Cryptic as well (you can activate the Colonnade AFTER
the Cryptic has resolved, allowing you to get an attack in with the land.) You can copy Azcanta
as well, though I think that’s a trap: we cannot leverage Azcanta as well as they do, so kill the
land as soon as it flips (of even before, if you are able to.)
Post board expect them to bring in more countermagic in the form of Disdainful Stroke, Dovin’s
Veto, Force of Negation and Dispel (which can be used to counter your Pacts and stop your
Titan chain,) extra sweepers and more card advantage like Ancestral Vision. Some lists even
run Crucible of Worlds, which is a card you definitely do not want to see.
Usually I like siding out Pacts which are easy to counter with Dispel and Veto, and bring actual
threats instead. This matchup is one of the main reasons why we play Negate over Swan Song,
since with this version of the deck the 2/2 might actually matter, and being able to counter
Jace/Teferi when your opponent taps out in a key turn can be game breaking. However, these
cards have gotten considerably worse with the printing of Teferi, Time Raveler and Dovin’s Veto.
They have a ton of relevant enchantments and artifacts, and some lists even play Damping
Sphere, so Rec Sage and Explosives will do some serious work. And I have definitely played
Explosives for X=4 and 5 in order to kill Planeswalkers as well. Some lists do play Spell Quellers
or Geist of Saint Traft, which are both amazing against us, so keep that into account so you
don’t randomly get blown out by a Spirit. One of their best ways of racing you is playing a Geist
or Clique on turn 3 and then try to out tempo you, so make sure you are set up to face that plan.
Sorry for going a little too long on this one, but it’s an extremely skill intensive matchup that has
a ton of play to it, and there are many things to take into account.
- UWr (Jeskai) Control (Even):

IN: +2 Negate, +1 Reclamation Sage, +1 Hornet Queen, +2 Path to Exile (if you expect Spell
Quellers/Restoration Angels)
OUT: -2 Sakura-Tribe Scout, -1 Khalni Garden, -1 Engineered Explosives. If you are bringing in
Path take out 1 Coalition Relic and 1 Ancient Stirrings
Similar to UW, but the matchup plays out much differently. Jeskai is way more flexible, because
they have a solid amount of reach in the form of burn spells, and are able to switch roles very
quickly. It’s important for you to enact a game plan according to what your opponent is doing: if
they want to try to tempo you out, try to be as prepared for that as possible. If they want to play
it slow, make sure you have a stronger late game.
Jeskai lists can be very different: sometimes they might run a heavier tempo plan with Spell
Quellers and Geist of Saint Traft, sometimes they run Teferis and Jaces, others multiple
Terminus or Supreme Verdicts instead. Or neither! Try to gather as much information as you can
during game one so you can sideboard according to what they are up to. Are they running
multiple Spell Quellers main deck? Bring in some extra number of Paths. Are they playing both
Jaces and Teferis? Bring in all your countermagic to punish them for tapping out to play their
expensive Planeswalkers. Don’t take the numbers I put up there as gospel: be flexible and
adapt to what they are doing and how they’re approaching the matchup.
Some things you will always find in these decks: the full 4 Snapcaster Mages, 4 Path to Exile
and at least 6 or 7 burn spells (Bolts and Helixes, also sometimes Electrolyzes,) Mana
Leaks/Logic Knots and 3-4 Cryptic Commands. Cryptic can be particularly brutal and is one of
their main ways of enabling their tempo plan, since if we are simply making land drops and have
no ramp, a Cryptic returning a bounceland to our hand can be backbreaking. Jeskai usually
doesn’t play many Field of Ruin because their mana base doesn’t allow for it (2 or 3 at most.)
Scouts come out post board because of this, and also because it dies very easily to Bolt and
Helix without leaving any value behind. As I explained earlier, if your opponent is running
multiple Quellers, then Path becomes very good, and Hornet Queen becomes a worthy
inclusion as well. It’s possible they will be bringing in Damping Sphere, and that’s why we bring
in Rec Sage (it can kill a Search for Azcanta in a pinch too.)
- Esper Control (Even):

IN: +2 Negate, +1 Reclamation Sage, +1 Hornet Queen, +1 Wurmcoil Engine
OUT: -1 Engineered Explosives, -1 Kabira Crossroads, -1 Primeval Titan, -1 Summoner’s Pact,
-1 Coalition Relic
Esper is actually a challenging matchup. They have access to all the usual suspects, with added
discard spells and the extremely flexible and powerful Esper Charm. Always try to keep this card
in mind, because instant speed discard is particularly good against our deck. In terms of how the
matches play out, it’s usually closer to UW than Jeskai, with this added angle of attack. Karn is
quite good if you manage to resolve it, since they really struggle to deal with Planeswalkers and
can’t pressure them easily either.
Post board watch out for Unmoored Ego on your Primeval Titans. If you sideboard properly you
should still have plenty of ways to win the game, but it will still be crippling nonetheless. I side
out one Prime Time (even though it’s the best card in our deck) because they rely so heavily on
this plan after boarding. Hornet Queen and Wurmcoil are not great, but I bring them in just to
help diversify our threat suite.
- UR Control (Blue Moon) (Very Unfavorable):

- Against UR Breach:
IN: +2 Negate, +1 Force of Vigor, +1 Reclamation Sage
OUT: -1 Khalni Garden, -1 Engineered Explosives, -1 Walking Ballista, -1 Sakura-Tribe Scout
- Against Thing in the Ice builds:

IN: +2 Negate, +1 Force of Vigor, +1 Reclamation Sage, +2 Path to Exile
OUT: -1 Kabira Crossroads, -4 Sakura-Tribe Scout, -1 Walking Ballista
- Against Kiki/Exarch or Madcap Experiment builds:
IN: +2 Negate, +1 Force of Vigor, +1 Reclamation Sage, +2 Path to Exile

OUT: -1 Khalni Garden, -4 Sakura-Tribe Scout, -1 Walking Ballista
By far our worst control matchup, simply because they run the card Blood Moon. And to make
things even worse, they back it up with countermagic. There are different builds of this deck, the
most popular being the ones with Thing in the Ice, and other with the combo of Through the
Breach + Emrakul, the Aeons Torn. Sometimes they will play the Pestermite/Exarch-Kiki Jiki
and/or Madcap Experiment/Platinum Emperion combo. All of them are bad matchups, and we
need our cards to line up nicely against theirs in order to win.
The matchup in general revolves around whether they draw and resolve a Blood Moon or not.
Because of this, use your cantrips and try to find one of your basic Forests. Ghost Quarter
basically reads “sacrifice a land, find a Basic,” so it feels bad, but you’d rather have access to it
than not. Game 1 always consider preemptively playing an Engineered Explosives with
Sunburst=3 even if there is no Moon on the field to play around it. Also, in order to enable this
play, you can use Vesuva before a Blood Moon hits play in order to copy one of your opponent’s
Basic Islands (it will remain a Basic Island even if a Moon resolves later on.) These lists usually
play multiple Remands, so always keep this in mind while sequencing your plays. If you resolve
a Titan, you should be in a very good spot since they really struggle to get rid of it: either double
Bolt (or Bolt+Snap, Bolt) or sometimes you’ll see Harvest Pyre. Usually, when I resolve my first
Titan, I try to make sure I can resolve the next ones by fetching basics/Cavern unless I’m under
a ton of pressure (or if my opponent is on a combo build, I’ll try to not die to it if I can avoid it by
trying to get Pact of Negation.) Also remember that Cryptic can bounce your basics and your
bouncelands to prevent you from paying for your pacts. Vendilion Clique and Bolt, Snap Bolt can
kill you if you are not careful enough! The timing of your Summoner’s Pacts might also be
awkward, since in some spots you might need to pact on your opponents’ end step just so you
can get the Titan into your hand and guarantee that you will be able to pay for your Pact on that
next upkeep. Again, Karn is a fine threat that we can play even under the effects of a Moon, but
thanks to their countermagic it might be hard to leverage him. It’s much more common to
immediately plus Karn in this matchup than in the previous ones because you don’t want to
leave him exposed to a single Lightning Bolt if you can afford to.
Post board we bring in Sage, Force and some countermagic. Against Kiki/Exarch and Madcap
Experiment builds, Path becomes a necessary evil to prevent their combo, even though the card
is not amazing. Pathing your own guys is also a play you might end up going for in order to find
your basics. Explosives is only really good against the Thing in the Ice version, but I do like
keeping 1 of them in against the other versions as well as a hedge. I do like having access to 1
Pact of Negation post board, even though there will be board states where it will be a dead card
in your hand since you’ll sometimes struggle to be able to pay for it. Still, I think it’s worth the 1
slot to enable the possibility of Transmuting for it after resolving a Titan in order to prevent your
opponent from being able to come back into the game (or combo off.)
- Grixis Control (Slightly Favored):

