I just want to state up front that my bastard editor forced me to write this article. He sent me an e-mail, whining about the lack of Team Sealed articles around, and wondered if I could help.”Seeing as how it’s your favorite format,” he sez to me,”I figured you might have something meaningful to contribute.”
Oh wait… that was last year. Sort of. That conversation never actually happened, but it could have, and I think that was the point. These days, I have to fill the gaps by writing myself bastardly e-mails, ranting about lack of articles on specific formats. It’s a little odd, but I find the whole process cathartic. I’m my own J. Jonah Jameson. Minus the cigar. And the mustache. And the superhero nemesis. Perhaps I should just move on before this metaphor completely unravels…
Anyway, I only have some minorly meaningful items to contribute to this particular format – but I know some people who know some people, and I may have roped some pros to put their nuggets together and think about a sealed deck or two. In the meantime, I’ll just blather on about my opinion of the archetypes in the format, and at the end the big guns will chime in on a Sealed Deck exercise.
Team Sealed
Team Sealed is an incredibly complex format. People screw up all the time building just one sealed deck (including me), so the complications that arise from doubling the card pool and dividing it three ways are pretty immense. This also makes the format more skill intensive (and less luck-dependent) than normal Sealed deck. Michael Thicke recently wrote an excellent primer on the how’s of constructing your Team Sealed decks over on Brainburst, and I recommend everyone attending GP: DC at least glance at the steps he outlines before this weekend. Pay particular attention to the step he calls”Rotate,” since most people ignore that section, and a second and third opinion are always a good idea in this format. I tend to be too generous when building decks, so having a teammate step in and say that it’s underpowered is helpful to everybody.
Color Archetypes
Since there hasn’t been a lot of Limited strategy written about this format as a whole, I’m of the opinion that people ignore some existing color archetypes that are actually pretty solid. Green and White are widely regarded as”weak” colors (White isn’t weak at all, but people insist on spreading this gossip), so players are less likely to explore with these colors and as a result, have less information about what combinations actually work. I’ll briefly detail my ideas on all the Green and White archetypes below, and then I’ll switch gears and cover possible breakdowns of pools as a whole.
Green/White
What do you get when you combine the two (supposedly) weakest colors in Mirrodin-Darksteel Limited? The answer is often a very good deck. Generally referred to as Blinding_Beam.dec, G/W can actually be one of the strongest archetypes in the format, if you get the right cards. It starts with some reasonable acceleration, and moves into Green fatties and artifact destruction backed up by White fliers and point creature removal. This color scheme has access to the two best land-affinity golems (Razor Golem is the nuts), a host of insane uncommons (every White uncommon in Darksteel is a bomb, and Green’s aren’t too shabby either), and generally ends up as a very strong tempo deck that should be played by one of the aggressive players on your team.
The downside of this deck is that both colors can be somewhat mana intensive, but if you get your colors, you usually end up with a tight little aggro curve. Oh, and you get Blinding Beam too, which is probably my favorite card in the environment.
Green/Blue
I didn’t pay attention to this color scheme until Cedric the Entertainer told me about it in Columbus, but since then I’ve come to respect it. As Cedric detailed it, what you want to draft is fast beaters (Tel-Jilad Chosen is actually pretty good these days), some fliers, and a bunch of bounce spells. Since we’re talking about Team Sealed, you just have to look at your card pool and see if it fits the bill. The bounce is actually rather crucial, since you don’t have any real creature removal in these colors, so most of your gameplan is based on getting beats through early and setting a tempo that your opponent can’t keep up with.
This deck isn’t really one you can build without the right cards, but if your pool agrees with you, feel free to run it. One of the benefits of this archetype is that it unsaddles Black, Red, and White from the Green deck, and usually doesn’t eat up all your Blue cards either, meaning you can end up with some very powerful decks in your other two seats.
Green/Red
This is widely considered the nut high in terms of possible Green decks. It’s basically the same tempo deck as the G/U version, except instead of bounce, you get the much better options of destruction and burn. The only problem with this color scheme is that it can leave you with some less-than-desirable color breakdowns for your other two decks.
Green/Black
I can win with this deck on Magic Online, but I never like drafting it. The color requirements don’t work particularly well together (Green likes GG, while Black tends to like lots of Black mana and Swamps…), but if you get a lot of removal to combo with the Green beaters, you can end up with a good deck. I still wouldn’t recommend it.
