Top 10 MTG Side Board Cards In Historic From Adventures in the Forgotten Realms

When a new set releases, a great thing to look at from a competitive standpoint is new sideboard tech cards that we can be playing, whether it’s from the new set or not. The metagame can change and shift to account for new cards so our sideboard tech needs to do the same. Adventures in the Forgotten Realms just released on Magic Arena, so now is a great time to look at the best sideboard cards from the set for Historic.

10. You See a Guard Approach

The “choose your own adventure” style of cards all seem to be pretty good. They offer the player a choice of effect based on the situation. This card gives Blue based, or blue splashed aggressive decks a great way to protect their creatures, but also cheap way to tap a blocker and force through damage. I’d imagine this fits in the world of Azorius Auras.

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9. Keen-Eared Sentry

Keen-Eared Sentry is a really interesting one. It’s a really cheap creature that can give you hexproof, like Leyline of Sanctity Leyline of Sanctity If this card is in your opening hand, you may begin the game with it on the battlefield.
You have hexproof. (You can't be the target of spells or abilities your opponents control.) . This effect is really nice to protect you from discard spells or burn spells. The venture tax is a nice benefit if the mechanic makes headway in the format. Yes it’s not very durable, but if this eats a burn spell or removal spell, that’s damage or removal not pointed at you or other important creatures on your board.

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8. You Find a Cursed Idol

Another great “choose your own adventure” card is You Find a Cursed Idol You Find a Cursed Idol Choose one —
• Smash It — Destroy target artifact.
• Lift the Curse — Destroy target enchantment.
• Steal Its Eyes — Create a Treasure token and venture into the dungeon. (Enter the first room or advance to the next room.) . This one comes with a lot of versatility, giving you the option to destroy an artifact or enchantment, but also you can Venture into the dungeon as well. If you’re already venturing into the dungeon, this is a for sure include.

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7. Burning Hands

Burning hands is a great tool for red decks that may have a hard time stalling out against larger green creatures. It’s a fine removal spell on it’s own, but dealing 6 to something like a Lovestruck Beast Lovestruck Beast This creature can't attack unless you control a 1/1 creature. or Questing Beast Questing Beast Vigilance, deathtouch, haste
Questing Beast can't be blocked by creatures with power 2 or less.
Combat damage that would be dealt by creatures you control can't be prevented.
Whenever Questing Beast deals combat damage to an opponent, it deals that much damage to target planeswalker that player controls. is great. This could also fit into a red splashed control deck to deal with Shifting Ceratops Shifting Ceratops This spell can't be countered.
Protection from blue (This creature can't be blocked, targeted, dealt damage, enchanted, or equipped by anything blue.)
{G}: This creature gains your choice of reach, trample, or haste until end of turn. cleanly without wasting a board wipe.

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6. Hunter’s Mark

Hunter’s Mark is a really great take on a green “removal” spell. This is a dead ringer against control decks where you need to deal with cards like Teferi, Hero of Dominaria Teferi, Hero of Dominaria +1: Draw a card. At the beginning of the next end step, untap up to two lands.
−3: Put target nonland permanent into its owner's library third from the top.
−8: You get an emblem with "Whenever you draw a card, exile target permanent an opponent controls." , Narset, Parter of Veils Narset, Parter of Veils Each opponent can't draw more than one card each turn.
−2: Look at the top four cards of your library. You may reveal a noncreature, nonland card from among them and put it into your hand. Put the rest on the bottom of your library in a random order. or shark tokens from Shark Typhoon Shark Typhoon Whenever you cast a noncreature spell, create an X/X blue Shark creature token with flying, where X is that spell's mana value.
Cycling {X}{1}{U} ({X}{1}{U}, Discard this card: Draw a card.)
When you cycle this card, create an X/X blue Shark creature token with flying. . It can’t be countered which is rare now a days, and it costs 1 mana if you’re targeting a blue creature or planeswalker. Definitely a shoe in for Gruul Aggro or Mono Green.

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5. Divine Smite

Divine Smite is the new Devout Decree Devout Decree Exile target creature or planeswalker that's black or red. Scry 1. (Look at the top card of your library. You may put that card on the bottom.) alternative. There’s some additional versatility over Devout Decree in that it’s an instant, and it’s able to target any creature or planeswalker. The only disadvantage is that if this hits anything other than a black permanent, then that permanent only phases out rather than getting exiled. I can see a world where the phasing out is a fine alternative. Ultimately, this card is going great in Control, Collected Company, or Mono White Taxes.

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4. Guardian of Faith

Guardian of Faith is such a powerful card. This card gives you the ability to save your board in a pinch. The use cases for this card are endless. Since it’s 3 mana, we can get this with Collected Company, and it can just be played normally since it has flash. This should go in any creature deck that has white.

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3. Sphere of Annihilation

Sphere of Annihilation is an iconic D&D item that’s really powerful, and the card is powerful as well. This card is incredible flexible and can slot really into a control deck the best. I think the best use case for this card is a faster board wipe against aggressive decks. We can play this for x=2 and deal with a lot of creatures our opponents can play. At the same time, this can be used as a massive board and graveyard clear if needed to deal with everything.

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2. Power Word Kill

Power Word Kill is our new 2 mana removal spell in black. While this may seem like a main deck card, and it very well may be, this definitely can fit in as a powerful sideboard option. This is contending with something like Heartless Act Heartless Act Choose one —
• Destroy target creature with no counters on it.
• Remove up to three counters from target creature. or Eliminate Eliminate Destroy target creature or planeswalker with mana value 3 or less. , but there are a good number of creatures with +1/+1 counters on them or larger creatures that this can deal with really nicely. There isn’t a ton of Angels, Demons, Devils, or Dragons at the moment in the format, so this is definitely a contender.

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1. Portable Hole

Our number 1 pick is Portable Hole. This card is really awesome. While it only can hit smaller permanents, it hits any nonland permanent. The best part of this spell is that its 1 mana. This is the cheapest form of this style of removal that’s available on Arena and is a great option for some quick removal for a lot of decks.

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The Historic Format is definitely going to evolve over the next few weeks and months, but these sideboard cards should still hold strong. What are some of your favorite sideboard tech cards in Historic? Let us know in the comments!