Graduation Day: Moving Out of the Sideboard Mike Flores "Sideboard cards" played in the main deck appear in tournament Constructed decks as one of two very different animals. The first (and simpler to handle) sort is made up of cards that buoy a normally difficult-to-unwinnable matchup with minimal expenditure. Back when John Shuler played a single Warmth in his Howling Mine/Winter Orb deck in 1997-1998, he did so because his deck couldn't win without Howling Mine, and playing Howling Mine against a (rather popular) deck based on highly efficient 1-2 mana red instants was not a good plan. Though he could conceivably deck a player running Deadguy Red, the possibility of doing so before being cooked by fuel that he absolutely handed his opponent (an Incinerate here, a Kindle there) was not high; so to prevent this, his deck, which already ran on an Enlightened Tutor engine, gave up a single slot to win the matchup all by itself. The same can be said for the lone Circle of Protection: Red (later Ivory Mask) of the Ped Bun (later Bob Maher) Counter-Oath deck that appears and succeeds every Extended season. While the control deck with almost no inherent card advantage is often solid (and positively savage against low utility creature decks), its problematic mana base and lack of dedicated life gain made it quite a vulnerable target indeed for decks heavy on quick damage packets, such as Ball Lightning or Cursed Scroll. An Enlightened Tutor later, and the hoser-modified Oath deck could weather the burn with only one or two card slots out of sixty compromised. Other designers have given us main-deck Perish, main-deck Dream Tides, main-deck Presence of the Master. As you can infer, most of the decks where these sideboard cards were present as main-deck stopgaps were board control designs with lots of card manipulation (four Enlightened Tutors or Vampiric Tutors or a heavy mono-blue cantrip base). On the other hand, we have another, more problematic, style of main-deck "sideboard" cards, those cards that "graduate" from the sideboard to the main for some compromise or evolution. In recent memory, we had 2001 Canadian National Champion Terry Tsang play three Static Orbs in his Blue Skies sideboard. Terry Tsang Skies Main Deck Sideboard 21 Island 4 Spiketail Hatchling 4 Rishadan Airship 4 Troublesome Spirit 4 Rootwater Thief 2 Waterfront Bouncer 4 Gush 4 Opt 4 Thwart 4 Foil 4 Wash Out 1 Misdirection 3 Static Orb 2 Alexei, Zephyr Mage 2 Rushing River 2 Stinging Barrier 2 Repulse 2 Hibernation 2 Misdirection In Tsang's deck, the Static Orbs trumped Blue Skies' former anti-control mana hoser of choice, Rising Waters, for a number of reasons. For one, the Orb was a full mana cheaper than Rising Waters, making it easier to slip under opposing permission walls. Perhaps more importantly, where Rising Waters was rather a disappointment against the Birds of Paradise and Llanowar Elves of the typical Fires of Yavimaya deck, Static Orb could significantly slow down not only that dominant opponent's mana, but put the serious hurt on the long-term damage potential of a deck based on fading creatures. While the Blue Skies deck happily untapped its busty fliers each turn, able to ignore its tapped land due to the presence of eight or more "free" counterspells, both the more controllish and more beatdown-oriented opponents suffered; Rebels, for their part, had roughly as much trouble searching under Static Orb as they would have had under Rising Waters. A few short weeks later, the Static Orbs made a full scale graduation to the main deck of Godzilla's Worlds 2001 version of Blue Skies. Zvi Mowshowitz Skies Main Deck Sideboard 21 Island 4 Rishadan Airship 4 Spiketail Hatchling 2 Troublesome Spirit 3 Waterfront Bouncer 4 Chimeric Idol 4 Foil 3 Gush 4 Sleight of Hand 4 Static Orb 3 Tangle Wire 4 Thwart 