Normally I’m not the type of person to go around browsing through spoilers before prereleases, but after some of my friends told me about some of the cards from Shards, I had to find out what all the fuss was about. This set is amazing. Aside from the awesome cards that it contributes to Constructed, it’s also a pretty fun Limited format. I haven’t had the opportunity to draft the set yet, but if it’s anything compared to Sealed, then we’ll have a format similar to Invasion / Planeshift / Apocalypse. It’s not just that there is a large amount of mana fixing in the format, but it’s also the quality that really makes drafting 4-5 colors possible. Every fixer provides mana of their respective shard, and they’re all common!
When I opened my Sealed deck at the prerelease, I literally had no idea what to make of my pool. There were 5 Obelisks, 3 Panoramas, and a tri-land (I’m not sure what the shorthand term for this is, but maybe this will stick). It seemed to me that I had 6-7 playables in each color, and no real way to make a two-color deck. Even a three-color deck wasn’t very easy, and I spent the entire build time trying out all kinds of wacky color combinations. In the end, with the clock ticking down, I just mashed up all my good playable cards and came up with this concoction:
1 Battlegrace Angel
1 Knight of the Skyward Eye
2 Sanctum Gargoyle
1 Sigiled Paladin
1 Oblivion Ring
1 Resounding Silence
2 Obelisk of Bant
1 Kathari Screecher
1 Courier’s Capsule
1 Resounding Wave
1 Naturalize
1 Naya Battlemage
2 Rhox War Monk
2 Jund Battlemage
1 Bloodpyre Elemental
1 Resounding Thunder
1 Magma Spray
1 Carrion Thrasher
1 Jungle Weaver
2 Jund Panorama
1 Bant Panorama
1 Crumbling Necropolis
5 Plains
3 Island
2 Forest
2 Mountain
1 Swamp
I’m not sure if this was the best way to build it but let me tell you, I maybe lost one game due to not
having the right mana to cast my spells. After playing several rounds with the deck, the thing that surprised me the most was the speed of the format. After the blistering pace of Shadowmoor Limited, it was nice to slow down a bit and be able to play out all your spells for once. Aside from the obvious power cards like Battlegrace Angel and Oblivion Ring, the cards that I felt really surprised me were the “resounding” cards. For the low cost of eight mana, your are guaranteed card advantage when cycling these cards. When I first looked at these cards, I never thought that I would actually be able to use the cycling ability, so they didn’t look very special (aside from the Red one). Turns out I was totally wrong.
Here’s an example of a game turned completely around due to one card:
My board was nothing but a Sigiled Paladin. My opponent Tucker Foster had out 2 Kathari Screechers and a Sigil of Distinction which was on 6 charge counters. I laid an 8th land of “frustration,” and had to run the “sigh, go.” With no idea what was about to happen, he attacked with both Screechers and I cycled Resounding Silence to remove both his fliers from the game, and then I drew into an Oblivion Ring, which got rid of the pesky Equipment. Three-for-ones, anybody? When you first look at a card like that, you don’t ever really expect to get to eight mana all that often, but throughout the course of the tournament, it happened time and time again. It even got to a point where I tried my best not to cast said spell until I hit the cycling bonus, because every time you do it’s an absolute blowout.
The current Sealed deck format seems extremely slow, and it feels that going full-on greedy to play your most powerful spells is the way to go. That doesn’t necessarily mean you just play ALL your good spells… you need a more controlled level of greed. Figure out what bombs you want to play, pick two core colors to be your mains, and everything else can be your splash. It seems that it’s almost always correct to draw so that you can hit your land drops and cast your spells. The only round I lost was to an opponent who also had a five-color deck with two copies of Sedris, the Traitor King with a ton of removal spells.
It’s possible that draft archetypes in this format are much speedier, but since I have no point of reference for that, I’ll leave it up to Nick or Richie to talk about Shards drafting. Now we get to the part that I’m really excited about, the implications of Shards in Constructed…
Well, I was going to write about some of the cards from Shards that looked good for Constructed, until I read Patrick Chapin article, “Shard to the Core.” He pretty much wrote about everything I was going to say, but with more clarity and content. So I figure we’ll just talk more about Sealed Deck.
