Scars of Mirrodin Sealed Walkthrough

Figured I would start the Scars of Mirrodin series by doing a Sealed Deck. Sealed Deck is often actually a bigger part
of tournament life than Draft is anyway (at least if you aren’t qualified for Pro Tours), and from what I’ve heard, Scars of Mirrodin Sealed is
pretty complicated. You see, I haven’t actually played a single Sealed Deck in this format so far, since I skipped the local Prerelease to conserve my
rating for a Worlds invite (I’m a chicken, I know). Anyway, I was anxious to start playing with Scars and joined a four-round Sealed event as soon as
they were available. These are the cards I opened:

Like any true Magic player, I quickly sorted by rarity and was disappointed to find three dual lands staring back at me
and a total of zero rare artifacts. Artifact bombs are obviously especially strong in Sealed since you can always play them no matter which color
you end up. Two of the rares are pretty good though (Tempered Steel and Argent Sphinx obviously; Painful Quandary is most likely complete trash) and
are both good reasons to play either of those colors. I quickly go back to a color sort and start out by picking out the artifacts that I’m
happy to play in basically every deck. This gives us something like:

1 Memnite
1 Myr Galvanizer
1 Trigon of Corruption
1 Copper Myr
2 Golem Artisan
1 Sylvok Replica
1 Neurok Replica
2 Darksteel Myr
1 Flight Spellbomb
1 Horizon Spellbomb
1 Panic Spellbomb

The Memnite isn’t usually exciting, but if I end up playing white for Tempered Steel, he becomes better. Also he helps
with early metalcraft if we want that. The Sylvok Replica will get played even if my only green source is the Myr, and Neurok Replica could get played
even if we only have a few blue sources. The Spellbombs will depend on what colors we run but Horizon Spellbomb probably makes the cut regardless.

After this, I go through the colors and see which cards they have that make me want to play them. This gives me:

White:

Tempered Steel, Arrest, Glimmerpoint Stag

Blue:

Argent Sphinx, Volition Reins, Halt Order

Black:

2 Grasp of Darkness

Red:

Galvanic Blast, Oxidda Scrapmelter, Shatter

Green:

Not much except Sylvok Replica, which I’ll play anyway. Acid Web Spider maybe?

Green is the first to go, since the cards just aren’t very good.

Black soon follows, since it literally only has two cards, which both cost double black and are eclipsed in power by any
of the cards offered by the three other colors.

Blue seems like our strongest color with two bombs, and it also has some solid other cards like Halt Order, Sky-Eel
School, and maybe Stoic Rebuttal.

White is a bit shallower with only three cards that really excite me, especially since we don’t really have the cards to
build something where Sunspear Shikari and Auriok Edgewright are anything but Grizzly Bears. Still, Tempered Steel is a pretty ridiculous card, and
Arrest is one of the few answers to bombs like Hoard-Smelter Dragon or Geth, Lord of the Vault.

Finally, red offers some great removal, especially Shatter and Oxidda Scrapmelter, which are really nice in Sealed.
Galvanic Blast loses some value in a format where most players will go for a more defensive, powerful build, but cheap removal is never bad.

At this point, I decided to build a U/W deck just to see what it looked like. I added the cards that I was sure
I’d play and then some cards that might make the cut to create a deck at around 40 cards. I’m not too concerned at this point about the details of
the deck, I just want to see a rough sketch of the deck:

1 Memnite
1 Flight Spellbomb
1 Horizon Spellbomb
1 Copper Myr
2 Darksteel Myr
1 Myr Galvanizer
1 Neurok Replica
1 Sylvok Replica
1 Trigon of Corruption
2 Golem Artisan

1 Halt Order
2 Stoic Rebuttal
1 Argent Sphinx
1 Bonds of Quicksilver
1 Sky-Eel School
1 Volition Reins
1 Scrapdiver Serpent

1 Arrest
1 Tempered Steel
1 Dispense Justice
1 Glimmerpoint Stag

+ Some lands, including at least Razorverge Thicket and Seachrome Coast

Not really that exciting, especially since so many cards cost three, and the deck just seems very slow and cumbersome
with the Stoic Rebuttals. Counterspells are usually okay in Sealed Deck if you plan on playing against slow decks, but there’s a line where
your deck just has too much slow stuff and no real way of coming back if you’re behind on the board. So I took out some of the worst cards and
added the three red cards (Galvanic Blast, Oxidda Scrapmelter, and Shatter) as well as the R/G dual.

