Wishing Wisely
Commander (EDH) forum
Posted on Oct. 7, 2016, 1:55 p.m. by TheBanlist
So, we all know that there are cards in MTG that do things that probably shouldn't be done. Most of these cards are in "un" sets, making them illegal in most formats...but there is a cycle of cards that are both playable in EDH and can make your deck a more versatile force to be reckoned with. I am talking, of course, about wish cards. Using these cards to essentially expand your board without actually having to sideboard is a valuable and tragically underused tool.
Unfortunately, this tactic isn't 100% viable in every deck. To be honest, RUG, Bant, and America color decks have the biggest edge using wishboard tactics, but it can still be done for other EDH players.
So how do you wishboard? It's relatively easy! Building a sideboard should be no mystery to most MTG players, but the key concept is to build your sideboard around issues you know your mainboard deck will have trouble with. It becomes harder to craft an effective sideboard in EDH (that pesky "only one copy" rule), but using a wishboard makes things easier. Add the wishes you can play to the mainboard in the place of less essential cards. Move the cards you took out for your wishes into the sideboard, making sure the cards you take out are able to be targeted by your wishes. Hey, look! It's like those cards never left your deck, and now you can have EVEN MORE versatility! The ones that really pack a punch are Cunning Wish, Burning Wish, Living Wish, Glittering Wish, with Golden Wish as an honorable mention. So get out there and start wishing!
**P.S. Hey black players, be careful using Death Wish. That card can really ruin your day.
I definitely wouldn't allow wish cards at my house. Even stuff like Spawnsire of Ulamog. Nope.
It's a cool idea and I love the gimmick of it, but the purpose of an edh deck is to have answers for everything, or have a strong enough strategy to survive interaction. Just my $.02
October 7, 2016 3:19 p.m.
Having played in a shop meta with a 10-card sideboard, I quickly came to realize that many of my sideboard cards were incredibly good in a variety of situations against the best decks at my shop. On the other hand, against the bad decks, I could draw 1/5 blank cards and still win reliably. I ended up main-boarding cards like Extract, Tempest of Light, etc.
About 5 people there began running a full-on wishboard. I always found it to be rather lackluster. People rarely changed decks and I could predict the majority of someone's deck based off their general in most cases. When I couldn't it was mostly due to poor deck building or jank.
My question is why would you wish for something rather than simply boarding the card in to begin with? Your SB's mostly silver bullets anyway. It doesn't take a brain surgeon to figure out anti-control cards will likely be good against the ariter sitting across from the table.
I've never played with a group that allowed a 10 card SB and where no one sided before games began.
October 7, 2016 5:43 p.m.
The only deck I have that legitimately uses a Sideboard is my Eldrazi Tribal deck. It is comprised purely of Eldrazi that weren't good enough to be Maindecked, and it is only there for interaction with Spawnsire of Ulamog.
Outside of that one interaction, I don't use a sideboard. I've tried to run one before, but even at EDH Tournaments, I end up facing opponents once. There isn't much purpose to it.
A Wishboard is possible, but really isn't needed. There aren't enough cards to make Wish relevant. Why include a Wish card when you could just Mainboard whatever you're going to Tutor. You really need to have multiple targets, but typically all of those targets are in your Mainboard.
October 7, 2016 8:39 p.m.
DERPLINGSUPREME says... #6
the only time I've ever used a sideboard in edh is 2 times that i feel are both fine;
first, i run Coax from the Blind Eternities in one of my decks to grab Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger to deal with things like avacyn and such
second, one of my friends runs a Living Wish and he grabs Spawnsire of Ulamog from it and then only grabs 5 eldrazi, which is usually enough anyways.
October 8, 2016 10:58 a.m.
I run Cunning Wish in one of my decks. I think that the trick to properly using wishes is not to try and run particular "hosing cards" but to instead provide your deck with redundancy without having to take up a mainbaord slot.
For example, The deck's main win condition is using Blue Sun's Zenith so in the wishboard I run Stroke of Genius. I also use Palinchron to generate infinite mana so as a backup I run Turnabout which, while harder to assemble, provides the deck with another infinite mana outlet. I run a bunch of tutors main board, but I also run Insidious Dreams sideboard which can help me dig for the win condition.
All of these cards are strong, however not strong enough to take up space in the mainboard. But using Cunning Wish, I can have it represent 10 different cards.
October 12, 2016 9:22 p.m. Edited.
This may be a regional thing, but the actual EDH tournaments in my area don't allow Sideboards. I'm not talking about the fun stuff, I mean the tournaments with actual prizes. That is another reason why the only EDH deck I run with a Sideboard is a Casual deck.
Is this the same in your area?
October 13, 2016 10:32 a.m.
I like to run Burning Wish in place of Blasphemous Act in my mono-red decks because:
1) It's frequently my only boardwipe, so I'm not diminishing my odds of hitting the effect.
2) Paying instead of to wipe the board is rarely going to be an issue.
3) It gives me access to Ruination/Boil/Flashfires/etc in a color identity that really can't afford to draw dead cards.
Plus if I run into a play setting that doesn't allow wishes, I simply swap Blasphemous Act back in without needing to stress about it.
October 13, 2016 1:24 p.m.
Fong-Sai-Yu says... #10
I have an Horde of Notions deck, that runs: Research//Development. Research grabs up to 4 cards from my sideboard and shuffles them Into my library. I use my sideboard for more powerful cards (because I like the power level of the deck, but if I need to upgrade during the game I can). Plus I have an anti mill response in it and most of the sideboard are creatures that restock my library for targets of (Wild Pair). Development is good as a bit of fluffiness for elemental and dilemma when (Warstorm Surge) is in play. All in all, a card well suited to the deck.
CuteSnail says... #2
Just make sure that the playgroup knows you're using the optional sideboard rule. Personally I don't think the 10 card sideboard is that useful, wishes or not.
October 7, 2016 2:58 p.m.