Debate: What is Goat Control's Worst Matchup?

Last week, our Discord users debated this topic: What is Goat Control's worst/hardest matchup? Assume that all players are competent and have fairly standard maindeck and sidedeck choices. For your convenience, we've given you a summary all of the impassioned arguments that our Discord users made below.

Aggro vs Goat Control

The first and most immediate but not necessarily the most accurate answers to be raised were aggro and Burn. But when we talk about “aggro,” it is very important to be specific about what kind of aggro we mean. ACP argues that “Goat Control vs aggro is always close,” and that this is really “just an argument against ‘Aggro beats Goat Control.’” The most popular aggressive deck at the moment is undoubtedly Anti-Meta Warriors, which sometimes eschews King Tiger Wanghu in favor of cards like Don Zaloog, Blade Knight and D.D. Assailant. These cards typically “play very ‘fairly’” and “Goat Control has plenty of tools to fight back.” Wow Wink summarizes that “Aggro beats mediocre/bad [Goat Control] hands and loses to good ones.” Certain variants of Anti-Meta Warriors have distinct potential against Goat Control, particularly those that “play either ‘protect the Wanghu’ or ‘protect the Blade Knight.’” Such well-constructed decks can, in James400’s words, “win mid/late games as well since you have outs for your opponent’s threats, like Compulsory Evacuation Device for vs Thousand-Eyes-Restrict and Asura Priest/King Tiger Wanghu for Scapegoat.” Shane and Silver stress that aggro excels in such late-game scenarios because of superior topdecking potential. 

Burn and PACMAN vs Goat Control

By a similar token, Burn decks can be built in many different ways and it may be difficult to construct a list that is truly oppressive against any and all variants of Goat Control. Some go as far as to say that an optimized version of Shane’s Drain Lockdown Burn deck from FLC3 is the best deck in the entire format.   Jazz posits PACMAN, a stall deck based around Des Lacooda and Swarm of Scarabs/Locusts, as one of Goat Control’s worst matchups. The most controversial point here seems to be whether or not Goat Control can overcome PACMAN with the proper Side Deck. ACP argues in the affirmative, Jazz in the negative, and most others seem to fall somewhere in between, with Brandis72 noting wishy-washily that “a lot depends on how good the PACMAN list is.” A lesser point of contention is the optimal side material for the Goat player. Shane argues that “Royal Decree is horrible vs PACMAN because they just destroy it” with Swarm of Locusts and so on. James400 and others cite tangential success with Legendary Jujitsu Master, who doesn’t seem to fit the matchup on paper but happens to be able to attack under Gravity Bind and Level Limit - Area B.