Have you ever played Rock, Paper, Scissors?

I can still remember my first encounter with that fun and yet simple game. I had just moved during my 4th grade school year. At recess most items were on a first come first get basis. So if you wanted the best basketball or the coolest kickball you had to get to the bucket o' balls first. Often there was some kind of battle when two kids basically tied for getting there. The teachers had devised a cool system of playing out ties in speed with a battle of wits that is Rock, Paper, Scissors. Within my first week I had discovered the value of getting to the bucket first and hustled my tail off getting there. I had to face Heath for the tie breaker when we tied getting there. The first time this happened I had never heard of the game before and felt like an IDIOT when the teacher had to explain the rules. After that I almost never lost the game, so long as I was prepared.

What does this have to do with our Curriculum? How does that matter in Magic?

In the game of Magic the Gathering there is often a rock, paper, scissors background. At its simplest terms there are three basic types of decks. These decks can be equated to each element in Rock, Paper, Scissors.

First there is Aggro. In my general thinking I equate this with the Rock element. Since the way aggro wins is by hitting hard on something until it breaks. One only needs to feel the never ending bashing of a Tarmogoyf to understand how it feels.

Next there is my favorite deck type, Combo. I equate combo with the Paper element. Combo always begins as an idea on a drawing board. Sometimes it pans out but mostly it isn't worth the paper it's written on. When the Combo stars align though, it will almost always beat an Aggro deck. Just like paper beats rock in the RPS game.

Finally there is the dreaded Control. It fills the last element of Scissors rather nicely. When closed scissors are safe and innocent but when applied correctly it can cut to bone. Every combo player worth his Johnny badge flinches when he sees untapped Islands on his "go off" turn. No matter what designs Paper may have Scissors always finds a way to cut it to shreds. A good Rock however amasses an arsenal fast enough to and/or strong enough to pummel its way through the sharpness.

The idea of both games is to know your opponent and plan accordingly. I almost never lost at Rock, Paper, Scissors on the play ground because I started studying my likely opponents. I would get there fast but wait to see what transpired. I found certain players had a tendency for certain elements. After that I was able to win more often by combining speed with wit get the best items at recess.

In our game predicting the meta is just as important. Often times you will find a niche where the "top decks" have been overly dominate in one style. Then you can use your "rogue" deck and walk away with the victory. This happened in recent memory with Turbo Fog. Don't get me wrong, the Fog is a cool deck but when it peaked last summer it was mostly due to an Aggro heavy format. Very little non combat damage was being dealt. Using the "meta" is the first way to win in the Rock, Paper, Scissors idea. Luis Scott Vargas is probably one of the best at this. For awhile there he really seemed one step ahead. In fact I heard people accusing him of using his Internet show to manipulate the Meta. That's power!

There are also two other ways of beating the Rock, Paper, Scissor motif. The second is to have the Hybrid deck. What a hybrid deck does is float between two of the elements. Like say I had a Control/Combo deck. That would be akin to having a metal piece of paper. It can still encompass the rock but also it is hard to cut. Unfortunately your mix of Control and Combo could lead to a flimsy pair of Scissors made out of Paper Mache. Those decks are so dangerous I would let my 4 year old run around with them in her hand.

Right now on top of the Meta game is Jund. The reason it’s there is due to the fact it is a both an Aggro and Control deck and if you consider Cascade a combo ability (that how it feels to me) it even has some combo peppered on. I'm not sure how to equate Jund to Rock and Scissors. It’s either a very large rock with a sharp edge that cavemen would use for weapons or it's the "jaws of life" that rescue workers use to extract people from the wreckage of an accident. Either way you look at Jund can cut its way out of combo and bash through control.

What I want to discuss with you is a third way to beat the Rock, Paper, Scissors motif. It isn't as effective as going the mix route but I find it more mentally stimulating. Imagine playing best 2 out of 3 in Rock, Paper, Scissors. Now picture the advantage you would have knowing what your opponent was going to throw on the second game. You would probably win game two a lot right? Well I'm here to tell you that you can do just that in Magic.

