The idea of the deck is to lock the opponent out early and win through the planeswalkers. Chandra gets around leyline of sanctity and alot of the protection matches. Koth can win games quickly as well. The outpost siege is to help with card advantage. The idea of the boom//bust and ghost quarters is to stop the opponent from using basics. They are also handy for things like inkmoth nexus and other man lands. Ensnaring bridge is a key lock card. It may be easy to remove but to help with that we have chalice of the void. This stops the one mana one color removal. Abrupt decay is hard to cast when you don't have the colors for it.
Jund can be a toss up round one, but it is a good match usually. After sideboard we have many ways to slow them down and not allow them to progress their game plan through ratchet bomb, spellskite, dismember, and pithing needle. Liliana of the Veil can be a problem and so can early discard and abrupt decay if we can't moon them.
Burn is virtually unwinnable game one unless we get chalice out turn 1 and then can get a chalice on 2 to lock them out completely. After sideboard we get four dragon's claw to stem the bleeding and an additional spellskite to help with destructive revelry.
Infect can be won fairly easily with bridge and chalice. After sideboarding we go up a skite and 4 ratchet bombs and 3 dismembers. That is pretty unwinnable for them.
Tron is usually easy. We beat them with boom // bust and blood moon and ghost quarter. They can't cast spells and chalice on 1 and 2 makes it so they can't filter through much of their deck.
Bant Eldrazi is usually a pretty good match up we board in ratchet bombs here with dismembers and they can't do much against that. It's bad if they get rid of our ensnaring bridge or blood moon though. Hopefully we can lock them out quickly. Chalice is horrible in that matchup.
Chalice helps with our bad matches. Lantern is a hard fought battle. We need to chalice them early for 1 and hope they don't get to abrupt decay/pithing needle us before our planeswalkers take over. The faster we walker them the better.
Control is usually a pretty good matchup. If the opponent has nicol bolas for some reason that can be problematic but hopefully he never gets to the mana to cast that with blood moon and boom // bust in our deck. We don't really have a sideboard plan for them outside of an additional spellskite and maybe the cages if we want to shut off flashback abilities.
Dredge has alot of hate for our cages after sideboard, but if we can get cage down for their grudges and a chalice on 1, 2 with a bridge its pretty good, plus we have a couple angers to keep things slow. I feel this is still a bad match since they are very fast. We can only win if we find a bridge quickly in most cases as they go through their deck and play too many creatures to quickly. Chalice on 1 can make things awkward for them because they have to discard to get to dredge if we are on the play game 1. Outside of that chalice is horrible side it out bring in spellskite, the cages and a ratchet bomb. Boom // bust is also awful I would bring in the ratchet bombs. Blood moon is bad too, but I feel the dismembers are worse along with the other cards. Dragons claw could be a debateable slot here for the life gain. They do play many colors so shutting them off black/green/blue could be relevant. I think they are better than worse for the match.
Affinity is pretty good. Ratchet Bomb is all I would really bring in for this match. If they hit their ghirappur aether grid that can be problematic, but other than that it should be a good matchup. A thing to be weary of is their 0 power creatures with bridge out. Ravager synergy can lead to some big attacks. Anger is important or ratchet bomb to get rid of these creatures. Boom // bust is also good for their man lands.
Merfolk is usually a good matchup. My only worry is hurkyls recall. A chalice on 2 can solve that, but chalice is usually pretty bad in this matchup. It counters curse catcher and aethervial. Both are highly relevant cards. I think for recall it is worth keeping the chalices in and siding out spellskites 2 boom // bust.
In general Nahiri is a good answer to our Blood Moon. Try to pithing needle this card if possible.
Outside of that Melira company is a bad match game one for life gain as we prolly will deck ourselves against them before they do even if we get them locked out of the game. Prevent them from comboing at all costs. Bring in dismember, cage, ratchet bomb. They don't have many answers, but they will bring in rec sage so having an extra spell skite might also be good. Win cons are not as relevant in this matchup as you can eventually get it to it. I would cut a koth. Trying to keep them off melira/viserous seer with chalice can be good and having a ratchet bomb on 1 can be a good answer. Try to have a bridge out as they can beat u with dorks or a noble hierarch beatdown plan.
All matches can go well. We have game against every deck in the format I believe. We just need to have the right hate in our hand. Game ones can be hard since we won't know what type of match we are against. That is the only bad thing about this deck and we can't gain information easily. Gitaxian probe for filtering/information was a thought, but the life loss is relevant + we usually chalice on 1. There aren't any slots to really cut. If you play this deck don't always expect to win game 1 if you have some lock cards.
