Over the past year or so, I have been tuning a Black/White control deck with a combo finisher. In this particular instance, the finisher is the Helm of Obedience and Leyline of the Void or Rest in Peace combo. This deck has a lot in common with various other Helm/Leyline decks. The key differences are as follows:
1) This is a pure control deck. The combo is reserved for either dire circumstances, or when the game is fully locked down.
2) This is a Black/White deck only. There is no blue splash.
As such, most of the tuning has been focused towards the control elements. Without further ado, I present BW Helm Control:
1) Powerful disruption against nearly every strategy
2) Significant card quality/selection
3) Combo Finish
4) Inevitablity
5) Cost - Relatively Inexpensive Control Deck
Cons
1) No turn 0 interaction
2) Clunky combo pieces
3) Soft to counterspells
4) No raw card advantage
Card Choices
That said, let's examine the card choices I've made for this deck.
Duress - Duress both protects our own combo and disrupts opponents who aren't playing to the board. The lifeloss from Thoughtseize can't be recovered, and the insane amount of creature removal negates the need for a more powerful discard spell.
Hymn to Tourach - Hyman savagely mauls anyone and everyone. A mandatory 2-for-1 is just what this deck needs. Coupled with the fact that we're naturally exiling graveyards, this card doesn't even fuel an opponent's delve. Between Hymn and Duress, the combo matchup is nearly sewn up, as this deck doesn't need 20 turns to win.
Innocent Blood - This card is supremely efficient in a deck without creatures. It answers many problematic creatures at a very good rate of exchange. It is less useful against swarm strategies, so its only a 2 of.
Toxic Deluge - A 3-mana sweeper is incredibly powerful in this deck. All our top end plays come in at 4-cmc, so being able to clear the board before hand is incredibly valuable. Additionally, Deluge ignores most forms of creature protection.
Vindicate - Our spell based answer to non-creature permanents. Vindicate has fallen out of favor recently, however its power remains unchanged. Vindicate nicely handles permanent based disruption of any kind.
Swords to Plowshares - The most efficient spot removal in Magic. In particular, this deck couldn't care less about its opponents life total.
Sensei's Divining Top - The premier colorless card selection tool. Coupled with the 10 fetch lands and 4 Enlightened Tutors, Top provides the selection this control deck is looking for.
Enlightened Tutor - ETutor represents not only extra copies of each combo piece, but also four extra copies of pre-board and post-board distruptive utility pieces. ETutor and Divining Top pair very very well together as well.
Engineered Explosives - A powerful ETutor target. Specifically useful against token decks, or other decks that look to go wide.
Oblivion Ring - The enchantment equivalent to Vindicate. Essentially tutorable removal. Weak to abrupt decay, but still useful. Similarly, O-Ring vastly improves the matchup against any Show and Tell deck.
Pithing Needle - An ETutor answer to problematic permanents. Being able to shut down planeswalkers or utility lands is very valuable.
Humility - I have found Humility to be vastly more useful than Moat. Stopping creature shenanigans is more important than protecting yourself from some attackers. In particular, Humility pairs very very nicely with Toxic Deluge.
Batterskull - The all important alternate win-con. Batterskull is, and always will be, one of the most powerful cards that a big-mana control deck can play.
Helm of Obedience - The winner itself. 2 copies are necessary to protect against discard.
Leyline of the Void - The combo enabler. Significantly, LotV, shuts down many many strategies if you open with it. Dredge, Reanimator, any Goyf/Mongoose deck, Deathrite Shaman, SCooze, and most importantly Delve.
Rest in Peace - Another enabler. In the deck to play around surgical extraction, as well as to provide a 2-cmc enabler for Helm.
Fetches - The four Marsh Flats are obviously necessary. Some combination of white/black fetches can make up the rest of the fetchland base.
Basics - a minimum of 5 basics is necessary for this deck. Land disruption is particularly potent against control decks, so being able to play around wasteland is incredibly important.
Artifact Lands - these lands enable ETutor land fetching, a corner case of some importance.
As more cards become availible, I will update this section to reflect that.
Sideboarding
Since this deck contains enlightened tutor, much of the sideboard can be devoted to 1-of powerful answers. Similarly, sideboard slots focused towards the control mirror can be very helpful. Below is a sample sideboard, as well as discussion of various other options.
Included below is a list of sideboard options with an explanation of their value. A rating scale from 1(poor) to 5(excellent) is used to rank each option.
Ashen Rider - 2 - A powerful tool in the show and tell matchup. It can also function as a hardcast wincon. It serves no other purposes.