This Sealed format seems more difficult than others, as you can delve into all kinds of different color combinations, but just exactly how greedy can you get? I had friends telling me stories of all kinds of mana screw in their Sealed decks, but that’s because they were trying to play off-color Ultimatums, or fourteen lands and six Obelisks. I recently went over to my local store, Enchanted Grounds, and did several Sealed decks with its owner (and my good friend) Jeff Kokx, to try and get a feel for the format. It’s pretty fortunate for me that the owner is also a friend, as when a new set ever comes out, he needs to open a ton of product for his store. Since he needs to open up a bunch of packs anyway, we end up going through a ton of Sealed cardpools just for practice while adding to his inventory. Here are some of the Sealed pools that we ended up opening, each consisting of one Shards starter and two Shards boosters (the classic PTQ style):
Sealed Pool 1
White
Akrasan Squire
Angel’s Herald
Bant Battlemage
Excommunicate
2 Gustrider Exuberant
Knight of the Skyward Eye
Knight of the White Orchid
Oblivion Ring
Resounding Silence
Sanctum Gargoyle
Sighted-Caste Sorcerer
Sigiled Paladin
Sunseed Nurturer
Yoked Plowbeast
Blue
Coma Veil
Courier’s Capsule
Etherium Astrolabe
Etherium Sculptor
Jhessian Lookout
2 Kathari Screecher
Mindlock Orb
2 Resounding Wave
Steelclad Serpent
Tortoise Formation
Black
2 Banewasp Affliction
Death Baron
Demon’s Herald
Dreg Reaver
Fleshbag Marauder
Infest
Resounding Scream
Shore Snapper
Red
Bloodthorn Taunter
Goblin Assault
Goblin Mountaineer
Hissing Iguanar
Jund Battlemage
2 Magma Spray
Ridge Rannet
Vithian Stinger
Green
Druid of the Anima
Jungle Weaver
2 Lush Growth
Mighty Emergence
2 Naturalize
Rhox Charger
Wild Nacatl
Gold
Agony Warp
2 Blightning
Fire-Field Ogre
Hindering Light
Realm Razer
2 Rhox War Monk
Rip-Clan Crasher
Sangrite Surge
Sigil Blessing
Swerve
Waveskimmer Aven
Artifact
Obelisk of Grixis
Obelisk of Naya
Relic of Progenitus
Land
Crumbling Necropolis
Esper Panorama
Jund Panorama
Here is my first attempt at building this deck:
Deck 1
2 Magma Spray
1 Hindering Light
1 Courier’s Capsule
1 Agony Warp
1 Sigiled Paladin
1 Knight of the White Orchid
1 Knight of the Skyward Eye
1 Jhessian Lookout
1 Oblivion Ring
2 Resounding Wave
1 Obelisk of Naya
1 Obelisk of Grixis
1 Excommunicate
1 Bant Battlemage
2 Kathari Screecher
1 Vithian Stinger
1 Fleshbag Marauder
1 Sanctum Gargoyle
1 Resounding Silence
1 Yoked Plowbeast
1 Crumbling Necropolis
1 Esper Panorama
1 Jund Panorama
1 Mountain
1 Swamp
5 Island
7 Plains
It seemed to me that White is an obvious inclusion in any deck you make, as it has the most number of playables. Black is nearly unplayable with the exception of Infest and the Fleshbag Marauder. The thing that first popped up in my mind was to go U/W/G as you have both double Rhox War Monk and Waveskimmer Aven, but none of the lands or Obelisks allowed the three-color combination to work. So what I ended up doing was make a U/W deck and use all of the fixing that I had available to help splash removal spells in other colors. It seems nearly impossible to just make a straight two-color deck in this format unless by some random chance you get blessed and open an awesome pool.
As you can see, the lands and Obelisks I was given allowed me to essentially splash Red for free. By combining the Obelisks, Crumbling Necropolis, Jund Panorama, and a singleton Mountain to search for, you effectively have five Red sources at the cost of a single Mountain. The same can be said for the Black, and that explains both the double Magma Spray/Vithian Stinger splash and the Fleshbag Marauder/Agony Warp splash. The biggest issue that I foresee in this deck is the lack of win conditions. The deck only plays 11 creatures, and some of them are utility guys that don’t do anything. It’s still possible that the deck is fine, as there are a nice amount of removal spells and spells that generate card advantage.
A part of me still wanted to be able to play the Rhox War Monks and Waveskimmer Aven, as they are such powerful cards, so here is my second attempt at tackling this pool:
Deck 2
2 Magma Spray
1 Naturalize
1 Sigil Blessing
1 Druid of the Anima
1 Knight of the White Orchid
1 Knight of the Skyward Eye
1 Sigiled Paladin
1 Obelisk of Grixis
1 Obelisk of Naya
1 Oblivion Ring
1 Vithian Stinger
1 Jund Battlemage
2 Rhox War Monk
1 Bant Battlemage
1 Resounding Silence
1 Rhox Charger
1 Sanctum Gargoyle
1 Waveskimmer Aven
1 Realm Razer
1 Yoked Plowbeast
1 Jungle Weaver
1 Esper Panorama
1 Jund Panorama
1 Crumbling Necropolis
2 Island
1 Mountain
5 Forest
6 Plains
This definitely seems like a more powerful build with a much greedier manabase. I went with a base G/W deck splashing Blue for the powerful creatures and Red for some solid removal spells and a Jund Battlemage. We did gain an additional mana fixer in the form of Druid of the Anima, but I don’t really foresee casting Rhox War Monk on turn 3 all that often. At the same time, I feel that the creature is more than good enough as a four-drop, and with the ability to cast Obelisks on turn 3, you should be able to get there on turn 4 pretty often. With the current set-up you have access to 6 Red sources of mana including your fixers, 9 sources of White, 7 sources of Green, and 5 sources of Blue. None of this would have been possible in any other set, but you have to love the Panoramas and Obelisks. After some contemplation, it feels like this deck definitely has more potential and a lot more win conditions, which I like.
