[Deck] A Cold Day in Hell (Breach Freeze)

[FTW]

I updated the primer to include the latest Showcase results and a section on the Jeskai Intuition builds.

There were 6 Breach decks in the Showcase's Top 16, including this piece of spice (RUG Snowko Breach):
https://magic.wizards.com/en/article..._lord_th_place

He couldn't decide which was more oppressive in this meta, Underworld Breach or Snowko, so he just played both!
It's RUG Breach adding Astrolabe, Ice-Fang, Oko and Uro. Uro is great "backup value" when you've generated escape fuel but can't combo. Meanwhile those cards all cantrip so they don't really set you behind in the combo plan.

He also runs this amazing tech: Teferi's Realm. It's blue Serenity that hits hatebears and dodges Chalice/Prelate @ 2!

[Michael Keller]

I've pulled three straight 4-1s with this list:

1 Tundra
1 Volcanic Island
1 Plains
4 Flooded Strand
3 Scalding Tarn
2 Prismatic Vista
1 Island
1 Mountain
4 Brain Freeze
4 Brainstorm
4 Ponder
2 Teferi, Time Raveler
4 Lightning Bolt
2 Spell Pierce
3 Lotus Petal
4 Lion's Eye Diamond
2 Orim's Chant
4 Underworld Breach
4 Force of Will
3 Dark Confidant
2 Underground Sea
1 Pact of Negation
3 Vision Charm

1 Chain of Vapor
2 Wear/Tear
3 Monastery Mentor
2 Serenity
1 Teferi's Realm
2 Plague Engineer
3 Leyline of the Void
1 Silence

[FTW]

I've pulled three straight 4-1s with this list:

Great list!

So you added white for all the best stuff, went hard on the Lightning Bolt plan (more MD removal to beat hatebears), and have Vision Charm as a Tome Scour with other utility (phases out Chalice, Crypts and Cages lol). There's a lot of redundancy in place of Preordain (the weakest cantrip), plus the card advantage from Bob.

Do you find a clash between the Bolt plan and the Vision Charm line? Bolt is a very resource-intensive kill (30 cards to exile: 3 LEDs + 7 Bolts, 24 cards if they're at 18 or lower from fetches). Vision Charm nets 0 cards as you dig into Brain Freeze, so you exile a chunk of your library without growing the graveyard. Does that ever get to a point where Bolt is unusable? Have you just gotten lucky that you never needed Bolt when you did Vision Charm lines?

I love this Teferi's Realm tech that's showing up lately. Were you ever in a position to go off by naming lands? (e.g. land in hand + Petal)

What happened to Dystopia? Not good enough with Serenity and Realm available?

No more Pyroblast?

[Michael Keller]

Great list!

So you added white for all the best stuff, went hard on the Lightning Bolt plan (more MD removal to beat hatebears), and have Vision Charm as a Tome Scour with other utility (phases out Chalice, Crypts and Cages lol). There's a lot of redundancy in place of Preordain (the weakest cantrip), plus the card advantage from Bob.

Do you find a clash between the Bolt plan and the Vision Charm line? Bolt is a very resource-intensive kill (30 cards to exile: 3 LEDs + 7 Bolts, 24 cards if they're at 18 or lower from fetches). Vision Charm nets 0 cards as you dig into Brain Freeze, so you exile a chunk of your library without growing the graveyard. Does that ever get to a point where Bolt is unusable? Have you just gotten lucky that you never needed Bolt when you did Vision Charm lines?

I love this Teferi's Realm tech that's showing up lately. Were you ever in a position to go off by naming lands? (e.g. land in hand + Petal)

What happened to Dystopia? Not good enough with Serenity and Realm available?

No more Pyroblast?

Yeah, I've done it once. Artifacts I've done a few times.

Dystopia was too slow and hard on the mana. I run two Seas because I don't like leaving my Bobs stranded, in addition to being able to hardcast Leyline. I shaved Pyroblast out for now. Dystopia, while good, was just really what I wanted Serenity to be. Sure, it hits creatures like Ouphe and Thalia. That's why I'm heavier on Bolts.

