Article on a transformational deck

[BigMac]

A transformational sideboard means you have a sideboard with which you can totally change the game plan of your deck.

The reason to do this is twofold. The first reason is to surprise your opponent. You play a certain game plan game 1 and can change it to surprise kill him the second game. Even when it turns into a third game you can keep him off balance as of what you are playing.

The second reason is to optimise your chances against decks that are not good matchups for your deck. To accomplish this you will need to know what bad matchups are and what decks do have good matchups against those decks. The hard part here will be to find a way to turn your deck into that other deck.

In vintage especially I think this has become more and more easy. If you look at the core of a lot of decks nowadays, at least 20 to 30 cards will be the same all around. The difference lies in the game plan. How do you plan on killing your opponent. How many cards does that take up in your deck. And how many cards do you need for the other game plan kill.

Why would you want a transformational sideboard. A sideboard basically is another resource to maximise your chances against other decks. Some decks work with the sideboard through wishes, some optimise their deck after game 1. The result should always be the same. Make your chances of winning bigger. So again why a transformational sideboard.

To answer this you need to understand the weaknesses and strengths of your deck. If your deck has good matchups all around and only needs marginal sideboard changes to optimise your result, you don’t need to have another gameplan. However if you play a deck of which you know people are prepared for, especially after sideboarding, changing the game plan could be very beneficial, leaving your opponent with a couple of dead cards in his deck, as well as off balance what to expect.

Off course not all decks can have a transformational sideboard. If your deck is very single minded (FCG), or has a game plan which includes more than 20 cards (stax, MUD) it can be done but is very hard indeed. As the core of your deck is build for one purpose, and one purpose only. But on most decks some kind of transformation is possible I think.

If you decide to make a transformational sideboard here are some guidelines.
-   Always know what to take out if you decide to go with plan B.
-   As scouting is permitted, assume your opponent knows you can switch tactics, so put all 15 sideboard cards into your deck and then take out 15 cards. In doing so you will keep your opponent off balance and guessing how many cards your are siding in.
-   Also do this when going from game 2 to game 3. Always keep them guessing what your game plan is.
-   Make sure your deck is compatible with your sideboard. Don’t try to make slaver into a dragon deck. Look for resemblance and compatability
-   Make sure you know how to play game plan B.
-   Don’t go sideboarding if you don’t have to. If you feel you have a favourable match up anyway keep your deck intact. When done wrong this can devastate you as much as it can your opponent.

If you decide to make a transformational sideboard, understand one thing. Your aim is to surprise your opponent and maximise your winning chances. Don’t transform because you can, do it because you have to optimise your chances. The reason for this is simple. Your main deck game plan is the one your deck is build around. The secondary plan will never be as well build as the first one. It is to surprise and capitalise on your own decks weaknesses.

As an example I will take a deck I have played with success and disaster.

1 Tolarian Academy            
2 Underground Sea   
4 Polluted Delta
1 Swamp
2 Island
1 Sol Ring   
1 Mana Crypt
1 Mana Vault
1 Lotus Petal               
1 Black lotus               
1 Mox Pearl               
1 Mox Emerald            
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Jet
1 Bayou
2 Forbidden Orchard

4 Dark Ritual
4 Duress
1 Yawgmoth’s Will
2 Tendrils of Agony
1 Yawgmoth’s Bargain
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Necropotence

2 Gifts Ungiven
1 Mind’s Desire
4 brainstorm
2 Thirst for Knowledge
1 hurkyl’s Recall
1 Timetwister
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk
1 Rebuild
4 Force of Will

1 Regrowth
1 Crop rotation
1 Gaea’s blessing

1 Lim-Dul’s Vault

Side Board
2 Forbidden Orchard
1 Spirit of theNight
4 Oath of Druids
1 Akroma, Angel of Wrath
1 Pristine Angel
4 Mana leak
2 Ground Seal


I will not go into single card choices here as the deck evolved already, I am just taking it as an example. My point in bringing up this deck is this. Main deck I made a reasonable TPS version which will work well by itself. After siding I can make this a surprise oath deck but I will keep in the possibility of the combo kill. If you take the deck after siding and you compare it with a normal well build oath deck, my oath variant is not half as strong as a normal oath deck. What makes it strong is the surprise factor.

