Welcome to the conclusion of my two-part series, Everything You Need To Know About G/W Company. In Part 1, I wrote all about the strength of the deck, the maindeck card choices, and sequencing. Now that we have that out of the way, it’s time to discuss the sideboard and how to play different matchups. For reference, here’s my most recent list that I played this past weekend at the Season One Invitational:
Creatures (28)
- 1 Azusa, Lost but Seeking
- 4 Birds of Paradise
- 4 Noble Hierarch
- 4 Knight of the Reliquary
- 1 Scavenging Ooze
- 4 Voice of Resurgence
- 4 Courser of Kruphix
- 1 Archangel Avacyn
- 3 Tireless Tracker
- 2 Ramunap Excavator
Lands (23)
Spells (9)
Before diving in to go over as many matchups as I can, I want to note why I build my sideboard the way I do. Many people that play Collected Company decks try to fit as many creature cards that cost three or less mana into their sideboard to be able to keep their creature count high and keep Collected Company relevant. This is a good practice in theory, but the problem is the creatures that fill the sideboard aren’t nearly as powerful as the noncreature options. In a format like Modern, where there are many polarizing bad matchups among the dozens that you may realistically face in a given tournament, you often need your sideboard cards to be able to do the heavy lifting.
An example of this is with the extra removal G/W Company could play in the sideboard. Fairgrounds Warden is a somewhat popular sideboard card that many people have put into Collected Company decks, trying to have another answer to creature decks like Humans, Affinity, Elves, and Merfolk. Even though Fairgrounds Warden is a card that you can hit off of Collected Company, and therefore you’ll see it more often during a game in the long run, I would much rather play Engineered Explosives instead of it. Engineered Explosives has the ability to change the entire dynamic of the game when cast and also has implications against some noncreature decks like Lantern Control.
With G/W Company, as opposed to other Collected Company decks, you’re able to play fewer Collected Company hits than normal and still have them be effective. A little bit of this is because of the amount of lands you’re able to pull out of your deck from activating Knight of the Reliquary and fetchlands, and so when you cast Collected Company you usually have fewer total cards in your deck than normal.
The bigger reason, though, is Courser of Kruphix. I talked last time about how Courser of Kruphix helps make sure each draw step you have is powerful, but it also helps you know when you should or shouldn’t cast Collected Company. Because of this, it’s frequently best to cast Courser of Kruphix before Collected Company when both are in hand, even if you have access to four mana, because Courser can help make sure you don’t miss with Collected Company.
Since I’m playing the most powerful sideboard options that I want to have access to in any given tournament and not restricting myself to only creatures that cost three or less, I currently only have four Collected Company hits in my sideboard. I think this is perfectly acceptable, because my goal after sideboard is not to make the best Collected Company that I can but to give myself the best chance of winning that I can. Ross Merriam wrote more about a very similar theory last month as well, which you can find here.
With that out of the way, let’s dive into how to sideboard with G/W Company against various matchups!
Jeskai Control
Everyone has been asking me about this matchup in particular, and for good reason. This is one of the hardest matchups to play, as the games are usually quite long and every small decision you make matters. Jeskai Control wants to be able to play the game at instant speed, so disrupting that is key. Besides Voice of Resurgence doing a wonderful job of this, the threat of Collected Company does as well. Most of the time it’s best to cast Collected Company on your own turn, but against counterspell decks, it’s best to try and tax their mana on their own turn as much as you can, so that you can resolve another spell or two when you untap.
Since we’re playing a deck that’s reliant on creatures staying on the battlefield to accrue value, sweepers like Supreme Verdict are devastating and you must not run face-first into one. G/W Company isn’t aggressive and therefore there’s no rush to dump your hand and flood the battlefield with creatures against a Supreme Verdict deck.
Besides that, you need to make their Lightning Bolts as bad as you can. This means not casting Knight of the Reliquary when it’s smaller than a 3/3 and only casting Tireless Tracker or Ramunap Excavator when you can immediately get a Clue token or play a land from your graveyard. One of the biggest reasons why I’m playing Archangel Avacyn right now is just for this matchup, and while the best use for it is to save your creatures from a Supreme Verdict, it’s also a good threat to be able to deploy on your opponent’s turn to strain their mana.
Out:
Path to Exile is a very weak card in this matchup. Celestial Colonnade is often times the best target, but Ghost Quarter can also keep that in check. There are some Jeskai Control players that bring in Baneslayer Angel in this matchup, and you need to have at minimum one answer to it in your deck after sideboard, and preferably two. With this sideboard configuration I’ll have two answers in Dromoka’s Command and Elspeth, Sun’s Champion.