Don't forget: Vision Charm is also like a Chant effect, too. In their upkeep, you just change one type of land to another. I've honestly gone off several times with Vision Charm and LED.

[Michael Keller]

I don’t like floating air on top of my deck - I want the business.

[Lemon]

I ran this mess at the proxy weekly last night to go 3-1. Overall it felt kind of clunky, but I think with a few changes it could become a playable build. Lots of people were very confused, which I think helped me out quite a bit.

4 Arclight Phoenix
3 Delver of Secrets
3 Young Pyromancer
2 Brazen Borrower
4 Manamorphose
4 Lightning Bolt
2 Brain Freeze
2 Lotus Petal
2 Underworld Breach
3 Force of Will
3 Daze
4 Accumulated Knowledge
4 Brainstorm
4 Faithless Looting
4 Prismatic Vista
3 Scalding Tarn
3 Volcanic Island
4 Island
2 Mountain


SB
3 Gut Shot
1 Force of Will
1 Search for Azcanta
2 Blue Elemental Blast
2 Red Elemental Blast
2 Surgical Extraction
2 Blood Moon
1 Abrade
1 Shenanigans


Round 1: UR Delver 2-0
Game 1 I drew all 3 Young Pyromancers and proceeded to beat him to death with a million little fire guys.
Game 2 We both drew more removal than the threats and I wiffed big on both my brain freezes on searching for Phoenixes. I topdecked a manamorphose that drew me into a brainstorm that found me a phoenix and a breach. I jammed the breach and proceeded to escape bolt 4 times for the win.

Round 2: Snoko 2-1
Dropped a game by not drawing a second land game 2. This list really need at least 2 more lands in it. Otherwise I had all the time in the world to kill him.

Round 3: Turbo Depths 0-2
I didn't prepare for this matchup at all and got killed turn 3 by a flying 20/20. I made questionable sideboarding and got killed turn 2 the next game.

Round 4: UR Delver 2-0
He also had no idea what was going on (somehow word hadn't gotten around to him) and was very surprised by both the phoenixes and the value breach.

[Cire]

Michael Keller: I love Vision Charm tech! I am wondering, for afar it looks like you run too little lands (14 and only 3 petals) but obviously you had some great results. Kinda just wondering how you get away with it

[Ronald Deuce]

3 Vision Charm

I . . . didn't know that card existed.

I like it.

@ Cyre and FTW re: my earlier point about Force, yes, blue count is a big part of it, but I think that issue is magnified when a) we have a three-card combo (vs. 2 for something like Show and Tell) and b) we don't have a lot of stuff in the deck to pitch because we have to find all three cards somehow. I'm still testing and tinkering heavily, but that's largely where I was coming from.

[Whitefaces]

Not only did they finish 1st, 2nd and 5th, but all three finished the Swiss at 7-1!

The only other deck to match or beat that record was the 3rd place Moon Stompy list (8-0 in Swiss, lost 1-2 in the Semis to the 1st place guy). Moon Stompy is the heavy favorite (Chalice, 3sphere, Leyline, 7 Moons, Karn, plus bullets like Crypt and Spyglass) so that loss in 3 is just variance.



It's the Togores build that AnziD has been streaming every day for the last 2 weeks and played at the Dice City Games Open.

I would chalk that up to the popularity of AnziD's stream. He streams Breach daily and has converted a lot of the regular online players to that build, +/- a few small differences. They've also had a lot of time to analyze and discuss SB strategy for different matchups for that specific list, through the stream, and written up a SB strategy guide that players can load up during online tournaments. Because of that, it's a low-cost-of-entry build for other MTGO players to pick up, and their gameplay is more finely-tuned than players experimenting with other builds.

Michael Keller's Grixis list looks strong too. There's less streaming and crowdsourcing for analysis/tuning of Grixis and 4C builds, but they may be as or more viable.

