Why Tranquil Frillback is a Good Sideboard Choice in Standard

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The current Standard Metagame highlighted a particular aggro/midrange deck that complements a good curve while maintaining an efficient mid to late-game plan. Adding to this is the variety of good utility creatures & one of which that will be highlighted in today’s blog post is Tranquil Frillback.

Tranquil Frillback is a versatile card in the Standard format of Magic: The Gathering, offering several benefits that make it an excellent sideboard choice. Here’s a detailed look at why this card is valuable and how it can enhance your strategy.

Understanding Tranquil Frillback

Tranquil Frillback

  • Mana Cost: 2G
  • Creature Type: Dinosaur
  • Power/Toughness: 3/3
  • Abilities:
  • When Tranquil Frillback enters the battlefield, you may pay up to three times. When you pay this cost one or more times, choose up to that many:
    • Destroy target artifact or enchantment.
    • Exile the target player’s graveyard.
    • You gain 4 life.

Reasons for Sideboarding Tranquil Frillback

  • Versatility and Flexibility:
  • Multiple Modes: Tranquil Frillback can address various threats depending on the game situation. Whether you need to destroy an artifact or enchantment, exile a graveyard, or gain life, Tranquil Frillback can do it all. This flexibility makes it a valuable tool against a wide range of strategies.
  • Adaptive Play: The ability to choose multiple modes when you have enough mana allows Tranquil Frillback to adapt to different game states and provide the most value possible.
  • Anti-Artifact and Enchantment:
  • Artifact Removal: In a format where powerful artifacts can dominate the battlefield, such as vehicles or equipment, having a way to remove these threats is crucial. Tranquil Frillback can easily deal with these problems.
  • Enchantment Removal: Similarly, enchantments can pose significant threats, especially in decks that rely on enchantment-based synergies or control elements. Tranquil Frillback’s ability to destroy enchantments is a key asset.
  • Graveyard Hate:
  • Graveyard Strategies: Many decks in Standard utilize the graveyard for various strategies, such as reanimation, flashback, or delve mechanics. Tranquil Frillback’s ability to exile a player’s graveyard can disrupt these strategies and prevent your opponent from gaining an advantage.
  • Life Gain:
  • Aggro Matchups: In games against aggressive decks that aim to reduce your life total quickly, gaining 4 life can be a significant buffer. This life gain can buy you valuable time to stabilize and turn the game in your favor.
  • Efficient Body:
  • 3/3 for 3 Mana: As a 3/3 creature for 3 Mana, Tranquil Frillback provides a solid body on the battlefield. It can trade favorably with smaller creatures or apply pressure to your opponent if left unchecked.
  • Value Creature: The combination of a reasonable mana cost and a decent power/toughness ratio makes Tranquil Frillback a good value creature, even without its additional abilities.

Example Situations for Sideboarding Tranquil Frillback

  • Against Control Decks:
  • Use Tranquil Frillback to destroy enchantments like Leyline Binding in Domain or artifacts like The Celestus that provide incremental advantage to control decks.
  • Exile the control player’s graveyard to disrupt their card advantage from cards like Memory Deluge or flashback spells.
  • Against Aggro Decks:
  • Gain 4 life to stabilize and recover from an early aggressive assault. Best example is against Mono-Red Prowess.
  • Provide a 3/3 blocker to trade with or deter further attacks from smaller creatures.
  • Against Graveyard-Centric Decks:
  • Exile the graveyard to prevent reanimation of creatures or use of cards with flashback or other graveyard interactions, such as Tenacious Underdog or Unholy Heat.

Conclusion

Tranquil Frillback’s versatility and efficiency make it a powerful sideboard card in Standard. Its multiple modes allow it to address a wide range of threats, including artifacts, enchantments, and graveyard strategies, while also providing life gain to help against aggressive decks. The flexibility and adaptability of Tranquil Frillback ensure that it can be a valuable inclusion in many different matchups, making it a staple for sideboards of Green-based decks in the current meta.