TMD Article - Sideboarding with TPS

[Killane]

Several months ago I dropped my pet deck of the time (Oath, ironically just before it became a larget contender) and put a great deal of time and effort into learning to pilot TPS. I've top 4'd a number of local tournaments with it since then, and took home the prize in my first tournament running it, with a 10-1-0 record.

So far, I'm 36-3-1 with TPS in tournament settings. I've had a ton of advice and mentoring from Marske (I would consider him my TPS Sensei), and I've red Smmenen's articles on TPD about a dozen times as well. Playing TPS has made me a much better magic player (even my Standard and Limited results have improved since I picked up this deck. it really teaches you to think about what matters (so does Marske BTW - excellent teacher)

This is the first time I've written something like this for TMD- I'm nto asking anyone to go light on me - please let me know what you think both of the writing itself and of the content.

The maindeck of TPS has been fairly agreed upon by most of the higher level players for some time. My maindeck list is identical to the one piloted by Marske in his report here:

 http://www.themanadrain.com/index.php?topic=39462.0

with one difference: since I am newer to the format I do not yet own any power or other such rarities (my underground seas are my most expensive cards), and I run in a 10 proxy environment, so I had to cut Grim tutor for a Sensei's Divining Top.

What I'd like to talk about today is the process for developing a strong sideboard for TPS, a process which makes sense to use for other decks as well.

Constructing a good sideboard for TPS (any any deck, really) is about adapting a philosophy of paying strict attention to what matters. We need to think about what matchups we are concerned about, what we are likely to face, what is good against them, and hwo to avoid overboarding. The following is a 4 step process that I have recently adapted to sideboard construction, and I've found it very helpful.

Question #1: What are my "problem" matchups in the current metagame?

For me, this questions is answered by the following (slightly different than, for example, my TPS Sensei Marske - because we play in very different areas):

- Stax
- Dredge
- Dragon combo
- Noble Fish

Explanations specific to why each matchup is an issue are included in the summaries below.

I don't really need to pay much attention to other decks in my board at this point in the process. We need to first focus on what matters most- matchups where the sideboard is likely to be a big part of how to win against them.

Question #2a: What are the best cards to run against these decks?
Question #2b: how many of these cards do we need to win?

The best way to address these questions is to build a 15 card sideboard vs each deck. Then, consider what cards from the maindeck would be worse in these matchups than the cards from your list. tis allows you to find out how many sideboard slots you woudl ideally like in this matchup, and then what you would ideally like to bring in. (thsi process was inspired by Smmenen's process for deckbuilding, and is somewhat time-consuming but ultimately rewarding).

Our first and worst is Stax. Stax is just strong vs our game plan- our natural predator. We want a good game plan agaist them.

4 Dark Confidant
   -Bob is awesome va Stax. An extra wincon, an extra permanent for Smokestack and Tanglewire, a way to lower your final Storm requirement,    and card advantage, all rolled into one.
4 Hurkyl's Recall
   -I don;t think any commentary is really needed on this one.
3 Pithing Needle
   - Stax offers lots of good Pithing targets. Welder and Strip Mine are the two most problematic for us, and Neelde offers a solution from turn 1.
2 Island
2 Swamp
   - I hear basic lands are good against mana denial

Now, we need to think about what cards in the maindeck are suboptimal compared to cards from this board. Cards from the maindeck to consider cutting for this matchup:

Misdirection - generally offers no value vs Stax - often an entirely dead card.
Duress - Stax can often drop most of its hand on turn 1 or two. Duress is deadweight most of the time.
Mind's Desire - the most difficult card in our deck to cast, mana-wise. Hard to do vs Stax' disruption plan and since they play no counters it has lower value. Also considering we are brining in Bobs, cutting this lowers our average CMC.
Bargain - again, expensive, hard to resolve and lowers the CMC.
Memory Jar - some Stax lists play null Rod, which turns this off entirely. Also, again a high CMC spell that may be more difficult to resolve against them.

If you are running Inkwell, you might consider cutting him and Tinker instead of Desire and Bargain. I run DSC, which, while Weldable, is actually relevant if you can keep them off welder. Karn and Titan can block Inky all day long, and he's a much slower clock. both cuts have the same effect on average CMC for Bob purposes, and Inky is an even harder hit to flip.

