Levelling Up – U/B Control versus G/W Tarmogoyf

For the past two Grand Prix tournaments, both Time Spiral Block Constructed, I played very similar versions of the Blue/Black Teachings deck. Most likely I’ll continue playing it for my upcoming events, but I have one doubt in my mind. How exactly is the matchup against the G/W Tarmogoyf deck that won Grand Prix: Montreal? Being a new deck, and a strong archetype, and having just won the tournament, I can expect to face it quite often in the future. Before its breakout performance, I had played with the deck, and also with my Blue/Black against the deck, and I got under the impression it was favorable to Blue/Black. Back then we were playing against rogue or untuned versions of the deck. This time we have a sample decklist to work from, which should be taken as a reference.

After Montreal, I headed straight to San Diego, so I didn’t focus on Block Constructed for a while… but once I got back into it, my first action was to try the matchup between Blue/Black and the Green/White Goyf build that won the Grand Prix. At the moment, I believe these are the two biggest decks of the format. I resurrected my version of Blue/Black control, the one I had played with the most, and asked some friends to fill the role of the Green/White player.

For reference, here are the lists used.

I made some minor changes to the list I used at Grand Prix: Montreal, based on that experience, and advice from people right after the tournament. I replaced a maindeck Sudden Death with a second maindeck Slaughter Pact. In the sideboard, I cut two Slaughter Pact and one Pull from Eternity to make room for a third Vesuvan Shapeshifter, a Venser, Shaper Savant, and a Snapback.

Before going into a full description of the play-by-play during the matches, I’ll give you some helpful information to help better understand what happened:

I played six matches against three different players, all with Pro Tour experience. One is a current pro player himself, while the other two have attended a Pro Tour this season and are very well respected online players, whose accounts you’ll find always logged in and playing.

For the first three matches I was on the play, and for the other three I was on the draw. This was the best way I could think of to simulate online my real life playtest sessions of series of ten games (four games without sideboard, six with, alternating the play/draw). That would be approximately four matches online, but I decided to upgrade it to six as scores like 2-2 or 3-1 can be deceiving.

Here’s how I sideboarded:

IN: 3 Vesuvan Shapeshifter; 1 Venser, Shaper Savant; 1 Snapback; 1 Tendrils of Corruption.

OUT: 2 Aeon Chronicler; 1 Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir; 1 Pull from Eternity; 2 Cancel.

Match 1

Game 1 (on the play)

I keep with two Island, River of Tears, Factory, Shadowmage, and 2 Careful Consideration. I play the Shadowmage on turn 3, having drawn a Damnation by then. He plays a turn 2 Riftsweeper, which is 3/3 thanks to graft, and slaps a turn 3 Griffin Guide on its back. If I have Slaughter Pact it’d been game (probably), but I don’t so I take five damage. I attack back and draw a Lens and a Teachings. He attacks me again, leaving me at ten, and plays a second Riftsweeper, this one just a 2/2. End of turn I play Teachings, getting a Slaughter Pact. I attack with the Shadowmage, play the Lens, and Careful Consideration. After the dust settles, I’m holding two Damnation, one Careful, one Chronicler, one Pact, and two lands, with six mana on the board. This is enough to play Pact on the Riftsweeper with Griffin Guide, and next turn pay three mana in my upkeep, draw another extra card with Shadowmage, lay a land, and reset with Damnation.

His turn goes according to plan. I drop down to eight life, and he just plays Edge of Autumn, unwilling to commit more creatures. I attack and draw a third Damnation. I use one to clear the board. He plays a Serra Avenger and Call of the Herd, holding two cards plus the Call in the graveyard. With eight mana on my turn, I use four to Careful Consideration, drawing into Tendrils and Teachings. Instead of playing Damnation #2, I used Tendrils on the Avenger, going back to 15 life. I’d rather keep the Damnations for Mystic Enforcers, and with this play I had fifteen life, an active Factory next turn, and I was holding two Damnation, two lands, one Teachings, and one Chronicler… against an Elephant. He attacks me and plays another 3/3.

I draw Cancel, so I suspend Chronicler for two, leaving three mana open. This way, I’ll take six next attack (going down to six), and will only counter Griffin Guide or perhaps Riftsweeper, since everything else will be taken away by Damnation one turn before the Chronicler will come into play. I don’t need to use the Cancel. I play Damnation and Shadowmage, with the Chronicler coming into play next turn. I counter Mystic Enforcer, and on my turn attack for six, putting him at seven. Still holding Mystical Teachings, and with eleven mana open, there was no way he could win this game.

Game 2 (on the draw)

I keep Island, Calciform Pools, Urborg, Cancel, Tendrils, and two Shadowmage. I draw Tolaria West and play it as I thought I have enough spells to play and don’t want to miss land drops. His first play is Edge of Autumn on turn 2, which accelerates him into Call of the Herd. I respond by playing a Shadowmage. He attacks me and flashbacks the Call. I attack for a point to draw a card, and at four mana I have six different plays: Careful Consideration or Shadowmage #2 (no need for any of these because I had plenty of cards already), or I can sit on Cancel, Teachings, Venser, or Tendrils. I decide to play Tendrils on my own turn, killing an Elephant and going up to 21. The decision about which turn to play the Tendrils is informed by Griffin Guide, Thrill of the Hunt, or even Stonecloaker (which some versions are running now). In this case, I have another one. I play it on my own turn to tap myself out. If he plays Griffin Guide on the remaining Elephant, I would bounce it with Venser, gaining a huge tempo and card advantage.

