Replenish

General Plan#

Replenish is probably one of the most iconic examples of a near fifty-fifty combo matchup. Both decks can be very fast. hFEB can virtually have a turn two or three kill with Hermit Druid, while Replenish can quickly assemble its graveyard and resolve a single spell that completely flips the game.

The main difficulty of the matchup is that many of Replenish’s combo cards naturally interact with your plan. These aren’t simple sideboard cards or dedicated answers: they’re pieces of their deck that, while advancing their game plan, also disrupt yours.

For example:

• Opalescence turns Survival of the Fittest into a creature, exposing it to Swords to Plowshares;
• Seal of Cleansing can destroy Survival;
• Parallax Wave can exile Hermit Druid or other combo pieces;
• Swords to Plowshares cleanly interacts with every creature;
• Meddling Mage, main or side depending on the list, can shut off a key piece;
• Abeyance can be lethal against Hermit lines.

This is what makes the matchup complicated: Replenish doesn’t necessarily have to deviate from its own plan to interact with you. Many of its best cards are already good against hFEB.

Game 1#

A True Race Matchup#

Game 1 is often a race.

If the opponent doesn’t have an answer to Hermit Druid, you can win very quickly. In many games, Druid is your best way to stay ahead of the Replenish plan, because it forces the opponent to immediately have some form of relevant interaction.

The problem is that Replenish, even in Game 1, has many cards that can answer both of your main plans.

Against Hermit Druid, they can have:

• Swords to Plowshares;
• Parallax Wave;
• Abeyance, if present;
• Meddling Mage, in some versions.

Against Survival of the Fittest, they can have:

• Seal of Cleansing;
• Opalescence + Swords to Plowshares;
• Meddling Mage;
• counters in the lists that run them.

This means that, even in Game 1, the opponent can interact with both the Hermit plan and the Survival plan. That’s where the fifty-fifty feel comes from: a significant portion of games is decided by how well the opponent’s answers line up against your initial plan.

Cabal Therapy and Discard#

Discard spells are fundamental in the matchup. With Cabal Therapy, the most common Game 1 call is often Swords to Plowshares. The reason is that Swords always interacts with Hermit Druid and with Survival lines. On top of that, many lists run more copies of Swords than Seal of Cleansing: statistically Swords is often the most likely and most transversal card.

That said, you shouldn’t always name Swords automatically.

If your hand is slower and the plan goes through Survival of the Fittest, it can be correct to name Seal of Cleansing. This is especially true if you need more turns to use Survival and assemble a line. In that case, Seal is the card that can make you lose time and resources before you manage to convert Survival into a win.

As always, Therapy has to name the card that beats your specific line, not just the strongest card in the abstract.

Abeyance#

Abeyance is one of the most dangerous cards to respect.

The main problem arises in Hermit Druid lines. If you activate Druid in upkeep and the opponent responds with Abeyance, you can no longer cast Krosan Reclamation to put cards back into the library. At that point, you mill the entire library and lose on the draw step.

To be clear, this is a scenario that can happen:

You activate Hermit Druid in upkeep. The opponent casts Abeyance in response. You can no longer cast Krosan Reclamation. The library ends up in the graveyard. You go to the draw step and lose.

For this reason you shouldn’t die to Abeyance unless forced. If the opponent isn’t applying immediate pressure and you aren’t required to force a risky Hermit line, it can be correct to wait, use discard, or look for a different plan. Always keep an eye on how your opponent is tapping his mana.

The presence of Abeyance varies a lot by list. Some versions run three main deck, others two in the sideboard, others none. But it’s a card to always keep in mind when the opponent represents white mana.

Mana Leak and Miscalculation Versions#

Some versions of Replenish run light counters, like:

• Mana Leak;
• Miscalculation.

They aren’t always present, and in general they aren’t the center of the matchup. For this reason, you usually shouldn’t consider Xantid Swarm a fundamental sideboard card in this matchup. It’s often not relevant enough, buy if you know the opponent has many counters, the evaluation can shift slightly. In general you should prefer increasing discard, enchantment answers, and removal for Meddling Mage rather than leaning on Xantid.

