Red/White Kithkin Vs. Five Color Control (MTG Matchup Analysis)
March 22, 2009 | Posted by Dee
I really want to qualify for Pro Tour (PT) Austin so I’m doing some playtesting in the Magic The Gathering Standard format. Austin is only an hour from my place so it would be awesome to get a Pro Tour invite. The Pro Tour Qualifiers (PTQs) for PT Austin start in about six weeks so now is a good time to figure out good decklists to play.
I played a couple games with two Standard decklists that got top eight in the last Pro Tour. The first list is Red/White Kithkin (aka Vengeant Weenie) and the second list is Five Color Cruel Control.
| Red/White Kithkin, 5th place by Cedric Phillips | |||||||||||
Creatures (24)
Spells (11) Lands (25) | Sideboard (15) |
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| 5 Color Cruel Control, 1st place by Gabriel Nassif | |||||||||||
Creatures (13) Spells (21) | Lands (27)
Sideboard (15) |
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To get the background on these two decklists, check out these links. All the links point to premium content on Starcitygames, but I recommended buying the premium membership. It’s only $2.50/month if you buy a whole year in advance.
Red/White Kithkin
Cedric Phillips’ Tournament Report
Five Color Cruel Control
Gabriel Nassif’s Tournament Report
Patrick Chapin’s Card Analysis
Chapin helped build the decklist. In this article, he talks about the different roles each card plays.
Olivier Ruel’s Tournament Report
Manuel Bucher’s Tournament Report
Ruel and Bucher played similar lists. Their reports include sideboarding plans.
Six Games Pre-Sideboard
I ran six games with the sideboard and six games without the sideboard. Each deck got an equal chance to play first. In the first three games of each six game set, the aggro decklist went first. In last three games, the control build went first.
Game 1
An early Wizened Cenn and Glorious Anthem made Volcanic Fallout ineffective. Broken Ambitions was pretty bad on the draw. It couldn’t counter Figure of Destiny.
Cruel Control tried to come back with Wall of Reverence but Path to Exile foiled that plan. Then, Ajani Vengeant came down to seal the game.
Game count: Red/White Kithkin 1-0
Game 2
Blue player had to mulligan to five. Red/White Kithkin had Figure of Destiny on turn one and made it a 4/4 on turn three before Volcanic Fallout could come online.
Wall of Reverence tried to stop the beats but the White player countered with Ajani Vengeant. Ajani locked up Cruel Control’s mana, Path to Exile dealt with Wall of Reverence, and Glorious Anthem made Figure a 5/5.
Figure of Destiny attacked Cruel Control down to two life and Ajani finished him off.
Game count: Red/White Kithkin 2-0
Game 3
Two early Wizened Cenn provided Kithkin with a fast start. Cruel Control had the Wall of Reverence but yet again, Path to Exile sent the wall packing.
A Broodmate Dragon provide some defense but Kithkin had another Path to Exile end of turn (EOT) to deal with the multicolored 4/4 dragon.
With the control player tapped out, the aggro player played Cloudgoat Ranger. At five life and with no Cruel Ultimatum or Cryptic Command in hand, Cruel Control is forced to concede.
Game count: Red/White Kithkin 3-0
Game 4
Kithkin made the first play, Spectral Procession. Cruel Control killed the tokens EOT to stop Kithkin from using Windbrisk Heights.
Kithkin came back with Glorious Anthem and Cloudgoat Ranger while Cruel Control only had Plumeveil. Cruel Control played Broodmate Dragon but Kithkin had two Path to Exile.
Kithkin had enough creatures to activate Windbrisk Heights. Ajani Vengeant showed up from the powerful land and finished off the last dragon. Cruel Control had Cruel Ultimatum but it didn’t matter. Kithkin had too many creatures, an active Ajani Vengeant, and a Wizened Cenn under the second Windbrisk Heights for the win.
Game count: Red/White Kithkin 4-0
Game 5
This game started off with Spectral Procession from Kithkin and Mulldrifter from Cruel Control. Then, the control player tried Wall of Reverence but yet again, the aggro player had Path to Exile.