That doesn’t happen. He attacks me to eighteen life, and plays a Goyf and a Saffi. On my turn I draw two more cards, in which appears another Tendrils. Once again on my turn I shoot a Tendrils, this time for five on the Goyf (which he saves with Saffi), and I go up to 23. His next attack puts me at sixteen, and he plays Whirling Dervish, which sets up the perfect scenario without Griffin Guide for my Venser next turn. He attacks me with Elephant, a 4/5 Goyf, and the Dervish. I play Venser, bouncing the Elephant and blocking the Dervish, going down to twelve. He plays another Call from his hand. My next two draws (from my turn and the mage) brings me Shapeshifter and Damnation. I play a morph with enough mana to flip it.

He attacks with both the Elephant and the 4/5 Goyf. I block the Goyf with my Venser and the morph, and flip it to turn him into a Goyf. The Venser and his Goyf are dead, and the unblocked Elephant puts me at nine. He flashbacks his second Call, making an Elephant for the fourth time, but now I have a Shadowmage to attack and a Goyf to block. After the attack I was holding seven cards, including Cancel, Teachings, Careful, Damnation and Pact. He conceded on his turn.

2-0 Win

Match 2

Game 1 (on the play)

I keep Expanse, Dreadship Reef, River of Tears, Urborg, Cancel, Damnation, and Teachings. He plays turn 2 Saffi and turn 3 Griffin Guide, which I Cancel. On his fourth turn, he plays Llanowar Reborn and Serra Avenger, making the Angel a 4/4. I could target it with a Tendrils for four, but he has a Horizon Canopy open, so I play around Thrill of the Hunt and save the Tendrils for later use when I have more lands (for more life), and I play Teachings for Careful Consideration. On my turn I should play the Careful Consideration I fetched, but instead I play Damnation. I don’t know why, it’s totally not how I play this matchup, I can’t seem to find a reason to justify it while watching this replay. The Damnation only traded for the Saffi and the graft counter on the Angel. Why, considering I had fetched Careful Consideration with Teachings? My life was still at sixteen.

He attacks me down to thirteen life, and plays another Serra Avenger and a 5/6 Goyf. If I was playing around the Thrill of the Hunt, now I should point the Tendrils for six to the Goyf while he was tapped, but instead I play the Careful Consideration. On his turn he attacks me down to two… if he had Thrill of the Hunt, I’d be dead. With seven lands on the table, I play Tendrils on one Avenger (going back to nine life), and transmute Tolaria into Slaughter Pact to kill the Goyf. I’m still holding a second Tendrils, Mystical Teachings, and Take Possession. Next turn I can pay for the Pact and use the Tendrils on a creature. He adds two after putting me down to six, so now he has Serra Avenger, 5/6 Goyf, and Riftsweeper.

I point the Tendrils for eight at the Goyf and pass. He plays Griffin Guide on the Riftsweeper and attack, and after all this life-gaining and combat damage, I’m at seven. I play Take Possession on the Riftsweeper, and pass holding Mystical Teachings with access to ten mana next turn. He plays a Mystic Enforcer, and I draw a Shadowmage, which I also play. My stolen Riftsweeper is left on defense to block the Enforcer, but the Avenger puts me at one, facing Avenger, Griffin token, and Mystic Enforcer. I play Teachings for Careful Consideration, hoping to draw a Damnation in my next six cards (one from the turn, one from the mage, and four from the Careful). I draw two Chroniclers, Teferi, Teachings, Shadowmage, and Tendrils, discarding the Mage and one Chronicler.

I stayed alive, at three, after his next attack by playing Tendrils on the Avenger. End of his turn I repeated the play: Teachings for Careful Consideration to dig six more cards for a Damnation. This time it came, so I clear the board, and still have three mana left. If I had a Cancel, I could still probably win this game, but all I had was Chronicler, Teferi, Shadowmage, and Pact. I play the mage, and hope he doesn’t play an Enforcer. He doesn’t, but he empties his hand to play three creatures that could kill me if unblocked: Goyf 6/7, Call, and Riftsweeper with Graft counter.

I attack with Shadowmage to draw a card, as I have an answer for every creature no matter what he draws. I have Teferi, Chronicler, and Pact. I play all three when he attacks, and after that I was up one Teferi and he lost the Riftsweeper and the Goyf. He flashes back the Call. My turn I pay for the Pact, attack with the Mage, and play a Factory. I have ten mana open, holding Cancel, and having Teachings in my graveyard. He draws Temporal Isolation, plays it on my Teferi, and I’m dead since I only have three life. If I Cancel the Isolation then I don’t have enough mana to make a factory token to block, and I was out of Tendrils and Pacts to search for. I Cancel anyway, but he attacks with both and there is nothing I can do to prevent one of the Elephants going unblocked.

I felt I played pretty badly at the beginning of the game. I don’t even know how to explain what was I thinking when watching the replays.

Game 2 (on the play)

I mulligan and keep Island, Calciderm Pools, Urborg, Venser, Tendrils, and Take Possession. He plays turn 2 Saffi and turn 3 Call, while I just charge the land. My draws have been lands and Damnation, so when he attacks me on turn 4, I use Venser to vanish the Elephant, and trade Venser with Saffi in combat, thus making the Damnation I’m holding so much better. He flashes back the Call. On my turn I have five lands, including two counters on the storage land, and I’m holding Take Possession, Damnation, and Teachings. I’m not in a rush, so I play Tendrils for five (going back to 23 and clearing the board).