Mono-Green/splash
We recently had a really deep Green pool that could almost exist on its own, provided you added a little bit of sauce with some Black or Red removal spells (or Blinding Beam and Arrest from White). Since Green is weak to start with, don’t expect this to happen very often, but if you end up with a lot of artifact destruction in Green and cool things like Glissa, Fangren Firstborn, and Troll Ascetic plus assorted tempo cards, it’s at least worth considering. On the flip side, you will occasionally end up not using the Green in your pool at all. (Cue ominous music and foreshadowing.)
White/Red
Not unlike Green/Red, White/Red is considered the strongest pairing for base White decks. My opinion is that W/R is actually a little more powerful than G/R, and if your White is deep, it can still leave plenty of leftovers for another deck that wants to share the Red. If I had my druthers about any color combo, this is probably the one I’d want to play (though Black/Red is probably a little more powerful). With the right cards, this is probably the deepest, most versatile deck you can build.
White/Blue
Traditionally one of the strongest color schemes in Limited, White/Blue is not where you want to be right now. If you play these two colors together, you get the benefit of having the best fliers around, but the downside is steep. I don’t know about you, but I’m not particularly keen about playing a deck with no artifact removal and almost no creature removal (Arrest, Psychic Overload, um… uh…). I guess if you were really desperate and had a lot of bounce, you could give it a shot, but G/R decks will wipe the floor with you.
White/Black
This deck would be swell if half the cards didn’t cost WW or BB. That’s probably a slight exaggeration, but not by much. Unless I had Myr of each color and an Ingot, I’d be wary of running this combo, because you’ll end up throwing away matches due to mana issues, and nobody deserves that. I’d call this a desperation archetype, because you want to give yourself as many chances to outplay your opponent as possible, and constant mana issues directly conflict with that concept.
Mono-White/splash
This is a bit more likely to occur than the G/x deck, and if your White is really deep, I wouldn’t be afraid to run it. You need to add artifact destruction and probably enhance the creature removal a bit (or add Green combat tricks) to make it perfect, but as long as your creature base is good, your deck should be pretty solid. For some reason cards like Awe Strike and Razor Barrier seem to increase in value in Sealed, so don’t discard those immediately to the sideboard. I’ve been wrecked by Awe Strike more than once lately in draft, and Razor Barrier is basically a counterspell for removal (more prevalent in Team Sealed) or a spiffy combat trick that your opponent may not expect. You are more likely to see Equipment in Sealed deck, and knocking it off your opponent’s creatures so you can gain favorable trades can make even scrubs like me look good. For a turn or two anyway… until your opponent realizes you are a dirty cheater, because Razor Barrier says”permanent you control,” and calls a judge on you.
Cardpool Breakdowns
Black/Red, Blue/Red Affinity, and Black/Blue Affinity are considered the strongest decks by most players, though Team Sealed opens up the possibility of Mono-Black/Artifact as well, and that deck can be gas. At the Grand Prix Trial we played in (where I managed to completely implode in the semis and throw away the match for our team), Jim had a Black/X deck with Nims, Whispersilk Cloak, lots of removal, Nuisance Engine, and Spawning Pit. It may have been the most annoying combination of cards possible for his opponents to play against (though he was missing Sun Droplet), but the deck was also very powerful. Obviously everything is cardpool dependent, but these are some of the stronger combinations you can end up in, with the idea that you are trying to build three strong decks, instead of one or two powerful ones, and leaving the third member stranded.
In general, Red and Black tend to be the deepest colors in your pools, so God help you if you get shafted in either of the removal colors.
W/R, U/B, G/R – As mentioned above, this combination should give you a full Affinity deck, plus the nut high in both White and Green combinations. To pull this off, you need a relatively deep Red pool, and at least normal distributions of White and Green. Since Black is all clumped in one deck, you might consider a splash for extra removal in either of the non-Black decks.
U/R, W/G, B/r – As with the first combination, this gives you a full Affinity deck and two additional strong color pairings. White/Green is a perfectly good deck, and even a mediocre U/R deck should have a good shot at winning. It does require a deep Black color pool to make a good B/r deck, but this is not an uncommon occurrence.
U/G, W/R, B/r – This is the same as above, except you switch where the Green is at. Overall, this probably creates a weaker set of decks, but sometimes your color pool will dictate this breakdown. Hell, if you get a bunch of fast beaters in Green and some bounce and fliers in Blue, this might almost be the optimal deck configuration… but probably not.
W/x, G/R, U/B – You do this when you get a deep White pool with lots of solid creatures, Blinding Beams, and some good combat tricks (Test of Faith, Stir the Pride). The other two decks are naturally strong color combinations, so you just fill in the blanks of the W/x deck by leeching away the proper removal (yeah, even if it’s Black) and run from there.