I figured with two duals that given green mana and a green Myr, I don’t have to play any Forests for my Sylvok Replica,
and only like two Mountains for the red splash with the dual and Horizon Spellbomb. Obviously a bit risky with my mana already a bit stretched because
of Volition Reins and Tempered Steel, but the red cards really solve the problem if I find myself behind on the board. Also in a deck with many
artifacts, you can get away with a shakier mana base. I spent some time on deciding which the last few cards should be in my deck, and I’m not sure
if I made the right decisions, but this is what I came up with:

Decklist:

1 Copperline Gorge


7 Island


2 Mountain


5 Plains


1 Razorverge Thicket


1 Seachrome Coast

1 Argent Sphinx
1 Copper Myr
2 Darksteel Myr
1 Glimmerpoint Stag
2 Golem Artisan
1 Memnite
1 Myr Galvanizer
1 Neurok Replica
1 Oxidda Scrapmelter
1 Sky-Eel School
1 Sylvok Replica

1 Arrest
1 Bonds of Quicksilver
1 Flight Spellbomb
1 Galvanic Blast
1 Halt Order
1 Horizon Spellbomb
1 Shatter
1 Tempered Steel
1 Trigon of Corruption
1 Volition Reins

Bonds of Quicksilver was the last card that made it into the deck. Maybe I should’ve played a Stoic Rebuttal over
it, but having two blue mana isn’t exactly guaranteed. One other option I considered was to minimize the white cards and maybe just play the Arrest.
This gives me better mana, but the Stag and Tempered Steel just felt so powerful. The cards most likely to get sided in should be the Stoic Rebuttals,
maybe in exchange for those two white cards in matchups where I’d feel more comfortable playing a waiting game. The Memnite is also a pretty
crappy card, but I included it since it could help me survive against a faster deck.

Overall, this Sealed Deck format seems a lot like the old Mirrodin, in that it’s usually almost impossible to know
whether you built your deck correctly. My sideboard included a lot of decent artifacts that could substitute some of the maindeck ones, but overall
I think this version is at least an okay build. In the end, it won’t matter exactly which filler artifacts you play.

Round one:

Game one:

I win the roll and choose to draw first. If you’ve been following my Draft series, you know that I don’t do this
often. And most of the time in Sealed Deck, I’ll play first too, assuming my deck has some kind of curve. In this case however, I don’t really
have any reasonable beatdown draws, and if I’m behind against an aggressive deck, the extra draw step might actually be as helpful as going
first, since I often will have to draw the correct mana to play my Galvanic Blast or something like that to get back in the game anyway. Also in Sealed
Deck, you’re much more likely to play against other slow decks with crappy mana.

I mulligan a hand with no lands into Island, Mountain, Shatter, Neurok Replica, Trigon of Corruption, and Golem Artisan,
which I keep.

My opponent plays a turn 2 Screeching Silcaw, making me think that he isn’t exactly the best player in the room. I draw
lands and summon my Replica while he has Neurok Invisimancer and then Oxidda Scrapmelter for my Trigon.

I topdeck Argent Sphinx, though, and the race doesn’t look that bad for me. He plays Contagion Engine which is annoying,
but I have Shatter, and metalcraft lets me reset the Sphinx.

He keeps drawing spells while I’m only getting land, and on one key turn, he plays two artifacts to make his Darksteel
Juggernaut 3/3, which means I have to chump with my 0/3 Replica (no blue mana untapped), and when my draw step yields another land, I lose.

I debate boarding in the Stoic Rebuttals, but it feels like I only lose is if he gets ahead on the board, and Rebuttal
doesn’t really help there.

Game two:

I once again choose to draw first. I keep a hand of Mountain, Plains, Island, Horizon Spellbomb, Arrest, Sylvok Replica,
and Oxidda Scrapmelter. Pretty much as good a hand as I can hope to get with this deck. My opponent only plays Islands and a Swamp the first few turns,
and when he casts Perilous Myr, I play my Scrapmelter to try to increase my pressure on the board.

