Humans Primer (with sideboard discussion)

Modern Aggro Humans Primer

cultheserpent

Creature (37)

• 4x Champion of the Parish
• 3x Imperial Recruiter
• 4x Kitesail Freebooter
• 4x Mantis Rider
• 4x Meddling Mage
• 4x Noble Hierarch
• 3x Phantasmal Image
• 4x Reflector Mage
• 3x Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
• 4x Thalia's Lieutenant

Land (19)

• 4x Ancient Ziggurat
• 4x Cavern of Souls
• 4x Horizon Canopy
• 1x Island
• 1x Plains
• 1x Sunbaked Canyon
• 4x Unclaimed Territory

Artifact (4)

• 4x Aether Vial

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Sideboard

Creature (8)

• 3x Auriok Champion
• 2x Plague Engineer
• 3x Skyclave Apparition

Artifact (6)

• 2x Damping Sphere
• 2x Grafdigger's Cage
• 2x Relic of Progenitus

Instant (1)

• 1x Dismember

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Maybeboard

Creature (34)

• 1x Anafenza, the Foremost
• 1x Auriok Champion
• 1x Charming Prince
• 1x Collector Ouphe
• 1x Containment Priest
• 1x Deputy of Detention
• 1x Dire Fleet Daredevil
• 1x Drannith MagistrateGC
• 1x Esper Sentinel
• 1x Gaddock Teeg
• 1x Giver of Runes
• 1x Izzet Staticaster
• 1x Judith, the Scourge Diva
• 1x Kambal, Consul of Allocation
• 1x Kessig Malcontents
• 1x Knight of Autumn
• 1x Lavinia, Azorius Renegade
• 1x Magus of the Moon
• 1x Mayor of Avabruck  ^Flip
• 1x Militia Bugler
• 1x Mirran Crusader
• 1x Plague Engineer
• 1x Plaguecrafter
• 1x Realmwalker
• 1x Sanctifier en-Vec
• 1x Sanctum Prelate
• 1x Shardless Agent
• 1x Sin Collector
• 1x Skyclave Apparition
• 1x Tajic, Legion's Edge
• 1x Thalia, Heretic Cathar
• 1x Thraben Inspector
• 1x Unsettled Mariner
• 1x Yixlid Jailer

Artifact (6)

• 1x Chalice of the Void
• 1x Damping Sphere
• 1x Grafdigger's Cage
• 1x Pithing Needle
• 1x Relic of Progenitus
• 1x Tormod's Crypt

Land (1)

• 1x Seachrome Coast

Enchantment (3)

• 1x Leyline of the Void
• 1x Rest in Peace
• 1x Stony Silence

Instant (3)

• 1x Dismember
• 1x Ravenous Trap
• 1x Surgical Extraction

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Sideboard / Mainboard Flex Spots Options Discussion

Creatures

• Anafenza, the Foremost is a mainboard flex spots option. A single copy may help in a meta dominated by graveyard strategies. She's big enough to take Lightning Bolt and can also pump our creatures. She might be a little too slow in facing the speed of most graveyard decks (Dredge, Izzet Phoenix and Hogaak).

• Auriok Champion has at least two secured sideboard slots. She performs well in the mirror match and against other creatures heavy decks, being able to gain us tons of life points. She's an absolute monster against Burn decks and she's amazing versus cards such as: Death's Shadow , Gurmag Angler , Bloodghast , Prized Amalgam , Carrion Feeder , Tasigur, the Golden Fang and Bedlam Reveler . Moreover shhe can dodge all of Jund's removal as well as Wrenn and Six ping effect.

• Collector Ouphe is a Stony Silence with fangs. He can be killed easily, but he's a lot easier to play for us. He can even be helpful against G Tron because he can stop Chromatic Star , Chromatic Sphere , Expedition Map , Walking Ballista and Oblivion Stone . On top of that, he's our best friend against artifact decks (Affinity, Hardened Scales and Grixis Urza).

• Deputy of Detention is so good that she can take up to two of ours mainboard flex spots, despite not being a human. Given the fact that she can be killed by any removal ( Lightning Bolt i.e.), her ability to exile all of one permanent's copies on the battlefield is extremely useful in our deck. Moreover, she is helpful against creatures heavy decks, she can deal with planeswalkers in control decks (if not played with Aether Vial , unfortunately she will be too slow to deal with Ugin, the Spirit Dragon ). She can also deal with powerful individual threats (i.e. Thing in the Ice  , Hogaak, Arisen Necropolis , Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger , ...). Beware she will become a primary target for removals so consider her of temporary assistance.

