New Legacy Meta = New Sideboards. What cards are you looking at?

[Jon Stewart]

I think the more popular decks now will include cards like Lands, Enchantress, 5/3 Stax, and a few others along with the usual suspects. Cards like Fairie Macabre and Mindbreak Trap can probably leave sideboards.

How will your sideboard strategy change?

What new sideboard cards are you looking at?


I for one am seriously considering Ankh of Mishra against Lands.dec as well as against random control decks that require a lot of lands to function (Quinn, MUC etc)

Does that seem like a good plan?

[Aggro_zombies]

Null Rod is now useful. Thopterbalance control decks are going to be popular, especially amongst the pros. It also shuts down other random things like Diamond, EE, Orb, and Mindslaver in Lands or Jitte and Vial in Merfolk.

[Vacrix]

I think the more popular decks now will include cards like Lands, Enchantress, 5/3 Stax, and a few others along with the usual suspects. Cards like Fairie Macabre and Mindbreak Trap can probably leave sideboards.

How will your sideboard strategy change?

What new sideboard cards are you looking at?


I for one am seriously considering Ankh of Mishra against Lands.dec as well as against random control decks that require a lot of lands to function (Quinn, MUC etc)

Does that seem like a good plan?

It also shuts down Top. It really depends on what you are playing though. If Null Rod is also good against you than you might not want to play it.

Seriously though, sideboard cards.... Chalice in Merfolk. It completely tore shit up at the tournament I went to yesterday. I, playing Solidarity, got completely destroyed. Usually I'm able to play around Chalice, but not with a clock like Merfolk's. Apparently he said its been working out for him. Its great against Zoo, turning off their Burn, and their one drops. Its great against a few other decks too, like storm. He also played post-board Misdirection, which won him the game against Matt on UW Tempo.

[routlaw]

Don't the hatebears (Teeg, Canonist, Meddling Mage) get a good bit better with Mystical Tutor out the door? The big problem for them was that any combo deck could run a singleton bounce and grab it with Mystical Tutor. Null Rod had similar issues and it hoses a somewhat different (and often overlapping) set of threats and prevents cards like Engineered Explosives or Top from doing anything.

Relic of Progenitus' biggest issue before the ban was that it was slow compared to Crypt against the speed of Reanimator. Now, if you aren't abusing your own graveyard, it is very good. It might be the biggest hoser against New Horizons possible, as that deck basically relies on both graveyards to power its massive creatures.

Extirpate might be better with more things like Life from the Loam or Thopter Foundry/Sword of the Meek. There will be more Planeswalkers around, but I feel that any deck running Jace is going to have answers to Pithing Needle so I don't think Needle gets substantially better.

[Pastorofmuppets]

Sweepers seem like they'll be more powerful. Although this is just talking out my ass, so...
GUIZE DIDGERIDOOO IS SOoOoO BADASS NAO

[morgan_coke]

Looking at Winter Orb/Bliinkmoth Well combo for lands and control decks. Hexmage as an answer to Jace/Elspeth. Also reduced the number of hatebears I run since I no longer need to find two to be sure of beating combo.

But Null Rod might be one of the single best pieces of format hate available right now given all the common strategies/key cards it hoses.

[Atwa]

Null Rod is now useful. Thopterbalance control decks are going to be popular, especially amongst the pros. It also shuts down other random things like Diamond, EE, Orb, and Mindslaver in Lands or Jitte and Vial in Merfolk.

I've been advocading this card for over 2 years now. The card was already good and it has only gotten better (Mystic Stoneforger, Topter-Swords, new bannings).

[FoulQ]

Krosan Grip is looking better than ever. I mean cmon!

About chalice in merfolk (and goblins), I have tested it in both decks quite a bit. It is usually just a nuisance to zoo and will set you back a turn, often doing more harm than good. It can win games against zoo but it can also do nothing and screw up everything on a crucial early turn, so I think there are better hate cards for both merfolk vs zoo and goblins vs zoo matchups. Decent combo players can play around it without much difficulty, but combo is lessening anyways. It wrecks pure burn, but pure burn should not usually be a primary concern for your sideboard, unless your tournament is at a daycare center. And okay, against solidarity, it has some merit. So if solidarity is a big part of your meta...

