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Table of Contents

Build

Stock List

Played in the MTGO Challenge on 2025-07-20

Recent Adaptations

Short notes on how I deviate any given week from the stock list for the current MTGO League meta.

2025-08-18

Variations and similar decks

I [kirdie] almost always play the stock variant because it is so well-balanced with the stable mana base and the pressure against linear decks and to finish in time. I only deviate in small events with a known and very specific metagame but feel free to explore different variations.

Red Splash

I want to splash red if I go to Italy and play paper. Haha. I loved this splash when Show and Tell and Stock Ups were heavily played. Let’s say Painter became a 15% deck, then I would love Meltdown as well.

Going Bigger

You can try to get an edge in grindy matchups by going slightly bigger and replacing Nethergoyfs with Baleful Strix, Dauthi Voidwalkers and/or Stock Up. Those rare variants often go up to 20 lands (e.g. by adding a second Undercity Sewers) and down to two Daze.

Red-based Delver decks

Red-based Daze decks with Delver or Cori-Steel Cutter are more explosive and kill faster, have reach through Lightning Bolt and bring powerful red sideboard cards like Pyroblast and Meltdown. UB Tempo is slower, has a more stable mana bases, can go longer through card advantage with Tamiyo and can kill high toughness creatures easier with black removal spells.

Why not play UB Reanimator?

  UB Tempo UB Reanimator
strength at competitive events high high
strength at casual events medium high very high
skill floor high medium
skill ceiling high high
weak to grave hate only certain ones (e.g. Nihil Spellbomb, Unlicensed Hearse) and in some situations yes
archetype tempo/midrange combo with a tempo/midrange backup plan
weakness to nonbasic land hate medium/low medium (2 basics but needs double black often)
sideboard flexibility high medium
are people prepared against you more than the meta share suggests but you are still shielded by Reanimator very
danger of potential bans Tamiyo ban in 2025 unlikely safe for EW 2025 NA, high afterwards

Both UB Tempo and UB Reanimator are competitive decks that can win tournaments at the highest level, so just play the one you have more fun with and are more comfortable! As most and especially the most expensive cards are shared among both, no one is stopping you from trying out both of them in casual events like leagues. If you have equal fun with both of them, note down the wins and losses with any deck you play and you can choose the one with your personal highest win rate, given a resonable amount of matches. After all, what use is it to you if the average player has a higher win rate with UB Reanimator, if you personally perform better with UB Tempo? When I did this originally in 2024, I got around 52% win rate with UB Tempo and 42% win rate with UB Reanimator, so for me it was a clear choice. Now in 2025 I have ~59% win rate over 362 matches with UB Tempo and ~61% with UB Reanimator but those stats are mostly from leagues and I notice that deck comfort plays a huge role in important and larger events. Sure, I crushed some matches by going for a protected Entomb+Reanimate but the finer details take a long time to master, especially if in a meta saturated by grave hate like it is right now, with UB Reanimator having a huge target on its back. UB Tempo only gets hit with some splash damage like the Psychic Frog ban or mainboard grave hate but can also lead the opponent to expect you to be on the more popular UB Reanimator, and UB Tempo can quickly snowball on a slow start from an overly cautious opponent.

As a cautionary tale, I got around 60% win rate with Tamiyo Psychic Frog Tempo Doomsday in 2024 from the comfort of my home in leagues where I could look up my opponents and take my sweet time to build my pile but I got absolutely crushed in the Eternal Weekend EU 2024 side event and switched back to UB tempo that night and next morning. I achieved a personal record large event result of 7-3-1 (ID) due to being so experienced and comfortable with the deck to carry me through stressful situations. But if you are still undecided and have equal or low experience with both and just want to win as much as possible in the short term, then UB Reanimator is probably the better pick for you, as UB Tempo is very sensitive to misplays and missing experience.

Still, there are legitimate advantages to playing UB Tempo besides comfort so lets explore them. Let’s first identify what they have in common besides the mana base (only 3 Wastelands but 2 Sewers in Reanimator):

And now which cards are only in Reanimator:

Cards only in UB Tempo:

Cards in UB Tempo that Reanimator has in lower numbers or in the sideboard only:

We can already see that UB Tempo is better in scrappy situations where we only get a single spell like Nethergoyf off before trading back and forth with Wasteland and Daze or being Blood Mooned. UB Tempo can also play better on basic lands because we don’t rely so heavily on double black mana, while UB Reanimator starting on basic Island means they cannot combo before their third turn, which allows the opponent to play more aggressively. UB Tempo is also favored in games centered around Tamiyo, especially preboard, because you can threaten it with Nethergoyf, keep it in check with Orcish Bowmasters, Fatal Push their Tamiyo and sometimes prevent Murktide using Nihil Spellbomb. However the threat of their combo forces you to often delay your creatures in favor of Thoughtseize or Nihil Spellbomb. But that specific matchup is discussed in way more detail in the UB Reanimator matchup section.

Kaito is also very hard to deal with for some decks, especially for threat light control or midrange redless decks like BUG Beanstalk or Bant Control. Even in the rare occasion that a Rest in Peace hits the battlefield, you can often play on just fine by using that 0/1 Nethergoyf to bring in Kaito.

However UB Tempo can be quite mediocre against a lot of nonblue fair decks that may be played at your local game store or some weeks in leagues like WR Energy or Elves. I find it a bit illogical if people play a lot of such anti-tempo decks while all Tempo decks combined are only around 10% of the metagame but if they do that and don’t respect the graveyard, feel free to switch it up and bring UB Reanimator to take advantage of that for a while.

I actually find the matchup with those fair decks to be actually quite good against UB Reanimator if they are constructed appropriately (respecting GY in some capacity maindeck and seriously in the SB), because it is quite easy to shut off the Reanimator angle of the deck relative to the Tempo plan, i.e. drawing one or two graveyard hate pieces versus being structurally favored in a long game due to the rest of your 60. So I actually find it quite logical to play decks like cradle, BW blink, etc. Those decks do struggle vs Forge IMO, which is a different problem but considering only UB Reanimator I think they are good choices. Not having FoW of course opens you up to getting double forced and Entomb-Reanimated or similar nut draws, so I get the sentiment.

Sideboard flexibility

UB Reanimator has sideboard slots reserved for more midrange cards like Fatal Push and Orcish Bowmasters that UB Tempo has in the main deck, so UB Tempo has a lot more room to hate on certain types of decks. For example, if your local meta is high on Lands and Cloudpost, you have the room to add two Harbingers of the Seas to the sideboard. If there is a lot of Mystic Forge and Storm, pack two Null Rods. Elves, WR Energy and Goblins? Toxic Deluge, Hydroblast and Engineered Explosives help!

As this is a complex topic and I’m always open to other opinions, feel free to disagree or elaborate and add to this or other sections.

Lands

You don’t really have to think about tuning the mana base because it’s always the same 19. You have four Underground Sea, four Polluted Delta, basic Island, basic Swamp, Undercity Sewers. Then you usually include two blue fetches and two black fetches so you have equal opportunities to fetch both basics. This is especially important against 8 Moon, also known as Dragon Stompy. I personally value style and like old border so I play two Flooded Strand and two Bloodstained Mire but there may be some really fringe benefits of splitting them up against Pithing Needle or representing another deck. And of course you play four Wastelands, especially now that Harbingers don’t kill Sagas anymore. The only possible adaptation is if you have a bigger build, for example with Dauthi Voidwalkers instead of Nethergoyfs, you can add a second Undercity Sewers as a 20th land and go down to two Daze. The second Sewers also makes you look like Reanimator and if you dont play Goyf, high-level opponents may sideboard incorrectly.

Tempo Core

We are a blue Tempo deck so no surprises here, all four-offs except only three Daze because we are slightly slower then red Tempo and have 19 lands.

Brainstorm

Flipping Tamiyo T2 means a T5 ultimate if not stopped which mostly wins the game. Don’t forget to play around Orcish Bowmasters.

Threats

There is the basic core of Nethergoyfs and Tamiyo’s and Orcish Bowmasters. You play at least three of each but I always play 4 Nethergoyf and 4 Orcish Bowmasters. Some people play less Nethergoyfs and play more Baleful Strix but here I only cover the variant with at least three Nethergoyfs. You almost always play one or two Brazen Borrower just as a catch-all answer to stuff like Ensnaring Bridge or Chalice of the Void. And the name of the game of this deck is consistency so this fits really well, as you want to have an out to a lot of things.

Nethergoyf

People were initially skeptical but most play 4 now for good reasons. Large and cheap beater, good blocker, enables Kaito and can even sometimes come back from the grave in grindy matches. Can grow Murktide Regent for lethal, weak to an anti-graveyard meta (Rest in Peace, Nihil Spellbomb, Leyline of the Void, Dauthi Voidwalker). Against Izzet try to play at 3/4 or with instant speed growth to 3/4. Normally you want to attack first and then cast your spells to get more information but Nethergoyf often prefers the other way around so if you spells get countered you may attack for more. Sometimes you don’t have a land in the graveyard and it’s good to fetch before attacking. Against damage based removal, consider delaying Nethergoyf until it survives. For example T1 Ponder, T2 Brainstorm fetch Nethergoyf plays around Lightning Bolt. Alternatively you can also just fetch and Ponder and bait them into bolt, then save it with an instant. You can force a delirious DRC to attack, then clear their graveyard with Nihil Spellbomb in the attack step, then block and kill it with Nethergoyf. Don’t forget the escape ability, as long as you don’t have a Grafdigger’s Cage in play.

Tamiyo, Inquisitive Student

Bowmastering at their end step to draw the Brainstorm out is OK sometimes. APNAP comes into play: Active players triggers go on stack first. On their turn if they Brainstorm you play Bowmasters, ping something, they draw 3 triggering Bowmasters 3 times and triggering Tamiyo’s flip, resolve brainstorm, flip goes on stack, then your 3 Bowmasters triggers, and hopefully kill their Tamiyo, so probably not a good play, but on our turn these triggers are switched. This allows you to consider flipping Tamiyo at odd times in the face of a Bowman if you have an answer to their consequent board state. Often against Bowmasters mirrors, just using your mana efficiently to sorcery speed a clue away from Bowmasters mana is correct. If the opponent chump blocks with the Orc Army Token and it doesn’t change the result (e.g. you attack with a 3/4 Nethergoyf into a 1/1 token) that can be a great timing to crack a clue without giving the opponent more than one damage.