@ those who don't like FoW and prefer Veil to Silence:
Keep in mind AnziD's a long-time Miracles stalwart who recently tried to brew Scepter-Chant in UW. He pilots Jeskai Breach like a Miracles deck more than a Storm deck and loves casting Orim's Chant. They're basically UW control with a better wincon, and their SB strategy is to turn even more into Miracles (cut LEDs and Brain Freezes, bring in Mentors and StPs/answers) with an "oops I win!" if they draw Breach. That adds some context to his card choices and SB. It isn't the only way to win with Breach, but it fits his UW control-oriented playstyle well, and others are netdecking off him.

I didn't have a lot of reps with the deck before the event so take what I say with a grain of salt (I basically copied Iwouldliketoresponds list and then he changed a couple of things), but I had played against the deck a lot to learn how it works prior.

I don't believe the Stompy matchup is unfavoured as you imagine, I also played and beat it in the swiss. Serenity goes a long way, as does Mentor not to mention threatening a fast combo etc. They need to have their hate cards line up right basically, postboard you are able to ignore Leyline and Chalice on 0 for the most part if you sideboard in a specific way (Mentor focused basically).

Anuraag has definitely influenced a lot of people to build and play it like him, but he is also doing incredibly well with it so I don't know if it's fair to say people are then playing it like that based on playstyle. I was between a couple of decks for the showcase and landed on this because I liked what Predict brings to the deck. It's now combo control, I dislike the more combo focused variants as they're currently built. As you mention it's certainly not the only way to win with breach, more combo focused variants can be incredibly powerful too, but being able to switch between a control role not just between sideboarding but also in game has felt like one of the most powerful angles of the deck.

I didn't have any guide or content loaded up while playing, but you're right that having this ease of access for a majority of online grinders will make them lean towards a list with resources than one without.

The real difference is the ability to do this postboard:
-3 LED
-3 Brain Freeze
+3-4 Mentor
+2 answers

Or:
-2 LED
-2 Brain Freeze
-2 Breach
+ Mentors
+ answers

The Intuition + Sevinne trick lets him tutor the whole combo once the game is under control, which enables a sneaky space-saving trick. Postboard they can board out combo pieces and play like a UW control deck, prioritizing taking control of the game and stopping the opponent's interaction. Once they take control, then they can tutor the whole combo up with 1 card and win. That means they have more interactive cards and fewer "combo" slots, improving draw quality in grindy games and reducing vulnerability to hate.

EOT Intuition: LED, Breach, Sevinne
Your turn: Get Breach into play. LED. Escape Intuition for Brain Freeze, crack LED for UUU in response.

In racing matches, they can opt to keep the whole combo in and board out the slow engine (Intuition, Predict) for more protection. They get to straddle the line between combo and control, adjusting to beat the opponent. It's this flexibility to dodge traditional Breach hate and the strong plan B that's winning them matches.

This is spot on, I'd play a 2nd Intuition when I play the deck again. Being able to board down on combo pieces so heavily gives the deck further pivoting options making it really hard to fight.

[FTW]

Whitefaces, congrats on your win!

Anuraag has definitely influenced a lot of people to build and play it like him, but he is also doing incredibly well with it so I don't know if it's fair to say people are then playing it like that based on playstyle. I was between a couple of decks for the showcase and landed on this because I liked what Predict brings to the deck. It's now combo control, I dislike the more combo focused variants as they're currently built. As you mention it's certainly not the only way to win with breach, more combo focused variants can be incredibly powerful too, but being able to switch between a control role not just between sideboarding but also in game has felt like one of the most powerful angles of the deck.

I didn't mean it as a negative. The build is strong and the control plan is strong. I just mentioned it to add context to the metagame representation of each build. There were 5 Togores builds in the Top 16 (including you and Iwouldliketorespond in the top 2) and 1 RUG build. That doesn't mean that build is 5 times better than the others or the only viable one. The higher number of recent Jeskai Intuition finishes is heavily influenced by Anuraag's stream... because of his stream there are a lot more people playing that build. He took Togores' list, which he liked because of the control aspect, kept all the initial cards and SB guide, and grinded >100 games with it, generating a lot of tuning and discussion for it. I doubt any of the other brews has seen that much development, and most of that credit goes to Anuraag for all the hours and passion he's put in dedicatedly grinding with it, and then spreading it to his stream followers.

