Pro Perspective – To Go Black Or Go Back?

Hello folks,

Worlds is happening next week, but there are a lot of PTQs and events all over the world that are still playing Sealed Deck. So without further introduction, let’s work on a new Sealed Deck pool!

This week’s pool
was submitted by Jeremy Berthoux who opened the following cards in a PTQ in Lyon last week:

Power cards:

Artifacts:

2 Contagion Clasp

With two Clasps, trying to abuse the proliferate ability when building the deck will probably be our main focus…

Mimic Vat

There are so many combos with this rare. You don’t even have to do anything to have it change the course of the game. The math becomes a lot more complicated as soon as it hits the board. Just another auto-includd in about any Sealed deck.

Sunblast Angel

Antonino Da Rosa commented on Facebook not too long ago:
“Please Magic R&D, when you make your next set, don’t make every single big flier the format has kill all the permanents your opponent has.
” I so feel the same way… Carnifex Demon, Hoard-Smelter Dragon, and Sunblast Angel are already hard to deal with without their abilities. Why do they have to be so much above all the other creatures? 

Myrsmith

We’ve been over this one many times. Last week’s debate on the forum was a lot about how important it is to have a deck that can kill x/1s without having to spend an Arrest or a Turn to Slag to kill them.

Liege of the Tangle

Sure eight mana is a lot. But this card wins on its own and is so hard to deal with. It gets a lot of hate due to its high mana cost. Sealed Deck games aren’t that fast, and unless your deck is extremely fast and can’t afford having a dead card for a few turns, you’ll definitely run it if you’re green.

Ezuri Brigade

4/4 for four is already a good deal in the format. When playing against it, there’s always this tension; you hope your opponent will never see his third artifact. When he does, it’s often gg. In the right deck with enough artifacts to back it up, it’s a powerhouse.

Removal:

Sunblast Angel
Revoke Existence
Bonds of Quicksilver
Instill Infection
Flesh Allergy
Grasp of Darkness
2 Fume Spitter
Turn to Slag
Galvanic Blast
2 Acid Web Spider
2 Contagion Clasp
Trigon of Corruption

Overall Observations – Potential Combinations/Synergies

There’s a lot of removal to choose from. The deck will be running Contagion Clasps and Trigon of Corruption in any case.

Every color except for blue has something to offer. Bonds of Quicksilver, Lumengrid Drake, and Neurok Replica are just not enough to make blue playable.

Poison is in no way playable.

Furnace Celebration may be an option with a lot of Spellbombs, Ferrovores, and Fume Spitters.

There’s a huge number of playable artifacts, so a metalcraft (Chrome Steed)/Golem Foundry deck is a strong option.

Black has Fume Spitter and Instill Infection to go with both Clasps along with Grasp of Darkness and Flesh Allergy.

Green has the biggest creatures including Ezuri Brigade, which is very likely to be used at its full potential considering the number of playable artifacts in the pool. Double Acid Web Spider makes green an option to consider after board if it’s not played maindeck against equipment decks.

White has Sunblast Angel, Myrsmith, and Revoke Existence, two of the best cards of the format and a strong removal spell.

Red has Galvanic Blast and Turn to Slag. Not very deep, but the Galvanic Blast would easily be splashable thanks to Blackcleave Cliffs, Iron Myr, and Horizon Spellbomb.

There’s a fine set of equipment but no cards to go along with them. One Sunspear Shikari and very few creatures with evasion.

After cutting the unwanted cards of the pool, we end up with the following cards to build our deck with:

White:
1 Kemba’s Skyguard
1 Sunspear Shikari
1 Salvage Scout
1 Revoke Existence
1 Sunblast Angel
1 Myrsmith
1 Origin Spellbomb
1 Auriok Replica

Blue:
1 Lumengrid Drake
1 Bonds of Quicksilver
1 Neurok Replica

Black:
2 Fume Spitter
1 Grasp of Darkness
1 Instill Infection
1 Flesh Allergy
1 Nihil Spellbomb

Red:
2 Ferrovore
1 Furnace Celebration
1 Galvanic Blast
1 Turn to Slag
1 Panic Spellbomb
1 Vulshok Replica
1 Saberclaw Golem

Green:
2 Molder Beast
1 Ezuri’s Brigade
2 Acid Web Spider
1 Liege of the Tangle
1 Horizon Spellbomb
1 Wall of Tanglecord

Artifacts:
2 Golem Foundry
2 Chrome Steed
1 Trigon of Corruption
2 Contagion Clasp
1 Tumble Magnet
1 Snapsail Glider
1 Palladium Myr
1 Mimic Vat
1 Iron Myr
1 Leaden Myr
1 Gold Myr
1 Darksteel Axe
1 Sylvok Lifestaff
1 Grafted Exoskeleton
1 Barbed Battlegear

Lands:
Blackcleave Cliffs

Notes on the first-step sorting:

I always want to abuse Myr Reservoir. I’d play it in any deck running at least two Perilous Myrs and two mana Myrs. There’s no Perilous Myr in this pool, so let’s move along.

The pool is very deep, has a lot of potential, and many different viable decks.