Orcish Bowmasters

Murktide Regent or Barrowgoyf

Murktide kills faster against combo and control but Barrowgoyf stabilizes extremely well. The current meta is high on Fatal Push which is why Murktide is often a great counter to the meta removal, however it dies to Pyroblast. Barrowgoyfs main can free a sideboard slot but it can backfire against UB Reanimator because they might discard or kill it and then reanimate it. Blue count g1 is a consideration here, how many decks in the upper meta is Barrowgoyf good against vs Murktide? Murktide: Reanimator, Izzet, UB Tempo, Oops, can mention others but those are the main perks. Barrowgoyf: Red Stompy, Izzet, UB Tempo.

Removal

Fatal Push

Kills most relevant creatures in Legacy, so play 4. Try to leave a fetch land or bauble uncracked if 3 and 4 mana creatures like Nadu are relevant in the matchup. Against Moon Stompy, Fatal Push is often useless as you can not fetch with a Blood Moon in play, so consider leaving a clue uncracked as long as you don’t play Null Rod. You can target any creature with Fatal Push, even if it doesn’t have an effect.

Brazen Borrower

Can bounce stuff that Fatal Push doesn’t hit, like Murktide Regent, Chalice of the Void, Ensnaring Bridge, Marit Lage, a flipped Tamiyo and much much more. While bounce is less powerful than removal in a vacuum, UB doesn’t have flexible 2 mana removal spells like Molten Collapse or Witherbloom Command, so this is currently our best option. Maybe Wizards will print a UB command in the future? Can also bait an opponent to play Orcish Bowmasters on the 3/1, allowing you to follow up with your own Bowmasters. You can also build your own Vindicate with Petty Theft + Thoughtseize.

Kaito, Bane of Nightmares

Formerly niche card but since the Frog ban firmly established as a two of value engine that is hard to remove and can disable creatures like Murktide Regent or even Emrakul. If you are attacking with a creature with power >3 on MTGO, set a stop at the damage step and Ninjutsu Kaito in, you get the damage and the planeswalker, very good with Barrowgoyf and Murktide situationally. It’s important to set a stop in combat because if you play with stops there, your opponent will know you are not Reanimator because you have Kaito in the deck. Important to consider stun and tick up timing: If you stun something first you are at 2 loyalty, they lose one stun counter, now if you draw with Kaito you will need to tick up on the next turn in order to stun again if you haven’t found an answer. The board state will determine the right move but important to consider. Remember you can ninjutsu your Kaito with another Kaito.

Nihil Spellbomb

Great T1 nonsense protection in the current meta. Even if you see them as something else online, everyone seems to play Reanimator now. Doesn’t stop LED -> Echo but stops 2 LED -> 2 Echos together with a Force. Prevents Murktide, shrinks DRC to block it or kill it with Bowmasters.

Besides the obvious applications it also grows your own Murktide Regent. You must consider Spellbombing when the opponent could play Murktide Regent next turn, so pay attention to the number of cards in your opponents graveyard. Against Reanimator you need a bit more nuance here, can you beat Murktide otherwise? Do you have FoW? Can you afford to unlock their graveyard? Undercity Sewers can help you make hard decisions by informing you of your next draw if it is desirable or not. Are you about to draw a push and you have Hydroblast in hand but they have a red creature and a problematic red permanent for example.

Niche Cards

Dauthi Voidwalker

Easy for Izzet to remove but still a must deal with card early on, probably not the right choice for a bolt meta. Insane against certain decks. I [Minyafriend] have cast The One Ring and Karn against Forge, Sheoldred against Doomsday, Maelstrom Wanderer against Mississippi river, Undercity Informer with Faerie Macabre in hand against Oops, Doomsday against Doomsday. It allows you to protect your own play if Force of Will is exiled, Fable of the Mirror-breaker spamming your own Bowmasters, just use your imagination. The floor is pretty good and the ceiling is crazy high. Best friends with Thoughtseize and counterspells.

Eco:

Sideboard

Eco:

I played a few challenges with Web and found it very underwhelming, main point is that Urza's Saga untaps level 1 because it doesn't have the other abilities yet. Current lands does not get punished enough by this card. Pithing needle seems better if you want to stay UB and stop land strats. I prefer Disruptor Flute over Pithing Needle in several matchups, including Karn Forge, Oops All Spells, Lands, and namesake combo decks like Show and Tell or Painter. Flute also synergizes effectively with Thoughtseize, enhancing its utility. Additionally, instant-speed Needle effects can be significantly more impactful, as they force opponents to commit mana, often resulting in a time walk effect.

Removal

There are numerous options for removal spells in black. As of the writing of this contribution (July 2025), I believe Sheoldred's Edict is the best option, and have two copies in my sideboard. Now, I will outline the pros and cons of the various removal spells as they relate specifically to the UB Tempo mirror.

Let’s take a look at some of the things that Sheoldred’s Edict answers:

Kaito is not a planeswalker on the owners turn, you need to choose creature in that case! So if they have an additional creature you need to wait until your turn to remove it. Creatures with Flash can make it unreliable, like Orcish Bowmasters, Endurance or half of Death and Taxes.

Dismember is a card that I have seen others play in the past as a way to deal with a resolved Magus of the Moon in 3+ color decks without access to a basic swamp. This is an insufficient argument for the inclusion of Dismember when we have access to one of each basic in our colors. I find Dismember to be unreliable in killing Murktide and to a lesser extent, Barrowgoyf. It is worth mentioning that Dismember can be used as a combat trick to allow your creatures to survive and set up favorable trades, or in combination with a timely Bowmaster ping to remove a 6 toughness creature.

The urgent nature of an early Tamiyo and the presence of Daze often results in casting Dismember for 1, which is a nice option, but the reduction in your life total cushion is felt in late game scenarios where you need to push for lethal or cantrip into an active Bowmaster to find lethal or an answer to an impending threat. Lastly, Dismember cannot kill Kaito or a flipped Tamiyo. For these reasons, I do not play it.

Bitter Triumph plays a bit like a compromise between Sheoldred’s Edict and Dismember. It has the greatest flexibility in what it is capable of answering, and is the only 2 mana removal spell discussed in this section that can remove anything out of the UB Tempo deck, no questions asked, save for creature-Kaito during an opponent’s turn. There is value in having access to a removal spell that you know can remove whatever you need, but this comes at a cost of either discarding a card, or 3 life. I mentioned earlier that Force of Will is a liability in the mirror because it is necessary to exile another card in hand in order to cast for free. This is also true for the “discard a card” additional cost for Bitter Triumph, but without the benefit of being able to cast it for free. Once you reach a comfortable number of lands in play, you will likely want to sand bag one to improve future Brainstorms. This could offer an alternative to paying life for Bitter Triumph, but at the cost of making said Brainstorm worse. I have played with Triumph in the past, and almost always ended up paying life. This is problematic in late game scenarios when you need those last few life points to survive. The final scenario is a bit extreme, but it is necessary to identify the fail cases of cards when determining what to include in your 75. Imagine your opponent plays 2+ power creature. You have no cards in hand, no creatures in play, and are at 2 life. Your opponent passes, and you draw Bitter Triumph. You cannot even cast the Triumph and are dead next turn. This would not happen in most other scenarios if the other removal spells were drawn instead.

These two cards are essentially the same, and reminiscent of Doomblade, in that they ask “What kind of creature are you fine with being unable to kill?” While there are many examples of creatures in Legacy that one or the other cannot kill, there are some major ones. Shoot the Sheriff cannot kill Dauthi Voidwalker, Brazen Borrower or Broadside Bombardiers, and Go for the Throat cannot kill Painter’s Servant and Construct tokens. If you should decide to play Shoot the Sheriff or Go for the Throat in your 2 removal sideboard slots, those are the main creatures to look out for. Your local meta will inform your choice. I strongly urge you against playing these cards over Sheoldred’s Edict or Bitter Triumph, especially in the context of the UB Tempo mirror.

I rank the removal options as follows, from best to worst: Sheoldred’s Edict > Bitter Triumph > Go for the Throat / Shoot the Sheriff > Dismember

Graveyard Hate

  turn stops Oops completely side benefits counterplay
Leyline of the Void 0 yes   enchantment removal, bounce
Faerie Macabre 0 no Can be found with Barrowgoyf, combat trick for Nethergoyf, the only card that does not care about Teferi. discard, Stifle
Surgical Extraction 0 no Also good against Life from the Loam and Uro, combat trick for Nethergoyf, in rare cases discard and win condition library removal. Can be bought back by Tamiyo. discard, countermagic
Nihil Spellbomb 1 depends Cantrips. Great support to kill opposing Dragon’s Rage Channeler’s and Nethergoyfs. Can prevent Murktide Regent. EE on 1, artifact removal, bounce, countermagic
Grafdigger’s Cage 1 yes Stops Green Sun’s Zenith and Mystic Forge but not Living End and Beseech the Mirror! Also prevents them from reanimating out of your own graveyard but also stops your own Nethergoyf from coming back. EE on 1, artifact removal, bounce, countermagic
Ghost Vacuum 1 no Win condition in the rare case you get to 6 mana. Often prevents Delirium and Murktide Regent. EE on 1, artifact removal, bounce, countermagic
Unlicensed Hearse 2 no Can eventually attack and block so you don’t risk overboarding against hybrid decks. Almost always prevents Delirium and Murktide Regent. artifact removal, bounce, countermagic
Dauthi Voidwalker 2 yes Also a clock and can use their opponent’s cards against them. Keeps Dragon’s Rage Channeler and Nethergoyf small and prevents Murktide Regent if played early enough. creature removal, bounce, countermagic

As someone who experiments a lot with off meta sideboard cards I want to tell you what doesn’t work to make future exploration easier.