The turn after, he still doesn’t have red mana, and I draw and play a Golem Artisan. Next turn, he plays a Mountain
(that he either drew, or was slow-rolling) and his own Scrapmelter to kill my Artisan. He follows up with Darksteel Juggernaut, which isn’t really a
problem, since I have both my Darksteel Myr in play. I rip Volition Reins though, and the Juggernaut is a 4/4 on my side of the table. He plays his
own Reins to take the Juggernaut back, but this time I’m one the one drawing spells. Sky-Eel School finds Glimmerpoint Stag which flickers out my
Volition Reins letting me steal back the Juggernaut. Unsurprisingly, this wins me the game.

Game three:

My opponent chooses to play first and keeps his seven. I’m looking at a hand of two Plains, two Islands, Mountain,
Razorverge Thicket, and Arrest. Six-land hands are just really bad, and I almost never keep them, but I think in this situation it’s a
reasonable choice. The hand has all the mana I need (except I guess triple blue for Reins), and with mana this shaky, that is pretty important. Arrest
is also a very good spell.

I draw in order: Myr Galvanizer, Oxidda Scrapmelter, Tempered Steel, Plains, Neurok Replica, and Galvanic Blast. Arrest
hits his Neurok Invisimancer, and his next play is a 1/1 Juggernaut on turn 5. He plays a Sky-Eel School the turn after, but I’m way ahead on
the board, and the Juggernaut is looking pretty silly attacking into my bigger creatures. The turn after the Sky-Eel School, he only plays a Silver Myr,
and it just feels like he should have a trick in hand (most likely Disperse, which would make attacking with my 4/4 Galvanizer really bad), so I
decide to just attack with my 3/6 Replica. He doesn’t have anything though, so I lose out on four damage this turn.

Next turn he rips Sword of Body and Mind, which almost manages to get him back in the game (because of the four damage I
didn’t deal that turn), but like a pro, I rip Volition Reins to steal his Sword. So far the games have been quite swingy, but fortunately I’ve
ended up on the right side of those swings.

Round two:

Game one:

I win the roll and choose to draw first. My opponent mulligans to six while I keep Razorverge Thicket, Plains, Memnite,
Horizon Spellbomb, Copper Myr, Argent Sphinx, and Volition Reins. Need to draw some blue mana at some point, but cycling Spellbomb on turn 3 should
solve a lot of problems.

Awkwardly, my opponent just skips his first turn. Maybe this is the big secret behind drawing first, having your
opponent screw up so you both get to draw and play! Not sure how to get that to work outside of Magic Online though.

I draw Copperline Gorge and Scrapmelter while my opponent summons Riddlesmith and Trinket Mage. He also plays a
Glimmerpost, leading me to believe that he also might not be the greatest player ever. When he doesn’t use the loot ability of the Riddlesmith while stuck on
four lands, it only strengthens this belief. I end up drawing a lot of lands, but it doesn’t matter since a few of them are blue, and he can’t deal with
the Sphinx even without my having metalcraft. I’m still holding Volition Reins when he scoops.

I once again do not sideboard anything.

Game two:

He chooses to play first, and I keep Island, Mountain, Plains, Galvanic Blast, Myr Galvanizer, Trigon of Corruption, and
Glimmerpoint Stag.

He plays a turn 1 Sylvok Lifestaff, turn 3 Neurok Replica, and a turn 5 Screeching Silcaw. He then has Revoke Existence
for my Trigon and also hits his fourth land (Darkslick Shore). I draw Horizon Spellbomb which gives me metalcraft (together with Galvanizer and
Memnite), and I take the opportunity to kill his Replica while he’s tapped out. The Horizon Spellbomb finds me my second white mana and my fifth land
overall.

He is first to drop some big creatures though: Chrome Steed followed up by Golem Artisan, which together with Sylvok
Lifestaff makes the race favor him and blocking hard for me. He plays a bit weird though and tries to keep the race completely one-sided by leaving his
Golem back with four mana up (to give it flying and +1/+1, meaning I can’t get through), which he gets punished for when I play Glimmerpoint Stag.

Suddenly, he is down to four life and now has to keep creatures back and mana up to not die. Meanwhile my hand is still
full of spells, and he doesn’t really have a good attack. When I topdeck and play Copper Myr (together with the Sylvok Replica I have in play), he
decides to attack with everything in some sort of last-ditch effort. I just block all his non-artifact creatures and then he can’t pump the other ones to
get lethal, leaving him dead to my counterattack. I guess he didn’t really have any outs to win the game, but it’s always nice when they make it easy
for you.

