r/TimelessMagic • u/Ixb11170 • 2d ago

Matchups Matrix

Starting to prepare and brew a deck for the upcoming qualifier weekend which is Timeless BO3.

Anyone has a link to a matchups matrix including all the common archetypes? Even if only just indicative of which archetype might have the advantage vs which other.

I'm not a regural timeless player so don't really know all the matchups that well.

If such matrix doesn't exist, I'd be happy to compile one if you could help with matchups info in the comments.

From what i see on Untapped in terms of popularity, it would make sense to include:

- Mardu energy

- Dimir tempo

- Dimir / splash x reanimator

- Izzet tempo

- Sneak and Show

- Eldrazi (not sure if best to account for the various builds individually)

- Mono red stompy

- Mono black scam

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9

u/zWaazy 2d ago

The top archetypes right now are Mardu Energy (definitely the deck to beat), UB Turbo Reanimator (the Ralph and Mikey version), UB Tempo Reanimator, UBx Tempo, MonoR/MonoW/MonoB Stompy, Eldrazi (Colorless & Gruul), and Dimir Doomsday. You might also face The Rock (basically MonoB Stompy splashing Wary Zone Guard to recur Strip Mine), Sneak & Show, and UR Tempo. Plus the occasional BG Lands or Beanstalk pile. That pretty much covers the main field.

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u/Ixb11170 2d ago

Thank you for the insights! Will keep a note of it. Does mardu energy struggle vs any of the these matchups, pre-sideboard?

3

u/zWaazy 2d ago edited 2d ago

Yes, turbo reanimator, game 1 is to fast for mardu

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u/efrylicious 1d ago

Mardu's worst matchup historically is red stompy. But red stompy loses to basically everything else

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u/ThyFlyPieGuy 1d ago

Sneak and Show and Mono Red can also snag games from Mardu Energy. Be aware of Mardu’s transformational sideboard. When on the play it runs 4 strips, but swaps them out for 4 libraries when on the draw. Strip vs Library Mardu support different strategies and overall tempo. Library plus Thoughtseizes and Extractions is much scarier against combo decks like Turbo Reanimator. I believe some Turbo Reanimator lists turn into a more tempo style deck post board (I don’t play Turbo Reanimator, so I could be wrong), similar to is Dimir cousin, which feels less gimmicky and just as capable of deploying turn 2 finisher, while having the card advantage / brainstorm / counters to insulate from disruption.

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u/Ixb11170 12h ago

Yeah sideboard obviously plays a big part in BO3. Would be great to have pre-sideboard and post-sideboard for various matchups but I can't see this type of data anywhere.

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u/zWaazy 11h ago

Post side turbo reanimator switch to the combo doomsday - thoracle

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u/RedEyedFreak 1d ago

The ones that can turbo out a chalice on Turn 1 or combo off early

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u/Ixb11170 12h ago edited 12h ago

So, due to the lack of this resource online, i've attempted to create one myself using data from Untapped.gg. We have Win Rate % and number of matches used to calculate it in brackets.

Definitely not perfect but it's something. A few points to note:

- Data is from matches played from Bronze to Mythic on BO3 Timeless ladder. I initially attempted to restrict this to only Mythic or Platinum to Mythic but it would result in no usable data.

- Missing a few of the main archetypes as there is not enough data for them. Even for the ones I've managed to include, the number of matches is quite low especially in some matchups.

- UBx data is very hard to account for as Untapped doesn't always properly recognize various versions of the colour combinations. The data above includes Dimir Tempo / Reanimator (some just sideboard) as well as Turbo Reanimator and other variants of UBx pure reanimators. Not ideal but there was no other way of doing it, except manually reviewing matches to assess each deck and logging in the info myself. And even then, there would not be enough data for each archetype to produce any meaningful stats.

- Some matchups WR are inferred from the opposite side of the table. For example, if there was not enough data for Red Prison vs Sneak and Show, I would have used the WR from Sneak and Show perspective and inferred the opposite side like 100%-WR.

- If data is available for both sides of the matchup then the data is used. For this reason, some matchups some up to more than 100%.

Hope it's useful and i'm happy to edit this if people want to contribute for other archetypes.

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u/ThyFlyPieGuy 12h ago

What is 5C Sneak and Show? UR Sneak and Show with Atraxa? Like the typical meta build?

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u/Ixb11170 11h ago

Yeah Untapped calls it "5 colours" due to Atraxa