As an example, I played against MUD. Chalice 1 pretty much kills TPS, or slows it down long enough for the MUD player to build his board. If a player does so game 2 and I answer with orchard mox oath he will both be surprised, and probably dead within the turn 4 mark.

I also tried to outdo an oath player with this deck and failed miserably because he had far better cards to support his oath plan than I did. So I should have stuck with the original plan, and just be faster than him.

I am not claiming this to be the best or even claiming it is very good. In the right hands and played well it could be good. But that applies to almost every deck.

Marco

[bebe]

The reason to do this is twofold. The first reason is to surprise your opponent. You play a certain game plan game 1 and can change it to surprise kill him the second game. Even when it turns into a third game you can keep him off balance as of what you are playing.

The second reason is to optimise your chances against decks that are not good matchups for your deck. To accomplish this you will need to know what bad matchups are and what decks do have good matchups against those decks. The hard part here will be to find a way to turn your deck into that other deck.

I do not think that surprise is a good enough reason to transform a deck. I have been playing a transformational sideboard with oath cards as well. I've done quite well with a GroMask variant that uses a backup Tinker/Colossus plan. Since it is predominately blue with a green splash,Ii need to remove eleven cards for an Oath transformation. Now I already have all my counters and search main deck and one usable creature so an additional Angel does me fine along with the four Oaths - note that is only five essential cards to transform the deck. This leaves me with ten free slots still in the sideboard. So I use the Oath side against any aggro deck of which there are many in toronto - FCG, Bird Sh*t, Fish variants, Madness, WTF, etc. etc. It has never failed me. I will add another six hate cards from the side to make up the eleven removed cards. What is nice about this arrangement is that I can safely play my GroMask and sideboard without relying on Oaths.
There are a number of Toronto players that use the Oath sideboard. A few Salvager players even transform into an Oath/Salvagers combo deck. Which brings me to ...

Make sure your deck is compatible with your sideboard. Don�t try to make slaver into a dragon deck. Look for resemblance and compatability
This is to my mind the most important criteria. The deck must be able to transform smoothly.

Don't go sideboarding if you don't have to. If you feel you have a favourable match up anyway keep your deck intact. When done wrong this can devastate you as much as it can your opponent.
Very important. Now you will have to sideboard. I can't remember the last match up where I used no sideboard cards at all. For this reason it is important to try and use as few cards as possible in the transformation so other cards can be used for other difficult match ups. I never side Forbiddan Orchards. I'm not using Oath against decks that have no creatures. I have better options.

All that said  - a very interesting topic that merits some discussion.

[nataz]

The reason to do this is twofold. The first reason is to surprise your opponent. You play a certain game plan game 1 and can change it to surprise kill him the second game. Even when it turns into a third game you can keep him off balance as of what you are playing.

The second reason is to optimise your chances against decks that are not good matchups for your deck. To accomplish this you will need to know what bad matchups are and what decks do have good matchups against those decks. The hard part here will be to find a way to turn your deck into that other deck.

Just thought I'd chime in with the fact that Jacob's fish deck is a good working example of this, and has a pretty potent transformational SB into UW fish with Mages, Rays, and White producing lands that gives the UG fish a huge advantage in the Oath match-up.

Although its less of a surprise now, I know when I was testing it outside the team for the first few days, the oath players never saw it coming, and timely rays and MM would really wreak their gameplan.

This might be an interesting solution to other versions of fish, considering its often hard to build a fish skeleton that can a) Beat oath, b) Beat Aggro WS, and c) beat the mirror.     

[BigMac]

Another reason to have a transformational sideboard can be even more important. Chances are your opponent will have some kind of sideboard plan against most matchups to make his deck better. If you are playing against a deck that has numerous options to sideboard against you, a transformational sideboard could very much leave your opponent with dead cards in his deck and perhaps good cards sided out.

