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Before we start, some of you might wonder: why am I doing the update a week after I posted the original article? There are three main reasons. First of all, the expected metagame for RC Dallas will most likely be slightly different compared to the one from last weekend. The biggest difference is that before Naples (and other RCs that took place in Australia, Asia, etc., but to make it less wordy, I’ll refer to this weekend as ‘Naples’) Toxic wasn’t considered as popular as it turned out to be (from 0% at the Pro Tour to 7,25% in Naples). The format also proved that it’s very diverse and multiple decks can compete and win. Secondly, the diversity wasn’t shown only in the number of archetypes – we could observe major changes in the archetypes themselves. For instance, Esper or BG Midrange lists can differ from each other significantly and our sideboard plans should take it into account. The last reason is the most obvious one – in the last week I learned a bit more about Toxic and even if I got a solid result (I qualified for the Pro Tour), I still think that – based of the extra knowledge I got in the last few days – some of the sideboard plans could be upgraded.

I hope that this primer and sideboard guide update will help you prepare for your Regional Championships. If you have any questions, ask them on our discord channel – I’ll do my best to answer all of them!

Introduction

Toxic is an aggro deck that attacks the metagame by going under most of the currently played archetypes. Your goal is to get your opponent to ten poison counters, so your one mana creatures effectively have two power, on top of other abilities. This, combined with various cheap bounce spells, countermagic, and combo kills with Venerated Rotpriest and March of Swirling Mist makes it a great tempo deck that either doesn’t give the opponent a chance to react and can steal wins out of nowhere. In longer games, Skrelv’s Hive and Mirrex provide ways to get multiple bodies into play, so you rarely run out of creatures to pressure the opponent with.

The main Toxic’s strengths and weaknesses can be narrowed down to a few notes:

• It’s probably the best deck to punish control decks (Domain, UB, UW) and Temur Analyst. Toxic is great at executing its tempo plan against decks that don’t produce multiple blockers, Skrelv’s Hive can win the game by itself, and our blue interaction – countermagic and March – are great answers to sweepers. The overabundance of control and Analyst is the main reason why Toxic can be considered a good choice for a Regional Championship
• Toxic doesn’t care if the opponent has lifegain or not, and every reactive deck in the current Standard has a few of them. Hence, from this perspective at least, Toxic is naturally better positioned in the metagame than other aggro decks, like Mono Red or UG Artifacts
• On the flipside, Toxic can struggle against decks that can outmatch it on the board, either in quality or quantity. For example, Toxic has an even matchup against Esper because they won’t always have Dennick into Raffine, or a wall of removal – sometimes they’ll draw some of their bad two drops: Deep-Cavern Bat, Faerie Mastermind or a token from Virtue of Loyalty. Games against Mono Red, Legends, and Caustic Bronco decks are an uphill battle, but they can be beaten with a multiple one-drop draw and/or a well-timed bounce spells
• The worst matchup is Boros Convoke. It combines everything that’s good against Toxic: good clock, cheap creatures with two or more toughness, removal and blockers of various colours, so our Skrelv won’t be that effective. I eventually concluded that I didn’t even want to spend my sideboard slots to make it better – now my win rate against Convoke is slightly above 30% and I don’t know how many slots I would have to sacrifice to make it 50/50

Overall, Toxic’s matchups are usually quite lopsided, and only a few can be considered even. If you want to play this deck, you need to be prepared that if you get paired against Convoke too many times, you’ll just be knocked out of the tournament instantly. But on the other hand, if you get paired against a lot of Domain, control decks and Temur Analyst, your chances of doing well will skyrocket. Midrange decks are close to 50/50, so they should be your priority in testing, as there’s a fair amount of edge to be gained there.

The philosophy of Bant Toxic and how it affects deckbuilding

Toxic is a tempo deck and you should always keep it in mind when you think about how it should be built. That’s why the curve of the deck should be as low as possible, but while maintaining the base power level of an average Standard deck. So for example, it’s still okay to play Skrelv’s Hive even if it’s for two mana and doesn’t produce immediate pressure – the raw power of the card is needed to balance opponents’ powerful spells. But it will be cut quite often if going long isn’t the plan you want to execute. 