Buried Ruin - 3 - Buried Ruin provides useful protection against discard and counterspells. Works best when paired with Cruicible of Worlds Obviously, any graveyard-centric tech should be taken with a grain of salt, considering the point of this deck.
Curse of Exhaustion - 2 - An ETutor target specifically for combo matchups. In particular, this card does incredible work versus High Tide. Most importantly, it dodges Abrupt Decay.
Disenchant - 4 - An answer to problematic artifacts and enchantments. Very useful in any Stoneforge matchup.
Engineered Plague - 3 - ETutorable. Absolutely crush any tribal deck, particularly Elves and Goblins. Plays wonderfully with Humility for other tribal decks.
Heliod, God of the Sun - 2 - ETutorable alernate wincon. Heliod has shines in the control matchup.
Leyline of Sanctity - 5 - Protection from Discard. LoS shuts down many ways others use to interact with us. In particular, you can nearly auto-win the Burn matchup, and any discard heavy matchup becomes much easier.
Night of Souls' Betrayal - 5 - NoSB is the best lockpiece against creature decks. When combined with Humility, NoSB ends the game against many decks.
Oblivion Ring - 4 - O-Ring is obviously a very good card. Extras can be very useful in post-board matches.
Silence - 5 - Silence serves two important roles in this deck. 1) more combo disruption and 2) combo protection. Never leave home without it.
As additional sideboard cards are brought forward, this section will be expanded to include an analysis of said cards.
Obviously, the next question is, how does this deck fair against different matchups? Using this scale: Poor, Fair, Even, Good, Perfect; I have prepared a preliminary list of matchups below:
Miracle Control - Fair - Game 1 is often very even. We both have many dead cards. Fortunately, we can win instantaneously and we can often ignore or otherwise mitigate their win conditions. Focus on card selection, and wait for your spot to jam the combo with discard backup or after they land a Jace. Games 2 and 3 are fair. This is where we suffer. They will focus solely on stopping our combo. A good alternate win-con would go a long way to improving this matchup. Perhaps a Stoneforge-Batterskull plan.
MonoBlue Omnitell - Good - We are a deck with oblivion ring main. As such, they have to be very very careful with their own combo. Additionally, our hand disruption hurts them considerably. An alternate wincon is good games 2/3, as they will save all their countermagic for our pieces. They also have very few ways to interact with resolved lock pieces, so don't be afraid to play things out.
Death and Taxes - Good - Death and Taxes looks to get under greedy opponents. The huge number of basic lands and creature removal makes this matchup good. We have to be concerned for their long game of Mangara+Karakas, but even so, they have limited means of interacting with us. The game plan is to stall until we can combo win.
BUG Delver - Even - Their hand disruption is very good against us. In turn, they have limited threats, and we can stall long enough to empty their hand. Playing around wasteland and daze is very important. Fortunately, our combo is immune to abrupt decay, and they often have no other way of interacting with permanents.
RUG Delver - Good - We can play around their conditional permission and land denial and remove their very limited threats. It's not unreasonable for them to try to burn us out. Graveyard exiling really limits their threats, so going for an early RiP can be powerful. Postboard, the games are harder, but still manageable. Normally, RUG delver will slow down and try to play a controlling game, but we're better at it than them.
UR Delver - Even - They have a very fast clock backed up by a multitude of counterspells. If you can keep your life total high, you have a considerably better long game than them. Trade resources aggressively and always try to play around their conditional counterspells. Toxic Deluge for 2 does insane work against their threats. Hymn also shines as they have few ways to recoup card advantage, particularly since we're shutting down their graveyard. They have very few ways to interact with your permanents, so don't be afraid to play things out.
4Color Delver - Good - Our graveyard disruption really hammers their major green threats. While they discard is good against us, ours is good against them too. Play for the long game, and play around as many conditional counters as you can.
4Color Cascade - Good - While they can spit out a massive board presence fairly quickly, they sacrifice nearly all of their permission to do so. Focus on keeping the board clear and finish up with the combo before they can set up a huge series cascades.
Ad Nauseam Tendrils - Good - Preboard, they can get us if we draw all white cards. Shutting down past in flames can be very powerful. Post board, we have so much hate, it's incredibly hard for them go off. If possible, utilize top to float a silence on top.
GW/x Maverick - Even - Two words: Qasali Pridemage. Obviously, this deck has some trouble with enchantment removal. Sequencing is very important here. In particular, keep an eye out for a sudden Marit Lage either from Crop Rotation or Knight of the Reliquary. Humility shines in this matchup.
