RUG Box Review
I
have played more games with RUG / Canadian Threshold than any other deck in
Magic. Whenever I show up to a store or tournament with RUG I usually have
another deck box with me. Inside my bag is my "RUG Box." While the
main deck's 55-60 is pretty set in stone, the sideboard of RUG is quite
malleable; though you wouldn't necessarily know it from looking at the
regular top 8 RUG sideboards.
RUG
BOX LIST (for completeness main deck cards are also in this
list):
Ancient
Grudge
Artifact
Mutation
Brainstorm
Chain
Lightning
Counterspell
Counterspell
Daze
Delver
of Secrets
Destructive
Revelry
Dismember
Divert
Fire
// Ice
Flooded
Strand
Flusterstorm
Force
of Will
Forked
Bolt
Gitaxian
Probe
Grafdiggers
Cage
Green
Sun's Zenith
Grim
Lavamancer
Hydroblast
Krosan
Grip
Life
from the Loam
Lightning
Bolt
Mindbreak
Trap
Misty
Rainforest
Negate
Negate
Nimble
Mongoose
Phyrexian
Revoker
Pithing
Needle
Polluted
Delta
Ponder
Price
of Progress
Reality
Ripple
Rough//Tumble
Scalding
Tarn
Scavenging
Ooze
Snapcaster
Mage
Spell
Pierce
Spell
Snare
Submerge
Sulfur
Elemental
Sulfuric
Vortex
Surgical
Extraction
Sylvan
Library
Tarmogoyf
Tormod's
Crypt
Tropical
Island
True
Name Nemesis
Vendilion
Clique
Volcanic
Island
Wasteland
Wooded
Foothills
Young
Pyromancer
Zuran
Orb
First let’s talk
about the strategies you need to beat:
Artifacts/Enchantments
The big ones here that you are worried about are Batterskull, Blood Moon
and Rest in Peace.
Ancient Grudge
Artifact Mutation
Destructive Revelry
Krosan Grip
Reality Ripple
Sulfuric Vortex - Note this also comes in against blood moon decks
Blue Cards
The cards you
care about here are Jace, the Mindsculptor, Show and Tell and True
Name Nemesis.
Divert - Note this can serve as an additional spell pierce in a counter war
Red Elemental Blast
Pyroblast
Control
Primarily decks
with Islands and Jace the Mindsculptor.
Counterspell
Envelop - Versus Terminus
Negate
Envelop - Versus Terminus
Negate
Red Elemental Blast
Pithing Needle
Pyroblast
Spell Pierce
Sylvan Library
Combo
Against Combo your goal is to prevent them from getting A + B. This can
be show and tell and a fatty, rituals and ad Ad Nauseam or any other 2 or 3
combination of cards.
Counterspell
Dismember - Against painted stone
Divert - Versus Cabal Therapy and Thoughtseize not Duress
Envelop
Fire // Ice - I like Fire // Ice against Ad Nauseam because it pitches to force of will, can Ice them for tempo on upkeep and also can be used to kill Xantid Swarm if they side that in.
Fire // Ice - I like Fire // Ice against Ad Nauseam because it pitches to force of will, can Ice them for tempo on upkeep and also can be used to kill Xantid Swarm if they side that in.
Flusterstorm
Grafdiggers Cage - If they are elves or dredge
Mindbreak Trap
Negate
Negate
Red Elemental Blast
Phyrexian Revoker - Primarily against A + B combo that use permanents such as painter+ grindstone, etc
Pyroblast
Surgical Extraction - for A + B combo when they only have 4/8 pieces of the combo
Vendilion Clique - for A + B combo
Creatures
The most problematic creatures are Deathrite Shaman,
Knight of the Reliquary and Tarmogoyf.
Chain Lightning
Dismember
Fire // Ice
Forked Bolt
Grim Lavamancer
Rough//Tumble
Grim Lavamancer
Rough//Tumble
Scavenging Ooze - Against decks where your life total matters because of racing or you can control their graveyard to your advantage.
Submerge
True Name Nemesis
Young Pyromancer - This can come in as a wall against some creature decks that just want to keep attacking you with small dudes.
Graveyards
Dredgers are probably the most worrying graveyard
card that you can come across though Life from the loam and goblin welder can
also be troublesome.
Grafdiggers Cage
Green Sun's Zenith - Not great but if you are running Scavenging Ooze you side it in.
Scavenging Ooze
Surgical Extraction
Tormod's Crypt
Mirror/Mirrorish
Being out tempoed is probably the worst thing that
can happen to your tempo deck. Other decks that also have delver of secrets
will try and do that and you need to stop them.
Chain Lightning
Fire // Ice
Forked Bolt
Grim Lavamancer
Grim Lavamancer
Life from the Loam
Red Elemental Blast
Pyroblast
Rough//Tumble
Scavenging Ooze - To help shrink their graveyard and also to potentially get rid of their life from the loam.
Submerge
Scavenging Ooze - To help shrink their graveyard and also to potentially get rid of their life from the loam.
Submerge
I have lumped any other narrow or metagame
sideboard cards here.
Green Sun's Zenith - For when you need more dudes but want to flip Delver of Secrets
Hydroblast - When you play against too much Burn
Price of Progress - If you have lots of Jund and Lands in your metagame
Snapcaster Mage - If you need more copies of Lightning Bolt and/or Spell Pierce
Spell Snare - If there are a lot of Stone Forget Mystics and other powerful 2 drops in your metagame.
Zuran Orb - For against burn
RUGs primary game plan is to 1 for 1 your opponent
while pushing your advantage. This game plan is pretty weak against swarm
decks like elves and death and taxes who can deploy more than one threat or
answer in the same turn.
For ease of use I have grouped the cards into hate
cards related to beating specific strategies. Some cards are much more obvious
that others, so I have not added any additional info, for others I have added a
few notes or comments.
Chain Lightning
Dismember
Fire // Ice
Forked Bolt
Grim Lavamancer
Rough//Tumble
Submerge - If green
Sulfur Elemental
It is worth
noting that you need to be careful not to over sideboard. Also be diligent
about what cards your opponent does and does not play around - Daze, Stifle,
etc to help in your sideboarding decisions.
If there are any
cards I have missed then let me know!
-Cheers-
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