I love sealed deck. But I am somewhat lonely in the “lovers of sealed deck” camp. Just take the coverage of Pro Tour: Atlanta. It’s full of Pros complaining about having to weather day one of sealed deck, where they are “completely” at the mercy of the luck goddess and that deck wizards “drafted for them”. And of course it’s all luck based, look at the proof: the likes of Kai, Ishida and the Ruel brothers failed to make Day 2. I mean, the best player of all time™, the greatest genius of team Rochester draft and the two leaders in the Nagoya Pro standings should make Day 2, so it proves all those right who refused to practice Team Sealed because they’re 100% at the mercy of the cards they open, right?
Of course, now we get to the point where Atlanta proves nothing because all those who whinge haven’t actually done any testing so we won’t know whether their failure is due to sheer bad luck or due to said lack of testing. I side with Aaron Forsythe in guessing it is the latter, as in my experience there really aren’t a lot of actually bad card pools, and losing is usually the result of either bad deck construction or bad play. Luck tends to only really come into it when you have bad draws, and even then it’s often really just bad mulliganing.
Preparation is key in every format, no matter how many top-level pros complain about lack of skill. Today, I will be talking about sealed deck, as it is the most neglected format ever, and it ties in well with the upcoming PTQ season. And I love it.
Throughout the aforementioned PTQ season, I intend to present you with all the card pools I get in all PTQs, tell you what I played, what I should have played, what I learned, some good and bad plays and whatever else helps. Someone recently suggested that American Magic is in decline because players can’t get to more than three or four PTQs a season for geographical reasons. I live in the UK and my PTQ schedule for the local Pro Tour in London contains 11 PTQs and 1 GP. The least I can do is give those with access to fewer PTQs the tools they need to succeed in them. For the record, I’m a decent Limited PTQ player who’s made several PTQ Top8s in the past year or so, as well as a 33rd place at GP: Birmingham. So I have at least a vague semblance of an idea of what I’m talking about.
As the season hasn’t started yet, I’ll be doing some naked sealed decks today. I kinda feel like the bastard love child of Mark Young and Craig Stevenson right now (please make that image go away!), but preparing for sealed deck requires as many practice card pools as possible. I love Craig Stevenson “Sealed Revealed” series, which is both useful and entertaining, and to not look like a cheap rip-off, I’ll focus on potential builds and not individual cards. It pains me to say it, but the result is likely to not be as entertaining, though it should be more useful. You just can’t beat some good card bashing!
So let’s start with card pool #1:
Red
2 Frost Ogre
1 Sokenzan Bruiser
1 Kami of Fire’s Roar
1 Battle-Mad Ronin
1 Akki Avalanchers
1 Frostling
1 Sowing Salt
1 Stone Rain
1 Lava Spike
1 Unnatural Speed
1 Crack the Earth
1 Kumano’s Blessing
Black
1 Deathcurse Ogre
1 Painwracker Oni
1 Skullmane Baku
1 Scourge of Numai
1 Gibbering Kami
1 Bloodthirsty Ogre
1 Nezumi Cutthroat
1 Cruel Deceiver
1 Ashen-Skin Zubera
1 Skullsnatcher
1 Hideous Laughter
1 Rend Spirit
1 Distress
1 Stir the Grave
1 Blessing of Leeches
Blue
1 Keiga, the Tide Star
1 Chisei, Heart of Oceans
1 Soratami Mindsweeper
1 Kami of Twisted Reflection
1 Mistblade Shinobi
1 Guardian of Solitude
1 Ribbons of the Reikai
1 Minamo’s Meddling
1 Sift Through Sands
1 Toils of Night and Day
1 Disrupting Shoal
1 Consuming Vortex
1 Psychic Puppetry
1 Hisoka’s Defiance
1 Aura of Dominion
White
1 Silverstorm Samurai
1 Kami of the Palace Fields
1 Kami of the Painted Road
1 Harsh Deceiver
1 Takeno’s Cavalry (Foil! Wow! Ohmygod! I just wet my pants.) [I hear that’s a common side-effect among love children from the Hellish Young and Stevenson pairing. – Knut, still a little woozy from that one]
1 Waxmane Baku
1 Kitsune Blademaster
1 Pious Kitsune
1 Sensei Golden-Tail
1 Silent-Chant Zubera
1 Split-Tail Miko
1 Lantern Kami
1 Kitsune Diviner
1 Candle’s Glow
1 Cage of Hands
1 Ward of Piety
Green
1 Vine Kami
1 Harbinger of Spring
1 Order of the Sacred Bell
1 Burr Grafter
1 Gnarled Mass
1 Sakura-Tribe Elder
1 Traproot Kami
1 Splinter
1 Joyous Respite
1 Uproot
1 Roar of Jukai
Artifacts and Lands
1 Imi Statue
1 Reito Lantern
1 Ronin Warclub
1 Waterveil Cavern
1 Cloudcrest Lake
Now comes the obligatory go away and build speech. Or maybe I’ll just assume you all know it and skip it. And instead of a hole, I’ll give you some general first impressions of this card pool to fill enough space so you don’t get influenced for your build by my build.
