Catalogue
Combo
Cascade Rhinos
Temur | 60-40
Here I’ll reiterate that the Kirin combo destroys any permanent with a cmc of 0, which includes Rhino tokens. On top of that, multiple copies of Thalia and Ranger-Captain make it difficult for them to even resolve a Crashing Footfalls. That being said, Temur Rhinos usually plays a full playset of Fury, and some play Subtlety as well; a timely Subtlety can give them the turn they need to tempo us out of the game. So, while our main plan is great at stopping their main plan, their support cards are just as good at stopping us.
Post-board, Lavinia is a beast. While she dies to Bonecrusher Giant and Dead // Gone, she prevents all of their Fury/Subtlety shenanigans, which are their main source of counterplay against us. Most of the time you should play Prelate on two to keep them off of Stomp and Petty Theft; you don’t care so much about them resolving a Footfalls since the combo can take care of the tokens, and Prelate on two with Lavinia in play is almost a hard lock.
In: 2 Burrenton Forge-Tender, 3 Lavinia, Azorius Renegade, 1 Sanctum Prelate, 2 Brutal Cathar
Out: 1 Oust, 1 Prismatic Ending, 4 Skyclave Apparition, 2 Solitude
Recs: Drannith Magistrate, Burrenton Forge-Tender
4c Yorion | 55-45
The four-color variants play Solitude, Teferi, Time Raveler, and Omnath, Locus of Creation. Post-board, I think it’s best to keep a copy of Skyclave in as an extra answer for Omnath and Teferi. Otherwise, the matchup is mostly the same. (Watch out for Qasali Ambusher!)
In: 1 Burrenton Forge-Tender 3 Lavinia, Azorius Renegade, 1 Sanctum Prelate, 2 Brutal Cathar
Out: 1 Oust, 1 Prismatic Ending, 3 Skyclave Apparition, 2 Solitude
Recs: Drannith Magistrate
Living End
| 60-40
Living End has less disruption than Rhinos, but is much more polarizing in both its reliance on the graveyard and the power of its combo; you either draw your hate cards and win easily or lose immediately, with very little in-between.
The new iterations of Living End are fast enough to get under Thalia, Guardian of Thraben and Ranger-Captain of Eos and can disrupt our combo with Grief and Subtlety; that said, a combination of Prelate, Lavinia, and Rest in Peace out of the sideboard gives us very good chances in spite of their speed.
In: 3 Rest in Peace, 3 Lavinia, Azorius Renegade, 1 Sanctum Prelate
Out: 1 Oust, 1 Prismatic Ending, 4 Skyclave Apparition, 1 Solitude
Recs: Drannith Magistrate
Charbelcher
| 65-35
Kirin Combo is probably one of Goblin Charbelcher’s worst matchups. The combination of tax spells and Armageddon makes it very hard for them to win past turn three, so they need a really fast hand to get underneath us. Opposing sideboard cards you should be cautious of are Blood Moon/Magus of the Moon and Fury. You can bring in Sanctifier en-Vec for their Pyromancer Ascension backup plan, but I don’t think it’s totally necessary since Ranger-Captain of Eos can delay them long enough for you to combo.
In: 1 Burrenton Forge-Tender 3 Lavinia, Azorius Renegade, 2 Phyrexian Revoker, 1 Sanctum Prelate
Out: 4 Aether Vial, 1 Oust, 1 Prismatic Ending, 2 Solitude
Recs: Mana Tithe
Hammertime
| 60-40
I deem this a favored matchup for Kirin because you get all the benefits of being a midrange deck with copious amounts of removal without the usual downside of being vulnerable to their Urza’s Saga backup plan; when Hammertime loses its late-game grind potential, it becomes much easier to beat. That said, an early Colossus Hammer can still run you over if you don’t draw the relevant removal, so you should be prepared.
Our plan is focused on answering enablers rather than killing the creatures that the Hammers are equipping to—if we answer the first couple enablers and cast the combo in a timely fashion, the game is usually won. BW Hammer has a slightly better matchup against us than W, RW, or UW variants because they play Thoughtseize.
In: 2 Phyrexian Revoker, 1 Prismatic Ending, 1 Knight of Autumn, 1 Brutal Cathar, 0-1 Sanctum Prelate
Out: 2-3 Giver of Runes, 3 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
Recs: Prismatic Ending, Solitude, Path to Exile
Yawgmoth
| 40-60
GB Yawgmoth is a troublesome matchup because they play a lot of mana dorks, have a solid beatdown plan, and are able to nuke our creatures with Yawgmoth, Thran Physician. The good news is that their combo kill is hit by Rest in Peace and Phyrexian Revoker in our sideboard, and all of our removal is exile-based (except Oust, though it’s kind of the same).
Post-board, the cards you need to worry about are Thoughtseize, Necromentia, and sometimes Magus of the Moon. I recommend boarding out some number of Aether Vial since the game is likely to go long and you don’t want too many bad topdecks. I highly recommend playing two Mirran Crusader if you expect to play against this deck; it stonewalls all of their creatures and removal. Veil of Summer is great at countering their hand/combo hate spells.
In: 1 Prismatic Ending, 3 Rest in Peace, 2 Phyrexian Revoker, 2 Brutal Cathar
Out: 4 Aether Vial, 4 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
Recs: Mirran Crusader, Veil of Summer, Prismatic Ending, Gaddock Teeg (they may board out Chord of Calling)
Alternatively, you could board out most of the Kirin combo to try and juke their Necromentias. (I haven’t tested this, use at own risk!)
In: 1 Prismatic Ending, 3 Rest in Peace, 2 Phyrexian Revoker, 2 Brutal Cathar
Out: 3 Celestial Kirin, 3 Ugin’s Conjurant, 4 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
Heliod
| 40-60
Kirin doesn’t have a way to beat infinite life, so we can’t let Spike Feeder and Heliod, Sun-Crowned exist on the battlefield at the same time. Instant-speed removal is your friend; this matchup is the reason to play Path to Exile over Oust. More Solitude is good, too.
If you can, target their ramp spells to slow them down in the early turns. In the event that they go for the beatdown plan with Heliod + Auriok Champion and Conclave Mentor, remember to protect your double-blocking creatures with Giver of Runes after they declare blocking order; you don’t have to guess which one they’ll put first. Also keep in mind that combat damage is assigned to the protected creature until it reaches that creature’s toughness, then carries over to the next creature like normal. So if you blocked a 4/4 creature with a Thalia, Guardian of Thraben and Celestial Kirin and you protected the Kirin after your opponent put it first in line, the Thalia would still die.
Post-board, bring in Phyrexian Revoker for Feeder, Heliod, Walking Ballista, and Arbor Elf as well as Sanctum Prelate for Collected Company. Prelate is very important here; a lot of Heliod’s explosive power comes from its ability to CoCo into the infinite life combo on its opponent’s end step. By taking CoCo out of the equation, we force them to play out their combo pieces one-by-one, making it far easier to answer them with sorcery-speed removal.
In: 1 Prismatic Ending, 2 Phyrexian Revoker, 1 Sanctum Prelate, 1 Brutal Cathar
Out: 4 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben, 1 Ranger-Captain of Eos
Recs: Path to Exile, Solitude, Prismatic Ending, Leonin Relic-Warder
Next: Control