Mana creatures in your opening hand are always vital in every matchup, but against Jeskai Control I’m willing to shave one, since they are a poor draw late and get easily swept up by Supreme Verdict or Electrolyze. Azusa, Lost but Seeking has moments of joining forces with Ramunap Excavator and Ghost Quarter to destroy a Jeskai Control player’s manabase, but it’s also a three-drop that’s weak to Lightning Bolt and needs another creature on the battlefield to thrive.
In:
I’ve started to rely on Choke as my weapon of choice against Jeskai Control, since it can come down under counterspells and have a huge impact on the game. Usually Jeskai Control players will have four to six non-Island blue sources in their deck that aren’t affected by Choke, and you will want to use your Ghost Quarters to destroy these lands.
Elspeth, Sun’s Champion is the most difficult planeswalker for them to answer once it’s resolved and will almost always singlehandedly win the game on its own, making it worth the steep six-mana price tag. Even though Aven Mindcensor is a three-drop that’s weak to their removal spells, it makes the cut since it’s another card that we’re able to cast on their turn and has the ability to give us cheap wins.
The one controversial card here is Surgical Extraction. Many players don’t believe it’s worth bringing in for control matchups, but I believe the card carries its weight in the matchup. The biggest problem with Surgical Extraction is that it’s incredibly difficult to time correctly, and when cast at the incorrect time it may not have any impact on the game. Patience is key. You’ll want to use it when your opponent is flashing back a key spell with a Snapcaster Mage or to eliminate the final outs that your opponent has, like Cryptic Command or Supreme Verdict, that would save them from taking lethal. Don’t use it to stop a Snapcaster Mage from casting a low-impact spell like Serum Visions or Lightning Bolt, and never use it early to take a random spell from their graveyard just to look at their hand. The main targets will be Path to Exile, Cryptic Command, or Supreme Verdict.
Other Options:
Besides having another copy of Choke, Tireless Tracker, Archangel Avacyn, or Elspeth, Sun’s Champion in your sideboard, these are some other cards you could add to make the matchup better, although I prefer those four cards already in the deck.
Humans
It’s all about staying alive when you’re playing against Humans. Voice of Resurgence and Knight of the Reliquary do a nice job playing defense on the ground, and therefore the biggest worry is with the flying attackers. Meddling Mage should almost always name our crucial removal spell, Path to Exile, to protect the flying creatures. This is where finding as many copies of Courser of Kruphix as you can becomes necessary, since you can realistically gain as much life a turn as damage that you take in the air. With the current prevalence of this matchup in the Modern metagame, I’m also running a Dromoka’s Command as a fifth removal spell as well as an Archangel Avacyn to help shut down the air game.
Even though Humans usually only plays one basic land, it’s rarely correct to attack their manabase early with Ghost Quarter since there’s so much pressure on playing defense, even in the games where Humans doesn’t have access to Aether Vial. The one time I’ll use Ghost Quarter aggressively is if they’re stuck with only one five-color land and I can keep them from casting Mantis Rider or Kitesail Freebooter. Instead, it’s almost always best to invest the mana from that land into your defensive plan.
In:
Engineered Explosives comes in as some more removal and is usually set on two for Meddling Mage and Kitesail Freebooter. I don’t mind using it on one early in the game, though, if my opponent has an Aether Vial and another one-drop, even if I’m destroying my own one-drop, because of how much Aether Vial speeds up their deck. Even though I wouldn’t mind having a Reclamation Sage in my deck to deal with Aether Vial, it’s not worth it to bring in because it allows your opponent to copy it with Phantasmal Image to destroy a Worship or Courser of Kruphix. Worship isn’t always game over, as many Humans players play Reclamation Sage now, but if it resolves, it forces them to find it to have a chance. Even if they do, the time Worship buys can be enough to stabilize.
Out:
Similar to many other aggressive matchups, Tireless Tracker is sideboarded out since you’ll rarely have the two mana to spend on a Clue token. I still leave one in since there are games that you have enough interaction to slow the game down enough for Tireless Tracker. The other cut is one Ramunap Excavator, as it’s also not good in combat and its effect isn’t necessary until the end of the game. I like keeping in Azusa, Lost but Seeking since it’s so good at helping Courser of Kruphix gain more life to keep you alive.