The Spectral Procession helped bring out Ajani Vengeant from Windbrisk Heights and it was all downhill from there for Cruel Control. Ajani slowed down the control player and the aggro player was able to play Wizened Cenn, Cloudgoat Ranger, and Glorious Anthem. These cards plus Ajani and Spectral Procession were able to overcome double Broodmate Dragon.
Game count: Red/White Kithkin 5-0
Game 6
Kithkin had a turn one Goldmeadow Stalwart and a turn two Knight of the Meadowgrain. However, Cruel Control had the critical turn two Broken Ambitions.
Next, Kithkin tried Ajani Vengeant and Cloudgoat Ranger but Cruel Control had two Cryptic Commands. Kithkin ran out of gas and soon Broodmate Dragon and Cruel Ultimatum took over the game.
Game count: Red/White Kithkin 5-1
Six Games Post-Sideboard
Based on Cedric’s report, I knew he played Elspeth and Reveillark so here’s how I sideboarded for Red/White Kithkin.
-1 Spectral Procession
-2 Knight of Meadowgrain
-4 Goldmeadow Stalwart
+3 Elspeth
+4 Reveillark
For Five Color Cruel Control, I examined Olivier and Manuel’s sideboarding plans since Gabriel didn’t give his plans. Olivier and Manuel had different plans, so I combined them to come up with this:
Play
+2 Infest
+2 Wrath of God
-3 Broken Ambitions
-1 Mulldrifter
Draw
+2 Infest
+2 Wrath of God
-4 Broken Ambitions
Game 7
Kithkin had a fast start but Five Color Control had two Wraths. Kithkin was able to make an 8/8 Figure of Destiny before Five Color got Pithing Needle on the board. Still, Five Color had enough chump blockers to stay alive while gaining life with Wall of Reverence.
Then, Five Color found Cruel Ultimatum to destroy Kithkin’s hand and board except for the 8/8 Figure. Five Color drew into Terror to kill the 8/8 and also brought back Broodmate Dragon. Two 4/4 dragons came over for the win.
Game count: Red/White Kithkin 5-2
Game 8
Kithkin had a good start with a 4/4 Figure of Destiny and then Ajani Vengeant. Five Color had Wrath for Figure. Ajani almost got to use his ultimate ability but Five Color had Cryptic Command to bounce him.
Five Color came back with Broodmate Dragon, but Kithkin had two Wizened Cenns and Cloudgoat Ranger. Five Color had to use two Volcanic Fallouts to clear the board since Kithkin had two Windbrisk Heights. This move left Five Color with only Plumeveil and Wall of Reverence in hand.
These two cards were not enough as Kithkin had Glorious Anthem and Cloudgoat Ranger, which set off Elspeth, Knight-Errant and another Cloudgoat Ranger under the two Windbrisk Heights.
Game count: Red/White Kithkin 6-2
Game 9
Kithkin had a fast start with two Wizened Cenns and Figure of Destiny. However, Five Color had Cryptic Command to tap those creatures before the lethal attack. Five Color drew Wrath of God off of Cryptic Command and was able to clear the board.
Then, Five Color had infinite Infests and Volcanic Fallouts to kill Kithkin’s creatures. A Wall of Reverence and Plumeveil showed up to make things worse for the aggro player. Cruel Ultimatum sealed the deal.
Game count: Red/White Kithkin 6-3
Game 10
Kithkin had to mulligan to five and missed its third land drop. Five Color added to insult by bouncing Windbrisk Heights. Then, two Broodmate Dragons showed up. Kithkin was mana screwed and did not have Path to Exile, so Five Color won pretty easily.
Game count: Red/White Kithkin 6-4
Game 11
Kithkin used Path to Exile on Wall of Reverence. This allowed Five Color to play a turn five Broodmate Dragon. Five Color also had another Broodmate Dragon on turn six. The four 4/4 dragons and turn eight Wall of Reverence proved to be too much.
Kithkin only had three Spirit tokens and one Reveillark for flying blockers. Figure of Destiny showed up but Kithkin never got to six mana to make it a flyer.
