Shadow Era: Boarding School

Shadow Era's regional qualifiers are going on now, one each for the American, European  and Asian circuits. 64 players in each battle it out for three invites to the World Championships 2013. Now, I may be competing in the US circuit, but that hasn't stopped me before from helping out my opponents.

At least I'm the nice kind of crazy.

Something new to the qualifiers this year is the ten card sideboard, something new to official events. This means that many players competing have never used one before in their lives. Essentially, what it does is it lets you have an additional set of cards over and above your deck, and you can switch them in and out between games of a match depending upon what your opponent is playing.

This opens up a whole realm of possibilities. If you want Resurrection for millstalker (like iClipse's winning deck last year) or Spelleater Bands for Eladwen or Ley Line Nexus for Spelleater Bands, you can do that without hurting your other matchups. The boarding revelation completely changes the game. Rather than walk you through building your board, as I do still have to compete, after all, I'm going to give a handful of quick tips about playing in an event with boards.

1. Know your matchups. By this, I mean more than just know what your opponents are playing. You need to know how they work, and what hurts them. Then, more than know what cards to add, you also need to know what doesn't work and can be removed.

I actually recommend writing down board notes for each matchup ahead of time. This will not only help you to make sure all ten slots are utilized, but also make sure you don't get confused when it comes time to do the boarding.

2. Know the turn order. Remember that whoever goes first in the first game is going second in game two. This distinction will help you make choices, as certain cards only work well when going first. Remember that you can board those cards out after game two as well, if a third game is needed.

3. Know their options. You may have a sideboard, but your opponent does too. Don't forget that it's very possible you might be boarding in hate for a card that your opponent won't even be playing. By the same token, you can use this to your advantage by cutting cards your opponent is adding in hate for. You don't have to gamble with this, but if you see your opponent board in hate for something in game two you might want to board out that something for game three.

Best of luck to everyone I won't be playing, and may the best heroes win!

As a side note, it came to my attention that the paypal button on the donate page was outdated and broken. I've fixed it now, so if you wanted to give me money before, now's a good a time as any :3