IN: +2 Negate, +1 Path to Exile, +1 Hornet Queen
OUT: -2 Sakura-Tribe Scout, -1 Amulet of Vigor, -1 Coalition Relic
This is not a matchup we see that often anymore, but I consider it to be positive overall. It is a
real grind, however, and their late game is very powerful. Usually they have a very slow clock
unless they manage to play an early Tasigur. Sometimes they bring in Young Pyromancer, and
that is the card I’m usually most afraid of and the main reason for bringing Path in. Jace can be
an issue sometimes, but it’s not as bad as it is against UW control, since they have way more
dead cards (Fatal Push, Lightning Bolts…) and less Field of Ruins. However, they will often run
multiple (3-4) Kolaghan’s Commands and as much as 4 Cryptic Commands. Because of this,
Amulet and Coalition Relic are really bad cards and some will come out post board. Scout is
also a real liability, but I like having access to a couple of them to try to get ahead on mana. The
name of the game is “make your land drops and topdeck threats.” Once you get to a point where
you have a reasonable amount of lands in play, it will be correct for you to hold extra lands in
hand in order to play around Kolaghan’s Command making you discard a card in your draw
step. Bojuka Bog does a ton of work in this matchup, because they use the graveyard quite a bit
to create card advantage with Commands and Snapcaster Mages. Azcanta flipping can also be
an issue, so try to destroy it with Ghost Quarter as soon as possible (don’t try to get fancy and
copy it with Vesuva, since we cannot leverage it as well as they do.) As it’s customary in control
matchups, if you are able to resolve Karn he should do a ton of work. Just try to not to minus
him directly into a Lightning Bolt if you can avoid it. Very rarely they will play Blood Moon, and if
that’s the case then bring Reclamation Sage in. The most likely card they will bring in is
Fulminator, and because they can recur it with K Command is why I like leaving all 28 lands
even though this is a control kind of matchup. If you see Unmoored Ego feel free to side out a
Primeval Titan or 2 in place of Hornet Queen or some other threat.
- BUG Teachings (Even to unfavorable):

IN: +2 Negate, +1 Force of Vigor, +1 Reclamation Sage, +2 Rest in Peace
OUT: -1 Engineered Explosives, -1 Summoner’s Pact, -2 Sakura-Tribe Scout, -1 Amulet of
Vigor, -1 Kabira Crossroads
This is a super interesting matchup. They are a control deck that gets ahead on mana with
Growth Spiral and Wilderness Reclamation (or more rarely Utopia Sprawl,) and ahead on cards
with Mystical Teachings and Fact or Fiction. Eventually they will set up a situation where they
will loop Nexus of Fate indefinitely and will take all the turns. Their win condition is to deck you
with Blue Sun’s Zenith (which also has the alternate mode of drawing them a lot of cards.) They
will attempt to counter (with Remand, Logic Knot and Cryptic Command) or destroy everything
you play, and if you don’t play into their plan they will simply get card advantage with some of
their instants. Priority number one should be for you to try to stay ahead on mana. This means
answering Wilderness Reclamation ASAP, since that is the way they get disgusting amounts of
boosts in mana. Bojuka Bog is quietly one of the most important cards in the matchup, since a
lot of their card advantage is achieved through the use of the graveyard (Teachings, Snapcaster,
even Pulse of Murasa in some lists.) They do play Field of Ruin, and can answer your lands with
Assassin’s Trophy, so try to protect both your Cavern and Slayers’ Stronghold. Main deck
Surgical is almost a guarantee, so try to not run your Titans into countermagic unless you don’t
have other alternative. Try to use Karn wisely, and this is one of the matchups where you should
rarely try to go for the Lattice lock. However, this is also one where you should almost always
immediately use his minus ability if given the chance, since they’re not likely to answer him by
means other than Trophy (so you want to get your guaranteed value from him.)
- Gx Tron (Even):
IN: +2 Negate, +1 Reclamation Sage
OUT: -2 Engineered Explosives, -1 Bojuka Bog
This matchup is all about racing and ramping as much as possible. The big problem cards are
Karn and World Breaker (and of course, Ulamog, which is neigh unbeatable,) aka, things that
can interact with our board. On some boardstates, Karn, the Great Creator might be annoying,
but more often than not you’ll be able to handle it. Wurmcoil Engine is very beatable, and
Oblivion Stone slows us down, but since every Titan we find gets even more Titans, it’s more
likely for them to run out of sweepers before we run out of threats. Games can play out in 3
ways: they play a Karn Liberated on turn 3, in which case we usually lose unless we can kill
them on the backswing; we cast a Titan before they are able to set up Tron and then we
Transmute for Pact of Negation to counter whatever threat they play (unless it’s something that
we are able to beat anyway;) or we get into a super long and grindy game where we keep
playing threats and running them into our opponents answers until one of us comes out
victorious. Try to foresee in which way the game will play out, and try to be the most prepared to
fight on that axis. We only have a single Ghost Quarter, so make sure you use it wisely! Still, if
GQ is already in play, you can copy it with Vesuva and get an extra way to disrupt their mana.
This is one of the matchups where Karn’s static ability is at it’s best, stopping Oblivion Stones
and Sphere effects, as well as Expedition Maps. Since they have such a hard time interacting
with Karn, it’s also quite possible to lock them out with Lattice. The most common play pattern in
my experience is to play Karn and immediately minus him to go get Pithing Needle as to
preemptively answer their Karn Liberated, which are one of the few ways for them to get back
into the game.
The most important lands in this matchup that you should try to protect at all cost are Stronghold
and Sunhome: The first one because it allows your threats to come into play with Haste and
attack their Planeswalkers after they have dealt with your guys, and the second one because it
turns Wurmcoil Engine into a chump blocker instead of a threat. Pact of Negation is a really big
game in this matchup, since it can be a powerful tempo play after we have resolved a Titan. In
fact, it is sometimes correct to, with an Amulet in play after having cast a Titan, to not attack,
and choose to get Simic Growth Chamber + Tolaria West in order to transmute for a Blue Pact
and stop our opponent’s big play.
Post board the game tends to slow down a bit more, since they will bring in cards like Nature’s
Claim to stop our nut draw, and Thought-Knot Seer to deal with our Titans before they come into
play. You can bring in Path to Exile if you’re very afraid of these, but in my experience 4/4s is not
what this matchup is about. The sideboarding is otherwise very straightforward, since our
maindeck configuration is well positioned against them.
- Blue Tron (Slightly Favorable):

OUT: -1 Ancient Stirrings, -1 Kabira Crossroads, -1 Summoner’s Pact, -1 Engineered Explosives
Treat this as a control matchup, with the exception that they run Chalice of the Void. Usually the
games we lose involve their counterspells being relevant (meaning we cannot ramp in an
effective way and we can’t draw Cavern of Souls) or they get Tron online early and we get
Mindslavered. The counterspells you need to play around are Condescend, Remand and
Supreme Will. They also have bounce spells, mostly Repeal. They have very few ways of
answering our creatures after they have resolved (a couple of Dismembers/Spatial Contortion
and Walking Ballista,) so they are pretty reliable ramp, and Amulet can only be answered by
Oblivion Stone. Once a Titan resolves, it will more often than not mean game over if you are
smart about how you set up the remainder of the game. Sometimes they might steal a win with
a Platinum Angel. If they are smart, they will play Chalice on 0, which can be troublesome.
However, having access to Engineered Explosives allows you to blow it up by playing it for X=1
but Sunburst=0 by using any of your colorless lands to pay for it. Karn is also very good in this
matchup if you manage to resolve it, since it shuts down Mindslavers and O Stones with his
static ability and it can destroy opposing Chalices with his +1.
Post board I like cutting some number of 0 and 1 mana cost spells in order to diminish the effect
of Chalice of the Void, which is one of their best cards against us. Still, we have too many 1
mana cards, so Chalice on 1 will still be good. They also play Academy Ruins, but that is not as
concerning, since if they are resolving Mindslavers we are probably dead anyway… Negates
are there primarily to help us win counter wars. This is one of the few matchups where we really
miss Abrade, since it’s flexibility is way more valuable than Path to Exile.
- Ux Whir Prison, aka Salt Stax (Unfavorable):

