|
Toad
|
 |
« Reply #4 on: July 13, 2004, 10:19:54 am » |
|
IV. Matchup Analysis
[Note: suggested sideboarding strategies will assume use of the example sideboard presented above. In those matchups where sideboarding is dictated by metagame slots, the optimal sideboard cards will be used so that the reader knows how to best prepare for them.]
A. Aggressive and Aggressive-Control Decks
General Aggro Strategy
Aggressive decks are usually straightforward to play against - not only because they are generally favorable matchups for Madness, but because you rarely have to worry about fighting over resolution of key spells (the main exception being Fish). An early Wild Mongrel will often be too much to handle for many aggro decks. These decks are also often lacking for answers to Arrogant Wurm, Roar of the Wurm, and Wonder. Oftentimes, games will play out with Madness trading threats/resources with their threats until the opponent is overwhelmed, then use Bazaar to seal the deal if it gets to that point.
Fish, Gay/R
This is still a favorable matchup and little has changed in how it plays out, except that many builds with the red splash are now running Grim Lavamancer, which can make the matchup a little trickier but at the same time make their mana base less consistent. Overall, this matchup is not much of a concern, because their creatures are tiny and the Standstill engine is not particularly useful against Madness.
Suggested sideboarding plan: -3 Deep Analysis; +3 Red Elemental Blast. Not even this is really necessary unless you�re anticipating multiple Misdirections. This plan is generally better against Fish than Gay/R.
TNT
This matchup is tougher because you aren�t as fast anymore and because TNT improved a lot after Mirrodin. Exactly how well you do against TNT varies, because it can change a lot from one build to another. A maindeck Platinum Angel is probably game over for you if it resolves unless you can find two Fiery Tempers. Tangle Wire is also slightly more effective because you have fewer LEDs now, but only some builds run it. And finally, Chalice of the Void, while not spectacular against Madness, will also steal games from you if you�re on the draw and your opponent plays it for X = 0 on turn 1. After Platinum Angel, the biggest threat TNT has against Madness is usually Blood Moon, so it�s usually a good idea to fetch out a basic Forest as soon as possible to avoid getting locked. But if you can shrug off an early Juggernaut with Fiery Temper or by trading with a Rootwalla and beat them before they can really start to abuse Survival, you usually won�t have much of a problem beating TNT. If they are running blue and thus not packing the full complement of Wastelands, it gets even easier, though you might have to watch out for a Wonder of their own.
Suggested sideboarding plan: -3 Deep Analysis, -1 Careful Study; +4 Artifact Mutation.
GroAtog
Nothing much changed in this matchup, although now you can bring in Waterfront Bouncer from the sideboard to keep Dryads from getting big and keep Psychatogs at bay indefinitely. It was already a matchup slightly in Madness' favor because GroAtog rarely runs more than a Strip Mine to deal with Bazaar, but now with Bouncer it�s even better.
Suggested sideboarding plan: -3 Deep Analysis, +3 Waterfront Bouncer. REB is decent against GroAtog, and you can make room by cutting Fiery Temper, but you want to avoid going overboard and making Careful Study and Bazaar of Baghdad less reliable in the process.
Mask
This matchup is still difficult before sideboarding because you�ll be hard-pressed to deal with a quick 12/12 except to race it. Your best chance in Game 1 is probably a Spoils of the Vault gone awry. Also, if the Mask player keeps a hand full of discard and has trouble assembling the �combo� before you can overwhelm him, you stand a good chance of winning. However, the matchup gets much better after sideboarding.
Suggested sideboarding plan: -4 Careful Study , -2 Wonder , -1 Deep Analysis; +4 Artifact Mutation, +3 Waterfront Bouncer.