My decklist:

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Card choices

The manabase

Toxic is an UW tempo deck with a light green splash for Venerated Rotpriest. Still, the mana costs are fairly restrictive, so I spent a lot of time making it work. First, let’s talk about Rainbow lands. The Seedcore is a must and it’s a reason why the manabase can support three colours. It’s also a great tool to push the damage through in midgame, so never register a Toxic list without a full playset. Mirrex is also powerful, but it’s a colourless land most of the time, so if the matchup isn’t about the grind, it can be awkward to draw more than one copy. The one shot of coloured mana helps smoothing things up, although you shouldn’t count it as a blue source for countermagic. Thran Portal may look a bit out of place, but it’s good at making sure you’ll cast Rotpriest if needed and if you have a green source, you can just name white or blue. Having one or two copies of it in the deck makes the manabase more flexible.

White and blue are the most important colours, that’s why I maxed out on both Seachrome Coast and Adarkar Wastes. During the game you’ll rarely need more than one green source, and Rotpriest doesn’t have to be played on turn one to function – it’s even better when played in later turns when you can also keep March up. That’s why green is the least important colour. I tried to add as few ‘real’ green lands as possible. The Seedcore, Mirrex, and Thran Portal are already in the manabase, so the basic mana requirements to cast Rotpriest (according to Frank Karsten, thirteen sources to cast something until turn three is a reasonable amount) can be met with only a few extra green fastlands. Island is my basic land of choice mostly because it’s needed against Field of Ruin decks which happen to be UW and UB Control most of the time, and I want to make sure I’ll be able to cast March even after they attack my manabase.

Creatures

The one drop trio: Venerated Rotpriest, Skrelv, Defector Mite, and Crawling Chorus are self-explanatory. You’ll always be happy to play something on turn one and you should never board out any of them. I would like to play more one drops in place of Jawbone Duelist, but it’s simply not possible due to the card pool we’re working with. Thanks to Double Strike and how it interacts with Skrelv and The Seedcore, it’s a reasonable addition to the deck. 

I was playing Slaughter Singer for some time, but it eventually got cut for a few reasons: it had a very restrictive mana cost, it was too often awkward against Cut Down and its trigger was a perfect target for Tishana’s Tidebinder. Generally speaking, it often was the weakest card in the deck postboard, so it often got cut just because other options were better. I could consider playing it in a more midrange meta, but with so many control decks around, maindeck countermagic looks better.

Annex Sentry, on the other hand, went through a redemption arc. At first, I played it as a solid catch-all answer in game one to any creature-centric deck. Then I firstly switched it for Charge of the Mites from the sideboard and eventually cut them entirely from my 75. But it turned out that Charge of the Mites wasn’t as useful against Domain and control as I thought, mainly because the cards I always play in the deck (one drops, Skrelv’s Hive, countermagic, etc.) are already good enough. So I started searching for a card that would help me in game one against midrange decks and the mirror. Annex Sentry turned out to be the best option available. It’s usually used like a tempo play that can sometimes attack or block if the opponent is unlucky enough to not find a removal spell for it, or if they used them for other creatures. While it’s still quite bad against Cut Down and Boseiju, at least it can’t be killed with the most commonly played black removal – Go for the Throat. It also survives every three mana sweeper – Path of Peril, Clustering Deluge, and Temporary Lockdown. It’s a mirror breaker, since it’s a great blocker and doesn’t trigger the opponent’s Rotpriest when it exiles it. It’s especially good at getting tokens – if you do so, you don’t have to worry about it returning. Annex Sentry will also shine against decks that aren’t traditionally centred around creatures – Nissa and Alchemist are great targets for it in Temur, UW Control can sometimes present a Tidebinder or a token from The Wandering Emperor. It often can be cut against some decks, but it’s still worth running it. Because I expect there will still be somewhere around 8% of Toxic in the field, playing a full playset between a main and sideboard is a good call in my opinion.

Bloated Contaminator is my weapon of choice against Legends, and some other fringe build of Esper that doesn’t have too much cheap removal to deal with it. I’m still not sure if I want two or three copies – I wanted to make room for Annex Sentry, so Contaminator got trimmed to two copies. 

Charge of the Mites

While I don’t have it in my current list, maybe you would like to know why I considered it playable. Charge usually acts as a flash threat. It’s good against control decks, especially after they play a sweeper. From time to time it can also be used as a removal spell, but watch out not to get blown out by the opponent’s removal in response to it. If you are not playing against a spell-based control deck, it’s nearly always a safe card to board out. 