W/G, U/B, R/x – I’ve never actually seen this setup, but I’ve heard of people who got solid Red, but not enough to split it, and just couldn’t find another way to make the pools work. The”x” part of Red/x will probably be some Black removal, but what you really need to find are quality creatures, so if you have a bunch of Arcbound creatures that you want to put in the same deck and can’t find room for them in the Affinity deck, then this would be the place.
All the other color combinations will create a deck with at least one”unfavorable” color combo. This is the artifact block, so technically everything is viable, but some ideas just seem to work better than others. It’s not the end of the world if you have to make a W/B deck, and if the cards demand it then go ahead and build that way, but me, I’ll try and work things into the archetypes listed above first.
Some other random notes:
- Equipment is often going to follow the White creatures and the Spikeshots, but don’t be afraid to toss a Vulshok Morningstar into the deck with a bunch of Myr and little dudes, so you can push through damage.
- Everybody and their dog knows that Neurok Hoversail usually goes with the Green deck, but I’m also a fan of slipping a Whispersilk Cloak into the Green decks as well (especially if you don’t have many Nims, though Cloak + Nim = definite combo.) Nothing says”broken creature stalemate” like a 5/4 unblockable, untargetable Tangle Golem.
- Deck synergy remains more important than deck power. Get used to it.
- Would those of you who open Slobad and/or Death Cloud please stop leaving them in the sideboard? Both of these cards are insane if you know how to play them properly.
- This is Limited, so combat tricks are important. The more tricks you have, the more your opponent will be kept guessing, and the more opportunity you offer them to screw up. Try to put”clever” cards in all your decks to give yourself and your teammates more play options.
Card Pool Exercise
Since I’ve been commenting throughout the article about how your card pool still dictates your choices, now is the time to give you some practice in figuring out the tough choices and building your own decks. I’ve also brought along some help in the form of Low Fidelity All-Star Tim Aten, Canadian National Champeen Josh Rider, and some random guy named Mike Turian to give you a sense of how they would go about creating the best decks from the same card pool. I was going to include my own build and comments as well, but the fact of the matter is that I’m almost as scrubby as you are, and they are the guys you really want to play attention to (and per usual, I ran out of time). So without any additional hoohah, I present your cardpool, sorted by Color and Casting Cost (Generated from Magic Workstation, though it added one extra Darksteel card for some reason):
Artifact
Welding Jar
Bonesplitter
2 Clockwork Beetle
Dead-Iron Sledge
2 Myr Moonvessel
Necrogen Spellbomb
Sunbeam Spellbomb
2 Tanglebloom
2 Viridian Longbow
Copper Myr
Dragon’s Claw
Galvanic Key
Genesis Chamber
Iron Myr
Leaden Myr
Mask of Memory
Omega Myr
Talisman of Dominance
Talisman of Progress
Vulshok Gauntlets
Vulshok Morningstar
Crystal Shard
2 Culling Scales
Damping Matrix
Darksteel Ingot
Elf Replica
Fireshrieker
2 Goblin Replica
Jinxed Choker
Leonin Bladetrap
2 Myr Landshaper
Nuisance Engine
Sculpting Steel
Tooth of Chiss-Goria
2 Arcbound Crusher
Cobalt Golem
Darksteel Reactor
Drill-Skimmer
2 Dross Scorpion
Geth’s Grimoire
2 Goblin War Wagon
Lodestone Myr
Pewter Golem
Arcbound Fiend
Auriok Siege Sled
Razor Golem
Spire Golem
Memnarch
Black
Disciple of the Vault
Wrench Mind
Consume Spirit
Echoing Decay
2 Grimclaw Bats
Chittering Rats
Relic Bane
Dross Prowler
Nim Lasher
Burden of Greed
2 Moriok Scavenger
Scavenging Scarab
Green
Battlegrowth
Turn to Dust
Viridian Acolyte
Nourish
Slith Predator
Predator’s Strike
2 Sylvan Scrying
Tel-Jilad Chosen
Tel-Jilad Wolf
Fangren Hunter
3 Tangle Spider
Trolls of Tel-Jilad
Wurmskin Forger
Red
Crazed Goblin
Inflame
Detonate
2 Drooling Ogre
Echoing Ruin
Goblin Striker
Shatter
Slobad, Goblin Tinkerer
3 Barbed Lightning
Incite War
Krark-Clan Grunt
2 Seething Song
2 Spikeshot Goblin
Unforge
2 Vulshok War Boar
Blue
Annul
Dream’s Grip
2 Echoing Truth
Inertia Bubble
Lumengrid Warden
Neurok Familiar
Vedalken Engineer
Pulse of the Grid
Fabricate
2 Magnetic Flux
Override
Regress
Vex
Hoverguard Observer
Psychic Overload
Looming Hoverguard
Quicksilver Behemoth
White
2 Auriok Glaivemaster
Leonin Elder
Echoing Calm
Pteron Ghost
Pteron Ghost
Purge
Raise the Alarm
2 Razor Barrier
2 Skyhunter Cub
2 Altar’s Light
Loxodon Mystic
Soul Nova
Land
Ancient Den
Blinkmoth Well
Darksteel Citadel
2 Seat of the Synod
Vault of Whispers
Here’s the place where you pause and figure out how you’d build your own decks. For those of you who know it, feel free to whistle the Theme To The Garry Shandling Show while you build. It goes a little something like this:
This is the theme to Gary’s show.
