Matchup Analysis - 4 Color Omnath (Yorion)

Key Cards: Urza’s Saga, Kaldra, Reality Chip(Post-board) - Lavinia, Hushbringer, Blacksmith’s Skill

Problem Cards: Solitude, Wrenn & Six (W6), Teferi, Time Raveler (T3f), Fury

• Honorable mentions: Boseiju, Dress Down, Omnath, and Force of Vigor
  

Special notes about the Deck:

• Unlike many other top tier decks (Living End, Hammer, Rhinos, Yawgmoth, UW control), this deck can take at least 3-4 iterations (though you can usually gather which version you are facing from specific cards.)
  
• Counterspell AND Expressive Iteration: Money Pile and Delirium
  
• NO Counterspell or Experssive Iteration: Elementals and Vivien Combo
  
• Money Pile - Counterspell, Expressive Iteration, Dress Down, sometimes Ragavan - Decklist
  
• Delirium - Mishra’s Bauble, Unholy Heat, Traverse the Ulvenwald - Decklist
  
• Elementals - Risen Reef, Cavern of Souls - Decklist
  
• Vivien Combo - Vivien on the Hunt, Felidar Guardian, Planebound Accomplice, Karmic Guide, Kiki-Jiki - Decklist
  

Objectives/General Gameplan:

• Try to compress the game as much as possible - Keep it short, as your odds of winning decrease after every turn. Now to address HOW to compress the game:

• Keep a fast hand, and post board some disruption is nice. Both Lavinia and Hushbringer do a ton of work at shutting down their deck.
  
• Pressure them at every possible turn. Setting up multiple turns back-to-back to present a hammered creature/inkmoth nexus forces them to use their removal early and often. While it sucks to have your threats hit with a solitude, forcing them to 2-for-1 themselves is a great way to win in the mid-game (turns 4-6).
  
  

**Make them have it early and often. Eventually, they won’t.***

• Identify which variant of 4c you are facing - This will help you pick what cards you need to play around.
  
  

he big difference is: does the opponent have counterspells or not? Cavern of Souls and Risen Reefs are usually early giveaways of no counterspell.

• Kaldra - this card slaps the heck out of them. If your hand can go Giver into Stoneforge, the hand is likely a keep. If they can kill the giver and the SFM before you get Kaldra down, then you always have the out of the game going longer and just casting it (keep in mind things like boseiju give us more lands).
  
  

dditionally, if they are able to remove the germ with March/ Prismatic/ Solitude/ T3f bounce, you can always slam a Puresteel Paladin and move the Kaldra for free.

• Urza’s Saga - Look, if the 4C player gets an entire pile of Modern Horizons cards to bully everyone, it’s nice that we at least have this as a plan B. Especially vs the lists lacking Dress Down, an unanswered Saga can often carry you all the way across the finish line.
  
  

**Note that if you are on the draw or if they ramp on turn 1, it can be incorrect to play saga on 2, since a T3f bounce can often end the game for us since it buys them so much tempo. If you can play around this pattern, I strongly recommend it.

• Reality Chip - while we always want to end the game ASAP, sometimes that’s just not what happens. In those scenarios, an unanswered chip can often just bury your 4C opponent in cards. Keeping Chip as a “Plan D” after “Bonk them good”, “Kaldra them to death”, and “Robot Parade”, is something you should always keep in mind in these grindier matchups.
  

Problem Cards (spoiler: there are a LOT)

• Solitude is the biggest hurdle we face when fighting 4C, since it has flash, can be Ephemerated, gains them life if it ever sticks around, and oh yeah… it’s 0 mana.
  
• One saving grace though, is that they have to pitch a white card to cast it for free. EVERY white card in the 4C deck is great against Hammer. Prismatic Ending, March of Otherworldly Light, T3f, Ephemerate, Omnath, and Solitude are all problematic, and you should be happy to see them throw one in exile and one in the yard to answer a single creature.
  
• Fury is obnoxious, but you can mostly play around it as long as it’s on your radar. Don’t run out multiple 0’s if you don’t have to, pace out your threats, and you shouldn’t be blown out too hard. Play around Fury only when you can. They are often short on red cards, and often play only 1-2 copies in the 95. While they do have Eladamri’s call to find it, Fury isn’t an instant.
  