He plays a Serra Avenger, and I draw Careful Consideration. I use it, drawing two lands, Prismatic, and Tendrils, and discarding one land and Prismatic. I play a land, now having six in play, and ready to charge the storage to three at the end of his turn. I’m holding Tendrils, Teachings, Damnation, and Take Possession. From here, I never ran out of gas. Another Careful got me more cards, including another Tendrils. With my life up to 31, I play cautiously, charging lands, and casting Teaching for Cancel so in one turn I could play Take Possession with Cancel backup on a Goyf with Griffin Guide. I never need to use either the Damnation or the Cancel. I just play cautiously, accumulating Factory tokens, until it was safe to start swinging with the big Goyf.

Game 3 (on the draw)

I mulligan and keep Island, River of Tears, Urborg, Calciform Pools, Shadowmage, and Cancel. He starts with Saffi plus Griffin Guide on the play, to which I could only respond with Shadowmage the next turn. He attacks me for the second time, putting me at twelve, and I play another Shadowmage on turn 4, holding two lands, Cancel, and Take Possession. He attacks me to eight, and plays a Serra Avenger and another Isolation on my mage. I draw a Venser, which I play when he attacks me with both flyers, targeting Saffi. He chooses not to sacrifice it to get a 2/2 token, instead losing the Griffin token but keeping the Saffi. The attack puts me at five life, and he replays Saffi.

I draw a Damnation, so now I have Cancel, Take Possession, and Damnation, with six lands (And one storage counter) available, with mana to Cancel and charge the land to two counters. His Avenger brings me to two. I Cancel a Mystic Enforcer and charge the land, giving me seven mana. I play Take Possession on the Serra Avenger. I stay with the Venser on defense, because I would lose to a Kestrel. He just plays a Riftsweeper and passes. I draw a Damnation, and I’m now holding two but can’t cast them, as he would use Saffi on Riftsweeper to bring it back and attack me for the last two points. All I can do is attack with the stolen Avenger, putting him at fourteen, and pass the turn.

He draws a Call of the Herd. I can still play the two Damnation to reset the board, but my draw gives me something nice: a Shadowmage. I play it, and attack with the Avenger to 11. I have three creatures, the same as my opponent, and I still die right away to a Kestrel. He attacks with the Elephant. I can double-block it with Venser and Shadowmage, but this way I lose the Shadowmage and he can flashback another Elephant. I choose to trade it with the Serra Avenger. This play gets rid of the Take Possession, so now the Kestrel is a very bad draw for him, as the enchantments in play are his Isolations. He plays another Serra Avenger, and flashes back the Call, putting the creatures on each side like this:

Me: Venser and Shadowmage, two life.

Him: Saffi, Riftsweeper. Avenger, Elephant, eleven life.

I have to play double Damnation this turn, so I attack with the mage, finding a Pact. I use Damnation, plus Pact on the creature brought back by Saffi, still holding Damnation… so now it’s a topdeck war. He has the first draw step, but I already have a Damnation. He draws Llanowar Reborn, and I draw Snapback. He draws Goyf, grafting it. I draw Shadowmage, so I play Damnation and the Shadowmage. He draws another Llanowar Reborn, and now I’m drawing two cards. One of them is Careful Consideration, which brings Shapeshifter and Tendrils, so the game is now over. He stills draws a Mystic Enforcer, but with Snapback and multiple cards from the Shadowmages, I’m able to overrun him with the card advantage.

2-1 Win

Match 3

Game 1 (on the play)

My opponent mulligans. I keep with Urborg, Expanse, Damnation, Teachings, Chronicler, and two Shadowmage. I really need a land in my first two draws, but the hand was worth this small risk. My two draws were a Pact and a land, so I could tap on turn 3 for the Shadowmage with Pact protection against Griffin Guide. So far he has a 3/3 Riftsweeper, and he attacks before adding a Call of the Herd token. The two cards I draw in my turn are Cancel and Shadowmage #3, so I drop a second one to the table. On his turn he tries to Griffin Guide the Elephant, but I kill it with Pact in response. This taps me out in my next turn. His Riftsweeper takes me to fourteen. Being all tapped, I can only hope to draw a land in my three draws, which I do. I pass holding seven card against his three.

He just flashes back the Call of the Herd and attacks me down to eleven. I attack him back and draw two extra cards. I decide to be a little greedy and hold the Damnation one more turn. Against a deck with no burn, you can trade life for card and board advantage. In this scenario I was trading six life points – going down to five – for two extra cards from the Infiltrator, to clear the board one turn later. I can do it in a turn where I had seven mana, so I can play Damnation with Cancel backup. This turn I just play a Lens, sitting on four mana with Teachings, two Cancel, Damnation, Shadowmage, Chronicler, and Careful Consideration.

On my next turn, I draw for the turn, attack and draw two more, but I don’t draw a land. I have to play Damnation and pass with two untapped lands, and discard a Chronicler. He doesn’t play anything threatening, but I find myself playing Damnation again with Cancel mana open. Then a Shadowmage, while still holding two Cancel… and from here, still holding Teachings, Chronicler, and Careful Consideration, I manage to win the game quite easily.

