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.

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[[Force of Will|]]

[[Deafening Silence|]]

[[Force of Negation|]]

Navigating the Control matchups isn’t the easiest task, there’s a lot to consider: “What are the odds the opponent has free counter-magic in hand?” to winning the game before [[Deafening Silence]] hits the table in post-board games.

You can find the mathematical probability of free counter-magic in the opponent’s opening hand, on the data page. You can also find the number of [[Goblin Token]]s you’ll need to successfully beat a [[Stoneforge Mystic]] into [[Batterskull]]!

The plan in the past has traditionally been to “go-under” Control decks before those decks have time to lock TES out of the game with cards such as [[Counterbalance]] and [[Ethersworn Canonist]] or for Control decks with a card advantage engine with something like [[Jace, the Mind Sculptor]]. While this plan can still work, depending on the hand, it’s certainly a lot more risky in a world that contains [[Force of Negation]]. This is because the increased percentage of the opponent having free counter-magic in the opponent’s hand went up. With the printing of cards like [[Force of Negation]], [[Drown in the Loch]], and [[Mystic Sanctuary]] waiting too long can also be an issue as the Control player can “grind” out games using incremental advantages.

What is effective in this matchup?

“If the opponent is strong in the early game and has a good long-game, how does TES win?” It plays a different game. Cards such as [[Veil of Summer]], [[Defense Grid]], and sometimes even sideboard options such as [[Galvanic Relay]] or [[Carpet of Flowers]] allow the deck to overwhelm the opponent by playing the game differently. These cards are all “critical-hits” and if the opponent doesn’t have the right tools immediately, there’s a good chance that they’re not long for this world. How TES overwhelms the opponent is building a presence, start off by getting a copy of [[Wishclaw Talisman]] in play along with some artifact mana. Then cast something like a “must-counter” business spell or [[Defense Grid]]. Now, protect the spells with [[Veil of Summer]] from hand or even in the deck with the [[Wishclaw Talisman]]. The deck is able to not feel pressured to race [[Deafening Silence]] due to having access to a pair of [[Abrupt Decay]] which can be searched for.

A friendly reminder that the stipulation on [[Wishclaw Talisman]] is that it can only be used during your turn, meaning it can be used as instant speed.

An added benefit of the protection spells being heavy hitting, must-counters, is their effects and how it synergizes with the deck. [[Echo of Eons]] is a reasonable “Storm-engine” against blue-based Control decks when paired with [[Veil of Summer]] and [[Defense Grid]] as they won’t be able to interact with their freshly drawn hand from [[Echo of Eons]]. [[Thoughtseize]] isn’t as ideal, which is why you won’t find any copies in our deck list.

With Modern Horizons 2 (MH2), Control decks gained a new tool in [[Prismatic Ending]] which is possibly the most efficient board answer printed to this day. It makes casting an early [[Lion’s Eye Diamond]], [[Wishclaw Talisman]], or [[Defense Grid]] possibly a risk. This is something to keep in the back of your mind, if your hand can afford to wait until the combo turn to cast these spells — it’s worth it. Another effective spell against these cards is [[Kolaghan’s Command]], that said, you can always “counter” that spell with a [[Veil of Summer]].

Control decks weren’t the only ones that received an upgrade in Modern Horizons 2, The EPIC Storm received [[Galvanic Relay]]! Essentially, an “uncounterable” card advantage engine in a match-up that is often defined by available resources. This changes the dynamic of the match-up quite a bit by making both [[Burning Wish]] and [[Wishclaw Talisman]] an incredibly dangerous cards to let resolve, which was often the play pattern previously. Before MH2, the worst thing that could happen to a control deck was a lethal Storm spell much later in the game which allowed them plenty of time to manipulate the game to not matter or a [[Thoughtseize]] which could be rendered ineffective by their own copies of [[Veil of Summer]]. The EPIC Storm now has an easily castable, lower-power level, mini-[[Mind’s Desire]] to dominate games.

Sideboarding Concepts

[[Deafening Silence]] and [[Ethersworn Canonist]] are rising in stock from blue-based control decks, which means in post-board games, it’s rare to activate [[Wishclaw Talisman]] before passing the turn back to the opponent. TES can help prepare for these cards by siding in [[Abrupt Decay]] as a clean answer. Try to cast copies of [[Abrupt Decay]] when the opponent is unable to cast [[Veil of Summer]].

MH2 completely changed our approach for post-board games. For the last few years, we’ve been looking to side out cheap acceleration such as superfluous copies of [[Chrome Mox]] and/or [[Mox Opal]] for more stable mana such as [[Carpet of Flowers]]. While [[Prismatic Ending]] can hit [[Carpet of Flowers]] that means it’s not exiling [[Wishclaw Talisman]] or [[Defense Grid]], we’re looking to overload their targets while still achieving our game plan. Being selective on when to cast [[Carpet of Flowers]] is a skill that can help greatly, it doesn’t need to be played on the first turn.

One of the best things you could do with [[Mind’s Desire]] is to reveal another copy of it to itself — that also applies to [[Galvanic Relay]]. To increase our odds of finding [[Galvanic Relay]], there are four total, with the idea that we’ll side in two copies and leave one as a [[Burning Wish]] target. In order to maximize this strategy, we’re keeping in more copies of fast mana that ever! [[Chrome Mox]], [[Mox Opal]], and [[Rite of Flame]] are all cards that would’ve left our deck after game one in the past. Instead, we’re siding out [[Ponder]] which might seem wild, but with good reason.

Each piece of acceleration cast, essentially replaces itself with [[Galvanic Relay]] which helps us continue the overall goal of achieving a dominating board-presence early against the control deck. You need lots of mana both pre- and post-[[Galvanic Relay]] to make this concept work. Meanwhile, the opponent is siding in effects such as [[Pyroblast]], [[Narset, Parter of Veils]], and [[Hullbreacher]]. By reducing our number of blue draw spells, we’re naturally making ourselves better against the opponent. We’re trading card selection for a mass-volume of cards which is extremely desirable here.

Important Cards in the Match-up

Control’s Key Cards

Main Deck

[[Force of Will]]
[[Force of Negation]]
[[Plague Engineer]]
[[Kolaghan’s Command]]
[[Prismatic Ending]]
[[Veil of Summer]]
[[Snapcaster Mage]]

Sideboard

[[Leovold, Emissary of Trest]]
[[Counterbalance]]
[[Deafening Silence]]
[[Rest in Peace]]
[[Pyroblast]]
[[Collector Ouphe]]

TES’s Key Cards

Main Deck

[[Veil of Summer]]
[[Defense Grid]]
[[Wishclaw Talisman]]
[[Burning Wish]]
[[Galvanic Relay]]
[[Echo of Eons]]
[[Ad Nauseam]]