Mainboard (60)
Creatures (11)
Instants (20)
Sorceries (8)
Artifacts (2)
Sideboard (15)
Mono-Red Madness wins by flooding the board with cheap spells to trigger Guttersnipe and Kessig Flamebreather while finishing with Lightning Bolt and Fireblast — your goal is to keep those creatures off the table before they generate unmanageable damage. Hydroblast is your best card in this matchup, functioning as both a hard counter to their burn spells and instant-speed removal for their key creatures. Use Skred, Lightning Bolt, and Cast into the Fire to answer threats early; Cast into the Fire doubles as answers to Relic of Progenitus, which they'll bring in post-board to disrupt your Archaeomancer recursion loop. The second copy of Ethereal Haze gives you an additional panic button when Guttersnipe triggers or an unblocked attack would otherwise be lethal, buying you time to stabilize with Mulldrifter. Envelop is a cheap, efficient counter for their sorceries — Faithless Looting, Grab the Prize, and Highway Robbery — denying the card advantage and storm-like momentum their deck relies on to close games.
Grixis Affinity is a fast artifact-based deck that wins through card advantage from Ichor Wellspring and Thoughtcast, then closes with Myr Enforcer and Utrom Monitor backed by Galvanic Blast for reach. Hydroblast is the premier answer here, countering or destroying their key threats and negating Galvanic Blast. Cast into the Fire hits artifacts directly, taking out Ichor Wellspring and Refurbished Familiar while the exile clause matters against Blood Fountain recursion. Trim the dilutive pieces — Ethereal Haze, Union of the Third Path, and Murmuring Mystic are too slow or misaligned — and keep the Ephemerate engine intact to grind Mulldrifter and Archaeomancer into inevitability. Watch for Gorilla Shaman out of their board targeting your Snow-Covered lands, and be ready to Pyroblast their Blue Elemental Blasts.
Dimir Terror is a tempo-control deck that leverages cheap mill spells like Thought Scour and Mental Note to fuel delve threats — Tolarian Terror and Gurmag Angler — backed by Counterspell and removal. Pyroblast comes in as hard answers to their blue threats and to fight over counterspell wars, since nearly every relevant spell in their deck is blue. Dispel is cut because Pyroblast does that job better in this matchup and also hits their creatures. Ethereal Haze and Thraben Charm are narrow here — Ethereal Haze has minimal impact against their evasive or grounded threats, and Thraben Charm's modes don't line up well against their strategy. Your primary win condition is grinding them out with Mulldrifter and Ephemerate value while using Skred and Pyroblast to handle their delve threats before they run away with the game.