The theme to Garry’s show.
Garry called me up and asked
Would I write his theme song?
I’m almost half-way finished,
How do you like it so far?
How do you like the theme to Garry’s show?
This is the theme to Garry’s show.
The opening theme to Garry’s show.
This is the music that you hear
As you watch the credits.
We’re almost at the part
Where I will start to whistle
Then we’ll watch”It’s Garry Shandling’s Show”
(whistle whistle whistle whistle)
(whistle whistle whistle whistle)
Now it’s time for Garry Shandling’s Show.
Just so we’re clear… the above opinions are my own and are not necessarily those of the fine, upstanding Magic players that follow.
Mike Turian
The Potato knows his Limited. He has won a Team Pro Tour, Top 4’d another one, and has a win and another Top 8 in his two Mirrodin-Darksteel Limited GPs, plus a Top 8 in his most recent Limited Pro Tour. He was kind enough to work through the decks with me and show me how he would build them if this were his pool (which he called a”little weird”). He also lamented that it’s much tougher to build decks strictly from a list, and finding the correct synergy for each deck is much easier when you lay all the cards out in front of you.
Deck 1: W/G
Loxodon Mystic
2 Auriok Glaivemaster
2 Pteron Ghost
2 Skyhunter Cub
2 Altar’s Light
Raise the Alarm
Purge
Bonesplitter
Razor Golem
2 Viridian Longbow
Vulshok Morningstar
Mask of Memory
Fireshrieker
Tel-Jilad Wolf
Fangren Hunter
Vulshok Gauntlets
Copper Myr
2 Goblin War Wagon
10 Plain
6 Forest
MT: I’d consider playing the Tel-Jilad Chosen here, but probably not. The Green in this pool is so bad…
Deck 2: R/B
Krark-Clan Grunt
2 Vulshok War Boar
2 Spikeshot Goblin
Detonate
3 Barbed Lightning
Echoing Ruin
Shatter
Echoing Decay
2 Grimclaw Bats
Relic Bane
Chittering Rats
Tooth of Chiss-Goria
2 Goblin Replica
Iron Myr
Leaden Myr
Pewter Golem
Necrogen Spellbomb
Auriok Siege Sled
Ancient Den
Seat of the Synod
Darksteel Citadel
Vault of the Whispers
MT: I’d actually like to get the Spikeshots in a White deck, but that would require reworking the whole setup, and I’m not sure if the decks would get any better.
Deck 3: U/Artifact
Neurok Familiar
Vedalken Engineer
Pulse of the Grid
Hoverguard Observer
Psychic Overload
Looming Hoverguard
Quicksilver Behemoth
2 Echoing Truth
Spire Golem
Memnarch
Lodestone Myr
2 Arcbound Crusher
Cobalt Golem
Sculpting Steel
Crystal Shard
Talisman of Progress
Sunbeam Spellbomb
2 Culling Scales
Talisman of Dominance
Darksteel Ingot
Arcbound Fiend
Ancient Den
Seat of the Synod
After talking to Mike more about his pool, he said he’d consider splashing Slobad and the Krark-Clan Grunt in the Mono-Blue deck, as they both have good synergy, but he also said there’s a lot of play with the Blue deck, so you could definitely keep your options open here.
Tim Aten
All comments that follow are Tim’s.
Naturally, the first thing I did was eliminate all the chaff, cards like Magnetic Flux and Myr Moonvessel. From there, some decks started to emerge: a synergistic artifact deck, a White Equipment deck, and a”remaining cards good stuff deck.” The Green was weak and shallow, so you’ll notice I didn’t bother to include it anywhere.