2 Alexi, Zephyr Mage 2 Hibernation 4 Indentured Djinn 2 Juntu Stakes 1 Tangle Wire 1 Troublesome Spirit 2 Unnatural Selection 1 Waterfront Bouncer The Godzilla version of Blue Skies echoed Tsang's Waterfront Bouncer renaissance... the Bouncer had exceptional synergy with Static Orb, free counters, and fast, flying, clocks. They liked that interaction, and the fact that Static Orb hosed both extremes of the metagame, so much that the Godzilla players went so far as to re-tailor their deck around main-deck Static Orb. They cut some of the Troublesome Spirits (traditionally played in fours from the first time they saw print), as the Spirits and Static Orbs had poor synergy, and even caused Tsang an error or two during his Canadian Nationals run. Furthermore, Tangle Wire was added, exacerbating the problems most opponents would have in playing against the Static Orb. Similarly, the "Dave Price Red" archetype that was discovered during the third qualifier season of Neutral Ground's Grudge Match tournament seemed to bring in Blood Oath in almost every matchup. Following is one of the most efficient versions of the archetype, used by Tim McKenna to qualify for GM3: Deadguy Red by Tim McKenna Winner Grudge Match III - Week Seventeen Main Deck Sideboard 19 Mountain 4 Rishadan Port 3 Firebrand Ranger 4 Flametongue Kavu 4 Kris Mage 4 Skizzik 3 Rage Weaver 4 Seal of Fire 4 Shock 4 Urza's Rage 3 Ghitu Fire 4 Chimeric Idol 4 Blood Oath 2 Boil 3 Disorder 2 Slingshot Goblin 4 Tangle Wire While McKenna brought all four Blood Oaths in every single match, he sided out different cards to do so. Against control, he'd take out Shocks; against Fires, he'd swap them for Flametongue Kavu. For this reason, and because the deck seemed to win even with them in the "wrong column" of his deck list, the Oaths stagnated in Tim's sideboard. For the 2001 World Championships, dragonmaster Brian Kibler retooled Dave Price Red, fitting the Blood Oaths in the main: Brian Kibler Mono Red Main Deck Sideboard 19 Mountain 4 Rishadan Port 3 Goblin Raider 4 Kris Mage 4 Pygmy Pyrosaur 3 Skizzik 4 Blood Oath 4 Chimeric Idol 4 Seal of Fire 4 Shock 4 Urza's Rage 3 Volcanic Hammer 2 Citadel of Pain 3 Disorder 4 Flametongue Kavu 2 Slingshot Goblin 4 Tangle Wire Reasoning that Dave Price Red was more about damage than utility, Kibler took out all of his block-capable bears, replacing Invasion 2/1 creatures with Goblin Raiders and Pygmy Pyrosaurs, complementing the removal of mighty Flametongue Kavu for the seemingly more in-theme Blood Oath. While this version of Dave Price Red had a tougher time containing an angry Blastoderm, a Goblin Raider could at least get by a defending Llanowar Elves, and an unblocked Pygmy Pyrosaur could force through enormous amounts of damage to set up Blood Oath, helping to steal improbable wins from the jaws of next-turn defeat. While both the example of Static Orb in blue aggro-control and Blood Oath in monored beatdown represent cards that maybe should have been in the main deck but were left previously unnoticed, this category of graduated "sideboard" cards can also be represented by "compromise" cards, seemingly suboptimal choices that serve a similar enough purpose, but that are also capable of playing spoiler in the main deck. Contrast the Satoshi Nakamura-inspired decks played by Chris Benafel and Brian Kibler with the r-g beatdown deck of Chris Pikula at this year's Magic Invitational: Chris Benafel Main Deck Sideboard 10 Island 10 Forest 4 Yavimaya Coast 4 Mystic Snake 4 Birds of Paradise 4 Llanowar Elves 4 Call of the Herd 4 Beast Attack 4 Opposition 4 Repulse 4 Fact or Fiction 4 Counterspell 3 Gainsay 3 Divert 4 Spellbane Centaur 2 Jungle Barrier 3 Kavu Chameleon Brian Kibler Main Deck Sideboard 10 Island 10 Forest 4 Yavimaya Coast 4 Birds of Paradise 4 Llanowar Elves 4 Spellbane Centaur 