Small update on my recent results at FNM with the deck. Usually the FNM scene in my area is pretty competitive but I played against a few fringe and jank decks this time around. End result was 3 wins 1 loss to U/W control.
Round 1: Mono Black Rat combo 2-0-0. Beat the deck pretty easily game 1 and game 2 I sided in Ixalan's binding and hit a rat to end that one quickly too.
Round 2: U/W control 0-2-0 The end of block control is feeling super oppressive. Game 1 I got her down to 1 life but she managed to board wipe one last time and control from there till teferri emblem and I had no gas left. Game 2 was even more oppressive and I couldn't do much despite having hit her with 2 Duress, 2 doomfalls early in the game, and vraska's contempt on her Teferri. It still wasn't enough as Search for Azcanta
Flip ended up giving too much card advantage in the end.
Round 3: 4 colored silfer wurm 2-1-0 (deck seen here https://decks.tcgplayer.com/magic/standard/eric-fairchild/4-color-sifter-wurm/1326618). It was an interesting match up and a bit grindy but all in all not too much trouble to deal with. Game 1 I used Doomfall to take out Hour of Devastation, then just grinded out the win (he still hit me with a few board wipes and 16 points of damage from Ribbons, but I finally stuck a Lyra Dawnbringer and was up enough life to not be too worried. Game 2 I didn't sideboard much b/c I still wasn't sure what I was playing against. It was a grind and he hit me with 2 Hour of Devastation. Karn did some work to keep me with card advantage but in the end he got the win with a silfer wurm that stuck. Game 3 he kept a 2 land hand and I hit him with Duress to take out Gift of Paradise. From there his start was too slow and I eventually ran him over while removing an Hour of Devastation with Doomfall to secure the win.
Round 4: Mono Red 2-0-0. Game 1 was close-ish and he got me to 3 life before I finally ran him out of gas and landed Lyra Dawnbringer to turn it from there. Game 2 was pretty similar except I hit him with a Fumigate so it wasn't as close as game 1.
Conclusions: I havent had a lot of time for further testing this week but in general I feel like W/B midrange is a strong match up against everything but control (namely U/W as U/B and esper don't run as many board wipes. Personally I will change my sideboard up as my local meta tends to have a lot of control players and aggro match ups have been pretty easy thus far. I plan on -2 Forsake the Worldly and -2 augriel's blood fast for +3 Kambal, Consul of Allocation, +1 Profane Procession
Flip. That will give 12 cards geared against control and 3 cards against aggro in the sideboard.
New sideboard plan:
Vs Control:
-4 Fatal Push +4 Duress
-2 Ravenous Chupacabra, -2 Cast Down for + 4 Ixalan's Binding
-4 Knight of Grace (if against U/W or -4 of the other knights if against U/B)for +3 Kambal, Consul of Allocation, and +1 Profane Procession
Flip (control tends to sideboard in creatures lately also profrane procession can help against Rekindling Phoenix match ups. The idea behind Kambal, Consul of Allocation is to never attack with it (hence avoid Settle the Wreckage and Seal Away) unless I know what their hand is from Doomfall or Duress. That way they just bleed out whenever they cast a spell and have to rely on Fumigate.
Vs Aggro and Midrange:
-3 The Eldest Reborn for +1 Lyra Dawnbringer, +2 fumigate
If they have a problematic creature like Rekindling Phoenix I will bring in Profane Procession
Flip as well.
I will not include these sideboard changes on the actual decklist here as they are moslty changes to combat my local meta but have not been agreed on as changes that better fit the W/B midrange archetype in general.