IN: +1 Force of Vigor, +1 Reclamation Sage, +2 Negate
OUT: -1 Kabira Crossroads, -1 Summoner’s Pact, -1 Primeval Titan, -1 Amulet of Vigor
This deck got to a point where it was one of the top contenders of the format, only to fall off a
cliff. It used to be a terrible matchup, and one of the main reasons we originally moved to a Hive
Mind centric list, but Karn is actually excellent against them as well. Still, you rarely see this
deck anymore, unfortunately. Usually they can establish a very strong lock, with Ensnaring
Bridge, Chalice of the Void, multiple Sorcerous Spyglasses and Welding Jars. They also have
access to Damping Sphere, and ways to tutor for their key lock pieces with Whir of Invention
and Inventors’ Fair. Tectonic Edge + Crucible of Worlds finish the whole package, and they win
by decking you with Modern staple Ipnu Rivulet. Some lists also run their own Karn, the Great
Creator. In any case, they usually take a long time to get there, and don’t have any ways of
actually answering our cards in a non-permanent based way (meaning on the stack or from our
hand.) What this means is that every Titan will resolve, and will accrue some amount of value.
Be smart, and always know what your outs are, and try to make sure that Titan gets you as
close as possible to them. Engineered Explosives and Ballista will be your outs to Ensnaring
Bridge in game 1, but Spellskite and Welding Jar might mess with our plans. Remember Khalni
tokens can attack through a Bridge, and then you can activate Stronghold in order to deal
damage (and Sunhome for Double Strike.) However, Sorcerous Spyglass answers all of these,
as well as Tolaria West (which can be a real annoyance.) Bog can be your win condition as well,
since if you manage to exile your opponent’s one of Ipnu Rivulet and you stay ahead on cards in
the deck (which they can help you with Bottled Cloister) they will deck before you do.
Karn is fantastic in this matchup, since it blanks their Moxen, Baubles and Welding Jar (the
latest one being a massive deal,) and it answers Chalices with his +1 ability. For this reason, it’s
likely that Karn will be the first thing your opponents will name with their Spyglasses. Still, the
static ability will turn the game in your favor slowly but surely.
Post board things change a bit. First of all, Primeval Titan is mostly a bad card in post board
games, though you will still be winning a fair amount of games in the same fashion. Reclamation
Sage is of course great, though Torpor Orb might make it considerably worse. Force of Vigor is
a recent inclusion, and will very likely be extremely impactful at any point in the game. Sandbag
your Artifact destruction effects until you already have a Karn in play in order to make sure you
get the most value out of them (because you cannot get stopped by Spellskite or Welding Jar.)
They might bring in Sai, Master Thopterist, which you can answer with Walking Ballista or
Engineered Explosives. Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas is also a card that might be tough to beat if you
are unprepared. Fortunately, Explosives on 4 is a very real play with this deck, though be
prepared because Explosives will often be named with Spyglass (since your opponent will be
siding theirs out.) Other common cards they might bring in against you include Unmoored Ego
or Jesters’ Cap. The Coalition Relics stay in mostly as a hedge for Damping Sphere.
- Ux Urza (Favorable):
IN: +2 Negate, +1 Reclamation Sage, +1 Force of Vigor, +1 Rest in Peace
OUT: -1 Kabira Crossroads, -1 Amulet of Vigor, -1 Summoner’s Pact, -2 Sakura-Tribe Scout
These decks are very new, so there is no consensus list yet. Usually they rely on Urza, Lord
High Artificer and have Goblin Engineer and Thopter Sword combo (which also goes infinite with
Urza’s mana ability.) They often play Ensnaring Bridge and some other value cards. In any
case, their entire deck gets hosed by Karn. And that added to the fact that they have no great
way of interacting with our Titans or our lands make this a favorable matchup. Explosives is also
an extremely versatile answer, able to blow up your opponent’s important artifacts, or their
tokens if they happen to go too wide. Karn opens up a world of possibilities as well, giving you
access to extra Explosives, Pithing Needle for either Sai or Urza (note that it won’t stop the
mana producing ability, but it will stop the card drawing engine) or Lattice if you are able to set it
up properly.
Post board we get a couple of extra tools, namely Reclamation Sage and Force of Vigor. I do
bring a single Rest in Peace because it answers their infinite combos, but I don’t like it so much
that I want multiple copies of that effect.
- Lantern (Even to Slightly Favorable):

OUT: -1 Kabira Crossroads, -1 Primeval Titan, -1 Amulet of Vigor, -1 Coalition Relic
Another deck that is randomly hosed by Karn. This one in fact was almost pushed out of the
metagame by the powerful 4 mana Planeswalker. This deck is very similar to Salt Stax, but they
can control our draws with the Lantern of Insight + any mill rock lock, while having access to
hand disruption. The key aspect of the matchup will vary in each game: Sometimes it will be all
about attempting to combo them out, sometimes it will be all about trying to stop their “combo”.
In game 1 the key is to try to deal as much damage as possible with Titans, and then use
Ballista and Scout or Khalni tokens + Slayers’ Stronghold to deal the remaining damage through
Ensnaring Bridge. They only have so many Pithing Needles, so make sure you try to play
around them as best as possible. Engineered Explosives (and Reclamation Sage post board)
are, of course, your best cards in the matchup. If they are playing Whir of Invention then expect
their manabase to have less Ghost Quarter effects. The trade off is that they’re likely to play
Damping Sphere on game 1, and they will be able to tutor for it. The more you play the matchup
the more you will learn when and how to leverage your shuffle effects (Pacting in your own
upkeep is pretty common, for example) as well as Ancient Stirrings, which is a cantrip they
cannot stop. If you manage to resolve a Karn, it should be able to win the game on its own
unless they have access to Assassin’s Trophy or Maelstrom Pulse. Again, make sure you get
guaranteed value from him by minusing immediately, since they literally have no way of clocking
him (I usually grab Pithing Needle, which is a really impactful card against them.)
Post board I choose to side out a Primeval Titan in this matchup because it’s very possible for
them to Thoughtseize or mill one away and then Surgical them (or simply Unmoored Ego them,)
and I want to make sure I make their cards as bad as I can by diversifying my threats. Using
Bojuka Bog targeting yourself is a play that happens often for this reason.
- 8-Rack (Slightly Favorable):