Either way, that gives us room to bring in 8 cards. Paring down the Board to 8 cards yields:

3 Dark Confidant
2 Hurkyl's Recall
1 Pithing Needle
1 Island
1 Swamp

I went this way because Bob seems like the best option but I don't really want to draw more than 2 in the matchup, and one should be fine. Recall at EOT can often be a game-ending move vs Stax, but it's not a permanant, and bringing in more than two would prevent me from using Needle, which is suspect is something I'll want in more than one matchup, and is also going to be highly desirable on Welder if we get DSC out. Finally, I want at least one extra basic of each type. This seems like the optimal mix.

Let's set that list to one side for a second and move on to the next "problem" matchup.

Our next "problem" matchup is Dredge.

I hope that by now I don't need to explain why dredge is a problem. It's absurdly fast, very consistant and doesn't play like a normal magic deck. Fortuantely, we don't need to rely on hate to shut them down. All we need to do is disrupt them enough so that we can win first.

4 Leyline of the Void
   - while narrow, at this point we are focusing on what matters in this matchup. Leyline is generally considered the best hate vs Dredge, as it       completely shuts them down until they find an answer, comes up before they can Unmask it, and exiles stuff while they look for answers.
4 Yixlid Jailer
   -they can't win while it's on the table, and every swing with it is one less storm that we need to kill them.
2 Extirpate
2 Tormod's Crypt
2 Ravenous Trap
1 Pithing Needle
   -Once you get past Jailer and Leyline, the other hate cards are basically Time Walks, setting them back a turn or two but certainly not stopping    them in their tracks. This is fine for TPS, as we are fast and powerful enough to win given a turn or two longer than their standard Goldfish. Most    Dredge experts say that varied hate is the best way to deal with them, and that Pithing Needle is the card they fear the least. The rest of the       board is therefore 2-of's of the "better" hate, with 1 Needle (further confirming my suspecions from the Stax section that Needle would be a card    I'd like to see again).

Now, we again need to think about what cards in the maindeck are suboptimal compared to cards from the board we designed. Cards from the maindeck to cut for this matchup:

Misdirection - offers no value vs Dredge- likely a dead card.
Duress - dredge wants its cards in the yard. counter-productive with few good targets and potentially dangerous.

That's only 5 cards - kind of light for dredge based on most schools of thought. However, it's difficult to come up with other good options to cut. Rebuild answers Chalice, which can be important in this matchup. FoW, while suggested by some pundits, is still able to counter the bounce spells that they do run to deal with your hate, and if they are running Unmask FoW can be very important indeed. TPS is fast and powerful enough to win off a few time walks vs Dredge, which 5 slots and correct mulliganing should provide.

4 Leyline of the Void - the best answer to Dredge - .
1 Extirpate - while Jailer is, IMHO, the 2nd best hate card, I picked Extirpate because Leyline is a Permanent, so I wanted a non-permanent for the 5th piece of hate, in order to diversify threats and hurt their sidebarding efforts for game 3 (if required).

We need to keep our full list in mind for this one though. It's possible we won'tt have room for 4 leylines in the final list and may need to find some substitutions that work in other matchups.

Next, we come to Dragon combo.

Dragon Combo is a threat because it is extremely fast, potentially faster than us. They have too many reanimation spells to fight with counters and duress, and they can win at instant speed with Necromancy.

4 Leyline of the Void
- Even better vs Dragon than vs Dredge, as they have to make very careful choices about what to exile while looking for answers.
4 Extirpate
- Extirpate on the Dragon is almost GG's (they can reanimate Oona and beat with her, but it's not a likely scenario).
4 Tormod's Crypt
- Crypt with Oona in the yard can produce a draw if needed, and it's a time walk or two in any case.
3 Chain of Vapor
-this has a wonderful ROTFL factor, since if you bounce the Dragon with the trigger on the stack the leaves play trigger resolves first, then the ETB triger, which has the glorius side effect of permanent exiling all of their permanents. Hilarious (and very effective)

Now, once again we need to think about what cards in the maindeck are suboptimal compared to cards from the board we designed. Cards from the maindeck to cut for this matchup:

Rebuild is virtually deadweight here. It won't bounce anything that matters and it's too slow if it did.
Dragon combo is too fast to build a large land base against. They don't run wastelands. Boarding out 1 Island or Swamp should be fine.