Don't mean to be a party pooper, but I also tested null rod in goblins about 6 months ago. Didn't think it was that great. Might be better now, but I think shutting down control strategies is NOT the best way for aggro decks is the best way to win: rather, win before those decks can set up their clunky 4cc jace or their 2 card clunky thopter combo (not to say they are bad, both cards are nuts). And with loam decks gaining in popularity, I'm thinking price of progress and blood moon might stand a chance and fits in line with my philosophy.

Also, null rod against a tempo deck like merfolk seems like wasted time. You are giving up a turn for something that stops two cards that are definitely not necessary for their strategy: vial is good, but getting your opponent to tap out for a null rod for a turn (or just to use two mana on t3/4) can have its own negative effects. The key to victory against merfolk has always been to STP their lords, in my opinion. Then their guys are too slow and they can't capitalize on tempo swings as much. And then you win.

Null Rod is definitely still playable but I don't think it's the wonder sideboard card we're making it out to be here.

I'm still searching for a reliable answer to planeswalkers. Pithing Needle is ok, but meh...I'm thinking about making sure I have REBs in my sideboard for zoo and goblins (I play zoo/merf/gobs). Stops jace, thopter, blue cards (always popular), and with my zoo deck going for a faster route with lynx/pop, it allows for crucial burn finishers to get through. Also helpful against any clingy reanimator/combo players.

Just a few thoughts.

[Aggro_zombies]

I've been advocading this card for over 2 years now. The card was already good and it has only gotten better (Mystic Stoneforger, Topter-Swords, new bannings).

True, but it wasn't good enough to use over Pithing Needle, since in most cases any given deck you'd play against would only have one relevant artifact target. These days, there are several decks with both a relevant artifact target and EE to get rid of the Needle naming said target, so Null Rod has gotten much better.

Basically every sideboard at this point should have graveyard hate, a way to shut down activated abilities, and some amount of artifact and enchantment hate. For your "average" deck, this will involve some split between Crypt and Relic, some Krosan Grips, and some Needles or Null Rods.

There are also various other cards that would be good in specific decks: Zoo players not running Jitte may wish to look into Cedric Philip's use of Burning-Tree Shaman as a way to heckle Lands and Counterbalance decks, and Wastelands as a way to punish overstretched mana bases. Counterbalance control decks may wish to look into Disenchants or Dismantling Blows in order to fight Null Rods and Needles, or splash green for Grip. Tempo decks like New Horizons may be fine moving all of their Zoo hate to the board and focusing on taking out blue control decks; Thopterbalance's success at the recent 5k means it will be popular going into Columbus amongst players who are too cool for Zoo. For New Horizons specifically, RWM and some other life gain effect may be enough to stop Zoo decks. And so on.

[from Cairo]

For similar reasons to Null Rod, I feel like Aura of Silence has been gaining strength in the meta for some time now. Disruptive against a bunch of T1-T2 decks: Storm Combo, Enchantress, Artifact Agro/Stax, Thopter/Sword/CBT.

Also, I agree with Routlaw, Extirpate is looking quite good as well, great vs Lands, Control and Combo.

[Malakai]

So Entomb was unbanned, which caused the blast from the past that is Reanimator to take over the metagame. It didn't really warrant taking over the metagame, its percentages being about the same as several other decks, but a lot of people enjoy attacking with big creatures and a lot of other people just like sitting with an Iona in front of them. So bam, reanimator. At about the same time a slow version of UGw Threshold appeared, another blast from the past, but this time with the beef that is Knight of the Reliquary.

The recent banning of Mystical Tutor is arguably more painful for Reanimator than if it didn't have Entomb, so if your matchups were close before you can likely eschew specific hate entirely, as some graveyard hate is mandatory anyway. Then it basically comes down to whether or not you care about New Threshold; if you don't, you can basically go back to a pre-entomb sideboard.