• Dire Fleet Daredevil would be an almost perfect sideboard choice in a meta dominated by UW Control or some other heavy control decks. Her usefulness is greatly reduced by cards such as Thalia, Guardian of Thraben , Kitesail Freebooter and possibly Unsettled Mariner .

• Gaddock Teeg was one of our best sideboard options. He is theoretically quite helpful against UW Control since he can deal with their big planeswalkers ( Jace, the Mind Sculptor and Teferi, Hero of Dominaria ), Terminus , Supreme Verdict and Cryptic Command . He is able to stop G Tron from playing Karn Liberated , Ugin, the Spirit Dragon and All Is Dust and he stops Grixis Urza from casting Whir of Invention . Unfortunately, recently, UW Control is moving from bigger planeswalkers to smaller ones ( Teferi, Time Raveler and Narset, Parter of Veils ), G Tron players tend to board out Karn Liberated and Collector Ouphe is far better to deal with Grixis Urza. To make matters worse it isn't easy to play him because Gaddock doesn't have any relevant creature sub-type that we want to name with our lands (i.e. Deputy of Detention is a wizard among many other wizards we play).

• Giver of Runes is a worse version of Unsettled Mariner at diverting removal spells, but she may become useful in the case of a heavy Eldrazi format. It's not worth considering her for our G Tron matchup and she's also really hard to play on turn 1.

• Izzet Staticaster is our best answer to Infect threats and Affinity creatures. In addition, she can help during the mirror match. Unfortunately, the limited number of situations in which she can be useful and the way better choice that is Plague Engineer for the mirror match (and other tribal matchup) makes her not worth for our sideboard.

• Judith, the Scourge Diva is more a flex spots option than a sideboard one. She can give us a boost in sheer aggro power, but she's probably too slow to punish heavy removal decks with her ability. Moreover, her cost is not that easy to pay, despite Judith being a human.

• Kambal, Consul of Allocation might be very useful as a single sideboard copy. He punishes non-creature spells heavy decks, such as: UW Control, Izzet Phoenix, Storm and Burn. Moreover, he's an excellent removal diverter. His cmc is his only weakness, probably making him a little too slow to support our deck.

• Kessig Malcontents were one of our best options to race our opponents as a single copy in one of the mainboard flex spots. They add little value to the post sideboard games and now there are much better options to use in those matchups where we would have used them (i.e. Militia Bugler , Deputy of Detention ).

• Knight of Autumn is an excellent spot artifact hate and her "gain 4 life" ability makes her a good choice for the Burn matchup. If played with Aether Vial , she can even deal with Blood Moon . She does her job very well, so it0s only up to you to give her a try in the sideboard.

• Lavinia, Azorius Renegade is the long lost sister of Gaddock Teeg . She can stop an early Terminus from UW Control and that's all for this matchup. She makes cascade useless (i.e. Bloodbraid Elf ) as well as suspend ( Living End , Ancestral Vision , Lotus Bloom , Rift Bolt and Crashing Footfalls ). She prevents Karn Liberated (although they board him out), Ugin, the Spirit Dragon and All Is Dust from being cast by G Tron players. Then she stops many cards: Hogaak, Arisen Necropolis , Summoner's Pact , Pact of Negation , Slaughter Pact , Mox Opal , Mishra's Bauble and Force of Despair . Eventually, she also messes with any non-creature spell with delve ( Logic Knot and Magmatic Sinkhole ), with pyrexian mana spells ( Surgical Extraction and Dismember ) and with Hollow One if casted for .

• Mayor of Avabruck  is also a flex spots option, useful for a more aggro approach to the game. Unfortunately he's not a great choice since he's only a mere 1/1 (especially now with Wrenn and Six Jund) with whom we won't attack nor block. He loses all of his utility when he transforms into Howlpack Alpha .

• Militia Bugler is possibly a good option to give us some extra speed or to recover from a wrath effect. However, his ability isn't able to target Mantis Rider and that's a big downside, although is pretty awesome to find a Thalia's Lieutenant .