Game 2 (on the draw)

I keep Shapeshifter, Venser, Teachings, Damnation, Dreadship Reef, and two Island. He plays turn 2 Saffi and turn 3 Call of the Herd. When he attacks me on turn 4, I play my Venser (thanks to a turn 2 Prismatic Lens), and it kills both his creatures in combat. He replaces them with a 3/4 Goyf, thanks to a graft counter, which made it bigger than my Shifter could become. I don’t have a fourth land drop, and have no access to Black mana. I only have the lands that were in my opening seven, plus a Lens, and meanwhile I had drawn a Tendrils, a Pact, and a second Damnation. Without being able to do anything, I pass, and after he plays an Enforcer (still very far from threshold), I play Teachings for Careful Consideration, hoping to find an Urborg.

Instead of playing the Careful Consideration right away, I decide to play Shapeshifter, because I drew an Island. I tap three for the morph, and leave Island and Dreadship Reef untapped. If he attacks with both, I block the Enforcer 3/3 with my morph and flip it into a 3/4 Goyf, but he’ll probably just attack with his 4/5 Goyf, so end of turn I can charge the storage land. Next turn, if he plays another threat, I can Damnation thanks to that counter and the Lens (I now have five mana), and if he doesn’t, I’ll tap four leaving an Island open, to play Careful Consideration, probably drawing a land, solving my mana problems and selecting my hand, and still with Shapeshifter on defense, much closer to threshold than his. (At the moment he has two cards in graveyard, and I’ll have at least five after the Careful.)

He attacks just with the Goyf, putting me at eleven, and flashes back the Call of the Herd. At eleven life, holding Pact, I still don’t feel I need to Damnation, so I play Careful. Holding two Damnations, one Pact, one Tendrils, one Shapeshifter, two Factory, Dreadship Reef, and Plains, I discard Factory and Plains, play the Reef, and pass. He plays Griffin Guide on the Enforcer, and attacks me with that and the big Goyf. I chump the Goyf and go down to six life. Next turn I play Damnation, giving him a Griffin token. He attacks me down to four, and adds a Serra Avenger and Whirling Dervish. I play Damnation #2 and a Shapeshifter, which he kills with Sunlance. He then plays another Call of the Herd from the hand. Updating the scenario, on my turn…

Him: Twenty life, two cards in hand, one Elephant in play, one Call of the Herd in graveyard.

Me: Four life, four Island, two Dreadship Reef, one Lens, one Factory, no storage counters. Holding Pact, Tendrils, Shadowmage, and Teachings.

Since I have Pact protection, I play Teachings for another Careful, played it, and drew two lands, Urborg, and Damnation. I discard the two lands. He attacks me to a single life point and adds Whirling Dervish. I can now play Damnation plus Shadowmage, or Tendrils the Elephant for eight plus Shadowmage. I choose to save the Damnation because I had no answer for a Mystic Enforcer at this point, and I would go up to nine life, taking one from the Dervish, but the turn after I could make a Factory token and block it. He has Griffin Guide for the Dervish, which puts me at six, but I still have two Teachings in my graveyard. On my turn I flash back one for Snapback, and return the Dervish, shrinking it back to 1/1 and dealing with the Guide. Finally, down comes the Enforcer I was expecting. I use the Damnation I saved for it, killing both it and my Shadowmage, and replay a new mage.

From here, the game is under control. I still have Teachings in my graveyard, and I’m drawing two cards a turn with Shadowmage. I still have Urza’s Factory and Pact protection. His only outs this game are multiple Enforcers or Whirling Dervish plus Griffin Guide. The more cards I draw, the less outs he has, and at some point there are two mages attacking, with me sat on a full hand. This prompts the concession.

2-0 Win

Match 4

Game 1 (on the draw)

I keep two Terramorphic Expanse, one Urza’s Factory, one Shadowmage, one Pact, one Damnation, one Chronicler.

He starts with Llanowar Reborn and Flagstones of Trokair. On the second turn, he takes mana from the Flagstones and cycles Edge of Autumn, playing nothing, and burns for one, which is excellent. It’s almost like me being on the play. His first creature is Call of the Herd (a 4/4 on turn 3), which I match with Shadowmage having Pact backup for a Griffin Guide. He attacks me down to 16 and plays Serra Avenger.

On my turn four I don’t have enough Black mana to play Damnation… I only have one Swamp and storage lands, so I pass. He attacks me down to nine, cycles a Horizon Canopy, plays a Llanowar Reborn, and passes. I play Damnation, resetting the board to:

Me: Nine life, five lands, holding Chronicler, a second Damnation, Careful Consideration, land, and Pact.

Him: Eighteen life, four lands including Llanowar Reborn, four cards in hand, plus one draw step.

He plays a Goyf, Riftsweeper, and land. I drew Triskelavus. With six lands I can make the following plays: Damnation, Careful Consideration, or suspend Chronicler for two. I went for the final option, because if he has another Riftsweeper then my Damnation will kill there creatures next turn. If he doesn’t I’ll play Damnation next turn for his two creatures, and the Chronicler will appear, and be very big, the turn after. I still have Pact against Griffin Guide, or any creature he plays except Enforcer. For that one, I will have a bigger Aeon Chronicler to attack and a Triskelavus to block.

