[Premium Article] Vintage Avant-Garde #2 "Sideboard Strategies"

[forests failed you]

In this week's article I discuss some of the finer points of properly building and utilizing sideboards for Vintage decks.

http://www.starcitygames.com/magic/vintage/20347_Vintage_AvantGarde_Sideboard_Strategies.html

As always, I encourage anybody to leave feedback and suggestions.

Hope you enjoy the article.

Cheers,
Brian DeMars

[Killane]

I thought this was a really excellent article again. I noticed it was very similar to Menendian's article on sideboarding from a few months (maybe as much as a year) ago, but I think enough time has passed, and your writing style is sufficiently dissimilar and differently accessible, that it did not matter.

Nice tech vs. Fish BTW. Very nice. Wondering though- for a Storm deck, do you think the version that kills White dudes might be a better choice, since it takes out Cannonist, Mindcensor, and True Believer and you have to worry less about Goyf since you're faster than Drains?

[2nd_lawl]

Enjoyed the article and Enjoyed playing against you at the GP.

[forests failed you]

The card Killane is referring to is "Virtue's Ruin" from portal: 

2B, Sorcery: Destroy all white creatures.

 Certainly a fine card at doing what it does.  Unlike Massacre, it only costs 3 so it doesn't get stopped by Gaddok Teeg.  The key to a good sideboard is that you recognize where you need to gain percentages post board and utilize your space as best as possible.  If you are playing a Storm deck, expect to play against decks with Cannonist/Mindsensor/Teeg, and know you are soft to them--playing with Virtue's Ruin seems like a solid sideboard choice.

Also, there is a Portal card called Nature's Ruin, 2B, Sorcery: Destroy all Green Creatures.  Same thing as Perish except that perish doesn't let them regenerate.  A 1 and 1 split on Perish and Nature's Ruin is also acceptable.  Obvious strategic advantages are that you can put both in a Gifts Ungiven pile, and that they can't Meddling Mage it and stop both. 

[Killane]

Thanks Brian.

Thanks for the note regarding Nature's ruin too, it's always nice to find functionally idential copies of cards for those reasons.