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Metagaming
Now what is the sideboard that Mud should play?

This is what I played in the last tournament I won, in Antwerp, mid-July 2003.

4 Jester's Cap
2 Null Brooch
3 Crumbling Sanctuary
4 Cursed Totem
2 Serrated Arrows

• Against combo/control: Jester's Cap, Null Brooch.
• Against decks playing Welder, or other decks playing creatures with nasty abilities as Sligh (think of Goblin Vandal, or maybe Goblin Shaman): Cursed Totem, Serrated Arrows.
• Against aggro and maybe Void: Crumbling Sanctuary. When there's more black than red, an extra Ensnaring Bridge probably would be better than the three Sanctuaries.
• Against specifically Pulverize you probably should include 2 Null Brooch against Sligh.
• Jester's Cap is also a great card to remove sideboard hate, boarded in after game one.
• There aren't any quality cards to be played in the mirror between two mono-brown Muds, and there are too many other artifact decks like WelderMud around, against which you have enough other cards to side in, to focus on mono-brown Mud. Also, in a paradoxical way, adding a card to Mud's sideboard for the mirror wouldn't increase the win ratio in any player's direction, since both mono-brown Muds would support the change.

This seems like a stable sideboard for any metagame. But the following things can be changed to the mainboard and sideboard in specific metagames.

In combo/control heavy environments, it seems like a good plan to maindeck up to six hate cards, first four Jester's Caps, then two Null Brooches. In that case, you should probably take out three Ensnaring Bridges, since this card is probably not needed against combo/control. Furthermore, you've got the following options: The three Winter Orbs, up to two Powder Kegs, and a City of Traitors.

Winter Orbs just don't do much against a lot of decks, and can even bother you. Against fast combo, it's worthless. Powder Kegs are usually best against aggressive decks, and only really take out Moxen against combo and control, or maybe another Keg. Sometimes it also takes out a kill card in control, but the idea is to remove that card with Jester's Cap. The last card to replace - the City of Traitors - seems to be a unusual option, since you take out mana for a threat. The fourth City can be a pain, though, and the manabase in Mud isn't really fragile, so it won't hurt that much removing a land.

However, there's a but; combo isn't always going to stay with the combo tactics after sideboarding. Many decks like RectorTrix will side in Phyrexian Negators.

Ensnaring Bridge is a great card against Phyrexian Negator - since once you play Bridge, you usually have less than five cards in hand. Kegs can also easily get rid of Negators, and can always take care of some artifact mana sources. Winter Orb is quite useless. So I think the best option would be to side out three Winter Orb and one Powder Keg, to side in four Jester's Caps.

If you want to play four maindecked Jester's Caps, just side in the Bridges after game one. To play Null Brooch in this matchup isn't bad either, but it costs a lot of mana. I think it isn't necessary in this particular matchup, as Koen and I never lost to RectorTrix in any tournament, in six or seven matchups. Null Brooch also doesn't provide you the win, since your opponent can play Academy Rector and sacrifice it to Cabal Therapy to put Yawgmoth's Bargain into play... All without you doing anything about it. This is because you can't counter Cabal Therapy's flashback cost, even if you can counter the spell. When he plays Bargain he's likely to find or enough combo parts, or enough sided in artifact hate; you can only stop one spell with one Null Brooch.

All other cards in the sideboard aren't really cards you want to play in the maindeck. Crumbling Sanctuary and Cursed Totem prevent you from winning in the way you want to, and Serrated Arrows is just too useless against a lot of common decks. Ensnaring Bridge is usually superior to Arrows, and it can also be dead - so you don't want any more dead cards.

Now what do you side out?

Against Combo:
-3 Ensnaring Bridge, -1 Winter Orb, + 4 Jester's Cap
You can also choose extra: -2 Winter Orb, + 2 Null Brooch
Against combo with attacking creatures: -3 Winter Orb, -1 Powder Keg, +4 Jester's Cap

Against control:
-3 Ensnaring Bridge, -1 Winter Orb, -1 Powder Keg, -1 City of Traitors, +4 Jester's Cap, +2 Null Brooch

One City because that land can be an aggressive gamble, playing something and then losing your land. Imagine then getting your card getting countered. Mud can afford to lose one land.

Against control in the form of Nether Void decks: no sideboarding
In the matchup against Nether Void deck, you just want to run the opponent out with your mana sources and all disruption you support.

Against aggro (for example Sligh/Stompy/Suicide black):
Without hate creatures: -3 Winter Orb, +3 Crumbling Sanctuary
With at least 2 of 3: Goblin Welder and/or Goblin Vandal and/or Gorilla Shaman and no Pulverize: -3 Winter Orb, -1 Wasteland, +4 Cursed Totem

One Wasteland because its main function is disabled against basic lands.

With Pulverize and no hate creatures: -3 Winter Orb, -2 Wasteland, -3 Ensnaring Bridge, +3 Jester's Cap, +2 Null Brooch, +3 Crumbling Sanctuary
With Pulverize and hate creatures: -3 Winter Orb, -2 Wasteland, +3 Cursed Totem, +2 Null Brooch

In this last matchup you would want to sideboard in a lot more cards, but you haven't got much space. Save extra Cursed Totems or Powder Kegs in your hand against Pulverize... That is, if you can't counter it.

Against hate creatures, Ensnaring Bridge is better than Crumbling Sanctuary, since Sanctuary doesn't prevent creatures from attacking. It remains a gamble, since you have to empty your hand.