In the exampledeck i gave most people will side in combo hate. Most probably they will side out critterremoval and perhaps some other cards like bounce that actually could be usefull. Results will be you have surprise on your hand and a tactical advantage. Especially if you won game 1 you will have a good chance of winning game 2 through this surprise factor.

If you start thinking like this it has another advantage. Assuming you actually win game 1 often but after sideboarding your chances normally diminish and you are in for a long three game match, this strategy could shorten the games. This will give you another tactical advantage when you get further into a tournament. As you will have played less games and probably less time during the rounds, this gives you more time to rest, drink and eat well and start a top 8 fresher than possible opponents. As you feel better you are less likely to make mistakes, and mistakes could mean disaster. So less disaster means optimising your chances.

Again, this is by no means an answer to everything, but it can be very good and very surprising and a lot of less experienced players will not see it comming, and the net.deckers could see it comming but with the 15 cards in, shuffle and 15 cards out strategy they will never really know what to side against you.

[Bram]

Perhaps in interesting point is how transformational sideboards will likely be more effective in larger tournaments. In a 400+ player location like Paris, most people won't have a clue what you're doing, and you'll retain the surprise element. In a 20 people tournament where everyone knows eachother, word will spread quickly and decrese the effectiveness of the plan.

Also note how this advantage is completely eliminated when you reacht top 8 and get to see lists. The one remaining advantage you'll have there is that your opponent won't actually *know* if you're siding in the combo. You're likely to do so if it would improve an unfavorable matchup, but your opponent will reason along the same lines and board accordingly. Also:

Don?t go sideboarding if you don?t have to. If you feel you have a favourable match up anyway keep your deck intact.

In that case, your opponent will always side appropriately, making a good matchup *worse*.

Effectiveness of the surprise element related to tournament size could be investigated by seeing if there's a significant correlation between final standing and tournament size for decks with trafoboards.

[BigMac]

With a small sized tournament word spreads. No denying in that. Still, when siding and you put in 15 cards and then after shuffling remove 15 cards, what is your opponent to do. Did you side in you sideboard, or didnt you, or did you side in just part of it, as i did in the last tournament i played such a deck in. What i did was siding in 2 oaths and 2 critters against stax as i won game 1 with ease. My reasoning was if i didnt get to a fast start i could always find an oath for midgame and kill him with that.

The beauty is you keep your combo in but also have a wincondition most decks do not do to much about. I wont have any dead cards normally and my opponent could draw just the wrong stuff at the wrong time. I am still not saying that your deck becomes better, but it becomes more resilient to hate. Which pretty much is the idea of a sideboard anyways.

[Gabethebabe]

IMO a transitional SB plan is generally not a good idea, because of two reasons:
- Normally, at least one of the two decks will have a suboptimal build.
- You dedicate SB slots to it that you may require for hating out other decks.

You have to be quite sure that for all or almost all the decks that are out there, one of your configurations has a good match-up against it.

If you play against a deck that neither config 1 nor config 2 has a good matchup against, than you will find that you miss the hate cards that you need to be able to turn this matchup into a more favorable one.

[BigMac]

You make 2 valid points Gabe. But you forget the goal of a transformational deck. Surprise.

As for the first point, that at least 1 of the builds will be suboptimal, i allready explained about that. As i stated, you need to understand that the surprise sideboard is not to be a optimal build, but it needs to be:
1 a surprise for your opponent so he will have sided in wrong cards
2 your opponent will have a tactical idea that is not the right one for the new deck tactic you are running
3 do not try and out play a deck your sideboard will make as your deck will be inferior to a well build deckplan. It is to make your match-up better not worse.

For your second point, a transformational deck will ultimately do the same as hate cards, just on a different and unexpected way. Normally you play a deck and your sideboard will have cards to optimise your deck against certain decks with hate cards for those decks. In a transformational sideboard you anticipate your opponents sideboarding by making you gameplan different rendering most of his sideboardcards useless. By doing so you will let him have several dead cards ultimately giving you cardadvantage. So instead of hating a deck to death you tactically outwit him.