Skrelv’s Hive and Mirrex

When plan A – swarming the opponent with cheap creatures – doesn’t work, Skrelv’s Hive and Mirrex are the best ways to come back to the game. Token making is a slow, but powerful measure of building a board advantage, so you’ll eventually be able to swing for lethal, even through a blocker or two. The lifelink attached to the Hive is yet another tool to play a longer game and to negate the life loss. It’s especially good when combined with The Seedcore – when Corrupted is online, it usually out-grinds most midrange and control decks. Don’t rely on it too hard though – if you cast it on turn two, you’ll start attacking with the tokens on turn four. That’s why if you have a choice between casting Hive or creatures, I would rather pick creatures, so the clock is faster and you can punish the opponent for not reacting on time. The one notable exception: if you play against UW or UB control and you’re on the play, casting Hive on turn two plays nicely around countermagic. It’s a key card in the matchup, so making sure it resolves is worth losing the tempo.

Fading Hope versus Serum Snare

Bounce spells are our way of keeping the board clear. The goal is to tempo out the opponent and temporarily answer their creatures while our cheap threats can attack – usually bounced creatures cost more than bounce spells, so the opponent in the early stages. Sometimes you can also use them as protection spells, especially against creatureless decks like UB. Fading Hope is a cheaper one, so I opt to play a full playset of it. Serum Snare is great too, mostly because it virtually has Toxic 1 attached to it (assuming the opponent has at least one poison counter). It can also bounce noncreature nonland permanents – bouncing Temporary Lockdown to deal final poison counters is probably the best example. I play only three copies of it, due to curve considerations.

March of Swirling Mist

Our Swiss Army knife. It can act as a protection spell, sometimes saving from a point removal, sometimes the whole crew from a sweeper. It does wonders with Venerated Rotpriest – March targets each creature, so you’ll get multiple Rotpriest triggers. It’s a great way to deal final poison counters in the late game when the opponent’s defences are set. March can also be used as a way to prevent lethal damage, to get rid of multiple blockers, or to disrupt certain combos (for example phasing out Nissa in response to Aftermath Analyst’s activation). Never board it out.

Bring the Ending and Spell Pierce

A lot of countermagic split between maindeck and sideboard is my answer to the control metagame. Bounce spells and March keep the board clean, and countermagic adds another layer of protection and disruption at the same time. The ideal scenario is to play a few cheap creatures and then, starting from turn three, keep the countermagic up and not let the opponent catch up. It’s the best answer to sweepers, especially more expensive ones like Sunfall or Deadly Cover-Up. Bring the Ending is also good at stopping otherwise annoying three drops like Preacher of the Schism, Raffine, Glissa Sunslayer, Hostile Investigator, Nissa, Resurgent Animist, etc. Spell Pierce isn’t as versatile, but it has one huge upside – it costs only one mana, so it fits the tempo plan perfectly. It’s much easier to keep Spell Pierce up while applying more pressure.

I tried various two mana counters in the sideboard, but their limitations were quite annoying. For example, imagine having Negate in hand when the opponent plays Archangel of Wrath. Or a Disdainful Stroke when the opponent sweeps the board with Temporary Lockdown. Bring the Ending is the most versatile countermagic we can play, and running anything else over it is a mistake. Its drawback that forces you to have Corruption to be a hard counter is easy to fulfil, and early in the game your opponent usually won’t have an extra two mana to pay for the Ending anyway.

Aspirant’s Ascent

It’s a combat trick that not only protects our creature (similarly to Spell Pierce) from damage-based removal (like Play with Fire) or Cut Down, but also speeds up the clock and grants evasion. Works well with Duelist and Rotpriest. I can see playing more copies in the maindeck, but I eventually decided that Spell Pierce deserves the slot more. More copies are in the sideboard as a tool against Red and Convoke.

White removal spells

Sometimes bouncing creatures isn’t enough and the opponent’s threats must be answered for good. That’s why Toxic plays a bunch of different white removal spells to cover different matchups. Below, you’ll find a list of removal I tested. Some of them are good enough to see play, while others are worse versions of what we have access to already.