IN: +1 Reclamation Sage, +1 Force of Vigor, +1 Hornet Queen
OUT: -1 Pact of Negation, -1 Summoner’s Pact, -1 Primeval Titan
This is a matchup we don’t see as often nowadays, but it’s always an interesting one. First order
of business: choose to be on the draw. That extra card is very important, and they are usually
going to have a hard time taking advantage of the tempo loss. Fortunately we play a 28 land
deck, and lands are good against Inquisition and Thoughtseize (Bouncelands are actual card
advantage!) However, try to play around the card Smallpox to the best of your ability. This will
mean that sometimes you will not want to play a bounceland on turn 2, or you won’t want to play
Scout on turn 1. Making land drops should always be priority number 1, and that is why I don’t
side out any lands in post board games. Eventually you will have enough mana that you will be
able to cast anything you find of the top of the deck, and whatever that is should be good
enough to win. Engineered Explosives and Reclamation Sage are great at dealing with their win
conditions: The Rack and Shrieking Affliction, so it’s often correct to preemptively play it on 1.
These are also ways for you to dealing with Ensnaring Bridge, and Explosives on 3 answers
Liliana of the Veil as well. The main new threat this deck got that is actually troublesome for us
is Ashiok, Dream Render, which blanks our Pacts and Tolaria West transmutes, as well as Titan
triggers. Davriel, Rogue Shadowmage might also be an issue if it comes down early enough and
we are not able to pressure it. One thing I wanted to point out is that a really common play
pattern is to get double bouncelands with your Primeval Titan trigger, in order to develop your
mana while at the same time boosting your amount of cards in hand.
Amulet is sometimes a combo piece, but when it’s not good on board, always consider that
sometimes the correct play is to hold Amulet in your hand to play around Wrench Mind or to
take less damage from the 1 mana permanents. Bog can deal with Raven’s Crimes, which
alongside Liliana, Davriel and Wrench Mind are your opponent’s only ways of making you
discard your lands. Also remember Funeral Charm is Instant Speed discard, don’t get blown out
by it!
Post board you should try to play around both Extirpate and Surgical Extraction. Because of this
I take out a Primeval Titan and bring in a Hornet Queen in order to diversify my threats.
Damping Sphere is a card people have recently started to include in their sideboards, so play
around it accordingly. Karn is very good, and it will often come down and immediately minus to
go get Pithing Needle. However, what you name with it will change depending on the situation
(more often than not it’ll be Liliana of the Veil, though it’s not rare to name Mutavault as well.)
Sometimes you can simply minus Karn and get any card, just to have access to one more card
in hand to take less damage from The Rack. Another card you have to worry about in post
board games is Delirium Skeins, though that one is particularly hard to play around. Personally I
consider the matchup to be positive, but there is a ton of play to it, and you want to be very
practiced in order to gain an edge.
Combo:
Against combo decks, our approach is all about positioning. If they are faster than us on
average, then we will try to interact with them and try to stop them. If they are slower than us,
then the focus will be on making sure we execute our game plan and then close the door on
them. In all cases, I always want to have access to our own combo kill, so I will keep all Amulets
and make space by taking out the situational cards and/or cantrips. Explore will come out quite
consistently, since we would rather spend our mana on other things.
Here you will find:
- Storm
- Amulet Titan
- Amulet Bloom
- Ad Nauseam
- Infect
- TitanShift
- RG Breach
- RUG Scapeshift (also with W or B splash and Bring to Light)
- Coco Counter Company
- Devoted Druid Combo
- Vannifar/Pod
- Grishoalbrand
- Boaryo’s Vengeance
- Neobrand
- Elves
- Living End
- 4c Saheeli/Kiki Chord
- Jeskai Saheeli
- Taking Turns
- Cheerios
- Storm (Unfavorable):
IN: +2 Negate, +2 Rest in Peace, +1 Reclamation Sage
OUT: -1 Walking Ballista, -1 Khalni Garden, -1 Engineered Explosives, -1 Summoner’s Pact, -1
Coalition Relic (if you suspect they don’t have Blood Moon) / -1 Sakura-Tribe Scout (if they do
have Blood Moon)
We are a turn or so slower, which means we are underdogs. It’s very hard for us to interact with
their mana dorks game 1 (Engineered Explosives and Walking Ballista,) so unless we combo
very quickly, if they “have it”, we will die. They play Remand, so be mindful of this when trying to
resolve a Titan and try to setup a Cavern of Souls if at all possible. If they do have
Unsubstantiate however, there’s nothing we can do about it (since it doesn’t counter the spell, it
just puts it back into your hand.) Consider the fact that Transmuting for Pact of Negation might
be the correct play instead of setting up an attack. The Sakura-Tribe Scout + Bojuka Bog combo
will be great at enabling instant speed interaction, even though they can still kill without using
the graveyard. Karn is good if you get to resolve him, and it will in most scenarios immediately
go fetch Tormod’s Crypt, which might give you some hope of stopping your opponent from going
off.
Post board things become a little better with the countermagic we get to add. Wipe Away not
only has Split Second (meaning it’s uncounterable and we can’t do something like crack Relic or
Tormod’s Crypt in response,) but it also can return ANY PERMANENT, meaning that your
opponent can return your lands to your hand in order to prevent you from paying for your Pacts.
1 Engineered Explosives stays because I respect that sometimes people like to play Empty the
Warrens against us (even though I think it’s pretty bad…) and because sometimes they bring in
Thing in The Ice or Aria of Flame. I don’t bring in Path to Exile, since ramping them is often as
bad as their mana dorks staying alive, so I don’t think they are worth it. One thing that might be
correct is to bring the Tormod’s Crypt to the main deck in place of the 3rd copy of Karn, so
definitely feel free to experiment with your configurations.
- Amulet Titan (Even, obviously):

IN: +2 Path to Exile, +1 Reclamation Sage, +1 Negate
OUT: -1 Khalni Garden, -1 Walking Ballista, -1 Engineered Explosives, -1 Coalition Relic
If you are familiar with my streams, you will know that I despise when people call Amulet a
“Combo” deck. However, the mirror match in particular does play out like a combo matchup. The
person that resolves a Primeval Titan first will be in prime (time) position to prevent the
opponent from resolving theirs, putting them massively ahead. The only way to break serve is
with the card Amulet, which is the mirror breaker in game 1. If you happen to be the lucky one
who resolves a Titan first, even more important than attacking is to set up your defenses. Pact
of Negation isn’t the most reliable because Cavern of Souls is a card, but Ghost Quarter should
do a fine job at slowing down your opponent enough so that you can cross the finish line on the
following turn. Explosives is a very slow but sometimes effective weapon, since it kills both
Amulets and Scouts. For this reason I don’t mind the first one, but I wouldn’t want a second one.
Reclamation Sage is of course either your best possible card or a complete blank, depending on
how your opponent’s draw shapes up. Karn can be either very good if you are ahead and are
able to lock your opponent out with Lattice, or can simply get pithing needle to slow your
opponent down. It can also get Wurmcoil, but that is usually not a relevant enough threat in the
face of a Primeval Titan.
Post board the game slows down a bit, since both players will bring in interaction. I do like the
first Negate, but you don’t want to get your hand cluttered with many situational cards. Path to
Exile is another mirror breaker the only way to deal with opposing Titans. I don’t like
oversideboarding in a matchup like this, and that’s why I only bring enough cards equal to the
amount of cards I want to take out. One thing you might wonder is why I leave Bojuka Bog in. In
my experience, if your opponent is playing Ramunap Excavato or Crucible of Worlds, you want
to make sure that you have access to a way of stopping them from destroying all your lands with
the Ghost Quarter + Azusa combo.
If your opponent is playing a Through the Breach variant, they will be favored since we have no
answers (and usually cannot beat) a Breached Emrakul, the Aeons Torn. In any case, you
should be approaching this as a combo matchup anyway, so your play patterns shouldn’t
change depending on your opponent’s list (the important aspects of the matchup will remain the
same.) You might want to hedge by adding an extra Negate in place of an Ancient Stirrings.
- Amulet Bloom (Slightly Unfavorable):