TinFins - Perfect - Leyline of the Void. Tin Fins does nothing without a graveyard. We can absolutely crush this deck with the right draws. Watch out for transformational sideboard into non-graveyard combo.
Reanimator - Good - Again, game one is really good. If the deck runs show and tell, it can be a bit harder, but again not terrible. Humility shines again. Simply, they can't do what they normally do, and their colors don't allow access to enchantment destruction.
Enchantress - Even - Most of the time, they negate our discard with their own leyline. In turn, our black creature removal handles their enchantress effects. The key problem is that they might helm us, or we run out of ways to get through a solitary confinement. Keyword here: grindy.
R/G Lands - Good - Graveyard hate hammers this deck into the ground. Without Loam/Fire their only method of killing is Marit Lage, to which we have answers. Post board, this matchup gets much harder, as they often have multiple Krosan Grips and other similarly disruptive cards.
Lands - Even - Again, graveyard hate is really hard for them to deal with game one. Unfortunately, they run actual permanent hate main, and more board. It can be hard to lock this deck down. It's a matter of sequencing to get your combo through.
UBx Landstill - Fair - Manlands are a problem. Infinite Counterspells are a problem. Even worse, they often have a green splash for Pernicious Deed. This matchup is winnable if you have a significant amount of hand disruption followed by a quick combo before they can stabilize.
Aggro Loam - Good - Graveyard disruption really hurts this deck. With removal for their few creatures, you can easily walk all over this deck. Be aware that it plays a few pieces of permanent removal (particularly post-board) and chalice of the void.
Elves - Perfect - Tons of creature removal and hand disruption for their powerful non-creature spells. The matchups gets even better post board. Abrupt Decay does nothing against us. I don't believe I've ever lost a game against Elves that went beyond turn 3.
Goblins - Perfect - Tons of creature removal strictly limits how explosive goblins can be. Protection from wasteland is very important. Goblins usually has no way of interacting with out permanents, so its totally reasonable to go for every lock piece ever.
Merfolk - Good - Creature removal helps slow merfolk down. Once you empty their hand, your topdecks are better than theirs. Play for the long game. Blue has almost no way of interacting with resolved permanents, so go for lock pieces.
Imperial Painter - Good - Hammer their creatures, and force them to discard their hand. Your cards are vastly more powerful than theirs. Since you're not playing the same combo, feel free to pre-emptively needle theirs. Be very careful about Painter's Servant and all their REBs, since they can remove lock pieces.
Food Chain - Good - This is a weak combo to hand disruption. Unfortunately, exiling their graveyard plays into their hands. Nevertheless, trade favorably with them, and finish them off with the combo as soon as possible.
The Epic Storm - Good - As with ANT, our combo disruption is solid. Always be concerned about a huge empty the warrens. As with ANT, graveyard disruption is a very good plan.
UW Blade Control - Fair - A fast clock with a ton of counterspells. It's very hard to go bigger or go longer than this deck. The best plan is to hammer them with discard and try to jam the combo early. It's nearly impossible to win the long game.
Sneak and Show - Good - As usual, the hand disruption, O-Ring, Humility deck does really well against show and tell. Obviously, Sneak attack is the most problematic card, so play around it as much as possible. Also, always be aware of a post-board through the breach.
DeathBlade - Poor - Same as UW StoneBlade except with discard! This deck is hard to overcome. Be aggressive.
Pox - Even/Good - Depending on the build, Pox can be even to fair. Monoblack Pox is the easiest to handle. Let them go all out and them hammer them with your superior topdecks. BG Pox is much harder, as it plays Pernicious Deed. Play slowly, and shoot for the very long game.
UB Tezzeret - Fair - Hand Disruption, Counterspells and their own quick wincon make this a fair matchup. You can get them with your own discard, and their clunky draws.
Manaless Dredge - Perfect - Mulligan straight to Leyline of the Void and take your bye like a champ. Keep good hands without LotV, since manaless is slow enough that you can set up a RiP pretty easily.
U/G Infect - Fair - their explosive starts are nearly unbeatable. Fortunately, the long game favors us. So, try to stall them out and set up your nearly unbeatable lock pieces.
MUD - Even/Good - As long as you can answer their robots, MUD does nothing. This kind of control deck doesn't care about trinisphere at all. Their land disruption is useless against our basics. Keep hands with extra lands and be careful of lightning greaves shenanigans.