The problem with bringing in lots of hate vs Dragon is that almost every dragon list has a transformational sideboard. If you go balls-to-the-walls with Leylines, you might get caught with your pants down as they board into a non-yard dependant plan. I think Leylines are a trap in this matchup, unless you know that they are not running a transformational plan, or for some reason they are, but they are still graveyard dependant.

If they are entirely yard dependant, leylines change from a trap to the best possible plan. Duress is the weakest card in this case - they run Pact instead of FoW so they can't counter defensively, and your not going to duress enough Animate effects to make a difference. That said, if they are running the transformational board you want duress in the maindeck.

Bringing in 1 Extirpate and 1 Bounce spell (I'm not set on Chain of Vapor as I have a sense I'll want something different for other matchups) for Rebuild and an Swamp is a fine plan here. You want the extra island instead of the swamp for your bounce spells. If you then determine somehow that they are not running a Tezz or Oath board, side out the duresses for leylines.

+1 Bounce
+1 Extirpate
(+4 leyline)
-1 Rebuild
-1 Swamp
(-4 Duress)

This bring us to our last "problem" matchup, Noble Fish.

Noble fish is problematic because they have Null Rod, which hurts our fast mana, and a number of good to amazing sideboard dudes against us (Canonist, Meddling Mage, Gaddock Teeg, Mindcensor). All of these guys have toughness -2, so I know I want something like Infest or Massacre to sweep them. Echoing Truth also hits multiples of these fellows (if there are, for example, two canonists on the board, or two Null Rods fearing Chain to boucne them), so it is a potential choice as well.  note that from the maindeck, Rebuild is good vs Rod and Canonist already.

4 Infest
4 Echoing Truth
4 Massacre
3 Slaughter Pact - this is a final addtion to round out the board since it freely kills whatever hateful bear they have out without tying up any of our mana once it's "time to win".

Duress again kinda sucks, and is really the only card in the maindeck which is not good here. The only cards of consequence that you will ever hit with it are Null Rod, but rarely in time, and the occasional counterspell- but counterspells are not the primary concern in this matchup.  That only gives us room for 4 cards. I can't think of anything else to cut- Fish does run Ancestral and counterspells, so Misdirection is good enough to keep, and the mana denial element of Fish is not as heavy as Stax, so our "big spells" are still castable and therefore, still Insane. The reasons that bounce spells are good here are fairly obvious I think.

Infest is the best hate here. It's INSANE since it kills literally everything they run except Goyf, which is just about the only creature we really don't care about in this matchup since Goyf is not going to race DSC or Tendrils. It gets under Teeg, which is why it's better than Massacre, which is otherwise free and therefore better than Infest. Due to Meddling Mage, I would rather not have all my eggs in one basket. Because I already know I'll want bounce vs Dragon, I'm going to go with a Truth instead of an even split of Infest and Massacre, and so we arrive at:

- 4 Duress

2 Infest
1 Echoing Truth
1 Massacre

That wraps up our assessment of the "problem" decks. But we're not done yet. That was question #2 of 4.

Question #3: Now that I've addressed my most problematic matchups, what are the most powerful decks in the format and what works against them?

Tezz - the clear format front-runner. TPS has always been strong vs Drains, so it seems like a good choice right now. Tezz is far more problematic than drains of the past, since it has a much bigger "oops, I win" factor, so we'll want some help against it.
TPS - the mirror match is difficult for any deck as it becomes either much more luck dependant (ahem, Jund is standard, ahem) or much more skill dependant (TPS). some help here is good, if possible.
Dredge (see above)
Stax (see above)
Oath - very popular since the printing of Iona, which is likely the most powerful creature ever printed (if you only consider its impact once in play, and don;t take things like mana cost into account- important in Oath since in Oath Iona costs 1G). Iona is basically GGs against almost anything (except Stax, against which it blows), and Oath offers the best way to cheet it into play. Vroman Oath is kind of like Tezz, but with a more powerful endgame traded in for a weaker control plan. 3 Dragon Oath is also problematic due to its propensity for cards like Null Rod and Chalice maindeck along with a much faster clock than Fish (but easier to disrupt).
Noble Fish (see above)

I've already dealt with Stax, Fish and Dredge, so now it's time to address:

Tezz
TPS
Oath

For these matchups, we know that we are not going to want to bring in 15 cards. The process above can be reversed- first, what would we take out? Second, what would we bring in?


