2001)

Hopefully the bold title has caught your attention. ´´Dodecapod sucks´´ you say? How can that be... everyone and their grandmother are running four in their sideboards. Some people are even running them maindeck? How can such a heavily played card suck. Hopefully this article will illuminate this statement and provide some good alternatives for your IBC sideboards.

Let's start with a small analysis of the field. We are trying to build sideboards against Invasion Block Constructed decks so that we have a better chance of winning games two and three. With an infinite sideboard, everyone would technically have access to any card ever printed and barring the organizational nightmare, would always replace their decks with brand new ones that would destroy the deck that they are playing against. Of course this leads to some serious double guesing as your opponent may assume that you are doing this and sideboard in a new deck that is filled with hate for your ´´supposed´´ sideboard choice.

Magic games two and three would be hailed as sideboard wars and the carnage and fallout would be ugly. We, on the other hand, only have access to 15 cards for our sideboards and not the infinite choices of the above utopian world. You cannot afford to waste ANY of those slots on useless drivel or hopes and dreams.

Enter Dodecapod. This card is an overcosted 3/3 for four mana. As far as artifacts go, it isn't that bad of a card, but compared to the efficiency inherent in cards like Phyrexian Scuta and Spiritmonger, this card just sucks. You can even compare it to Emblazoned Golem which is a 3/4 for four with the chance of being bigger. ´´What about it's amazing discard effect?´´, you say. Well, let's see what the top decks are playing and analyze all the discard of the field for that answer.

Domain, Gomar, R/G beatdown, B/W Arena, BRU, RWU aggro or control builds and U/G aggro control are shaping up to be the most played and ´´top decks´´ of the field.

Here's all the discard in the field including some weird uses of discard like Void and some janky cards.

Invasion:
Addle
Blazing Specter
Crosis, the Purger
Lobotomy
Pain/Suffering (pain half)
Probe (when kicker is paid)
Ravenous Rats
Recoil
Seer's Vision
Tsabo's Decree
Vodalian Hypnotist
Void

Planeshift:
Doomsday Specter
Bog Down
Noxious Vapors
Marsh Crocodile
Thunderscape Battlemage (when black kicker is paid)
Urza's Guilt
Warped Devotion

Apocalypse:
Fungal Shambler
Gerard's Verdict
Mind Extraction

Of these 22 discard spells, only the following will actually effect Dodecapod's ability:
Blazing Specter
Crosis, the Purger
Pain/Suffering (pain half)
Probe (when kicker is paid)
Ravenous Rats
Recoil
Vodalian Hypnotist
Void
Bog Down
Marsh Crocodile
Thunderscape Battlemage (when black kicker is paid)
Urza's Guilt
Warped Devotion
Fungal Shambler
Gerard's Verdict

We are now down to 15 cards. Let's further limit the list to cards that are potenetially being played in the top decks:
Blazing Specter
Probe (when kicker is paid)
Ravenous Rats
Recoil
Void
Gerard's Verdict

We are now down to six cards. At this point you are probably wondering why you are running four Dodecapod's in your sideboard when you should be worried about Desolation Angel and Urza's Rages, but if you still aren't concerned, let's further realize that B/R isn't turning out to be a major archetype and although probe is occasionally used in Gomar, for the most part you can limit the above list to just Gerard's Verdict in some B/W decks (which usually gets sideboarded out for Addle if they see a Dodecapod). Granted you may see Blazing Specter and Void in B/R builds, but I don't think too many people are going to be playing straight B/R builds. It really seems that people are running four Dodecapods to deal with B/W's four Gerard's Verdicts and the chance of running into a Blazing Specter or occasional Void.

The threat of those three cards are hardly worth four sideboard slots.

I firmly believe that you will see less B/W and B/R builds in the coming weeks as people lean more heavily on blue and try to get some of the other combinations to work better. B/W has so few ways to deal with stuff that it will shortly fall on its face.

So now that you have decided not to run the Dodecapods, what are some other good cards that SHOULD be in your sideboard. I will cover the best sideboard choices for all five colors considering the current Metagame.