• Destroy Evil. It’s an answer to Temporary Lockdown while being good against high-toughness creatures. The card shines against Domain and black midrange decks. The key targets (outside Lockdown) are: Raffine, Preacher of the Schism, Sheoldred, Chrome Host Seedshark and Archangel of Wrath
• Fateful Absence. While Destroy Evil covers a lot of creatures for three or more mana, some of them have three toughness: Glissa Sunslayer, Freestrider Lookout, Hostile Investigator, Kaervek, the Punisher, and Gix, Yawgmoth Preator. I find Fateful Absence the best answer available
• Get Lost. Technically Get Lost should be able to get rid of three toughness creatures while being an answer to Temporary Lockdown, but in my testing, I found giving the opponent Map tokens a serious drawback for Toxic. Our creatures are small, but with The Seedcore they often trade with the opponent’s threats. With one or two extra +1+1 counters it’s often not the case anymore
• Knockout Blow. A narrow answer to a narrow problem. It’s a great tool against Red. In any other matchup it’s mediocre at best. That’s why I now play only one copy in the sideboard since Aspirant’s Ascent is also useful in the matchups, but has other applications as well
• Elspeth’s Smite. It was my find as something close to Knockout Blow that could also be useful in other matchups. I tested it against BG Midrange as another answer to their creatures and it was fine, but far from being spectacular. Playing one or two copies may be reasonable

Tips and tricks

• Before playing any cards, double check how your lands and early plays interact with each other. For example, if your opening has double Rotpriest, Skrelv, Seachrome Coast and Botanical Sanctum, start the game with Sanctum and Rotpriest, so you can double spell on turn two
• Venerated Rotpriest triggers to both your and your opponent’s spells. But keep in mind that it won’t trigger on abilities, so cards like Leyline Binding, Eiganjo, Seat of the Empire, or The Wandering Emperor can answer it cleanly
• Toxic stacks, so extra Toxic 1 from Skrelv or Aspirant’s Ascent will result in your opponent getting more poison counters
• In longer matchups, you can consider not rushing your creatures in the opponent’s open mana – instead, play your Rotpriest or Skrelv on turn later, but with protection up.
• Similarly – if your hand is good, consider not attacking with Rotpriest into open mana against Esper or UW – this can mean a lot of flash threats and you won’t want to trade your premium creature with anything they play. Rotpriest can do more by simply being on the battlefield and waiting for a big March to be cast.
• After sideboarding, if you play against a deck with sweepers and get an early advantage, consider not playing more creatures to keep resources to rebuild after the mass removal happens. The only exception to that rule is Crawling Chorus against ‘destroy’ removal like Path of Peril – the token will keep attacking
• When playing against Preacher of the Schism, consider losing more life than necessary from painlands and Skrelv, so they won’t be able to create tokens

Sideboard guide

Sideboard guide cheat sheet

Below, you’ll find a detailed explanation of how to play the top 10 matchups. I strongly recommend checking the notes at least once, so you’ll know what you should do during the game, instead of just side in and side out correctly. But if you want to grab the essence of this article for your next paper tournament, here’s a downloadable sideboard cheat sheet – ins, outs and pro tips in one piece of paper. I hope it will be useful for you.

BG Midrange

In: 2 Destroy Evil, 2 Fateful Absence, 2 Bring to Ending, 1 Mirrex

Out: 2 Annex Sentry, 2 Spell Pierce, 1 Jawbone Duelist, 1 Aspirant’s Ascent, 1 Serum Snare

It’s probably the toughest midrange deck you can face. The black removal mix is the same as always – two or three Cut Downs and Go for the Throats, so it’s not the biggest deal. Their creatures are the problematic part – the more two drops with two toughness and relevant abilities they play, the worse it gets. Mosswood Dreadknight and Caustic Bronco see play in most builds, and the latter is especially difficult to beat because it generates card advantage, so they never run out of resources and it’s hard to block it properly. Their three and four drops are also scary, although if they don’t combine them with removal, casting them creates a perfect opportunity for us to get a tempo advantage with bounce spells. Skrelv’s Hive is obviously good at creating threats, but BG has multiple ways to deal with enchantments, so don’t rely too much on it. There are two ways to win – either you tempo them out in the early game and they keep playing one spell per turn, or you play a waiting game and win with March. 

Games postboard don’t change much, You get access to a better removal, they should add two or three copies of three mana mass removal. While Annex Sentry is acceptable in G1 (although it sucks against Glissa), it loses a lot of value post sideboard, so it has to be cut. I also like adding Bring the Ending (especially on the play), since their curve is quite high and it’s quite easy to trade up on mana. Sadly, this can be awkward against Duress, but we can’t do much about it. Spell Pierce is out because they play few noncreature spells.