Shardless BUG - Good - If we dodge their discard, we are favored. They have no counterspells besides Force of Will. Fortunately, our graveyard hate disrupts their goyfs, and they have no other good threats. Abrupt decay is also fairly useless.
High Tide - Even - They have a lot of counterspells. A lot. If we can empty their hand, we can delay long enough to land the combo. In particular, our graveyard disruption makes their Time Spirals worse than normal. Play for the long game, take out all of your creature removal.
Jund - Good - graveyard disruption hurts their value engines. Our hand disruption stops their better plays (Liliana). Play the control roll and let the game go long. Be aware of non-abrupt decay answers to our permanents.
Belcher - Fair - Our disruption is good enough post turn 1, particularly post board. Try to force them onto empty the warrens as that is much easier to manage.
Cheeri0s - Fair - Our disruption is good enough post turn 1, particularly post board. We have no outs to the Turn-0 combo, but often they straight lose to discard.
Turbo Depths - Our graveyard disruption makes it nearly impossible for them to repeatedly recur Marit Lage. We also play 6 means of dealing with the Token. Play like a classic control deck, and aim to slam a humility on turn 4. Be careful of Krosan Grip post board.
Stompy - Depending the version and build, we can answer their threats and play for the long game. Trinisphere doesn't matter at all, Chalice at 1 is good, but not back-breaking. Bloodmoon is problematic if you'd prepare for it, but we have enough basics that it isn't game over.
Dredge - Good - Game 1 is a solid lock. Games 2 and 3 are harder. Nature's Claim is a real beast and without disruption they can be explosive.
Burn - Good - Removal for their few creatures and great hand disruption. Hymn really shines. Post board LoS crushes them.
Stax - Even - If you get armageddoned, scoop. The deck presents very few threats, which we can easily answer. The problem is their lock pieces (which can be very disruptive). Counterlock them out and you'll eventually win. be aware of getting helmed by them in return.
Affinity - Good - Answer their first 2 threats and then just win. If you can live past turn 3, then you're good.
If you'd like any other matchup laid out, let me know. I've played a huge amount of archetypes, so it's likely I'm just forgetting it right now.
I hope you can see how powerful this deck is against most of the field. Obviously, the control matchup needs work. Without blue, we have to rely more on card quality and less on card selection or raw card advantage. As with any archetype, this one can be hard to pick up and play. In particular, the ETutor package has been a very interesting lesson in short-term memory.
About myself: I've been playing Magic for roughly 4 years. I've been a Legacy player for most of that time. I've mostly been a lurker on MTG Salvation (and other sites) and I felt like it was finally time to pay this great community back with a little primer of my own.
I hope you sleeve this baby up sometime soon and have at it. For newer control players, this deck is a cheaper alternative than many of the other options. In fact, I played it without any fetches/duals for several months, so that's an additional budget option. Feel free to comment, ask questions, or otherwise discuss this deck.
I certainly appreciate the vote of confidence! It was a lot of fun to write, and I hope you sleeve it up and give it a try. It has some very powerful and unique lines of play. I also firmly believe this deck can only get better as time goes on. More/better answers and control elements get printed every year. Please let me know if there's anything I could add/change to the primer.
Some more matchups would be nice
Such as the different Delvers variants, Maritocracy, Demon/Dragon Stompy, Cheerios, Canadian Threshold, Waterfalls, and Shardless anything
I'd also like to see more variant options that could potentially be main or side boarded than just the posted list
Some more matchups would be nice
Such as the different Delvers variants, Maritocracy, Demon/Dragon Stompy, Cheerios, Canadian Threshold, Waterfalls, and Shardless anything
I'd also like to see more variant options that could potentially be main or side boarded than just the posted list
I already have matchups for BUG and RUG Delver, I will add one for UR Delver, 4Color Delver, and UWR (Patriot) Delver. I will add a Turbo Depths matchup as well. I will also add a generic 'Stompy' matchup, as they all play similarly. I will add a Cheeri0s matchup as well, with the Belcher matchup.
As noted, I already have a RUG Delver (Canadian Threshold), and Shardless BUG matchup. I will add another one for 4Color Cascade (Waterfalls).
I haven't created any variants yet, as I've been focused on tuning this list. As I branch out, I certainly will though.
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Over the past year or so, I have been tuning a Black/White control deck with a combo finisher. In this particular instance, the finisher is the Helm of Obedience and Leyline of the Void or Rest in Peace combo. This deck has a lot in common with various other Helm/Leyline decks. The key differences are as follows:
1) This is a pure control deck. The combo is reserved for either dire circumstances, or when the game is fully locked down.
