Sacrificing Time for the Sideboard

When I went to my most recent fnm a couple weeks ago, one of the guys said something there that stuck around with me for a little bit. He said that a big transfer for a player is learning how to sideboard, and that Magic is really a 75 card game, not just 60. A side board is something that sometimes can feel impossible to make, but at other times can pratically build itself. I find a great way to start building a sideboard is to not build one. I play a bunch of games without a side board and I think to myself "What would be an awesome card to draw right now?" If your deck is built right then it will be in there, but for various matchups you won't have the best card available. For example, I recently shared on my discard deck. I was playing that against Paul's Boros Bushwacker deck, and I kept hoping I would top deck tendrils of corruption. It would remove a creature and gain same life to patch the damage that has been done by the small but numerous attackers.

With that in mind, here is how I started to build the sideboard for the discard deck:

2x Tendrils of Corruption - aggressive matchup
4x Mind Sludge - against control decks that go nuts with Mind Spring
1x Guul Draz Specter - against slower decks that allow this guy to get huge
3x Sadistic Sacrament - turns off Polymorph before it starts, takes essential cogs from most decks
1x Nyxathid - Turn some knobs based on the deck
4x Deathmark - Some nice color hating

The sideboard will always change based on how the meta evolves. The sideboard is a great way to manipulate your deck. I have twice seen jund decks that sideboard in blue. The first brought in Cruel Ultimatum, and the other brought in Sedraxis Specter. The decks completely changed in certain matchups in such a way their opponent was not expecting, making it feel like an entirely new deck.

I suggest making sideboards for your casual decks. Even if you just put in color hating cards like Deathmark, Flashfreeze, and Celestial Purge, it can still dramatically improve your deck and reduce the number of dead draws you get.

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"Hey if I gave you a random card, do you think you could build a deck around it?"
"Sure, tell me whenever you come up with one"
~~~couple days later~~~
"Okay, how about some Grixis Sacrifices [Thraximunder]?"
"Ok, it will appear in the next blog"

That was a slice of a conversation I had with Paul recently. The first thing I thought of when assigned to making Grixis Sacrifices is the Eldrazi which makes your opponents sacrifice permanents. Thraximunder gets +1/+1 counters when any player sacrifices a creature, even yourself. With that in mind, I decided to put in a bunch of Eldrazi spawn generators. Heres same cards I selected as I scoured Gatherer:

Butcher of Malakir - You kill me, I kill you
Consuming Vapors - Kill 2 for 1, gain some life, possibly some +1/+1 counters
Cruel Ultimatum - This card is broken
Emrakul's Hatcher - Spawn Tokens are cool
Gatekeeper of Malakir - +1 creature for me, -1 creature for you, that's fair right?
Mortician Beetle - We need some low drops, and this guy will get big fast
Nicol Bolas, Planeswalker - 8 mana planeswalker? This guy is absolutely nuts!
Pawn of Ulamog - makes all your creatures extra helpful
Rapacious One - This guy is fun to play with and all tokens are appreciated
Thraximunder - The Inspiration
Vampire Aristocrat - Sac a bunch of stuff, pump him, toss around some +1/+1s, everyone is happy
Bloodthrone Vampire - Same as the Aristocrat, we will use him if we need it for the curve
Ponder - If you are playing blue, you play ponder
Artisan of Kozilek - Budget friendly, very powerful annihialating dude
Everflowing Chalice - we need every drop of mana we can get
Blightning - Early disruption pays off in longer games
Sedris, the Traiter King - He is very cool.
Calcite Snapper - We need walls to slow things down
Wall of Frost - Our opponent needs to chill a little

That is a bunch of cool ideas, so let's see what I can do with that.

3x Consuming Vapors
2x Cruel Ultimatum
3x Emrakul's Hatcher
4x Mortician Beetle
4x Pawn of Ulamog
2x Thraximunder
3x Bloodthrone Vampire
4x Ponder
2x Artisan of Kozelik
4x Everflowing Chalice
4x Wall of Frost
25 lands

I think this will work, let's do a mana curve and intensity check:
Curve:
1 - 8
2 - 8
3 - 7
4 - 3
5 - 3
6 - 0
7 - 4
8 - 0
9 - 2

Intensity:
Blue:
1 - 6
2 - 6

Black:
1 - 12
2 - 4
3 - 2

Red:
1 - 5
2 - 2

I think this is pretty safe, nothing looks too reduclous. We have 25 lands, so we have tons to work with, starting with the obvious 4x Crumbling Necropolis. I'm also going to toss in 2x of each of the man lands. I think I can have the rest be basic lands and put in a ton of Terramorphic Expanses and Evolving Wilds to land thin and fix. Heres our mana base:

4x Crumbline Necropolis
2x Lavaclaw Reaches
2x Creeping Tar Pit
4x Island
5x Swamp
2x Mountain
3x Terramorphic Expanse
3x Evolving Wilds

Here is our entire decklist:

Creatures:
2x Artisan of Kozelik
3x Bloodthrone Vampire
3x Emrakul's Hatcher
4x Mortician Beetle
4x Pawn of Ulamog
2x Thraximunder
4x Wall of Frost

Instant/Sorcery:

3x Consuming Vapors
2x Cruel Ultimatum
4x Ponder

Artifact:
4x Everflowing Chalice

Land:

4x Crumbline Necropolis
2x Lavaclaw Reaches
2x Creeping Tar Pit
4x Island
5x Swamp
2x Mountain
3x Terramorphic Expanse
3x Evolving Wilds

I now have a challenge to everyone out there reading this. There is a weekly magic show on youtube that always ends with, "We're tapped out for now, but will untap later". Anyone who can tell me will get a free card! Post your response in the comments below. Peace out

-rLack