Sideboarding in Modern

[rcwraspy]

Hello,

I'd like to try to get a compendium of how to sideboard against the main stream strategies in Modern. I'm not going to pretend I have the knowledge for this myself, but I can get it started and setup the framework that I'm looking for and hopefully others with more Modern experience can help fill in the blanks.

This is an idea based on a decent SCG article I just read by Jim Davis, found here (Select side so free for all): http://www.starcitygames.com/article/28 ... Stuff.html

I'd like to get together lists of current top-tier decks (can be 1.5 or 2 also, whatever you'd expect to see at a fairly large Modern event), how they attempt to win, what their first and second strategies are, and what cards exist in all colors to counter-act those strategies. The purpose here is
to equip people with the knowledge and ability to have 15 cards that can be used in multiple matchups. For instance, some blue-based decks run some number of Hurkyl's Recall in the side board to combat Affinity. In fact, I'm currently running some in my UR Delver list. But would that card be useful in any other matchup? Maybe not. But Ancient Grudge can be brought in against a lot of decks running artifacts, including Affinity but also any other decks with troublesome artifacts. Hopefully by listing cards that work well against most of the top decks we can find ones that appear in multiple lists. Some of them will be obvious, but others maybe not.

Here's a preliminary list, but I'm going to need a lot of help fleshing this out. Feel free to add decks in the following format, or suggest changes to anything already posted. I'll just start with 1 deck but I'll come back and add more later.

Deck: Affinity
Win-Con:
Beat-down with artifact creatures
Problem Cards: Cranial Plating, Arcbound Ravager
Hosers
White: Stony Silence, Disenchant
Blue: Hurkyl's Recall, Spell Snare
Black: Drown in Sorrow
Red: Shatterstorm, Shattering Spree, Vandalblast, Ancient Grudge, burn like Pillar of Flame, Magma Spray, Lightning Bolt
Green: Naturalize
Multi-color: Destructive Revelry
Hybrid: Fracturing Gust
Colorless: Damping Matrix

[LP, of the Fires]

Good idea. On the premium side, mj and kibler in their respective articles did something similar for the decks they're running.

Decks you should care about:

Affinty
Uwr control and midrange
Melira pod
Splinter twin (tempo twin, combo twin, and tarmo twin, which all play out very differently)
Naya zoo big zoo
Tribal/fast zoo
Storm
Living end
Jund/obliterock

With such a big format, it's important as you've said that your sb cards are broad and have overlap do that they're applicable across multiple archetypes since you don't get a twenty card sideboard.

It's also imimportant to pay attention to specific card you see to be able to adjust your board options on the fly. Lately make sure cards actually do what you think. Grafdiggers cage doesn't do diddly vs living end. A bunch of artifact hate just losses to pods midrange plan.

Hope this is the help you where looking for.

[hamfactorial]

I play Modern primarily with my Dega ([mana]WRB[/mana]) brew so I'll include a list of relevant sideboard cards in these 3 colors vs prominent decks.

Deck: URW Splinter Twin
Win-Con: Infinite attacking creatures on turn 4 with Splinter Twin on a Deceiver Exarch, Pestermite or Village Bell-Ringer or turn 5 using Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker and Restoration Angel.
Plan B: Combat Damage and burn
Problem Cards: Splinter Twin, 4 toughness creatures.

Hosers

White: Suppression Field, Disenchant
Black: Illness in the Ranks, Dismember
Red: Combust
Multi-color: Rakdos Charm, Hide // Seek, Zealous Persecution
Hybrid: Batwing Brume
Artifact: Spellskite, Torpor Orb

[hamfactorial]

Deck: Melira Pod ([mana]WBG[/mana])

Win-Con: With an active Viscera Seer and a Melira, Sylvok Outcast, sacrifice a creature with Persist (Kitchen Finks or Murderous Redcap) to do an unlimited damage or gain an arbitrarily large amount of life.
Plan B: Use Birthing Pod to search the deck for singleton creatures that hinder your game plan, attacking every turn and making their creatures better with Gavony Township.

Hosers

White: Path to Exile, Rest in Peace
Black: Leyline of the Void
Red: Blood Moon
Multi-color: Rakdos Charm
Hybrid:
Artifact: Relic of Progenitus, Torpor Orb, Grafdigger's Cage

[rcwraspy]

Thanks LP. Yeah, that's a great help! I'll slowly work on cards vs. those different archetypes and put them in the same format I did for Affinity. Then we can see where things overlap, and have a thread for people to see what common SB cards are. From there people will just need to know which matchups their deck is strong against and weak against, how many SB cards are necessary for each, and which overlaps to choose or where they absolutely need a dedicated slot.

Thanks!

EDIT: awesome, thanks Ham!

[hamfactorial]

Deck: [mana]RG[/mana] Tron

Win-Con: Using artifacts and green search spells, search the library for 1 each of Urza's Tower, Urza's Mine and Urza's Power Plant for a turn 3 Wurmcoil Engine or Karn Liberated.
Plan B: Stall with board wipes and hardcast Wurmcoil Engine or Karn Liberated.

Hosers

White: Path to Exile, Stony Silence
Black:
Red: Blood Moon, Sowing Salt, Shattering Spree, Shattering Blow
Multi-color: Rakdos Charm, Hide // Seek
Hybrid:
Artifact: Ensnaring Bridge

[hamfactorial]

Deck: [mana]UR[/mana] Storm

Win-Con: Using red rituals (Desperate Ritual) and blue card draw/cantrips (Serum Visions, Manamorphose, Desperate Ravings), chain together spells until a Grapeshot can be cast to win in 1 turn. An active Pyromancer Ascension and can be attained to make this easier.
Plan B: Empty the Warrens and win through attack damage.

Problem Cards: Goblin Electromancer, Pyromancer Ascension, Past in Flames

Hosers

White: Rule of Law, Rest in Peace, Thalia, Guardian of Thraben, Spirit of the Labyrinth, Leyline of Sanctity
Black: Leyline of the Void
Red:
Multi-color: Rakdos Charm
Hybrid:
Artifact: Trinisphere, Grafdigger's Cage, Relic of Progenitus

[hamfactorial]

Will write more later

[LaZerBurn]

This is worth looking at. Bit dated but good info.

[hamfactorial]

Deck: Ad Nauseam Lightning Storm

Win-Con: Protect for a turn with either Angel's Grace or Phyrexian Unlife, then cast Ad Nauseam to draw every card in your deck. Cast Lightning Storm with Simian Spirit Guide and discard lands to make a lethal Lightning Storm.
Plan B: Combo using Conflagrate instead.

Problem Cards: Pact of Negation, artifact mana, Angel's Grace / P. Unlife.

Hosers

White: Rule of Law, Leyline of Sanctity, Angel's Grace
Black:
Red:
Multi-color: Hide // Seek (exile the win-con, they'll scoop)
Hybrid:
Artifact: Spellskite

[Khaospawn]

Storm hoser - Mindbreak Trap
Lolz

Also, Counterflux?

[LP, of the Fires]

Jund Hoser: banlist update.

[Khaospawn]

Ha!

[hamfactorial]

Canadian hoser, eh