How To Do Better At Your Next PTQ - Part 4

Part 4 - Sideboarding for the Event Metagame

Sorry for the delay between parts: Zendikar spoilers will do that. I've learnt my lesson. I will aim to finish this series, Zendikar or no, within the next week, and then I'll only do series' that I stick with once a day until it's done. I'm also going to aim to finish the Last Look At Lorwyn series.

Now, on to the actual advice.

At a PTQ, your metagame will probably be subtly different to the ones in another country or even another city. Perhaps a lot of good players in your area play Faeries: so you shouldn't, facing the double threat of being outplayed in the mirror and outhated by the lesser players who can only win through excessive sideboard hate.

Instead you'd want to play a deck that has a good match against Faeries and against anti-Faeries. An anti-Faeries deck would work, if you were confident in beating the lesser players in the mirror.

Either way, if you bring a specific sideboard and turn out to be wrong, you're in trouble. That's why you should bring about 30 cards, and construct your sideboard at the event.

Note: you should not construct your sideboard piecemeal unless you have to. Make plans. For example, with GSS Jund, I might bring in my 30:

Kitchen Finks
Volcanic Fallout
Firespout
Maelstrom Pulse
Vithian Renegades
Guttural Response
Cruel Ultimatum
Mulldrifter
Doom Blade
Broodmate Dragon
Glen Elendra Archmage
Stillmoon Cavalier

This would leave me free to have several sideboard plans. For example:

Heavy 5CC metagame:

4 Glen Elendra Archmage
3 Firespout
2 Maelstrom Pulse
4 Kitchen Finks
2 Volcanic Fallout

This is a fairly balanced sideboard, but with 4 slots dedicated to Glen Elendra Archmage, an excellent foil to Five-Color. The deck also features light anti-Time Sieve (Maelstrom Pulse and Archmage) with some anti-aggro and Elf Combo, and a good plan against Blightning, which often beats Five-Color Control. With Great Sable Stag and Fallout, the deck is strong vs. Faeries, and the GSS / Anathemancer combo gives you a good chance in the Jund mirror.

Heavy Fae metagame:

4 Volcanic Fallout
3 Deathmark
3 Stillmoon Cavalier
1 Maelstrom Pulse
4 Kitchen Finks

Here, the Volcanic Fallouts cede to Fae, but mostly the sideboard relies on the maindeck Stags and the Stags  in other sideboards to beat Fae. Kithkin, B/R Blightning, Elf Combo and the mirror are all handled here: the main decks expected to survive the first few rounds. The hope is that most of the Fae will die in the middle rounds, since there's a lot of hate ready for it.

Heavy Elf Combo metagame:

4 Volcanic Fallout
4 Firespout
1 Maelstrom Pulse
3 Kitchen Finks
3 Glen Elendra Archmage

This deck is aimed at Elf Combo with the 8 sweepers, and the decks likely to beat it, with Volcanic Fallout hitting Faeries, Kitchen Finks hitting burn, and Archmages hitting Five-Color Control and Time Sieve.


I could go on with specific examples, but that isn't worth the space. These are merely examples. A fourth option is a transformational sideboard, against say, a heavy Jund mirror which won't be expecting it. The point is, you want to have multiple sideboard plans, and the cards to handle all of them. I wouldn't do this for say, FNM, but for a PTQ, every edge is important, and this is certainly a formidable one.

Until next time, may you outplan your opponents.