Round three:

Game one:

This round I play against a fellow Swede, who’s been talking to me between rounds. I already know that he has a
pretty sick deck with fourteen infect creatures (including three Corpse Cur) and a bunch of Arrests and some assorted rares (Steel Hellkite, Carnifex
Demon etc). Should surely be an uphill battle, especially since my two Darksteel Myr are basically useless against infect. He wins the roll and chooses
to play first.

He keeps his hand while I mulligan two Plains, Mountain, Island, Memnite, Darksteel Myr, and Argent Sphinx. If I didn’t
know what he was playing, I’d keep this, but Darksteel Myr being a dead card makes this a mulligan. The one card in my hand that has any
real impact on the board requires me to draw another Island to cast. My six-card hand is three Plains, Shatter, Bonds of Quicksilver, and Volition Reins,
which is just terrible, and I mulligan again and finally keep Island, Mountain, Galvanic Blast, Sky-Eel School, and Volition Reins. A pretty good
five-card hand.

He has a turn 2 Gold Myr that I elect to not kill with my Blast. Down to five cards, it just doesn’t feel like I can
waste removal on creatures that could possibly be dead cards later on. The Myr enables a turn 3 Blackcleave Goblin that I have to kill, and on turn 5 he
plays Carnifex Demon while I’m stuck on lands. I have to cast Bonds of Quicksilver on the Demon, but it still kills my Copper Myr and when he
casts Myr Battlesphere (yeah he had that one too), I lose.

I board out two Darksteel Myr, Tempered Steel, Myr Galvanizer, and Glimmerpoint Stag for two Stoic Rebuttals, Scrapdiver
Serpent, Vulshok Replica, and Saberclaw Golem. The Galvanizer just doesn’t really do anything without the Darksteel Myr, and Stoic Rebuttal seems like
a good answer for Corpse Cur and his assorted bombs. Playing the Rebuttals makes me want more blue mana, so I cut the Tempered Steel and Stag so I
can change some Plains into Islands and another Mountain for Saberclaw Golem. Although I haven’t tried it, the Golem should be pretty tough for
infect creatures to get through.

Game two:

I choose to play first, thinking that Stoic Rebuttal becomes a much better card on the play. Maybe I can somehow get
ahead on the board and actually be able to sit back on counters, or at least not be so far behind that I can’t use them. I mulligan a terrible one-land
hand, and I end up keeping Razorverge Thicket, Island, Memnite, Shatter, Trigon of Corruption, and Sky-Eel School. Obviously not a great hand but
definitely better than an average five-card hand.

I try to fight off his turn 2 Necropede, turn 3 Contagious Nim, and turn 4 Corpse Cur with my Memnite, Trigon of
Corruption, and Sky-Eel School. He has Arrest for the School though, and a Steel Hellkite on turn 6. I’ve drawn Galvanic Blast, meaning I can kill off his
infect-creatures and maybe take a hit or two from the Hellkite, so all hope is not lost, but it’s obviously still not looking good for me, with eight
poison counters and him still with cards in hand. He makes the suffering end much sooner though, by playing Grafted Exoskeleton and equipping it to his
Hellkite.

Round four:

Game one:

I win the roll and keep three Islands, Arrest, Neurok Replica, Argent Sphinx, and Oxidda Scrapmelter on the draw.
Despite only having one color of mana, this hand is pretty good, since I can cast the Replica and the Sphinx, and I have many cards to draw that let me
cast the Arrest or the Scrapmelter. I end up drawing Seachrome Coast and Copperline Gorge on my first two turns while my opponent has a turn 2
Glint Hawk Idol and a turn 3 Strider Harness.

On turn 4 he casts Sunspear Shikari but doesn’t have a fourth land and my Neurok Replica makes equipping the Shikari and
bashing less enticing than just attacking for two with the Idol. I cast Scrapmelter on my turn 4 killing his Harness to keep the Shikari in check
and while he finds another land, he still doesn’t have a play, only activating the Idol to attack for two more.

At this point, I have drawn a Sky-Eel School and a Golem Artisan, and I spend my fifth turn casting the School, drawing
my Second Artisan and ditching my only land in hand. I attack with my Scrapmelter, and when he drops Trigon of Rage on his turn and attacks with both
Idol and Shikari, I elect to trade my School for his Idol.

