I have a few questions about sideboarding with BUG Dragon, and I was hoping someone could answer them:

1) How do you side versus Gifts or Slaver with SB needles? Do you change your strategy, siding in Verdant Forces/Titans, along with Duresses and Rods? And do you also side in artifact removal (oxidize / deeds) to take out a needle?
2) How about versus Oath?
3) How about versus decks from which you don't know what hate cards to expect?
4) When do you side in Deeds?

Thanks in advance.

I don't think Pithing Needle's better than Explosives, I guess the needles were just a metagame call. I expected quite a few wastelands and shamans (Stax, Tog, etc), preventing the deck from ramping up the crucial mana. Because the needle stops both, I decided to give them a try. Again, I hadn't played a single testgame with the needles, so I can't give my final verdict on them.


You'd be surpised how many decks are affected by needle (Oath and combo excluded, of course, but furnace and explosives don't really shine there either). They were meant to buy me some time, and during the tournament it did that pretty well.

Jochem here. The needles were a tryout; I hadn't actually tested them before the tournament. They didn't show up very often, but they were pretty useful against U/W Fish (MennoRieff) and a Gifts deck packing wastes and shamans (Pyromaniac), where I set them to wasteland and/or shaman. I once used a gifts including one needle against belcher, which was OK too. I still cannot draw a final conclusion about their inclusion in Gifts.dec, because more testing is needed.