Simon Says #77: Limited Sideboarding and Magic 2015 Draft #3

A famous quote by Kenji Tsumura states that you should sideboard in every one of your Limited matches. Check out this episode’s opening discussion for my thoughts on this underappreciated topic.

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  1. Your opening discussions are great! I would absolutely check out your channel just for those, i.e., if you’d like to continue talking forever about a topic, please feel free :)

  2. re: introduction’s intro:
    Simon Says ‘sode seventy-seven, Speaking of Sideboarding. Soul of Shandalar bg.
    So that’s a lot of S’s :P

  3. In match 1 game 3, your opponent resolves an hornet queen late in the game, but you have a flesh to dust with 5 open mana. When hornet queen resolves there is a chance for you to respond b4 the enter the battlefield effects occur. If you kill the hornet queen with the flesh to dust in that window the queen never has a chance to “call” her minions. Just something to keep an mind when facing an hornet queen. A spell as simple as a shock is able to counter the queen.

  4. @NoTeef: Simon Talks?

    @Anonymous (comment #3): That is not correct. Except for rare exceptions which are worded differently, enters-the-battlefield triggers resolve whether or not their source is still on the battlefield. You should probably check with your source.

  5. All you drafters seem to absolutely hate eternal thirst. It does seem like a bit of a newbie card and of course makes it very easy to get 2 for 1′ed, but is it really not even worthy of consideration with all those evasive creatures?

  6. Match 1, game 3 is why I would always play the first Covenant of Blood over the third Flesh to Dust. I understand the obvious advantages of an instant over a sorcery but having a little reach and life gain is always good. With the army of Welkin Terns your likely to get your opponent below ten life by the late game, where your Covenants and Sign in Blood’s can be game winning spells.

  7. @Henrik I know what you’re saying about Eternal Thirst, but I think what you have to keep in mind is that it is situational. The Limited Resources guys were really down on it, but they evaluate cards from a very objective viewpoint and in the general case.

    For example, if I remember correctly they were really down on Udergrowth Scavenger on the set review show, but Bryan played a BG graveyard deck at GP Portland and was running them in that deck.

    So even though Eternal Thirst may not be a good card in general, it’s actually really good in the right deck. I drafted a really evasive deck with multiple Accursed Spirits and Eternal Thirst was very good in that deck.

    Also Simon, thanks for another awesome draft. Loved it man!

  8. i love hearing your opinion and your discussions. if you have more to say please say it. simon says is your show and there is a reason people listen and watch. ive applied the things ive learned from your drafts in so many drafts to greater success than i believe i could have had on my own for sure.

  9. With 2 Murk Lurkers there would be no need for eternal thirst, if you were interested in Lifelink.

  10. Thank you simon for your continued quality contributions. I look forward to what will hopefully be many many more.

  11. Really well played. Pretty pleasing that you have a talk on sideboarding at the start and then use your sideboard to totally change how your deck plays and beat a Hornet Queen in your second match up.

  12. Thank you for the great content once again, Simon.

    The matches were really very exciting, especially the games against the hornet queen deck, which seemed very powerful from the card quality point of view.

    I would like to point out that even though some commentators sometimes find your extensive commentary tedious, I think that in fact there is no better magic commentary. The reason for this is that you have the gift to express your thoughts about which cards to pick while drafting and which plays to make during games, i.e. to explain the viewer your trail of thoughts. This is an invaluable resource to learn, so thank you for that.

    Anyway, I’m looking forward to many more ‘Simon says’; maybe we can break the #100?! :-)

  13. You explain things really well and have become my favourite drafter to watch. Thanks for doing these.