Anuraag's doing very well with that build, though he also had an 80% win rate with the Jeskai ETutor build before, Jbinder had a bunch of 5-0s with RUG, and Hollywood has a high win rate with his Grixis/URbw build. The overall combo is very powerful and any kind of ability to switch roles or generate card advantage gives it a big boost.

I don't believe the Stompy matchup is unfavoured as you imagine, I also played and beat it in the swiss. Serenity goes a long way, as does Mentor not to mention threatening a fast combo etc. They need to have their hate cards line up right basically, postboard you are able to ignore Leyline and Chalice on 0 for the most part if you sideboard in a specific way (Mentor focused basically).

For me, the scariest card in this matchup is Karn, the Great Creator. The static ability shuts off Petal and LED, stopping the combo and also stalling mana. The minus ability gets hate cards like Tormod's Crypt or just wins the game with Lattice. Jeskai Breach has very few ways to answer a resolved Karn... basically bounce or attack with Mentor.

With that in mind, where I find Chalice/Sphere/Moons/Leyline a problem is that they slow you down or force you to answer them, delaying you or draining resources enough for them to stick a Karn. You can eventually clear the hate with Serenity or beatdown with Mentor, given a lot of time, but Karn is what puts us on a clock.

Aside from Karn, Serenity is MVP in this matchup, but I also found it easier with the ETutor build where I could reliably find Serenity each game. With the Intuition build, aren't you more at the mercy of topdecks and lucky cantrips?

Did you face any Karns in your games against Stompy? What did you do in those games?

[Michael Keller]

The big question is: Will this deck even survive past the 9th?

[FTW]

The big question is: Will this deck even survive past the 9th?

What are you talking about? Underworld Breach is a weak card.

Time to delete half the primer... See barely any top 8s!

Edit: Anyone want to take bets that at least one of the cards in Atog Lord's 12th place RUG list will get banned?


//Planeswalker (2)
2 Oko, Thief of Crowns

//Creature (5)
3 Ice-Fang Coatl
2 Uro, Titan of Nature's Wrath

//Sorcery (4)
4 Ponder

//Instant (18)
4 Force of Will
4 Brainstorm
3 Veil of Summer
2 Thought Scour
1 Lightning Bolt
4 Brain Freeze

//Artifact (10)
4 Lotus Petal
3 Lion's Eye Diamond
3 Arcum's Astrolabe

//Enchantment (4)
4 Underworld Breach

//Land (17)
4 Misty Rainforest
4 Scalding Tarn
2 Prismatic Vista
2 Snow-Covered Forest
2 Snow-Covered Island
1 Snow-Covered Mountain
1 Tropical Island
1 Volcanic Island


Fair cards.dec

[Whitefaces]

Whitefaces, congrats on your win!

Thanks!

I didn't mean it as a negative. The build is strong and the control plan is strong. I just mentioned it to add context to the metagame representation of each build. There were 5 Togores builds in the Top 16 (including you and Iwouldliketorespond in the top 2) and 1 RUG build. That doesn't mean that build is 5 times better than the others or the only viable one. The higher number of recent Jeskai Intuition finishes is heavily influenced by Anuraag's stream... because of his stream there are a lot more people playing that build. He took Togores' list, which he liked because of the control aspect, kept all the initial cards and SB guide, and grinded >100 games with it, generating a lot of tuning and discussion for it. I doubt any of the other brews has seen that much development, and most of that credit goes to Anuraag for all the hours and passion he's put in dedicatedly grinding with it, and then spreading it to his stream followers.

Anuraag's doing very well with that build, though he also had an 80% win rate with the Jeskai ETutor build before, Jbinder had a bunch of 5-0s with RUG, and Hollywood has a high win rate with his Grixis/URbw build. The overall combo is very powerful and any kind of ability to switch roles or generate card advantage gives it a big boost.

My bad, I didn’t read your tone as negative at all, it was just laying things out with more context. Reading it back what I said came across more scathing than I intended!

