Grimdrifter: Playing the Deck

It is often you have to play to win instead of playing not to lose. With Grimdrifter the opposite is true, Play not to lose instead of playing to win. If Grimdrifter survives the first 10 turns it will almost invariably defeat its opponents under a sea of Card advantage. The key against almost every deck is to keep their creatures of the board. Playing your creatures should be a secondary goal unless you are going to miss land drops in which case you have to play your creatures, if Grimdrifter misses land drops it often falls to far behind in tempo to be able to recover.

Before we look at the individual matchups let me repost the decklist so we can see what sideboard changes should be made.
4 Terramorphic Expanse
4 Mystical Teachings
6 Island
4 Tendrils of Corruption
1 Mountain
4 Remove Soul
2 Mournwhelk
3 Strangling Soot
15 Swamp
1 Terror
2 Festercreep
4 Mulldrifter
4 Phyrexian Rager
4 Prismatic Lens
2 Grim Harvest

Sideboard
2 Festercreep
2 Mournwhelk
1 Strangling Soot
1 Plains
2 Demystify
3 Midnight Charm
1 Snapback
3 Faerie Macabre

Individual Matchups

White Weenie
WW is a very fast deck and if it gets the nuts draw there is not much you can do. However if they do not get that you should be fine. Just kill every creature they have. If you have an opportunity to trade creature do so even if you have to trade two for one. You can always harvest those creatures back. Make sure they never untap with scout in play. If they do you almost always lose. Your Teachings should generally grab Tendrils or soot depending on your life total and how much mana you have. Generally I try to keep my Remove Souls for their suspend dudes. In my experience you have so much creature removal that this matchup should be about 70-30 in your favor.

Sideboarding: +3 midnight charm, + 1 strangling soot, -2 Rager, -2 Mournwhelk.

Dominus Deck Wins
This is the hardest matchup except for the mirror. You use more or less the same game plan as you would against WW except that You can afford less damage from their creatures and you have to keep Clout of their dudes at least in game one. After sideboarding you get Demystify for their Auras so you can win after one resolves. So while DDW is fast and powerful my limited testing makes me think its around 60-40

Sideboarding: + 2 Demystify, + 3 Midnight Charm, + 1 Plains, -1 Soot, 2 Mournwhelk, - 2 Rager, - 1 swamp.

Storm Control
Storm Control has three ways to beat you: EE, Warrens, and Grapeshot/Riftbolt. The first two are by far the greater threats. In game one remove souls should be able to stop their EEs so the game usually comes down to if you can draw Festercreep. In games two and three it is more complicated. They should bring in some counters such as the Evil Faerie Trickery so look for an opportunity to try to chain teachings when the do not have UU1 up. The matchup is very skill dependant but I think if both players play perfectly it should be about 60/40 for GD.

Sideboarding: + 2 festercreep, + 2 Mournwhelk, - 2 Tendrals, -2 soot

Grimdrifter and other Harvest Decks
In these matchups at least in game one neither player runs out of creatures. So what it comes down to is mana. Make sure you do not miss land drops. Do not worry about your life total too much, one tendrils can solve that problem. Try to chain teachings into Remove Soul to stop their Mulldrifters and Mourwhelks. Eventually you should be able to evoc and harvest a Mourwhelk until they have no cards in hand. In game two they do not have faerie macabre it should be smooth cruising. If they do then you just have to try to gain whatever card advantage you can. And hope you can Mournwhelk them more then they Mournwhelk you. The mirror is obviously around 50/50 or 55/45 depending their build. The Dark Evoc Matchup is probably 60/40 in your favor.

Sideboarding: -3 Tendrals, -2 Festercreep, + 3 Faerie Macabre, + 2 Mournwhelk

I hope after these articles you have at least an idea of how to build and play Grimdrifter. Best of luck if you do (unless you are playing me).