C
Crackdown
Guest
As I began playing Friday Night Magic with my son, it became clear that I was building better decks, ones that could even win game one against good players. However, once the sideboarding came in, I died quickly and completely. That sent me scurrying to figure out why I was so bad at this needed Magic skill.
I have spent many hours playing MODO with maindecks, but very few with a sideboard. Partially, the reason is lack of expensive cards. I don't have 4 Oblivion Stones for Black, Death Cloud/Persecute, Cranial Extraction, etc. But that isn't the only story. I have problems figuring out what WW sideboarding to do as well.
It boils down [no pun intended] to this: How does one build a Sideboard and know what substitutions to make?
For illustration purposes, we can look at a deck recently proposed by Jamie Wakefield and one that I've begun testing (with modifications):
4 Bonesplitter
4 Oxidda Golem
4 Frostling
4 Raging Goblin (substituted Ronin Houndmaster)
4 Slith Firewalker
4 Vulshok Sorcerer
4 Glacial Ray
4 Guerilla Tactics
4 Lightning Blast
4 Shock (substituted Electrostatic Bolt)
20 Mountains
Sideboard
3 Bottle Gnomes
4 Boil
4 Molten Rain
4 Sowing Salt
I didn't have the Raging Goblins or Shocks and I wanted to clear away Etched Oracles and Myr Enforcers for my Slith Firewalkers.
Wakefield's deck plays fast and burns hard. It could probably use Lava Spike instead of Lightning Blast for Glacial Ray splicing, but I'm not certain that's better.
The question of sideboarding though dominates. I can figure out the Molten Rain and Salts for Tooth and Nail. Boil for MUC or it's variations. But, what are Bottle Gnomes doing here and what does one take out of the deck to include these when playing the local metagame?
So many articles are written on building decks, but I've found precious few discussing how to build a sideboard (and what to sideboard).
Anyone want to offer advice? Much appreciated.
I have spent many hours playing MODO with maindecks, but very few with a sideboard. Partially, the reason is lack of expensive cards. I don't have 4 Oblivion Stones for Black, Death Cloud/Persecute, Cranial Extraction, etc. But that isn't the only story. I have problems figuring out what WW sideboarding to do as well.
It boils down [no pun intended] to this: How does one build a Sideboard and know what substitutions to make?
For illustration purposes, we can look at a deck recently proposed by Jamie Wakefield and one that I've begun testing (with modifications):
4 Bonesplitter
4 Oxidda Golem
4 Frostling
4 Raging Goblin (substituted Ronin Houndmaster)
4 Slith Firewalker
4 Vulshok Sorcerer
4 Glacial Ray
4 Guerilla Tactics
4 Lightning Blast
4 Shock (substituted Electrostatic Bolt)
20 Mountains
Sideboard
3 Bottle Gnomes
4 Boil
4 Molten Rain
4 Sowing Salt
I didn't have the Raging Goblins or Shocks and I wanted to clear away Etched Oracles and Myr Enforcers for my Slith Firewalkers.
Wakefield's deck plays fast and burns hard. It could probably use Lava Spike instead of Lightning Blast for Glacial Ray splicing, but I'm not certain that's better.
The question of sideboarding though dominates. I can figure out the Molten Rain and Salts for Tooth and Nail. Boil for MUC or it's variations. But, what are Bottle Gnomes doing here and what does one take out of the deck to include these when playing the local metagame?
So many articles are written on building decks, but I've found precious few discussing how to build a sideboard (and what to sideboard).
Anyone want to offer advice? Much appreciated.
). How to do it? I never play tournaments, so I have no idea....