You’re totally right about Anuraag influencing what people play. I will say though that now the deck is (arguably) the deck to beat and has a huge target on its head I think the controlling variants will do better than combo focussed, whereas the latter would have been better when the archetype was new. I felt like my opponents on Sunday were pretty prepared for the matchup, I faced Chalice decks six times too as well as many Leylines, Trinispheres, you name it. But I was able to remove and grind through them all largely on the back of Predict and being able to side out a lot of the combo into Mentor control. This is just theory though, I could be wrong as my sample size with the deck is still pretty small.

For me, the scariest card in this matchup is Karn, the Great Creator. The static ability shuts off Petal and LED, stopping the combo and also stalling mana. The minus ability gets hate cards like Tormod's Crypt or just wins the game with Lattice. Jeskai Breach has very few ways to answer a resolved Karn... basically bounce or attack with Mentor.

With that in mind, where I find Chalice/Sphere/Moons/Leyline a problem is that they slow you down or force you to answer them, delaying you or draining resources enough for them to stick a Karn. You can eventually clear the hate with Serenity or beatdown with Mentor, given a lot of time, but Karn is what puts us on a clock.

Aside from Karn, Serenity is MVP in this matchup, but I also found it easier with the ETutor build where I could reliably find Serenity each game. With the Intuition build, aren't you more at the mercy of topdecks and lucky cantrips?

Did you face any Karns in your games against Stompy? What did you do in those games?

Karn is terrifying indeed, probably the best card vs Breach. Vs Stompy you kind of have to hope you have a Force of Will lined up for it if they draw it G1, I was rarely forcing other lock pieces unless it was a T1 play that shut off all my cantrips to find removal or something. Post board Leyline, Chalice on 0 and sometimes Blood Moon are just annoyances and things that get swept up in a Serenity later. I had two Karns played vs me in the Challenge, one was Forced and one won a game (though it was tight, I had a Mentor but they had Winter Orb and Trinisphere which slowed me down enough to keep it around until they drew a Chandra to kill Mentor).

Marcus (Iwouldliketorespond) added a Brazen Borrower to his sb over the third Wear//Tear which could be decent, he said it was a nod to Karn. A friend is currently also playing a md Chain of Vapor which I can get behind.

[Ronald Deuce]

They blew it all up.

https://magic.wizards.com/en/article...announcement?j

[Lemon]

Welp, it was fun while it lasted folks. Underworld Breach just got banned in the 9 March 2020 announcement, just 46 days after it was released. Special thanks to all the folks who helped make this deck as awesome as it is.

[Cire]

Glad to have been a part of this. Amazing effort on everybody involved.

[Ronald Deuce]

Yeah, thank you to everyone who put the reps in and built the primer, the tips, the archetypes, everything. This was my first attempt at actually brewing something new, and I only wish we'd had the chance to kick it around more. The times, they are a'changin'.

[Cire]

Really wish they banned LED instead and maybe then we could brew with Breach more, but definitely the more surgical strike.

[Fox]

Really wish they banned LED instead and maybe then we could brew with Breach more, but definitely the more surgical strike.

Of the 4 ways to play legacy (Fetchlands vs Cavern/Vial vs Sol Land/Chalice vs Loam/Mox, blending acceptable), LED creates diversity. It is played both by Fetchlands and Sol Land and does not create a strictly better underlying (i.e. mana engine) way to play the game.

Breach was always the right target - just like Oath, you can get stomped out of a game and reverse everything from hellbent by topdecking just one card. The only positive thing about cards like Oath, Breach/Yawg. Will, etc is that they one of the only ways to dumpster people hiding behind PWs and ETB-value scum.

[Cire]

Of the 4 ways to play legacy (Fetchlands vs Cavern/Vial vs Sol Land/Chalice vs Loam/Mox, blending acceptable), LED creates diversity. It is played both by Fetchlands and Sol Land and does not create a strictly better underlying (i.e. mana engine) way to play the game.

Breach was always the right target - just like Oath, you can get stomped out of a game and reverse everything from hellbent by topdecking just one card. The only positive thing about cards like Oath, Breach/Yawg. Will, etc is that they one of the only ways to dumpster people hiding behind PWs and ETB-value scum.

It was the definitely the right target if you wanted to kill this combo - just wish they banned the other card instead because I still wanted to play with Breach in Legacy