First up is Tezz:

We mostly have strategic superiority vs Tezz - our goldfish is faster, our WinCon doesn't bend over to FoW, and we have way more bombs. Tezz doesn't tend to run Wasteland, so dropping a Island (since we want to win faster the Swamps are more important) is fine. A second cut is difficult, but I kknow I'm goign to want to bring in at least two cards. I'd drop an off-colour mox personally - while it might be a minor speed bump it seems like the best option - you don't want to drop rebuild in case you end up in a race with Inky, and Chain has too many uses in terms of building Storm count and pitching to FoW to take out in this matchup. That gives us two slots, which is fine -  you don't want to over-board here since our maindeck is already quite strong against them.

Sadistic Sacrament is absurd vs Tezz (they have 3 wincons usually, sometimes with Bobs but we can easily race Bobs, espcially since Bob flips will potentially reduce the required Storm count to kill significantly). Extirpate is also fine against them to strip them of FoW once they counter a bait spell.

-1 Island
-1 Mox Ruby
+1 Sadistic Sacrament
+1 Extirpate

Next is Oath

Oath really needs two separate plans- 1 vs Dragon Oath and another vs Vroman Oath.
Vs Dragon Oath, there's not much to take out. We want to use speed and power to kill them, so Fact or Fiction has low value. You can't take out lands since traditonal Dragon Oath has lots of Wastelands. Despite the presence of Chalice you don't want to take out Moxen, as they run a full set as well and will rarely set a chalice at zero.
For me, because of current budget and proxy limitations, I am unable to run both Grim Tutor and Imperial Seal in my maindeck, so I replaced the GT with a Sensei's Top. This is a fine choice to board out vs Dragon Oath because it's fairly slow and gets shut down by Null Rods. If it was the Grim Tutor that it should be, I'd have a harder time making this choice.
Vs Vroman Oath we can go with a plan more similar to dealing with Tezz, given that they are essentially a Time Vault deck. Taking out an Island (instead of the swamp, bounce is less needed here because Iona will normally shut it down anyways), and an off-color mox should be fine- due to the nature of their wincon they can't run chalice and they don;t have room for much in the way of Wastelands.

We therefore have two slots vs each type of Oath, but event hough the number is the same, the plan may turn out to be very different.

That said, the first pick is fairly easy: Sadistic Sacrament. Sac = GG's here. Vs Dragon Oath you might need back-up with a bounce spell  for their hypothetical post-board 4th wincon (almost always an artifact dude). Even better vs Vroman Oath since they can't sandbag a dude in hand the way Dragon Oath can and only have 2 wincons, and rarely can get up to 4 even post-board.

Vs Dragon Oath, we want Echoing Truth for the pair of Dragons, for null Rods, for Chalice at 1, and for the aftorementioned 4th dude if they bring him in post-board.
Vs Vroman Oath, Truth offers little value. Iona will likely name blue if she comes down to shut down our countermagic, and then our only option is to Storm them out on the next turn which is highly unlikely.  Extirpate is a much better choice, offering us a chance at converting their instant win to a 4 turn clock, which gives us a (slim but present) chanc eto storm them out by throwing out a ton of bombs.

Dragon Oath: - 1 Fact or Fiction, - 1 Sensei's DT + 1 SadSac + 1 Echoing Truth
Vroman Oath: - 1 Island - 1 Mox Ruby + 1 SadSac + 1 Extirpate

TPS

Ah the mirror match. This one is a tough call indeed. We don't run wastelands so once again cutting a basic is a fine place to start. After that it gets really tough. What do you cut? Rebuild and Chain ? no - then you'll end up scooping to a DSC or Inkwell, plus these are both good storm engines. obviously you don;t want to cut engines, fast mana, or control elements or you get blown out by superior card advantage. At the end of the day, there are 3 cards I'd like for the mirror:
-Sadistic Sacrament (extra wincon)
-Extirpate (messes with shit, extirpate on ritual can really slow them down)
-Crypt (messes with the best engine)

But honestly, I'm not sure what to cut for them. To this point I've not had to face the mirror vs good pilots, so this is the part of the article where I put the call out to the Adepts - what woudl you do? I'm at

-1 Island + 1 SadSac.