Convoke

In: 2 Aspirant’s Ascent, 2 Bring the Ending, 1 Spell Pierce, 1 Fateful Absence

Out: 4 Skrelv’s Hive, 2 Annex Sentry

Irreparably the worst matchup for the deck. They have everything to beat you, starting with cheap creatures, including eight one drops with two toughness. This alone would make the matchup bad. But they also can swarm the board with creatures in different colours (so Skrelv’s ability won’t be effective), have creature removal that doesn’t trigger Rotpriest in the form of Case and can quickly switch from defence to offence with just one Imodane’s Recruiter. There are two lines that can steal a win: Skrelv + Duelist or double Rotpriest + March. Don’t be afraid to mulligan aggressively to find these openings. The rest of the deck should be used to slow the opponent down. Spell Pierce targeting Gleeful Demolition or Case is quite good. Bouncing stuff to let our creatures attack or before they can cast Knight is also reasonable.

Postboard your plan is still to hope and pray. Aspirant’s Ascent should help you close out the game. I also like adding Bring the Ending – if my plan revolves around the opponent not executing their gameplan, countermagic can help to break their synergies, so you’ll get more time to set up one of your combos. The easiest card to cut is Skrelv’s Hive – we never go wider than them and lifelink rarely matters. Annex Sentry is also too slow – I like Fateful Absence more because it’s cheaper and can target Rotpriest for lethal.

Domain

Regular build

In: 2 Destroy Evil, 2 Bring the Ending, 1 Fateful Absence, 1 Spell Pierce, 1 Mirrex

Out: 2 Annex Sentry, 2 Fading Hope, 2 Skrelv’s Hive, 1 Aspirant’s Ascent

Black build

In: 2 Destroy Evil, 2 Bring the Ending, 1 Fateful Absence, 1 Spell Pierce, 1 Mirrex

Out: 2 Annex Sentry, 2 Fading Hope, 1 Aspirant’s Ascent   P: 2 Skrelv’s Hive   D: 2 Jawbone Duelist

The most played version is the white-based one with white sweepers and spells focused on creating card advantage in the late game. There’s also a black build with Decadent Dragon, and more point removal. The gameplan against both is very similar, but bounce spells are better against the black build.

Domain is a tapout control deck with only a few point removal spells, four to six sweepers and a shaky manabase is Toxic’s dream matchup. It’s quite easy to go under and pressure them with two or three creatures while keeping either March or countermagic to protect the team from mass removal. Keep your countermagic for spells that impact the board greatly – Sunfall, Depopulate, Archangel of Wrath, Herd Migration, etc. Countering Leyline Binding or Up the Beanstalk may sound appealing, but it’s usually not worth it. Remember that Serum Snare can bounce Temporary Lockdown or Leyline Binding at the opponent’s end step, so you’ll get your creatures back and hopefully attack for lethal. You can also bounce Lockdown in response to its exile trigger, so you’ll keep your permanents on board, even tokens.

After game one, they should have more sweepers, but we’ll have more counters, Destroy Evils, and an additional Mirrex. We board out a few copies of Fading Hopes and 1-2 Skrelv’s Hive since we want to go under and Hive interacts poorly with Lockdown. One exception: against black version with 8+ point removal spells, I tend to trim Duelists because they very often die before you can do anything with them. Hive, while being bad against Lockdown, it’s quite good against point removal.

Esper Midrange

The build with 3-4 Wedding Announcement main

In: 2 Destroy Evil, 2 Bring the Ending, 1 Spell Pierce, 1 Mirrex*

Out:2 Annex Sentry, 2 Jawbone Duelist, 1 Serum Snare, 1 Aspirant’s Ascent

Creature-based build

In: 2 Destroy Ending, 2 Fateful Absence, 1 Mirrex*

Out: 2 Spell Pierce, 2 Bring the Ending, 1 Jawbone Duelist

*check how their list can handle Annex Sentry and Bloated Contaminator. If they are soft to them, consider siding them in as well.

The Esper lists can differ from each other significantly, so analyse carefully which build you’re up against, because it will have a major impact on both gameplay and sideboarding. Both builds will have access to Raffine, Deep-Cavern Bat, black removal, and a few copies of No More Lies. The differences can be found in two things. First, whether they have Wedding Announcement and if yes, how many copies are in the 75. It’s a powerful card against us in the long run, but also can be neutralised for one mana with Spell Pierce and when you do it, it’s a huge tempo swing that often leads to victory. The second one is what suite of cheap threats they play. If they rely heavily on flash threats like Faerie Mastermind, Virtue of Loyalty, Tishana’s Tidebinder, Ertai Resurrected, and The Wandering Emperor, Bring the Ending becomes better. Esper flash players tend to wait with casting their creatures to catch your creatures in combat, so they will often let you cast small creatures and then untap – Bring the Ending and bounce spells punish their gameplan really well. But the more they rely on high-toughness creatures like Dennick, Pious Apprentice, Duelist of the Mind, Preacher of the Schism, etc. they will tend to tapout more, so countermagic won’t be as effective since you can’t keep the mana open forever – setting up the clock first should be your priority. 

