Dies to Removal

Wizards dropped some large ones on us all yesterday. They're changing how the legendary and planeswalker type rulings work as well as sideboarding and a few other things.

I'd like to start a discussion on how people think the sideboarding changes will affect Standard play. Here's a quick summary of the change, which takes effect in July with the release of M14:

Sideboards no longer need to be 0 cards or 15 cards. They can now be UP TO 15 cards. In other words, anywhere from 0 to 15. But no greater than 15.

For games 2 and 3 of a match, you no longer have to present a deck with the exact number of cards as game 1. The minimum number remains 60. For example, if you have a 60 card MB and 15 card SB, you can present 61 cards MB and 14 cards SB for games 2 and/or 3. Staying with 60/15, you can present anywhere from 60/15 up to 75/0, I believe.

The immediate reactions I'm seeing from
many people are positive. One of the reasons given for the change is that it prevents the feel bad moment when you forget to side out a card and present 61 cards game 2.

How do people feel about this, and what impact do you think it will have?

Do you think the traditional wisdom of staying at the 60 card minimum will change for games 2 or 3 now?

I like the new sideboarding rules because they remove an additional level of pressure during an event. Losing because you added an additional card and not because of gameplay is horrible.

I also think that a lot of people will try to go above the 60 card limit to their detriment. Adding cards to the deck potentially destroys the synergy of that deck. I predict this will be the most skill challenging aspect added to the game since a lot of new players and even some existing players will add cards because of the temptation to do so.

In the immortal words of Ackbar, "It's a trap!"

The sideboard changes are more aimed at quality of life for judges than anything, but I'm glad they did it. I can't think of a lot of circumstances where I would want to play an extra card, but I can think of quite a few times where a guy pointlessly lost game 2 because he wasn't walking on egg shells.