He plays Riftsweeper (dealing with the Chronicler) and Saffi, attacking me down to two life. I only have six lands, so I can’t do end of turn Pact on the Saffi, since I need to play Damnation on my turn. I Damnation, and he saves Goyf with Saffi. I kill it with the Pact. He plays two more creatures. On my turn I have to pay the Pact, so I don’t have mana to deal with both even though I’m holding Careful Consideration and Triskelavus.

Game 2 (on the play)

I mulligan and keep two Island, one Dreadship Reef, one Urborg, 1 Prismatic Lens, and one Vesuvan Shapeshifter. Lots of mana, but I can’t really afford to go to five. The good thing is, with this kind of deck, you’d always rather have extra mana than not enough. On turn 2 I draw Damnation, so instead of playing the Lens, I decide to charge the storage land, and play the Lens on the next turn to charge the land again, since I will play Damnation turn 4 or 5 and the Shapeshifter soon after. His plays are a Riftsweeper on turn 2 (with a graft counter) and Saffi on turn 3 (which kind of foils my Damnation plan). Meanwhile, I draw a second Urborg and a second Vesuvan Shapeshifter, which I play to block the 3/3 Riftsweeper and unmorph it before damage to kill Saffi. He replaces it with a Tarmogoyf, and I finally play Damnation, leaving the situation like this:

Me: Prismatic Lens plus five lands in play, including Dreadship Reef with two counters (going to three), and Shapeshifter plus the second Urborg in hand. Life: 17.

Him: Four lands including Horizon Canopy, plus four cards in hand, plus one draw step.

He plays Mystic Enforcer with four cards in the graveyard. I draw a land and play a morph, keeping only Urborg in hand. He plays Serrated Arrows, which means I can’t block and trade the Shapeshifter for the Enforcer, so I take three down to fourteen. I attack him back, also to fourteen, and pass, sitting on the Mystical Teachings I drew. I have six lands, one Prismatic Lens, and four counters on the storage land. On his turn, he plays a Flagstones, cycles Edge of Autumn and the Horizon Canopy, achieving Threshold. He attacks me down to eight, and plays a Cloudchaser Kestrel. I have many options with Teachings, but I decide to go for Careful Consideration, as it will get me Threshold, plus four new cards, and it’ll allow me to discard the dead Urborg in my hand. I also unmorph the Shapeshifter into Mystic Enforcer.

On my turn, I play Careful Consideration, discarding Urborg and land. I play a land, and use the four remaining mana to play Tendrils for seven on the Kestrel, going up to fifteen life, and still keeping four storage counters on the storage land. My hand still contains another Shapeshifter, another Careful Consideration, plus I have the Teachings in the graveyard. Racing is now a valid plan. He attacks me down to nine and plays Serra Avenger plus Whirling Dervish. I attack him down to two, and play a morph and a land. I survive his next turn and win on the following.

Game 3: (on the draw)

I keep: Shadowmage, Damnation, Careful, Urborg, Terramorphic Expanse, Dreadship Reef, and Factory. I draw a second Damnation on my first turn, which helps a lot, as they can work around one Damnation but the second is usually too much.

He starts with Llanowar Reborn on turn 1 and Terramorphic Expanse on turn 2, playing no creature. My guess is a clunky land draw, or a Whirling Dervish that he couldn’t play on turn 2… but he makes it on turn 3, adding a graft counter. I play a Shadowmage, which is nullified by the Serrated Arrows he plays, and so is the Shadowmage I had just drawn. On my fourth turn, I’m still only facing a 3/3 Whirling Dervish, so there’s no point in playing Damnation yet. I try to set a better hand by playing Careful Consideration, discarding two Shadowmages. At eighteen life, my hand is now two Damnation, one Pact, one Tendrils, and three lands, to his four cards.

He attacks me down to fifteen, cycles an Edge of Autumn, and plays Call of the Herd. I draw a second Urborg and decide not to play Damnation right away. When you’re playing control against an aggro deck with no burn spells, you can trade life points for board advantage. The reasons to hold the Damnation, even though I had two copies, are:

– I could still use my 0/2 Shadowmage to block the Elephant token, so I would take just four. It’s a decent price to pay in this scenario, to be able to reset the board on turn 6 rather than on turn 5. Not playing Damnation now will allow me to charge both my storage lands. Plus, the four damage will take me down to eleven life and grow the Dervish to 5/5. With the Dervish and one Elephant token, that’s eight attacking power, so there’s a possibility that my opponent will flashback the Call of the Herd to have eleven attacking power on the table.

Everything I described happened, and I play Damnation on turn 6, with two open to charge a land. He follows that with a Serra Avenger and a new Call of the Herd, keeping two cards. Meanwhile, after the Careful Consideration, I’d drawn only lands, so I have to manage my resources. I opt to save the Damnation for later use on pro-Black creatures, and instead play Tendrils for seven, going up to eighteen life with an active Factory for the Elephant next turn, and still with Pact backup against Griffin Guide.

I decide to use the Pact right away on his attack, since he could flashback the Call and my Factory wouldn’t contain two Elephants. This play gained me three life, and gave me more room to breathe on the upcoming turns. Instead of flashing back the Call, he plays a Mystic Enforcer with no Threshold. I topdeck Mystical Teachings and pass. He plays Riftsweeper. At fifteen life, and facing a Riftsweeper and a small Enforcer, I decide to hold on to the Damnation a little longer. He attacks me with both, so I make a Factory token and trade with the Riftsweeper, which nets him Threshold. He replaces it, not with the flashback of the Call, but with a second Mystic Enforcer, which means he probably has a third. Two Thresholded Enforcers are enough to convince me to play Damnation. The board is now:

Me: Twelve life, nine lands, including four storage counters and a Factory. I’m holding Mystical Teachings, Cancel, and Vesuvan Shapeshifter.

