Black Sacrifice
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Black Sacrifice is the beatdown here and we are the control deck, and we are slightly unfavored because the die roll and the early turns belong to them. Their one-drops start attacking at once, their sacrifice outlets cost no mana to use, and our early plays are 0-power walls, so they set the pace and we have to stabilize before Rite of Consumption can close the game. Their payoffs, a grown Carrion Feeder or Mortician Beetle cashed in with the Rite, only win if the game ends before our draw spells take over, which is why we play pure control: stall the ground with walls and Snap, and treat the Ghostly Flicker loop as a late lock rather than something to race toward. On the play our two-mana wall is down before their first attack; on the draw their one-drops get attacks in before Sunscape Familiar can block, and only God-Pharaoh's Faithful comes down early enough to stop them.
The long game is ours if we reach it. The walls stop every unpumped ground attacker in their deck, their only fliers are Infestation Sage's Insect tokens, and Carrion Feeder and Bloodthrone Vampire pay for every counter and pump with one of their own creatures, so once Snap or a counter catches each grown threat, Mulldrifter and Archaeomancer leave them short of bodies. That shapes the early turns: lead with Sunscape Familiar or God-Pharaoh's Faithful ahead of The Modern Age, islandcycle Lórien Revealed for land drops, and once Familiar is down, Snap, Prohibit and Negate each cost a single blue, so we can keep adding walls and still hold an answer on their turn. They know they have to win before the board locks up, so expect Snuff Out, Tragic Slip and Accursed Marauder aimed at the walls and at Archaeomancer to clear the way for the swarm and the Rite.
Spend our answers on the right targets. Save Snap for a Carrion Feeder or Mortician Beetle that already carries counters, or for the creature wearing Sadistic Glee: bouncing a fresh one-drop only costs them one mana to recast, and with a free outlet they will often sacrifice the target in response, which fizzles Snap and loses us the land untap. Once they have a big creature and two mana open, keep Prohibit, Negate or Prismatic Strands ready for the Rite of Consumption that follows combat, since countering or preventing it still costs them the creature. Avoid evoking Mulldrifter while Mortician Beetle is on the battlefield, and keep a spare wall around so Accursed Marauder's edict takes the wall rather than Archaeomancer or Murmuring Mystic; Ephemerate dodges Snuff Out and Tragic Slip but not the edict, and Mystic's Birds are tokens that can't be sacrificed to it. The win comes in the air, where Mulldrifter and the Birds attack while the walls stay home; with two Sunscape Familiars, loop Ghostly Flicker on Archaeomancer and a basic Island for as much life as we want from God-Pharaoh's Faithful and as many Birds as we want from Mystic, keeping Negate up because Snuff Out costs them no mana.
Carrion Feeder is the creature that beats our walls. Every token their death triggers leave behind is another free +1/+1 counter, and the counters stay from turn to turn, so a Feeder left alone outgrows Sunscape Familiar and God-Pharaoh's Faithful and becomes the creature they sacrifice to Rite of Consumption. Do not leave it unanswered while they have fodder: Prohibit on the stack is the cleanest answer, and Snap has to meet it before the counters pile up.
Rite of Consumption is how they turn a walled-up board into damage. They attack, pump or grow a creature into our blockers, then sacrifice it in their second main phase for damage and life equal to its power, so blocking alone doesn't stop the hit. The punish is tapping out on our own turn, say for a hardcast Lórien Revealed, while they hold a grown Carrion Feeder or can pump Bloodthrone Vampire: they cash that creature in for a drain we can no longer counter. As a two-mana sorcery it falls to an unkicked Prohibit or Negate, and Prismatic Strands naming black blanks it, with the sacrificed creature gone either way.
Mortician Beetle grows off sacrifices on both sides, so our own lines feed it: evoking Mulldrifter while it is on the battlefield hands them a permanent +1/+1 counter without spending a card, and sacrificing to Accursed Marauder does the same. Hardcast Mulldrifter or hold it until the Beetle is gone. Like Carrion Feeder it keeps its counters, so left alone it outgrows the walls and becomes the next Rite of Consumption sacrifice.