Winter Orb used to see play out of aggressive daze decks to force the opponent to play on your terms while you attack them with a Delver. These days, Blue/Black Tempo is closer to a Midrange deck and can’t take advantage of it - mainly due to Tamiyo’s clues and 3-drops. Winter Moon is interesting but very unreliable between opposing basics, Mox Diamond and your own need to fetch duals I’m certain games. Add in the fact that multiple Boseijus see play, and you end up with a very temporary false sense of security against Lands.

Strategy

Bauble trigger

In paper, I represent bauble triggers with blank cards to not forget them.

Early game

In most matchups, Tamiyo is the best T1 play in a vacuum while Nethergoyf can also be good on T2 because it doesn’t do much dmg T2. However because Tamiyo is so strong in fair blue mirrors, it can often be better start with something else like Thoughtseize to clear away a removal spell or Ponder for a Brainstorm or Daze so that you can protect Tamiyo better. Also sometimes a t1 Nethergoyf can die to damage line bolt or Bowmasters. Bowmasters t2 is good against decks that don’t have their own Bowmasters. Ideal curve is Tamiyo Bowmasters Kaito. Against combo you need to know the earliest they can reasonably win so e.g. vs oops you can never tap out for Tamiyo but vs sneak show them T1 combo is improbable so T1 Tamiyo is good.

Late game

For a Tempo deck you have a surprisingly good end game when Tamiyo and Kaito draw you extra cards which against some decks let’s you just out control them once you stem the initial onslaught.

Clock Management

Playing fast is important because it lets you slow down and take your time with hard, game-deciding decisions. Practice your Ponders, land drops, short cuts and using F6 at strategic moments where you don't give up bluff equity. It's the same in paper; play fast (and make your opponent play fast as well using the judge) from turn 1 of the game. We should not cheat with slow play and then when game two finishes with 8 minutes on the clock start playing fast there.

General Deck Advice

Traditionally you would wait with your spells to get the best result, e.g. wait if you really need to push an opponents creature or something else comes. However this deck is quite mana hungry with all the cards you draw and the clues to crack, so it may often be correct to be quite liberal with your spells to maximize mana efficiency. Even if you don’t suspect your opponent is on nonbasic land hate it is often almost free to get basic swamp and basic island so always consider this even if you think it unlikely. A great game plan of this deck is to stick an early Tamiyo and then protect it and disrupt the opponent with Wasteland, Force, Daze and removal. Nethergoyf doesn’t really fit that plan but it is the only card that really does damage early which can actually end the game reasonably fast other than Murktide which comes later. This deck is super fun but is also hard to play, you need a lot of practice and care not to timeout, it is much more value focused and slower than Delver.

I do not agree to liberally fetch basics. It hinders your ability to double spell and makes Wasteland much better late in the game. Basics are a trap in this deck but a necessary evil due to Blood Moon. If you play Harbinger, then you have to consider the Swamp at some point. This is thinking that deserves nuance but I think more often than not we are hurting ourselves with fetching basics. Wasteland is often more important as a mana source for clues than to pick off an opponent's land, we want to draw clues and ninjitsu Kaitos and cast Barrowgoyfs. Wastelanding can open ourselves up to Daze, wastelanding can seriously harm our progression. I need to smell blood or have good information to blindly wasteland the opponent.

Own Card Guide

Counterbalance

Personal pet card but I don’t play it without Delver because you don’t have 4 DRC and 4 Mishra’s Bauble, so you only have Brainstorm (reactively), Ponder (proactively), and Fetchland + maybe Scryland (hopefully). It’s great against all kinds of blue cantrip decks, whether it’s combo, control or tempo.

Opponent Card Guide

Gaea’s Cradle

Sometimes they have a dual land and a Gaea’s Cradle in play and you have to consider which to Wasteland, don’t always automatically kill Cradle as you might be able to mana screw them completely if they have no land in hand, though it is dangerous against decks with a lot of one drop creatures like Elves.

Urza’s Saga (outdated by rules change)

I don’t know why most people don’t do this, but I almost always bring in my Harbingers of the Sea against Saga decks because having a 3 mana 2/2 that kills a Saga and does more later is really strong on it’s own as long as you remember to fetch basic swamp beforehand. You can Wasteland it with the first trigger on the stack so they never get mana. You can Consign to Memory any of the chapter abilities but not the activated one to create a token.

Crop Rotation

Most of the time it’s correct to force it. Wasteland on the opponents turn if you have FoN in hand, even if they have no mana, they may play Elvish Spirit Guide.

Timing Guide

Play Patterns

Shrinking and Growing Creatures

Both UB tempo and many other meta decks have lots of variable-sized creatures, mostly related to card types in the graveyard.

Examples:

Undercity Sewers can be a hail Mary to hope for a favorable flip or you may even guarantee it with a Brainstorm.

-> insert pictures here

Threats First or Later

If you come from a control background you probably prefer to set up with cantrips early but early threats can snowball the game much better, especially Tamiyo. Of course this heavily depends on the matchup, for example vs Oops your best T1 play is Nihil Spellbomb and your second best is Thoughtseize. If you are on a single blue source, think about how probable it is that you get Wastelanded depending on what the opponent shows you. Orcish Bowmasters are often better later in Bowmaster mirrors but against decks with no removal like Show and Tell main phasing it as early as possible is often good.

Matchups

Overview

The deck is generally good against linear combo and red-based tempo decks but struggles against bigger fair decks. Some weaknesses can be adressed with sideboarding but not all at the same time.

Good Matchups

Even

Bad

Tempo Decks

As tempo decks are played a lot, our sideboard should have enough cards to bring in that trade one for one in those grind fests. The easiest way to achieve that is number of Thoughtseize + Forces main = number of BEB + removal + creatures side (not counting Harbinger). The reason for the Thoughtseize-BEB switch is that DRC + Bolt kill you quickly. You have a great tempo matchup as you can remove almost anything, only Murktide, Counterbalance and Kaito can be difficult to handle.

Update: UR variants using Cori-Steel Cutter instead of Delver are much more even and Thoughtseize is better there.

Sideboarding Philosophies: Grind vs Snowball

I am following Ecobaronens late game focused approach of boarding out FoW and shaving Daze/Thoughtseize, so that we have lots of live draws after an early war of attrition. Note that there are also very successful tempo players that focus on an early game snowball instead, which is very well possible with cards like Delver of Secrets, Cori-Steel Cutter, Tamiyo, Murktide and Kaito. Those players tend to leave in some or all FoW and Daze depending on play/draw. If you are facing one of those players, adapt accordingly.

Priorities

Black Daze including the mirror

Are you playing against Reanimator, Tempo or Doomsday?

If you see generic UB cards, assume UB Reanimator due to higher play rate until you see Nethergoyf, Kaito or main deck Nihil Spellbomb, most of the other cards are unfortunately shared between both decks. It’s sometimes hard to know whether you are versing the mirror or UB Reanimator even after G1 unless you see Nethergoyf, Kaito or mainboard Fatal Push (UB Tempo) or Entomb, Reanimate, Atraxa, Archon of Cruelty or Animate Dead (UB Reanimator). The second Undercity Sewers is also an indicator but not always. When in doubt, it’s better to assume Reanimator if you aren’t sure because it is played so often but I would not shave on Fatal Push then. Due to its low play rate, I wouldn’t assume Doomsday unless facing a known Doomsday player.

Quick Tips: Don’t forget about Kaito! For example you should always block Tamiyo if you can if they have UBx available. It’s very hard to remove for UB except with combat damage, so get creatures on the board quickly.

UB Tempo Mirror (6% Meta game)

Luke:

Sideboarding

Thankfully, the sideboard plan for the mirror is straightforward and intuitive.

Out

-4 Force of Will.

In the mirror, we share most cards with our opponent, depending on whether they have elected to configure their deck around Dauthi Voidwalker or Nethergoyf. There are no “unfair” or “win the game on the spot” combos out of the UB Tempo deck, so the resulting matches are attrition style, back and forth games. Force of Will is a liability due to the requirement of exiling one of our other cards. We will replace them with cards that deal with threats after they have hit the board, as well as some additional threats of our own.

In

+2 Barrowgoyf +2 Removal.

Barrowgoyf has been discussed at length in this guide, and I will address its merits again shortly.

Removal discussion in the UB mirror context has been moved here.

UB Ninjas

Red Daze decks including actual Delver

The most aggressive variants, focus on survival first. In: BEB, removal and creatures Out: Force of Negation, Force of Will, Thoughtseize, Daze

Be aware Stifle is a thing. In: blasts, removal, Goyfs Out: FoW, Thoughtseize Black Daze vs. Red Daze is a cool matchup where they fold to a lot of your cards. Play the matchup some more, and you’ll win more games for sure. Focus on stopping aggression and accepting Daze instead of falling behind too much. Sometimes we can respect Daze, but if you respect it too much, you will get run over. Build basics if possible.

Sideboarding

In
Out

Boarding out Daze instead of Thoughtseize is also an option.

RUG Druid

Before Cutter was printed, this was the main red variation and a good matchup for UB as you can kill all their threats one-for-one and outvalue their Druids. If you can kill an unflipped Delver or a non-delirious Dragon’s Rage Channeler with Orcish Bowmaster you should be miles ahead, but that is easier said then done, so don’t allin on that as you are already favored most of the time. Barrowgoyf is extremely hard to handle for them.

Your Nihil Spellbomb timing is very important here: If they have a delirious Dragon’s Rage Channeler then using it in the attack step can be used to chump block it with a Nethergoyf or an Orc Army token. However a resolved Murktide is often a huge problem for you and once it is in play the Spellbomb may even grow it, so you may have to use it earlier. Taking away Delirium can also be useful to save your creatures from Unholy Heat.

UR Cutter

A matchup that is favoured according to other tempo players but I struggle with a lot, as Cori-Steel Cutter can quickly take over a game and Murktide Regent can also be difficult to answer for us, while they have Pyroblast for our Murktides. Stopping the Cutter is a priority because it snowballs out of control quickly and if they get a second one they often one-shot you even from close to 20 life. Beware of their combat tricks as they can get lots of prowess triggers and even give Murktide Regent haste by equipping the Cutter. Engineered Explosives may be necessary to survive long enough to stabilize with a Barrowgoyf. On the draw you may have to cut one Kaito and you also may need to keep in some Forces even though they are bad against Pyroblast because the Cutter is so deadly and produces multiple threats.

