it is just that the timmy factor in our community increased and wizards noticed this. this product is not to evolve modern but to diversify the product range and sell a product with the same costs of developement and production for a higher price to all these people that are willing to pay for it.
arguably this kind of sets have a lower production cost than Standard sets: you skip most of the design and testing part.
I dont think so in this case, there a re new cards and reprints of cards not currently in modern so they had to test stuff up to a point.
Don't think so, the lifelink from Sorin is very important to turn the game, but Serra might be the second best above Gideon, AoZ. The token is more relevant and the +2 has good synergy with the deck.
Thanks for the arguments, I kind of getting into grips with this SB strategy more, in fact these weekend I tried 2 different sweepers and experienced why it would be useful.
I won a medium size tournament (for my city), 24 players, I finished 5-0-1. I closely followed Michael Siembor quide for the matchs as well as for the sideboard as much as I could, since I don't have fetchlands I couldn't play hidden stockpile but I did include the 3rd Sorin, SV and exchanged Raise the Alarm with Secure the wastes. I couldn't find all the sideboard cards on time so I adapted with whatever I could: Damping Matrix for Stony Silence, Kaya's Wrath and Settle the Wreckage for Wrath of God and EE. The final list was:
(A little background about me: I am a returning player, my last big tournament was 14 years ago in a PTQ for kamigawa standard, at the time I also played Tinker and Oath/Morphling in extended, I started playing around Nemesis. I have been playing modern since november of last year, first with White weenie and 3 weeks with BW tokens)
Match 1 vs Jeskai Control, 2-1
First game I start quite aggressive with turn 2 virtue-Spectral procession and 4th turn Sorin and he struggles to stabilize, doesn't found terminus and I win.
Second game turns long and he gets a Lyra, comeback seems far so I concede.
Third game, very similar to game one, but I draw my discard spells and he can't find more answers.
Match 2 vs dredge, 2-0
With this list this match up really feels totally one sided for BW Tokens, an early Auriok champion (and another one 3 turns later) makes racing us very very hard for dredge, it takes a while to be able to go on the offensive but you eventually draw a Sorin and turn the tide, he got all his creatures out, he brought me down to 13, but I went up to 61 with Sorin and Intangible Virtue on the board. Both games were quite similar, and in the second one I didn't even see my SB.
Match 3 vs GR Eldrazi (not tron): 2-1
So this a Rogue deck or at least I was not aware, a ramp deck with mana dorks that deploys different Eldrazis and other creatures like Bloodbraid Elf and Hazoreth.
This games had a lot of combat, I just exchanged my creatures for his until I had an intangible virtue out and could go on the offensive with the flying tokens.
In the second game he boards in Basilisk Collar and the games go quite long with big life swing, but eventually the card advantage produced by the tokens is too much. A couple of times in this games Secure the Wastes totally surprised him when he thought I didn't have enough blockers making trades quite favorable to me.
Match 4 vs Rock: 2-1
First game his spot removal can't keep up with the tokens, I rapidly ooverrun him with fliers.
Game 2 he boards in 2 maelstrom pulse, damnation, Languish and Liliana, The last Hope. I start quite aggressive and even after all the sweepers I manage to being him to 1 life, but he is able to stabilize and I mana flood, a Tireless Tracker allows him to refill his hand all game long and I didn't draw removal for it, it goes up to 13/13 and kills me.
Third game is close, I start again with an aggressive offensive, he sweeps the board a couple of times but Adanto, The first Fort and Bitterblossom allow me rebuild fast.
Match 5 vs Whir of Invention/Tezzerator: 2-1
The first game he starts quite fast and strong deploying a Chalice of the void for 1 on first turn, he knows I have discard spells but I didn't draw them. I deploy quite a few spirits, Sorin and when he is at 5 he finds an ensnaring bridge, then Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas and I concede.
Game 2, My opening hand has 2 disenchants and even if it lacks discard I keep it, the game starts similar but instead of Chalice he gets 2 Engineered Explosives on the board, then he makes quite a big mistake tapping out to play Tezzeret, agent of bolas (I guess he wanted to find the bridge fast) and on my turn I am able to cast stony silence making those EE useless. I put in some beats and kill tezzeret, he eventually finds 2 ensnaring bridge but my disenchant's are ready to blow them.