Game count: Red/White Kithkin 6-5
Game 12
This was an interesting game. Five Color seemed to have the game in hand after clearing the board with board sweepers and then playing Plumeveil and two Broodmate Dragons. However, Kithkin got an 8/8 Figure of Destiny and a couple Reveillarks on the board. Kithkin had the advantage but Five Color topdecked Esper Charm and drew into Cryptic Command to tap Kithkin’s guys for the win.
Game count: Red/White Kithkin 6-6
After the 6 games, this seems like a better sideboarding plan for Red/White Kithkin.
-1 Goldmeadow Stalwart
-2 Cloudgoat Ranger
-4 Spectral Procession
+3 Elspeth
+4 Reveillark
Spectral Procession is not very good when Five Color boards two Infest and two Wrath of God. Cloudgoat Ranger is good but you don’t want too many expensive spells since you’re already bringing in four Reveillark.
Conclusion
Here are the results broken down into pre-sideboard/post-sideboard and play/draw.
Pre SB
RW Kithkin (play)
RW Kithkin Win
RW Kithkin Win
RW Kithkin Win
Five Color (play)
RW Kithkin Win
RW Kithkin Win
Five Color Win
Post SB
RW Kithkin (play)
Five Color Win
RW Kithkin Win
Five Color Win
Five Color (play)
Five Color Win
Five Color Win
Five Color Win
For Kithkin, Path to Exile was surprisingly strong. The drawback was often not a factor. Kithkin would be able to deal a ton of damage by removing Five Color’s blocker. This would leave Five Color at low enough life for Kithkin to attack with everyone on the next turn for the win.
Glorious Anthem and multiple Wizened Cenn helped a lot to stop Volcanic Fallout.
Ajani Vengeant is strong too. It disrupts Five Color’s mana and Five Color doesn’t have many ways to deal with planeswalkers.
For Five Color, game one on the draw is really tough. Broken Ambitions is pretty bad since Kithkin has too many cheap creatures and Volcanic Fallout is often too late if they get a turn two Wizened Cenn or a turn three Glorious Anthem. It’s important to use Esper Charm on Glorious Anthem.
The walls (Wall of Reverence and Plumeveil) are not that great because of Path to Exile. Also, Kithkin has enough creature pump to make its guys as big as Plumeveil.
Game two is much better for Five Color since it brings in four Wraths.
This match up feels like 50/50. Kithkin has the edge in game one, but Five Color has more powerful sideboard cards. Also, winning the coin flip seems to help a lot.
6 Responses to “Red/White Kithkin Vs. Five Color Control (MTG Matchup Analysis)”
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You probably shouldn’t sideboard so badly…then kithkin would win ALOT more post board. Meadowgrain is useless against 5c b/c the lifegain is completely irrelevant, so that should always be your first cut. Also, spectral procession is the best card in your deck and should never, ever, be boarded out. I would concede before boarding out spectrals. Also, in 5cc, you probably want to side out 2 of your walls instead of broken ambitions (thats what gab does) bc your wraths kill your walls and broken can stop cloudgoat, ajani, ranger, elspeth, reveilark, and spectral, the cards that are best against you.
I tried keeping in Spectrals but they die easily to Infest and Fallout while Meadowgrain can stay alive with Glorious Anthem or 2 Cenns.
Also, if you read the post, in the playtest games I only side out one Spectral.
Thx for telling us what Gab does. You know him personally? His sb strategy makes sense.
Spectral Procession is going to be not quite as good when Alara Reborn comes out. There are so many ways to deal with tokens in Alara Reborn.
Actually, in my testing Spectral Procession is still pretty good. What cards are you thinking of in Alara Reborn? Maelstrom Pulse?
Thats why I main deck 3 wraths all the time, and of course I sideboard the anti red. My verion has a rougher time against full on burn red, but the easist time fucking red.green and white aggro decks. As far as I’m concerned Cruise ain’t even worth a damn.
Yeah, I think main deck wraths are a good idea in the current metagame. Do you play walls?