I, like many others, attended Grand Prix Richmond for a weekend of Magic and free Red Bull (given out by attractive young ladies, no less!). I’d played my share of straight Ravnica Sealed Deck and had only some prerelease experience to prepare me for the madness that Guildpact was going to inflict upon the format.
The Ravnica block Limited environment, with Guildpact, has proven to be one of a kind. Some have celebrated the challenge that it presents to players in maximizing deck power while minimizing losses due to poor mana bases. Others complain about the impossibility of building a solid, consistent two-color deck like we did this time last year. Players are tempted by cards with prohibitive and often conflicting mana costs, forced to choose a path that usually doesn’t allow them access to all of their best cards. The best players are the ones able to recognize where the most potential and power lies in a card pool and to focus the deck in that direction, cutting cards and colors that would, in the long run, prove to be more of a liability than an asset.
One thing I noticed is that finding the focus of your card pool is far more challenging and time consuming then it was in formats past. In fact, I felt like I needed far more than the allotted thirty minutes to build my deck, as there were just too many choices to be made, and I don’t feel like I had time to explore them all. Had I been given another fifteen minutes to further evaluate my options, I’d have been more comfortable with my deck. Alas, I feel like my main deck was wrong.
Since any article on a Sealed format needs a card pool to talk about, here’s mine:
White:
Withstand
To Arms!
Skyrider Trainee
Dromad Purebred
Votary of the Conclave
Lionheart Maverick
Caregiver
Bathe in Light
Absolver Thrull
Screeching Griffin
Conclave Equenaut
Blue:
Muddle the Mixture
Infiltrator’s Magemark
Steamcore Weird
Remand
Terraformer
Tidewater Minion
Greyscale Gharial
2 Crystal Seer
Black:
Necromantic Thirst
Carrion Howler
Strands of Undeath
Nightmare Void
Cremate
Sewerdreg
Sadistic Augermage
Douse in Gloom
Disembowel
Red:
Stoneshaker Shaman
Smash
Barbarian Riftcutter
Dogpile
Ogre Savant
Warp World
Ordruun Commando
2 Scorched Rusalka
Pyromatics
Goblin Spelunkers
Green:
Dryad’s Caress
Rolling Spoil
Skarrgan Pit-Skulk
Goliath Spider
Beastmaster’s Magemark
Bioplasm
Gruul Scrapper
Civic Wayfinder
Gristleback
Gold: (guild cards included)
Lurking Informant
Savra, Queen of the Golgari
Dune-Brood Nephilim
Firemane Angel
Agent of Masks
Perplex
Izzet Chronarch
Drooling Groodion
Scab-Clan Mauler
Dimir Guildmage
Rally the Righteous
Conjurer’s Ban
Golgari Rotwurm
Selesnya Sagittars
Gaze of the Gorgon
Blind Hunter
Burning-Tree Bloodscale
Thundersong Trumpeter
Skyknight Legionnaire
Artifact:
Boros Signet
Golgari Signet
Orzhov Signet
Gruul Signet
Selesnya Signet
Terrarion
Lands:
Sadly, no bounce lands at all (at least I got enough signets)
Those wishing to fiddle with this electronically, can download the information here.
With the inclusion of every possible Signet between B/G/R/W (with the obvious exception of the yet-to-be-released Rakdos Signet) present, and with the spread of the best cards over those four colors, I knew that I had a problem about two minutes into my half-hour. I didn’t know what to do with it. All those Signets would make me think that I could pull off some kooky four-color creation, but my common sense (that I had learned from sane blocks, like Kamigawa and Odyssey) told me not to even think about it.
The part that frustrated me most about this pool was the fact that most of my quality stuff was multi-colored. This isn’t surprising, given the nature of the block, but is still a serious pain in the ass when you’re trying to build a stable mana base. No matter how I lined up my colors and tried to keep the mana away from “I have to get lucky every game” land, I couldn’t do it. I was tempted to play more than three Signets but felt that cutting too many spells or lands for that would be a mistake. The Terrarion was also tempting, but I didn’t want to play it over a real piece of acceleration, given the number of four-drops that I could ramp up to.
I was sure about R/W as my main colors, but I worried about the creature base. It wasn’t bad, to be sure, but it got much better with the addition of Green to the mix. Bioplasm, Gristleback, Civic Wayfinder, and Gruul Scrapper are all good bodies and I needed them sorely. Once I decided to play the Green, though, I had to look at the G/B cards (because they’re only a small splash away, right?) If it was only about creatures I could have dealt with the loss of Rotwurm and Blind Hunter, but there was more to be gained from playing Black: removal. The only removal I had outside of Black was Gaze of the Gorgon and Pyromatics, and the quite-decent replicate spell wasn’t going to be a bomb with the mana base that I had to play. So, I needed to either splash a fourth color, or not be able to kill stuff. What a choice. At this point, it looked like my common sense wasn’t so sensible. Still, four colors or not, I knew that I couldn’t splash the Drooling Groodion. I certainly wanted to, and I tried to, but at the time I didn’t think it was doable.