4 Mystic Snake 4 Call of the Herd 4 Beast Attack 4 Fact or Fiction 4 Counterspell 4 Opposition 4 Kavu Chameleon 3 Gainsay 3 Dodecapod 2 Persuasion 3 Wash Out Chris Pikula Main Deck Sideboard 4 Karplusan Forest 2 City of Brass 9 Forest 1 Keldon Necropolis 7 Mountain 4 Birds of Paradise 4 Llanowar Elf 4 Kavu Titan 3 Raging Kavu 4 Skizzik 2 Shivan Wurm 4 Flametongue Kavu 4 Call of the Herd 4 Fire/Ice 4 Urza's Rage 4 Thunderscape Battlemage 3 Price of Glory 2 Tahngarth, Talruum Hero 4 Spellbane Centaur 1 Shivan Wurm 1 Obliterate Note how the main decks of Benafel and Kibler differ by the positioning of a compromise sideboard card. While Benafel has the powerful Repulse in his main deck (effectively a short-term Annihilate against flashback powerhouses like Call of the Herd and Beast Attack), Kibler chooses to run Spellbane Centaur in that slot. Spellbane Centaur, present both in Benafel's sideboard and Pikula's, seems a little under-powered when compared to most options for its mana cost. It is roughly as expensive as a Trained Armodon, yet lacks a point of toughness that makes it annoyingly bear-vulnerable where the Armodon is not. When compared to Call of the Herd - essentially two Trained Armodons for an even more convenient mana cost - or even the neo-Chimeric Idol, Still Life (a full power less), the Spellbane Centaur seems to pale further. In either a beatdown deck that needs lots of early pressure against a controllish opponent or an Opposition deck whose "Icy Manipulator" potential is tied directly to its ability to churn out creatures early and often, the Spellbane Centaur really doesn't seem to be a very good choice at all. Still Life keeps swinging after a Wrath of God; Spellbane Centaur can't even survive a tussle with the average cantrip wall. Now think of a game between Kibler's deck and Benafel's... this is a near-mirror match between two decks based on green's efficient creatures and the blue bomb, Opposition. While Benafel has the ability to break parity with the cantrip Repulse, Kibler can ignore all the Repulses in Benafel's deck with a single, resolved, Spellbane Centaur. In fact, should Kibler's Centaur make an appearance in game one, it will negate much of the power of Benafel's Opposition, one of the main incentives to playing this deck. While that Spellbane Centaur isn't as attractive on paper as some of the same options at his mana cost (he is only one 3/2 body for three, rather than 1-2 3/3 creatures for the same), given the right mana, old Spellbane can really swing a matchup in his controller's favor. Consider the fact that most blue/x (and almost all mono-u) decks in Standard will use primarily blue targeted point control (Repulse, Recoil, etc.), and you will see that instead of looking at his deficiencies, it is acceptable to see Spellbane Centaur as a compromise choice. "Sure," you'll say. "He's not quite as good a singular threat as Call of the Herd, he does a bit less damage than Still Life, but he is nonetheless a three power creature for thee, and nothing short of Wash Out will return him to hand, let alone remove him." Pikula didn't think that Spellbane Centaur was worthy of the main deck - his non-Call of the Herd three-drop even attacked the turn it was cast, or could play test spell in the opponent's end step - but he nonetheless saw its potential against problems like Ice, Repulse, and Opposition. While less powerful on paper than either Raging Kavu or Call of the Herd, Spellbane Centaur can nonetheless put three power of pressure on the opponent, while simultaneously disrupting his deck's theme. Only time will tell if the Spellbane Centaur is more deserving of a main deck consideration in g-r beatdown than the Raging Kavu (annoyingly snagged by Llanowar Elves or Diligent Farmhand) or is warranted by a dominance of blue targeted effects.