Sideboarding

See general sideboarding vs Red Daze decks above but you can also bring in cards that deal with Cutter and/or the tokens (which are white Monks).

UB Reanimator

The currently most played and probably strongest deck even after the Grief, Frog and Troll bans is a tempo combo hybrid that puts you in constant danger from two angles: If you keep or even mulligan to a hand with grave hate and Force of Will, they may just out-tempo you with Tamiyo, Orcish Bowmasters, Murktide Regent, Brazen Borrower or Barrowgoyf. If you have threats and removal they may just reanimate a Fattie and against tempo the game is mostly over if a single Fattie hits the battlefield. However since the Frog ban, the tempo part of the deck is much weaker, especially before sideboarding, so you should prioritize not dying to their combo and your tempo plan will most likely win against theirs. Very skill testing, but good matchup for us if we have two Nihil Spellbomb in the main deck, just be prepared to fight over end of turn Petty Theft into their turn Reanimate. They have a sideboard juke to board out Entomb, Animate Dead and the Fatties and board in more creatures like Barrowgoyf and more removal. However then they are just a worse tempo deck than you are so it’s probably best for them to not juke, unless they expect you to over-prepare for the reanimation plan.

Before the Grief ban, graveyard hate from hand was bad due to Grief but I often get my Grafdigger’s Cage bounced by Brazen Borrower or killed by Engineered Explosives and lose anyways. Since the Grief ban your hand is a bit safer so cards like Surgical Extraction and maybe even Faerie Macabre should be better now. It’s also super hard to win two games in a row on the play and draw, so having mainboard grave hate like Nihil Spellbomb really helps.

Identify what kind of UB Reanimator you are playing against. Do they have push main, Inquisition of Kozilek in the sideboard, they go harder on combo, no midrange plan other than Tamiyo, no Bowmasters? Are there Murktides and Barrowgoyfs main? Then it's midrange with I-win-button. Stifles and Murktides main indicate tempo/combo. Voidwalkers main usually read as UB Reanimator, probably midrange sideboard plan. Are they a Wasteland version? Definitely heavily recommend looking up opponents in challenges to see what style they are known for and make decisions accordingly. This deck has A LOT of options to build around. I don't recommend siding out Force of Will even with Dauthi Voidwalkers.

Videos

Sideboarding:

In

All graveyard hate (normally I have 2 mainboard and another 2 sideboard). Don’t board in FoN as it’s not good against their fair plan and also avoid Consign to Memory, as they probably board out Animate Dead.

Out

Daze, shave Wasteland, maybe 1 Fatal Push if you don’t see Voidwalkers but I like to keep all Pushes i. All Barrowgoyfs as they are too dangerous to get reanimated against you. I used to board out 4 Wasteland but you need the mana against Daze and to crack clues and you want to keep them below 5-6 mana for hardcast FoW, and the Ghost Vacuum in case they being that in.

Alternative 1: INF likes to shave two Nethergoyf on the draw:

Basically, UB Reani shifts to a tempo plan, so we aim to control the board by applying removal spells appropriately. The game tends to slow down, so we're reducing the number of Nethergoifs, which only serve to attack. (Since the opponent's creatures have evasion, goyf don't become blockers that stop the board.

Alternative 2 : If you have 4 mainboard Dauthi Voidwalker, you can board out Force of Will instead and keep Barrowgoyfs.

Turbo Reanimator

In contrast to the slow and steady UB Reanimator behemoth, Turbo Reanimator tries to combo as early as turn 1, so you need to adjust your playstyle accordingly. While against UB Reanimator starting with a Tamiyo and no interaction in hand is often necessary to not get grinded out, here you are more incentivised to Ponder for interaction first and deploying your threats when you are not immediately in danger of dying. Nihil Spellbomb is extremely strong in game 1.

Postboard Pivots

Because Turbo Reanimator is much more all in and vulnerable to graveyard hate then UB Reanimator, they often do a full or partial juke (pivot) to a different strategy. Your generic combo hate, like Thoughtseize, Force of Will and Force of Negation, works against most of them so you should still be favored even if you hedge for a pivot that they don’t do. Their splash colors restrict which pivots they have access to: Blue for Show and Tell, green for Chain of Smog + Witherbloom Apprentice, red for Stronghold Gambit (probably not good against you). Theoretically they could also pivot to castable non-combo creatures like Barrowgoyf, Orcish Bowmasters, Dauthi Voidwalker and Opposition Agent but I rarely see that.

Chain of Smog Combo

Often paired with Spoils of the Vault, this two-card combo kills you immediately by draining you for unlimited life points.

The copy effect is not a trigger that you can Stifle or Consign to Memory but instead happens on resolution. This means that you can safely let them discard their hand first and then Force or Daze afterwards if you have enough life to spare. If you have less than 4 cards in hand this may leave you unable to stop a reanimation effect.

Sometimes it's correct not to let them discard before forcing. Not usually, but sometimes. I've certainly used Smog as a self discard outlet to then reanimate a creature before.

If your interaction is a removal spell instead, you can still let them empty their hand but they can always make you discard two cards afterwards.

They'll almost always copy the spell to you if you kill the creature. In rare cases they may not, like if you push the creature while they still have cards in hand, they might not discard you because they want to keep their last cards and dont want you to copy it back at them. But most of the time it's correct to let them discard their hand first and then they'll generally always point it at you after their creature is dead. In that situation where you only have a couple cards in hand, if you have the choice between removal or Borrower, it's almost always correct to Petty Theft once they empty their hand. The final Smog copy will force them to discard their own Apprentice anyways, and after they discard you, you'll have a guaranteed threat in the adventure zone which puts them under a ton of pressure with no cards in their hand.

Sideboarding

Always In

Naturally you want all the grave hate and counterspells you can get.

Almost Always Out

They probably board out some or all Griselbrands and even if they don’t they may not draw into open mana, so Bowmasters are quite useless, unless they also play Faithless Looting.

Situational Cards

If they show red spells like Faithless Looting you want blue blasts for sure. If you see red producing lands but no red spells, the splash may only be for a sideboard Stronghold Gambit that they may not bring in, so decide based on the information you have but blue blasts always pitch to Force so they are never completely useless.

I’m not sure about Consign because it’s only really good vs Animate Dead and they may board that out. Theoretically you could also Consign an Atraxa or Archon trigger and then Petty Theft the creature or stun it with Kaito.

If they show green for the Witherbloom Combo, removal can be game deciding. Even if they don’t, they may bring in a few creatures like Dauthi Voidwalkers that you don’t want to waste a Force of Will on, so it may be worth keeping in a small amount of removal.

Cards I don’t like to Cut

I don’t like to cut threats other than Orcish Bowmasters because when accumulating enough damage Reanimate becomes uncastable at some point, Spoils of the Vault becomes more risky and when you don’t have a draw engine you also want to finish the game as soon as possible. Both sides of Tamiyo are really strong. I prefer to flip her as early as possible and recur interaction (mostly Thoughtseize or a Force), as going for the ultimate is often too risky. Tamiyo, Murktide and Kaito and are pitch cards for your Forces. You can shave one Kaito but in rare situations you can actually bring it into play and lock the game up after a lot of early trading or even tap a fattie to get in the last few points of damage. They have a lot of mana sources but still play into Daze a lot and Wastelands make Daze stronger and can turn off offcolor spells like Show and Tell or Witherbloom Apprentice.

Oops All Spells

This is one of the few matchups where I mulligan aggressively for turn 1 interaction they are so fast. Take your time, mulligan to enough turn 1 interaction and never give them an opening to combo. Double Daze + Surgical is not enough on the draw as the zombies will kill you in three turns after memories journey even if you surgical the Thassa’s Oracle.

Videos

Sideboarding

In

Bring in all graveyard hate and countermagic including Force of Negation and Consign to Memory. With Force of Negation you may have to force Dark Ritual because their combo pieces are creatures. They may have a pivot to creatures (if you don’t see Pact of Negation) or to Goblin Charbelcher, but that is not great for them because your countermagic still works against it, often they still do it so bring in the Null Rods. Be careful with Null Rod turning off your own Nihil Spellbombs and Clue tokens though.

Out

Shave Wasteland if that isn’t enough.

What’s the Play

A full game: postboard on on the draw
Keep or Mull?

The Mono B builds (either Belcher juke SB or creature juke SB) are 26.4% to t1 on a 7 or 6, 9.45% chance of that being protected t1 (if on PON over Unmask - I'll talk about that more later) on a 7, and 9.2% on a 6.
Kirdie's Thoughts

While I generally mull away hands that cannot interact with their T1, I’m willing to risk the ~26% chance of getting T1ed here because if I get to play Nihil Spellbomb, the game is heavily in my favor.

What happened

Opponent Thoughtseized me, taking away the Nihil Spellbomb and passed back.

We survived to our Turn 1, how to proceed?

  1. Wasteland and pass
  2. Wasteland and kill their land
  3. Underground Sea and Brainstorm
  4. Underground Sea and pass
  5. Undercity Sewers
What could they have in hand at worst next turn?

The most threatening 4 cards would be a black mana source, Dark Ritual, a combo creature and either a Pact (if we Brainstorm for a Force) or another mana source (if we Wasteland them). They could also have land, 2 Elvish Spirit Guides and a combo creature, giving us no target for a Force of Negation but for Daze.

Kirdie's Play

I only seriously considered options 2 and 4. If we had relevant zero mana spells like Tormod’s Crypt, then I would also consider 3. As they have way more mana sources than Pact of Negations in their deck, I would vastly prefer a Force of Will to a Wasteland. However Wastelanding them is guaranteed while finding relevant interaction with Brainstorm is iffy. Even if we consider our 2 Force of Negation and 3 Daze in addition to our 4 Force of Wills, that is only 9 hits out of 52 cards. As we are playing on MTGO and Oops does not tax our timer, we can plug that into a hypergeometric calculator like https://aetherhub.com/Apps/HyperGeometric and get a 44.2% chance to draw at least one of them. As I don’t like those chances, I decide to Wasteland instead.