IN: +2 Negate, +2 Path to Exile, +1 Reclamation Sage
OUT: -1 Walking Ballista, -1 Bojuka Bog, -1 Khalni Garden, -1 Coalition Relic, -1 Engineered
Explosives
Amulet Bloom is actually much closer to a combo deck, so I don’t feel so bad about listing this
one here. We are talking, of course, about the version of the deck mostly developed by Nicholas
Bruno, aka puntthenwhine. It plays Lotus Bloom in place of Sakura-Tribe Scout. In this matchup,
Explosives as a card is much more powerful, because not only does it answer Amulet, but it can
also destroy your opponent’s Lotus Bloom in their upkeep, before they can use it. They do not
run Cavern of Souls, so Pact of Negation is way more likely to trade for a card of theirs (often
times, their own Pact of Negation.) Be careful with the colors of lands you fetch, since they can
Hive Mind you out of the game if you don’t have the required colors to pay for a Pact. They
usually won’t run Ghost Quarter in the main, which should give you a small advantage in terms
of being able to have some control over their lands. Karn is also much better against them than
against Scout Amulet because of how relevant it is that his static ability stops Lotus Bloom from
tapping for mana.
The reason why I consider this matchup in their favor is because they play Slaughter Pact post
board. This card single handedly turns the matchup around, since it not only means a resolved
Titan is a way to prevent opposing Titans, it also means Titan can become a removal spell as
well. Make sure you play around your opponent’s Dismembers too, since that can cause your
Titans to trade with their Azusas. Negate becomes an even better card here because they rely
much more heavily on Lotus Bloom in order to ramp.
- Ad Nauseam (Even):
OUT: -1 Walking Ballista, -1 Bojuka Bog, -1 Engineered Explosives, -1 Coalition Relic
They are a slower combo deck, but a more consistent one. They have literally no way of
removing our creatures or Amulet, so we are going mostly going to be the ones forced to
interact with them. If we manage to resolve a Primeval Titan and get Pact of Negation we should
be in a pretty good spot. We have a little bit of interaction for their combo, namely Pact and
Engineered Explosives to destroy their Phyrexian Unlife. EE on 3 will be the most common
number, since it not only kills the enchantment, but also the Laboratory Maniac if they choose to
go for that win condition. Sometimes the game plan will be to attack their artifact mana (Lotus
Bloom and Pentad Prism) instead. Try to read the situation correctly and act accordingly.
Speaking of attacking their Artifact mana, Karn does this very well with its static ability. The go to
with him will be to immediately minus him (they have literally no ways of pressuring him) and go
get Pithing Needle to name Lightning Storm. Yes, this does work, and they won’t be able to kill
you with the card (meaning they will need to make more mana and try to kill you at Sorcery
speed with Laboratory Maniac.) Make sure you understand how their cards interact correctly,
because sometimes you will be able to cut turns from them with proper sequencing (e.g: With
Unlife in play, if they cast Angel’s Grace they are effectively gaining 2 turns (they will go to 1 and
on the following turn you will need to attack them below 1, then on the next turn you can deal
them the infect damage. This can be shortened if you have either Walking Ballista -by dealing
damage outside of combat first, then attacking- or with Sunhome -since you can deal first Strike
damage first, bringing them below 0, then deal regular damage in the form of Infect-)
Post board we bring in interaction in the form of artifact destruction and counterspells, and they
will bring in Thoughtseizes, Slaughter Pact and Echoing Truth to try and make us stumble. The
game will play out in pretty much the same way, just a bit slower.
- Infect (Very Unfavorable):

IN: +3 Path to Exile, +1 Engineered Explosives, +1 Reclamation Sage, +1 Force of Vigor, +1
Pithing Needle
OUT: -1 Pact of Negation, -1 Bojuka Bog, -1 Coalition Relic, -3 Karn, the Great Creator, -1
Summoner’s Pact
This is by far our worst possible matchup out of all the Tier decks (I don’t really count Ponza as
a tier deck…) They are much faster than us, they need less moving pieces and it’s tough for us
to interact with them. The card we struggle with the most is Blighted Agent, since our dorks can
chump a Glistener Elf and Inkmoth Nexus can be Ghost Quartered or copied with Vesuva to
block. Their deck even got a significant upgrade with the printing of Scale Up, so their goldfish
speed has been increased even further. Here we just need to get lucky and hope our cards line
up in the best possible way to steal a win. Walking Ballista and Engineered Explosives are our
only ways of interacting with their board, and a ton of mana dumped into a Ballista is one of the
few ways we can manage to steal a win from them. The other alternative is to combo with a
Titan, but be careful when attempting to go for it, since their Vines of Vastwood can target your
Titans to effectively counter a Stronghold or Sunhome activation. Try to practice the matchup,
and choose your spots to kill their creatures carefully. It’s often correct to attempt to kill their
guys either during your main phase if they are tapped out; or at their end of turn, even if it
means you will take some damage. If you can afford to do so, don’t be afraid to use your life
total as a resource if it means you’ll be able to play around Blossoming Defense and Vines of
Vastwood (because if you try to interact during combat, they will use these in response and you
will be taking more damage than you should.)
Post board we bring in removal and pray that it is good enough. I used to not bring in
Reclamation Sage, but recently I played against an Infect opponent who had Damping Spheres,
and if this becomes more common then I would want the Sage in the 60. Also Spellskite has
become all but ubiquitous, and you definitely want to get rid of the troublesome Horror. Force of
Vigor can be a total blowout, since it can kill an Inkmoth Nexus even if we are tapped out (even
if your opponent has a Spellskite, if you target both they won’t be able to save the Inkmoth since
the Spellskite is already targeted by the Force.)
- TitanShift (Even to Slightly Favorable):

OUT: -1 Walking Ballista, -1 Bojuka Bog, -2 Engineered Explosives
Another combo deck that is just a bit slower than us. Our Titans can come down quicker and are
more powerful overall, but once a Titan of theirs resolves, then we can’t prevent them from
killing our own Titans, and we will probably lose shortly after. What this means is that priority
number 1 is to prevent them from resolving their Titan (or Scapeshift.) It’s great that we deal no
damage to ourselves (and we can gain life with Kabira Crossroads,) so they must have 8 lands
in play (or 6 + Prismatic Omen) for Scapeshift to actually kill us. Pact of Negation is the best
card in the matchup, and if you manage to resolve a Titan and set up a blue Pact you should be
in a good position. Ghost Quarter doesn’t really do much in the matchup, but there are some
specific situations where you can get some value from it. When this deck was very popular I
used to run Tectonic Edge, which is actually great against them since they care about their
amount of lands in play.
Post board the Negates come in. Use them aggressively to stop your opponent’s ramp, and
sometimes you’ll be able to stop a Damping Sphere. Reclamation Sage and Force of Vigor
come in, mostly because them slowing us down with Damping Sphere is one of the main ways
for them to get ahead. It can also sometimes destroy a Khalni Heart Expedition or a Prismatic
Omen.
- RG Breach (Even):
OUT: - 1 Walking Ballista, -1 Bojuka Bog, -1 Engineered Explosives, -1 Karn, the Great Creator
Similar matchup to RG TitanShift, but they are a bit faster and less consistent. A card you want
to be aware of is Woodfall Primus, which they can Breach into play and destroy 2 of our lands,
messing up our Pact mana on upkeep. Sometimes they do play Emrakul, the Aeons Torn, so try
to manage your amount of permanents in play so that you can safely sacrifice 6 to the
Annihilator trigger (Khalni Garden helps a lot with this.) The main difference is that these lists
often run Chalice of the Void, and that’s why I choose to leave 1 Engineered Explosives in order
to deal with that. Sometimes they splash Black for Slaughter Games. If that is the case, then
you probably want to diversify your threats by taking out a Primeval Titan and bringing the 3rd
Karn back in (you could also bring in Hornet Queen, but I am not hopeful enough that the bees
will be good enough to finish a game.
- RUG Scapeshift (Sometimes with a White or Black Splash for Bring to Light) (Even):
IN: +2 Negate, +1 Reclamation Sage (if they’re playing Madcap Experiment + Platinum
Emperion)
OUT: -1 Walking Ballista, -1 Engineered Explosives (take out a second Explosives if they’re
playing Madcap Experiment + Platinum Emperion)
This is basically a control deck, but unlike the decks I talked about in the control section, this
one isn’t trying to delay the game forever, since they have a 1 card combo that will win them the
game on the spot. Because of this, Ballista is not a reliable win condition since the game will be
over way before you are able to setup a lethal uncounterable Ballista. They also can keep up on
mana with us, which makes the matchup slightly worse. They do play cards that are very good
against us, like Remand and Cryptic Command, so try to play around them properly by
transmuting for Cavern of Souls if possible. The good thing is that their mana base needs to
accommodate their combo, so they don’t run cards like Ghost Quarter or Field of Ruin.
Post board things don’t change a lot, except they might have Land Destruction in the form of
Crumble to Dust, and extra countermagic like Negate and Dispel. If they are playing Bring to
Light and splashing Black, expect them to have Slaughter Games. If that’s the case, then you
want to side out 2 Primeval Titans and bring in Wurmcoil Engine and Hornet Queen. They are
miles worse than Prime Time, but considering that they will have access to effectively 5 copies
of the card which nullifies it (while being uncounterable) makes me want to hedge against it
considerably.
- Coco Counters Company (Unfavorable):

