Arcane Teachings: Sideboard Planning on Starcitygames.com
Seasoned players tend to talk about “sideboarding plans,” which is not a surprise since sideboarding well is really all about planning. Tom looks at some decks and asks you to think about how their sideboards do or do not fit with the decks’ game plans. He wants to convince you that you need to be aware of and take into account your deck’s plans to build the most effective sideboard you can.
Enjoy!
This is Takayuki Koike’s deck from the top eight of Pro Tour Valencia.
1 Blood Crypt
4 Bloodstained Mire
1 Godless Shrine
1 Mountain
1 Overgrown Tomb
1 Sacred Foundry
1 Steam Vents
1 Stomping Ground
1 Temple Garden
4 Windswept Heath
4 Wooded Foothills
4 Dark Confidant
4 Grim Lavamancer
3 Isamaru, Hound of Konda
4 Kird Ape
3 Mogg Fanatic
4 Tarmogoyf
4 Firebolt
4 Lightning Helix
4 Tribal Flames
2 Umezawa’s Jitte
4 Vindicate
Sideboard:
2 Cabal Therapy
3 Duress
3 Engineered Plague
3 Kataki, War’s Wage
4 Leyline of the Void
I think that the maindeck is absolutely beautiful and may be card-for-card perfect. However, I think that the sideboard is absolutely terrible. I propose this instead:
4 Molten Rain
3 Armadillo Cloak
4 Ancient Grudge
4 Leyline of the Void
These cards address the same matchups that the previous sideboard did. Why might this sideboard be better?
My first column on Star City is up- Three Ways to Think Faster.
The majority of the time you spend while you play Magic is spent thinking. Tournament Magic is played on a clock, so a serious player has a strong incentive to learn how to think efficiently. This may mean that he can think about the same amount of things in less time so that he can avoid unintentionally drawing; it may also mean that he spends the same amount of time but gets to think about more things. Magic is overwhelmingly complex, and any given game can challenge you in ways you don’t expect. When you encounter a strange situation, you may need to spend some time to figure out how to handle it correctly. Thinking quickly will allow you to play quickly in situations that aren’t strange, which gives you the time that you will need to handle really tricky situations….
Enjoy!