SideboardMagic OnlineOCTGN2ApprenticeBuy These Cards |
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2 Defense Grid 2 Ghostly Prison 3 Nature's Claim 1 Oblivion Stone 2 Relic of Progenitus 4 Timely Reinforcements 1 Wurmcoil Engine |
I'm going to run down a list of common archetypes and what I use against them.
-Twin-
- Ghostly Prison: Prevents combo kill. Their two Cryptic Commands are usually the only answer to it, gives you time to set up.
- Defense Grid: In the first 4-5 turns of the game it keeps them off of counter magic and forces them to attempt the combo at sorcery speed (hint: they won't). Gives you time to set up.
- Nature's Claim: Technically able to destroy Twin, but it's more importantly used against Blood Moon. I keep this out against any 3-color Twin variant.
- Oblivion Stone: Instant speed board wipe is good against any deck that needs to win with permanents.
-Abzan/Jund/Wilt-Leaf-
- Wurmcoil Engine: Emrakul goes out, this comes in.
- Nature's Claim: I fear Stony Silence in pretty much every white deck. Can keep me alive in a pinch (this obviously only comes in against Abzan).
- Oblivion Stone: Board wipe good against creatures.dek. Vulnerable to Abrupt Decay but sometimes we just gotta deal.
-Burn-
- Timely Reinforcements: Self-explanatory.
- Wurmcoil Engine: Self-explanatory.
- Nature's Claim: Self-explanatory.
-Affinity-
- Nature's Claim: Destroys artifacts. Decent against an artifact deck.
- Oblivion Stone: Destroys artifacts (and all other non-land permanents). W/O Pyro the game plan is to stay alive through the targeted spot removal and then try to stabilize with Wurmcoil and control with Karn/O-Stone.
- Ghostly Prison: Slows them down a bit.
-Infect-
This one needs a bit of clarification. The anti-infect cards are all pretty much mainboarded (Spellskite, PtE). Most of this sideboard strat is to just take out do-nothings (Emrakul) and slot in cards that do something, even if it's marginal.
- Oblivion Stone: It blows dudes up, sometimes that's all we need.
- Nature's Claim. Kills Inkmoth and that one enchantment they sometimes use that I can't remember.
- Timely Reinforcements: I don't usually bring this in, but sometimes a squad of blockers are alright against creatures that can be blocked.
-Zoo-
- Ghostly Prison: Slows them down.
- Wurmcoil Engine: Usually a win-con if it lands.
- Oblivion Stone: Kills their guys.
- Nature's Claim: If I suspect Blood Moon/Stony Silence. Can also keep me alive.
-Grixis Delver-
- Nature's Claim: Killing Blood Moon is most critical against decks with fast clocks, which Delver has.
- Ghostly Prison: REALLY slows them down.
- Oblivion Stone: Kills their dudes.
- Timely Reinforcements: Some number is usually alright if only to chump big guys and buy time.
- Defense Grid: Depends on how much countermagic I'm suspecting or have seen. This isn't terribly common.
-Merfolk-
- Oblivion Stone: Actually probably the best side card against them. Destroy Spreading Seas, Vial, dudes all at once.
- Nature's Claim: Hit Vials and Spreading Seas. A Claim on a T1 Vial can often win the game outright.
- Ghostly Prison: Slows them down.
- Timely Reinforcements: Not sure about this one, haven't played Merfolk with GW yet. Bad against Islandwalk, but might be worth playing anyway.
-UW Control (or any control deck that goes long)-
- Oblivion Stone: All creatures that aren't Emrakul come out, and all the control elements come in. This blows up dudes like Resto, Snap and V-Clique.
- Defense Grid: Tron's counterspell.
- Nature's Claim: Stony Silence is a beating. Can timewalk a Colonnade swing.
- Relic of Progenitus: Negates Snapcaster. Sometimes that's enough.
-Bloom Titan-
- Nature's Claim: Hitting Amulet early is always good. Hitting Hive Mind is usually good.
- Oblivion Stone: Killing their Primetime is usually good.
-Scapeshift-
- Defense Grid: Wurmcoil needs to land and attack.
- Wurmcoil Engine: The key to winning this matchup is a Spellskite and a quick Wurmcoil.
-Company Elves-
- Oblivion Stone: Kills lots of elves.
- Wurmcoil Engine: Really good at fighting elves.
-Company Abzan-
- Relic of Progenitus: Keeps them off infinite combos (usually. the only one that we actually care about is Redcap).
- Oblivion Stone: Kills dudes.
- Ghostly Prison: Slows the beatdown gameplan (not sure if this is right).
-Storm-
- Relic of Progenitus: Usually enough to cause their chain to fail.
- Nature's Claim: Kill Blood Moon, Pyromancer Ascension.
- Oblivion Stone: Kills Ascension, Electromancer, Empty the Warrens (if they go that route).
I've been thinking about Grafdigger's Cage instead of Relic of Progentius. Useful against Storm (Ascension still triggers but other cards can deal with that), good against Company Elves and Abzan if they don't find Reclamation Sage or Abrupt Decay. Good against Living End if they don't find the Ingot Chewer. Might not be good enough. I've also thought about trying to free up a pair of slots elsewhere for the Cage or even Torpor Orb. Orb is looking better every day but probably still isn't good enough. What it really boils down to is what kind of decks I expect to see at GP Charlotte. I expect to see a lot of Company. I expect to see a lot of Twin. I expect to see a lot of Burn. Just not sure what the best approach is.
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