IN: +3 Path to Exile, +1 Engineered Explosives, +1 Pithing Needle, +1 Reclamation Sage
OUT: -1 Pact of Negation, -1 Ghost Quarter, -3 Karn, the Great Creator, -1 Coalition Relic
This matchup is all about the combo of Devoted Druid and Vizier or Remedies to make infinite
mana, and then use Duskwatch Recruited to find Walking Ballista and kill us in one shot. Most
recent lists have not been playing the Kitchen Finks/Viscera Seer combo, and choose to go for a
much more effective midrange plan with Tireless Tracker and Knight of the Reliquary. This
works in our favor, since we don’t really care about these cards, unless it’s a Knight that comes
down on turn 2 and starts fetching Ghost Quarters and Tectonic Edges. The matchup is
basically a race for them to combo while we try to resolve a Primeval Titan to find answers to
their plan. If possible, try to focus your removal on the Devoted Druids, and kill them on sight.
Explosives, Ballista and Pact of Negation are our only interaction game 1, so use them wisely.
Collected Company is always a scary card to play against, and make sure you time your
removal and interaction to play around it. Knight of the Reliquary gets largely invalidated by
Bojuka Bog, so our Titans should win the fight in most scenarios. A new addition to these decks
has been Giver of Runes, which can be a total pain because of the limited amount of removal
we play. Karn can go fetch Explosives or Pithing Needle to prevent their combo (it stops the
untap ability of Devoted Druid, not its mana ability.)
Post board we bring in all our removal. We want to use our early turns interacting with their
board and making land drops. I like bringing in the Reclamation Sage because they might bring
in Damping Sphere and sometimes Worship, which is a really bad card against us, but might
catch you off guard if you are not prepared. They will also bring Knight of Autumn and
sometimes Abrupt Decay or Assassin’s Trophy/Path, so our Titans are not as safe post board as
they are game 1 and you might need to go for Squadron Titans more often than not if possible.
The game slows down quite a bit post board, and they don’t have many ways of dealing with
Scout. Because the Instant Speed activation is extremely important (to flash in Bouncelands in
response to their LD activations as well as Bojuka Bog,) I choose to take out the Coalition Relic.
If they’re splashing Blue instead of Black it’s very likely they will have Unified Will or Disdainful
Stroke. I don’t like bringing in our midrange threats since it’s very rare for us to lose to their
midrange plan, and I’d much rather have interaction for their combo instead. I do take all Karns
out since I think they are very slow and more often than not just naturally draw the cards that I
would be “wishing” for.
- Devoted Druid Combo (Very Unfavorable):

IN: +3 Path to Exile, +1 Engineered Explosives, +1 Pithing Needle, +1 Reclamation Sage
OUT: -1 Khalni Garden, -1 Pact of Negation, -1 Coalition Relic, -3 Karn, the Great Creator
This is the version of the deck that has been picking up the most steam lately. Instead of going
for a more value oriented approach, they try to aim their deck at going for the combo, with a ton
of redundancy thanks to Eladamri’s Call and Finale of Devastation. They also have access to
Giver of Runes to protect their combo, and Postmortem Lunge to bring back their dead Druids
and combo immediately. In fact, they can play a Druid, kill it by activating its untap ability twice
and then Lunge it back with Haste to combo you out immediately.
In game one there is not much to do but to hope they keep a suboptimal hand and/or we get a
very fast one. Karn is more relevant against this version of the deck than the Collected
Company versions because this one doesn’t really have a strong midrange plan, and Karn does
stop their Ballista from killing us (however, it doesn’t stop them from drawing a ton of cards with
Duskwatch, and they can also still kill us with Finale.) Explosives will more often than not be set
on 2, and Ballista should do a solid job at stopping your opponent if you are able to get enough
counters on it.
Post board the plan is similar to the one above: maximize on interaction and take out clunky and
“not as efficient” cards. Depending on whether they’re splashing Blue or Black you should play
around countermagic (Unified Will) or Thoughtseizes. Obviously your play patterns should vary
slightly, but not by much (Cavern is relevant against counters, while the Transmute timing
should be different if you’re playing around discard spells.)
I wanted to point out that there are some versions out there that play main deck Simian Spirit
Guide and Chalice of the Void. The play patterns against that version of the deck won’t be very
different, but it’s still important to know that it is something you might face so it doesn’t catch you
off guard.
- Vannifar/Pod (Unfavorable):
IN: +3 Path to Exile, +1 Engineered Explosives, +1 Reclamation Sage, +1 Pithing Needle
OUT: -1 Ghost Quarter, -1 Coalition Relic, -3 Karn, the Great Creator, -1 Pact of Negation
This deck is reminiscent to the Kiki-Pod decks of old, which had complicated chains that
involved sacrificing creatures in order to go up the chain and usually ended up with an infinite
number of Restoration Angels or Deceiver Exarch/Bounding Krasis. If your opponent untaps
with Prime Speaker Vannifar, expect to be dead on their next turn. There is no consensus list,
but amongst the troublesome creatures you should expect are Knight of Autumn, Deputy of
Detention, Spellskite and even Magus of the Moon. They also have extra ways of finding their
bullets, like Eldritch Evolution and/or Chord of Calling.
In game 1 things are very rough. We have 2 ways of interacting: Explosives on 4 to kill a
Vannifar or playing a Ballista for AT LEAST 2 (because with Ballista on 2 you can kill a Kiki-Jiki
and stop your opponent from comboing.) Neither is pretty, but it is what we got, barring killing
them before they can set up, which can be hard since they usually have the kill all rolled up on
turn 4 (if they led with a mana dork on turn 1.) You can also try to interact with one of the
creatures as they go up the chain (for example, kill a Scryb Ranger with it’s untap ability on the
stack,) but that is not very reliable and your opponent might be able to combo you out anyway.
Post sideboard things get slightly better for us. All the Paths come in, of course. You want to
save them for the key creatures, mostly Vannifar, and I recommend to kill her as soon as it’s
safe (you don’t want to get blown out by a Chord for Spellskite.) Reclamation Sage comes
mostly as a hedge against Damping Sphere, Blood Moon and/or Worship, and it can answer
Skite as well.
- Grishoalbrand (Very Unfavorable):

IN: +2 Negate, +2 Path to Exile, +1 Tormod’s Crypt, +1 Reclamation Sage, +1 Pithing Needle,
+1 Force of Vigor, +2 Rest in Peace
OUT: -1 Walking Ballista, -3 Karn, the Great Creator, -1 Khalni Garden, -1 Ghost Quarter, -1
Primeval Titan, -1 Azusa, Lost but Seeking, -1 Ancient Stirrings, -1 Engineered Explosives
As it is with most very fast combo decks, we are going to have a bad time. They are faster than
us, but way more inconsistent. Their fast kills usually involve discarding a Griselbrand and then
using Goryo’s Vengeance to bring it back, so we rely on Bojuka Bog to slow that plan down.
They also have the alternate wincon of Through the Breaching a Worldspine Wurm (or a
Griselbrand itself,) but that one is much slower. They can go off at instant speed, so try to never
let the guard down. They have very few ways of interacting with our plan (maybe 1 or 2
Lightning Axe or Collective Brutality,) so going for it should be safe and our mana dorks will be
pretty reliable at ramping us. Once they are going off we can’t really stop them, so our only hope
is for them to brick. Karn can do a good job at minusing and getting either Tormod’s Crypt or
Pithing Needle depending on how your opponent’s draw is lining up, so try to make an educated
decision on what would be best depending on how the game has played out.
Post board they bring in Blood Moons, and they can play them as early as turn 1 thanks to
Rituals and Simian Spirit Guides. Reclamation Sage is a very bad card in the matchup, but we
must bring it in just for their Moons. Negate will be the MVP, so as long as you can afford it try to
make sure you have mana up, even if you don’t have it and are just bluffing. Bog and Rest in
Peace are good at stopping the Goryo’s kill, but don’t do anything against Through the Breach,
so try to kill them as fast as possible. Explosives is there solely as an answer to the 5/5 tokens
the Wurm will leave behind after it dies, though sometimes you will be able to play it on 3 and
blow up a Moon. If at all possible, we would like to never draw it.
- Boaryo’s Vengeance (Very Unfavorable):