Getting Seedcore online should be your priority because 3/2 will be able to trade with every two drop they play. It also lets you attack with a bunch of 1/1s into Raffine without the need to sacrifice one attacker. The gameplan is simple – try to overwhelm the opponent and if it’s not possible, build the advantage with Skrelv’s Hive and Mirrex – they don’t have any great ways to deal with token makers, and the value they provide makes it a great engine that will dominate the game in the long run. Try to keep the board clean – it will make Raffine less impactful and force the opponent to not attack you but to keep their lone creature to block – this leads to more time for you to deploy threats and prepare the alpha strike. Skrelv is quite important, since they only have two or three removal spells to kill it in the maindeck, and its ability will help you push the damage in midgame because the opponent’s creature will be either black or blue, so the unblockability will work quite often.

Games postboard will be quite similar with both sides getting some key cards to attack the opponent’s weak points. They will most likely have two or three copies of Pest Control. The easiest way to play around that is to deploy Skrelv + something and force them to act on your two creatures. Countermagic also helps, although watch out for a turn four Pest Control with a No More Lies backup. I also like white removal – I would always bring in Destroy Evil and Fateful Absence if the opponent has other high-toughness creatures like Preachers. If they rely too hard on Pest Control and do not have too many Long Goodbyes, you can consider bringing in Bloated Contaminator – if it goes unchecked, it can win games like nothing else would.
I usually trim Duelists because I don’t want my two drop to trade with a Cut Down. Combat tricks like Aspirant’s Ascent aren’t effective against them either. Serum Snare can also be trimmed since we’re adding white removal instead. Annex Sentry can be either great or terrible – it heavily relies on how many answers do they play. If it’s for example only two Cut Downs and one Long Goodbye postboard, I would keep it in and maybe even consider adding more copies. But if their removal lines up well against it (for example four Cut Downs, two Long Goodbye, and some other weird stuff like Loran of the Third Path), then it’s a safe cut. Usually, the second outcome is more likely to be the case, but when you review the list, be sure to check it twice.

Legends

In: 2 Bloated Contaminator, 2 Fateful Absence, 1 Annex Sentry, 1 Spell Pierce, 1 Mirrex

Out: 4 Skrelv’s Hive, 2 Bring the Ending, 1 Serum Snare

It’s a midrange deck that’s either easy to beat if you never let them establish their synergies, or it looks like the best deck in the format if their engine is online. The matchup is very play/draw dependent and there isn’t much you can do to get the tempo when you’re on the draw. A well-timed Fading Hope or Spell Pierce targeting Relic of Legends is probably your best bet. The good news is they play less removal compared to other midrange piles – the plan is that Boseiju and Otawara will fill this hole once the engine is online, so make sure they never have a chance to channel them for cheap. The biggest challenge is overcoming their two drops – Rona and Inti. Keep them out of the battlefield if possible.

Postboard the plan stays the same – try to go under and don’t gun for a long game. Keeping Spell Pierces may look counterintuitive against a deck with over twenty creatures, but it’s extremely important to keep their three mana sweepers (Glistering Deluge and Path of Peril) and Relic of Legends in check while setting up the pressure. Bring the Ending is also an option, but it can be a liability, considering the presence of Cavern of Souls. I value Annex Sentry higher, even with Boseiju in the mix, mostly because it’s a good tempo play and a nice way to punish them early if their draw doesn’t line up well – an extra attacker that doesn’t die to their three mana sweepers is a good thing to have. I also don’t mind having a few copies of Aspirant’s Ascent, just to have the option to deal final poison counters in the air. My tech against Legends is Bloated Contaminator. It’s a 4/4 creature with Trample that can’t be killed by three mana sweepers or Cut Down. It’s hard to double block because it survives the duo of Inti + Rona. And once the double block happens, bounce spells or March can result in a huge blowout, all thanks to Trample. The card isn’t perfect because it still dies to Go for the Throat, which is usually played as a three-of, and it’s a great target for Otawara, but in my opinion, it’s still worth having it. Skrelv’s Hive is out because it matches up poorly against their Boseiju and Otawara and generally speaking, we can’t afford to play a longer game against Legends, so trying to tempo them out is key.