Deck 1 Black/Artifact Deck
Disciple of the Vault
2 Grimclaw Bats
Leaden Myr
Chittering Rats
Goblin Replica
2 Moriok Scavenger
2 Arcbound Crusher
Lodestone Myr
Goblin War Wagon
Pewter Golem
Arcbound Fiend
Necrogen Spellbomb
Viridian Longbow
Talisman of Dominance
Echoing Decay
Consume Spirit
Sculpting Steel
Nuisance Engine
Tooth of Chiss-Goria
Barbed Lightning
Relic Bane
9 Swamp
4 Mountain
Darksteel Citadel
Ancient Den
Vault of Whispers
Notable Sideboard:
Nim Lasher
Scavenging Scarab
Drill-Skimmer
Unforge
Welding Jar
Slobad, Goblin Tinkerer
First, the sideboard. Nim Lasher and the Scarab are both decent cards in their own right, but this deck wanted all the artifact men it could find, so they were set aside in favor of cards like Arcbound Fiend and Goblin War Wagon. This deck seems the most likely of the three to have problems with Equipment, and if you look at the other decks, it should be clear why; the Unforge thus goes in this board. Drill-Skimmer provides some protection against a deck with a lot of fliers, and Welding Jar goes in against a deck heavy on artifact removal. It would have gone in the Equipment deck’s board, but this pool’s White seems well equipped (hur hur) to protect its artifacts on its own. Slobad could almost be maindeck…
Originally, the deck was mono-Black. I realized that the deck was a little short on removal, artifact and otherwise, and that the U/R deck was overflowing with such hits, so the Black deck borrowed a couple. As it turns out, all three decks are playing some Red. Initially I had splashed the Shatter, but then I noticed Goblin Replica and the incredible synergy with the whole deck and felt stupid for not having seen it sooner. It’s possible that the other Replica belongs in this deck, and should be replaced with Drill-Skimmer in the White deck. Nuisance Engine is part of the little synergistic (is that a word?) package with the two Arcbound Crushers, Lodestone Myr, Viridian Longbow, etc etc. Tooth was added at the last minute in lieu of a spellbomb, since the U/R deck would much rather have it, and it’s only marginally better than the Tooth here.
Deck 2: White Equipment Deck
2 Auriok Glaivemaster
2 Pteron Ghost
Copper Myr
Raise the Alarm
Goblin Replica
2 Skyhunter Cub
2 Spikeshot Goblin
Goblin War Wagon
Loxodon Mystic
Razor Golem
Viridian Longbow
Bonesplitter
Mask of Memory
Vulshok Morningstar
Vulshok Gauntlets
Purge
Razor Barrier
Talisman of Progress
2 Altar’s Light
10 Plains
6 Mountain
Notable Sideboard:
Fireshrieker
Soul Nova
Leonin Elder
Razor Barrier
Incite War
Not the type of White I’d like to play, but it’s the one the card pool was commanding me to make. Glaivemaster is actually not as terrible in this deck, since you have three maindeck ways and one sideboard way to make sure your Equipment stays on the board. You may notice that the creature pool for this team sealed is fairly weak as a whole; the two Goblin War Wagons easily made the cut. Gauntlets made the cut over Fireshrieker because of Spikeshot Goblins; once the Gauntlets were in, the War Wagon solidified its place in the deck. One of the late adds was the Talisman; this deck can sometimes use a little mana boost, particularly with the aforementioned Gauntlets running about. There’s no reason to spread the Spikeshot love around, since the Equipment deck is best suited to turn them from great into ridiculous. And if you ever draw a Cub, that’s probably game.
There’s no need for Razor Barrier number two main because you have two Pteron Ghosts, and there’s really no room. There’s also no room for Soul Nova, which could come in against equip decks. Soul Nova seems much better in Sealed and Team Sealed than in draft, especially if your opponents are of a”lower caliber.” Elder can come in, possibly for Glaivemaster, if you see quite a few artifacts. I doubt Incite War will come in, but there could be a stalemate. This deck wants Beams, but what can you do?