• Plague Engineer is far better than you would think. He's an all star against other tribal decks (Humans, Elves, Merfolks and Spirits); you can also name construct against Hardened Scales ( Steel Overseer , Walking Ballista , Hangarback Walker and Arcbound Worker ), zombie or vampire versus Hogaak ( Carrion Feeder , Stitcher's Supplier , Gravecrawler , Bloodghast and Insolent Neonate ), thopter against Grixis Urza (to stop the combo with Thopter Foundry ) and human versus Devoted Druid decks ( Noble Hierarch , Vizier of Remedies and Eternal Witness ). Heck! you could even name wizard against UW control to kill Snapcaster Mage and Vendilion Clique . Deathtouch works well against overgrown Champion of the Parish or Thalia's Lieutenant . Beware the possible Phantasmal Image copying war during the mirror match.

• Plaguecrafter works as a spot removal and might be good versus UW Control or G Tron, even though Deputy of Detention is far better and more versatile.

• Sin Collector was a great sideboard choice to fight control decks and other non-creature spells heavy decks (i.e. Storm and Burn). Nowadays he's too slow.

• Tajic, Legion's Edge is a good flex spots options if you expect to fight a red heavy meta. He's an absolute beast against Grim Lavamancer , Anger of the Gods and all of Burn spells, except for Skullcrack . He also adds some nice aggro power to our deck.

• Thalia, Heretic Cathar is neither a good flex spots option nor a decent sideboard choice because of her "high" mana cost. There are better options if you want to slow down G Tron (i.e. Damping Sphere and Deputy of Detention ); the same is true for the UW Control matchup (i.e. Gaddock Teeg ) and for creature decks (i.e. Plague Engineer ).

• Unsettled Mariner is a perfect flex slots choice, period. He's definitely more generically useful than other flex spots cards (i.e. Tajic, Legion's Edge is strong against Burn, while Mariner is also useful in other occasions), despite being often boarded out during post sideboard games. His great contender is Deputy of Detention for sure, but he's cheaper and (also) a human. He's astonishingly awesome in dealing with interactive decks. Just to be clear, let's make a list of the main cards and effects he taxes: Lightning Bolt (and all the other Burn spells), Fatal Push , Inquisition of Kozilek , Thoughtseize , Collective Brutality , Kolaghan's Command , Path to Exile , Assassin's Trophy , Dismember , Gut Shot , every single copy of Grapeshot , Thought-Knot Seer "discard" ability, every single trigger of Valakut, the Molten Pinnacle , both exile effects of Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger , each "trigger" of Walking Ballista , Reflector Mage and Deputy of Detention ability, Detention Sphere , Field of Ruin and Ghost Quarter ability, +2 and -1 of Jace, the Mind Sculptor , -3 of Teferi, Hero of Dominaria , -3 of Teferi, Time Raveler , -2 of Liliana of the Veil , +1 of Liliana, the Last Hope , -1 of Wrenn and Six and +4 plus -3 of Karn Liberated . He's (also) a horror and Thing in the Ice   flipping will not affect him. Is this not enough for you? Well, how about that his tax effect stacks with multiple copies of himself and with Thalia, Guardian of Thraben ability?

• Yixlid Jailer is the best graveyard hate creature, he's also a wizard (a really relevant creature sub-type that we can name with our lands) and we can play him with Aether Vial . Although theoretically he's an excellent option to combat graveyard strategies, he's a riskier choice because our opponents normally play more creature removals (i.e. Lightning Axe , Assassin's Trophy , Fatal Push and Lightning Bolt ) than artifact / enchantment removals. Furthermore we would be forced not not use him neither to attack nor to block to prevent his death in combat.

Instants

• Dismember is an excellent removal which can deal with most of modern's "big" threats: Tarmogoyf , an early Death's Shadow , Gurmag Angler , Thing in the Ice  , Hollow One , Vengevine , Thought-Knot Seer , Reality Smasher (if you are willing to discard a card), Celestial Colonnade and all the creatures from Humans, Spirits, Merfolks and Elves. It's also useful to get rid of Plague Engineer against Jund.

• Ravenous Trap is a good choice as graveyard hate. It requires a good timing and could fail to prevent Hogaak from casting Hogaak, Arisen Necropolis , because of the way priority works. Its advantage is that it cannot be destroyed by some cheap artifact / enchantment removal such as Nature's Claim . It's really good against Hogaak, Izzet Phoenix, Storm and Dredge.

• Surgical Extraction is and it will always be a good card and it could be used even against non-graveyard strategies to remove one of their key components. However, we want to handle graveyard decks in their entirety and Surgical is not that good against Dredge and Storm.