This card pool appears to be extremely straightforward. Only two colors, Black and White, are deep enough to be main colors, and there is a splashable bomb in Keiga, Porn Star, so it’s really got to be B/W/u.
The more I look at this card pool, the more depressingly obvious the build is. Depressing in that it leaves little to write about, though it is quite powerful. I wouldn’t mind opening this in a PTQ, and there are still a few minor points worth looking at.
Creatures (17)
1 Kitsune Diviner
1 Lantern Kami (S)
1 Split-Tail Miko
1 Ashen-Skin Zubera (S)
1 Cruel Deceiver (S)
1 Skullsnatcher
1 Nezumi Cutthroat
1 Sensei Golden-Tail
1 Waxmane Baku (S)
1 Kitsune Blademaster
1 Bloodthirsty Ogre
1 Gibbering Kami (S)
1 Harsh Deceiver (S)
1 Kami of the Painted Road (S)
1 Painwracker Oni (S)
1 Kami of the Palace Fields (S)
1 Keiga, the Tide Star (S)
Other Spells (6)
1 Cage of Hands
1 Rend Spirit
1 Hideous Laughter (A)
1 Stir the Grave
1 Candle’s Glow (A)
1 Ronin Warclub
Lands (17)
1 Waterveil Cavern
1 Cloudcrest Lake
1 Island
7 Swamp
7 Plains
Spirits: 10
Arcane: 2
This deck has an abundance of two-drops and the curve isn’t too bad overall, although another three-drop would have been nice.
Spirit/Arcane
There isn’t a lot of Spirit/Arcane goodness here, but all the expensive creatures are Spirits and that should make Waxmane Baku very happy. I would like to state for the record that this is the first Limited deck I’ve seen where I consider Harsh Deceiver to be playable (a horse, a horse, my kingdom for a Moonlit Strider), but this deck will mostly win with flyers and fear creatures, mostly, and the Deceiver does a good job of gumming up the ground. It also gives you something that survives Hideous Laughter.
Ogres/Demons
This deck is rather interesting. It only has one Ogre, and there are two demons that both are dying to have an Ogre around. Painwracker Oni will kill all your creatures without his bloodthirsty friend and Scourge of Numai will kill you. And this deck wants to be playing at least one of the two. But which one? A lot of people consider Painwracker Oni to be unplayable unless you have more Ogres than is good for your health. And this is the sort of question that keeps me awake at night. Not really, but you know what I mean. Anyway, is it worth including in the main deck for those situations where you drop it and race, or in the unlikely event that you actually have your Ogre? I think he is, though I’ll happily side him out against other Black decks. Those who don’t agree with me can run Scourge of Numai and cry when he’s caged. The Painwracker just laughs and either gets rid of the Cage for good, or keeps hitting. Remember you don’t need to decide what to sack before they need to decide whether to return the cage.
The Ogre/Demon synergy annoys me since it’s always so hard to tell whether it’s worth running those with prohibitive drawbacks. Give me Red ogres any day, they’re beautifully self-contained. What demon, if any, would you run here, considering the best alternative is probably Silent-Chant Zubera?
Depletion lands
This also makes this card pool interesting. By an amazing coincidence does this card pool not only contain both relevant depletion lands, it’s also better than any pool I’ve seen at using them. The two main colors are split almost perfectly down the middle and so are the early drops, there are only two spells with double color requirement and very few abilities that require repeated use of colored mana. The quantity and quality of two-drops means not untapping a land on turn three is not that big an issue, and their variety allows you to play like a mono-colored deck with a colorless land in the early turns. Usually the depletion lands are best used as toilet paper, but in this deck they work on so many levels. This deck has the most consistent mana base I’ve seen for any Kamigawa sealed deck that splashes but isn’t Green.
Other colors and alternative builds
Green is extremely shallow, Red has even less midgame than White and Black, and Blue consists largely of 23rd cards and hardly has any creatures. Seriously, this deck has no alternative build that I can see, unless you consider changing the demon slot an alternative build. Of course you could put in the foil uberbomb, Takeno’s Cavalry. Y’know, give some love to the latest incarnation of the mighty Aven Trooper.