Game 3, Both of us mulligan to 5 since I didn't get SB cards, I open with Inquisition of Kozilek and duress turn one and two to get rid of Whir and tezzeret, he plays a chalice for 2 on turn 3, so I pray to the gods of Magic he doesn't find the bridge, they hear me and I am able to overrun him, I did make a big mistake, he drew and played another Tezzeret, on my turn I was aware I didn't have lethal damage but didn't kill the planeswalker with only two loyalty points, so I gave him one more chance to find bridge, fortunately he didn't. I had lot of luck this game and felt quite hopeless in game 2 at some point.
While my opponent was a nice guy but he was a bit cocky when I asked if I could cast Lingering souls flashback with his Chalice in the board for 2, I had to call the judge to have a definitive answer.
Match 5, vs Jeskai control, 1-1
I start quite strong with discard followed with BB on turn 2, then sorin and beats start to get in, in turn 6 I have 6 tokens with Virtue and Sorin out and he is on 12, he also has a teferi on board, I make the mistake to divide attackers and send 2 to Teferi and 4 to face thinking that in the worst case he would loose Teferi and will go down to 3 life, but he casts double Lighting Helix and is able to save him self and teferi. The games goes quite long after than. Another mistake I made is that I forgot to flip Legion's Landing for 3 turns, even with that error I get him down to two, but in the meanwhile he cast a Jace, The mind sculptor and is able to respond to all my threats, he gets teferi emblem and I concede. This game took 40 minutes.
In game two I open up with turn 1 IoK, turn 2 Duress getting a counter and a terminus and turn 3 Lost legacy for snapcaster mage, I also cast Rest in Peace, he runs out of answers and a Secure the wastes for 5 followed by Sorin gets me the game. there are only 4 minutes left to finish the round so we draw.
Obviously I am very happy with the deck performance and I had lot of luck avoiding MU vs Tron (there were two players with it, one blue and one green) and nobody played combo decks so I had quite a favorable meta but even then the deck surprised me with its stellar performance.
MVP's:
Sorin, Solemn Visitor is a hell of a card for the deck (can't imagine how the deck did without him).
Auriok Champion is really a great call for the current meta, the struggle to remove her is very real.
Secure the wastes gets enemies by surprise, a card that definitely runs under the radar.
Cards I am not sure about/under performed Legion's landing I don't think I flip it once before turn 4, it provided valuable blockers and life gain to grind out games and force them to use their land destruction on Adanto leaving Shambling vents free to beat and block for several turns. But maybe Hidden stockpile is just better since the mana investment and conditions are way lower in the long term and it also provides card filtering which the decks really needs. Gideon, ally of zendikar , he didn't have a big impact as Sorin, he sure drew the attention of opponents making them took quite inefficient decisions with their removal. But most of the time you make a token and it dies. Zealous Persecution, I had it on hand from the SB in a few games but it wasn't that back breaking, maybe I need more testing with it but I feel there could be something better for my worst match ups.
Some cards I wished I had: Anguished unmaking After the Chalice of the void for 2 I felt really bad I didn't got this card, even as one to have an out, it also would come useful to get rid of planeswalkers vs Jeskai. Cleansing Nova this is a card I had in my SB when I arrived at the tournament but I finally left it out in favor of lost legacy which I bought from a dealer at the place, I definetely going to bring it to the SB instead of Kaya's wrath or a disenchant to have a versatile answer.
Last thoughts:
All games went long, quite long so I am really considering to exchange Gideon for either Sword of fire and Ice or Elspeth, Sun's champion, I now both could hurt me in more fast MU but I honestly feel I need a big thing that seals the deal vs Jeskai or that can turn things around in a big way.
Anyway, thank for reading and hope you find it useful.
it can be very relevant and a lot of times you see this done if the card has a narrow use. cards like negate, celestial purge, or creatures with a very specific use tend to occupy this type of slot.
That being said, i tend to believe it to be the other way around. Sideboards with a lot of 1of cards tend to overlap a lot, so they can be used in a veriety of configurations to suit different matchups. Therefore they have a wider application.
Narrow answer cards are those you absolutely need in specific matchupss, usually the bad ones. Take Fulminator Mage in earlier BGx midrange VS Tron for example. Other exaples are Rest in Peace and Stony Silence in white based decks vs graveyard based strategies or artifact based combo. These usually are pretty narrow but powerfull "hoser" effects you really want or absolutely need to draw in order to win.