First of all, let’s take a look at Jeremy’s build:

Jeremy’s G/B

1 Ezuri’s Brigade
2 Acid Web Spider
2 Molder Beast
1 Liege of the Tangle
2 Fume Spitter
1 Leaden Myr
1 Gold Myr
1 Iron Myr
1 Palladium Myr

2 Contagion Clasp
1 Tumble Magnet
1 Mimic Vat
1 Wall of Tanglecord
1 Horizon Spellbomb
1 Darksteel Axe
1 Trigon of Corruption
1 Withstand Death
1 Instill Infection
1 Grasp of Darkness
1 Flesh Allergy

9 Forest
7 Swamps

When I first looked at the pool, I immediately thought of G/B mostly due to the potential abuse of Contagion Clasps with Fume Spitters and Instill Infection.

Jeremy chose to maindeck Withstand Death that I left in the trash (but as a potential sideboard card). His game plan is to destroy most of his opponent’s creatures and kill with his Molder Beasts or Liege of the Tangle, which definitely sounds like a fine plan. Withstand Death is a cheap way to save the Molder Beast from a trade and sneak some trample damage in the process. Darksteel Axe is there to sneak even more trample damage through.

The problem I have with this build is that you don’t take full advantage of the Molder Beast and Ezuri Brigade. It also feels like the Axe is out of place. The three Myrs, most likely bearers of the Axe, are very vulnerable and will be used to cast your five-mana guys and develop your game plan.

When I look at the deck, I feel like there should be more artifacts to pump the Molder Beasts and enable metalcraft for the Brigade.

I like the synergy between the Clasps and the Spitters/Tumble Magnet/Instill Infection/Trigon of Corruption, and that alone should make for a good deck, whatever comes with it.   

After tweaking the deck around, here is what I ended up with:

Raph’s G/B Metalcraft

2 Fume Spitter
1 Iron Myr
1 Leaden Myr
1 Gold Myr
1 Palladium Myr
1 Snapsail Glider
1 Ezuri’s Brigade
2 Chrome Steed
1 Acid Web Spider
2 Molder Beast

1 Trigon of Corruption
1 Instill Infection
1 Horizon Spellbomb
1 Panic Spellbomb
1 Nihil Spellbomb
1 Galvanic Blast
2 Contagion Clasp
1 Mimic Vat
1 Tumble Magnet
1 Grasp of Darkness

1 Blackcleave Cliffs
1 Mountain
7 Forest
7 Swamp

The curve is a lot smoother, and we now have a way to end the games quickly thanks to the two Chrome Steeds. With fifteen artifacts in the deck, including two Clasps, three Spellbombs, Tumble Magnet, and Trigon of Corruption, I expect the Chrome Steeds to be 4/4 most of the time.

I also didn’t like the fact that there were so many five-drops in a deck with sixteen lands. The Myrs don’t reliably count as lands, and you’ll too often be stuck with the fatties in your hand. I don’t feel you actually need the Liege of the Tangle in this deck. You have a lot of ways to sink your mana (Contagion Clasp), and your creatures will be big enough to do the job anyway.

The addition of Galvanic Blast was almost costless. Thanks to Horizon Spellbomb, Blackcleave Cliffs, and Iron Myr, it’s a total of four red mana sources. Overall a better option than Flesh Allergy, which I like a lot when you have Perilous Myrs (too bad again, we don’t have any), but not that much otherwise.

The extra two Spellbombs enable Metalcraft early, feed Molder Beasts, get you to your Clasps faster, even if you’re not likely to sacrifice the Panic Spellbomb for a card that early in the game. Its effect is still not negligible when your monsters are all 4/4s.

Wall of Tanglecord is a good defensive card, but I don’t think it fits this deck. You’re most likely to be the aggressor in most games, and you have so many removal spells already that drawing and playing a wall will actually give your opponent more time to find a way to deal with your threats. It has a different role when you’re the control player trying to gain some time to get your kill cards.

You have many different ways to have a 4/4 creature attacking on turn 4, and I like that concept.

With two Contagion Clasps and fifteen artifacts, it’s
very
tempting to add the Golem Foundries, go up to seventeen artifacts, and plan to swarm with Golems. That would probably mean cutting a Fume Spitter and another Acid Web Spider… I like these two cards too much, and I’m not exactly sure how necessary the Foundries are in that overall pretty fast strategy.  

…So I thought of this other build that includes other good cards of the pool:

Raph’s W/G Foundry

1 Gold Myr
1 Leaden Myr
1 Wall of Tanglecord
1 Myrsmith
1 Palladium Myr
1 Snapsail Glider
2 Chrome Steed
1 Ezuri’s Brigade
2 Acid Web Spider
1 Sunblast Angel
1 Liege of the Tangle

1 Horizon Spellbomb
1 Origin Spellbomb
1 Sylvok Lifestaff
2 Contagion Clasp
1 Revoke Existence
1 Mimic Vat
1 Tumble Magnet
2 Golem Foundry
1 Trigon of Corruption

8 Forest
8 Plains

(Strongly considering playing Iron Myr but couldn’t find room for it.)