Let’s move on to card pool #2, which offers a nice contrast:
Red
1 Soul of Magma
1 Sokenzan Bruiser
1 Ember-Fist Zubera
1 Akki Raider
1 Blademane Baku
1 Ishi-Ishi, Akki Crackshot
1 Torrent of Stone
1 Ire of Kaminari
1 Unearthly Blizzard
1 Glacial Ray
1 Crushing Pain
1 First Volley
Black
2 Takenuma Bleeder
1 Genju of the Fens
1 Wicked Akuba
1 Nezumi Cutthroat
1 Bile Urchin
1 Pull Under
1 Horobi’s Whisper
1 Waking Nightmare
1 Soulless Revival
1 Stir the Grave
1 Midnight Covenant
1 Honden of Night’s Reach
Blue
1 Sire of the Storm
2 Quillmane Baku
1 Meloku the Clouded Mirror
2 Shimmering Glasskite
1 Soratami Rainshaper
1 River Kaijin
1 Floodbringer
1 Guardian of Solitude
1 Hisoka’s Guard
1 Kaijin of the Vanishing Touch
1 Time Stop
1 Sift Through Sands
1 Hisoka’s Defiance
1 Field of Reality
White
1 Kami of the Palace Fields
1 Kami of the Painted Road
1 Horizon Seed
1 Harsh Deceiver
1 Kami of Ancient Law
1 Silent-Chant Zubera
2 Kami of False Hope
2 Mending Hands
1 Ethereal Haze
1 Blessed Breath
1 Reciprocate
Green
1 Moss Kami
1 Kashi-Tribe Warriors
1 Sakura-Tribe Springcaller
1 Genju of the Cedars
1 Isao, Enlightened Bushi
1 Matsu-Tribe Decoy
1 Loam Dweller
1 Humble Budoka
1 Matsu-Tribe Sniper
1 Hana Kami
1 Vital Surge
1 Kodama’s Might
1 Commune with Nature
1 Serpent Skin
1 Lure
Other
1 Long-Forgotten Gohei
1 Nine-Ringed Bo
1 God’s Eye, Gate to the Reikai
1 Waterveil Cavern
Now this is more like it. Again we have a bomb to end all bombs in Meloku, but this time we have several colors deep enough to run the show, and one of them is Blue, so we might get away without a splash. This is the kind of card pool that, when you review it at home after going 3-3, you seem to always have built wrong. This is where preparation pays off, because this sort of pool will run you out of deck construction time, and when you’re rushed you make mistakes.
A quick word on that review at home I mentioned, I find it invaluable. Some people do a review on site, during the tournament, which can be useful because it lets you sideboard in the better deck in later rounds. It’s still good to have another look at home, with some distance from the tournament and not focused on the particular matchups you had during the day. It’s easy to believe your U/G deck is rubbish after it lost to turn 2 Kiku, Night’s Flower. However, it’s much harder to see at that moment in time that the R/U deck would’ve had no problems killing Kiku, but could in no way, shape or form deal with all the 3/3s your opponent threw at you.
Here’s an example to illustrate: During the Mirrodin/Darksteel Limited PTQs I went 3-3 one week with a R/G deck with tons of removal. During the day I didn’t understand why I wasn’t doing as well as in the previous PTQs where I made Top 8. At home I realized I didn’t have enough mid-game creatures and kept sitting there with no creatures and a hand full of situational removal spells that fell into the clichéd category of “wrong answers”. In the PTQ the following week I had a similar card pool and made Top 8 with my B/G/gtr deck (splashing Grab the Reins), which had less removal, but was full of “right threats”.
Returning to the card pool at hand, I started off by building a G/U deck.
Creatures (19)
1 Hana Kami (S)
1 Kaijin of the Vanishing Touch (S)
1 Matsu-Tribe Sniper
1 Guardian of Solitude (S)
1 Floodbringer
1 Humble Budoka
1 Loam Dweller (S)
1 Matsu-Tribe Decoy
1 Soratami Rainshaper
1 River Kaijin (S)
1 Isao, Enlightened Bushi
1 Genju of the Cedars [S]
2 Shimmering Glasskite (S)
1 Sakura-Tribe Springcaller
1 Quillmane Baku (S)
1 Meloku the Clouded Mirror
1 Moss Kami (S)
1 Sire of the Storm (S)
Other Spells (4)
1 Kodama’s Might (A)
1 Serpent Skin
1 Lure
1 Long-Forgotten Gohei
Lands (17)
9 Forest
8 Island
Spirits: 10+1
Arcane: 1
This is a solid deck. Plenty of 2-drops, some beefy 3-drops, lots of fliers, a finisher in Lure and of course Meloku “Opponent? What Opponent?” the Clouded Mirror. But is this the best possible deck? Unlike the previous pool, there are more options to consider, with all colors offering playable stuff, and various combinations of colors presenting themselves. One quick point before we look at the other colors.