Mono Red/RG Aggro

In:  2 Bloated Contaminator, 2 Annex Sentry, 2 Aspirant’s Ascent, 1 Knockout Blow, 1 Fateful Absence

Out: 4 Jawbone Duelist, 2 Bring the Ending, 2 Serum Snare

It’s an uphill battle, but if you manage to make one or two good trades, you can take over the game in the mid-late game. The best plan is to activate Corrupted and grind the opponent out with Skrelv’s Hive + The Seedcore. Thanks to lifelink, they won’t be able to neither race you nor ignore your creatures. The plan sounds ambitious and it won’t be effective on the draw against their best openings, but it is what it is. The tempo plan is hard to execute because they have two toughness blockers and a lot of one mana removal. Remember – Chorus won’t give you the token when dies with a flipped Kumano on the battlefield! The matchup becomes better if you play against Slickshot Show-Off build with Monstrous Rages, as bounce spells are more effective against them.

Postboard, slow down the game and win with either Skrelv’s Hive or Rotpriest combo kill. It’s hard to achieve because of how many removal spells they play, including End the Festivities (Remember that The Seedcore can protect your creatures against it!), but the more controlling game they want to play, the better it is for us – we don’t have tools to deal with their fastest starts, and there are cards that can help us outplay removal spells. We also have a few good reactive cards to work with. Knockout Blow is an excellent removal, and Aspirant’s Ascent is very often a one mana protection spell with some bonuses attached to it. Bloated Contaminator isn’t the best, but it at least doesn’t die to End the Festivities or Lithomantic Barrage. Annex Sentry is a necessary evil – it trades one for one and down on mana with at least eight of their interaction spells, so it quite often ends up being ineffective. On the other hand, if you manage to protect it, it’s a removal spell that can also slow down the opponent or finish the game in combat, so it’s usually worth the effort. And if you exile a flipped Kumano, it will return to play as Saga, so they won’t have a 2/2 for two more turns.

Temur Analyst

In: 2 Bring the Ending, 1 Spell Pierce, 1 Aspirant’s Ascent, 1 Fateful Absence, 1 Mirrex

Out: 4 Skrelv’s Hive, 2 Annex Sentry

From Toxic’s perspective, Analyst is a control deck with a combo finish. This means clunky openings and extremely powerful lategame. Our plan is to go under and never let them get to the aforementioned later stage. If they don’t present the absolute top of their range, you should run them over. Their early interaction can be separated into two groups: red spells and green creatures. The former is usually too slow to matter, but the latter is more important, since they both slow us down and push their gameplan ahead. Luckily, we have multiple ways to deal with them. Make sure you bounce Nissa in response to her first trigger, so they won’t get the second mana and cast Analyst or Fires. If both Nissa and Analyst are on the battlefield, I recommend getting rid of the 3/3 – Nissa is key to quick kills and without her, Analyst alone may be too slow to matter. There’s also Ill-Timed Explosion, but it’s easy to play around with countermagic, March, Mirrex, or even a token from Crawling Chorus. If you want to use March, make sure that you wait until they discard two cards – you’ll still have a window to cast March before it deals damage.

Postboard, your plan remains the same. Analyst will pack a lot of removal: three mana sweepers, either Seismic Wave (quite ineffective against Phyrexian Mite tokens, but they still bring it in against Chorus and Duelist) or Vampires’ Vengeance, as well as Pick Your Poison and other random interaction. Despite that, the momentum should still be on your side – just make sure you keep applying pressure. Because we want to go under, Skrelv’s Hive has to be cut – it’s just too slow to matter, especially with multiple sweepers on the other side of the board. Annex Sentry can have its moments in game one, but once they add more answers to it, it becomes an unnecessary risk that’s not worth taking. Fateful Absence is a clean way to deal with Kellan, Inquisitive Prodigy and other creatures they can play early.

Toxic

In: 2 Annex Sentry, 2 Destroy Evil, 2 Fateful Absence, 1 Aspirant’s Ascent   D: 1 Aspirant’s Ascent

Out: 2 Bring the Ending, 2 Spell Pierce   P: 2 Skrelv’s Hive, 1 Serum Snare  D: 4 Skrelv’s Hve