IN: +2 Negate, +3 Path to Exile, +1 Tormod’s Crypt, +1 Reclamation Sage, +1 Pithing Needle,
+1 Force of Vigor, +1 Rest in Peace
OUT: -1 Walking Ballista, -3 Karn, the Great Creator, -1 Khalni Garden, -1 Ghost Quarter, -1
Primeval Titan, -1 Azusa, Lost but Seeking, -1 Ancient Stirrings, -1 Engineered Explosives
This matchup is very close to the previously listed, and the plan is remarkably similar. However,
this version of the deck uses Ilharg, the Raze-Boar in order to cheat Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
and Griselbrand into play. They also use Generator Servant and Pentad Prism in order to ramp
and actually cast the boar, giving them more long term staying power (and it’s the reason why I
go up to 3 Path to Exile in this matchup in place of the second Rest in Peace.) This version of
the deck cannot win at instant speed, but it’s much more consistent than its cousin.
- Neobrand (Very Unfavorable):

IN: +2 Negate, +3 Path to Exile, +1 Pithing Needle
OUT: -2 Engineered Explosives, -1 Walking Ballista, -1 Bojuka Bog, -2 Karn, the Great Creator
This deck combos out as early as turn 1 by cheating an Allosaurus Rider into play and then
using Neoform and Eldritch Evolution to go get a Griselbrand and draw their entire deck thanks
to Nourishing Shoal + Autochthon Wurm. They win with Laboratory Maniac. Their combo is very
fragile, but we don’t really have much in the form of interaction in game 1. However, it is not
unlikely for them to whiff. You want to try to resolve a Titan, but always trying to prioritize having
access to Pact of Negation (meaning if given the option to cast a Titan or Transmute for Pact,
the second will often be the right line.) Karn’s job will basically be to try to come down and
immediately fetch a Pithing Needle to name Griselbrand, since their deck can’t really beat that.
Post board we bring in the little amount of interaction we have access to, and you should try to
mulligan for it. Usually I try to Path their Griselbrand in response to their first draw trigger (since
it gives them the least amount of looks to find ways of gaining life,) and you of course want to
negate their Neoform/Eldritch Evolution. We take out the cards that are slow and clunky,
including some Karns.
- Elves (Unfavorable):
IN: +1 Engineered Explosives, +3 Path to Exile, +1 Reclamation Sage
OUT: -1 Bojuka Bog, -1 Pact of Negation, -3 Karn, the Great Creator
Another creature combo deck, another bad matchup. The black version of the deck with
Shaman of the Pack is much more aggressive than the white one, which tends to be more
combo centric (with Devoted Druid and Vizier of Remedies.) There might also be versions
splashing Red for Bloodbraid Elf. In all cases we will rely on our sweepers and Walking Ballista
quite heavily to help get us there. The good thing is that game 1 they have literally no interaction
for our deck, so if we have a combo hand it should be enough to put us ahead, and then let us
transmute for either of the aforementioned artifacts or Pact of Negation so we don’t die on the
crackback. We will often want to play Explosives on 3, since killing their lords is paramount.
However, since M19 and the printing of Elvish Clancaller this has become much more
dependant on how each game plays out. If you see them losing land drops, then don’t feel bad
trading a Ballista or Explosives for a Llanowar Elf. They play very few actual lands, so if you can
make them stumble on mana while you make your land drops that can sometimes get you there.
If you are playing against Black/Green Elves, suspect that they will have Thoughtseizes and
Stain the Mind post board. If so, consider siding out a Primeval Titans for Hornet Queen and
possibly add Negate as well. They might bring in Damping Sphere, and that is the reason why
Sage comes in. However, it’s a terrible card, so if you know they are not playing it, then simply
leave a Pact of Negation in instead.
- Living End (Even):

IN: +2 Negate, +2 Rest in Peace, +1 Reclamation Sage (only if they have Blood Moon)
OUT: -2 Engineered Explosives, -1 Cavern of Souls, -1 Walking Ballista, -1 Summoner’s Pact (if
you bring in Reclamation Sage)
This matchup can play out in quite strange ways, but more often than not comes down to a
single card: Fulminator Mage. Sometimes they also play Beast Within, which can destroy your
lands as well. Unfortunately, they play multiple Cyclers, which will help them see these cards
reliably. Because of this, Scout is one of your best cards in the matchup, and try to always have
a bounceland in hand to prevent them from blowing up our lands. Game 1, having access to
Bojuka Bog is going to be key at slowing them down, because it stops the “put a lot of power
into play” part of their combo (though it doesn’t stop the “blow up your board” part.) However, as
long as we have time we should be advantaged, since eventually we will find a Pact of Negation
to stop their key spell. In this matchup in particular, Sunhome is the real MVP, since it makes
your opponent’s blocks very awkward, and will allow our Prime Times to swing through their
defenses. Khalni Garden is a weird card in the matchup, since you never want to play it the
early game. This is because having creatures in play is a liability by enabling them a target to
play Demonic Dread. However, in the late game (and especially after your opponent has
resolved a Living End) Khalni becomes essential to help stabilize and chump block their big
creatures.
A very cool trick that you can do is, when you are on the draw, play a bounceland as your
second or 3rd land drop, move to your discard phase with 8 cards in hand and discard a fatty
(meaning Primeval Titan.) Your opponent will have outs to this because these lists often run
Faerie Macabre, but it will slow them down since they won’t be able to comfortably cast Living
Ends because they would be bringing your creature back into play. Even though this play is
sweet, I don’t think it’s worth losing land drops in order to do it, because if your opponent
happens to have the Faerie then you would be basically losing the game on the spot.
Post board your opponent will bring in multiple Ingot Chewer, so try to sandbag your Amulets
until the turn where it will be the most effective, which will be the turn where it’s worth it for your
opponent to resolve Living End. Sometimes they play Kolaghan’s Command in the board, and
very rarely Blood Moon.
- 4c Saheeli/Kiki Chord (Slightly Unfavored):

IN: +3 Path to Exile, +1 Engineered Explosives, +1 Reclamation Sage, +1 Pithing Needle
OUT: -1 Pact of Negation, -3 Karn, the Great Creator, -1 Coalition Relic (-1 Ancient Stirrings if
you suspect Blood Moon,) -1 Ghost Quarter (if they are not playing Blood Moon)/Bojuka Bog (if
they are playing Moon.)
Yet another creature combo matchup. They also have a value plan that doesn’t do much against
us, but they do play a real problem card (at least game 1): Magus of the Moon. They also play
multiple Eldritch Evolution, meaning that with the help of any mana dork they can consistently
find it on turn 2. And it’s rare, but they might actually play some actual Blood Moons in the main
deck or sideboard. Our absolute best card in the matchup is Walking Ballista, since it stops their
Saheeli combo with a single +1/+1 counter, and can kill a Magus or Kiki-Jiki or any other
troublesome creature. The latest addition is Giver of Runes, which helps protect their combo.
Their removal is some amount of Path to Exile and sometimes Reflector Mage, so try to resolve
a Titan quickly and setup Pact of Negation (or Explosives on 3.) Karn again is mediocre and
hard to protect, but might be important as a way to get Pithing Needle and avoid getting
comboed out.
Against Saheeli decks I don’t like taking out the Cavern since they often play Unified Will in the
sideboard, so I do take out Bojuka Bog. It’s good against their value plan, but we will very rarely
be losing to that and it’s our worst land. Against Kiki decks that are not playing blue, taking out
Cavern instead is perfectly fine. Post board is very likely for them to bring in actual Blood
Moons, so try to count for that when sequencing your lands and your plays. It’s possible that
Negate should come in just because of this, but it is such a situational (and costly, since it’s very
rough for us to hold up a blue mana turn after turn) card that seems too sketchy in my opinion.
It’s more defensible against Saheeli, however, since it counters the Planeswalker in the early
turns.
- Jeskai Saheeli (Slightly Unfavored):