Two turns later: What to Thoughtseize?

The opponent could not combo and we are lucky to draw another Nihil Spellbomb T2 that we can’t slam fast enough. T3 we draw Thoughtseize and immediately play it, what do we take?

Kirdie's Thoughts I (no spoiler)

If we didn’t Wasteland the opponent earlier, they could have a protected combo by now. But since we got down a Nihil Spellbomb in the meantime, they are in a difficult spot. Their options for winning are now as follows:

  1. they could have a creature juke (unlikely with Pact)
  2. one more mana + artifact removal/bounce (+ mana/more turns for that)
  3. a lot more mana + Goblin Charbelcher (not great against our postboard configuration but many Oops players still board it in)
  4. two more mana + going through a multi-turn line involving Memory’s Journey

Which card do we take to make their comeback as hard as possible?

Kirdie's Thoughts II

As we don’t have a Force in hand, I decide to take the Elvish Spirit guide as that delays both a possible Goblin Charbelcher as well as Memory’s Journey.

Playing Tight: How to wrap this up?

We nearly won this game but we should always play tight and not give them any chance to come back.

Kirdie's Mistake

This game state is interesting because our options conflict with each other: Null Rod deactivates the Lotus Petals and a potential LED + Charbelcher but our Nihil Spellbomb as well. Ninjutsuing Kaito off Murktide gives us surveil + draw but reduces our damage. I chose to do just that, using Ninjutsu in the damage step (see my stops) to keep a 3 turn clock while still getting the surveil two + draw.

Can you find a better line?

There is no single draw that the opponent could realistically have in their deck that wins next turn given that we know their hand. The graveyard combo can be delayed through Nihil Spellbomb and Goblin Charbelcher needs 7 mana to play and activate. Thus we should go for a next turn kill which we can achieve by either hardcasting Kaito (giving us surveil 2 + a card draw) or by playing Tamiyo and Ninjutsuing Kaito in next turn. This is easy to overlook if we are rushing our plays and conditioned always use Ninjutsu instead of hardcasting Kaito. If we aren’t forced to use the Spellbomb, we could even pump Murktide by 2 but that isn’t even necessary.

The Cabal Therapy

Oops is flashbacking Cabal Therapy targetting us after milling their deck. How do we respond? Their exile is 2 Simian Spirit Guide 1 Pact of Negation. Our hidden board is 2 lands 2 Nethergoyf. I was playing on MTGO and had a lot of time to spare, so I took a whole 15 minutes to think this through. I suggest you to think it through in detail as well before opening the spoiler.

What's in their hand?

We don’t see Thassa’s Oracle anywhere, so unless they misbuilt their deck, that is their hand.

The Dilemma

Responding to the Cabal Therapy by casting Surgical Extraction on Memory’s Journey would probably lose because they can use the second Cabal Therapy on themselves, discarding it and then using Dread Return for the win. Surgical Extraction on something else also iffy because they can use Memory’s Journey next upkeep to for example put 2 Lotus Petals on top of their deck and cast Oracle. Even if we take away the Lotus Petals, they could use Chrome Mox and a blue card and use Jack-o’-Lantern or just beat us down with Narcomoebas, Poxwalkers and Bridge Tokens.

Outside Context

They did not see Surgical this match and I goldfished myself to verify that my last trophies were on Faerie not Surgical.

Kirdie's play

I let Cabal Therapy resolve and they named Faerie Macabre, which I often have two of in my public results. Then they used the second Cabal Therapy and I responded with Surgical Extraction on Memory’s Journey, taking away their only option of going for a multi-turn win as they now had no way left to discard Thassa’s Oracle. Note that an absolute Oops-master respecting me to play perfectly could have logically excluded Faerie Macabre from being in my hand as I would have used that on both the other Cabal Therapy and Memory’s Journey.

Red Stompy AKA Dragon Stompy AKA Red Prison

Slightly unfavored matchup but can be beat by fetching basics ASAP and focusing on staying alive through the early turns. Once you stop the initial onslaught you should be favoured as your cantrips give you better average draws but that’s never a guarantee, they always have a chance to topdeck back-to-back threats and bury you. Mulligan for T1 interaction (Thoughtseize/Daze/Force OTP, Force OTD) as you don’t have many outs to a resolved Chalice or Blood Moon. The tricky part is turning up the heat and killing them quickly as soon as you can afford to because of their overwhelming value with The One Ring and pressure. If you can stick Tamiyo or Kaito you may also switch into a control role but otherwise you will run out of interaction at some point when they jam a haymaker every other turn.

In

Hydroblasts and Consign to Memory are extremely valuable in the matchup because they allow you to trade 1:1 which is very important as you often have to handle several threats in a row. Barrowgoyf is hard for them to handle and both the lifegain and the card advantage are sorely needed in the matchup. I personally also bring in one or two Null Rods but that’s debatable.

Not a big fan of Null Rod.Try not to get your Goyfs Furied but what can you do.

Out

Spellbomb is a blank, Daze is unreliable against sol lands + Simian Spirit Guide. Bowmasters are decent against Fable of the Mirror-Breaker and good against The One Ring but it’s better to prevent that from entering in the first place. If you need more room, shave Thoughtseize.

Black Stompy

Cascade Crash

One of our best aggro matchups because Nethergoyf and Fatal Push line up well against a pair of 4/4s. They have mainboard Force of Negation so consider casting important spells on their turn. Be prepared to have your lands iced and your graveyard Endurance-d.

Sideboarding

In

Postboard is even better because Consign to Memory is a clean answer to the cascade trigger and Hydroblast is very efficient as well. Barrowgoyf just completely outclasses their threats. I rarely include it but if you do, Flusterstorm is amazing as well. They can prolong the game with Brazen Borrower but pitching Spirit Guides means that they should be empty handed quickly. Just be careful with postboard Mystical Dispute and Blood Moon if they even bring that in.

Out

Initiative Stompy

Lands

Bad matchup but can sometimes be beaten, especially with a quick Tamiyo ultimate (if you play around Karakas) and Kaito (cannot be Mazed) as they are hard to for them to handle. If they don’t splash white and you can prevent Maze of Ith, a quick Murktide Regent can also work but ground combat with a mix of Nethergoyf and Bowmasters is less reliable due to Bojuka Bog, Tabernacle and constructs. Sometimes you can cut them off colored mana as they have surprisingly few of that (e.g. Wasteland on Yavimaya).

Creates two triggers when used on Dark Depths, which has an intervening if-clause. You can let the first one happen and then Wasteland the leftover Dark Depths after the legend rule takes effect to have them lose both lands. With enough time they can protect against that by copying a basic land first, then you can’t waste the Stage anymore. Stage can also copy Urza’s Saga and then copy something else the next turn to keep it permanently on chapter two.

Videos

Sideboarding

Postboard it gets a little bit better because you have a lot of almost-blanks to board out and they don’t gain much except maybe Choke, Endurance, Dismember and another Pithing Needle.

In
Out

As long as they don’t play Elvish Reclaimer, Push does nothing else than removing a single construct. If you need more room, shave Daze. A single Barrowgoyf is also arguable as a way to survive constructs.

Explanation

Most players went off Harbingers since the Urza’s Saga rules, but if you are one of the Harbinger-diehards you are in luck as it still massively improves the matchup. You only have to be careful about them getting a Saga to chapter two before Harbinger enters, so you might have to use Consign to Memory on the second chapter or Wasteland first (which admittedly is a big ask).

Force of Negation is good because it prevents Life from the Loam from coming back. Consider Wastelanding them on their turn if you have FoN in hand in case they have Crop Rotation, which is almost always worth a force.

If there is a lot of lands in your meta it may be worth it to switch one of your graveyard hate pieces to Surgical Extraction. A single Surgical is nice against Loam and as you have so many dead cards like Push and Bowmasters it is surely better than those and can get rid of some other card as well in a pinch. Similarily, I would also keep Nihil Spellbomb in as it can sometimes weaken Life from the Loam as there are worse cards.

Consign to Memory is not great but still better than Bowmasters and Push. Using Consign on Dark Depths does not help as it immediately retriggers. However it can counter an artifact, one or multiple Saga triggers at the same time. It may also allow you to push for lethal by protecting your Nethergoyfs from a Bojuka Bog or Endurance trigger or counter the game deciding Sejiri Steppe trigger when you want to bounce or block the Marit Lage token.

Removal is generally bad against lands but Brazen Borrower (care for Sejiri Steppe) and Sheoldred’s Edict (if there is no construct token) are some of the few that can get rid of Marit Lage.

You can try Tsabo’s Web if there is a lot of lands (never tried it though and it’s not recommended).

BUG Beans

Super fun to play and much loved by the community but even with the new Rakshasa’s Bargain it does seem to compete at the absolute top of the meta game right now so the play rate is currently not that high. Theoretically it is built to counter Tempo decks such as UB because it has more value while still having enough threats to not being clunky, but due to the high power level of the current UB cards it is still somewhat even, as Tamiyo or Kaito can often outvalue them if they don’t have multiple Beans out. A flipped Tamiyo can easily be killed by Witherbloom Command but Kaito is very hard to stop for them, as they usually only play a single Sheoldred’s Edict, so focusing on T3 Kaito is often a great path to victory, for example by starting with basic Island and Swamp so that they can’t delay Kaito with Wasteland. There are different variations with a lot of potential one or two-offs so keep in mind what they could have, such as Spell Pierce, Daze, Stifle, Wasteland or Endurance, but don’t overrespect them because you are the aggressor and the chance of them having any such particular card is low.

I do bring in Force of Negation at the very least on the draw as you will be up a card already and you really do not want Beanstalk or Carpet to resolve.

Videos

From BeeExcellent’s perspective:

Sideboarding

After boarding, prevent Carpet of Flowers at all costs, then you may be able to Tempo them out or lock/kill them with your additional nonbasic hate of choice (Harbinger, Price of Progress, …). Fortunately they don’t usually play more than one or at most two Carpets in the Sideboard, which I don’t understand because this card can single handedly win vs Tempo.