I'm not. happy with it. Fortuantely, there's nothig here that doesn't make it into the compositie board list form match-ups I'm more sure of, so we can move on for now.

Now that we've addressed all of the "problem" match-ups, and all of the matchups vs the strongest decks in the metagame, we come to...

Question #4: Can we put it all together?

Take the full sideboards you developed in #2 above and put them together with the suggestions from #3. Then, list next to each card all of the match-ups in which it was considered (even if it didn;t make the final "ideal" board). Like this:

3 Dark Confidant (Stax)
2 Hurkyl's Recall (Stax)
1 Pithing Needle (Stax, Dredge, Tezz, Dragon Combo)
1 Island (Stax)
1 Swamp (Stax)
4 Leyline of the Void (Dredge, Dragon Combo)
1 Extirpate (Dredge, Dragon, TPS, Tezz)
1 Echoing Truth (Fish, Dragon, Oath)
2 Infest (Fish)
1 Massacre (Fish)
1 Sadistic Sacrament (Tezz, TPS, Oath)
1 Tormod's Crypt (Dredge, TPS, Dragon Combo)

Thsi is a compositive list of everythign that, in an ideal world, we would run. Right now, we have 19 cards. This is a pleasant surprise. To cover every matchup in an ideal way, we only need 4 more cards than we get. This leaves us n good shape. Now we need to figure out how to keep maximum value. We need to cut 4. Which 4?

In step 2, we identified that we want 8 cards for Stax, 5 for Dredge, 2 and then 6 for Dragon, and 4 for Fish. We wanted 2 for Tezz, 2 (really 3 to cover both types) for Oath, and we're stuck on TPS but we want at least 1 and possibly 3. While making cuts, we want to keep these numbers in mind and try not to sacrifice slots vs these decks by identifying the greatest areas of overlap. So in fact, we don't really make cuts. We build a 15 card board, card-by-card, based on the list above.

Pithing Needle is the first choice. It comes in vs 3 of our 4 "problem" match-ups and could be considered vs a 4th (Tezz, naming Time Vault). It also tends to be good vs Random.dec. None of these match-ups wanted it as more than a one-of, because it's not the best card in any of them, but it's very versitile.

Tormod's Crypt, Sadistic Sacrament, Echoing Truth and  Extirpate all had multiple matchups (3) in which they were good. These 5 cards can form the start of our list:

1 Pithing Needle
1 Tormod's Crypt
1 Sadistic Sacrament
1 Extirpate
1 Echoing Truth

Stax has the fewest points of overlap, but it's also our worst match-up. Looking at our list so far, we only have 1 card for Stax, and it's our last choice (Needle). We need to add some more cards for this matchup right away so that we don't run out of space, since none of the remaining Stax cards overlap. We want 7 more, but we can deal with 6, as looking back over our analysis, it's likely that we could go back down to 7 cards in total from the board and keep Jar in. Jar isn't the worst card vs them- it's a draw 7 that doesn't require specific  colors of mana, and also can be cast on a different turn than going off, freeing up more mana to kill them. At this time, Confidant was identified as the "best" card to bring in, and we decided that at least 2 basic lands was "vital". That means that from our orginal 8, we have to cut a Hurkyl's Recall.

3 Dark Confidant
1 Island
1 Swamp
1 Hurkyl's Recall
1 Pithing Needle
1 Tormod's Crypt
1 Sadistic Sacrament
1 Extirpate
1 Echoing Truth

We have 4 slots left. So far, we have 3 cards vs Dredge, and we know we want to bring in 5, so that's only 2 slots left to devote to it. We've maxed out our Stax hate, and we have  3 out of 6 slots ideal for Dragon. Fish is suffering - we've only added 1 card from our Fish hate so far and we want 4.

Leyline of the void was selected as a 4-of in Dragon and Dredge. However, building our composite list it looks like we don't have room for it. Dropping anything we have already weakens other matchups, and we have less than 4 slots left in our boarding plans for these lists. It looks like Leyline has to go.