IN: +3 Path to Exile, +1 Reclamation Sage, +2 Negate
OUT: -1 Summoner’s Pact, -1 Khalni Garden, -1 Karn, the Great Creator, -2 Sakura-Tribe Scout,
-1 Engineered Explosives
This version of the deck is much different than the ones playing green since they play as a
straight up control deck with a combo finish. They have countermagic in the form of Remand,
removal with Paths, Bolts and Helixes and the Saheeli + Felidar Guardian combo, with Teferi,
Time Raveler to help protect it. They have a small land disruption package with Spreading Seas,
so try to play around this early in the game (if they manage to Seas your turn 2 bounceland it
can be a massive tempo play.) They also have Snapcaster Mage, and sometimes Restoration
Angel and Vendilion Clique to clock us. They don’t have many tools against us, but their overall
plan is quite strong and we have little in the form of interaction. Playing EE on 3 preemptively
will be very important, and Karn can be very useful by giving you access to Pithing Needle in
game 1. Be aware that they only need 6 mana to combo (Felidar Guardian costs 4, they can
blink their own land to untap it and then play Saheeli for another 3 mana.)
Post board we bring in countermagic and Path to interact with their combo. They sometimes
play Blood Moon, and that’s why I bring Sage. If anything, they will for sure play Damping
Sphere, so the Elf will manage to find good targets even if it’s a Spreading Seas.
- Taking Turns (Even):

OUT: -1 Kabira Crossroads, -1 Coalition Relic, -1 Engineered Explosives, -1 Walking Ballista
This is a control deck with a combo-esque finish, so I choose to list it in the Combo section.
They usually are mono Blue or are splashing either red (for Bolts and sometimes Blood Moons,)
white (for Terminus and Path) or Black (for Collective Brutality, Pushes, etc.) This matchup is all
about the Howling Mine effects: as long as you keep those out of the board, then your opponent
will really struggle to go off, so try to preemptively set up your Explosives on 2 or 3 (they usually
play more Dictate of Kruphix than Howling Mines) and use your Reclamation Sage to blow these
up as soon as possible. As it is in every blue matchup, Cavern of Souls is your MVP, but more
so in this one since there is usually no removal for any of our big threats. Exhaustion can be a
beating sometimes, so always count your mana carefully and try to pass the turn with as many
untapped lands as possible (it’s particularly brutal if you had a Pact to pay for, yikes.)
I don’t take out Amulets because, again, we’re talking about what is effectively a combo deck.
You can take 1 or 2 out if they are splashing red because they might have Shatter effects. If they
are splashing Black then taking out Scouts is good cause we don’t want to enable their Pushes
and Brutalities. If they are playing Red it’s defensible to take out Scouts instead of Coalition
Relic as well, though it’s very likely they will be siding out Bolts for better cards anyway. Karn is
good win condition if you are able to resolve him, albeit an expensive one. It will often go get
Pithing Needle to name Jace, the Mind Sculptor or Explosives to blow up Howling Mine effects.
Of course, if can also sometimes lock your opponent out of the game with Lattice. If you do
manage to resolve a Lattice, it’s important to note that it will blank your opponent’s Force of
Negation’s alternate cost in future turns.
- Cheeri0s (Very Unfavorable):

IN: +3 Path to Exile, +2 Negate, +1 Force of Vigor
OUT: -1 Khalni Garden, -1 Bojuka Bog, -1 Walking Ballista, -1 Pact of Negation, -1 Coalition
Relic, -1 Summoner’s Pact
I mean, they are a deck that kills on turn 2, so what did you expect? It preys on decks like ours,
which don’t play Bolt or Fatal Push, since they usually cannot beat those cards. The “go to”
number for Explosives will be 0, since they need to return all their Cheerios (0 mana artifacts) to
hand in order to continue going off. However, the ideal number is 2, since it kills their Srams and
Paladins, though this might simply be way too slow in most common situations. A go to play is to
crack Explosives on 0 in response to their Retract and pray that they don’t have enough to go
off again. Karn can be very strong against them, most notably stopping their Mox Opal (which is
how they generate mana after a Retract in order to replay their 0s and draw their deck. It will
also deny them red mana to cast Grapeshot and actually kill you.) Karn will also be able to use
its plus ability to slowly mow down their equipment.
After you bring in Path, you will pretty much be forced to hold it up for the rest of the game,
because you need to kill any of the card drawers on sight. Try to save your countermagic for the
Retract, since that’s their key combo piece. Bojuka Bog can be used to stop Noxious Revival,
but the situation is so narrow that I’d rather keep ETB untapped land instead of the Bog. Maybe
they can bring Path to Exile post board, but I wouldn’t be playing around it unless our opponents
have a suspiciously slow draw (meaning it’s turn 3-4 and we are not dead yet.) Sometimes they
might bring in Monastery Mentor, but honestly we are more afraid of their plan A than this.
However, they will for sure bring things like Wear/Tear and bounce spells like Echoing Truth, so
try to play around them if possible. Force of Vigor is not a great card, but we are in the market
for any kind of free form of interaction, even if it’s not particularly effective it might cripple your
opponent. Try to aim it towards their Mox Opals to attack their mana.

4th Amulet Titan Matchup Guide - Karn PDF

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4th Amulet Titan Matchup Guide - Karn PDF

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26/07/2019 4th Amulet Titan Matchup Guide: Karn - Google Docs

Karn-Amulet Titan Matchup Guide and Sideboarding:

Welcome to another installment of my sideboard guide! Thanks so much for subscribing

This is the list we will be using:

Here you will find:

- Humans (Slightly unfavorable):

- Burn (Slightly Favorable to Even):

- Bant/UW Spirits (Even-Unfavorable):

- Hollow One (Even):

- Hardened Scales (Unfavorable):

- Affinity (Even-Slightly Favorable):

- Mono R Phoenix/Mono R Prowess (Unfavorable):

- Bogles (Very Favorable):

- Merfolk (Very Favorable):

- Mill (Very Unfavorable):

- RG/Naya Zoo (Favorable):

- BGx (Slightly Favorable):

- Mardu Pyromancer (Slightly Unfavorable):

- Grixis/Esper Shadow (Unfavorable):

- Jund/4c Shadow (Slightly Unfavorable):

- Skred Red (Even):

- Ponza (Very Unfavorable):

- GW Value Town/GWx Company (Favorable):

- Eldrazi Tron (Favorable):

OUT: -2 Summoner’s Pact, -1 Pact of Negation, -2 Ancient Stirrings, -1 Sakura-Tribe Scout

- Martyr Proc (Very Favorable):

- Green Devotion/Tooth and Nail Combo/Mono G Karn (Slightly Favorable):

- UW Control (Even to Favorable):

- UWr (Jeskai) Control (Even):

- Esper Control (Even):

- UR Control (Blue Moon) (Very Unfavorable):

- Against Thing in the Ice builds:

- Against Kiki/Exarch or Madcap Experiment builds:

IN: +2 Negate, +1 Force of Vigor, +1 Reclamation Sage, +2 Path to Exile

- Grixis Control (Slightly Favored):

OUT: -2 Sakura-Tribe Scout, -1 Amulet of Vigor, -1 Coalition Relic

- BUG Teachings (Even to unfavorable):

- Blue Tron (Slightly Favorable):

- Ux Whir Prison, aka Salt Stax (Unfavorable):

- Lantern (Even to Slightly Favorable):

- 8-Rack (Slightly Favorable):

- Amulet Titan (Even, obviously):

- Amulet Bloom (Slightly Unfavorable):

- Infect (Very Unfavorable):

- TitanShift (Even to Slightly Favorable):

- Coco Counters Company (Unfavorable):

- Devoted Druid Combo (Very Unfavorable):

- Grishoalbrand (Very Unfavorable):

- Boaryo’s Vengeance (Very Unfavorable):

- Neobrand (Very Unfavorable):

- Living End (Even):

- 4c Saheeli/Kiki Chord (Slightly Unfavored):

- Jeskai Saheeli (Slightly Unfavored):

- Taking Turns (Even):

- Cheeri0s (Very Unfavorable):

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