A little bit ago I covered how you can fight against Aggressive decks, and how you can slow down lists looking to take you down before you have the chance to get going. In this article we'll be covering the other half of the equation, in sideboarding against slower decks looking to control you out.

With access to strong control tools, lockdown pieces, consistent value generation, attrition tools and more, playing against control can feel overwhelming at times, but there's a myriad of ways to approach these matchups, and that flexibility is helpful when it comes to preparing your sideboard tools against them. I've grouped this into three methods that I call Going Over, Going Around, and Going Through, let's break down what each of these means.

Going Over - (More Control Power)

A cornerstone of control decks is their access to two things: strong interactive tools, and strong value tools. The interactive tools are how they stop faster decks in their tracks, while the value tools are how they attain more strength in the late-game to overtake opponents. When it comes to sideboarding, you can bring in more of this control power of your own, giving you the ability to beat them at their own game.

Going Around - (Additional Burn/Damage)

When you're playing an aggressive deck against a control deck, your general goal is killing them as soon as possible. Sometimes when it comes to post-sideboard, the best way to do that is to just lean into that strategy by pulling in even more damage to try to push in enough damge. Burn damage can be especially useful with many top control decks having ways to stop Warriors.

Going Through - (Hate Pieces)

Just like with any other deck, control decks have certain synergies that the rely on for their control tools to function. For example, Gaia relies on Eradication effects for a large variety of triggers in her deck, aswell as Perish abilities for a lot of her Card draw and Removal, such as with Jasmine, The Unstoppable Water Beauty, and Latarr, The Daughter Of Destruction. For Seraphim, Michael relies on Holy Counters both to keep his board-state firmly in play, while also being used to fuel abilities of cards like Kabshiels' Favours For The Seraphim and Bow Of The Archangel. As such, many of the hate effects that can be used against faster decks can also play double duty against some control matchups.

There are also some other smaller inclusions that may take some attention. For example, Twilight Princess Hyacinth is an incredibly strong control piece that's made her way into a large number of decks. Depending on your main-deck tools, you might need to have some sideboard cards just for her, like Eon, The Timeshift Warlock or Sunrise, Consumed By Courage. That being said, there are also some non-conventional ways to deal with Hyacinth such as with Twilight Rose that might be better suited to your sideboard, or already be present in your maindeck.

All this information should hopefully help to evaluate why a card might be good in your sideboard, and how it can keep you in the running against the decks trying to slow you down. To actually help with picking out sideboard options however, here's a quick list of some great options to beat out some of the best decks in the metagame, to help build a base for your sideboarding.