The Secret is a Transformational sideboard. The basic idea is to use your sideboard to switch deck styles completely. The easiest way to do this is to have a "man plan" board. You begin the game with either a creatureless combo or a creatureless control deck. Between games watch your opponent as they go through their Sideboarding. Most of the time you'll catch them taking out what they think are "dead" cards. Who needs a Terminate when your opponents have no creatures to target it with? Now you bring in a creature base that complements other cards in your deck and smile inwardly as they try finding ways to answer your barrage of Red Zone damage.

In game three of course you really will leave them puzzled. Do I bring my creature removal back in? Do I keep my cards that I thought were the answer to his deck? Do I keep both in and weaken my actual strategy? For me there are few moments as grand in the game of Magic as when my opponent is totally confused as to how to sideboard for my concoction. Meanwhile you should have a pretty strong idea as to what their deck was designed to do, what they boarded in to answer your primary deck, and perhaps what they had that might come back in against your secondary deck. You literally hold all the cards.

Check this list from the 2009's in Virginia played by Dale Gamez

[deck align="center"]3 Elite Vangaurd

2 Goblin Bushwhacker

4 Goblin Guide

3 Kor Skyfisher

4 Plated Geopede

4 Ranger of Eos

4 Steppe Lynx

2 Burst Lightning

4 Lightning Bolt

4 Path to Exile

2 Elspeth, Knight-Errant

4 Mountain

6 Plains

4 Arid Mesa

4 Marsh Flats

4 Scalding Tarn

2 Teetering Peaks[/deck]

A pretty standard Boros Bushwhacker build. Everyone has seen this by now and has a plan for it in games 2 and 3. Now for a list a little more under the radar.

[deck align="center"]2 Elspeth, Knight-errant

2 Ajani Vengeant

2 Chandra Nalaar

4 Day of Judgment

4 Path to Exile

4 Oblivion Ring

4 Lightning Bolt

4 Burst Lightning

4 Volcanic Fallout

2 Journey to Nowhere

4 Luminarch Ascension

4 Arid Mesa

4 Terramorphic Expanse

7 Mountain

9 Plains[/deck]

This is a list that I toyed with when Zendikar was just out. It was highly effective for the Meta at the school since almost everybody played some kind of creature based strategy. Teenage boys just love to do Combat. I easily thwarted their plans and eventually won the day on the shoulders of a Planeswalker or a host of Angels.

If you look at these two lists with an eye on Transforming you can see that with some alterations you can easily merge the two. That is what I have done with some modest success. The only real loss the deck has ever faced is against a Valakut combo deck that I honestly misplayed and misboarded on game 3. Now I have to admit I’ve only faced a Jund deck in testing for this article. The results for the preboard matchup where very weak but in games where I pretend the Jund player pulls his creature removal I come up to a winning percentage for game 2. Game three however he can just go back to his original list and own pretty much any mix I have toyed with. Or if he doesn’t even bother changing after a probable domination from game one the match up goes to Jund. That being said I would not carry this into a Jund heavy environment. Otherwise it’s very playable.

Here is my list

[deck title="RW Transformer" align="center"]2 Elspeth, Knight-Errant

2 Ajani Vengeant

2 Chandra Nalaar

4 Day of Judgment

4 Path to Exile

4 Oblivion Ring

4 Lightning Bolt

4 Burst Lightning

4 Volcanic Fallout

2 Journey to Nowhere

4 Luminarch Ascension

4 Arid Mesa

2 Scalding Tarn

2 Marsh Flats

6 Mountain

7 Plains

3 Teetering Peaks

Sideboard

1 Goblin Bushwhacker

4 Kor Skyfisher

4 Ranger of Eos

4 Steppe Lynx[/deck]

Before you guys are dismissed one more piece of advice. When sideboarding do the following for every game. Put all 15 sideboard cards into your deck. Then shuffle before then removing the 15 you don't want. Even if you remove the exact same 15 that you put in you still reveal no information to your opponent. Against familiar opponents they'll know that you always do this and just play like normal but against strangers they'll think your really changing decks.

Any way, class dismissed.