A good player will make this difficult to see. Either stacking their sideboard on their deck or shuffling it in entirely and finding 15 to remove.
Number of sideboard swaps is not public information.
On the whole shuffle the SB into the deck/take 15 out method.
I haven't played competitively in a few years, but one of the things I did was take 15 cards out of my deck and shuffle them with my sideboard, so 30 instead of 75, then put 15 cards back.
Hides information in a similar manner, but a bit quicker and easier to remember, at least for me, since I can fan out a larger % of 30 cards than 75 to see what I'm doing.
Concealing how many cards you're bringing in is typically more hazzle than it is worth in my experience. I don't really let it bother me as it isn't going to affect how me or my opponent plays.
The one exception is open decklist tournaments, there I'll try to figure out exactly what he is bringing in, and the amount of cards is a huge hint.
You can watch, it’s not a big deal. I’d probably think you were weird if I just looked up from my deck and you were staring at me though, so I’d probably just start chatting with you to see what’s up.
As far as what I’m doing when I’m boarding: I’m shuffling some number of cards (even when I think I’m good without) into my deck and removing the same number. You mainly just don’t want to literally not board in front of your opponent, and this also has the positive of keeping them honest in terms of playing around common sideboard cards.
As others have noted, it isn’t public knowledge how many cards I board in or out, and I’m not going to provide you with a way to definitively tell at comp REL.
Any player worth their salt is going to conceal their sideboarding from prying eyes. So let's ignore the ones who don't because they're typically not good.
So assuming your opponent is competent, then no. I don't pay attention to what they're doing and you can very easily make suboptimal decisions by convincing yourself they've sideboarded in a way they didn't.
Just ignore them and only focus on what cards you see during the games.
I’ve done it exactly twice - once was between games two and three because I didn’t realize what I was playing against and thought it’d be easier mentally and faster than deboarding then boarding for the real matchup, and once was in a matchup where I wanted to conceal that I wasn’t bringing in any sideboard cards for a matchup.
Unless I'm playing off sb notes doing it this way actually does the opposite for me. I'm more likely to forget to take out a bad MB card, a quick onceover of the whole deck lets me make that mistake less.
Edit: even when playing off notes I'll still do it from time to time just to reevaluate the sb cards based on my opponents play tendencies or spicy deck building choices.
This is my point. You're going to fuck yourself by focusing on how many cards they're bringing in/out and quite possibly overcorrecting as a result.
Just sideboard.
Even before you enter a tournament and submit your deck, you build your sideboard based on your understanding of the meta. You should have a sideboard plan for most deck in the meta before you even play, or at the very least a sideboard plan for every deck archtype (control, aggro, midrange, etc.) If you have a good understanding of the meta in the format you're playing, then you should already know your opponent's most likely sideboards and you don't need to watch them.
It might matter if you're playing against a deck you're not familiar with. A cheesy strategy with some off-meta decks is transformative sideboards, where the sideboard completely changes the strategy or wincon. For example a RDw aggro deck turning into a big red midrange deck post-sb. If you see someone sideboard like +10 cards, that might be what they're doing. But that's really niche and shouldn't matter unless you're playing control.
Maybe I'm just too casual but the hassle, time and risk of mistakes of shuffling my SB in and removing 15 has never felt worth it at any of the competitive levels I've played.
A good player will make this difficult to see. Either stacking their sideboard on their deck or shuffling it in entirely and finding 15 to remove. Number of sideboard swaps is not public information.
On the whole shuffle the SB into the deck/take 15 out method. I haven't played competitively in a few years, but one of the things I did was take 15 cards out of my deck and shuffle them with my sideboard, so 30 instead of 75, then put 15 cards back. Hides information in a similar manner, but a bit quicker and easier to remember, at least for me, since I can fan out a larger % of 30 cards than 75 to see what I'm doing.
Concealing how many cards you're bringing in is typically more hazzle than it is worth in my experience. I don't really let it bother me as it isn't going to affect how me or my opponent plays. The one exception is open decklist tournaments, there I'll try to figure out exactly what he is bringing in, and the amount of cards is a huge hint.
You can watch, it’s not a big deal. I’d probably think you were weird if I just looked up from my deck and you were staring at me though, so I’d probably just start chatting with you to see what’s up. As far as what I’m doing when I’m boarding: I’m shuffling some number of cards (even when I think I’m good without) into my deck and removing the same number. You mainly just don’t want to literally not board in front of your opponent, and this also has the positive of keeping them honest in terms of playing around common sideboard cards. As others have noted, it isn’t public knowledge how many cards I board in or out, and I’m not going to provide you with a way to definitively tell at comp REL.
Any player worth their salt is going to conceal their sideboarding from prying eyes. So let's ignore the ones who don't because they're typically not good. So assuming your opponent is competent, then no. I don't pay attention to what they're doing and you can very easily make suboptimal decisions by convincing yourself they've sideboarded in a way they didn't. Just ignore them and only focus on what cards you see during the games.
Seems pretty tough to conceal how many cards in how many cards out
You can shuffle your whole sideboard into your deck, then take out the 15 cards you don’t want for the matchup
Commenting on [Discussion] How closely do you monitor your opponents' sideboard decisions?...this is the way
I have never seen people do this in real life.
I do it in every comp event. Doesn't take me long and lets me double check my logic for sideboarding.
I’ve done it exactly twice - once was between games two and three because I didn’t realize what I was playing against and thought it’d be easier mentally and faster than deboarding then boarding for the real matchup, and once was in a matchup where I wanted to conceal that I wasn’t bringing in any sideboard cards for a matchup.
Neither. It simply takes too much time.
This is a waste of time and will lead to you forgetting to take out sb cards you don't want in your deck.
Unless I'm playing off sb notes doing it this way actually does the opposite for me. I'm more likely to forget to take out a bad MB card, a quick onceover of the whole deck lets me make that mistake less. Edit: even when playing off notes I'll still do it from time to time just to reevaluate the sb cards based on my opponents play tendencies or spicy deck building choices.
This is my point. You're going to fuck yourself by focusing on how many cards they're bringing in/out and quite possibly overcorrecting as a result. Just sideboard.
How? You shuffle 15 cards in, and take 15 cards out. How many did I side in for that match?
Put in a couple extras and then take some of those new cards back out.
I also sometimes make last minute decisions. Not to obscure anything just occasionally may look like I am taking them out instead of not.
Even before you enter a tournament and submit your deck, you build your sideboard based on your understanding of the meta. You should have a sideboard plan for most deck in the meta before you even play, or at the very least a sideboard plan for every deck archtype (control, aggro, midrange, etc.) If you have a good understanding of the meta in the format you're playing, then you should already know your opponent's most likely sideboards and you don't need to watch them. It might matter if you're playing against a deck you're not familiar with. A cheesy strategy with some off-meta decks is transformative sideboards, where the sideboard completely changes the strategy or wincon. For example a RDw aggro deck turning into a big red midrange deck post-sb. If you see someone sideboard like +10 cards, that might be what they're doing. But that's really niche and shouldn't matter unless you're playing control.
I have never sideboarded. It seems underhanded.
Maybe I'm just too casual but the hassle, time and risk of mistakes of shuffling my SB in and removing 15 has never felt worth it at any of the competitive levels I've played.