Sideboard Nouveau Pt.1
The player set between two games in a match, where he is either on the play or the draw. The strategy and game he is about to play is different from others. Different game and different means of playing. As the player begins his game, he has to decide if his hand is worthy of being kept or mulligan to a hand 1 card lower. But before a game, he has the ability to alter his deck with a chosen 15 or less Sideboard that is meant to prepare for the second and third game of any match up. Winning is key, but the same strategy will never present itself the same way in two different games and each player would sideboard in their own manner. The player is against a different list of 60 and an opponent who choose what was sideboarded for a specific reason.
A sideboard is a set of 15 or less cards meant to improve a match up, whether it is winnable or not. The chosen cards are useful in multiple occasions, against a multitude of decks. The main idea of a sideboard is not to differ from a deck’s main game strategy, but stylize around the opponent’s deck and help to improve the deck’s overall game.
Common misconception of a sideboard is that there is enough space to include cards that are discluded from the main deck or never found enough space/reason to support those cards.
Knowledge comes from the first game. The deck they are playing and a type of strategy that they plan to follow. This doesn’t change at all, even with the strangest of decks. One powerful thing about Magic: the Gathering is the Philosophy of the Color Pie, but it is also a limiting factor of many of these decks. The colors share the belief: to follow a philosophy. The meaning of this is that each color has their own power and weakness, which is best to determine what cards exist and what cards might be used in the sideboard.
As well as an already determined meta is helpful, Sideboards are nearly linear in the means to play out, especially for known and practiced decks. Use this to take advantage of, learn the cards people use to sideboard and why they are meant to be sideboarded in to a deck after the first game.
Let’s take a look at Storm, a dedicated combo deck.
For dedicated combo decks, the focus is to set up a strategy that stops the opponent from limiting or forbidding you from comboing off. Functionally, this is meant as a guide to never side in too much to the point a combo deck becomes nothing more than an answer deck that fizzles at the attempts to combo off.
Storm uses cards that answer more than one type of hate against them forms such as Wear // Tear, Dispel, and Meddling Mage. These cards are used to limit hate that is relevant or even seen enough to stop a Storm player from comboing off.
Wear // Tear hits creatures, enchantments and artifacts. This is true for the cards such as Ethersworn Canonist, Eidolon of Rhetoric, Eidolon of the Great Revel, Rule of Law and Engineered Explosives.
Dispel does the same, but for most counterspells except Counterflux.
Meddling Mage is different from anything set because it is both a proactive answer to Hate cards, but also an answer to opposing combo decks.
The way the Storm sides is to functionally increase the number of ways to combo off while limiting the number of possibilities the opponent has to stop once the combo has started.
There comes times that Storm will shift enough gears to dilute the deck for a higher chance of winning a near unwinninable matchup, but that is only proven for one type of deck; a threat against the speed of Storm, Affinity.
Aggro decks, Affinity and Zoo, play a different role in society. The purpose is not to stop from being an Aggro deck, but to continue that Aggro plan with a much stabler board state once people side in hate. Bringing in supporting cards that do more than just stop an opponent is key for this.
Affinity utilizes the synergy between both artifacts and creatures, while continue to put in enough damage around the support of anti-hate/hate sideboard cards. With a multitude of sideboard strategies, Affinity can play a different role altogether, but that never stops from the Artifact Creature beat down plan that always shines through.
Slowing down a turn or two to stop the opponent from finishing off the Affinity Player is enough to keep the gas rolling progressively, even if there is not constant pressure being aimed at the opponent. This is why Affinity utilizes, or can, sideboard cards that most decks wouldn’t even think of, or couldn’t pull off without decimating are part of their game plan.
Zoo functionally plays cards that value out the opponent in their raw power and otherwise essential game plan. Creatures that have abilities that are helpful to stopping an opponent are the type of cards that help in a Zoo-type of deck. Otherwise known as Hatebears, these creatures don’t take away from a beat down plan, but also limit what an opponent is able to accomplish.
These decks don’t dilute from their number one game plan, and have the support needed to focus on a more essential plan to win.
The number of cards don’t matter when sideboarding, it is the power and efficiency of a card’s effect that are relevant to sideboard strategies.
Control has the most freedom to sideboard cards in, but that doesn’t mean it has the best means to sideboard in enough cards. Sideboarding with Control decks is a skill of its own, just like with any other deck, but every card has relevance in some situation as the game progresses. To sideboard with these type of decks is to know what situation seems more likely to occur and what cards would be more useful in more than one type of situation.
Sideboarding for any of these decks is a skill of set of its own, and it is a skill to being able to sideboard against an open field. The best way to learn how to properly sideboard is to read sideboard guides and take them to a tournament. Practice sideboarding, as it is just as important as a first game during a match. Properly sideboarding for any match up is helpful, and sometimes the best tool to manifest a win.
