My
Grimoire

1. The three ways to win

No combo: the deck wins because it has more ways to close the game than the opponent has to stop them.

Serra Angel with flying
Four damage per turn that bypasses every ground blocker. With four toughness, it survives Lightning Bolt; it is the only threat that truly closes the game against control.

Mishra's Factory

A clock that removal spells cannot touch, because it is a land until you animate it. Animate it on defense as well: two toughness blocks Savannah Lions, and the Lions do not return.

Icy Manipulator with low-drop creatures

Icy taps down the best blocker before attacks, or their fourth land during their upkeep. It is the pivot of the deck, valuable on both offense and defense, and it requires no colors.

2. The opening hand

• Starting hands: Keep two to five lands with at least one spell costing one or two mana (keeping the hand 77% of the time and reducing severe mulligans to 5%).

• Six-land mulligan: A six-land hand is always a mulligan, even if it includes Ancestral Recall.

• Colored mana: Avoid single-color hands if the only threat is Serra, as two white mana are required and dual lands provide the right stability (11 sources per color).

• Library of Alexandria: It is worth one less mulligan and guarantees recovery on its own in slower hands.

3. The four families of opponents and the use of the sideboard

Against an unknown opponent, recognize the family and apply its plan; the thirteen winning decks of the most prestigious Old School tournaments that were tested all fall into one of these four scenarios. The thing that truly changes the way you play is the difference between the first game and the two following ones. Against control, you start at 68.6% in game 1 and drop to 58.6% after sideboarding, because they are the ones bringing in Moat and Circles of Protection, and your sideboard does not fully compensate.

Against burn, the exact opposite is true, seven points gained. Against artifacts, it is almost neutral.

• Control — The Deck and creatureless decks — 65.7%

How to recognize it: Dual lands in the early turns without playing anything, Mana Drain, Jayemdae Tome, Disrupting Scepter, few or no creatures.

Game 1 is your best game, 68.6% versus 58.6% in subsequent games, because they are the ones who have to change their deck, not you. Win game 1 and defend it by playing fast, because these matches end around the twelfth turn of each player and round time works against the one who is ahead. Apply pressure early but keep only two threats at a time; a Serra Angel plus a Mishra's Factory kill them in five turns and survive a Balance. After sideboarding, their Moats and Circles of Protection come in, and from there, Disenchants are the winning move to secure the match; they go on the prison pieces, not on the Tome, and they are not held in hand hoping for a better target.

In: 3 Blue Elemental Blast, 2 Control Magic, 2 Whirling Dervish, 1 Disenchant.
Out: Swords to Plowshares (all four against creatureless opponents), 2 Wall of Swords, 1 Erhnam Djinn, Ivory Tower.
 

Warning: Do not play a fourth threat into a vacuum; Balance and The Abyss punish those who overextend.

Rokkjaer 58.1% · van der End 55.9% · Morri 84.8% · Lauter 55.1% · MirrorBall 74.7%.

• Red Aggro — Atog, burn, and lists with Black Vise — 86.0%

How to recognize it: Mountain on turn one, Lightning Bolt and Chain Lightning, Black Vise, Atog, Serendib Efreet. Short matches, closing around the eighth turn.

It is your best matchup and the sideboard improves it even further, seven points in games 2 and 3; it is the only family where you can lose game 1 with peace of mind. Out with everything that costs life, starting with the two Sylvan Libraries. Circles of Protection: Red shut down half of their deck and must be played as soon as possible, before threats, remembering that each activation prevents a source only once. Erhnam Djinn and walls remain; the 4/5 blocks a grown Atog and the flying walls stop Serendib without costing you life.

In: 2 Circle of Protection: Red, 3 Blue Elemental Blast, 2 Divine Offering, 1 Wall of Swords.
Out: 2 Sylvan Library, 2 Counterspell, 1 Mana Drain, 2 Icy Manipulator, 1 Time Walk. Ivory Tower remains.

Warning: Do not cut threats to make room for hate: tested, it loses seven points. If you do not kill them, the second wave of burns will arrive anyway.

Ejlertsen 76.3% · Magrann 93.9% · Landgraf 87.8%.

• White Weenie — lists with small white creatures — 84.7%

How to recognize it: Savannah Lions and White Knight in the first two turns, Crusade, Mesa Pegasus, often their own Serra Angels at the top of the curve.

Balance is your best card: let them develop and equalize the board when they have four creatures against your one or two. Play it when the board is clearly in their favor, because that is when Balance turns the game around. Swords to Plowshares all remain, but they go on creatures that fly or that have received the Crusade, not on Lions. Flying walls are your best blockers and survive Crusade. Control Magic steals their Serra Angel and turns the game around on its own, but it must be played in advance; the creature arrives with summoning sickness and cannot attack that turn.

In: 2 Control Magic, 2 Whirling Dervish, 1 Circle of Protection: White, 1 Wall of Swords, 1 Disenchant.
Out: 2 Sylvan Library, 2 Counterspell, 1 Ivory Tower, 1 Time Walk, 1 Icy Manipulator.

Warning: Do not clash Savannah Lions with their White Knights: first strike kills them with no losses.

Brumby 83.3% · Humphreys 86.0%.

• Artifacts — Robots, Workshop, and big artifact creatures — 69.3%

How to recognize it: Mishra's Workshop, colorless lands, Su-Chi, Triskelion, Clockwork Beast, Colossus of Sardia, often zero colored cards.

Erhnam Djinns all remain, it is the only family where the 4/5 body is worth more than any alternative, because it is what blocks Su-Chi and Clockwork Beast without dying. All Icy Manipulators also remain, and cutting them is the mistake that costs the most points in the entire gauntlet, because tapping down the Colossus during their upkeep is the strongest thing you can do. Stealing beats killing, so Control Magics go on the biggest creature. The sideboard here is almost neutral; these matches are decided on the board, not on the fifteen cards.

In: 2 Control Magic, 2 Divine Offering, 1 Dust to Dust, 1 Disenchant, 1 Wall of Swords.
Out: 2 Sylvan Library, 2 Counterspell, 1 Mana Drain, 1 Time Walk, 1 Ivory Tower. Never the Icy Manipulators.

Warning: Do not bring in Blue Elemental Blasts against an almost colorless deck, because they are dead slots that dilute the plan, and leaving them out against Bruder Bots is worth about ten points.

Lobstercon 70.1% · Bruder Bots 67.4% · Stebbo 70.5%.

Win rates of this deck against each opponent, based on 1,200 best-of-three matches simulated by artificial intelligence, with sideboarding on both sides. Margin of error about ±2.6 points.