Other Options:
Out of the two creatures that shut down enters-the-battlefield triggers, I prefer the two-drop of Tocatli Honor Guard since it will come down a turn earlier. Gideon’s Intervention is a sideboard card I use a lot to stop Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle, and I would also bring in this matchup to stop Mantis Rider if I had it in my sideboard. Blessed Alliance is useful after the ground is locked up and the only attacking is through the air.
Affinity
We dedicate much of our sideboard to cards that are good against Affinity since our Game 1 matchup is so poor. The one gameplan of theirs we can shut down Game 1 is the creature-land beatdown, with help from our Ghost Quarters, but if they have other flyers and one of their big threats like Cranial Plating, Steel Overseer, or Arcbound Ravager going, then it’s game over. Since we’re relying so heavily on the sideboard, mulliganing aggressively for those cards is a necessity in Games 2 and 3. It’s very hard to keep any hand without a single sideboard card; it would have to have multiple removal spells at a minimum.
Out:
Our ground creatures aren’t very important in the matchup, with Voice of Resurgence being the easy first cut. The only reason why I’d want to keep Voice of Resurgence in this matchup is if Karn, Scion of Urza becomes more popular and therefore having defense against the Construct tokens becomes a necessity. Again we don’t have as much time for Tireless Tracker in this matchup, and since Affinity can do damage in huge chunks when we’re losing, the upside with Azusa, Lost but Seeking is mitigated. Finally I always shave two to three Collected Companies, depending on my sideboard at the time, since we’re adding so many spells and taking out so many creatures.
In:
Stony Silence and Kataki, War’s Wage are our two absolute best cards in our sideboard for this matchup. Eldritch Evolution usually acts as another Kataki, but it can also get another card like Reclamation Sage if needed. Engineered Explosives is the backup plan when Stony Silence or Kataki aren’t taking over the game, and again is usually set on two. The addition of Karn, Scion of Urza to the Affinity decks is making the deck look even better these days, and I’ll likely need to add even more Affinity hate in my sideboard soon. Worship is a vital card, since we’re able to shut down their Inkmoth Nexus plan fairly effectively, and therefore we can have plenty of time to stabilize with a Worship on the battlefield.
Other Options:
Etched Champion is certainly a problematic card for our deck, but just as certainly there are answers to it. When I play Gideon’s Intervention, I bring it in to name Etched Champion, and Whisperwood Elemental can create colorless blockers to get in the way. Cataclysmic Gearhulk can also wipe out almost their entire battlefield in one fell swoop, something that’s easier to set up with Eldritch Evolution.
G/X Tron
This matchup is all about using Ghost Quarter to keep them from having access to the Tron lands. Knight of the Reliquary is your best Turn 2 play, followed up with Ramunap Excavator to keep the Ghost Quarters coming. You need to use Ghost Quarter any time the opponent has two Tron pieces on the battlefield and may be about to play the third. Be sure to activate Ghost Quarter in their draw step because of the slight chance they will draw one of their basics lands first. You’ll want to keep activating Knight of the Reliquary to find another Ghost Quarter instead of attacking unless you’ve either used them all or if it would provide a two-turn clock where you know your opponent won’t have access to Tron the next turn.
Out:
Voice of Resurgence is not a very good card in this matchup, but I don’t take them all out since it fills a necessary spot on the curve. It can also apply some pressure while sticking around through an Oblivion Stone and also is a good card to sacrifice to Eldritch Evolution. I also shave on Path to Exile but keep a couple in because it’s not too difficult for your opponent to get access to enough mana to cast a Wurmcoil Engine during the game.
In:
Your life becomes much easier when you’re able to Surgically Extract one of their three Tron lands from the game. This is another spell you’ll want to cast during their draw step to give them another chance to draw an extra copy, or ideally after they use a search effect to grab another one. Watch out for an active Relic of Progenitus they can use to stop the Surgical Extraction. Aven Mindcensor and Stony Silence are backbreaking cards at times for them to fight through, and Reclamation Sage is best either on Turn 2 on the play to destroy an Expedition Map or later on to destroy an Oblivion Stone. Kataki, War’s Wage isn’t necessarily great in this matchup, but it can slow Oblivion Stone down just enough to buy you enough time.
Other Options:
There aren’t many other options for G/W Company that the deck isn’t already playing to fight G/X Tron. If you want additional percentage points against it, then add more copies of Aven Mindcensor, Ramunap Excavator, or Stony Silence to the deck. I don’t believe Damping Sphere is a very good card in general and wouldn’t recommend it in the slightest.