Meddling Mage#

Meddling Mage is one of the main post-board problems, and in some lists it can already be present main deck.

Mage is annoying because it does two things at once:

• it shuts off a fundamental piece of your plan;
• it puts a clock on the board.

The clock seems unimportant, but it isn’t. A 2/2 attacking every turn forces you not to lose too much time, especially because your manabase can deal you damage and because you still have to find cards to prevent Replenish from assembling its plan.

If you don’t remove Mage quickly, you can find yourself in the situation where you simultaneously have to:

• resolve the name Mage chose;
• protect Survival or Hermit;
• prevent Replenish;
• not die to the clock.

For this reason, post-board you want dedicated removal.

The best cards are:

• Swords to Plowshares;
• Ghitu Slinger;
• possibly Pyroclasm.

Pyroclasm can answer multiple Meddling Mage, but it isn’t a great fit because it can be situational and doesn’t always line up well with the rest of the plan. Personally, more targeted or tutorable removal is preferable.

Post-Sideboard#

Post-board the matchup becomes more complicated for both players.

On your side, you want to bring in:

• additional discard, Duress;
• Monk Realist, Naturalize and Ray of Revelation;
• removal for Meddling Mage, like Swords or Ghitu Slinger.

Naturalize is particularly useful because it can answer both problematic enchantments and possible artifacts like Crypt.

Ray of Revelation is strong because it can break two enchantments over the course of the game, but you have to remember that Replenish is a deck that can interact a lot with the graveyard and with the timing of your resources.

Monk Realist is very interesting because it’s a tutorable answer with Survival and can remove key enchantments.

Remember that istant speed disenchants can break the Opa-Wave lock. When Parallax Wave target itself, it is exiled, and there is a trigger on the stack: in this moment you can destroy Opalescence. Once Parallax return it can’t exile creatures forever anymore.

Gloom#

Gloom is one of the best sideboard cards against Replenish.

All the opponent’s problematic cards are white.

Gloom makes it much harder for the opponent, almost impossibile, to chain their interactions and develop the combo plan. If you can resolve it, it can dramatically slow down the Replenish deck and open a very favorable window for you.

It isn’t a card that always wins by itself, but it’s one of the few sideboard cards that attacks all of the opponent’s most important axes at once.

Enchantment Removal#

Enchantment removal is important because it lets you interact with their plan even after something has resolved.

If the opponent resolves Opalescence but hasn’t yet brought back or resolved Decree of Silence, you can destroy Opalescence at instant speed and try to stall the board.

This can be very important: removing Opalescence can turn a lethal board into a set of enchantments that are no longer creatures, buying time or even flipping a combat step.

You can’t always answer everything, but having access to Naturalize, Ray, or Monk Realist lets you not depend exclusively on speed.

Tormod’s Crypt#

Some opponents can have Tormod’s Crypt post-board.

It isn’t always the most problematic card, but it has to be respected because it can interfere with your Hermit lines and with some Survival lines. Naturalize is useful precisely because they can also answer this kind of card.

If your plan goes through the graveyard and you have no way to remove Crypt, it can be correct to name it with Cabal Therapy or build an alternative plan.

Attunement and Frantic Search#

One of the reasons the matchup is hard to read is that the opponent’s hand can change very quickly.

Cards like Attunement and Frantic Search let Replenish see many cards, discard combo pieces, and turn an apparently slow hand into a lethal hand.

This means the information you get from Duress or Cabal Therapy is important, but doesn’t always stay valid for many turns. You can see a hand without Replenish, and then the opponent digs quickly and finds it.

For this reason, when you open a window, you have to try to capitalize on it. You can’t always afford to wait many turns after stripping a key card.

Ancient Tomb and Counting Mana#

Another important detail is the presence of Ancient Tomb and a high land count.

Replenish often runs 25 or 26 lands, including four Ancient Tomb. This means it can generate extra mana suddenly and pull off sequences that looked impossible a turn earlier.

When you count the opponent’s clock, you always have to consider the possibility that Ancient Tomb accelerates every spell: Attunement, Parallax Wave, Opalescence, etc.

You shouldn’t reason only in terms of the current untapped lands with a linear curve, but also if a spell can be cast earlier than usual.