This can be tricky because you have a lot to bring in and because nothing is terrible against Mask. This is the only aggro matchup where Wonder is expendable because Mask just doesn�t run enough creatures for it to make much of a difference�if they get a Dreadnought you�ll win or lose regardless of Wonder, because you�ll either have enough threats to get around it and race them or you won�t. This may sound contradictory to the advice we�ll give later about keeping Wonder in against Hulk, but this is for several reasons. First, you will be able to resolve multiple threats against Mask pretty easily, but not against Hulk. Second, Mask probably won�t run much in the way of creature removal, whereas Hulk will have Pernicious Deed, so you can play more aggressively against Mask and not have to worry about overextending, thus making Wonder less important. Third, after boarding you are siding in plenty of ways to deal with an active Dreadnought, whereas against Hulk you will only have REB�so you are essentially replacing ways to get around Dreadnought with ways to destroy it. And fourth, an active Dreadnought is probably only going to block once or twice, whereas Tog may stay active for several turns to deter you from attacking until they find Pernicious Deed or Berserk.
Stompy ("Oshawa Stompy", "The Big O", etc.)
Stompy might steal a game from you with a timely Wasteland or Null Rod (as will any deck running either or both of these cards), but Madness is more explosive and is usually too fast for Survival to become an issue. With a better engine, it is also more likely to find Bazaar of Baghdad than Stompy is. Stompy has no maindeck answer to Wonder, and will have difficulty dealing with Roar of the Wurm short of a chumping Troll Ascetic or Tormod's Crypt after from the sideboard. After boarding, unchecked Waterfront Bouncers will come in to wreak havoc.
Suggested sideboarding plan: -3 Deep Analysis; +3 Waterfront Bouncer. Naturalize or Ray of Revelation are acceptable to bring in but are usually unnecessary.
Madness (mirror match)
Whoever gets Bazaar online first will stand the best shot at winning. However, after sideboarding Waterfront Bouncer is big trouble for your opponent if you can keep it on the table for a turn or two, especially since it kills Roar of the Wurm. If at all possible, wait to play it until you have Anger in the graveyard, since you save it from removal by bouncing itself. Siding in Waterfront Bouncer makes you the �control� Madness player, so play accordingly.
Suggested sideboarding strategy: -3 Deep Analysis, -1 Careful Study, -1 Fiery Temper/ Roar of the Wurm; +3 Waterfront Bouncer, +2 Krosan Reclamation. Roar of the Wurm is a little slow for the mirror match as well as being vulnerable to your opponent�s Waterfront Bouncers or Tormod�s Crypts. Fiery Temper is another possibility for removal because it can only be reliably counted on to kill Basking Rootwalla. Krosan Reclamation will help you gain Wonder or Anger advantage, which is crucial to winning the mirror match, as well as shuffling away your opponent�s Roar of the Wurm spells.
B. Control Decks
General Control Strategy
Playing against control decks is more difficult because it requires more decision-making here than against other archetypes. You need to take a conscious effort to make Mana Drain, mass removal, and other disruption as ineffective as possible. Mass removal is best played around with the application of common sense - just don't overextend. However, there are some "tricks" that can be used to play around Mana Drain.
Arrogant Wurm can be played via its madness cost at instant speed, so take full advantage of this ability to keep the control player on their toes. Control players will often tap out at the end of your turn to cast any number of spells to the point that they don't leave UU up for Mana Drain, which is the ideal window of opportunity to force through Arrogant Wurm. You can also attempt to resolve it at the end of their turn, thereby tapping them out, and then have a better chance of resolving key spells in your next turn.
Roar of the Wurm takes additional caution because it is an even bigger Drain sink and can't be played at instant speed. If your opponent has UU up, you should usually wait to attempt to resolve ROTW until you have REB backup unless you are desperate or can tell with reasonable certainty that they don't have Mana Drain in hand - or, if they do, don't have any dangerous sinks for it.