So to make such a deck you need to know what your worst matchups are and why. To get answers for those matchups you could go transformational. It is by no means a must, but it could be a niche.

As for my example. TPS has a good match-up against many decks in game 1. After game 1 a lot of decks can bring in hate cards such as chalice (if not main deck), null rod, arcane laboratory and the lot. If my gameplan suddenly changes to oath, a chalice 1 will not do nearly as much dmg as a chalice for 2. Null rod will only be usefull the first couple of turns while oath normally hits the board earlier than arcane lab as it costs less. So when an oath hits the board those 3 cards virtually are dead draws to my opponent. This will give you cardadvantage and in the end a tactical advantage.

Building a transformational deck which is vulnerable to the same hate for both gameplans is not a wise decision either, as the surprise will be short lived and hate cards will not be dead. To build a transformational deck that has bad matchups against several decks with both tactics is a bad idea as well. The goal of the sideboard is still to give your deck (and you) a better chance to outwit and defeat your opponent.

I am in no way saying that all decks can and should be transformational. It is not something that can easily be done to many decks, but in some occasions it is very good, leaving your opponent baffled and beaten.

[Anusien]

A few things.  I think TPS boarding into Oath is sub-optimal because as I understand it, Chalice is good against both decks (just a different Chalice setting).  However, my real question would be how much you gain from the transformation versus whatever you could gain by boarding in regularly.  Take Sensei boarding into Tog.  In doing so you (pretty much) dodge hate like Arcane Lab or Orim's Chant, but look at how much your typical Tog list relies on the sideboard, both with Cunning Wish and boarding in to beat the control matchup.  I'd think the best (and only) use of a transformational sideboard is when you've won game 1, but game 2 is very unfavorable.  The real issue would be losing game 1, transforming and winning game 2.  Do you unboard in game3?  You run the risk of getting hate directed at BOTH decks you're boarding into; you shirk some hate but you're running a bad version of whatever deck you're running.

[BigMac]

Anusien,

You use chalice as an example against the TPoath deck i pilot. The problem with chalice is you do not know what setting it needs for me to be bad. Even when people know i can board in oath, i could very well still be playing combo. People will have to make a choice to what you are playing. Choices make people nervous and the deck i play is good at letting people think one thing and be able to do the other.

As for you other example. Turning sensei into tog is indeed difficult. But you will have to make compromises to get this transformational working. Yes, your deck will be less optimal. Yes you run risks other sensei or tog decks don't. But it is harder to be hated out.

As for boarding. I recommend you always board when playing a transformational deck. For the simple reason to keep your opponent off balance. Put in all 15 sideboard cards, shuffle and then take out 15 to put back into your sideboard. Nobody will know what you sided in or out leaving your opponent guessing what to expect. If he makes a bad choice in boarding or playing you have to make sure to swoop in  for the kill. Practice will give insight how to board certain matchups. Practice will give insight how to play certain matchups. But that goes for every deck you play. Just make sure both decks are not susceptible to the same hate, as then it will not work.

As for me, i played my tranformational sideboard TPoath 4 times. I made top 8 three times with it. So it is safe to say it is pretty constant.

[BigMac]

Here is an update on my transformational deck tactics. So far i played in 7 tournaments with my TPoath making top 8 four times, missing out 1 time getting nineth place and missing 1 time partly due to a judge decision losing only 1 match that day and comming in 14th place.

People in my region now know what to expect when they are playing me and still this tactic works. First and foremost because combo has a good matchup against almost anything (exception probably any form of staxx). After boarding people still have no clue what to expect, even when they know you have a transformational sideboard. The beauty of this tactic is that people will know how to board against one deck, but most of the time it is hard to board against both decks. Knowing what certain decks have in the board and expecting a certain strategy gives you an advantage as you will know how to board. The choices you make are made before the tournament starts, giving you strategic advantages when boarding against a deck.

In my experience it still is very hard to board correctly as the most games i have lost were due to wrong boarding. So i am not saying this is an easy strategy as it not only requires you to know your deck but also to know what other decks can board in so you can use your board correctly. I know that other decks require this as well more or less, but gaining a strategic advantage due to surprise boarding/or not boarding can actually win you games.