In

Sheoldred’s Edict is much more flexible than Fatal Push because it can also kill Murktide and a flipped Tamiyo. We don’t board in Force of Negation because it’s too much card disadvantage and they play a lot of creatures too. As always, replace Harbinger with your other nonbasic hate of choice if you have it, such as Price of Progress with a red splash. Against nonstandard variations with 3-4 Uro instead or in addition to Murktide you may board in a Surgical extraction if you have it.

Out

Fatal Push is bad against most of their deck but depending on your other removal you may need to keep two in depending on how many Tamiyos and Endurances they play.

Brazen is fine vs Beanstalk if you’re happy waiting for the Murktide to show up. You can keep it

Jeskai Control

Very bad matchup but fortunately not widely played. It sucks to keep Fatal Pushes in but 2 are needed against Tamiyo.

Jeskai Wizards

(Yorion) Beanstalk Control

Storm Decks

Black Saga Storm (~ 1% Meta game)

Super difficult to play against as they have so many different threats and you never know what they are up to this game. Nihil Spellbomb is often bad as they keep priority between sacrificing Lion’s Eye Diamond and casting Echo of Eons. Null Rods are very strong here, then you just need to beat the huge construct tokens, Engineered Explosives is also great.

Unfavored because we don’t have Delver and Bolt to close out games quickly and we also don’t run Counterbalance to lock up the game, so we give them lots of time. They have compact kills like LED+Echo so just stopping them once often isn’t enough and they can also kill us with large constructs if we don’t immediately have Wasteland for Saga or with Echo + Bowmasters. Can be vastly improved with 1-2 Null Rods. Powder Keg/Filigree Silex/Engineered Explosives also helps but Powder Keg is the best as it also kills artifact lands. After playing this matchup a lot I realized: Nihil Spellbomb is not good enough as it only works against Gaea’s Will but not against Echo + LED due to the way priority works, so I switch them out for Grafdigger’s Cage in sideboarding (which doesn’t prevent Beseech but at least Echo). Their Sagas are so deadly that I bring in 2 Harbinger of the Seas just to prevent that, it’s also often a lock with Null Rod.

Quick Tips:

Most of the time it’s correct to counter Veil of Summer as they often play that into Echo + LED. Tamiyo is an out to Empty the Warrens goblin tokens but it’s often hard to flip her if you don’t have Brainstorm and have a Null Rod in play as Clues are artifacts. Consign to Memory can counter multiple Saga triggers

Play Patterns and Interactions

Soft Lock

If they don’t already have big creatures or a Saga on 2. this soft lock can only be broken by Elvish Spirit Guide + Boseiju, Who Endures or double Bowmaster trigger.

Nonbo

Especially painful if you lose to Empty the Warrens and stop your own Tamiyo flip, I always board out Nihil Spellbomb though.

Stop the Wheels

You don’t get priority after a Lion’s Eye Diamond activation before an Echo of Eons cast but at least you can exile one with the other on the stack and then counter the first.

Sideboarding

In

If you have nonstandard countermagic like Counterbalance, Flusterstorm, Spell pierce, Mindbreak Trap and so on of course bring it all in.

Out
Maybe

I have played this match a lot against an excellent player and we could not come to a conclusion for the last few slots, so make your own decision based on your opponents variant, play style and play/draw. The grave hate I rate Grafdigger’s Cage » Surgical Extraction > Faerie Macabre > Nihil Spellbomb.

Cards they may have MB or SB

ANT

Weaker storm deck in a vacuum but due to Cabal Rituals it does not fold to your Null Rod alone.

Sneak and Show

Good matchup but can easily be lost if you misidentify the critical turn after which you don’t tap out anymore. Play too passive and you get buried by their Stock Ups but play too aggressive and they just combo you out. I like a single Sheoldred’s Edict as an out to Emrakul. Unfortunately Kaito does not count as a creature in your hand so you cannot bring it in with Show and Tell.

Sideboarding

In
Out

Show and Tell (Omni Tell)

Most common with a green splash for Veil of Summer (main and sideboard) and often postboard Carpet of Flowers. There is also a very rare mono blue basic land variant is very hard to deal with as they ignore most of your preboard interaction (Fatal Push, Wasteland, Nihil Spellbomb) and puts you into the rare position that you may have blanks in your board after sideboarding.

Videos

Sideboarding

In
Out
Their Plan

We don’t kill quickly, so Carpet of Flowers into Stock Up is very dangerous and can accumulate an unbeatable hand, so I almost always Force a Carpet.

Painter

Hybrid combo deck that can also overwhelm you with construct tokens or grind you out with various engines.

The Combo

As the core is all colorless, there are a lot of variants based on the colors they play.

Red Painter

Sometimes with white or black splash.

Sideboarding

In
Out

Blue Painter

Stiflenought

Videos

Eldrazi

After the ban of Sowing Mycospawn, the deck is much less oppressive but still structurally favored due to Chalice of the Void and a long stream of large, potentially uncounterable threats.

Sideboarding

In

Force of Negation, Consign to Memory and Harbingers of the Seas are good against both of them.

Planar Nexus Decks: Mystic Forge and Cloudpost Ramp

As ramp strategies they want to establish a giant mana advantage and then overwhelm you with game ending threats until you run out of Forces or they play Ugin, Eye of the Storms, and if they ever resolve The One Ring, they never run out of cards. You can try to close out the game fast with Nethergoyf and Murktide while countering key spells but in my experience the best way to beat them is to stick Null Rod, respectively Harbingers of the Seas, and finish them after. Similar to UB Tempo and UB Reanimator, the decks have lot of overlap, but in different numbers, that are hard to differentiate, but thankfully the same sideboard cards are good against both of them though in different degrees, so take that in mind for mulliganning post board and cantripping. For example Null Rod is the key card vs Mystic Forge but still reasonable vs Cloudpost where Harbinger of the Seas is better. Fatal Push is useless vs Cloudpost but may hit a Glaring Fleshraker vs Mystic Forge.

Common Core

Karn Wishboard

Sideboarding

In
Out

Unsure if Daze is a better cut than Bowmasters (only good against the One Ring and may not be enough).

Mystic Forge (8%)

Videos

As long as it’s play rate is that high, Null Rod and Consign to Memory have a lot of value in the sideboard. Because of Glaring Fleshraker, removal may be more important than against Cloudpost but I think 2 Edicts should be enough. If you land Null Rod, you need to be aware of Planar Nexus and Mox Opal making white mana for portable hole out of their sideboard / wishboard but they don’t always play it.

Tezzeret, Cruel Captain

Recent addition, so the number of copies varies between 0 and 4. Together with Karn this gives them a lot of interaction against Null Rod, Tamiyo and Bowmasters. Unlike Karn, it tutors from the main instead of sideboard so you should be safe from Portable Hole preboard. Unlike Urza’s Saga, its tutor condition is based on mana value not mana cost, allowing Portable Hole and Walking Ballista (if they have it).

Mainboard Tutor Targets
Sideboard Tutor Targets

Cloudpost Ramp (<1%)

Can have a green splash for Crop Rotation and sideboard Veil of Summer. Harbinger of the Seas is the best card but try to setup a Force of Will in case they have Dismember post board.

Videos

Bant Nadu

Funnily enough Bant Nadu is a bad matchup. I would say as a Bant Nadu player I don't like very aggressive starts out of the UB tempo deck, like fast Nethergoyfs backed up by Wasteland and Orcish Bowmasters, which make my cantrips costly when I try to dig out of the situation, an early Grafdigger's Cage hurts. Sometimes I see Toxic Deluge boarded against me which is not so nice. Teferi can be very good but also quite awkward, I like additional Endurance against UB Tempo more than multiple Teferis, because they handle Nethergoyfs and can prevent Murktides.

Cephalid Breakfast

Videos

Minyafriend: Breakfast I find to be pretty good as we are fairly well equipped to deal with their creatures. Just pay attention to what their next turn could be and if you can play around it do so. T2-T3 are sensitive times where you can just lose games you shouldn’t out of the blue if you are careless.

Sideboarding

Games can go long so: Out: daze In: removal

Their manabase is shaky so it is reasonable to think OTP daze can be useful. Just pay attention to how the opponent plays. I rarely if ever bring it in but is Consign considerable so you don’t lose to saga tokens and Thoracle trigger? If you play Harbinger then I would not bring consigns in. I think you can beat this deck without the Consign but I’m starting to wonder, some breakfast players are even bringing in Soul Cauldron.

Against Breakfast, I don’t bring in graveyard hate any more (keeping Nihil is good) because every card in my deck is good against them.
In

Sheoldred’s Edict is nice because it does not target so it can sometimes trade 1 for 1 with Nadu.

Out

I used to board out Nethergoyfs to go for a control play style with Harbinger as the finisher but after the Saga rules change this is more risky and is also weak into Teferi uptick + combo next turn.

Hybrid Decks

Eco:

Breakfast / Tempo DD / Reanimator sideboarding: These decks are good because they ask tough questions of their opponent. Against Breakfast, I don’t bring in graveyard hate any more (keeping Nihil is good) because every card in my deck is good against them. Thoughtseize, Push, Force, Bowmasters. Tempo DD with Tamiyo, Barrowgoyf and Murktide, I’ll have removal spells for + Forces. Reanimator is the same logic; graveyard hate, removal spells and Forces.

Doomsday

TODO: update, this was written in frog times Its pure combo version, Turbo Doomsday is a fast and resilient combo deck where your classic tempo plan of early threats + disruption works well. One of the few matchups where Grixis is much better as they don’t have Wasteland to punish a greedy mana base and Pyroblast, Lightning Bolt and Molten Collapse (hits Vexing Bauble, Tamiyo in both forms, and other creatures) are really good against them. Still, we are a tempo deck and they are a combo deck so we are still favored if we play tight. Trying out Doomsday yourself really helps to understand what they try to do and how to prevent that.