So by this standard, overlapping side board cards can be used as a variety of 1ofs whereas the narrow, must have answers usually show up in multiples.
That makes sense, as well as other arguments where the 1 copy on the SB actually makes the 4th overall or complements similar effects on the MB.
That being said I can't get out of my head the probability of drawing a single copy in G2, I just imagine playing the game and needing the card and cursing because I only put one copy.
I wonder why one copy of a single card makes sense in the sideboard, I suppose that if you want to see the card at all you want at least 3, one seems like wishing but not really expecting to draw the card.
Which are the arguments to include a single copy of a card which purpose is to improve any given match up?
Like that.
I dont think so in this case, there a re new cards and reprints of cards not currently in modern so they had to test stuff up to a point.
Don't think so, the lifelink from Sorin is very important to turn the game, but Serra might be the second best above Gideon, AoZ. The token is more relevant and the +2 has good synergy with the deck.
(A little background about me: I am a returning player, my last big tournament was 14 years ago in a PTQ for kamigawa standard, at the time I also played Tinker and Oath/Morphling in extended, I started playing around Nemesis. I have been playing modern since november of last year, first with White weenie and 3 weeks with BW tokens)
4 Auriok Champion
Enchantment
2 Bitterblossom
2 Legion's Landing
4 Intangible Virtue
Instant
2 Secure the Wastes
3 Fatal Push
3 Path to Exile
Sorcery
3 Inquisition of Kozilek
4 Lingering Souls
4 Spectral Procession
2 Duress
3 Sorin, Solemn Visitor
1 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
Land
2 Shambling Vent
3 Concealed Courtyard
1 Vault of the Archangel
2 Isolated Chapel
10 Plains
1 Swamp
4 Godless Shrine
2 Rest in Peace
1 Stony Silence
2 Damping Matrix
1 Relic of Progenitus
3 Disenchant
2 Zealous Persecution
1 Lost Legacy
1 Duress
1 Kaya's Wrath
1 Settle the Wreckage
Here the tournament report:
Match 1 vs Jeskai Control, 2-1
First game I start quite aggressive with turn 2 virtue-Spectral procession and 4th turn Sorin and he struggles to stabilize, doesn't found terminus and I win.
Second game turns long and he gets a Lyra, comeback seems far so I concede.
Third game, very similar to game one, but I draw my discard spells and he can't find more answers.
Match 2 vs dredge, 2-0
With this list this match up really feels totally one sided for BW Tokens, an early Auriok champion (and another one 3 turns later) makes racing us very very hard for dredge, it takes a while to be able to go on the offensive but you eventually draw a Sorin and turn the tide, he got all his creatures out, he brought me down to 13, but I went up to 61 with Sorin and Intangible Virtue on the board. Both games were quite similar, and in the second one I didn't even see my SB.
Match 3 vs GR Eldrazi (not tron): 2-1
So this a Rogue deck or at least I was not aware, a ramp deck with mana dorks that deploys different Eldrazis and other creatures like Bloodbraid Elf and Hazoreth.
This games had a lot of combat, I just exchanged my creatures for his until I had an intangible virtue out and could go on the offensive with the flying tokens.
In the second game he boards in Basilisk Collar and the games go quite long with big life swing, but eventually the card advantage produced by the tokens is too much. A couple of times in this games Secure the Wastes totally surprised him when he thought I didn't have enough blockers making trades quite favorable to me.
Match 4 vs Rock: 2-1
First game his spot removal can't keep up with the tokens, I rapidly ooverrun him with fliers.
Game 2 he boards in 2 maelstrom pulse, damnation, Languish and Liliana, The last Hope. I start quite aggressive and even after all the sweepers I manage to being him to 1 life, but he is able to stabilize and I mana flood, a Tireless Tracker allows him to refill his hand all game long and I didn't draw removal for it, it goes up to 13/13 and kills me.
Third game is close, I start again with an aggressive offensive, he sweeps the board a couple of times but Adanto, The first Fort and Bitterblossom allow me rebuild fast.
Match 5 vs Whir of Invention/Tezzerator: 2-1
The first game he starts quite fast and strong deploying a Chalice of the void for 1 on first turn, he knows I have discard spells but I didn't draw them. I deploy quite a few spirits, Sorin and when he is at 5 he finds an ensnaring bridge, then Tezzeret, Agent of Bolas and I concede.
