Community

If you go first do you draw a card first? giving you 8 cards? 

also what is a 15 card max sidedeck i read about?

If you go first, you don't draw a card on your first turn.  Going second means that you draw on your first turn.

The sideboard is a selection of cards used after the first round in a match.  It contains 0 or 15 cards.  Nowhere in between.  After the first round, you can switch cards in your deck with those in the sideboard, but once the match is over, you must switch back.

so a match is one game right???
so how many rounds are there?? 

a match is usually 2-3 games
if one player wins 2 games the match is over

how many rounds there are depends on the format of the tournament and on how many players are attending

zephyr used "rounds" wrong in this context, you sideboard between games, not between rounds
at the beginning of the next round (and the next match) you have to restore your deck to its original decklist

so you can sideboard every other game?? do you have to add in all 15 cards to your deck and remove 15?

You can swap any number of cards, but it has to be 1:1. You can sideboard before the second and third game of a match, never for the first.

Jan 18, 2013 -- 10:31AM, jordanb92 wrote:

so you can sideboard every other game?? do you have to add in all 15 cards to your deck and remove 15?

In each match, the first game must be played with the deck restored to its original state. After each game you can make sideboard changes. You can exchange as many cards as you want (limited to 15, of course), but you must exchange cards on a one-for-one basis: If you take five cards out, you must put five cards in.

thanks for the help everybody
 

just to clarify...

a match is won when one blayer wins 2/3 games.
The first game your sideboard cannot be used.
the second and 3rd game you can substitute in cards from sideboard.

at begining of next round deck is restored to original state.


 

Yes. In some tournaments, matches consist of best of five, but not the tournaments you and I are likely to be playing in.

It's easy to make mistakes sideboarding. After sideboarding, I always count that I have 15 cards in my sideboard. I also take a printout of the deck with me, so I can restore the sideboard without any confusion (but then again, I'm easily confused).

In the decisive game of the 2012 Pro Tour Avacyn Restored semifinal between Alexander Hayne and Jon Finkel, Hayne forgot to take out five cards he had sideboarded in. Because he reported the error himself and because Finkel graciously offered that he was fine with the situation, Hayne was not disqualified. Hayne proceded to win the game and, later, the entire tournament. It's a good lesson about sideboarding and also a good lesson about sportmamnship in Magic.

is there any restrictions to what can be in your sideboard??

is there a restriction on what can be in your sideboard

oops double post

Jan 18, 2013 -- 11:37AM, jordanb92 wrote:

is there any restrictions to what can be in your sideboard??

all the cards have to be legal in the format you are playing
you can't have more than 4 copies of a card in your deck, that includes your sideboard
so you can't have 4 Thought Scour in the mainboard and another 4 in your sideboard

And the Sideboard has to be 15 cards, no more or less (or you can choose not to have a Sideboard at all).