Artifacts

• Chalice of the Void is a particularly complicated choice, mostly because it's not a creature. Not too long ago, during a different and slower modern meta, we would have dismissed it because it would have been to little effective. Currently, modern is an extremely faster format. A Chalice on stops cards such as: Mox Opal , Walking Ballista , Hangarback Walker , Engineered Explosives , Lotus Bloom , Mishra's Bauble , Ancestral Vision , Living End , Crashing Footfalls , Summoner's Pact and Pact of Negation . It's at that Chalice really shines, countering a world of spells: Path to Exile , Serum Visions , Opt , Thought Scour , Sleight of Hand , Spell Snare , Fatal Push , Thoughtseize , Inquisition of Kozilek , Death's Shadow , Unearth , Surgical Extraction , Stitcher's Supplier , Carrion Feeder , Gravecrawler , Faithless Looting , Lightning Bolt , Gut Shot , Lava Spike , Goblin Guide , Monastery Swiftspear , Lava Dart , Lightning Axe , Flame Slash , Grim Lavamancer , Ancient Stirrings , Hardened Scales , Expedition Map , Chromatic Sphere and Chromatic Star . We are slightly "slow" in being able to play Chalice on and it would be much better if we were on the play, however it can be very useful to use it.

• Damping Sphere is possibly the best universal hate to fight G Tron and is also a solid option against Storm and Amulet Titan too. Anyone who says this card is useless for us is lying. It has its downsides, but being able to stop tron lands from working will always be a welcome outcome. However, if you don't expect to face Storm and Amulet Titan in your meta, it might be better to run more copies of Deputy of Detention , Collector Ouphe and Gaddock Teeg .

• Grafdigger's Cage is another good option for our graveyard hate strategy. Although it isn't able to stop Hogaak, Arisen Necropolis from being cast from our opponent's hand, it messes with all of the graveyard strategies (Hogaak itself, Izzet Phoenix, Dredge and Storm), Grixis Urza , Neoform decks and any Collected Company or Chord of Calling decks. It also stops Snapcaster Mage ability and anything with flashback (i.e. Faithless Looting ), retrace (i.e. Raven's Crime ), persist (i.e. Kitchen Finks ) and undying (i.e. Geralf's Messenger ). 2x Cages and 2x Ravenous Trap are a good combination for our sideboard.

• Pithing Needle is a narrow option that can deal with specific planeswalkers or other cards, if you have specific problems with any of them. Perhaps its best use is to be able to stop Blast Zone ability.

• Tormod's Crypt is the cheapest graveyard hate option and it's like a weak Ravenous Trap for they will "see it coming from miles away" and they can force you to use it in suboptimal ways (i.e. targeting it with Nature's Claim ).

Enchantments

• Leyline of the Void is a tough choice. It could be argued that we might as well use a full playset of Leyline rather than 2/3x of Ravenous Trap paired with 1/2x of Grafdigger's Cage ; the main reason for it being Hogaak decks not suffering Ravenous Trap , if they sequence their action correctly. In addition, Grafdigger's Cage cannot stop Hogaak from being casted from our opponent hand. Leyline is also able to take care of all the other graveyard decks as well. However, running a playset of Leyline is not a universally strictly better option. The main reasons are: 1) We aren't able to cast it, except from our opening hand. This will force us to mull until we find at least 1 copy and could leave us with a bad opening hand except for the Leyline; 2) A simple Nature's Claim can destroy it, which would leave us more than vulnerable and unable to fix the horrible situation; 3) Each single Leyline not drawn in the opening hand will be a dead draw later on in the game; 4) We are slightly favored in the Hogaak matchup anyway; 5) Leyline doesn't stop Neoform , Collected Company and Chord of Calling strategies as Grafdigger's Cage does.

• Rest in Peace is probably the best graveyard hate in existence. Unfortunately, we might have a hard time in playing it on turn 2 because we don't produce enough mana to cast non-creature spells.

• Stony Silence falls under the same argument of Rest in Peace , however we luckily have Collector Ouphe .

Matchup Analysis

(WORK IN PROGRESS!)

DISCLAIMER! This guide will provide an analysis of various matchup, referring to the general gameplan and (possible) sideboard choices (mainly based on the maindeck and sideboard featured in the decklist), rather than a guide on how to board. This is due to the fact that there is NOT a universal 15 for the sideboard and even the maindeck 60 differ based on the flex slots choices.

