The Underdogs of Magic and My Legacy Sell List

I was watching the NFL playoffs this weekend and since I have no horse in this race (I'm a Jets fan), I found myself rooting for the underdogs, always rooting for the upset. That got me thinking about the cards that I consider are the most important cards in the game, yet the least known cards in all of Magic. 

Today, I'm talking about sideboards, and the special cards that nobody knows about that I have spent a lot of time researching. Does anyone remember when UWR Control was popular in Modern and Porphory Nodes went from unknown to the "Modern The Abyss"?

It may not be worth much today, but it spiked from $0.60 to $6.50 overnight. 

Let me give you my best example. Here's a card I doubt most people have ever seen before:

Favor of the Mighty

Favor of the Mighty is a sideboard card against two decks: Bogles and Splinter Twin. If you get this card to stick on the board and you are playing a deck like Hatebears, Burn, or UWR control with your main creatures being Celestial Colonnade and Snapcaster Mage, they are stuck with a 2/1 Pestermite or a 1/4 Deciever Exarch that has protection from the deck's win condition. Against Bogles, if done fast enough, you can get this out and they are stuck with a 1/1 or 2/2 Thrun, the Last Troll that has protection from the deck's own auras.

But this card doesn't just have to stop opposing decks. I like to find interesting uses for cards. In certain cases, you can use this against a deck like Scapeshift if you have a creature like Geist of Saint Traft. You can play around board wipes like Pyroclasm or Anger of the Gods. This card may also have applications in Affinity that allow your creatures to become Etched Champions. 

Sideboard cards are an interesting way of changing the game. From what I have learned, if your opponent has to read the card, you are ahead. There are a lot of cards in Magic, and with just a little research, you can find cards that will win you critical games in tournaments. Here are a few more. 

Divert

Divert is an interesting card. In Legacy, you can say that Misdirection is the better option. But in theory, it isn't. It's actually card advantage against a select few cards. Nothing is better than using Divert on a Hymn to Tourach or a Thoughtseize. The ruling on Thoughtseize when you redirect it is that they have to reveal their hand, choose a card and discard that card, and they lose two life. The reason this is better than Misdirection is because with Misdirection, you lose two cards from your hand regardless. Sure, you choose those cards, but you still lose two. This card allows you to only use one, and you know if you leave one island up your opponent thinks you are holding Spell Pierce or Brainstorm. They won't expect to be losing a chunk of their hand and give up information. 

Sudden Shock

Maybe the cheapest Legacy card you can play at the moment that has more impact than any other card. People think Force of Will is good? This card makes Force of Will look like Thwart. This card says on it, and I am not paraphrasing, "Kill target Monastary Swiftspear, Delver of Secrets, or Young Pyromancer. This cannot be countered, misdirected, or affected by your opponent, and will crush his entire gameplan". Those words a decade ago might not have made sense, but this was in the Futuresight block, so I guess Wizards saw this coming. This is a 2-of in most legacy decks that run red, and with Snapcaster Mage, it's a 4-of. Not to mention it's Modern playable, so it can deal with Pestermite and other annoying creatures. If you aren't playing this card or have your 4-of, I would suggest spending the big $1 to get it since as long as UR Delver exists, this card will be a must have.

Hide / Seek

Hide // Seek is one of those weird cards that people in Modern have seemed to have forgotten about. It is a card that can be used in your sideboard against two different decks:

1. Tron. You can get rid of a Wurmcoil without your opponent getting two 3/3 tokens. That is always a plus.
2. Combo decks, namely Scapeshift. The Seek part of Hide // Seek allows you to search your opponent's library for any card. That includes one of their two Valakut, the Molten Pinnacles. This can be game ending if they had the other one destroyed . 

This is an insanely versatile card that is two cards in one. It can stop certain decks cold, and this is the perfect idea of a sideboard card that can just do it all. 