Commune with Nature
This is one of those cards where some people have had good experiences and hence love it, and others have had bad experiences and therefore hate it. I don’t like it so I didn’t put it in the deck above, although it probably does belong there. 18 creature spells with a bomb and some serious beef could really do with this card. I would say add it for the Springcaller or maybe the Gohei. The main point to make here is that prejudices can often lead you away from the best build of a deck, and in preparation for Sealed deck PTQs you should try to recognize and overcome your prejudices in card evaluations.
The deck above lacks removal, as U/G decks always do. Some people just can’t stomach that, which is probably largely a case of The Fear. But let’s have a look at what the removal colors have to offer. First B/G/u.
Creatures (16)
1 Bile Urchin (S)
1 Hana Kami (S)
1 Nezumi Cutthroat
1 Wicked Akuba (S)
1 Humble Budoka
1 Matsu-Tribe Sniper
1 Loam Dweller (S)
2 Takenuma Bleeder
1 Genju of the Fens [S]
1 Genju of the Cedars [S]
1 Matsu-Tribe Decoy
1 Isao, Enlightened Bushi
1 Sakura-Tribe Springcaller
1 Meloku the Clouded Mirror
1 Moss Kami (S)
Other Spells (7)
1 Pull Under (A)
1 Horobi’s Whisper (A)
1 Waking Nightmare (A)
1 Soulless Revival (A)
1 Kodama’s Might (A)
1 Lure
1 Long-Forgotten Gohei
Lands (17)
1 Waterveil Cavern
1 Island
8 Swamp
7 Forest
Spirits: 5+2
Arcane: 5
Hooray for awful, inconsistent mana bases that are made even worse by warring Genjus! That aside, there are a lot of good 2- and 3-drops here and also some good removal. Pull Under sure looks a lot better with a Gohei (though it’s still no supermodel). But looking at the rest of the deck the Gohei itself is no longer a looker and should probably be replaced by the awesome, super sexy Serpent Skin (hmm…). Let’s have a look at the perhaps more sensible B/U version.
Creatures (17)
1 Bile Urchin (S)
1 Kaijin of the Vanishing Touch (S)
1 Guardian of Solitude (S)
1 Floodbringer
1 Nezumi Cutthroat
1 Wicked Akuba (S)
1 River Kaijin (S)
1 Soratami Rainshaper
1 Genju of the Fens [S]
2 Takenuma Bleeder
2 Shimmering Glasskite (S)
2 Quillmane Baku (S)
1 Meloku the Clouded Mirror
1 Sire of the Storm (S)
Other Spells (6)
1 Pull Under (A)
1 Horobi’s Whisper (A)
1 Waking Nightmare (A)
1 Soulless Revival (A)
1 Stir the Grave
1 Long-Forgotten Gohei
Lands (17)
1 Waterveil Cavern
9 Swamp
7 Island
Spirits: 10+1
Arcane: 4
So, we have three possible builds here. I toyed with the Red, but no matter how strong the cards are, a good deck needs more than a handful of burn spells and a million mediocre 2-drops (five of those should be enough). Especially if they have poor synergy, like everyone’s favorite goat lover. Let’s compare and contrast these three decks, looking at synergies and individual cards.
Spirits, Arcane spells and Long-Forgotten Gohei
Comparing the cards in the block so far, the spirits have got to be winning this war for Kamigawa. Spiritcraft is so ubiquitous and powerful, and the mortals aren’t organized enough to defeat that. Sure, if you have eight samurai they’ll work together well, but good luck getting eight of those, you’ll need it. The best decks around tend to be the ones that have the most spirits and arcane spells. Anti-spirit/arcane spells such as Ishi-Ishi and Kitsune Diviner are usually more of a nuisance than a real problem. This is a good argument for the B/U version, which makes the most of the Long-Forgotten Gohei and the spiritcraft triggers. At least in theory. But looking more closely, the only really good spiritcrafter is the Sire of the Storm. Quillmane Baku is always slow as molasses, and I really dislike having to play both of them, and Guardian of Solitude is only really remotely good if he has a lot of beef to work with, and that just isn’t the case in the B/U version. Long-Forgotten Gohei is a bombalicious card that makes it so easy to get tempted into playing the wrong deck. The B/G/u deck sans Gohei is looking better and better the more I think about it.