Against WelderMud/Stax:
-3 Winter Orb, -1 Ensnaring Bridge, +4 Cursed Totem

Against Mono-Brown Mud:
-3 Winter Orb, -1 Sphere of Resistance, +2 Null Brooch, +2 Jester's Cap
You can also choose extra: -1 Sphere of Resistance, +1 Jester's Cap

Winter Orb should go, since it disrupts you almost as much as it disrupts your opponent in this matchup.

One or two Spheres can go for the same reason; however, you still will see games won in the mirror because of Spheres. It remains the card to seal the lock.

You can also choose up to two Jester's Caps over Null Brooches. While their functions differ obviously, they both aren't optimal and deciding which one to play sooner would partly be based upon personal preference. I rate Null Brooch just somewhat above Jester's Cap in this matchup. Null Brooch can counter almost every spell in Mud, while Jester's Cap removes the best kill options, but not all of them; for example, it leaves Metalworkers. Null Brooch can't do anything about any creatures, though.

Against TnT:
-3 Winter Orb, -1 Karn, Silver Golem, -1 Sphere of Resistance, -1 City of Traitors, +4 Cursed Totem, +2 Serrated Arrows

Removing one Karn is because you have trouble enough achieving control, and that's priority number one. Karn can also easily be stopped by a creature-heavy deck like TnT.

The Sphere and the City go because you desperately need space. The Sphere has less affect than usual since TnT plays enough cheap creatures, and also can play its cheap Survival of the Fittest; one City is probably the best option to remove when you need space, since it can provide a very unstable hand.

The following cards are options I always have prepared to be played in Mud's sideboard in specific environments. Of course, in more extreme environments some cards can be played maindecks as well.

These options also include a third and fourth copy of every card played maindeck or sideboard that we don't already have four of... Except for Winter Orb, since Orb isn't a silver bullet - just a very usable card in the right situations. So you really want to minimize the times you would have two Winter Orbs in your hand instead of more threats, thus you never want to play more than three in your deck.

Why all the following cards are or can be good can be found in the list above, under Tested cards or under Mud's cards and how they interact. I'll explain what matchups you want to include these cards.

Against aggressive decks:
Bottle Gnomes
Rejuvenation Chamber
Caltrops
The 4^th Ensnaring Bridge
The 4^th Crumbling Sanctuary

Against Blue-Based Control:
Defense Grid
Scrying Glass
The 3^rd and 4^th Null Brooch

Against Decks Playing Nasty Critters:
Cursed Scroll
Aeolipile
Triskelion
The 3^rd and 4^th Serrated Arrows

Against Graveyard Recursion:
Tormod's Crypt
Phyrexian Furnace
(Possibly) Thran Foundry

Against Graveyard Recursion That Also Uses Your Graveyard (Such As Goblin Welder):
Thran Foundry
Feldon's Cane

Against Non-Basic Lands:
The 4^th Petrified Field

When You Need A Quick Karn Beatdown:
The 4^th Karn, Silver Golem

When You Want To Get Your Graveyard And All Killed Cards Shuffled Back:
Feldon's Cane
Thran Foundry

(The problem with these is that you won't side these in against a deck that decked you in Game One, since once you learned a game was a long enduring matchup, you won't ever have the time left to play another long game. When you expect these matchups, you can always play one of these maindeck.)

Mud's Results
We had some impressive results in my region. More impressive results have probably taken place all around the world, but this forms a complete list of what happened with Mud in and around its birthplace in the Netherlands:

• I myself finished in ten consecutive top 8's in Castricum (3), Eindhoven (4), The Hague (2), and Antwerp (1).
• Of these I won four, and I would have won two of them if I had made it through the the last round victorious. I won Antwerp, Eindhoven, and The Hague two times.
• By winning two tournaments in a row, the first The Hague and Eindhoven, I also won at least thirteen games in a row.
• The Type 1 tournaments in The Hague have been organized three times by the time I started writing this, and a Mud deck had won it three times. Two of those wins were mind, and one was by two other persons, both playing Mud, who were tied for the first place. I didn't know about the last tournament being organized. The second tournament had three Mud players in its top 4.
• Because of my devotion to Mud, I've been the number 1 Vintage player in the Netherlands, since end-April 2003 until now. I kept playing tournaments on biweekly on an average throughout the last five months, and only one tournament was outside of the Netherlands - thus, I could get no points in other countries.
• In the end of May 2003 I was 66 DCI Vintage Rating Points ahead of the number 2 non-Mud player in the Netherlands, with a rating of 1839; by playing only my pet deck Mud for the last four and a half months and only in my own country. With Mud I reached a peak of 1850 here, while the number two (Koen) was still 45 points behind me.
• As of the time I write this, the Top 3 players in the Netherlands are all Mud players.

Two minor buts:

• Koen, the number two (and later number three) player, won one tournament with Stax.
• Stefan, the number three (and later number two) player also played GAT - but that was quite a while ago, and the majority of his rating came during the few months when he was playing Mud.

Now, after these wins Koen and I played in Eindhoven and Hoorn in one weekend, about two months ago, and faced the most painful artifact hate ever printed, including; Goblin Shaman, Goblin Vandal, Goblin Welder, Pulverize, Null Rod, Energy Flux, Nevinyrral's Disk, Serenity, Disenchant/Naturalize, Seal of Cleansing, and even Vindicate, which is castable and scary when combined with all other white artifact hate. I dropped more than thirty-five points.

It was probably time to let Mud rest for a while. At least in the Netherlands.