• Humans
  Mirror matches are always tough, but so are them for our opponents. Many of our cards lose their value, while few gain some extra.
  Thalia, Guardian of Thraben is now more useful as a blocker with first strike than for her taxing effect.
  Kitesail Freebooter loses all of her utility because she can now only take Aether Vial and Dismember . A mere 1/2 with flying is pretty bad anyway.
  Unsettled Mariner is a little more helpful than Thalia and Freebooter because he's able to tax Reflector Mage , Deputy of Detention and Dismember , but it's only a 2/2 with little aggro and defensive power.
  Reflector Mage gains a huge power boost and is (probably) our best maindeck card.
  Phantasmal Image actually doubles her utility because she now has double the targets!
  Auriok Champion could help, not so much as an attacker or blocker, but rather by exploiting the large amount of creatures played to reduce the loss of life points and give us enough time to win.
  Deputy of Detention is a fantastic strictly better Reflector Mage and can do wonders wrecking their board.
  Another great addiciton is Plague Engineer . He's able to deal on his own with all of their Champions , Lieutentants , Nobles and (possibly) Aurioks . Beware of the possible "copying war" with Image .
  Eventually Dismember could always help killing overgrown Champions or Lieutenants , dangerous Riders , Deputies that have taken too many of our creatures or Engineers threatening our board.
  I would cut a mix of Thalia , Freebooters and Mariners to add 2 copies of Aurioks , Deputies and Engineers plus a single copy of Dismember .
  With a bit of luck, we just have to be a better Humans' player than them.

• Dredge
  This matchup is truly neither good nor bad, but if they draw a God hand and manage to go nuts by turn 2/3 there is little to nothing we can really do.
  None of our cards is particularly powerful, but they all have good utility and can lead us to victory with the usual combination of speed and disruption.
  With Meddling Mage we want to name Cathartic Reunion (if they haven't set up their game engine by turn 2/3 yet) and Conflagrate or Life from the Loam .
  Reflector Mage is always good to bounce a Prized Amalgam , which they generally find hard to play from their hand.
  As for the sideboard:
  Bring in your usual graveyard hate ( Ravenous Trap , Grafdigger's Cage or Leyline of the Void ).
  Auriok Champion will do God's work; she can deal with their major threats ( Bloodghast and Amalgam ), is invulnerable to all of their removals ( Lightning Axe i.e.) and she will earn you tons of life points.
  Deputy of Detention will take good care of their Bloodghast and Amalgamas .
  You have to name vampire with Plague Engineer , if you want to board him in.
  They may play a single copy of Blast Zone ; Pithing Needle can deal with it.
  

• G Tron
  I dare to say that G Tron is one of our worst matchup. They are extremely resilient and almost impossible to stop (for us) once they assemble the infamous tron trio and start to play their massive threats.
  We have nothing particularly useless or useful to use against them, but there are some tricks that can help.
  You will be happy if you have chosen to use Deputy of Detention over Unsettled Mariner or Militia Bugler (ours 2 other main flex spots options); otherwhise work with what you have.
  What about Meddling Mage ? What do we name with her? Karn Liberated is our best blind shot if we know they are going to have full tron by turn 3 no matter what we do; otherwise we should try to prevent them from assembling full tron, naming Sylvan Scrying or Expedition Map .
  Always play Kitesail Freebooter with Aether Vial on their upkeep, if possible.
  Eventually you will need a good combination of speed and disruption to win.
  And now let's talk about the post-sideboard games.
  Thalia, Guardian of Thraben is usually worse if we are on the draw than when we are on the play. She's not that great anyway, because paying an extra mana will not slow them down much once they have the full tron.
  At least two copies of Deputy of Detention are necessary, probably going to replace two Reflector Mage , who can effectively target only Wurmcoil Engine (we really don't want to bounce Thragtusk , who they will often board in).
  One of our best possible choices is Collector Ouphe , despite his "nonmbo" with Aether Vial .
  Gaddock Teeg is a fairly mediocre choice because he's only able to stop 4x of their 60 cards ( Ugin, the Spirit Dragon and All Is Dust ).
  Damping Sphere is a great option to fight Tron, if you really hate this matchup. Truth be told, it could slow down us too, it's not a creature (which slightly reduces our efficency) and it can be too easily removed by Nature's Claim .
  Speed and distruption are the key to victory in post sideboard games too.
  