Clearly this is all speculation, and we need to see how the two decks play out so we need a deck to play against. Jeff opened his pool, and this was what he had:
Sealed Pool 2:
White
Akrasan Squire
2 Knight of the Skyward Eye
3 Marble Chalice (LOL)
2 Sigiled Paladin
Soul’s Grace
Sunseed Nurturer
Blue
Courier’s Capsule
Etherium Sculptor
2 Kathari Screecher
Master of Etherium
Outrider of Jhess
Resounding Wave
Steelclad Serpent
2 Tortoise Formation
Black
Bone Splinters
Death Baron
Dregscape Zombie
Executioner’s Capsule
Infest
Puppet Conjurer
2 Resounding Scream
Salvage Titan
2 Shadowfeed
Red
Bloodthorn Taunter
Dragon’s Herald
Goblin Mountaineer
Hissing Iguanar
Incurable Ogre
Magma Spray
Ridge Rannet
Scourge Devil
Soul’s Fire
Thorn-Thrash Viashino
Vithian Stinger
Gold
Blightning
Branching Bolt
Bull Cerodon
Carrion Thrash
Esper Charm
Godsire
2 Kederekt Creeper
Sedraxis Specter
Sprouting Thrinax
Swerve
Tidehollow Sculler
2 Tidehollow Strix
Thoughtcutter Agent
Waveskimmer Aven
Artifact
Obelisk of Grixis
Obelisk of Naya
Relic of Progenitus
After a lot of twiddling with various deck combinations, this is what we came up with:
Deck 3
1 Master of Etherium
2 Kathari Screecher
1 Resounding Wave
1 Courier’s Capsule
1 Outrider of Jhess
2 Tidehollow Strix
1 Thoughtcutter Agent
1 Dregscape Zombie
2 Kederekt Creeper
1 Sedraxis Specter
1 Infest
1 Executioner’s Capsule
1 Soul’s Fire
1 Magma Spray
1 Vithian Stinger
1 Hissing Iguanar
1 Scourge Devil
1 Salvage Titan
1 Blightning
1 Obelisk of Grixis
1 Grixis Panorama
1 Savage Lands
6 Island
5 Swamp
4 Mountain
This deck is a lot less greedy than what I’m used to, as it’s only three colors, but after looking through the pool, this seems like the best and most consistent configuration for the deck. This deck has the potential to get some pretty ridiculous draws. Turn 2 Strix followed up by turn 3 Sedraxis Specter or Kederekt Creeper seems pretty solid. There are certainly alternative builds for this pool, but this was the one we wanted to test against. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to play the Master of Etherium in the deck because there were only something like 8 artifacts and 2 of them get sacrificed almost immediately, but after playing some matches, he turned out to be pretty good. He was never bigger than a 3/3, but the fact that he got to pump up the Tidehollow Strix, Thoughtcutter Agent, and Salvage Titan lead to some pretty explosive starts.
Once again, this is where my terrible note taking during games ended up coming back to haunt me. We played two five-game sets, where the first five game set involved Deck 1 against Deck 3, and the second five-game set was Deck 2 against Deck 3. I ended up winning both sets in five games, so I can’t definitively say which deck was better, but it felt like more of a blowout when I won with Deck 2. The mana didn’t turn out to be all that bad, and the power level of the spells really shone. The advantages of the first deck were the fact that it had access to a lot more tricks and I won two of the games where I cycled my Resounding Wave twice.
So, after playing several Sealed matches, I guess there are a couple of conclusions that I feel can be made:
1) It feels that playing 3-4 colors and playing as many of your powerful spells is the way to go to succeed in this format.
2) Always chose to draw. (I think the person on the draw won 80% of the games in testing).
3) The Resounding spells are all amazing except for the Black one. Probably much worse in Draft, but namely the Blue and White ones were surprisingly awesome.
4) When sitting down and examining your Sealed deck, the first thing you should do is look at your bombs, and then you should take a look at the number of Panoramas and Obelisks you open to see just how far you can stretch your mana.
5) OPEN AWESOME CARDS (Yeah, seems pretty simple, but seriously, this is the most important… unfortunately, you can’t teach luck).
I plan on playing a lot more Sealed Deck to practice for the upcoming Grand Prix in Kansas City, and it seems like I’ve definitely learned a lot when it comes to Sealed deckbuilding for this format. Hopefully you learned a couple of things from this article, and if you haven’t, or if you disagree with any of my statements, please feel free to post in the forums. I’m always willing to learn about new and interesting strategies and ideas, especially when a format is so new like this one.
Hope to see you in KC!