However many Doomsday pilots choose to include tempo or control elements, which changes again after sideboarding, making sideboarding and playing against them a high-skill affair. It takes more skill for them to beat you but most Doomsday players are experts, so never underestimate them and always give your best at any moment, as they might surprise you and win at any time if you make a single mistake.

Online it is really important to look them up as seeing their exact decklist is crucial to best line up your cards with theirs. In paper at least you see most of their preboard configuration after Doomsday, though they might hide some critical card on the bottom of the pile. If I know their sideboard includes lots of creatures, I assume they are bringing them in because they are at their best versus tempo, so I assume they are cutting combo cards. While versions are on a spectrum, here are some general archetypes:

Turbo tries cast actual Doomsday at all costs with cards like Personal Tutor, Cabal Ritual and Vexing Bauble. Control can include The One Ring and splash green for Veil of Summer (quite good against blue-black) and white for Teferi, Time Reveler. Tempo is currently very popular and can partially or even completely sideboard out of the combo for creatures such as Tamiyo, Murktide Regent and finally Barrowgoyf, which mostly replaced Sheoldred, the Apocalypse.

In general you want to focus on creatures removal against tempo but reduce removal and As sideboarding depends so much on their configuration, here are some card specific tips:

Counterbalance, Orcish Bowmasters and Tamiyo are amazing against all versions and should always stay/be brought in. Murktide Regent can be cut against turbo as it attacks on T4 at the earliest where the Doomsday player may already have won. Creature removal obviously depends on their creatures. It’s not worth bringing it in only against Thassa’s Oracle and hard cast Street Wraith. However in most cases they will bring in at least some creatures, so cutting all removal is very risky. Black removal mostly hits all their creatures, though Hard grave hate like Faerie Macabre is never worth it, though Surgical can be brought in as a hail Mary to shuffle their deck post Doomsday (or exile Doomsday after you discard or counter the first one) if they include so few creatures that you can sideboard out so much removal that you have nothing better to bring in. Value grave hate like Nihil Spellbomb and Unlicensed Hearse is only good against Murktide Regent, though it can also sometimes shrink Barrowgoyf. Unlicensed Hearse can also grow and eventually kill them. Force of Will may be boarded out if you think they take out the combo completely, though I still like it as it can efficiently answer Dark Ritual + X on card parity. Force of Negation is great against turbo and control, e.g. if you see Personal Tutor, Cabal Ritual, The One Ring, Teferi, Vexing Bauble(?). Stifle works both against Fetchlands and against the Oracle trigger, so if you have it I would always keep it. Consign to Memory

Vs Doomsday you should look for Personal Tutors, Cabal Rituals and 2nd green cycler+2nd Street Wraith. If they have those, they are focused on Combo. If they have creatures, you can trim a Wasteland and not bring in Consign.

Boros Energy

Sideboarding

Grindy go-wide aggro deck that we are disadvantaged against without Toxic Deluge but with the current MTGO meta it is hard to justify that sideboard slot. Still winnable without if you get an engine (Tamiyo, Barrowgoyf, Kaito) into play ahead of them, then you may be able to keep their board clean and outvalue them.

In

Barrowgoyf is the perfect creature for matchups like this but they also have a lot to deal with it like Swords to Plowshares and Static Prison, see if you can play around Galvanic Discharge at least.

  • Barrowgoyf
  • removal
  • Engineered Explosives
  • Hydroblast
  • Toxic Deluge if you have it
Out
  • Daze
  • Nihil Spellbomb
  • shave Wasteland

Goblins (<1% Meta game)

If you see green-producing lands, they may be on Food Chain (rare), adapt accordingly with more countermagic.

Similar to Boros Energy in that they are a go-wide aggro strategy but their creatures are weaker individually and have better synergy, such as Lackey into Muxus. Bring in in removal, Barrowgoyf and Blue Blasts, board wipes if you have them. Board out Nihil Spellbomb and Daze, shave Wasteland. If possible I would play around Blood Moon but not if it puts you too far behind as they don’t always have it in the sideboard and may not bring it in.

Videos

Death and Taxes

Cradle Control (1% Meta game)

Example Decklist

Austrian Challenge @ Gamestore (Linz, Austria) 1st place by Simon Ritter 2025-06-21

  • 2 Forest
  • 2 Bayou
  • 2 Windswept Heath
  • 2 Wooded Foothills
  • 2 Misty Rainforest
  • 2 Verdant Catacombs
  • 2 Dryad Arbor
  • 4 Gaea’s Cradle
  • 1 Lair of the Hydra
  • 2 Talon Gates of Madara
  • 1 Bojuka Bog
  • 4 Noble Hierarch
  • 4 Ignoble Hierarch
  • 1 Sylvan Safekeeper
  • 4 Wight of the Reliquary
  • 3 Keen-Eyed Curator
  • 1 Collector Ouphe
  • 1 Atraxa, Grand Unifier
  • 4 Thoughtseize
  • 4 Once Upon a Time
  • 4 Green Sun’s Zenith
  • 3 Natural Order
  • 1 Grist, the Hunger Tide
  • 4 Elvish Reclaimer

Sideboard

  • 4 Snuff Out
  • 4 Endurance
  • 1 Wasteland
  • 1 Urza’s Saga
  • 1 Pithing Needle
  • 3 Force of Vigor
  • 1 Gaddock Teeg

A fair Green-Black creature deck with a lands subtheme, sometimes with Natural Order for Atraxa. Like most fair non-blue creature decks, it is structurally advantaged against blue tempo decks. It doesn’t require critical mass so they aren’t stopped by Force of Will and they have mana dorks so they aren’t that impacted by Daze and Wasteland. Still I would keep Force of Will in for tempo because you are disadvantaged in the late game. It is hard to beat for Tempo without board wipes like Rough/Tumble due to their large number of creatures.

They have a slew of combat tricks that they are probably much more experienced with than you so think twice before blocking a seemingly stupid attack. Putting any land from their library into play with Elvish Reclaimer and Wight of the Reliquary can do the following:

  • Bojuka Bog can shrink your Nethergoyf
  • Lands in the graveyard grow Elvish Reclaimer.
  • Creatures in the graveyard grow Fiend Artisan (rarely played) and and Wight of the Reliquary
  • Gaea’s Cradle provides a burst of mana, e.g. for an Endurance
  • Dryad Arbor can block.
  • They may play Talon Gates of Madeira to phase out a creature but rarely.

  • However they usually don’t play Dark Depths and Maze of Ith.

  • They also have Orcish Bowmaster, Endurance and (Ig)noble Hierarch so think twice before exposing your seemingly safe Kaito.

On the positive side they can’t interact with countermagic outside of Veil of Summer. Also they can’t block fliers outside of Endurance and Birds of Paradise (rarely played).

They usually seem to have enough mana so I board out some Dazes and often leave the mana dorks alone though it depends on the situation. Orcish Bowmaster is nice even though they don’t draw many cards but you can kill (Ig)noble Hierarch, Birds of Paradise and so on. Be careful not to confuse Wight and Knight: Wight sacrifices creatures and grows with them in the yard, Knight sacrifices plains or forests and grows with lands in the yard. Grist is really confusing: You can’t Force of Negation it, Grafdigger’s Cage doesn’t stop it from coming into play, it grows Wight. But when it’s in play you can’t kill it with creature removal. Grist is very dangerous because if it gets going you never get any creatures into play and you lost the game. At least you can hit it with Orcish Bowmasters, attack it with a flyer (if Grist doesn’t kill it, maybe a Brazen Borrower), but best to just counter it or the Green Sun’s Zenith for 3. They play 4 Green Sun’s Zenith so it may be worth it to board in Grafdigger’s Cage so they can only get Grist and a GSZ for 4 mana you can hopefully Daze or Force at that time. Due to the low play rate it’s not worth it to play sideboard hate specifically for them but there is some overlap like Toxic Deluge that is great vs Nadu as well. Traditionally, Submerge is often played in tempo if you expect lots of green creature decks but with black removal not caring about the toughness of creatures, UB does rarely play it. Hard graveyard hate like Surgical Extraction is not worth it due to it being card disadvantage but graveyard hate that can also be a threat is very useful to shrink their X of the Reliquary, for example Emperor of Bones or maybe Unlicensed Hearse or even Nihil Spellbomb. You can block a big creature with Tamiyo and then brainstorm to flip it before damage. If they have Orcish Bowmasters their trigger goes on the stack first and Tamiyo flips first and fizzles the triggers.

Maverick (<1%)

Similar to the creature part of Cradle Control with a single Cradle and a white splash for Swords to Plowshares and Knight of the Reliquary instead of or in addition to Wight of the Reliquary. Hard to say exactly what they play as it is pretty rare so keep your eyes open for cards like Stoneforge Mystic, Thalia, Guardian of Thraben, Mother of Runes and maybe even the Dark Depth’s Combo.

They play Wastelands so start with basics to keep from falling behind in tempo. Additional tricks: Lands in the graveyard grow Knight of the Reliquary (+2/+2 through a Fetchland) Karakas can bounce a legendary creature such as Tamiyo.

Sideboarding: Similar to Cradle Control

  • In: Barrowgoyf, Hearse, Submerge, Emperor of Bones, Orcish Bowmasters, all the spot and mass removal, e.g. Fell, Shoot the Sheriff, Go for the Throat, Sheoldred’s Edict, Toxic Deluge, Threads of Disloyalty (they have enchantment removal though), Submerge.

TODO: update With the example list I would -1 Wasteland -4 Daze -1 Nihil Spellbomb +1 Hearse +1 Barrowgoyf +1 Sheoldred’s Edict +1 Toxic Deluge +1 Long Goodbye +1 Brazen Borrower Their Plan: Their plan is already good so they won’t change much, probably Collector Ouphe out and Choke in.