Mirror is quite annoying to play – the starting player has a big advantage. It’s still quite tricky to play, because multiple scenarios can lead to victory. Venerated Rotpriest is a key in the matchup since it’s good at killing the opponent quickly, punishing opposing tricks and blocking the 1/1s. Skrelv’s Hive can be good when you’re on the play or at least have blockers to survive until you create an army of tokens. Skrelv + Duelist combo is also quite good. Combat tricks can buy you time, but you won’t win the game just with them, so prioritise having creatures. Annex Sentry is a mirror breaker – it’s a great blocker and a removal spell that doesn’t trigger the opponent’s Rotpriest. If you can set up a Skrelv + Sentry combination, it’s hard to lose aside from the March endgame. The more Sentries you have, the better it becomes for you. Watch out for Sentry loops – Annex Sentry exiling opposing Annex Sentry. If you add a few copies from both sides, it can quickly turn into a total blowout in combat. So keep that in mind and target the opposing Sentry if you know you’ll win or if you have ways to protect the first one. And once you do it, think twice about your future combats. March of Swirling Mist may look quite bad against the opponent’s Rotpriests, but in my opinion it’s our best tool to come back to the game if we are behind – it can convert mana and cards into multiple poison counters without attacking, so it’s always worth having.

Postboard games are a bit slower because both sides pack more interaction. Bring every Annex Sentry you have. Destroy Evil is fine because it can deal with opposing Sentries and can destroy Skrelv’s Hive. Speaking of the Hive – I found it not as impactful as I would like it to be post sideboard – with more Annex Sentrys it’s easy to stall the 1/1 tokens. Sure, sometimes a turn two Hive on the play can snowball an advantage, but in practice, more games are about impacting the board immediately, not two turns after you cast the spell. It’s better to have blockers and removal than Hive, especially on the draw. Similar story is with countermagic – I found countermagic to be a bit too situational, that’s why I value impacting the board more and cut both Bring the Ending and Spell Pierce. Aspirant’s Ascent can be added to break board stalls – it can be bad against bounce spells, but those will often be forced early on, so the mid-late game Ascent can do some serious damage fairly often.

UB Control

In: 2 Bring the Ending, 2 Fateful Absence, 2 Destroy Evil, 1 Spell Pierce, 1 Mirrex

Out: 3 Serum Snare, 2 Annex Sentry, 1 Jawbone Duelist, 1 Aspirant’s Ascent, 1 Fading Hope

Probably our easiest matchup. UB has no real answers to Skrelv’s Hive, so if you have a window to resolve it, go for it. Once it’s on the battlefield, it’s hard to lose. I had games when I resolved Chorus into Hive and didn’t have to cast anything else until the opponent conceded. If you don’t have the Hive, things get a bit more tricky, but our cards naturally match up well against theirs. Do not overextend into Deadly Cover-Up and you should be fine. 

Postboard, be prepared for a few more removal spells as well as creatures, most likely Tishana’s Tidebinder. Sometimes they play Chrome Host Seedshark, Sheoldred, the Apocalypse and others. If that’s the case, being in Destroy Evils. I tend to bring in one in the dark, because even if they don’t present a target, it will eventually be used to deal with Restless Reef. As long as they don’t have a threat in play, you can come back in most games by drawing Mirrex or Hive. Because of that, Absence will help you buy more time by killing something like Sheoldred or Seedshark. The rest of the sideboarding is simple – add countermagic and Mirrex, trim bounce spells and a few copies of Duelists.

UW Control

In: 2 Destroy Evil, 2 Bring the Ending, 1 Spell Pierce, 1 Fateful Absence, 1 Mirrex

Out: 3 Fading Hope, 2 Annex Sentry, 1 Jawbone Duelist, 1 Aspirant’s Ascent

Among control decks, UW is the toughest one to beat. It’s still a good matchup for us, but it’s not as one sided as UB Control or Domain. They have tools to neutralise our threats and eventually win in the lategame. Skrelv’s Hive can be removed with March of Otherworldly Light, Get Lost or Destroy Evil. They have mass removal spells: Lockdown, Depopulate and Sunfall, a lot of countermagic and The Wandering Emperor, which can lock us out of the game with multiple 2/2 tokens. Having one drop is essential, ideally more than one. Once you set up the clock, try to protect it with countermagic and March.

Postboard you can expect more Lockdowns and Tishana’s Tidebinders, as well as random dudes like Chrome Host Seedshark. Destroy Evil shines here – it’s both a way to deal with Lockdowns and sideboard creatures. If they have a lot of creatures postboard, you can also consider adding Fateful Absence. From time to time you’ll see Sunset Revelry – remember that you can prevent them from making two 1/1s with March. In this matchup, I tend to keep Serum Snares over Fading Hopes because it’s a temporary solution to Lockdowns and a way to steal a win in the late game.