Him: Twenty life, five lands, Serrated Arrows with two counters, and two cards in hand plus one draw step.

You would assume this game was already guaranteed…

Indeed, he plays the third Enforcer and I Cancel it. I remove some storage counters to play Mystical Teachings for Careful Consideration. I pass the turn holding Mystical Teachings, Pact, Tendrils, Careful Consideration, and Shapeshifter. Still with a Teachings in the graveyard.

Now you would assume this game was guaranteed!

But I should’ve discarded one land and the Pact to the Careful Consideration instead of two lands, to play a land this turn, so that I could play Teachings for Cancel if needed. He plays the fourth Enforcer, and it resolves. I play my morph, which gets a -1-1 counter from the Arrows. I unmorph it, and it became a 5/5 Enforcer. He attacks me down to six, and passes with two cards in hand. He probably doesn’t want to give me targets for Tendrils, and he can kill me next turn or force me to chump block. I draw some cards and charge some lands. On my turn I play Take Possession on the Enforcer, with seven mana to play Teachings for Cancel in case he has Kestrel. Even though he has six lands, only two provide White, so now it’s game. I can Cancel the Kestrel, he’s out of Enforcers, and I still have Tendrils for non pro-Black creatures.

2-1 Win

Match 5

Game 1 (on the draw)

I keep with Shadowmage, Cancel, Urborg, Expanse, two Factories, and Dreadship Reef. Before I have the chance to play any non-land permanents, I’m already at fifteen, thanks to a Saffi with Griffin Guide. At three mana, instead of playing the Shadowmage, I transmute Tolaria into Slaughter Pact. I use the Pact on his turn to remain at fifteen. This got rid of the Saffi (which weakens Damnation) and the Griffin Guide, as the token would also die to Damnation in two turns, and saved my Infiltrator for after Damnation.

But he plays another Saffi and a 4/5 Tarmogoyf, which attack me down to seven the turn I was tapped to pay the Pact. After that I play Damnation, and he saves Goyf with Saffi, now a 5/6. He attacks me down to two life, and plays a Mystic Enforcer. I have Damnation #2 for them, but he has Enforcer #2 to follow.

Game 2 (on the play)

I keep Island, Dreadship Reef, Factory, Urborg, Snapback, Shadowmage, and Cancel. He plays “comes into play tapped” lands in the first turns, so the first play is my turn 3 Shadowmage. Meanwhile, I’d drawn Tolaria West and Damnation, and I felt I had a huge tempo advantage. His turn 3 and 4 plays are Call of the Herd and flashback, so I play Snapback on the one with the graft counter, and play Cancel on Mystic Enforcer. His single Elephant token had already attacked me three times, with me drawing only lands with the Shadowmage. He adds a Kestrel to the table as a 3/3 flyer, thanks to graft.

My hand is three lands, two Damnation, and one Cancel. I have an active Factory on the table against a 3/3 and a 3/3 flyer, so I decided to hold the Damnation a while longer, since I need to draw cards with the Shadowmage. On his turn he plays Griffin Guide on the Elephant. I Cancel, so he plays a second one and attacks me down to three life. On my turn, the cards I draw are Tolaria and Shapeshifter. I choose to play Shapeshifter, copying Kestrel to destroy the Griffin Guide. Then I could Damnation right away, but I opt to transmute the Tolaria into a Pact, planning to block one creature and use Pact on the other to stay alive. If I play Damnation, I would keep a hand of Tolaria (Pact), Damnation, and two lands, versus his hand of two cards plus one draw. This way, the Pact kills one creature, and I draw at least an extra card from Shadowmage and have more chances to draw outs of this situation.

That’s what happened, and after his attack he replaces the dying Kestrel with another one, so he spent one more card and I gained an extra turn with Shadowmage. This was the turning point. I draw into Tendrils and Shapeshifter #2. I play the Tendrils, going up to ten life while holding two Damnation, Shapeshifter, and land, with an active Factory and Shadowmage on the table against an Elephant and one card in hand. He plays Saffi, so next turn I play a morph, use it to block the Elephant, and unmorph before damage copying Saffi, therefore killing it and gaining one more turn of Shadowmage beats. My opponent, holding no cards and having just an Elephant against a Shadowmage and an active Factory, concedes.

Game 3 (on the draw)

I keep Dreadship Reef, Urborg, two Shadowmage, two Shapeshifter, and Teachings on the draw. He plays turn 2 Riftsweeper (a 3/3) and turn 3 Goyf. I have turn 2 Prismatic Lens, but no land for turn 3, so I only have mana to play a morph. He attacks me down to fourteen (the Goyf was still zero power) and adds a Serra Avenger. On my turn 4 I have Urborg, Dreadship Reef, and Lens on the table, and my hand is: three Shadowmage, Careful, Teachings, Lens, and Shapeshifter. What to do now?