That means from our original list, we have 2 Infest, 1 Massacre, and 1 Hurkyl's Recall left, and we have 4 slots left in our sideboard plan. Does that mean we're done?

Not quite. If we adapt that, it means we are still missing 2 cards for the dredge matchup, 3 for Dragon, and we've gone 1 over on Stax, based on our reconsideration that we only need 7 cards for that matchup. This means we can drop the Hurkyl's Recall for more yard hate. What? well, it seems like it can't be Jailer since Jailer is useless vs Dragon and we still need cards for both Dredge and Dragon. Extirpate is the most powerful card vs Dragon, but it's somewhat weak vs Dredge.  Ravenous Trap seems like a good compromise. We want at least one Infest and Massacre. That leaves one slot.
Assuming Null Rod is one of the largest issues form Fish we could reasonably bring in Hurkyl's against them, which also hits canonist. That's our four for fish. We are now missing the 5th card for Dredge, which we really want. At this point, we have 5 reasonable choices for Dragon, and we don't really need a 6th. The most powerful hate that makes sense as a 1-of vs Dredge is Yixlid Jailer, contradicting our previous assumption that we can;t bring him in. Without leylines, I'd really like something that's worth more than just 1 time walk vs Dredge, so adding a Jailer here in the 5th dredge slot seems great.

3 Dark Confidant
1 Island
1 Swamp
1 Hurkyl's Recall
1 Pithing Needle
1 Tormod's Crypt
1 Sadistic Sacrament
1 Extirpate
1 Echoing Truth
1 Infest
1 Massacre
1 Ravenous Trap
1 Yixlid Jailer

Now, we have our 15. We looked at the following matchups:

Stax
Dredge
Dragon
Noble Fish
Tezz
TPS Mirror
Oath

We determined how many cards we wanted in each matchup, and came up with a board that, out of all slots we wanted, was only 2 shy of hitting every spot for every match (we wanted 8 vs Stax and got 7, which at half the board is good enough, and we ideally wanted 6 vas Dragon some of the time, and got 5, also good enough).

What's best is that we now have a sideboard that is good to address bascially any situation, but is still laser-focused on every metagame matchup we considered relevant.

Cheers

[Gekoratel]

Interesting approach to making your sideboard, has some parallels to Menendian's new 5 step deck construction process.  I was wondering how popular Dragon is in your metagame, it showed up for a very brief stint in the US but then seemed to go away.  I ask because decisions of which board cards overlap between Dragon and other matchups would matter less if it wasn't that popular where you play.

@Stax - I think that FoF is very marginal in this matchup and would look to board that out before I would Bargain, Bargain does cost 6 like Desire but its effect is so much more powerful that it should stay in the deck IMO.  I guess your card evaluations are being somewhat modified by the inclusion of Dark Confidant in your sideboard.  I also think Tinker->Robot should stay but like you said doesn't play well with Bob.  I would also include Chain of Vapor as a potential SB card as the tempo bounce from it vs. Shops can buy you time needed to win.  You do have Top in your deck though which should help to counteract some of the high CC's.

@Dredge - I kind of see graveyard removal effects more as double Time Walk then single because your often using them on your opponents draw step after dredging or upkeep.  This is especially true of Ravenous Trap which is much harder to play around than Crypt/Needle.  My personal order of quality dredge hate is Leyline > Rav. Trap > Tormods > Jixid > Relic > Extirpate > Needle.  The cards at the bottom end of the spectrum do have more versatility though which is their main strength.

@Boarding out lands - I think boarding out an off-color Mox in matchups is fine but I'd be wary of taking out lands, if Tez is one of your better matchups why give yourself a better chance to get mana-screwed and increase mulligan percentage.  Granted your increasing threat density but it comes at a cost.

Thanks for the post, was a good read.

[Marske]

@Eric,
Very nicely written, you've covered all the basics of building a decent meta game sideboard and actually went through the same steps as I myself did. Granted I'd have to agree with Gekoratel regarding his assessment of the different matchups. I myself have never ever boarded out Lands, I'd cut an off-color mox for a Crypt in the TPS mirror and that's about it. You could play it a bit risky and cut Grim tutor for Sacrament / Extirpate as it can be a surprise factor games 2 or game 3, however this is just mind games. If you flash an Extirpate game 2 your opponent will HAVE to play around it game 3 for example.

Thanks for writing this up, it's a nice little change of pace from what the AVF has seen in recent weeks and it's definitely worth the read !

[Killane]

Interesting approach to making your sideboard, has some parallels to Menendian's new 5 step deck construction process.  I was wondering how popular Dragon is in your metagame, it showed up for a very brief stint in the US but then seemed to go away.  I ask because decisions of which board cards overlap between Dragon and other matchups would matter less if it wasn't that popular where you play.

@Stax - I think that FoF is very marginal in this matchup and would look to board that out before I would Bargain, Bargain does cost 6 like Desire but its effect is so much more powerful that it should stay in the deck IMO.  I guess your card evaluations are being somewhat modified by the inclusion of Dark Confidant in your sideboard.  I also think Tinker->Robot should stay but like you said doesn't play well with Bob.  I would also include Chain of Vapor as a potential SB card as the tempo bounce from it vs. Shops can buy you time needed to win.  You do have Top in your deck though which should help to counteract some of the high CC's.

@Dredge - I kind of see graveyard removal effects more as double Time Walk then single because your often using them on your opponents draw step after dredging or upkeep.  This is especially true of Ravenous Trap which is much harder to play around than Crypt/Needle.  My personal order of quality dredge hate is Leyline > Rav. Trap > Tormods > Jixid > Relic > Extirpate > Needle.  The cards at the bottom end of the spectrum do have more versatility though which is their main strength.

@Boarding out lands - I think boarding out an off-color Mox in matchups is fine but I'd be wary of taking out lands, if Tez is one of your better matchups why give yourself a better chance to get mana-screwed and increase mulligan percentage.  Granted your increasing threat density but it comes at a cost.

Thanks for the post, was a good read.

Thanks, I appreciate the feedback. Regarding your comments:

Dragon: yeah, it's fairly common around here right now. I've not actually run up against it yet, but that's because of pairings, not lack of presence. I've seen it at at least three events so far. At this point, I'm not even sure taking it out of the analysis woudl affect much, as all the cards for Dragon are either Dredge choices as well or (Truth) good for FIsh and Oath.
Stax: I agree Fact isn't great at all here. You're absolutely right though that Bob plays a factor i my evaluation here - Bargain is two more life to a Bob flip, and the average CMC and number of 4+drops in the deck is already higher than I'd like.
Tinker/Robot if your running Inkwell just seems so...meh vs Stax. I agree that keeping in TinkerBot is a good idea, but overall I'm only really happy with the clock that is DSC and the fact that neiter Karn nor Titan can block him all day. I supposed Sphinx would likely be fine as well, due to the vigilance and the pro-red and the flying to avade their Bot's, but Iky, which seems like most folks choice these days, just seems terrible.
(Aside: I used to be on the Inkwell bandwagon until, taking a page from Marske's book, I tried DSC again. He's pretty awesome since StpS is seeing less play, and even if he does get StpS'd, that 11 more cards you can draw of Potence or Bargain. not a bad deal

Yeah, chain seems fine, but I'd rather have Hurkyl's if I'm bringing somethign in from the board.
@Dredge
I guess yard removal is a 1.5 walk, depending on when you get it and if they have an answer. I've found Jailer to be better than almost anything else though (bar leyline), especially since he hasn't been all that popular here lately and Dredgers are skimping on the hate. Overall I think the important thing here is to be diverse - I run a one-of every card you mentioned except leyline (since there's no room for them).   It makes it hard as hell on them to board for game three.
@ Lands

yeah I see your point there for sure. I haven't had many issues dropping one land as long as they aren't running any land-D, but an off-color  mox may well be the right choice. I just hate giving up more Storm generators.
@ Marske
Thanks for the feedback as well. The TPS mirror points are well made, I think though that Sacrament is more than just mind games since resolving it is literally GG in most cases, forcing them to board in more wincons (not great for the mirror), or take the risk of being blown out again by it. I agree 100% that Extirpate is mostly mind games though.
I'm glad you guys liked the article!

[Smmenen]

Wow, this article was completely fascinating, well written, and intriguing from top to bottom!    I never thought of using an analogue to my 5 step method for SBs, but you've done so here quite brilliantly with one of my favorite archetypes.  Very impressive. 

It sounds like you've graduated from TPS Padawan to Sensei.  

[Killane]

Wow, this article was completely fascinating, well written, and intriguing from top to bottom!    I never thought of using an analogue to my 5 step method for SBs, but you've done so here quite brilliantly with one of my favorite archetypes.  Very impressive. 

It sounds like you've graduated from TPS Padawan to Sensei.  

Wow, thank you! Given your large number of exceptional articles at SCG Premium, the praise is humbling and much appreciated.

That said, small disclaimer  (not directed at Steve, but at the thread at large)- I may have obtained an excellent grasp of the theory of TPS (thanks again Marske), but even when you know the deck, and know it intimately, it's still hard to run at tournaments. Personally, I'm an addict - I love playing the frickin thing more than any other magic deck I've ever picked up, but if your looking for easy wins, this ain't it. Good matchups? Yes. Raw broken power? Hella yes. But it makes you work for it. IMHO that's a good thing, but I guess what I'm tryig to say is even a "sensei" can screw up in a big way with this deck, and the correct play is not always obvious.

Back at Smmenen:

Praise for the article and process aside, what do you think of my conclusion, ie the end result sideboard?
DO you think I've applied my method well and come to a good board configuration?

[Marske]

Wow, this article was completely fascinating, well written, and intriguing from top to bottom!    I never thought of using an analogue to my 5 step method for SBs, but you've done so here quite brilliantly with one of my favorite archetypes.  Very impressive.

Agreed, the use of this kind of "step program" is something I've also done in creating my own SB, the fact that Killane came to nearly the same cards as I did is amazing.

It sounds like you've graduated from TPS Padawan to Sensei. 

*Puts a Dutch Stamp of Approval on Killane*

That said, small disclaimer  (not directed at Steve, but at the thread at large)- I may have obtained an excellent grasp of the theory of TPS (thanks again Marske), but even when you know the deck, and know it intimately, it's still hard to run at tournaments. Personally, I'm an addict - I love playing the frickin thing more than any other magic deck I've ever picked up, but if your looking for easy wins, this ain't it. Good matchups? Yes. Raw broken power? Hella yes. But it makes you work for it. IMHO that's a good thing, but I guess what I'm trying to say is even a "sensei" can screw up in a big way with this deck, and the correct play is not always obvious.

No problem man, it's good to see all of our long talks have helped you out in such a way. I understand your addiction very well as TPS is by far my most favorite deck of all time, Mastering it is one of the most rewarding things I've ever done in my magic career as it really does improve your skill in a more ways then just understanding how the deck functions.

That being said, I'd like to add that actually playing TPS correctly is mentally draining at a level you cannot understand if you've never done it. I truly believe it's one of if not the most complicated deck to pilot correctly to a high finish (maybe that's the reason why Smmenen has abandoned it and so few pick it up). I enjoy pushing myself to these limits although I've not had the mental stamina to push the deck to a top finish last year.

[pierce]

At the risk of thread necromancy, I'd like to restart this discussion to address the newest metagame: MUD, Stax, Dredge, Elephant Oath, Bant Fish, TPS, Drain Tendrils, and Tezz are the current metagame decks.

I'm about to step out to run errands, I'll post my list and sb with plans and critical thought this evening.

[Killane]

At the risk of thread necromancy, I'd like to restart this discussion to address the newest metagame: MUD, Stax, Dredge, Elephant Oath, Bant Fish, TPS, Drain Tendrils, and Tezz are the current metagame decks.

I'm about to step out to run errands, I'll post my list and sb with plans and critical thought this evening.

At the risk of responding to Thread Necromancy, the meet and bones of what I wrote above was the process, not the Sideboard itself. Just run through the process with those decks in mind and it shoul work out fine. The real issue in the currently meta is finding a maindeck that works well given the abundance of MUD and how strong Lodestone has made it. That's an issue for a different thread (currently being discussed in a thread on Elias' atricle two weeks ago on ScG - a Vintage Mindpoint Checkup or somethign like that).

[pierce]

I meant to say: I wish to redo that process with the current metagame.

Pre and Post. Getting the pictures to work for another thread took longer than i expected. More on this thread later.