Keeper
The big change in the Keeper matchup is the threat of Isochron Scepter. If Keeper can get an early Scepter imprinting Swords to Plowshares, you are going to have a difficult time winning. Scepter imprinting Mana Drain is also bad news, but not nearly as bad because they risk taking horrendous damage from mana burn if they don�t have a Cunning Wish, Yawgmoth�s Will or Decree of Justice to follow it up with.
Another aspect of the Keeper matchup that has changed in recent months is the increasing trend towards maindecking Stifle as part of Keeper's LD strategy. Unfortunately, Stifle is particularly devastating against Madness because it counters fetchlands AND spells played via their madness costs -
Stifle counters the triggered ability
"When this card is removed from the game this way, until that player passes next, the player may play it any time he or she could play an instant as though it were in his or her hand by paying [cost] rather than paying its mana cost. When the player passes next, he or she puts it into his or her graveyard."
However, note that the ability is Stifled before you are required to pay the madness cost. It is difficult, if not impossible, to play around this latter application of Stifle - the only options you have are to wait until they are tapped out to play madness spells, or to wait until you can force it through with REB. However, you can easily make Stifle less effective against fetch lands by opting to play dual lands before fetch lands if you have the option. This is oftentimes the correct play because even though you risk making yourself more vulnerable to Wasteland, Keeper suffers some tempo loss as well when forced to Waste right away, whereas this loss is much less significant if they can use Stifle when they would otherwise have had no other play to make.
Damping Matrix is making an appearance in many Keeper sideboards, and even in some maindecks. Damping Matrix will have the effect of turning off Wild Mongrel as a discard outlet and preventing the use of Basking Rootwalla's pump ability. Damping Matrix is about as good as Tormod's Crypt against Madness - good in some situations and effectively useless in many others. Rootwalla and Mongrel are the key threats against Keeper, so neutering them can be an effective play on Keeper's part. However, it has no effect on the Wurms, nor Madness' ability to put resolve them through Careful Study and Bazaar. Damping Matrix is a card you should be aware of but not overly concerned about.
Suggested sideboarding plan:
(without Isochron Scepter): -2 Wonder, -2 Fiery Temper; +4 Red Elemental Blast
(with Isochron Scepter): -2 Wonder, -4 Fiery Temper, +3-4 Red Elemental Blast, +2-3 Pyrostatic Pillar or Artifact Mutation.
Hulk
The matchup against Hulk remains virtually the same in how it plays out, although in many cases may be slightly more difficult because most builds are packing Wastelands to deal with Bazaar of Baghdad, and Pernicious Deed and Stifle are gravitating to the maindeck in others. Hulk with Wastelands is an overall tougher matchup than Keeper.
Suggested sideboarding plan: -4 Fiery Temper, +4 Red Elemental Blast.
Control Slavery
Along with Dragon, Control Slavery is probably the most difficult matchup you will encounter. One of Madness� biggest weaknesses against control decks is the large number of fat Mana Drain targets, and Slavery is especially unforgiving because it can sink into a Mindslaver, Pentavus, Tinker or Thirst for Knowledge and lock the game up quickly. The weak link in the Slavery deck is Goblin Welder, so if you can keep it off the board with Fiery Temper you should be in decent shape. If they resolve Mindslaver and you have an active Mongrel, you should attack with it and pitch your hand to pump it because once they take your next turn you�ll lose your hand anyway. Sometimes you�ll get lucky and they�ll run out of artifacts to weld Mindslaver into, in which case you may have a small window of opportunity to fight back and win the game before you get locked again.
Suggested sideboarding plan: -2 Wonder, -1 Roar of the Wurm, -1 Careful Study/Roar of the Wurm, +4 Red Elemental Blast. Your main goal is to use REB proactively to punch through Mana Drain and counter Thirst for Knowledge or Tinker. As with other control decks, take advantage of the fact that Slavery often plays Brainstorm and Thirst for Knowledge EOT to sneak an Arrogant Wurm into play through Mana Drain.
