I’ll call this Blood vs Blue. Thinking about this match beforehand, Blood has lots of dead cards in the main deck. Bloodbraid Elf could be great at getting around counterspells, but only if it digs up another creature. However, post-sideboard Blood brings in lots of good stuff, including thoughtseize and x1 thought hemorrhage which seems really good. Blue has wasteland in sideboard though, which also is pretty good. I think Blood is probably favored post-sideboard, and Blue is favored pre-sideboard.

G1:

Though Blue mulligans to 6, Blood has to mulligan to 4 cards and is not feeling optimistic until Blue fails to play a third land. Blood tries to play threats, which keep getting countered, but Blue gets stuck on 2 lands for several turns. On turn 6 Blood is able to cast 2 Putrid leeches in the same turn, and the 2nd one sticks. Blue finally starts finding lands. But the manascrew is key here, because Blood is able to start attacking and just leave behind mana for Cryptic Command. A turn 9 Mind Over Matter gets countered by Cryptic Command and that’s game over on turn 10. Thrilled to win on a mulligan to 4, Blood now feeling quite optimistic! MVP: mana screw + Cryptic Command. Bloodbraid 1-0.

G2:

3 early threats from Blood get countered by three consecutive Counterspells. Blue uses intuition to get a Mana Vault. Blood has lots of mana and no threats, tries a Broodmate Dragon, which also gets countered. Time Spiral on the next turn resolves with Blood tapped out, and Blue finds the Mind Over Matter to combo off and win. MVP: Lots of islands. Bloodbraid 1-1.

G3: (post-sideboard)

Turn 1 Thoughtseize grabs an intuition. Blood plays 5 lands in a row then casts a Bloodbraid Elf. Although the elf gets countered, a wimpy Anathemancer makes it onto the battlefield. It takes a long time, but the Anathemancer keeps attacking, and eventually Blue has to try for Mind Over Matter without counterspell backup. Cryptic Command stops the spell and secures the victory. MVP: Thoughtseize + Cryptic Command. Bloodbraid 2-1.

G4:

Turn 3 and Turn 4 intuition find the combo pieces. A turn 5 Mind Over Matter leads to a turn 6 combo win. MVP: Intuition. Bloodbraid 2-2.

G5:

Blood goes first and risks a turn 2 Leech, but force spike counters it. Turn 3 and 4 gets Sygg and an Anathemancer onto the battlefield, while Blue finds a Mana Vault. Blood resolves a Leech and a Blightning (Blue let this resolve, even though Blue had a counterspell) and Blue has to discard two cards but then during end step casts intuition to find Mind Over Matter. Plays M.o.M. (turn 5.) On turn 6, Blood has Cryptic Command but Mind Over Matter is already in play, Blue is tapped out, with a tapped Mana Crypt, and 3 cards. Blood casts Cryptic Command to bounce the Mind Over Matter before Blue can untap, and Blue considers discarding 2 cards to untap lands for counterspell, but that would leave him hellbent and needing a perfect topdeck. So instead, the MoM gets bounced, and Blue goes to 6 life, with lethal next turn. Blue discards a card to untap Mana Vault instead. On Blue’s turn 6, Blue plays MoM again, discards 2 cards to untap an island and untap the Crypt, and with 1 colorless floating casts Mediate, last card in hand. Blue draws 4 cards, one of which is Stroke of Genius!!! He casts that Stroke to draw 6 and finds another Stroke! He draws 10 more cards. He gets the combo and wins. MVP: Meditate. Spiral Blue 3-2.