2) This is a Black/White deck only. There is no blue splash.
As such, most of the tuning has been focused towards the control elements. Without further ado, I present BW Helm Control:
4x Duress
4x Hymn to Tourach
2x Innocent Blood
2x Toxic Deluge
2x Vindicate
4x Swords to Plowshares
Utility Pieces(13)
4x Enlightened Tutor
4x Sensei's Divining Top
1x Engineered Explosives
1x Oblivion Ring
1x Pithing Needle
1x Humility
1x Batterskull
2x Helm of Obedience
3x Leyline of the Void
1x Rest in Peace
Lands (23)
3x Flooded Strand
4x Marsh Flats
4x Plains
3x Polluted Delta
3x Scrubland
4x Swamp
1x Ancient Den
1x Vault of Whispers
Let's take a look at pros and cons of this deck:
Pros
1) Powerful disruption against nearly every strategy
2) Significant card quality/selection
3) Combo Finish
4) Inevitablity
5) Cost - Relatively Inexpensive Control Deck
Cons
1) No turn 0 interaction
2) Clunky combo pieces
3) Soft to counterspells
4) No raw card advantage
Card Choices
That said, let's examine the card choices I've made for this deck.
Duress - Duress both protects our own combo and disrupts opponents who aren't playing to the board. The lifeloss from Thoughtseize can't be recovered, and the insane amount of creature removal negates the need for a more powerful discard spell.
Hymn to Tourach - Hyman savagely mauls anyone and everyone. A mandatory 2-for-1 is just what this deck needs. Coupled with the fact that we're naturally exiling graveyards, this card doesn't even fuel an opponent's delve. Between Hymn and Duress, the combo matchup is nearly sewn up, as this deck doesn't need 20 turns to win.
Innocent Blood - This card is supremely efficient in a deck without creatures. It answers many problematic creatures at a very good rate of exchange. It is less useful against swarm strategies, so its only a 2 of.
Toxic Deluge - A 3-mana sweeper is incredibly powerful in this deck. All our top end plays come in at 4-cmc, so being able to clear the board before hand is incredibly valuable. Additionally, Deluge ignores most forms of creature protection.
Vindicate - Our spell based answer to non-creature permanents. Vindicate has fallen out of favor recently, however its power remains unchanged. Vindicate nicely handles permanent based disruption of any kind.
Swords to Plowshares - The most efficient spot removal in Magic. In particular, this deck couldn't care less about its opponents life total.
Sensei's Divining Top - The premier colorless card selection tool. Coupled with the 10 fetch lands and 4 Enlightened Tutors, Top provides the selection this control deck is looking for.
Enlightened Tutor - ETutor represents not only extra copies of each combo piece, but also four extra copies of pre-board and post-board distruptive utility pieces. ETutor and Divining Top pair very very well together as well.
Engineered Explosives - A powerful ETutor target. Specifically useful against token decks, or other decks that look to go wide.
Oblivion Ring - The enchantment equivalent to Vindicate. Essentially tutorable removal. Weak to abrupt decay, but still useful. Similarly, O-Ring vastly improves the matchup against any Show and Tell deck.
Pithing Needle - An ETutor answer to problematic permanents. Being able to shut down planeswalkers or utility lands is very valuable.
Humility - I have found Humility to be vastly more useful than Moat. Stopping creature shenanigans is more important than protecting yourself from some attackers. In particular, Humility pairs very very nicely with Toxic Deluge.
Batterskull - The all important alternate win-con. Batterskull is, and always will be, one of the most powerful cards that a big-mana control deck can play.
Helm of Obedience - The winner itself. 2 copies are necessary to protect against discard.
Leyline of the Void - The combo enabler. Significantly, LotV, shuts down many many strategies if you open with it. Dredge, Reanimator, any Goyf/Mongoose deck, Deathrite Shaman, SCooze, and most importantly Delve.
Rest in Peace - Another enabler. In the deck to play around surgical extraction, as well as to provide a 2-cmc enabler for Helm.
Fetches - The four Marsh Flats are obviously necessary. Some combination of white/black fetches can make up the rest of the fetchland base.
Basics - a minimum of 5 basics is necessary for this deck. Land disruption is particularly potent against control decks, so being able to play around wasteland is incredibly important.
Artifact Lands - these lands enable ETutor land fetching, a corner case of some importance.
As more cards become availible, I will update this section to reflect that.