Landstill
Unlike Keeper, Hulk, and Slavery there is no card in Landstill that really ends the game against you other than Decree of Justice in U/W builds, and this deck has very few Mana Drain sinks outside of Nevinyrall�s Disk (and again, Decree of Justice). Standstill is subpar against Madness because you will often be able to resolve a threat before they can play it. Basking Rootwalla will beat or trade with their manlands in combat. The general play strategy is to resolve a threat or two and avoid overextending into Nevinyrall's Disk.
Suggested sideboarding plan:
(U/R): -2 Fiery Temper, -2 Wonder, +4 Red Elemental Blast.
(U/W): -4 Fiery Temper, +4 Red Elemental Blast. This changes slightly because of Decree.
Other blue-based control decks (i.e. U/r Phid)
The biggest threat these decks have against Madness is Blood Moon or Back to Basics, the latter of which is handily dealt with by REB. If you get caught under a Blood Moon without a basic Forest you may be in trouble, but by and large this is another favorable matchup for many of the same reasons that Landstill poses little threat to Madness. Some blue-based control builds may run Isochron Scepter but unless they can imprint Swords to Plowshares on it you have little to worry about, since they have fewer deadly Mana Drain sinks than Keeper, Hulk or Slavery and Fire/Ice is more of a nuisance than a real threat.
Suggested sideboarding plan: -2 Fiery Temper, -2 Wonder, +4 Red Elemental Blast.
C. Combo Decks
General Combo Strategy
Combo is generally Madness' hardest matchup but also the easiest to play against because it requires less decision-making. If you have a strong draw and/or the necessary hate, or they stall out, you stand a good chance of winning. If you don't, you'll probably lose, and there just isn't a whole lot you can do about it.
Dragon
This is the main matchup you have to worry about�it is played more than any other combo deck and is Madness� most difficult matchup before sideboarding. There is little you can do about it other than hoping for the best before boarding (unless you choose to maindeck Gaea�s Blessing to draw the first game, which is only worth doing if you expect to run into multiple Dragon decks in a tournament ), because unless you get lucky and they stall out you will probably lose Game 1.
Suggested sideboarding plan: -4 Fiery Temper, -2 Wonder, -1 Roar of the Wurm; +3 Waterfront Bouncer, +2 Ray of Revelation, +2 Krosan Reclamation.
This strategy will allow you to attack Dragon on multiple fronts. Dragon will bring in Pernicious Deed against you, so you cannot afford to fall back on just permanent-based hate because they can just Deed everything away at the end of your turn and go off their next turn. At the same time, they will bring in Verdant Force, so you�ll want to have ways to deal with that as well. Waterfront Bouncer and Ray of Revelation both let you deal with reanimated Verdant Forces and disrupt the combo kill. Since Waterfront Bouncer is susceptible to Pernicious Deed, Ray of Revelation and Krosan Reclamation provide the fall-back strategy if all else fails and the Dragon player is able to go off and deck you. To prevent this, during the upkeep before you are about to lose, you can flashback Ray of Revelation on their Animated Ambassador, preventing any disruption of Reclamation, and then flashback Krosan Reclamation recurring a 2nd Reclamation and Black Lotus. This plan gives you the chance to use the Black Lotus to flashback Roar of the Wurm spells placed in your graveyard by Laquatus, and go on to win unless the Dragon player can overcome your advantage. Be careful not to overextend into Deed afterwards, and do not be over-reliant on this strategy because Dragon can still win without going infinite, although that is not nearly as effective.
It is not a foolproof plan because if they go off with Compulsion they may be able to kill you with Ancestral Recall, or else find Force of Will and prevent you from carrying out your strategy, but given the right cards to go off with there is no foolproof strategy against Dragon, and this one allows you to use cards that are better in an open metagame because they have potential uses in other matchups (where, for example, Gaea�s Blessing is not). Ray of Revelation will usually buy you at least a couple turns, from which you can win the game by playing it out a couple different ways depending on the board situation.
