C · Positioning & Configuration · §14
The fifteen redistributes threats and interaction. It does not replace the combo, and boarding it out is how the matchup gets lost.
19 shuffled units after boarding · at or above the 19-unit floor.
Bring in
Take out
Qualifications
Preserve life. Every decision downstream of that gets easier.
Wrath at X=2 clears most of their creatures and Goblin Bombardment, Rest in Peace, High Noon and Vexing Bauble alongside them.
Riddler is the post-sweeper threat, and it does not care what they boarded against your graveyard.
Fetch basics before the Blood Moon turn, not after.
Preserve · · · · Atraxa over Griselbrand in every game. Your life total will not pay for seven cards here.
Avoid · Overcommitting Frog and Archaeologist into your own Wrath.
Avoid · Spending removal on every one-drop when a sweeper is a turn away.
Avoid · Reanimating because the ceiling looked higher.
Structural problem → the card that answers it. Each sideboard slot exists for a specific structural reason, not a general one.
From the guide . §14 Sideboard Philosophy
The sideboard does not replace the combo. It redistributes the deck’s threat and interaction profile, and every card in it is chosen on that basis.
Trimming one is defensible against an extreme hate-heavy configuration. Your default post-board deck should still be threatening Goryo, because that threat is what makes their fair cards awkward.
Even when you expect hate, forcing them to hold up Surgical, Endurance or an artifact activation has value in itself. A turn they spend holding an answer is a turn they are not developing.
The two sideboard copies take the deck to three. They are strongest against control, the mirror, Dimir and Esper midrange, graveyard-hate-heavy decks, and any matchup where a 4/6 flyer dominates combat.
It answers creature boards, artifact boards, Rest in Peace, High Noon, Goblin Bombardment, Vexing Bauble, Urza’s Saga, and most other low-mana enchantments and artifacts. That dual function is why three copies are worth the slots.
Best against Affinity, Eldrazi artifact mana and planeswalkers, Basking Broodscale’s sacrifice infrastructure, Walking Ballista, Haywire Mite, Devoted Druid, Yawgmoth, and activated graveyard artifacts.
It answers colourless spells, cast triggers, entry triggers, cascade, storm, Amulet triggers, and your own delayed exile and evoke triggers. Nothing else in the board does that many jobs.