Sideboarding
Since this deck contains enlightened tutor, much of the sideboard can be devoted to 1-of powerful answers. Similarly, sideboard slots focused towards the control mirror can be very helpful. Below is a sample sideboard, as well as discussion of various other options.
1x Buried Ruin
1x Curse of Exhaustion
2x Disenchant
1x Engineered Plague
1x Heliod, God of the Sun
3x Leyline of Sanctity
1x Night of Souls' Betrayal
1x Oblivion Ring
1x Orzhova, the Church of Deals
2x Silence
Included below is a list of sideboard options with an explanation of their value. A rating scale from 1(poor) to 5(excellent) is used to rank each option.
Ashen Rider - 2 - A powerful tool in the show and tell matchup. It can also function as a hardcast wincon. It serves no other purposes.
Buried Ruin - 3 - Buried Ruin provides useful protection against discard and counterspells. Works best when paired with Cruicible of Worlds Obviously, any graveyard-centric tech should be taken with a grain of salt, considering the point of this deck.
Curse of Exhaustion - 2 - An ETutor target specifically for combo matchups. In particular, this card does incredible work versus High Tide. Most importantly, it dodges Abrupt Decay.
Disenchant - 4 - An answer to problematic artifacts and enchantments. Very useful in any Stoneforge matchup.
Engineered Plague - 3 - ETutorable. Absolutely crush any tribal deck, particularly Elves and Goblins. Plays wonderfully with Humility for other tribal decks.
Heliod, God of the Sun - 2 - ETutorable alernate wincon. Heliod has shines in the control matchup.
Leyline of Sanctity - 5 - Protection from Discard. LoS shuts down many ways others use to interact with us. In particular, you can nearly auto-win the Burn matchup, and any discard heavy matchup becomes much easier.
Night of Souls' Betrayal - 5 - NoSB is the best lockpiece against creature decks. When combined with Humility, NoSB ends the game against many decks.
Oblivion Ring - 4 - O-Ring is obviously a very good card. Extras can be very useful in post-board matches.
Orzhova, the Church of Deals - 1 - An undistruptable inevitability engine. Most useful in the control matchup.
Silence - 5 - Silence serves two important roles in this deck. 1) more combo disruption and 2) combo protection. Never leave home without it.
As additional sideboard cards are brought forward, this section will be expanded to include an analysis of said cards.
Obviously, the next question is, how does this deck fair against different matchups? Using this scale: Poor, Fair, Even, Good, Perfect; I have prepared a preliminary list of matchups below:
Miracle Control - Fair - Game 1 is often very even. We both have many dead cards. Fortunately, we can win instantaneously and we can often ignore or otherwise mitigate their win conditions. Focus on card selection, and wait for your spot to jam the combo with discard backup or after they land a Jace. Games 2 and 3 are fair. This is where we suffer. They will focus solely on stopping our combo. A good alternate win-con would go a long way to improving this matchup. Perhaps a Stoneforge-Batterskull plan.
MonoBlue Omnitell - Good - We are a deck with oblivion ring main. As such, they have to be very very careful with their own combo. Additionally, our hand disruption hurts them considerably. An alternate wincon is good games 2/3, as they will save all their countermagic for our pieces. They also have very few ways to interact with resolved lock pieces, so don't be afraid to play things out.
Death and Taxes - Good - Death and Taxes looks to get under greedy opponents. The huge number of basic lands and creature removal makes this matchup good. We have to be concerned for their long game of Mangara+Karakas, but even so, they have limited means of interacting with us. The game plan is to stall until we can combo win.
BUG Delver - Even - Their hand disruption is very good against us. In turn, they have limited threats, and we can stall long enough to empty their hand. Playing around wasteland and daze is very important. Fortunately, our combo is immune to abrupt decay, and they often have no other way of interacting with permanents.
RUG Delver - Good - We can play around their conditional permission and land denial and remove their very limited threats. It's not unreasonable for them to try to burn us out. Graveyard exiling really limits their threats, so going for an early RiP can be powerful. Postboard, the games are harder, but still manageable. Normally, RUG delver will slow down and try to play a controlling game, but we're better at it than them.
UR Delver - Even - They have a very fast clock backed up by a multitude of counterspells. If you can keep your life total high, you have a considerably better long game than them. Trade resources aggressively and always try to play around their conditional counterspells. Toxic Deluge for 2 does insane work against their threats. Hymn also shines as they have few ways to recoup card advantage, particularly since we're shutting down their graveyard. They have very few ways to interact with your permanents, so don't be afraid to play things out.
