What Cards Should You Play in Your Standard Sideboard?

With Standard being stagnant for the past few weeks it’s only a matter of time until the next breakout deck throws the format into a small flux. Due to this inevitability, it's important to make sure that the deck you are running right now can be best prepared for the fringe strategies in the waiting. After all, it only takes one tournament win for a fringe deck to suddenly show up everywhere.

Roiling Vortex

While this card SHOULD be seeing play in most Mono-Red sideboards as a way to beat the already omnipresent Emergent Ultimatum, there are many decks utilizing life-gain strategies that this card makes moot.

Nothing in Standard is rising to the level of Soul-Sisters or other traditional strategies revolving around gaining life. However, decks utilizing the Learn mechanic to get Pest Summoning, or using the tokens from Sedgemoor Witch + Plumb the Forbidden to draw cards all use life gain as a way to off-set the massive damage taken by their own deck. Having a Roiling Vortex out against any decks looking to use any type of Pest Token can hose a part of the others game-plan and bottleneck their strategy enough to be able secure a win, all in one sideboard card.

Kaervek, the Spiteful

It may not be the best in every black deck, as the ones playing Pest Tokens of their own won’t want this and neither would Dimir Rogues, but Kaervek has the ability to nullify an insane amount of strategies at the current moment. Between Mono-White and Winota decks playing a variety of X/1’s such as Elite Spellbinder, Luminarch Aspirant, and Seasoned Hallowblade, as well as the aforementioned Pest Token decks, a resolved Karevek can Plague Wind and entire opponent’s board.

Besides fringe strategies, Kaervek also proves strong against a cycling deck by not letting opponents resolve Flourishing Fox and wiping away any tokens created by Valiant Rescuer.

Inscription of Abundance

This card has some restrictions tied to it, such as playing a largely creature based deck, but does almost everything you would want against current and upcoming strategies when kicked. Being able to remove key creatures such as Sedgemoor Witch, gain life against aggressive strategies, and provide a faster clock against control decks may give more mid-range strategies an edge as the format ages.

Broken Wings

Another versatile green card, Broken Wings provides answers against current cards like Embercleave, Dimir Rogues, and Showdown of the Skalds. However, up and coming strategies including Galazeth Prismari and other fringe decks such as Rakdos Sacrifice make use Immersturm Predator. Broken Wings already deals with both of these threats just as well as everything else, and will only become more valuable to the sideboard.

As the format continues there will be ebbs and flows in how fast the meta-game changes. We may be in a period of great stagnation now and whether due to bans or innovations, but that does not mean your sideboard should be just as stagnant. Whether you run into a fringe deck or a tier-1 deck with a few minor changes, taking into consideration some of these cards may be the difference between a win and a loss on the ranked ladder.