Matchup Analysis - Grinding Breach

Ah, Underworld Breach, the Boogeyman of the format, and also the reason Mox Opal might get re-banned. Please WotC, ban Breach first.

With that out of the way, here are some key things to keep in mind with this matchup:

• Their best draws are effectively unbeatable, so you should not be assessing your hands based on trying to beat their T1/T2 kills, especially if you are on the draw. If they have the goods, they have the goods.

• They are almost always the control in the matchup, and without Emry/Breach, they don’t actually have access to much interaction for us. The long games favor them, so being aggressive is your best friend. 

• Due to how quickly we can kill undisrupted, keeping an “all-in” hand and making them have interaction at every point is often your best plan. If you force them to spew cards early, it can help you slam the door another turn.

• Basically every type of interaction is usable against Underworld Breach, and it is entirely too easy to over-sideboard and dilute your deck too much. Minimize how many cards you bring in to the bare essentials, and keep the deck as focused as possible.

• There are situations where, especially post-board, their plan switches to a construct beatdown (especially if you’ve cut off their graveyard). In those spots it can be important to preserve your life total, and it’s also why I always like keeping Shadowspear in post-board.

Pre-board, this matchup is often a race. Don’t be scared to run out a Saga on turn 1, even if you can’t get any constructs out of it. I value hands with Leyline Axe more in this matchup because it increases our clock and lets us trample over Eldrazi Spawn from Rumble, as well as Emry/Tamiyo.

They usually have the following interaction game 1:

• ~1-2 Boseiju/Otawara

• ~1 Sink into Stupor

• 1 Mite, 

• ~1 Flame of Anor

• ~1 Unholy Heat

• 1-2 various counterspells

Post-board you will likely see some combination of the following:

• ~2 Nature’s Claim

• ~1-2 additional removal spells

• They might bring in Consign to Memory

 All in all that means they only have 4-6 pieces of interaction game 1, and maximum 8-10 post-board. I wouldn’t expect that much post-board though simply because how hard it is for the Breach deck to make all the room for it.

Post-board, I like the approach of going for a fast kill and having 1-2 interaction/hate pieces along the way. Note that the lists below are not exhaustive; they are simply some of my favorites and act as a starting point.

The best hate pieces are typically Rest in Peace, Grafdigger’s Cage, Drannith Magistrate, and Pithing Needle. Anything that shuts off Emry and Breach are huge benefits, and means that they can struggle hanging in a medium-length game. Special note on Cage: it both shuts off Emry/Breach, as well as stops Saga chapter 3 from getting Haywire Mite. Regarding Pithing Needle, I typically look to name Haywire Mite or Emry, with Grinding Station and Tamiyo’s walker side as the alternate cards I name most often. 

Your interaction falls under a few different broad angles:

Disenchants: Wear//Tear, March of Otherworldly Light, Haywire Mite

I find Wear//Tear is the best option due to its ability to tag both Saga and Breach for a single white, as well as having the upside of fusing as a 2-for-1. Note that I prefer W//T even if my only red mana is Mox Opal. I am not as big a fan of the other options due to their inefficiency, or in the case of mite, that they can kill it first and move on. Both are serviceable, but I’m choosing Tear as my disenchant of choice.

Protection: Surge of Salvation. Surge is great for a few reasons. Firstly, it stops all their cards that tag multiple pieces (Wear//Tear fused, Flame of Anor, etc), as well as less expected cards against us like Pyroclasm. Secondly, it means that if your opponent’s kill condition is Grapeshot, that they can’t actually kill through a resolved Surge.

Stack-based interaction: Orim’s Chant, Spell Pierce, Swan Song

Orim’s Chant is good in 3 spots: In response to an Underworld Breach, Pre-emptively on your combo turn to protect from everything except Haywire Mite and Boseiju, and in response to a Tamiyo ultimate (though in this case you are probably dead anyway). While it does a good job in those spots, I have found it to be overrated against breach, and you are better off siding in cards like Tear that tag a Breach, but also tags Saga at other points in the game. Pierce is acceptable but it can be hard to actually choke their mana with 6+ moxen and a crazy low average mana value. Other countermagic like Swan Song is acceptable, but I have found engaging with the breach deck on the stack to be a less-than-optimal plan. 

Creature Removal: Dispatch, March, Path

Honestly, I would avoid creature removal as a way to attack the breach deck out of Hammer. Tagging an early Emry/Tamiyo can be great, but I have found markedly less success with it than simply playing disruption and then going for the kill. 

In the end, I have found the most success in this matchup when I’m able to deploy a hate piece like RIP and simply protect it with Surge of Salvation (which is why I value Surge so highly in the matchup). I generally find this matchup reasonable to good, and there are ways to make it better (basically more Rest In Peace, since that card is a house against them.) That said, the Breach deck is flexible in shifting its role, has the ability to kill very early, and is resilient, so don’t expect to crush it every time.