In the end, I went with the approach of playing the best cards, within reason, and trying to minimize the damage caused by the bad mana. Here’s what I ended up with:
Creatures (17)
- 1 Goblin Spelunkers
- 1 Civic Wayfinder
- 1 Conclave Equenaut
- 1 Firemane Angel
- 1 Golgari Rotwurm
- 1 Screeching Griffin
- 1 Selesnya Sagittars
- 1 Skyknight Legionnaire
- 1 Thundersong Trumpeter
- 1 Absolver Thrull
- 1 Bioplasm
- 1 Blind Hunter
- 1 Burning-Tree Bloodscale
- 1 Gristleback
- 1 Gruul Scrapper
- 2 Scorched Rusalka
Lands (16)
Spells (7)
In retrospect, I should have put the Nephilim maindeck, as the colors are there for him and he could definitely be dropped on turn 3 with the right draw. Still, the deck was decent. I lost one game to the inability to cast my Firemane Angel, and a few others to my inability to deal with Ghor-Clan Savage (more on him in a minute). I still believe now, just as much as I did then, that the Drooling Groodion wasn’t playable due to the shallowness of the Black cards that I was given. Leaving him out wasn’t easy to do and I spent much of my deck building time trying to make him work, but it wasn’t meant to be. Playing him would have been an example of getting greedy and trying to make my mana do things that it just couldn’t.
Normally I’d write some about the matches that I played, how the deck fared, and other pertinent information like that, but it just isn’t possible this time. I don’t think I played a really good game all day, as I either lost to mana troubles or won because my opponent had the same problems. My shining moment was in my last game of the day when I was on the play:
Turn 1: Plains
Turn 2: Mountain, Golgari Signet
Turn 3: Forest, use G to Activate Signet, Dune-Brood Nephilim
I should also mention that I had the Gaze and the Disembowel to back up that play. My opponent resisted as best he could, but that draw was too much for him.
My experiences in Richmond, and my conversations with the many people there who are much better than I am at this game, led me to draw a few early conclusions about the format:
Your mana will suck, so you’d better learn to deal with it.
If it doesn’t, then you’re a lucky bastard who knows how to open G/x stuff. Most of the people I talked to lamented the fourth color that they had to splash to get enough decent cards or enough creatures just to compete. Your best bet is to control yourself and not go nuts by trying to cram in every good card you opened. Be realistic and you’ll be ok. Oh yeah, and win the die roll so that you can draw first.
Huge creatures are everywhere.
Every round that I won was typically with my few fliers taking to the skies and barely winning the race. Believe me when I say that the Gruul got the goods in Guildpact. Streetbreaker Wurm, Gruul Nodorog, and Ghor-Clan Savage are all pretty much bigger than anything else, and those are just the commons! These fatties are quite problematic to deal with, and the addition of Wildsize makes the thought of a gang block even more painful. If you don’t stay ahead of the Green-based decks then you’re probably in trouble. Which leads me to #3…
Green is still everywhere.
Ivy Dancer was a maindeck card before, and I don’t believe that this fact has changed. The Green and G/R cards in Guildpact make the color too good to pass up for most decks, so try to take that into account. If you can’t deal with even a single fatty, you need to look for a different build.
Draw first.
This has been true in most Sealed Deck formats (not Onslaught, of course) but it’s even more important now. The poor mana that you’ll be forced into playing means that you’ll definitely see your share of mulligans throughout the day, so take every extra card that you can get. Also, watching your opponent have to mulligan on the play gives you a warm feeling inside. Trust me, it’s true.
After spending more time with it and talking it over with others, I’m still not convinced that I got my Sealed build right. It might just be that I don’t like the mana it takes to play the best cards and that I don’t like the cards it takes to make the mana work.
As much as I’d like to also be talking about this Draft format and my experiences on day 2, I failed to make the cut. I’d been told that with my three byes I’d only need a record of 3-2 to make day two with a record of 6-2. It seems that I needed a bit more than that as I did attain that record, only to finish a disappointing 65th place. Such is life, I suppose.
Suggestions on how I should have build my deck? Please sound off in the forums and let me know. This format is insane and I’ll take all the help I can get.
Best of luck in the race to Prague…