This deck is less aggressive than the G/B build since you’re not really taking care of opposing creatures directly. You’ll be likely to trade for a while and win the game in the mid/long term with Golem Foundries fueled by seventeen artifacts total and double Clasps. Add to that the fact that you have now access to Sunblast Angel and a fair reason to play Liege of the Tangle since the deck is a lot slower.

You lose most of your early removal (Fume Spitter, Grasp in Darkness, Instill Infection), which you trade for Revoke Existence, Wall of Tanglecord, and the second Acid Web Spider.

The Molder Beasts don’t quite fit the theme since you don’t have as many ways to pump them (you could kill your opponent’s artifact creatures with black removal for that).

You also have access to a million tokens thanks to Myrsmith. Since you’ll be likely to have a lot of creatures, Sylvok Lifestaff makes sure they aren’t too small and regains you the life you’ll be losing due to early beating or fliers. There’s no room for a second equipment, so Darksteel Axe doesn’t really have its place here, and I believe the Lifestaff is superior to the Axe in many ways. The extra mana to equip is extremely relevant in a deck counting its mana to cast as many artifacts as possible.

Before trying to figure which deck was the best, I threw in some more builds. I tried W/B, packing all black removal, Sunblast Angel, and Myrsmith. It didn’t look quite as impressive as the green builds. I also tried different kinds of Furnace Celebration builds – R/B and R/B/W – but none of them seemed good enough.

I played around with the pool and didn’t come up with anything nearly as good as the builds with green. I’m sure there are a lot of possible combinations I’m missing, and I’m sure you’ll let me know what you’ve found.

If I were to submit a final decklist, I wouldn’t look further and try to make the right choice between G/B Metalcraft and G/W Foundry.

I believe both decks are very solid, and I’d be more than happy to open that pool at any event. But there has to be one choice that’s better than the other…

Pros and cons of
G/B Metalcraft
:

Pros:

-Potentially very fast. Chrome Steeds and Molder Beasts can end the game very quickly.

-Packing a lot of removal. Seven in Total.

-Uses full potential of Molder Beasts, Ezuri Brigade, Tumble Magnet, Contagion Clasp, and Chrome Steed; and Mimic Vat which is a lot stronger when you can reliably kill your opponent’s creatures.

-Also uses the full potential of the mana Myrs to full up devastating turn 3s.

Cons:

-While the creatures that will be attacking are used to their full potential, the price for that is that you don’t have so many of them, five in total. Fortunately, you also have Mimic Vat as the other win condition. The other good thing is that both Molder Beasts and Ezuri Brigade aren’t that easy to take care of since they are colored creatures.

Overall, you might be crushing aggro decks because you’ll be unlikely to be dealt much damage, and your monsters will overpower their defenses. You might find problematic the matchups against decks loaded with removal spells to take care of your win conditions.

Pros and cons of
W/G Foundry
:

Pros:

-I know you shouldn’t take this into consideration, but this deck looks like a hell lot of fun to play. Golem Tokens, Sunblast Angel, Liege of the Tangle… You’ve got to admit, it looks sexy!

-You have very strong defensive tools – although a bit slow – to allow you to have time to develop your game plan: Wall of Tanglecord, two Acid Web Spiders, and the almighty Sunblast Angel.

–Tumble Magnet gains extra value with Sunblast Angel.

-Uses Golem Foundry to the fullest.

-Uses Contagion Clasp as a Golem generator.

-Your kill cards are really tough to deal with. When you start hatching a Golem or two a turn, it quickly gets out of hand.

Cons:

-Light on big-creature removal. Few ways to deal with a large Dragon or a Carnifex Demon (like many other decks).

-While able to cast a big Chrome Steed or a Brigade on turn 3, the deck is overall quite slow and might have a problem against early aggression.

-Isn’t using Mimic Vat to its full potential, since it’s not really able to kill creature directly.

Overall, a very strong deck when you have time to develop. Maybe a little slow against very aggressive decks.

I’d probably choose to play the G/B deck main and go for the G/W Foundry deck after board against a slow deck. If it was at a GP, I would submit G/B since it looks like the more reliable of the two and try the W/G build during the byes. If you’re lucky enough to have some, spend your time wisely and try options you haven’t had the time to think of during deckbuilding.

I’ll be happy to hear what you guys have to say!

Bonus decklist

Not all of you are going to be interested in the following decklist, but I thought I could throw it here anyway.

I played and won a Standard singleton tournament that I prepared for playing against the most successful decks from online events, and here is what I ended up with:

The winning decks online are U/G and Mono Red. The above deck is extremely stable and has a satisfying win rate against the most played decks. It’s not as vulnerable to Mind Control and Volition Reins as most decks of the format that run Eldrazi and huge monsters, since it doesn’t have good targets.

There were two playing the deck, and we finished with a 9-2-1 record, where one of the losses came from a mirror match.

If you’re taking part in any of those tournaments online, make sure you give it a try!

I’ll probably be in Japan playing Worlds at the time you read these lines. We’ll get back to Sealed Deck right after that!

Cheers,
Raph