Maindeck Analysis

With Parallax Tide gone, Decree is the deck's best lock piece, and it's good in more ways than one. Landing the full Opal-Wave-Decree combo just wins on the spot, but even the simple line—pitch Decree to Attunement or Frantic Search, bring it back with Replenish—forces your opponent to claw through three countered spells to do anything.

Against control, cycling Decree for six mana is an uncounterable cantrip that strips a key counter or threat while keeping your cards flowing. Opponents often hand it to you off an Intuition pile, figuring an eight-mana enchantment is dead—then eat the cycling trigger and lose a ton of tempo. And under Opalescence, it comes down as an 8/8 finisher.

For when to run two copies versus three depending on the metagame, check the comparison on the Lists page.

Most lists save their creatures for after sideboard, so the opponent's Game 1 removal rots in their hand. Maindecking Meddling Mage instead gives you an early, disruptive shield against fast combo and counter-heavy control right away.

Getting the most out of Meddling Mage means reading the metagame and knowing which spell each deck can't function without. For what to name in each matchup and how the creature-transformation plan works, see our Sideboard Analysis and Matchup Matrix.

A staple in competitive lists. Abeyance protects your combo turn and doubles as a tempo play against the opponent. It stops them from casting instants and sorceries or activating permanents for the rest of the turn, so casting it right before Replenish means your reanimation resolves untouched—and shuts off artifacts like Tormod's Crypt in the process.

And since Abeyance draws you a card when it resolves, it never really costs you anything—cast it on the opponent's upkeep to stall their turn or to shut down a creature with an activated ability.

A premier proactive answer to opponent utility lands like Rishadan Port, Dust Bowl, Wasteland, and Mishra's Factory. Cast it early and their taxing lands and creature-lands stop mattering before they can slow your setup or race your combo—and it replaces itself with a card, so you lose nothing.

Keeps your deck moving and sets up explosive turns alongside sol lands or painlands. But it costs you a card, so it's the first thing you trim after sideboard against grindy control decks, where every card counts.

The deck's most flexible selection engine, and the one that tests your skill the most. The default pile is Opalescence, Parallax Wave, and Decree of Silence—whichever one the opponent gives you, the other two go to the yard to fuel a Replenish. But the pile has to fit the board: three lands against Landstill, three Swords to Plowshares to survive fast aggro. Against reactive blue decks, people often cut a copy to keep their threat count up. For a full walkthrough on building piles and reading tricky spots, see our Intuition Cheatsheet.

While Careful Study looks tempting as a one-mana way to sculpt the graveyard, but it doesn't make the cut. Attunement keeps coming back as an enchantment engine, and Frantic Search untaps your sol lands for free velocity—Careful Study just costs you a card the moment it resolves. Bleeding cards to dump enchantments burns through your counters and removal before you ever reach the four-mana Replenish that wins the game.

The gold standard for one-mana removal. Three in the maindeck is the clean number; bring in the fourth after board against creature-heavy decks.

A proactive answer to problem enchantments and mana artifacts. You can crack it for value at instant speed and bring it back with Replenish, so it keeps generating answers all game. Easy to cut against decks it can't hit.

Maindecking Mana Leak is a proven call—over 35% of pilots ran it after the ban. In fast fields full of combo or reactive mirrors like Esper Psychatog and tempo Replenish, cheap two-mana countermagic buys you the early turns you need. It gets worse in long games against Landstill, once they can just pay the two, but holding up two mana still forces them into awkward sequencing while you set up.

A strong utility card that turns an early Intuition into a lasting draw engine in slower matchups. Against counter-heavy control, tutoring straight for combo pieces leaves your threats exposed to graveyard hate; grabbing Deep Analysis instead keeps you drawing from both hand and graveyard. One copy in the maindeck is a fine way to out-grind draw-go decks.

A solid pick for reactive builds that want to hold up counters like Mana Leak and Counterspell. Four mana is a real cost, but digging five deep at the end of their turn lets you dump enchantments into the graveyard or find defensive answers without giving up tempo.

Your key "sol land," making two colorless on turn one—it's the deck's main accelerant. It powers out a turn-two Intuition or Frantic Search, and lets you land turn-three combo pieces like Replenish or Opalescence ahead of curve, all without skipping a land drop.

Untapping Ancient Tomb with Frantic Search even nets you an extra colorless mana, which fuels big turns when you're otherwise starved for mana. Because it changes the math on your early plays, Ancient Tomb often turns a shaky opener into an easy keep; our Mulligan Guide and Mechanics Masterclass go deeper on the details.

Your main fixer—it turns colorless mana from sol lands and basics into blue or white. Three copies in 25-land builds keeps you resilient against non-basic hate; four in 26-land builds gives you rock-solid color for your busy turns.

Without Parallax Tide to close games out fast, post-ban Replenish leans on grinding into the mid and late game. City of Traitors makes your sequencing painful and quietly costs you board presence in long attrition games.