• Eldrazi Tron
  E Tron is the other side of the Tron coin; while with G Tron we turn out to be unfavored, with E Tron we are actually at an advantage.
  Apart from the eldrazis, one of their main strengths, if not the best, is Chalice of the Void , which we are good at making useless. Cavern of Souls ability and the option to "play" our creatures with Aether Vial are perfectly able to get around Chalice effect.
  Moreover, they are much less effective in having lots of mana, because they don't have access to Sylvan Scrying , Ancient Stirrings and Chromatic Star + Chromatic Sphere , relying solely on Expedition Map to find their lands.
  Their creatures are big, but we are much faster and our flyers are able to avoid all of their defenses.
  Thalia, Guardian of Thraben is perhaps the least useful of our cards because she isn't able to tax their eldrazis.
  Unsettled Mariner is a great option because he taxes Thought-Knot Seer , Endbringer and Walking Ballista abilities, +1 of Karn, the Great Creator and-3 of Ugin, the Ineffable and Dismember .
  All you really want in this matchup is a good clock, and we are quite good at that.
  Regarding the sideboard:
  Deputy of Detention is good as always and they don't really have many ways to deal with her. She can even deal with Ensnaring Bridge .
  Collector Ouphe may be helpful to stop Walking Ballista and Expedition Map .
  Gaddock Teeg is better here than against G Tron because he's able to stop Karn, the Great Creator , Ugin, the Ineffable , All Is Dust and Mycosynth Lattice .
  Dismember is able to kill all of their creatures, which will be always welcome.
  Damping Sphere (if you have it in your sideboard) will slow them down considerably.
  Pithing Needle can help mainly with Blast Zone ; however, the maximum damage that Blast Zone can do is to be activated with 2 counters and they can do it by turn 4, at earliest, and we should be in good shape by then.
  

• UW Control
  Their cheap removal / counter spells ( Path to Exile and Remand i.e.) will deal with our single threats, Terminus or Supreme Verdict will clear the board, if we managed to overcome their single target removals / counters, and Jace, the Mind Sculptor , Teferi, Hero of Dominaria and Celestial Colonnade will win the game. This will happen if we face this matchup keeping a sub-optimal hand and/or stubbornly only try to race them.
  Nevertheless, we have few tricks up our sleeves.
  Cavern of Souls and Aether Vial will make their counterspells useless ( Remand , Spell Snare , Mana Leak , Logic Knot and Cryptic Command ).
  They will destroy our Caverns with Field of Ruin , if they get the chance; so it's always nice to run 2 basic lands in our mainboard.
  Thalia, Guardian of Thraben and Kitesail Freebooter are probably our best cards as we are dealing with a deck that runs about only 4 creature spells: Snapcaster Mage .
  For the same reason, Reflector Mage is perhaps our worst card. We certainly don't want to give them the chance to play Snappy again and bouncing Colonnade isn't even that good.
  Unsettled Mariner is pretty good too since he taxes: Path to Exile , Detention Sphere , Oust , Field of Ruin ability, +2 and -1 of Jace, the Mind Sculptor , -3 both of Teferi, Hero of Dominaria and Teferi, Time Raveler .
  Militia Bugler , if you run any, is helpful to race them or to recover from a wrath effect.
  Luckily, Force of Negation is useless against us, unless they manage to have it in their opening hand to counter a turn 1 Vial .
  Narset, Parter of Veils will be a bit of a pain in the a**, because she will prevent us to draw with our horizon lands . We can still do it during their turn.
  As for the sideboard:
  They will likely board an extra wrath (be it Terminus , Supreme Verdict or Wrath of God ), Vendilion Clique , Monastery Mentor , extra copies of Timely Reinforcements and (probably) 1/2x Celestial Purge .
  Gaddock Teeg is our sideboard mvp; he will stop their wraths, big walkers and Cryptic Command .
  Deputy of Detention is able to take care of all of their walkers, creatures and Detention Sphere .
  Dismember is a plausible choice because it allows us to kill all of their creatures, including Colonnade .
  We can even use Plague Engineer naming wizard (to kill Snappy and Clique ) or monk (if Mentor has become a problem); he also trades with Colonnade (thanks to Dylan Hand for the suggestion).
  Kambal, Consul of Allocation is an excellent way to punish a deck that plays so many non creature spells.
  Pithing Needle can help if you particularly fear Narset + Geier Reach Sanitarium combo and it can target their other walkers too.
  Kessig Malcontents are an alternative way to "race" them, if you manage to have a good board presence by turn 4.