B/R Hollow One
This matchup is generally favorable for G/W Company because Voice of Resurgence and Knight of the Reliquary can defend against the large threats from B/R Hollow One, especially if they cast Burning Inquiries. The scariest card in their deck is Flamewake Phoenix, which we don’t have a ton of answers for. Playing Archangel Avacyn has certainly made this matchup better with its ability to block Flamewake Phoenix as well as mess up an important combat step. Scavenging Ooze is another amazing card for us in this matchup since it can eat the Flamewake Phoenixes before they come back from the graveyard.
Out:
Our plan of attacking their manabase really doesn’t matter as the games usually are too fast, so Ramunap Excavator and Azusa, Lost but Seeking come on out. This is the only matchup where I’ll completely take those two cards out of my deck. Collected Company can also be slow at times, and with us trimming creatures, one copy gets replaced with another four mana noncreature spell.
In:
Surgical Extraction’s main, and perhaps only, target is Flamewake Phoenix. When you have a Worship on the battlefield you still need to be able to play around Collective Brutality, which means being able to gain two life at instant speed. This can be done be either keeping a Knight of the Reliquary active with one Courser of Kruphix to be able to find a Ghost Quarter and Ghost Quarter yourself at instant speed, or by having two Coursers on the battlefield with one Ghost Quarter active.
Other Options:
Other ways to improve the matchup are extra copies of Archangel Avacyn, Reclamation Sage, or Scavenging Ooze. Gideon’s Intervention is a nice sideboard card here as an answer to Flamewake Phoenix or an overwhelming Hollow One draw, while also being able to name Collective Brutality when you have a Worship on the battlefield to lock out the game. I don’t love adding five-drops for this matchup, but if those two cards were in my deck I would likely bring them in over Dromoka’s Command, Tireless Tracker, and/or Collected Company.
Burn
Most people believe that Burn is a good matchup for my deck since I have Courser of Kruphix in it, but I’ve basically shaved the rest of the good cards against Burn from my deck by now and therefore it’s a matchup I want to avoid. However, it’s still a deck that I expect to see around once a tournament due to its popularity, so knowing what to do is important.
First off, Courser of Kruphix really is the most important card by a wide margin. You need to find as many as you can, as quickly as you can to gain enough life. Save your fetchlands for when you have Courser on the battlefield if you’re able, since Courser negates the life cost of activating them. Also, when you have Courser on the battlefield, you’ll want to Ghost Quarter yourself to gain an extra life. For example, if you’re going to be activating Knight of the Reliquary to get an extra mana to cast something with a Courser of Krupix on the battlefield, it’s common to search for a Ghost Quarter and activate it on yourself to be able to gain two life instead of one while growing the Knight. Dromoka’s Command is a nice addition the deck that can prevent the damage of a burn spell and get Eidolon of the Great Revel off the battlefield.
Out:
Yet again the games are too fast to take advantage of Tireless Tracker, and Archangel Avacyn is simply too expensive. Ramunap Excavator and Azusa, Lost but Seeking stay in the deck as cards that can help Courser of Kruphix.
In:
Worship can be an incredibly effective card against Burn and therefore is our best sideboard plan. However, they will oftentimes bring in Destructive Revelry in the matchup to fight Courser of Kruphix and therefore it isn’t completely reliable. Reclamation Sage is effective against Eidolon of the Great Revel, while Eldritch Evolution is a fifth Courser of Kruphix.
Other Options:
Out of these cards, Shalai, Voice of Plenty is the real prize, as the hexproof it grants you is incredibly hard for Burn to beat. If Burn is a bigger part of your metagame, consider adding it to your deck. Otherwise, moving Worship to the maindeck is a good choice, with a second copy in the sideboard. Blessed Alliance is a good addition if you also have many G/W Hexproof or Grixis Death’s Shadow players in your expected metagame. While Kitchen Finks is a strong card against Burn, I honestly don’t think it’s a good enough card for Modern these days. However if your metagame is flooded with Burn and Jeskai Control, then go ahead and throw the Kitchen Finks at them.
U/R Gifts Storm
While U/R Gifts Storm is certainly favored in this matchup, it’s not nearly as bad for G/W Company as most people assume it is. Scavenging Ooze is an amazing maindeck card in this matchup, and adding another over a Voice of Resurgence would help here. Besides that, you’ll want to Path to Exile their creatures and create a fast clock. If you’re able to have Ramunap Excavator and Azusa, Lost but Seeking on track early in the game it’s possible to Ghost Quarter all of their lands, with the red sources being the first target.
