Sideboard Guide

A guide for sideboarding against each Legacy archetype – explaining what to take out and bring in against those decks. Keep in mind that this is a rough tutorial and sometimes straying from these instructions is correct. Situations, game states and the opponent often call for a different plan of attack.

» Download a PDF sideboard guide

What if effective in this matchup?

“If our opponent is strong in the early game and has a good long-game, how do you win?” You play a different game. Cards such as Veil of Summer, Defense Grid, and the sideboard copies of Hope of Ghirapur allow you to overwhelm the opponent by playing the game differently. These cards are all “must-answers” and if the opponent doesn’t, there’s a good chance that they’re not long for this world. How you overwhelm the opponent is building a presence, start off by getting a copy of Wishclaw Talisman in play along with some artifact mana. Then you cats something like a “must-counter” business spell or Defense Grid. Now you protect you spells with Veil of Summer from your hand or even in your deck with the Wishclaw Talisman.

A friendly reminder that the stipulation on Wishclaw Talisman is that you can only use it on your turn, meaning you can use it at instant speed.

With Defense Grid or a business spell backed by multiple copies of Veil of Summer, it becomes tough for the opponent to keep up. Part of this is due to the clunky nature of some of the control decks. With business spells that cost three or four mana and some of their answers costing up to two mana, you can really pick and choose your spots for when you want to move in for the kill. With the rise of Oko, Thief of Crowns, it’s key to remember that you can use Veil of Summer to protect an important permanent like a Wishclaw Talisman, Hope of Ghirapur, or Lion’s Eye Diamond.

An added benefit of our protection spells being heavy hitting, must-counters, is their effects and how it synergies with our own deck. Echo of Eons is a reasonable “Storm-engine” against blue-based Control decks when paired with Veil of Summer, Defense Grid, and Hope of Ghirapur as our opponent won’t be able to interact with their freshly drawn hand from Echo of Eons.

Sideboarding Concepts

Hope of Ghirapur really shines against these decks due to it’s ability to come down on the first turn to mitigate any drawn counter-magic after it resolves. It also cannot be countered later on in the game by Flusterstorm, Dovin’s Veto, or Force of Negation which are all very popular at the moment.

The hidden nature of v8.5 not containing a main-deck win condition is long-gone with how popular The EPIC Storm has become, many opponents are now aiming to remove Burning Wish from the game using Surgical Extraction. Please prepare for this by sideboarding in a win condition. Based on the colors of the opposing deck determines either Tendrils of Agony or Grapeshot in an effort to play around our opponent’s copies of Veil of Summer.

Important Cards in the Match-up

Control’s Key Cards

Main Deck

Sideboard

TES’s Key Cards

Main Deck

Sideboard

Sideboarding

Resource Links

Articles

09-25-2019 TES Matchup Battles: UW Stoneblade by Alex Poling on theepicstorm.com

08-22-2019 Through the Looking Glass: 4c Snow Control with Rugved Karhade by Anthony LaVerde on theepicstorm.com

08-13-2019 Matchup Mulligan: 4c “Snow” Control by Bryant Cook on theepicstorm.com

07-12-2019 TES Matchup Battles: 4c Control II by Alex Poling on theepicstorm.com

06-24-2019 Through the Looking Glass: Miracles II with Lawrence Harmon on theepicstorm.com

06-17-2019 Matchup Mulligan: Miracles II by Bryant Cook on theepicstorm.com

04-24-2019 Matchup Mulligan: UW Stoneblade by Bryant Cook on theepicstorm.com

01-28-2019 TES Matchup Battles: Miracles by Alex Poling on theepicstorm.com

12-24-2018 TES Matchup Battles: Landstill by Alex Poling on theepicstorm.com

11-14-2018 TES Matchup Battles: Grixis Control by Alex Poling on theepicstorm.com

11-07-2018 Combating Miracles by Bryant Cook on theepicstorm.com

10-16-2018 Through the Looking Glass: Grixis Control with Brian Braun-Duin by Anthony LaVerde on theepicstorm.com

10-10-2018 Matchup Mulligan: Grixis Control by Bryant Cook on theepicstorm.com

09-20-2018 TES Matchup Battles: Esper Stoneblade by Alex Poling on theepicstorm.com

02-19-2018 Through the Looking Glass: Miracles with Anuraag Das and Sam Roukas by AJ Kerrigan on theepicstorm.com

02-07-2018 Matchup Mulligan: 4c Pile by Bryant Cook on theepicstorm.com

01-17-2018 Matchup Mulligan: Miracles by Bryant Cook on theepicstorm.com

07-04-2017 Fighting Miracles in the Post-Top Era by AJ Kerrigan on theepicstorm.com

04-20-2017 TES Matchup Battles: 4c Control by Alex Poling on theepicstorm.com

02-02-2017 TES Matchup Battles: Leovold Sultai by Alex Poling on theepicstorm.com

08-04-2016 Fighting the Miracles Menace by AJ Kerrigan on theepicstorm.com

09-04-2015 Xantid Swarm Vs. The Metagame by Bryant Cook on theepicstorm.com

Videos

01-27-2020 Allen Yee vs. Phil Blechman with 4c Thopter Sword at Gamestoria, NYC

01-26-2020 Showcase Challenge – Bryant_Cook vs. Svaca with 4c Control on Magic: the Gathering Online

01-26-2020 Showcase Challenge – Bryant_Cook vs. Eli12 with BUG Leovold on Magic: the Gathering Online

01-05-2020 Legacy Challenge – Bryant_Cook vs. TheZooKeeper with Miracles on Magic: the Gathering Online

09-29-2019 Legacy Challenge – Bryant_Cook vs. WarAndMagicTV with Grixis Control on Magic: the Gathering Online