4Color Delver - Good - Our graveyard disruption really hammers their major green threats. While they discard is good against us, ours is good against them too. Play for the long game, and play around as many conditional counters as you can.
4Color Cascade - Good - While they can spit out a massive board presence fairly quickly, they sacrifice nearly all of their permission to do so. Focus on keeping the board clear and finish up with the combo before they can set up a huge series cascades.
Ad Nauseam Tendrils - Good - Preboard, they can get us if we draw all white cards. Shutting down past in flames can be very powerful. Post board, we have so much hate, it's incredibly hard for them go off. If possible, utilize top to float a silence on top.
GW/x Maverick - Even - Two words: Qasali Pridemage. Obviously, this deck has some trouble with enchantment removal. Sequencing is very important here. In particular, keep an eye out for a sudden Marit Lage either from Crop Rotation or Knight of the Reliquary. Humility shines in this matchup.
TinFins - Perfect - Leyline of the Void. Tin Fins does nothing without a graveyard. We can absolutely crush this deck with the right draws. Watch out for transformational sideboard into non-graveyard combo.
Reanimator - Good - Again, game one is really good. If the deck runs show and tell, it can be a bit harder, but again not terrible. Humility shines again. Simply, they can't do what they normally do, and their colors don't allow access to enchantment destruction.
Enchantress - Even - Most of the time, they negate our discard with their own leyline. In turn, our black creature removal handles their enchantress effects. The key problem is that they might helm us, or we run out of ways to get through a solitary confinement. Keyword here: grindy.
R/G Lands - Good - Graveyard hate hammers this deck into the ground. Without Loam/Fire their only method of killing is Marit Lage, to which we have answers. Post board, this matchup gets much harder, as they often have multiple Krosan Grips and other similarly disruptive cards.
Lands - Even - Again, graveyard hate is really hard for them to deal with game one. Unfortunately, they run actual permanent hate main, and more board. It can be hard to lock this deck down. It's a matter of sequencing to get your combo through.
UBx Landstill - Fair - Manlands are a problem. Infinite Counterspells are a problem. Even worse, they often have a green splash for Pernicious Deed. This matchup is winnable if you have a significant amount of hand disruption followed by a quick combo before they can stabilize.
Aggro Loam - Good - Graveyard disruption really hurts this deck. With removal for their few creatures, you can easily walk all over this deck. Be aware that it plays a few pieces of permanent removal (particularly post-board) and chalice of the void.
Elves - Perfect - Tons of creature removal and hand disruption for their powerful non-creature spells. The matchups gets even better post board. Abrupt Decay does nothing against us. I don't believe I've ever lost a game against Elves that went beyond turn 3.
Goblins - Perfect - Tons of creature removal strictly limits how explosive goblins can be. Protection from wasteland is very important. Goblins usually has no way of interacting with out permanents, so its totally reasonable to go for every lock piece ever.
Merfolk - Good - Creature removal helps slow merfolk down. Once you empty their hand, your topdecks are better than theirs. Play for the long game. Blue has almost no way of interacting with resolved permanents, so go for lock pieces.
Imperial Painter - Good - Hammer their creatures, and force them to discard their hand. Your cards are vastly more powerful than theirs. Since you're not playing the same combo, feel free to pre-emptively needle theirs. Be very careful about Painter's Servant and all their REBs, since they can remove lock pieces.
Food Chain - Good - This is a weak combo to hand disruption. Unfortunately, exiling their graveyard plays into their hands. Nevertheless, trade favorably with them, and finish them off with the combo as soon as possible.
The Epic Storm - Good - As with ANT, our combo disruption is solid. Always be concerned about a huge empty the warrens. As with ANT, graveyard disruption is a very good plan.
UW Blade Control - Fair - A fast clock with a ton of counterspells. It's very hard to go bigger or go longer than this deck. The best plan is to hammer them with discard and try to jam the combo early. It's nearly impossible to win the long game.
Sneak and Show - Good - As usual, the hand disruption, O-Ring, Humility deck does really well against show and tell. Obviously, Sneak attack is the most problematic card, so play around it as much as possible. Also, always be aware of a post-board through the breach.
DeathBlade - Poor - Same as UW StoneBlade except with discard! This deck is hard to overcome. Be aggressive.
Pox - Even/Good - Depending on the build, Pox can be even to fair. Monoblack Pox is the easiest to handle. Let them go all out and them hammer them with your superior topdecks. BG Pox is much harder, as it plays Pernicious Deed. Play slowly, and shoot for the very long game.