For it to work, you need at least 1GG mana available, but you can be tapped out when Dragon is going off.
Scenario #1: Dragon is at 6 or less life and you have at least 2GG available (you do not need to have any creatures on the board). The Dragon player milled himself repeatedely with Bazaar to find Ambassador Laquatus, so he has no hand.
This is the easiest one to pull off because you can win in one turn without worrying about the Dragon player being able to do anything about it.
Dragon: Animate WGD, generate a million mana, switch Animate target to Laquatus, deck you.
Madness: During upkeep, flashback Ray of Revelation, targeting the Animate spell on Laquatus. Flashback Krosan Reclamation, targeting Lion�s Eye Diamond and Black Lotus so you don�t lose by being decked. Draw either LED or Black Lotus, play it and flashback Roar of the Wurm, and assuming one of your lands is a Taiga or Volcanic Island, attack for the win (because you�ll have Anger in the graveyard).
Scenario #2: Same as Scenario 1, but Dragon has enough life left that you cannot kill them this turn.
Madness: During upkeep, flashback Ray of Revelation, targeting the Animate spell on Laquatus. Flashback Krosan Reclamation, targeting the second Krosan Reclamation and another card; the one you choose depends on the board situation and how much mana you have open. If you have creatures in play and flashing back Roar of the Wurm will allow you to win in two turns, you can target Black Lotus. If you have 1 mana open and draw the Black Lotus, flashback Roar of the Wurm this turn. If you draw the Krosan Reclamation, attack with what you have and use the Krosan Reclamation to stall for an extra turn.
Scenario #3: You have a Krosan Reclamation in hand when they go off, but cannot kill them this turn.
This is not as easy to pull off as Scenario #1 because it involves more decision-making and gives the Dragon player a larger window of time to rebound. However, in this scenario it is also much harder for the Dragon player to deck you because you can recur Krosan Reclamation as many times as you need to win, since you never have to use its flashback cost.
TPS, Charbelcher.dec, other misc. combo
These are hard matchups because they�re fast combo decks. Accept them as a difficult matchup because it�s not worth making your sideboard weaker in other matchups on the off-chance you�ll run into them, and they are rarely seen in tournament play anyway. If you see enough of these decks to warrant SB space, Stifle can delay their going off, and Pyrostatic Pillar is also very powerful as well as being more difficult to play around.
Suggested sideboarding plan: -2 Wonder, -2 Fiery Temper; +4 Pyrostatic Pillar.
D. Prison Decks
General Prison Strategy
Again, this is a fairly easy archetype to play against - your goal is to explode out of the box before you get locked up, and nuke Metalworkers or Welders with Fiery Temper. The only wrinkle is an early Smokestack, where you need to play enough permanents to make them activate it but will usually want to hold back after that until they are forced into a position to sacrifice it.
Stax/Welder MUD
The loss of Lion�s Eye Diamond is felt hardest here. LED let you play Wurms under an active Tangle Wire and explode out of the box before they could lock the game up. Sphere of Resistance is still your biggest Achilles heel and if they resolve it on their first turn when you�re on the draw, you may have difficulty winning. However, with additional permanent mana sources, Madness is now a little less vulnerable to Sphere of Resistance. As with other Workshop decks, a first turn Chalice at X = 0 when you�re on the draw will also steal games from you every now and then.
Suggested sideboarding plan: -2 Wonder, -2 Careful Study; +4 Artifact Mutation.
Workshop Slavery
This matchup is easier than Control Slavery because you can play more aggressively and not have to worry about Mana Drain. However, Blood Moon is often run in the maindeck so fetch out a Forest as soon as you can afford to so you don�t get locked.
Suggested sideboarding plan: -2 Wonder; -1 Careful Study, -1 Careful Study/Roar of the Wurm; +4 Artifact Mutation (because they have Gilded Lotus for a good Mutation target).
|