• Jund
  Let's be real for a moment here: Jund was already a tough matchup, even before Wrenn and Six was printed. Certainly Dark Confidant ability was able to "help" us in a certain way, but the essence remains the same: Jund is a deck full of removals, disruption and big threats and it has no specific weakness that we could exploit.
  Thalia, Guardian of Thraben and Unsettled Mariner (if you play him in your main; suggestion: you should) are our best friends. A Lightning Bolt i.e. or Thoughtseize i.e. at cmc (and or more even better) don't seem like good cards anymore, don't they?
  Mantis Rider is great, due to his ability to fly over the top, which allows him to evade Tarmogoyf and all of his friends. Phantasmal Image is quite bad because it can be killed easily, even by -1 of Wrenn and Six .
  Meddling Mage loses much of her utility. What will we name with her? Name Bolt and they will have Fatal Push , say Abrupt Decay and they will play Assassin's Trophy .
  For the post-sideabord games:
  Auriok Champion is resilient to all of their removals and could give us a little help gaining us some precious extra life points. Unfortunately, she dies by Plague Engineer and is not a good blocker for Tarmogoyf .
  Deputy of Detention is a strictly better Reflector Mage as always, since she can even deal with Liliana of the Veil and Wrenn and Six .
  Dismember may help killing a Tarmogoyf (they play only 4 of them after all...) or an Engineer .
  Another potentially useful option is Militia Bugler (if you have him in your main or sideboard) to race them or to keep pace with their removals.
  Kambal, Consul of Allocation at very least could help diverting a removal spell also making them lose 2 life points.
  

• Death's Shadow // //
  They can have some serious fast starts, usually involving hand distruption ( Thoughtseize ), card draw with Street Wraith and one (or even 2) big (5/5 or even more) Death's Shadow on turn 2/3 or a happy Gurmag Angler also on turn 2/3. It's therefore crucial to have a good hand, so take a mulligan whenever you have a "slow" start, and pray to lady luck to be on the play on game 1.
  They are like us: an aggro deck packed with disruption; so we have to beat them at our own game. But, BUT! they have to lose many life points by themselves to do what they aim to do and we can also have some serious fast starts (turn 1 Noble Hierarch + turn 2 Mantis Rider i.e.) to catch them off guard.
  Every single card we play has its usefulness:
  Thalia, Guardian of Thraben , Unsettled Mariner , Meddling Mage and Kitesail Freebooter are all good to deal with their distruption and removals ( Fatal Push , Thoughtseize , Lightning Bolt and Path to Exile ).
  Reflector Mage and Deputy of Detention (if you play her in your main) are perfect to deal with their creatures (if you manage to bounce a Angler using a Reflector they will struggle to play it again due to the delve "cost").
  Phantasmal Image can always copy Angler , Ranger-Captain of Eos or Shadow (if you are low on life).
  As for the sideboard:
  They will bring in more removals in Grixis, Anger of the Gods and Grim Lavamancer above all, probably 1/2 copies of Lingering Souls in Esper and perhaps Liliana, the Last Hope .
  Auriok Champion can block even the biggest Shadow without fear, unless they give it trample with Temur Battle Rage , and she's immune to most of their removals (with the exception of Path to Exile ).
  Deputy of Detention will be a fine option as usual.
  Dismember could help with early Angler and Shadow .
  Grafdigger's Cage will stop Snapcaster Mage and Unearth effect.
  Tajic, Legion's Edge comes in if you really hate to see your board wiped by Anger of the Gods .
  Chalice of the Void can be helpful as it can stop Death's Shadow itself and their main removal spells.
  As for Mardu version it's "only" a mix of Grixis and Esper.
  

• Spirits //
  

• Merfolks
  

• Burn / Mono Red Prowess //
  

• Grixis Urza
  

• Death and Taxes //
  

• Gifts / Twiddle Storm
  

• Neoform
  

• Vizier Company
  

• Infect //
  

• Valakut
  

• Amulet Titan
  

Date added	6 years
Last updated	3 years
Legality	This deck is Modern legal.
Rarity (main - side)	7 - 0 Mythic Rares 35 - 10 Rares 16 - 5 Uncommons
Cards	60
Avg. CMC	1.98
Tokens	Illusion X/X U
Folders	Humans, Modern