Out:
All of these creatures aren’t too important, with Tireless Tracker being the best of the bunch. If you have more cards to bring in against U/R Gifts Storm in your sideboard, take out more Tireless Trackers and maybe shave on Collected Company as well. I do like Collected Company in this matchup, even with a lot less hits, for a couple of reasons. It helps find Eidolon of Rhetoric, which is crucial, and when you have Eidolon on the battlefield, it’s a card you can cast on their turn.
In:
This is assuming your opponent sideboards the same way in this matchup as Caleb Scherer does, as he doesn’t bring in Empty the Warrens. If you believe your opponent will bring in Empty the Warrens, then you’ll want your Engineered Explosives as well.
Eldritch Evolution is another copy of Eidolon of Rhetoric here, and your main target for Surgical Extraction is Grapeshot. Aven Mindcensor is best used in response to a Gifts Ungiven to force your opponent to only search their top four cards of their library. It also greatly improves your Ghost Quarter plan to shut them off mana, which is its reoccurring job in other fast matchups such as Infect and G/W Hexproof.
Choke is the kind of card that may be embarrassingly bad during some games but has an incredibly high upside (same with Worship). Against the version with fetchlands, I would prefer to have both Chokes in my deck. On the play against fetchless U/R Gifts Storm I would play Choke, and on the draw Worship. Worship won’t stop your opponent when they are truly comboing off, but if you’re able to pair it with other disruption, it may do the job with the help of a large Knight of the Reliquary. Overall, I’d like this slot to be a better card, like another Eidolon of Rhetoric or Aven Mindcensor.
Other Options:
For the most part, improving this matchup would be from adding more of the cards already in the deck, like Eidolon of Rhetoric, Scavenging Ooze, Aven Mindcensor, and Surgical Extraction. The other matchup besides Burn where I would want a Shalai, Voice of Plenty in my deck is here against U/R Gifts Storm, as it can greatly slow your opponent down. Bojuka Bog is a cute option as a land that you can find with Knight of the Reliquary in response to a Past in Flames. I wouldn’t want it maindeck, but I don’t hate it at all for the sideboard. If using Gideon’s Intervention, the best card to name would either be Past in Flames or Gifts Ungiven, depending on the situation.
Quick Hits
Unfortunately I won’t have the ability to go into this detail with every match in Modern, so from here I’ll simply cover what should go in and what comes out. Feel free to ask more about any of these matchups in the comment section down below.
Mardu Pyromancer
Out:
In:
Jund
Out:
In:
Grixis Death’s Shadow
Out:
In:
G/W Hexproof
Out:
In:
Note: Eidolon of Rhetoric only comes in on the play. On the draw I would leave in the Scavenging Ooze.
TitanShift
Out:
In:
Note: This is certainly a matchup where Gideon’s Intervention would be helpful if you expect to face it.
U/W Control
Out:
In:
Blue Moon
Out:
In:
Ironworks Combo
Out:
In:
Amulet Titan
Out:
In:
Notes: Stony Silence stops Engineered Explosives from destroying all your three-drops as well as Walking Ballista. Gideon’s Intervention is wonderful here at stopping Primeval Titan, but can also name Reclamation Sage to protect Worship and Stony Silence. Those three enchantments on the battlefield together should lock up the game. Eidolon of Rhetoric slows down Summoner’s Pact.
Counters Company
Out:
In:
Notes: This is the absolute worst matchup by far. If you’re lucky enough to Surgical Extraction one piece of their arbitrarily large mana combo, however, they won’t win a fair game against you. Still, that’s much easier said than done. Surgical can also stop the Kitchen Finks arbitrarily large life combo if they have it or an Eternal Witness. Aven Mindcensor is vital against all Chord of Calling decks, as they are the worst matchups as a whole.
Infect
Out:
In:
Notes: Blighted Agent is the hardest card to beat. Gideon’s Intervention is useful here as well to prevent it from doing damage. Eidolon of Rhetoric is well-positioned; you can wait to use your removal spell until they cast a spell since they can’t cast a protection spell afterwards.
Next Stop: Vegas
This should cover almost all of the most-played decks in Modern, but the format is simply too wide to touch on each and every one of them. If there’s something I missed that you’re wondering about, feel free to ask.
For those of you that haven’t played G/W Company before, I hope that you’re willing to try the deck out after reading this two-part guide. It’s not obviously powerful like many other Modern decks, but it has the ability to beat almost everything in the format, including many of the top tier-decks. This weekend I’ll be playing it at #GPVegas with hopes of bringing it to the Pro Tour.
Viva Las Value Town!