Strategy

When playing in the blind, or as your default strategy in Game 1, your primary goal is to execute the combo as fast as possible. Because you don't know exactly what you're up against, assuming the proactive role is always your safest bet.

To achieve this, you need to mulligan aggressively to find a hand that can produce the combo quickly. When you're facing unknown pressure (or pressure from two different angles), keeping a slow hand is a death sentence, especially since our dedicated card selection doesn't really come online until turn three. Check out the Mulligan Guide for more on what hands to keep.

Against fast aggressive decks like Goblins, Sligh, or UG Madness, your goal isn't just to survive forever. You need to disrupt their momentum and control the board just long enough to assemble your combo. Use Parallax Wave and Swords to Plowshares to stall the clock while you sculpt your graveyard for a lethal turn before they can beat you.

Against faster combo decks, this dynamic changes between games. In Game 1, they are usually faster, so you are forced into a pure race to combo first. But in Games 2 and 3, you bring in disruption like Meddling Mage and Abeyance, allowing you to assume the Control role—locking down their engine until you can safely execute yours.

Against heavy counterspell and slow control decks, think about the game in terms of inevitability. If the game goes extremely long, and you both draw most of your decks, who wins? Since your threat density (with multiple copies of Replenish, Opalescence, and Decree of Silence) is incredibly high, you are usually favored to win these battles.

In these matchups, patience and resource preservation are everything. Don't waste your key spells or discard important combo pieces just for a temporary advantage. Try to extract maximum value from every card, making sure every threat you cast forces them to use a real answer. However, always stay alert: if they stumble or tap out, you must be capable of seeing that opportunistic window and taking the game right then.

In Games 2 and 3, opponents will often dilute their deck with graveyard hate like Tormod's Crypt. This is when Replenish shines by transforming into a UW Midrange deck. By bringing in cards like Meddling Mage or Exalted Angel, you completely ignore their hate and beat them down with evasive creatures while they sit on dead graveyard interaction. If they respect your combo, they fall short on removal; if they keep the removal, you can combo through less hate. In some matchups, you get to lock the opponent with early Mages, or resolve an Exalted Angel on turn 3; use that opportunity to go beatdown and close the game.