Bloodthrone Vampire is the instant-speed outlet that both breaks our walls and protects their board. One sacrifice makes it a 3/3 that kills a blocking Sunscape Familiar, two make it a 5/5 that kills God-Pharaoh's Faithful or Murmuring Mystic, and the pump lasts until end of turn for a Rite of Consumption after combat. Blocking it with a single wall while they have spare bodies invites exactly that line, so hold Prismatic Strands until they have already fed bodies into the pump and the fodder is wasted; a wall that is already blocking can pay the flashback. Like Carrion Feeder, the Vampire also lets them sacrifice whatever we target with Snap in response.
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Stonehorn Dignitary comes in because, apart from Rite of Consumption, every point of damage Black Sacrifice deals comes from combat: each time Dignitary enters they skip a combat, Ephemerate adds two more skips between its cast and its rebound, and flickering it with Archaeomancer every turn keeps the skips coming, while the 1/4 body also walls their unpumped ground attackers.
Last Breath exiles Carrion Feeder, Mortician Beetle or Mesmeric Fiend at instant speed while its power is 2 or less, and exile leaves no death trigger, no Unearth target and no Supernatural Stamina return. The 4 life it gives them matters little while we wall the ground, but fire it while they are short on spare bodies, since growing the target past 2 power in response fizzles it.
Thraben Charm destroys Sadistic Glee, which grows off every creature that dies on either side including our chump-blocking Birds, or burns a grown Carrion Feeder or Mortician Beetle at instant speed for twice the number of creatures we control.
The Modern Age goes out: two loots and a creature two turns later do nothing against one-drops that are already attacking, and unlike one-mana Preordain it competes for the same early mana as the wall we should be casting instead.
Deep Analysis goes out because its flashback costs 3 life against a deck that finishes by draining with Rite of Consumption, and the sorcery-speed hardcast leaves no Prohibit or Negate mana on their turn.
One Lórien Revealed goes because hardcasting it at sorcery speed taps us out on a turn they can use for Rite of Consumption; the other three stay because islandcycling for one mana keeps our land drops coming against their early pressure.
Sideboarding leaves the pairing about where it started: Stonehorn Dignitary's repeated combat skips and Last Breath's exile go straight at their combat plan and growth payoffs, but Mesmeric Fiend, Rotten Reunion, Tragic Slip and Accursed Marauder go just as straight at the creatures and the Ghostly Flicker that keep those skips coming.
After boarding, Stonehorn Dignitary, blinked by Ephemerate and Ghostly Flicker, skips their combats and leaves Rite of Consumption as their only damage, while they bring more removal and graveyard hate aimed at the creatures and the Flicker that keep the skips going. Casting Dignitary skips their next combat, Ephemerate on it adds one skip when cast and another on the rebound, and Ghostly Flicker on Dignitary plus Archaeomancer each turn skips another combat while handing Flicker back. Blink it on our own turn or before their combat begins, since a combat already underway can't be skipped, and hold Ephemerate when they have removal: blinking Dignitary in response to Tragic Slip or Snuff Out saves it and skips one more combat. With their combats gone, keep Prohibit, Negate or Prismatic Strands ready while they sacrifice their board into one big Carrion Feeder for the Rite.
Last Breath and Thraben Charm handle creatures that are already down. Fire Last Breath at Carrion Feeder or Mortician Beetle early, while they are short on spare bodies: a Feeder that eats two creatures in response, or Supernatural Stamina on anything, pushes the target past 2 power and fizzles it. Last Breath on Mesmeric Fiend also hands back the card it took. Thraben Charm destroys Sadistic Glee or burns a grown creature for twice the number of creatures we control.
Expect a more interactive opponent, and treat the Ghostly Flicker loop as a bonus: Stonehorn Dignitary, the walls and Mulldrifter's extra cards carry the long game without it. What they bring in and how we play around it: