sideboarding in SSB

[245trioxin]

ok, im playing against some random deck like, control slaver, he wins the first, i side board in, what do i take out to put the cards i want in?

SSB is such a solid deck and whenever i try to sideboard i can never find anything in the deck that i really want to take out. usually ill always side out chain of vapor, but after that i really dont know what to do? 

[Nefarias]

ok, im playing against some random deck like, control slaver

So, are you playing against a random deck, or against Control Slaver? You have to realize that you're going to sideboard differently against every deck.

Also, a decklist and sideboard would help immensely. Is Severance/Belcher your only kill? Do you use DSC? Welder/Pentz/Mindslaver? Do you have a more traditional control sideboard like Kowal and Probasco, or are you using the one-of Carl Winter SB? I can't tell you what to bring in or take out if I don't know what cards are in your deck, even if I can guess at 50-55 of them.

[Outlaw]

Well a rule that I generally follow, is that in the control mirror you cannot suffer from card disadvantage, so mystical tutor can get the boot.  That all I can really suggest to you, you can also try and go with the slaver route vs. control so you can remove the belcher / severence, or if their going to be bringing in crypts remove recoup.

[Lord of the Goats]

Well a rule that I generally follow, is that in the control mirror you cannot suffer from card disadvantage, so mystical tutor can get the boot.  That all I can really suggest to you, you can also try and go with the slaver route vs. control so you can remove the belcher / severence, or if their going to be bringing in crypts remove recoup.

without ever playing a gifts deck, i'm going to have to disagree with outlaw here. his logic is absolutly sound when keeper was good and there were a lot of keeper mirror matches. however somewhere between the rise of tnt and gat and now, that logic has somewhat gone out the window. gat would frequently leave vamp in despite the card disadvantage because it could just win because of the card vamp got. not all decks should side out card disadvantage tutors because despite them being able to be card disadvantage because they also act as extra coppies of ancestral, tinker, will, etc all od whiich completely break any control matchup.the consistancy is often more important than the potential card disadvantage  jp didn't side out mystical in the hulk mirror (i know 'cause he beat me with it).


also, in a gifts deck in particular i'd imagine that being able to gifts for demonic, vamp, mystical, and something else could be very useful. in addiotion if you run boseju then do you really care if you lose one card to fetch you an uncounterable win? 

really it depends on your deck a lot

[Outlaw]

really it depends on your deck a lot

I'll go ahead and agree with this, its really player dependent.  Some players like to go fo the beatdown while some play the control game, its also very dependent on your opponents play style.  You could also win game 2 via siding out card disadvantage then game 3 side it back in to switch it up.

[Kowal]

Against Control Slaver...

-2 Goblin Welder

These become a liability in the matchup, and just really aren't that good in the "mirror" anyway.  The thing about the Slaveresque mirrors is that they have a tendency to end with the first slaver activation (ie who resolves tinker first) or with a combo flourish (who resolves Will first).  Goblin Welder doesn't really make this any easier for the Gifts deck.

-1 Pentavus

You aren't planning on killing with infinite slaver lock, and tinkering out this man is usually dead weight in the matchup.

-1 Chain of Vapor

The only problem permanent you're looking at is Platinum Angel, which is easily Belched out of existance or removed via a Slaver while they have a welder on board. 

The last slot is totally up to you.  Outlaw and BrassMan suggest Mystical Tutor, but whenever I play against a deck that's likely heavy in Red Elemental Blasts, I try to make sure my 3U costed stuff is cut to a minimum.  Pick whichever plan you like best and board out that one slot to make room for five cards.

+3 Red Elemental Blast
+2 Tormod's Crypt


Now, against random.dec, I assume you mean your average aggro deck.  The best answers to aggro that I usually run are Rack and Ruin, Blue Elemental Blast, and recently Old Man of the Sea (which used to be Flametongue Kavu, also a fair slot to run)

It's pretty obvious some of these don't come in in certain aggro matchups (old man sucks against burninator for example, and blue blast sucks against O Stompy) but it's important especially in the null rod matchups that you have solutions for Null Rod readily available.

Burninator:
-2 Goblin Welder (too easy to remove)
+2 Blue Elemental Blast (derf)
Some burninator players will bring in Null Rods.  In these scenerios, I would board out a single spell (probably Gifts Ungiven #2 or Fact or Fiction) for a Rack and Ruin.  Rushing River is also a valid option if you're worried about Pyrostatic Pillar, but generally I'm more worried about Red Elemental Blast.

Oshawa Stompy:
This can really go a lot of different ways depending on the build.  Really though, they're probably going to have Ground Seal for welders, and Null Rod for everything else.  My plan would be
-2 Goblin Welder (this guy comes out a lot, but he's sooooooo good in game ones)
+2 Rushing River (I'd normally go for Rack and Ruin here, but sometimes they have enchanment based h8 too)
You could easily bring in Tormod's Crypt or even Old Man here sometimes, but I wouldn't recommend it.

Workshop Aggro:
-2 Duress
+2 Rack and Ruin
This much is easy.  Some of these workshop decks are particularly weak to BEB too, so if you need to make room, I suggest cutting a large expensive spell or two, or just a big spell and a Lotus Petal, depending on how stable your manabase is.  I'm up to three basics now, so bringing out Lotus Petal would be my plan.

Gay/Red
-2 Goblin Welder (they will bring in lots of welder h8)
-2 Duress (They have a grand total of about 13 spells you can actually take, and like 4 of them are relevant)
-1 Mindslaver (I love slaving fish, but I don't want to be using it as my gameplan against a Null Rod deck)
-1 Gifts Ungiven (The same REB thing, this could easily be Mystical Tutor)
-1 Lotus Petal (Crappy mana against a deck running Null Rod besides)
+2-3 Old Man of the Sea (derf)
+3 Red Elemental Blast (derf derf)
+1-2 Rack and Ruin (One is usually fine, this is to answer Null Rod)

To switch up the Gay/Red boarding for the Gay/White with Chalice at Ashok ran at Waterbury, simply make sure you have two rack and ruins, and board out the Chain of Vapor instead of the Mindslaver.

DISCLAIMER
This is how I've been boarding.  I don't care if people don't think it's optimal, but I want to make ABSOLUTELY CLEAR I'm not advocating this is perfect, just what I would do.

Hope this helps.