Oath of the Gatewatch Standard is a pretty diverse format. Overall, it's a lot more aggressive than we're used to. I'm going to list a few relevant archetypes and my sideboard plans against them. I'll also explain why I've made these decisions... They have been quite thought out!AGAINST ATARKA RED
This deck is extremely fast and can kill me before I can cast a spell sometimes. My life total becomes a lot more precious and the big removal spells become less relevant. I have to rely more on my removal than my counterspells, and wincons are even farther away.
OUT
2x Painful Truths: 3 life is a little more relevant when I'm most likely losing a lot more than that by the time I'm casting this.
1x Dig Through Time: This is a bad card to have stuck in my hand. I would much rather have a strong removal spell.
1x Duress: This hits a few relevant spells, but I'll already have more than plenty of counterspells for them. Probably not needed.
1x Silumgar's Scorn: Cheap creatures are usually not worth countering. I'm keeping 3 because spells like Hordeling Outburst and
Become Immense
are still very dangerous.
1x Ob Nixilis Reignited: He's too slow, and he's going to get killed before he creates a major shift in tempo.
IN
AGAINST BLACK-GREEN ELVES
This deck can be extremely explosive and can flood the board thanks to cards like Dwynen's Elite. Once again, my life total is more precious and I have to focus more on removing their major wincons before I can even consider casting mine.
OUT
IN
AGAINST 4-COLOR RALLY
This matchup can be extremely bad for me. Most of the time, I'll have a way to counter
Rally the Ancestors
, but the real issue in this is
Nantuko Husk
. Once I can find a way to get past that card, this matchup is cake, especially with Dragonlord Kolaghan on the board.
OUT
IN
AGAINST BANT COMPANY
This matchup is relatively easy for me as long as I don't screw one way or another. All of their creatures are cheap and most of them die to
Draconic Roar
. My biggest concern is the Den Protector / Deathmist Raptor combo, so killing morphs while my opponent is tapped out will be key.
OUT
- 2x Painful Truths: This card isn't necessarily bad, it's just the card I feel most comfortable without.
IN
AGAINST MARDU GREEN
This deck is just plain confusing for me. The cards I'm most worried about are Crackling Doom and Abzan Charm because they kill my creatures so easily. The creatures in this deck aren't necessarily tough to deal with, so I think I just try to win out in the attrition race and not die to
Soulfire Grand Master
.
OUT
IN
AGAINST ABZAN AGGRO
Abzan decks get stomped quite frequently. Honestly, I'm probably not going to sideboard at all unless something goes terribly wrong and I die to a rogue card. I might board out Painful Truths for God-knows-what, but I think this matchup is fine.
AGAINST BLACK-RED DRAGONS
This is a very aggressive deviation of my deck, so cards like Crux of Fate may or may not be relevant. My two other colors pull me ahead, though, so I don't intend to change it a whole lot.
OUT
- 2x Painful Truths: Why is this card even in here?! Because RIPPING 3 GAME 1 = VALUE. After that, it's kinda bad.
IN
- 2x
Encase in Ice
. Just a good tempo card that slows them down enough for me to stabilize.
AGAINST GREEN-RED ELDRAZI
This matchup is actually fine. my counterspells do overtime except against the Titans and World Breaker, and all of my good removal spells for them are in the mainboard (Crackling Doom and Foul-Tongue Invocation. Ugin, the Spirit Dragon is the only concerning card in this matchup, so I'll have to bring in hate for him. Dragonlord Silumgar is fantastic against him already, but I need more than 2 cards. Don't worry - I'm keeping Painful Truths this time!
OUT
2x Duress: None of their spells (besides Ugin) are really worth snatching, so this comes out.
1x Ob Nixilis Reignited: He's just not relevant enough here. I'm keeping my Painful Truths for card advantage and I have plenty of removal already.
1x
Sphinx of the Final Word
: He's not relevant enough. I'd rather have more answers to Ugin.
IN
AGAINST MONO-GREEN ELDRAZI
This matchup is almost identical to the R/G Eldrazi match, except
Whisperwood Elemental
is a little spooky.
OUT
IN
AGAINST COLORLESS ELDRAZI
This deck isn't necessarily a thing, but Reality Smasher is Reality Smasher, so why not? Crackling Doom and Foul-Tongue Invocation already put me in a good spot, so really, I don't see a whole lot to change here. if I need to sideboard anything, I'll figure it out at that moment. I'll probably just take out Painful Truths (sorry).
AGAINST JESKAI BLACK
This deck has Crackling Doom, and boy, does it hurt. Time to bring in all of the answers and bring out all of the irrelevant spells! This is actually so bad, I'm going to board in one more card than I board out! 61 cards hurts me more than you think, but this is how it must be.
OUT
IN
AGAINST MARDU
This is another weird deck that I honestly don't know what to do against. I'm very open to suggestions.
AGAINST GRIXIS CONTROL
Yay, a control mirror! My big plan is to draw or wn with aggression, so it's time to take out all of the weak cards and bring in the safe ones!
Sphinx of the Final Word
is sweet here!
OUT
- 4x Foul-Tongue Invocation: I have way too much removal for a control mirror. This one is just the worst of the three cheap ones.
IN
AGAINST ESPER DRAGONS
This is the closest to a mirror I'm ever going to get. I'm relying on my red spells to push me over in advantage to hopefully win with attrition and aggression. As long as I avoid misplays, I'll be fine!
OUT
IN
If you have any more archetypes for me to add in, I'll be more than happy to!