UB Tezzeret - Fair - Hand Disruption, Counterspells and their own quick wincon make this a fair matchup. You can get them with your own discard, and their clunky draws.
Manaless Dredge - Perfect - Mulligan straight to Leyline of the Void and take your bye like a champ. Keep good hands without LotV, since manaless is slow enough that you can set up a RiP pretty easily.
U/G Infect - Fair - their explosive starts are nearly unbeatable. Fortunately, the long game favors us. So, try to stall them out and set up your nearly unbeatable lock pieces.
MUD - Even/Good - As long as you can answer their robots, MUD does nothing. This kind of control deck doesn't care about trinisphere at all. Their land disruption is useless against our basics. Keep hands with extra lands and be careful of lightning greaves shenanigans.
Shardless BUG - Good - If we dodge their discard, we are favored. They have no counterspells besides Force of Will. Fortunately, our graveyard hate disrupts their goyfs, and they have no other good threats. Abrupt decay is also fairly useless.
High Tide - Even - They have a lot of counterspells. A lot. If we can empty their hand, we can delay long enough to land the combo. In particular, our graveyard disruption makes their Time Spirals worse than normal. Play for the long game, take out all of your creature removal.
Jund - Good - graveyard disruption hurts their value engines. Our hand disruption stops their better plays (Liliana). Play the control roll and let the game go long. Be aware of non-abrupt decay answers to our permanents.
Belcher - Fair - Our disruption is good enough post turn 1, particularly post board. Try to force them onto empty the warrens as that is much easier to manage.
Cheeri0s - Fair - Our disruption is good enough post turn 1, particularly post board. We have no outs to the Turn-0 combo, but often they straight lose to discard.
Turbo Depths - Our graveyard disruption makes it nearly impossible for them to repeatedly recur Marit Lage. We also play 6 means of dealing with the Token. Play like a classic control deck, and aim to slam a humility on turn 4. Be careful of Krosan Grip post board.
Stompy - Depending the version and build, we can answer their threats and play for the long game. Trinisphere doesn't matter at all, Chalice at 1 is good, but not back-breaking. Bloodmoon is problematic if you'd prepare for it, but we have enough basics that it isn't game over.
Dredge - Good - Game 1 is a solid lock. Games 2 and 3 are harder. Nature's Claim is a real beast and without disruption they can be explosive.
Burn - Good - Removal for their few creatures and great hand disruption. Hymn really shines. Post board LoS crushes them.
Stax - Even - If you get armageddoned, scoop. The deck presents very few threats, which we can easily answer. The problem is their lock pieces (which can be very disruptive). Counterlock them out and you'll eventually win. be aware of getting helmed by them in return.
Affinity - Good - Answer their first 2 threats and then just win. If you can live past turn 3, then you're good.
If you'd like any other matchup laid out, let me know. I've played a huge amount of archetypes, so it's likely I'm just forgetting it right now.
I hope you can see how powerful this deck is against most of the field. Obviously, the control matchup needs work. Without blue, we have to rely more on card quality and less on card selection or raw card advantage. As with any archetype, this one can be hard to pick up and play. In particular, the ETutor package has been a very interesting lesson in short-term memory.
About myself: I've been playing Magic for roughly 4 years. I've been a Legacy player for most of that time. I've mostly been a lurker on MTG Salvation (and other sites) and I felt like it was finally time to pay this great community back with a little primer of my own.
I hope you sleeve this baby up sometime soon and have at it. For newer control players, this deck is a cheaper alternative than many of the other options. In fact, I played it without any fetches/duals for several months, so that's an additional budget option. Feel free to comment, ask questions, or otherwise discuss this deck.
Updated 5/15/2015 - new matchup notes
Such as the different Delvers variants, Maritocracy, Demon/Dragon Stompy, Cheerios, Canadian Threshold, Waterfalls, and Shardless anything
I'd also like to see more variant options that could potentially be main or side boarded than just the posted list
I already have matchups for BUG and RUG Delver, I will add one for UR Delver, 4Color Delver, and UWR (Patriot) Delver. I will add a Turbo Depths matchup as well. I will also add a generic 'Stompy' matchup, as they all play similarly. I will add a Cheeri0s matchup as well, with the Belcher matchup.
As noted, I already have a RUG Delver (Canadian Threshold), and Shardless BUG matchup. I will add another one for 4Color Cascade (Waterfalls).
I haven't created any variants yet, as I've been focused on tuning this list. As I branch out, I certainly will though.