Sideboard

Each Magic player is allowed to have a sideboard, which is a group of additional cards the player may use to modify their deck between games of a match. A sideboard helps a player address the weaknesses of their deck against their opponent. For example, if a player consistently loses games against anyone who is playing red "burn" spells like Ghitu Fire and Urza's Rage, then the player may want to put four Chill (so as to "hose" red by increasing the spells' playing cost) or maybe four Ivory Mask (to prevent a player from being targeted) in their sideboard.

Description

In conventional games, each player is allowed to bring at most 15 cards (in addition to a player's main deck) to a game of Magic: The Gathering. These cards are referred to as the sideboard.

In limited games, all unused cards are treated as a sideboard.

A sideboard counts as part of the player's deck, therefore any limits to the number of copies of a card that may be included in a deck take the copies in the sideboard into account. This also means that restricted cards are limited to one including the sideboard. (For example, the card Black Lotus is restricted in DCI-sanctioned Vintage Magic tournaments. This means that only one Black Lotus is allowed per deck, including sideboard, in the Vintage format.) Players are not required to have a sideboard. If a library consists of more than the minimum amount of required cards, players are still allowed to sideboard, even if their sideboard consists of no cards.

The first game of a best-of match is usually played without cards from the sideboard and is therefore called pre-sideboard game. After the first match the players are allowed to swap/add/remove cards in their deck for cards in their sideboard (aka "sideboarding"), as long as the sideboard and the main deck remain legal after the sideboarding.

Starting with the Shadows over Innistrad Pro Tour, the first two games of a best-of-five Sunday playoff match are considered pre-sideboard games.

Previous rulings

Prior to the amendment of regulations in Magic 2014, the sideboard restrictions in constructed formats were more strict than the current one, as below:

1. If a player used a sideboard, the sideboard had to consist of exactly 15 cards. No more, no less.
2. Sideboarding had to be a 1-for-1 swap, i.e. the sideboard had to contain 15 cards, and the number of cards in main deck must be the same.

If one of the two cases above was violated in tournaments, it resulted in a game loss.

Rules

From the glossary of the Comprehensive Rules (June 7, 2024—Modern Horizons 3)

Sideboard

Extra cards that may be used to modify a deck between games of a match. See rules 100.4.

From the Comprehensive Rules (June 7, 2024—Modern Horizons 3)

• 100.4. Each player may also have a sideboard, which is a group of additional cards the player may use to modify their deck between games of a match.
  • 100.4a In constructed play, a sideboard may contain no more than fifteen cards. The four-card limit (see rule 100.2a) applies to the combined deck and sideboard.
  • 100.4b In limited play involving individual players, all cards in a player’s card pool not included in their deck are in that player’s sideboard.
  • 100.4c In limited play involving the Two-Headed Giant multiplayer variant, all cards in a team’s card pool but not in either player’s deck are in that team’s sideboard.
  • 100.4d In limited play involving other multiplayer team variants, each card in a team’s card pool but not in any player’s deck is assigned to the sideboard of one of those players. Each player has their own sideboard; cards may not be transferred between players.

Sideboard examples

Black

• Deathmark - Destroy a green or white creature

Blue

• Annul - Counter answer to decks that rely on artifacts and/or enchantments
• Chill - Hoses red decks
• Flashfreeze - Cheap red/green counter

Green

• Guttural Response - Counter target blue instant spell.
• Naturalize - Green's Disenchant
• Uktabi Orangutan and Viridian Shaman - 2/2 creatures that destroys an artifact when it comes in play

Red

• Blood Moon and Magus of the Moon - Hoses decks that rely on many non-basic lands by turning them into mountains
• Boil and Boiling Seas - Forces the opponent to waste countermagic, or lose it altogether.
• Guttural Response - Counter target blue instant spell.
• Red Elemental Blast, Pyroblast and Active Volcano - Strong answers to blue countermagic

White

• Disenchant - Destroy an artifact or enchantment
• Honorable Passage - Prevent damage from a source, if its red then reverse that damage

Land

• Wasteland - Destroy a non-basic land