• T3f and W6 - Only try to attack down Planeswalkers if you absolutely have to. They are mostly distractions (albeit sometimes you HAVE to address them).
  
  

3f is a huge pain, but it is much more important to kill post-board (when you have Blacksmith’s Skills and potentially Spell Pierces). Usually, attacking walkers with a hammered creature is a trap, as you really need to kill the opponent.

6 is mostly important to ensure they hit land drops every turn, and has the delightful upside of rebuying Boseiju every turn if they choose to do so.

If you see the W6/Boseiju lock, get Kaldra ASAP since it can’t get boseiju’ed, and you’re likely to have the mana to just cast it thanks to their stupid legendary land.

• Magus of the Moon is an admittedly obnoxious reality out of a 4 color pile.(Remember that with the increasing number of Eladamri’s Calls, they often play 1 copy maindeck).
  
  

hen possible, fetch up basics to not get cheesed out. Also avoid putting 2 copies of Urza’s Saga into play at the same time if that’s an option.

• Dress Down (this is largely the same breakdown as my UR analysis). The best way to beat dress down is to not run a pile of constructs into it without a backup plan.
  
  

ote that any +X/+X effects on your constructs in response to the Dress Down will keep the constructs from dying. They will turn into 0/0’s with +X/+X. For example, if you can get a hammer/spear/kaldra on the construct, it will stick around even with the DD in play.

y favorite way to beat a dress down though, is by targeting one with a Skill in response to the DD. The construct will become a vanilla 2/2, but it means your robo-friend will stick around long enough for DD to go away.

gainst 4C specifically, it can be correct to proactively play a Skill to ensure your creature has hexproof if you sniff out that they have only solitude/creature removal. This clears the way for you to hammer up that creature even with a T3f in play.

• Force of Vigor. Yeah… uh… this card sucks to play against with Hammer.
  
  

uckily most 4C lists are on 1-2 FoV in the 95.

avinia hard counters the free cast on this.

ften times you only need to protect one of the targets, which BSS does quite well.

SB Strategy and highlights:

• The bad news is that Game 1 is tough, but the good news is that we get a lot of good cards to bring in, and they simply don’t have as many.
  

Cards to always bring in: Blacksmith’s Skill, Hushbringer, Lavinia

• Blacksmith’s Skill - This card is still just incredible. Here are just a few things that it stops.
  
  

olitude

oseiju

ury

probably) Force of Vigor.

artially counter a dress down by pumping your construct.

t can also protect in response to them casting T3f if you absolutely need to protect something like an Urza’s Saga or germ token.

• Hushbringer - Shutting off Solitude and Fury is good enough on it’s own across the board, but stopping Risen Reef, Eternal Witness, Omnath, Ice-Fang Coatl, and every part of the Vivien combo means that this card is an all-star
  
  

**Note: Hushbringer stops ALL creature ETB triggers, so if someone evokes a Solitude/Fury/Endurance, the creature will not be sacrificed to its own trigger.

• Lavinia, Azorius Renegade - Lavinia’s clause counters any evoked elemental (Solitude, Fury), as well as the rebounded Ephemerate, and Force of Vigor pitch-cast. She is phenomenal to play after a Giver to set up a kill, or as a standalone lightning rod.
  

Cards to sometimes bring in: Relic of Progenitus, Pithing Needle, Spell Pierce

• Pithing Needle - Shutting off W6, T3f, and Boseiju are the biggest pulls to this card, but I often leave it on the sidelines since drawing a non-creature when you need one can often mean you just die. Both Lavinia and Hushbringer carry a hammer, so they are easier to commit spots to.
  
• Relic of Progenitus - This is primarily for W6, since if you can keep them from rebuying their lands each turn it can often win you the game.
  
  

f note, it is especially good vs the Delirium Variant since it will likely keep them off of delirium just by virtue of tapping every turn. If you see multiple Eternal Witnesses, this is a serious consideration as well.

• Spell Pierce - Often times this card feels like “worse Blacksmith’s Skill”, so I don’t often bring it in, but against the Vivien combo variant where it will be live well into turn 6+, I am a much bigger fan of 1-2 copies coming in.
  

TL;DR: Matchup is tough. Gotta make em have it early AND often. Mulliganing aggressively is very defensible since we need strong openers.