So in conclusion, my deck is versatile, constant and fun to play. (to me at least) It is hard but when you get used to it it will give you good results. As for a list, i am still working on a definate list constantly changing 2 to 3 cards main and in the board as i am still looking for better creatures and better sideboardcards next to the transformational cards.

[BigMac]

I have some conclusions about my transformational sideboard. Take into account that i have been playing only TPS turning into oath. Here are my findings. The link will show the deck it has evolved into over the last year.

http://www.themanadrain.com/index.php?topic=26897.0

The main deck is almost as good as normal TPS I made some changes to the manabase making it 5 colour TPS. The advantage is that you can run good cards out of every colour. Disadvantage is the relative lesser use of brainstorm because i have less shuffle effects. (read no fetchlands) That disadvantage is almost nullified by the inclusion of dark confidant btw.

The five colour gives you access to wheel of fortune, burning wish, regrowth, balance, recoup as well as the normal black and blue threats. It was up to me how i wanted to play it all out and to make the choices.

As i have been playing this deck all year the surprise factor was close to nothing anymore. Still my deck (or me) performed well making almost every top 8 when playing it. In little tournaments it is slightly less usefull as you are sure everybody knows what you are playing. Still, if you use the shuffle 15 cards in your deck remove 15 cards during sideboarding you can still make sure you can dupe people into believing you are playing one thing instead of the other. In huge tournaments, 50+, you have a big advantage as the chances of your opponents actually knowing you and your deck is less. The surprise then actually works really well as you can wipe people the second game after winning the first game. Not to many people expect this plan, let alone anticipate it while boarding. This can actually shorten your games to the point of using less energy in the early rounds and actually getting time to eat and drink.

As i mentioned earlier, i mostly lose when i make mistakes (as most people likely). The biggest mistakes i made were using the board. Getting a feeling of when to use the sideboard is something you need to learn. I will try to get some guidelines here.

When a deck is faster than you, leave your main deck the same, as you have a possible first turn kill as well as some control cards. Take up the control role and bide your time. Try disrupt them and then push through the finish yourself.
Against control you may or may not board. This entirely depends on how well the player plays his control, if you win the first game, what kinds of cards your opponent can board, will board or should board. How many basics/duals they play (sundering titan is king).
Against staxx you almost have to board. If you are lucky your first game is 50/50 at best, but you do have chances to win. After boarding in your oath plan you have a much better chance of winning as you only need one critter. You can also choose for the sacred ground solution in your sideboard.
Against oath you can board in some critters, orchards and blessing. You may win through their oath or you can win through your combo.

Cards i will board when going to oath.
3 Confidants, 2 sensei, minds desire, frantic search, bargain, 1 tendrils and possibly my duresses or my FoW.
When on the play FoW loses some of its strength as you want to put your opponent under pressure. When on the draw, Fow gets better than duress. So it is one or the other, but never both. But as you can see you have enough possibilities to get your oathplan in. (2 orchards, 4 oath, blessing and 2-3 critters)

Lately i have discovered that although confidant is really good, transformational is getting less good with that dude. People keep their anticritter in the deck and will be able to have a solution for your oath critters.  So it was a good experiment but in the end i think the evolving got to far and needs to step back some. I still am able to win matches, but it is getting hard, takes a lot of time and is less dependable. So to use confidant you will need to build the deck really around him.

Notes:
1-The bigger the tournament the better this strategy becomes.
2-Know against what decks you want to board in what and to board out what.
3-Keep the two strategies really separated and make sure the two strategies have a good match up against different decks.
4-Make sure you know both strategies.
5-Every game board in all 15 cards and shuffle and take out all 15 cards without taking up to much time. (another reason why to know what to take out and what to board in)
6-Make sure you have fun. Every deck can crap out on you every once in a while, this deck is no different. Good shuffling will minimize the chances on that.

As for results. I have played this deck at least 12 times missing top 8 only 4 times. Could be me, could be the deck, could be me with this deck. Your choice.