5 Color Zoo - Sideboard

aldaryn · Joined: 02 Sep 2004 Posts: 467

I refuse to call this deck "Gaea's Might Get There." Get where, anyway? Anyway, I'm going to play it at an upcoming city champs, I'm going off of Raphael Levy's list, but I've modded it some, but not much, mostly either for personal flavor / cardpool or local metagame.

5 Color Zoo:

4 Kird Ape
3 Isamaru, Hound of Konda
3 Savannah Lions
4 Grim Lavamancer
2 Jotun Grunt
4 Watchwolf
4 Boros Swiftblade

4 Lightning Helix
4 Tribal Flames
4 Gaea's Might
3 Armadillo Cloak
1 Brute Force

1 Mountain
1 Steam Vents
1 Godless Shrine
1 Breeding Pool
1 Temple Garden
1 Stomping Ground
2 Sacred Foundry
2 Bloodstained Mire
2 Flooded Strand
4 Windswept Heath
4 Wooded Foothills

This isn't the point of the post, but here are my changes and why I made them:

I do not have the 2 Kataki's, and anyway they seem to only be good strictly in the Affinity matchup, maybe NO Stick but that's not too common here. I replaced them with 2 Savannah Lions.

2 Wild Mongrel became 2 Jotun Grunt - I'm not under the impression that the Mongrel is horribly imperative even though it is obviously good, but so is Grunt, against almost any deck, even if you have to shuffle your own crap back, and it freed up sideboard space.

The 1 random Firebolt became a third Armadillo Cloak.

You can leave his one up to personal taste, but I took out the 4 Sudden Shock for 4 Lightning Helix. I have yet to see a Wild Mongrel or a Psychatog at a tourney here, and Arcbound Ravager players know better and sac their Arcbound Worker on their own turn.

Now, his sideboard seemed a little unnecessarily random, and for my own memory's sake, I'd like to have a very streamlined sideboard and a general plan for each archetype.

What I KNOW is going in this sideboard:

4 Meddling Mage. Amazing card against just about anything not aggro. I'm not sure what I take out for this, but I'm thinking Watchwolf?
4 Ancient Grudge. So many reasons for this card, how can you not have four of these sb? I'd take out burn, but I'm not sure which one, if it's control I guess I'd take out the cloaks/force, otherwise against Affinity I'd actually probably take out Gaea's Might...

That leaves me 7 slots. What I'd like to do is have 3 of a card that goes in for 3 Armadillo Cloak against decks that will just Damnation/Wrath the creature away anyway. Sulfuric Vortex is ok but doesn't seem that helpful, esp when decks like TrinketTog don't have lifegain. I can't do much against their lands without wrecking my own.

The other 4 slots I'm assuming should be for the mirror match, probably Umezawa's Jitte? But I don't know.

And do I -need- krosan grips? Worship is obviously a p.i.t.a., but I don't expect it.

I also would like to know want to bring in in what match, in particular, for example, I really don't know what to bring in against BGr Flow Rock. It seems to be mostly an equipment war, so I should bring in Grudges, right? Do I bring in my own jittes too? Do I bring in meddling mages, or should I put them on a really fast clock and not sideboard anything?

The matches I'd like to have a sideboard plan for are: Mirror/Karsten BDW/BDW, Affinity, UW Tron, BGr Flow Rock, Gifts Rock, GW Slide (always there with this deck), maybe NO Stick.

any help appreciated

Ggerg · Joined: 04 Sep 2005 Posts: 468

i don't like your changes...not at all.

Pollo · Joined: 16 Nov 2004 Posts: 88

When I played that deck I had Smother vs Aggro, Evasive Action vs control decks & Pillars vs combo, which is dead now.

aldaryn · Joined: 02 Sep 2004 Posts: 467

Ggerg: If you're going to say something like that, would you mind explaining rather than wasting my time?

Pollo: Thanks for the ideas. Did you have a similar land base, i.e. were you able to support Smother off of 1 B-producing land? I was thinking about Deathmark. Combo is pretty dead where I live, so I don't think the Pillars are necessary, but I'll consider Evasive Action; I hadn't seen that card before.

SpareSocks · Joined: 24 Dec 2005 Posts: 49

You're dumb i hate you.

Vodka_drink · Joined: 13 Mar 2005 Posts: 1130 Location: Brampton O