Deck 3: Blue/Red Control Deck
Vedalken Engineer
Iron Myr
Krark-Clan Grunt
Elf Replica
2 Vulshok War Boar
Cobalt Golem
Hoverguard Observer
Spire Golem
Looming Hoverguard
Auriok Siege Sled
Quicksilver Behemoth
Memnarch
Sunbeam Spellbomb
Detonate
Shatter
Echoing Ruin
2 Culling Scales
Crystal Shard
Darksteel Ingot
2 Barbed Lightning
Psychic Overload
Notable Sideboard:
2 Echoing Truth
Regress
Vex
Override
Inertia Bubble
Annul
The sideboard is easy enough; if you see a bomb you can’t deal with, bring in Vex or Annul as appropriate. If bounce would wreck the deck, bring in a Truth or two. They weren’t necessary for the maindeck, so it seems unlikely that you’ll side them in, but they’re there if you need them. Override and Regress are redundant and weaker than the alternatives, so they probably won’t be used. Naturally, Bubble comes in if you see three or four good targets for it, but it will probably be unnecessary, given the amount of artifact hate the main deck has.
The deck is slow but powerful. The goal is to stay alive long enough to drop your monstrous, if a little clunky, creatures. If ever there was a deck for Culling Scales, this is the one. Granted, it is good or great in a few archetypes; what I mean to say is that this is the sort of deck that optimizes it. The beauty part is, you can sacrifice it to war-BOAR rather than letting it consume itself once your opponent has run out of targets. Behemoth isn’t optimal in this deck, but it’s a huge blocker; in some cases, however, your opponent will attack into it with smaller guys to gain tempo by returning it to your hand. Sunbeam Spellbomb serves as a slight sort of mana fixer, but it’s mostly there to sacrifice to your power piggies. The land is sort of lame in this deck, but hopefully Ingot will help you out there.
Josh Rider
Deck 1: R/W
Raise the Alarm
Razor Barrier
Leonin Elder
2 Pteron Ghost
2 Skyhunter Cub
2 Altar’s Light
Loxodon Mystic
Purge
Razor Golem
Bonesplitter
Vulshok Morningstar
Mask of Memory
Tooth of Chiss-Goria
2 Spikeshot Goblin
2 Goblin Replica
Barbed Lightning
Shatter
Goblin War Wagon
Auriok Siege Sled
Plains
Mountains
Deck 2: U/R
Neurok Familiar
Vedalken Engineer
Pulse of the Grid
Hoverguard Observer
Psychic Overload
Looming Hoverguard
Quicksilver Behemoth
Crystal Shard
Spire Golem
Memnarch
Sculpting Steel
Talisman of Progress
Arcbound Crusher
Lodestone Myr
Echoing Ruin
Slobad, Goblin Tinkerer
2 Barbed Lightning
Krark-Clan Grunt
2 Vulshok War Boar
Detonate
Iron Myr
Viridian Longbow
2 Seat of the Synod
Darksteel Citadel
Mountains
Islands
Deck 3: B/g
Predator’s Strike
Tel-Jilad Chosen
Tel-Jilad Wolf
Fangren Hunter
Copper Myr
Echoing Decay
2 Grimclaw Bats
Relic Bane
Chittering Rats
Leaden Myr
Pewter Golem
Scavenging Scarab
Talisman of Dominance
Viridian Longbow
Disciple of the Vault
Arcbound Crusher
Arcbound Fiend
Tangle Spider
Nuisance Engine
Goblin War Wagon
Consume Spirit
Necrogen Spellbomb
Lots of Swamps
Forests
Comments:”My first reaction was to build a W/r deck because I wanted to play some of the equipment with the Skyhunter Cubs and the Spikeshot Goblins. From there U/r made sense to me, since I wanted to get Slobad in on the action. After that, I just threw the crap I had left together. The Green is especially awful.
The mana requirements among the Green and Black cards are both pretty steep, so I decided to not get too greedy. I played the green cards that didn’t have more than a G in their cost and then got a little ambitious, playing Fangren Hunter and Tangle Spider. Since I’m taking a chance on the GG-cost, it’s possible that the Spider should be the potentially more powerful 5/6 Troll. This third deck doesn’t really stand too much of a chance and will just have to roll the dice with its mana base.”
Wrap-Up
As you can see, all three players came up with different builds for the same pool. Tim and Josh went relatively conventional with theirs, while Mike’s Mono-Blue/Artifact deck was something I probably wouldn’t have considered, but looks to be relatively powerful. As Mike noted above, building decks purely from a list is much tougher, and we talked about a variety of build options after he sent his to me that were probably equally workable.
I hope you have enjoyed this article, and I wish you all the best of luck during at the GP and throughout the Team PTQs. Unless of course you are playing my team, in which case I just hope you, um, have fun.
Ted Knutson
The Holy Kanoot
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