I can either play the second Shapeshifter and have two morphs on the table; or play the Lens, and use it to charge the storage land, having for sure four mana net turn and at least one Blue; or just pass to block with the morph and unmorph it to take down a guy. I figured I had no good use for the mana the immediate turn, as my hand was just card-drawing spells, so I went for the play to try to contain the damage and take down a blocker, hoping he didn’t have much gas left in the three cards remaining. If I got too low on life, I would never got out of this situation no matter what I drew, and he did not need anything else to kill me – just the board would be enough.

He sets me back on the plan by playing a Temporal Isolation on my creature and attacking me down to eight, but now he only had two cards left. Mana flood, or afraid of a Damnation that I didn’t have? On my turn I draw the Damnation, play the Lens, and use it to charge the storage land at the end of his turn. He attacks me down to two life, and plays a land, holding two cards. I play Damnation, still having only two lands, but with a full hand now, including Cancel. On his turn he just cycles Edge of Autumn, playing no creatures. He was indeed mana flooded, holding only lands and Temporal Isolations. He used them to prevent my Shadowmages being insane, but I had a full hand and he was playing from the top. The game lasted many more turns until I killed him, but my life totals remained at two, and I never needed to use the Cancel I was holding.

2-1 Win

Match 6

Game 1 (on the draw)

I keep with Plains, Swamp, Factory, Prismatic Lens, Damnation, Pact, and Aeon Chronicler. My opponent starts with turn 2 Edge of Autumn, to accelerate a third turn Enforcer still far from Threshold. On turn 3 I can play Damnation to trade one-for-one with Enforcer, or charge a Dreadship Reef so that I can play Careful Consideration next turn. I decide to wait on the Damnation. Next turn he attacks me for three, and plays a Call of the Herd. On my turn I’m holding Pact, Chronicler, Damnation, Shadowmage, Careful, and land. The choice is between Careful and Damnation. I’m not sure which one’s better. If he has Griffin Guide then it’s Damnation. I don’t know what he’s holding, and since I’m still at seventeen, I choose to draw four new cards. I discard land and Pull from Eternity, and gain Tendrils and a land.

The worst scenario happens. He plays a Griffin Guide on the Enforcer, and attacks me down to nine. I’m forced to play Damnation and give him a 2/2 flyer, but my hand looks strong (having drawn a second Tendrils). He attacks me to seven and plays Riftsweeper and Serra Avenger. I play a Shadowmage and Tendrils the Avenger, going back to fifteen. I’m looking good once again, as I can block the Riftsweeper this turn and then start attacking for cards, but he has Temporal Isolation for the mage, and attacks me with both creatures down to nine, and adds Saffi after the attack. With seven mana and holding Tendrils, Pact, Chronicler, Cancel, and Careful, I play Tendrils on the Avenger, going back to fifteen while keeping Cancel mana open. Then, on his attack, I play Pact on the Saffi, taking two from the Riftsweeper (which is the only creature on the table). It’s quickly joined by a flashed-back Elephant. My opponent is just holding one card.

On my turn I pay the Pact, and drop a Shadowmage to block Riftsweeper. He attacks with both. I block the 2/2 as planned, and fortunately he doesn’t have anything. I take from the Elephant down to ten, and he plays Llanowar Reborn and Goyf, grafting him to a 6/7, and emptying his hand. On my turn I have many spells, but all of them cost double Blue: Chronicler, Careful, and Cancel. I play a Chronicler as a 4/4 to hold the Riftsweeper and the Elephant, but he topdecks a Griffin Guide and puts it on the Goyf, making it an 8/9 flyer. My Chronicler could only stop one of the Riftsweeper and Elephant, and I was at ten.

Game 2 (on the play)

I keep: Tolaria, Island, Urborg, Shapeshifter, Venser, Teachings, and Pact. He has a slow start of turns 1 and 2 Flagstones, so the first play is my Shapeshifter. He matches with a Kestrel. My hand on turn 4 is Cancel, Tendrils, Shapeshifter #2, Teachings, Pact, and Venser, but I don’t have a fourth land. I attack with the Shapeshifter. I don’t mind trading it for his creature, as all I wanted was to gain time, and avoid losing life, so that I could draw lands. He trades. He’s also stuck on three lands, good enough to play Call. I draw my fourth land, so when he tries to enchant it with Griffin Guide I have Venser to return the Elephant and counter the Guide.

From here I play very defensively, always leaving Cancel mana open to counter Mystic Enforcer. I have removal for all the others, and I can afford to lose some life points in attacks in order not to tap out until his end of turn, since I was holding two Tendrils. The key moment is when I had an untapped Venser and morph with three mana open (always), against his Riftsweeper and 5/6 Tarmogoyf. He plays Griffin Guide, so I don’t need to fear the Enforcer this turn. I unmorph the Shifter, copying the 5/6 Goyf, and then kill it with Slaughter Pact. On my turn I pay for the Pact, and still have three mana open (which I use to counter an Enforcer). The turn after that, with all my seven mana available, I play Careful Consideration, once again leaving three mana open. After that, I have two Cancel, one Tendrils, one Careful, one Shadowmage, eight mana, and a Teachings in the graveyard. The game took a while to finish, because I refused to counter anything other than Enforcers so the Isolations slowed my attacks, but after drawing many cards I found a Triskelavus. With my opponent already low on life. I would probably win it anyway if I had played more aggressively.