Green:
Green is being splashed all over the place these days in hopes of a solid creature base and some mana acceleration, not to mention Pernicious Deed, Spiritmonger and Mystic Snake. What should be in every green mage's sideboard.......WALLOP! Yes, you heard it here first and here's the reason why. What are the biggest creature kill cards out there right now: Gaea's Skyfolk, Dromar, Desolation Angel, Ordered Migration, Lightning Angel, Blazing Specter... what do they all have in common? They are all blue or black flyers. Wallop is cheap at 1G and other than the downside of being a sorcery, is one of the few cards that could save your ass from a succesful Desolation Angel in time. Green should also sideboard Blurred Mongoose and Kavu Chameleon against heavy counterspell decks (which are everywhere), and the Chameleon is good against Proc Green creatures (like the Lynx) too. You can even maindeck these in some amount. Also Pernicious Deed should be considered sideboard material if your deck has a lot of small permanents as maindeck it kills your stuff off as well. With the large propensity of flyers in the current environment, you can back your Wallop up with some Canopy Surges (especially against Domain's Ordered Migration). Finally, tranquility should be sideboarded against enchantments.

Black:
Black is the weakest color in terms of sideboard tech. The best offering it has in my opinion is Slay. It's a nice Cantrip that can deal with green creatures like Kavu Titan in short order. Tsabo's Decree should also be considered heavily as either maindeck or sideboard, especially with all those pesky Blurred Mongooses showing up lately. Finally Plague Spitter is great anti-Mongoose and anti-Lynx tech.

Red:
Red is another weak sideboard color. Scorching Lava comes to mind to deal with the Lynx and as a regeneration trick against Spiritmonger. Most good red cards are maindeck. A few other considerations are some of the Bloodfire cards in case you are getting swarmed by bears and Breath of Darigaaz for similar reasons. Also R/W brings us the amazing card Captain's Manuever. This card is a bit slow maindeck, but nothing says ´´I Love you´´ like a redirected Urza's Rage.

White:
White brings us Obisidian Acolyte and Crimson Acolyte. The Crimson is great against all that lovely red burn and Flametongue Kavu as well as blocking the beef in R/G beatdown. You will of course need some bigger creatures to help with the trample damage. Obsidian Acolyte is amazing against Death Grasp and Vindicate. Voice of All if not maindeck, should be played in your sideboard. Against U/G it should be named Blue as the mage will have almost no recourse besides Washout to deal with it. Against R/G it should be pro red and it should be pro-black against B/W builds. This helps with the Desolation Angel and also all the control has black as a component. G/W Sabertooth Nishoba is another possible choice against U/R builds and Spectral Lynx against green (although this is usually maindeck if you play it). Rout is always good too if you need mass creature control, but don't want to maindeck it.

Blue:
Gainsay. Did I mention Gainsay yet? Oh, by the way GAINSAY!!!! Yes, this card is some good with all the blue counterspell matchups you are going to run into. It only lets you counter a blue spell, but hey, that's what you want to do right!?! It costs 1U and gives you four more hard counters against the bitchiest decks. Want more? Washout should be in every Sideboard. Sometimes there are just things you can't deal with and Washout comes to the rescue time and again. Confound is another possibility as is Prohibit and Jilt which are great anti-bear tech; you may even want to run them main deck considering the current environment. Finally, if you do not want to run a ton of ´´creature´´ dependent counterspells and bounce, the sideboard is the place to go with the extra's in case you run against creatures (which you will).

Artifact:
Dodecapod? Well, despite my rant early, if you are playing an Eladamri's call style deck, you should definitely run one of these, although I would not maindeck it. Also if you have an extra slot and your local tournament meta game has everyone playing Gerard's Verdict, then go ahead and run one if you need to or have the slots, but if not, please choose some better color hosers or anti-tech cards.

A few last minute thoughts: Sideboards are best if you can add single cards that will shut down an entire archetype when drawn. The best way to win matches is sometimes consistency and speed and just letting your deck do what it does best, so don't go ruining your main deck with a bunch of janky sideboard cards that may or may not have a game alterning effect. Also note that with the large amount of colors being played in this environment, it is really easy to mess up your mana distribution by adding too much of a color or taking out too much of a color when sideboarding. Some sideboard slots may even be best used as additional land in this case. Finally, you should plan out way in advance what cards go in and what comes out against all potential matchups that you have tested against. If you run into something you haven't seen, then you will have to decide on the fly, but preparation can go along way to keeping your deck consistent.

In conclusion, leave your Dodecapods at home and bring your Gainsays, Wallops, Captain's Manuevers, Obsidian Acolytes and Blurred Mongooses. Who knows, you may even be able to sell a few extras to desperate players badly in need of sideboard tech.

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