I drop an Artisan on my turn and attack him down to thirteen, and on his turn he just attacks with the Shikari and pumps
it with the Trigon when I don’t block (leaving me at seven life). He follows up with Perilous Myr but is still stuck on four lands. I Arrest the
Myr and bash him down to six, adding a Darksteel Myr for defense.

At this point it feels like he can only really win with some sort of unlikely combination of getting metalcraft and
multiple Galvanic Blasts. He makes a fight of it with Glint Hawk, returning the Perilous Myr, but he can’t get through and Golem Artisan makes blocking
impossible. I screw up here though, which gives him an extra turn. I attack with the Scrapmelter and the Golem with him at six life and he blocks
the Golem with Perilous Myr and Shikari and lets the Scrapmelter through. Not sure what he was trying to accomplish with this block, since I have six
mana and can save the Golem from the Perilous Myr damage. Figured maybe he wanted to put me on five life, so I immediately just go for killing only the
Shikari by pumping my Golem once and putting all damage on the Shikari.

What I should have done though is bounce the Shikari with my Neurok Replica, and make my Golem 4/4 with trample, which
just kills him. He only has one red mana up and no metalcraft so nothing can really go wrong with that play. His extra turn gives him no answer though,
and I win on my next turn.

His deck actually seems like it could be pretty fast, and I don’t really have anything worthwhile boarding in against a
faster deck, so I keep the deck as is.

Game two:

He elects to play first, and I mulligan a hand without land into two Islands, Copper Myr, Shatter, Arrest, and Volition
Reins. A pretty sketchy hand obviously but there’s potential for greatness, and that’s pretty rare when it comes to hands with only six
cards with this deck.

I draw another Island, then a Plains, and on turn 3, I draw Horizon Spellbomb, which lets me search for Mountain

and
draw a card (thanks to the Copper Myr). Pretty much the best possible draws I could have, and my opponent has only managed a turn 1 Darksteel
Axe and a turn 3 Glint Hawk Idol, with only Mountains in play.

He does draw a Plains next turn and casts Snapsail Glider and Glint Hawk. I Shatter his Glider and Arrest the Hawk and
then untap and draw Scrapmelter to kill his Idol. He follows up with Oxidda Daredevil, but I draw Trigon of Corruption to immediately kill it. Next turn
he drops Hoard-Smelter Dragon, and when I cast Volition Reins, he has had enough of the humiliation and scoops.

As has been pointed out by others before me, Sealed Deck and Draft are vastly different in this format. Not that
surprising when you have so many artifacts, meaning Sealed Decks will have a much higher percentage of strong artifacts. Also it’s pretty uncommon
to get a pool that supports a good infect strategy, and in many cases you’ll want to play as many bombs as possible, making decks lean toward
slow and controlling. When building your deck you should obviously have this in mind, and try to build a deck that wins against these slower decks.

I’ve seen authors claim that this should deter you from building decks that look more like “Draft decks,” but I
don’t necessarily agree. I think if you can find a really fast and consistent deck in your pool, then you can prey on opponents that are geared towards
beating other slow decks. And with six boosters you can get some silly card pools, to the point where I wish they’d bring Starters (Tournament
Packs) back.

In my case here I probably should’ve gone further with the slow and controlling plan, playing the version with
Stoic Rebuttal and less white cards, but those are the kind of mistakes we make when trying out new formats. As I said, this was my first Sealed Deck
with Scars of Mirrodin, and I’ve also only done like six drafts. I’m sure when I look back at this deck in a couple of weeks, I’ll
notice things I’d do differently, which is good since that means I’m learning and that Magic really is a complex game.

As far as the results go, I think 3-1 with this deck is above average. It helps to play against opponents that make
mistakes of course, but I still had some very fortunate draws and not many mana issues (although I did mulligan quite a bit). My one loss against that sick
deck there isn’t much to do about; decks like that happen in Sealed, and when you play against them, you have to be way luckier than I was.

I hope you found this article interesting or enjoyable or at least comical. I’ll do more Sealed Deck reports like
this one if it’s what you want to see, and I’ll soon be back with some Scars of Mirrodin drafts! Like always, questions and comments are
encouraged!

/Anton Jonsson