Game 3 (on the draw)

I keep with two Terramorphic Expanse, Swamp, Urborg, Prismatic Lens, Venser, and Pact. My opponent mulligans. He starts with turns 2 and 3 Goyf, with two attack power. I played Damnation on turn 3 to take them both, mostly because I had no other play. My hand was two lands, Pact, Venser, and Careful, both needing two Blue, so I planned to play Damnation now and Careful the next turn thanks to Lens. If I’d had two Blue, I would’ve play Careful on turn 3 with Pact backup. He adds a Serra Avenger to the table, and attacks me down to fifteen the turn after… but he only played a Llanowar Reborn to follow, his fourth land coming into play tapped.

After the Careful Consideration, my hand has plenty of gas: Shadowmage, Venser, Shapeshifter, Take Possession, Pact, and land. I play the mage and the Shifter. If he plays an Enforcer with a Graft counter, I can play Venser to return it to hand, so that when it comes back my Shifter can take it in combat. If he doesn’t, I flip the Shifter copying the Shadowmage, and attack for two cards. He did not had the Enforcer, but he sees through my plan of drawing two cards a turn, and kills the Shadowmage with Sunlance, leaving me only a morph. I’m all tapped, so he attacks me with Serra Avenger down to twelve.

On my turn I flip the Shifter copying Serra Avenger, and play Pact on his creature and attack him down to fifteen. I now have the only creature on the table, Serra Avenger, which can turn into anything he plays. He just has a Kestrel, turning it into a 3/3 with the graft counter. I pay the Pact on upkeep, and have four mana open for Venser. During combat, the creatures deal three to each other. He saves his with Thrill of the Hunt (which can be problematic when his Enforcer faces my Shapeshifter copying his), and I return my Shifter to hand with Venser.

He attacks me down to nine, and adds a Mystic Enforcer, holding just one card. I have seven mana in play, and my hand is Take Possession, Mystical Teaching, Shapeshifter, and two extra Urborgs. I have to believe he’s not holding a second Kestrel, and if he topdecks one I’ll have to topdeck a Damnation myself. I play Take Possession, and attack with Venser. He just has another Serra Avenger. On my turn I play a morph before combat, to copy the Mystic Enforcer in case he dies in battle. I attack with it and it goes through, even though he could double-block with his two 3/3s and save one with Thrill… that probably wasn’t a good choice. He goes to six, draws for the turn, and concedes facing two Enforcers.

2-1 Win

…

The last time I played a matchup between versions of these two decks, I wasn’t keeping track of the records. Nevertheless, I got the feeling it was favorable for the Blue/Black deck. However, this result of 6-0 in matches seems a little exaggerated after playing some very close games. In some cases, the deciding game for the match win was very close indeed. Let’s try to see the numbers based on the games played, and not on who got the match win.

Games total: 12-4 (75%)

Games pre-sideboard: 2-4 (33%)

Games after sideboard: 10-0 (100%)

Games playing first: 6-1 (83%)

Games playing second: 6-3 (67%)

All the losses occurred in game 1 before sideboard, which made me a little more curious.

Games pre-sideboard playing first: 2-1 (67%)

Games pre-sideboard playing second: 0-3 (0%)

When testing for a Pro Tour, this is only a small sample of results to analyze. From here, we would focus on some specific points, or have different players try the matchup, and for past events we’d end up with scores containing ten times more games than what we have here, especially for what we believed to be the most common matchup. But from this small sample, it is possible to draw some conclusions:

Blue/Black control has advantage in the matchup against a regular straight Green/White version of Goyf. I won’t expect to win all the time, but certainly more than half of the time.

The matchup is not so good before sideboarding, since you don’t have many answers to Mystic Enforcer and Griffin Guide. It improves a lot after sideboarding, so you should still be able to win the round even after losing the first game. In this match, it was shown that you have more chance to win a pre-sideboard game than they have to win one out of two after sideboarding.

For the Green/White deck to have a true advantage in game 1, it needs to go first. The die roll is therefore a lot more important for the Green/White deck than for the Blue/Black.

Those were conclusions based on the numbers achieved. However, I’m not a numbers person. My general conclusion after playing the matchup is that the Green/White deck might need to add a splash, or at least rebuild the sideboard, to have a better shot against Blue/Black, since it couldn’t steal a post-sideboard win. As for the Blue/Black deck, I admit I made some mistakes in these six matches, but after playing it many more times you’ll start making fewer, and thus you’ll get a better feeling of the matchup.

My general game plan is to hold on the Damnations a) for the Mystic Enforcers and Pro-Black creatures, b) for absolutely crushing situations, and c) for your own survival. Also, if I’m hitting with a Shadowmage, I tend to avoid resetting the board until it’s out of control. Instead, I try to draw more cards and just contain their creatures, trying to force them to over-commit. This will make their decisions harder, as they won’t know if you do have the Damnation.

Keep in mind that different play styles may provide very different results. Once, Karsten had an 80% winning percentage in a certain matchup while I could do no better than 50-55%. After I watched him play and he gave me a few pointers, I drastically increased my winning percentage. This can only be seen as a good thing, as it proves that skill or practice impacts your chances of winning.

If I was in school and had been forced to do this as a paperwork, or read it as a matter of study, it would’ve been exhausting… but fortunately, I did this for pleasure, and I enjoyed it a lot. I hope you also find it interesting. For now, I’ll still be playing Blue/Black, and with a couple more months of Block ahead I’ll be playtesting a lot more. Maybe I’ll present some more testing results in a future article.

Thank you for reading,

Tiago