Hana Kami and splice
The B/G/u deck has five Arcane spells, three of which splice and a Hana Kami to use them again. That’s gotta be the best use of otherworldly magic in this pool. Of course the U/G deck can make use of the almighty Hana Kami; all it needs is to draw the one, single and only arcane spell of the mighty Kodama. Should happen every time.
Genjus and moonfolk
Here’s some interesting tension. Two Genjus, one of which makes a shade, don’t exactly interact well with each other, unless you are hopelessly manaflooded, in which case you’re likely already losing. And do you sacrifice that Genju when Meloku comes along and you feel like picking up all your land. This point favors the U/G deck, as the black Genju is the most land-hungry card of the bunch, though the difference is marginal.
Mana curve
Another strong point for the B/G/u deck. 13 creatures at three mana or less, only four spells that can’t be cast when stuck on three lands, and plenty of 3-drops that can stand up to most 4- and 5-drops. U/G has the most expensive spells and the least aggressive cheap ones, though the curve is still nice.
Color intensive cards and blackness
“Black or non-black?” is a very fundamental question in this block. Fear is given away fantastically cheaply and there are, as usual, several “destroy target non-Black creature” effects, so everyone hates playing against Black. Non-Black can’t handle fear and Black can’t make use of Fear effectively. The bad thing about being Black is the host of mana-intensive costs, from Horobi’s Whisper to Genju of the Fens. If you can stomach the awkward mana, though, then being Black is just the best. Another strike against U/G.
Evasion and overall game plan
The B/G/u deck is the bluntest object, it just tries to come out fast and bash your opponents face in with aggressive groundpounders, removal clears the way, and if it stalls, the Cutthroat, Moss Kami or Meloku can mop up with their various forms of evasion, or Lure can do the fatal alpha strike thing. The blue decks on the other hand have 6 flyers, not counting the Guardian of Solitude, and are more likely to just lock up the ground and fly over for the win. Overall the best evasive deck is the U/G deck, with the trampling and potentially flying Moss Kami and Lure in addition to the flyers.
Lure and regeneration
I really like Lure in this pool as it can be slapped on Isao or a Serpent Skinned creature for repeated use rather than just a single alpha strike. This makes me lean away from the B/U deck.
Depletion lands revisited
Again we have a Waterveil Cavern. And here we see why nobody likes these lands. Turn 2 Wicked Akuba off a WC is not kewl. It can’t be genjued. It stands in the way of beautiful curving. So we return from the Land of Wonder and Beauty in card pool #1 and return to the Reality of Necessary Evils. When are they gonna finally reprint those damn painlands?
Wrap-Up
So which deck do you play with this pool? Initially I thought it comes down to personal preference. Can you handle awful mana or lack of removal? Do you feel more comfortable with underpowered consistency? If you ask yourself these questions now, the answers will be at hand when you sit down to construct your deck at the PTQ and you’re more likely to get the deck that’s best for you built in time. But then again usually there is a best build, at least for particular match-ups. I’ve tested these three decks against the one from card pool #1 above and the only one that isn’t owned by it is the B/G/u deck. And the mana doesn’t seem that bad. Why does it do better? Because it is more aggressive. The deck from pool #1 wants to be the beatdown deck, and the B/G/u deck doesn’t let it. So, in summation, I would play the B/G/u deck, though I would probably be prepared to sideboard in some serious blue, for instance against a B/U/W deck that locks up the ground with 1/4s and 1/7s and wins with flyers.
That’s all for today. I hope my thoughts on these card pools have been enlightening, and if not at least you’ve got some more pools to test your sealed deck construction skills. I’ll be back next week with some sealed decks that have actually seen play! Not just any play, but play at Grand Prix level in Leipzig!
Martin Dingler
martin underscore dingler at hotmail dot com
P.S. When StarCityGames.com went premium, I was not happy at first, and didn’t actually buy a premium subscription until last week. And when I did I was looking forward to a wealth of useful strategy. But there seems to be less of that than I expected, and more Minnesotan in-jokes and gratuitous Reinhard Blech bashing. Come on, guys, Reinhard’s not that bad. Okay, he is, but my point is… What was my point? Oh yeah, most of the in-jokes mystify me, but the Blech bashing I can relate to. So I did some of my own to feel less like an outsider.
One final thought – would you rather open a foil Takeno’s Cavalry or a foil Reinhard Blech? Discuss!