09-29-2019 Legacy Challenge – Bryant_Cook vs. _maddy with Miracles on Magic: the Gathering Online

03-24-2019 Q1 Legacy Playoff – 03/24/19 – Bryant_Cook vs. Ark4n with UW Stoneblade on Magic: the Gathering Online

03-24-2019 Q1 Legacy Playoff – 03/24/19 – Bryant_Cook vs. PhilLesh with UW Stoneblade on Magic: the Gathering Online

03-24-2019 Q1 Legacy Playoff – 03/24/19 – Bryant_Cook vs. stainerson with Miracles on Magic: the Gathering Online

02-17-2019 Legacy Challenge – Bryant_Cook vs. Stryfo with 4c Control on Magic: the Gathering Online

02-17-2019 Legacy Challenge – Bryant_Cook vs. t_gaule with Grixis Control on Magic: the Gathering Online

02-17-2019 Legacy Challenge – Bryant_Cook vs. Ozymandias17 with Grixis Control on Magic: the Gathering Online

01-20-2019 Legacy Challenge – Bryant_Cook vs. FirstToThirst with Miracles on Magic: the Gathering Online

12-02-2018 Legacy Challenge – Bryant_Cook vs. Denym with Miracles on Magic: the Gathering Online

11-04-2018 Legacy Challenge – Bryant_Cook vs. Convo with Shardless BUG on Magic: the Gathering Online

10-07-2018 Legacy Challenge – Bryant_Cook vs. AnziD104 with Miracles on Magic: the Gathering Online

10-07-2018 Legacy Challenge – Bryant_Cook vs. flowerdayonyon with Grixis Control on Magic: the Gathering Online

10-07-2018 Legacy Challenge – Bryant_Cook vs. Redviking1993 with Grixis Control on Magic: the Gathering Online

10-07-2018 Legacy Challenge – Bryant_Cook vs. Condescend with Miracles on Magic: the Gathering Online

08-08-2018 Bryant Cook vs Brian Braun-Duin with Grixis Control on Legacy Premier League

07-14-2018 Michael Connin vs. Ali Mirghahari with UW Stoneblade at Prodigy Games: Lake Worth, FL

06-24-2018 Bryant_Cook vs. atdawn_theysleep with 4c Control on Magic: the Gathering Online

06-24-2018 Bryant_Cook vs. Iwouldliketorespond with UW Control on Magic: the Gathering Online

04-29-2018 Bryant_Cook vs. flowerdayonyon with Deathblade on Magic: the Gathering Online

04-29-2018 Bryant_Cook vs. Mikeantor11 with UW Stoneblade on Magic: the Gathering Online

03-04-2018 Bryant Cook vs. Jim Davis with Miracles at StarCityGames: Worcester, MA

08-06-2017 Albert Lindblom (alli) vs atdawn_theysleep with 4c Control (Round 4) on Magic Online (MTGO)

08-06-2017 Albert Lindblom (alli) vs Momsen with 4c Control (Round 3) on Magic Online (MTGO)

05-04-2017 Romario Neto vs Anuraag Das with UWr Stoneblade on Legacy Premier League

04-17-2017 Nick Linder vs. Gabriel Meier with Miracles at Gameplace in Lucerne, Switzerland

03-18-2017 Bryant Cook vs. Joe Stempo with 4c Control at Eternal Extravaganza VI in Washington, DC

04-22-2016 Steven Fierro vs. Fred Chen with Deathblade at Fire & Dice in Woodland Hills, CA

08-22-2015 Joey Valente vs. Corey Armstrong with Shardless BUG at Fire & Dice in Woodland Hills, CA

08-11-2015 Jordon Robbins vs. Jon Ha with Miracles at Ready to Play Trading Cards in Columbia, SC

01-10-2015 Bryant Cook vs. Zane Knapp with Esper Deathblade at StarCityGames: Philadelphia, PA

08-10-2014 Bryant Cook vs. Lloyd Kurth with Shardless BUG at StarCityGames: Syracuse, NY

06-13-2014 Bryant Cook vs. Reid Duke with Miracles at StarCityGames Invitational: Columbus, OH

08-27-2013 Bryant Cook vs. Harry Corvece with Shardless BUG at StarCityGames: Baltimore, MD

06-23-2013 Matthew Bevenour vs. Brad Nelson with Esper Deathblade at StarCityGames: Philadelphia, PA

03-17-2013 Bryant Cook vs. JD Nir with Esper Stoneblade at StarCityGames: Washington, DC

05-12-2012 Bryant Cook vs. Sam Roukas with BUG Control at Jupiter Games in Binghamton, NY

02-11-2012 Bryant Cook vs. Tariq White with Stoneblade at Jupiter Games in Binghamton, NY

The tempo decks are the one archetype that became more difficult from the switch to Wishclaw Talisman and Mox Opal based lists. The EPIC Storm added a fourth color and cut the basic Island, which obviously isn’t ideal against Stifle and Wasteland strategies.

What is effective in this matchup?

How you beat these decks is setting up your mana efficiently, if you have decent mana, the rest will become much more obtainable. Search for your basic Swamp, then pair it with things like Mox Opal, Chrome Mox, and even Lotus Petal. From there, Defense Grid is an all-star against the deck with lots of cheap interaction. I will often try to set up a turn in which I aim to protect Defense Grid with Veil of Summer. This allows you to have more colors on your combo turn as well as more mana in general.

A few tips: Stifle can still counter abilities through Veil of Summer, don’t fall into this trap. Stifle can also stop Wishclaw Talisman, do not forget this!

A good practice to have is to not cast spells in the opponent’s copies of Daze. The easiest way of beating the opponent is to turn their cards into dead cards as Delver of Secrets strategies live on thin margins. If you can make just a few of their cards not effective, it’s a lot easier to navigate through whatever is left in their hand.