Game 2, My opening hand has 2 disenchants and even if it lacks discard I keep it, the game starts similar but instead of Chalice he gets 2 Engineered Explosives on the board, then he makes quite a big mistake tapping out to play Tezzeret, agent of bolas (I guess he wanted to find the bridge fast) and on my turn I am able to cast stony silence making those EE useless. I put in some beats and kill tezzeret, he eventually finds 2 ensnaring bridge but my disenchant's are ready to blow them.
Game 3, Both of us mulligan to 5 since I didn't get SB cards, I open with Inquisition of Kozilek and duress turn one and two to get rid of Whir and tezzeret, he plays a chalice for 2 on turn 3, so I pray to the gods of Magic he doesn't find the bridge, they hear me and I am able to overrun him, I did make a big mistake, he drew and played another Tezzeret, on my turn I was aware I didn't have lethal damage but didn't kill the planeswalker with only two loyalty points, so I gave him one more chance to find bridge, fortunately he didn't. I had lot of luck this game and felt quite hopeless in game 2 at some point.
While my opponent was a nice guy but he was a bit cocky when I asked if I could cast Lingering souls flashback with his Chalice in the board for 2, I had to call the judge to have a definitive answer.
Match 5, vs Jeskai control, 1-1
I start quite strong with discard followed with BB on turn 2, then sorin and beats start to get in, in turn 6 I have 6 tokens with Virtue and Sorin out and he is on 12, he also has a teferi on board, I make the mistake to divide attackers and send 2 to Teferi and 4 to face thinking that in the worst case he would loose Teferi and will go down to 3 life, but he casts double Lighting Helix and is able to save him self and teferi. The games goes quite long after than. Another mistake I made is that I forgot to flip Legion's Landing for 3 turns, even with that error I get him down to two, but in the meanwhile he cast a Jace, The mind sculptor and is able to respond to all my threats, he gets teferi emblem and I concede. This game took 40 minutes.
In game two I open up with turn 1 IoK, turn 2 Duress getting a counter and a terminus and turn 3 Lost legacy for snapcaster mage, I also cast Rest in Peace, he runs out of answers and a Secure the wastes for 5 followed by Sorin gets me the game. there are only 4 minutes left to finish the round so we draw.
Obviously I am very happy with the deck performance and I had lot of luck avoiding MU vs Tron (there were two players with it, one blue and one green) and nobody played combo decks so I had quite a favorable meta but even then the deck surprised me with its stellar performance.
MVP's:
Cards I am not sure about/under performed
Legion's landing I don't think I flip it once before turn 4, it provided valuable blockers and life gain to grind out games and force them to use their land destruction on Adanto leaving Shambling vents free to beat and block for several turns. But maybe Hidden stockpile is just better since the mana investment and conditions are way lower in the long term and it also provides card filtering which the decks really needs.
Gideon, ally of zendikar , he didn't have a big impact as Sorin, he sure drew the attention of opponents making them took quite inefficient decisions with their removal. But most of the time you make a token and it dies.
Zealous Persecution, I had it on hand from the SB in a few games but it wasn't that back breaking, maybe I need more testing with it but I feel there could be something better for my worst match ups.
Some cards I wished I had:
Anguished unmaking After the Chalice of the void for 2 I felt really bad I didn't got this card, even as one to have an out, it also would come useful to get rid of planeswalkers vs Jeskai.
Cleansing Nova this is a card I had in my SB when I arrived at the tournament but I finally left it out in favor of lost legacy which I bought from a dealer at the place, I definetely going to bring it to the SB instead of Kaya's wrath or a disenchant to have a versatile answer.
Last thoughts:
All games went long, quite long so I am really considering to exchange Gideon for either Sword of fire and Ice or Elspeth, Sun's champion, I now both could hurt me in more fast MU but I honestly feel I need a big thing that seals the deal vs Jeskai or that can turn things around in a big way.
Anyway, thank for reading and hope you find it useful.
That makes sense, as well as other arguments where the 1 copy on the SB actually makes the 4th overall or complements similar effects on the MB.
That being said I can't get out of my head the probability of drawing a single copy in G2, I just imagine playing the game and needing the card and cursing because I only put one copy.
Overall it will reduce variance, making the match up more dependent on the specific decks playing.
Which are the arguments to include a single copy of a card which purpose is to improve any given match up?