Elves (<1%)

Marquee Legacy creature combo + value deck a long time ago that got powercrept out of the top decks over time, then Orcish Bowmasters caused most Elves players to switch to Cradle Control. Their main Glimpse of Nature combo gets destroyed by Orcish Bowmasters so they probably board that out. If go wide creature strategies ever become a significant factor in your meta you can crush them with 1-2 Toxic Deluge in your sideboard but the power level of UB tempo is so high that you can often win without any board wipes. Still structurally advantaged against midrange and tempo due to them going wide, producing enough mana so Daze and Wasteland aren’t as strong, having some tricks against removal and Allosaurus Shepherd turning off your countermagic. Also if you aren’t a long time Legacy player you probably lose a few games at first due to failling for their various tricks or misjudging which of their various plans they are trying to go for.

They have multiple plans though as a non-blue deck they can’t always choose which one they go for, you should learn them to identify pressure points for your interaction:

Glimpse Combo

As they don’t usually play Veil of Summer, Orcish Bowmasters destroys this combo. If you don’t have that, killing Heritage Druid often prevents them getting too much value. You can also Force the Glimpse though that may be a bluff, for example if they already made their land drop to play around Daze and cannot threaten a Heritage Druid activation. Daze on Glimpse can also be worth it if they are low on mana.

Grind Mode

They can nullify most of your interaction and try to accumulate value over time while stalling your ground offensive by bouncing Elves with Wirewood Symbiote and Dryad Arbor with Quirion Ranger. A quick and large Murktide can often kill them before they accrue too much value. Spot removal needs to kill Wirewood Symbiote first as it cannot bounce itself unless they make it an Elf (like Mirror Entity, which noone plays in Legacy anymore).

Big Creature

Whether you can FoW or FoN a Natural Order probably decides who will win or lose that game. If they have an Allosaurus Shepherd, you can kill it while Natural Order is on the stack and then counter. They can also just get enough mana to hardcast Craterhoof or sometimes even Atraxa using the colored mana from Birchlore Rangers.

Sideboarding

In
  • any mass removal has extreme value
  • any spot removal, even Sheoldred’s Edict which often doesn’t kill what you want but at least they can’t use bounce tricks
  • Cage stops both Green Sun’s Zenith and Natural Order (except for Grist)
Out

Barrowgoyf is too easy for them to stall. Even with Wasteland, Daze is hard to keep active on the draw due to Gaea’s Cradle and Heritage Druid. On the play you can also keep Daze in and not bring in FoN, especially if you have Cage.

Their Plan

Due to Orcish Bowmasters they probably board out Glimpse of Nature and bring in Endurance and Keen-Eyed Curator to both handle your graveyard synergies and present threats that don’t need synergy. They may also bring in Choke so fetch a basic swamp if it doesn’t hinder your game plan too much. They may also board out some or all Dryad Arbor as I feel it is not as impactful.

Mono Black Aggro (<1% Meta game)

Grindy fair deck that aims to win a battle of attrition. Even though Force is a two-for-one I would still keep it, sometimes you can protect an Engine like Tamiyo or Kaito long enough to outvalue them. Be careful with fetching and brainstorming, they could Dark Ritual into Bowmaster and (postboard?) Opposition Agent. Value-grave hate like Nihil Spellbomb is fine. Can also have a small red splash for sideboard Pyroblast.

Sideboarding

In
  • removal
  • creatures
Out
  • Daze

Burn

Good matchup if you have enough Barrowgoyfs. Can also race with Nethergoyf.

Sideboarding

In

Consign to Memory against Rift bolt may also be worth it and it pitches to Force.

Out

You can also shave on Wasteland but Barrowgoyf T3 is important.

Their plan:

They will bring in Pyroblast. Sometimes they have Roiling Vortex or Ensnaring Bridge so I would keep a Brazen Borrower in if there isn’t anything better.

Black Pox

Ultra grindy creatureless matchup which you may win on the clock on MTGO if they go for Ensnaring Bridge, but in paper you have to play fast and be ready to call a judge to prevent slow play. They have lots of creature removal but struggle with planeswalkers, so going for a quick Tamiyo ultimate may help. Ensnaring Bridge is annoying but can sometimes be handled using creative thinking. Besides preparing a lethal attack (take Sudden Edict into account) and then using Brazen Borrower, you can for example create Kaito emblems for a few turns and Ninjutsu it from a Tamiyo or use one of the many other ways you have to shrinking and growing your creatures before and after the attack. As the deck is rarely played competitively expect lots of variations and adapt to what you see.

Sideboarding

In
Out

BG Loam Pox

An experimental mixture between lands and Pox, so a lot of similar things apply:

  • Force of Negation stops Life from the Loam for good
  • Kaito and to a lesser extent a flipped Tamiyo are hard for them to handle
  • Fatal Push is of very limited value.
  • “normal” creatures like Nethergoyf and Murktide Regent have trouble getting though.

However as the deck has neither the explosive Exploration draws, the 20/20 Marit Lage, nor the extreme grind power of black Pox, I find it easier to handle than both of them. They also lack the land tutors and utility lands like Karakas, Maze of Ith and Tabernacle of Pendrel Vale.

Unlike vs lands, Orcish Bowmasters has a lot of use here:

  • to kill their Bowmasters
  • to enable Kaito (most of the time return the Bowmasters, not the token)
  • to prevent Hogaak from being cast if they have no other creatures, cast yours with their Bowmasters trigger on the stack, so they never have an empty stack and two creatures to cast Hoogak
  • as sacrifice fodder to protect your more important creatures

Gravehate in general is quite important because Loam and Hogaak are the inevitability engine of their deck. Fetch basics unless you see Ghost Quarter.

Sideboarding

In
Out

LED Dredge (<1% Meta game)

A unique graveyard deck that requires very specific answers to beat but you shouldn’t tune your sideboard in an open field because of the extremely low play rate. Good matchup as long as you have enough grave hate. 2 mainboard Nihil Spellbombs really help.

Play carefully, focus on sideboard, mulligan, early turns. Don’t let spells through too quickly, think what you want to counter! E.g. against most other decks you often let LED resolve but here you should counter it. Mulligan for grave hate, they are the beatdown. If you don’t have grave hate, stick early threats, counter their enabler (anything that discards cards) and try to kill them quickly. Be careful with Thoughtseize if they are low on cards because you might win them the game by being forced to discard a dredger.

Sideboarding

In
Out

All the spot and mass removal, e.g. Fell, Shoot the Sheriff, Go for the Throat, Sheoldred’s Edict, Toxic Deluge, Threads of Disloyalty (they have enchantment removal though), Submerge.

  • Their Plan: Win game 1 and hope to get one of the postboard games.

Brews and Rare Decks

WUR Mintaurs:

BUG Reanimator Beans:

GB Rumble Painter:

Exercises

Many Legacy players have a lot of other commitments, like job and family, which makes it hard to get enough practice games in. These excercises allow you to practice even if you are just sitting in the tram or waiting at the doctor’s office. Also, focussed practise allows you to train one area in isolation and can thus be even more effective than just playing games.

Mulliganning

First Move

On the play in the blind, how would you play those hands? Those hands were given during the Ecobaronen EU Tempo Team EW 2025 preparation but due to it being private I won’t give the “solutions” and the thoughts of the others but my own only. Anyways, the main point is not what is right or wrong but to get you to think about the different scenarious that can happen and weigh them against each other. Feel free to contribute your own opinions on them by editing this guide.

  1. Kirdie's Thoughts Marsh Flats, fetch Underground Sea, play Tamiyo. We could lose to Wasteland but we are the Tempo deck and need to accept our role. Starting on Thoughtseize means if they have Wasteland we are even worse off, as they are more incentivised to Wasteland us when we aren't ahead on board. We also don't need to Thoughtseize T1 because we have Daze as protection. Ponder T1 for lands is the cowards move that would fit better into a control deck. We don't even know what we want to Ponder for yet besides another land. Ponder next turn could also prepare a T3 Kaito. Notably this is all because it's on the blind. If we knew for example that we were facing Oops we would start with Thoughtseize instead.
  2. Kirdie's Thoughts If our opponent mulls to 5 or 4 we could think about Oops and play the Spellbomb to get an instant concession into lunch break but assuming the opponent keeps 7 or 6: This time we don't have Daze to protect both us and Tamiyo so starting on Thoughtseize seems more reasonable here. If we are playing against combo we can take a combo piece and if we are against a fair deck we can take removal for Tamiyo. What I don't like about this hand is that the basic swamp really limits our options on T2. Because of our basic Swamp in hand we can think about fetching Polluted Delta for a basic island here, but then we may lose the shuffle effect after brainstorm. Our hand is very weak to Chalice of the Void, so I think I start with Basic Swamp into Thoughtseize here. Next turn we can play Tamiyo and Nihil Spellbomb or Push which may not be optimal in the matchup. If they get Magus of the Moon in play desite our Thoughtseize we can get revolt by saccing Nihil Spellbomb. A close second line would be to fetch basic island and play Tamiyo but if our Tamiyo get's killed we have a purely reactive hand and we also cannot stop a strong T1 play so I like T1 Thoughtseize more.
  3. Kirdie's Thoughts Similar to hand nr. 1, I'm more inclined to start on Tamiyo if I have a free counter to protect her or us. As Bloodstained Mire cannot fetch Island, I would start on Underground Sea + Tamiyo and force a removal spell on her. But I could also understand starting with Underground Sea + Thoughtseize to clear the way first if we aren't comfortable Forcing a Fatal Push.
  4. Kirdie's Thoughts Fetch Underground Sea + play Tamiyo. If she gets killed we can play another one next turn + a Thoughtseize if we draw an untapped land. But because we have so many threats and so little interaction and might not draw land nr 3, maybe playing the surveil land is a better move. Thoughtseize is also a possibility.
Other opinions

However Eco/Andreas said that Thoughtseize on the blind T1 OTP is worth delaying Tamiyo in all those cases because it allows us to prevent strong plays from the opponent, clear the way for Tamiyo and plan out our future interaction.

What’s The Play

Situations vs Oops

See the Oops section.

Disclaimers

  1. I refer to “UB Tempo” because that name it is most used by the community but the deck has midrange elements.
  2. Stay curious and improvise. Use those guidelines only as a starting point, and adapt to the situation at hand.
  3. Citations may be corrected, abbreviated, extended and updated. This is not a newspaper or scientific article, so reading experience is prioritized over accurate citation.