Rakdos Charm

When it comes to sideboards, I want versatility. I want one card that can be useful against 2-3 different decks. This card can act as a burn spell if your opponent overwhelms the board with creatures, it can kill your opponent if they combo off with Splinter Twin, it can deal with the Melira Pod combo by exiling their graveyard in response to their creature persisting, and it can deal with Treasure Cruise/Snapcaster Mage by also exiling their graveyard so they can't bury you in card advantage. 

Bonus

And very quickly I'll go over three more sideboard cards that are all considerations:

1. Oversoul of Dusk: I have been testing this in Birthing Pod variants and it is very strong against UR Delver. I like it over Sigarda, Host of Herons because you don't see Liliana of the Veil much anymore, and this card gets around UR Delver's main way of getting rid of large creatures, Vapor Snag.
2. Ravenous Trap: Most decks that utilize the graveyard have in their sideboards ways of beating Grafdigger's Cage or Rest in Peace. This is just a casual 0-mana way of dealing with graveyards.  
3. Drop of Honey: What is this card? Well it's a great card if you are playing against a creature-based deck in Legacy where you know you will have a creature in play like a Tarmogoyf and they'll have a creature like Deathrite Shaman. It's very good against Elves and UR Delver especially if they have an active Young Pyromancer.

What I'm Selling in Legacy

So part two of my article today is what am I selling in Legacy. 

Right now, I am not buying. Legacy prices have reached astronomical numbers and thanks to certain new cards in a certain white Commander deck, I have a rather long list of cards that I am getting rid of pretty quick. Remember, it's a sellers market. 

Wasteland

The main deck in Legacy that used to run Wasteland was RUG Delver. But as long as UR Delver is the cheaper and better variation, and I don't see this changing any time soon, Wasteland is going to be an underplayed card that won't be tier 1 until something happens to UR Delver. When a card goes from Tier 1 to Tier 2 this quickly, it's time to sell.

Sneak Attack

Sneak and Show is my deck of choice. Sadly it's just no longer good. Containment Priest has become a must-own sideboard card, and UR Delver is just too fast for Sneak and Show. I have to take my Sneak Attack's and put my deck to the side mainly for use when I'm just trying to screw around with my friends. Show and Tell still has use in Omni-Show decks, but Sneak Attack is just not worth $60 in my binder.

Entomb

For the same reasons that I don't think Show and Tell is good right now, I don't think Reanimator is good either. Sure, it has great matchups against creature-based decks, and the drop in play of a deck I'll talk about in a minute makes Reanimator a better deck, but UR Delver just plays too many counterspells for you to play Reanimator unless you get the opening god hand. 

Counterbalance and Sensei's Divining Top

Not the most expensive cards in the world, but I think Miracles is a dead man walking at the moment. It's just not well positioned at the moment, and I don't think it's making a comeback. 

If you haven't noticed recently, Miracles started playing Stoneforge Mystic in the sideboard as a 2-of. Then people started adding it to the maindeck as a 2-of. Now the new thing is Miracle-less Miracles. And that's the decklist I'll show you guys in a moment. Back to what I mentioned earlier, Reanimator is a better deck now that Miracles is being played less.

What I'm Playing

So what am I playing in real life?

I would like to change the two Supreme Verdict's to 1x Moat and 1x Humility; I'll try that out at the next SCG event I go to. 

Conclusion

This deck needs some work, but it has done very well in testing. I also like that my win conditions are no longer miracle-based, and they are much less time-intensive in the form of Batterskull and True-Name Nemesis. I was surprised at how good Lightning Bolt has been; it is very good at killing Turn 1 Deathrite Shamans, Delver of Secretss, etc. The way I see it, if they have to Force of Will my Lightning Bolt on Turn 1 and drop down to 3-4 cards in hand, I have a huge advantage. Also, due to the lack of Wastelands running around, I have been much greedier with my mana base. 

If I missed some interesting or cool sideboard cards, feel free to leave them in the comments, because there are thousands of cards out there. Until next time, you can follow my Twitch at TERROl2.

Next time I'll talk about what to sell in Standard, a hot topic with Fate Reforged looming.